Just a Little Help

Oh hello, how are you all today?  Still crippled over here, even my armpit hurts, waaaah.  Yesterday I attempted to workout, and wanted to cry the entire 40 minutes I was on the elliptical.  I’m hoping this soreness goes away by tomorrow just in time for me to do the workout again and cause severe pain for the weekend.  I’ll probably end up on the elliptical again today watching the World Cup game at lunch time.  Go USA!

Last night when I was cooking dinner, I found myself faced with yet another zucchini and yellow squash to use up before they went bad.  Now don’t get me wrong, those are two of my favorite summer time veggies, but I just couldn’t face them one more time roasted or grilled.  I ended up peeling both into strips and throwing them in a pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper to saute.  This was still sounding super boring to me, so at the last minute I transferred everything to a casserole dish, mixed it with marinara, topped with some cheese, and threw it into the oven.  I’ve made zucchini and yellow squash lasagna before, so I didn’t think this would end up a complete disaster.  I was right.

Blurry iPhone picture, but you get the idea.  Served with a piece of BBQ chicken, a weird combo for sure, but it was good, and a lot less boring than plain roasted veggies.  After dinner I actually got to chat with my boyfriend for a little while (his hours are insane in the summer) and got into an interesting discussion.

Apparently that day at work, he was brainstorming proposal ideas (I wish he wouldn’t tell me these things) and running them by his guys, and thought he had come up with some good ones.  Now, knowing Dar is a little, umm over the top, I managed to slip it into the convo that I think intimate proposals are a lot more special and what I would prefer.  He was surprised and then said, “well I guess I can tell you about what I thought was a good idea then”.  Long story short, baseball stadium surprise proposal.  I was like, nope no way, I would die of embarrassment with all those people there, much more low- key please.  He was like, ok well I’m glad we had this chat.  Men, sometimes they need just a little help.

So yeah, ladies if you’re married/engaged how’d your man propose, if you’re not, how would you want him to?  I wouldn’t mind if a few close friends and family were there, but 65,000 strangers, no thanks!

A Productive Rest Day

So yesterday I opted to follow my Sunday long run with a rest day, since I’ll be running three days in a row this week and I know my legs will appreciate it.  Since getting injured, I try to avoid running more than two consecutive days, but sometimes it can’t be avoided.  What’s a great activity to partake in on a rest day?  Shoe shopping!  I went back and forth about these boots, but ultimately decided that I would regret not buying them and I had a $20 off coupon, so they were practically free!  You can either wear them like they are shown in the picture, or fold the top over so they hit below the knee.  Pretty excited to wear them, too bad it’s going be back in the 90s this week, sigh.  I really went searching for some new black heels to wear to work every day, does anyone else have to replace theirs every year?  I really destroy mine I guess, but I didn’t find any that had a work appropriate heel height that I liked.  Guess that means I have to go back. 🙂

After shopping, I came home and got right to pulling dinner together.  I chopped up half a sweet potato into wedge slices, threw them in a plastic bag, seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg, coated with olive oil, shook up the bag and spread them out on a baking sheet