So Long Sweet Summer

It’s the last day of August, and Labor Day weekend is this weekend, which means the official end of summer.  Although, it seems someone has failed to inform Mother Nature of this because the temperature is forecast to be in the 90s all week.  As much as I’ve enjoyed summer, this one was brutal in terms of heat.  There were so many heat waves it was uncomfortable to go outside at times, and I felt banished to the inside and AC.  Despite the endless days of 90+ degree temps, I still had a great summer.  These were some of my favorite times.

I saw a Yankees/Phillies game in NYC

I went to a JMU Alumni event in Baltimore

I went to the Outer Banks, NC for a week

Celebrated the 4th of July there

Made a huge dinner for my entire family

I turned 25 with all of my friends at the beach

Went to Alexis’s bachelorette party in Atlantic City

Celebrated my 1 Year Anniversary

Watched Alex’s brother get married

The summer was crazy and busy, and I loved every minute of it.  I’m wrapping my summer up with a bang by heading down to Washington DC on Thursday to watch another friend get married and hang out with my college crew.  It’s going to be fantastic.

In other news, I signed up for a local 5k last night honoring those lost from the area on September 11.

This will be my first 5k, and I’m pretty excited for it.  If there are any other local ladies running it, let me know!  It’s so funny, because I was more hesitant to sign up for this 5k than I was my half marathon.  Who knows why 3.1 miles is more scary than 13.1, maybe because I don’t think I’m fast?  Anyway, so we’ll see how this goes!

Dinner last night was leftover from my moms weekend, a crab cake from Wegmans and some pasta.

The crab cake was perfect, not overly breaded and full of chunks of crab meat.  The pasta had tomatoes and asiago cheese.  They went perfectly together.  I made last night a spontaneous rest day, since I was still exhausted from my weekend of traveling but back to the gym tonight.

I hope everyone has a great Tuesday, try not to hate it too much!

A Fantastic Anniversary Weekend

Hello and happy Monday morning.  I’m glad you all enjoyed the video I made for mine and Alex’s one year anniversary, it was a surprise to him also and he really liked it.  It’s time for a huge weekend recap post, so try to stick with me.  If you don’t, I’ll understand but we did some fun stuff and had some great food!

Friday night I arrived around 6:00 and hoofed it through the subway system in 4 inch wedges with a giant duffle bag.  That totally counts as a workout right?  I actually ended up at Alex’s apartment before he got home from work, so I hung out with his one roommate Brandon while I waited for him.  He had seen my chicken teryaki noodle stir-fry pics on the blog, and had really been wanting to try it so we made that for dinner on Friday night.  I hate cooking in other peoples kitchens, especially boys because they never have the random things that you need.  It still turned out great, and Alex loved it.  After dinner we went out to the boys favorite local dive bar, The Edge for a little birthday celebration for Brando.  We played some darts, and drank lots of beers.

boys

meee

The theme of the party was “white” obviously.  I ended up drinking a tad bit more than I meant too and woke up Saturday morning with a headache the size of New York, so uh no run happened.  Thankfully, Alex loves me a lot and went out and got some bagels for us, and I was able to pull myself together enough to venture outside to do some shopping.  First stop was lululemon in Union Square where I tried on a bunch of pants, I think I’ve decided on a pair of cropped ones but still making a final decision.  Then it was off to H&M where I absolutely cleaned up on some new fall essentials.  Haha, for what the one pair of pants in lululemon would have cost me I got a pair of underwear, two button down shirts, two tank tops, and a sweater.  I’m really loving all my purchases, H&M just might be my new favorite store.  I’m so lucky to have a boyfriend that likes shopping with me 🙂 and who is also great at picking out stuff for me.

After shopping, we walked back to Stuyvesant Town to rest up a little before our big Anniversary dinner, oh and to exchange presents :).  Alex did reallllly good and got me three new workout shirts, a new sports bra, and the Tiffany I love you ring that I had been hinting about wanting for oooh at least 6 months.

I plan on wearing it on my right hand, looks a little too much like a wedding band for me, but my fingers are a little swollen right now and my left ring finger is smaller.  From me, a few weeks ago Alex got the iPod Touch that came free with my MacBook and I supplemented it with a gift card for him to put towards a new computer which is all he said he wanted.  We had some pre-dinner cocktails at the apartment and then headed over to Chelsea for our 8 pm dinner reservations at The Park.  Dinner was amazing, delicious, and the restaurant was a romantic place to celebrate our anniversary.

my fancy new BCBG dress

1 year later

I started off our celebratory dinner with a glass of champagne and Alex had a sparkling Mint Julep which sounds like a girly drink, but it was not.

bubbly

bourbon

They brought us some bread and olive oil to enjoy while we perused the menu.

For an appetizer, we decided on the crab cakes, which were sooo good.

crab cakes

Check out the view from our table, it was gorgeous.

And then for my main course, I was not adventurous at all and went with the turkey burger with American cheese, haha.  It was seriously one of the best turkey burgers ever, and Alex ordered a steak.  Can I just say that I love that both of our dinners came with french fries, haha.

turkey burger

steak

After our meals (we both cleaned our plates) we were pretty full, but the cheesecake on the desert menu just sounded way to delicious to pass up so we decided to share it.

cheesecake with raspberry sauce

It was a wonderful anniversary meal, and I would love to go back to The Park again and sit in one of the many other rooms of the restaurant.  The Skyline Park literally started right across the street from the restaurant so we ventured up to it to walk around after dinner.  I had never seen it before, and it’s really cool.  After walking around the Meatpacking district for a while, we ended up at the Ganesvoort Hotel rooftop bar where we both had one drink, because they were a million dollars, and did some serious people watching.

stud

After our drinks, we returned to the East Village and Alex’s apartment where we drank some more for free, watched some TV, and just spent some qt together.  It was a great night.

Yesterday was a gray and rainy day in NYC, and what better way to spend a rainy Sunday than just being lazy, which is exactly what we did.  We left the apartment to find food, and that’s it.  We agreed on an early dinner of the most delicious pizza ever.  Artichoke is located on 14th st between 1st and 2nd Ave and the line out the door is typically at least 10 people long.  They accept cash only and offer four different types of pizza, crab, Sicilian, margarita, and of course artichoke.  I’ve had the margarita and the artichoke before, and both are incredible.  Yesterday I decided to go with the pizza the place is named for.

artichoke pizza

so cheezey and creamy

Alex loves it too

Now, in no way is there anything remotely healthy about this slice of pizza, but it’s all about balance right?  So good and rich, I ate almost all of it before handing the last bit off to Alex to finish.

I was sad to leave and come home, but I’m headed back up to NYC on Thursday night because Alex and I fly out bright and early Friday morning for his brothers wedding in Iowa.  These next few weeks are absolutely crazy for me!  I hope everyone else had a fantastic weekend, I feel like I’m going to recover from this one just in time for the next one to start!

Temporary Insanity

That is my defense, and I’m sticking to it.  Since I was dead with strep throat all last week, I didn’t have the chance to work out at all, which meant I was excited to get back in the gym yesterday.  I also had a physical therapy appointment, but that wasn’t until 6:30, so I figured I had more than enough time to get a swim in.  I got to the pool around 4:30, did my workout, and was finished by 5:15ish.  Then it was on to some light stretching (since major stretching would take place later) and abs.

Workout

• 200 m warm-up
• 8 x 50
• 6 x 50
• 4 x 50
• 2 x 50
• 200 m cool-down

It felt great to be in the pool again, but my stupid earplugs were not working nearly as well as they did the first time, I think I need a different kind.  These seem to stop working as well once they get wet.  I could definitely tell I hadn’t swam in over a week though, my arms and back are feeling it today.  After the gym, I quickly ran home, and stuffed some pita chips in humus in my face before heading out the door again to PT.

PT was exhausting as usual.  I did all the normal strength exercises, and then got the go ahead to run for 15 minutes on the treadmill.  The bad thing about the PT office, it is air-conditioned like an office, not a gym, and the treadmill is in the very back by a wall of windows and the door.  The atmosphere resembles a rain forest, making it very hard to breathe.  I got about 12 minutes into my jog before I had to stop, I couldn’t get a deep enough breath, I looked like I had just jumped in a pool, and I was on the verge of passing out.  Damn humid office.  Um, but my leg didn’t hurt?  My therapist did express some concern that my leg and hip are still so tight though, so I think a follow-up with the orthopedist may be in my future.

By the time I finally got home for the day, it was 8:00 and I could barely keep my eyes open while eating dinner.

A piece of grilled chicken, a small crab cake, and some risotto.  Carb and starch heavy for sure, but delicious.

I watched Dancing With the Stars, and then immediately passed out in bed.  I’m still exhausted today, I think swimming and PT are a little much for one day.  Lesson learned.  Happy Tuesday kids.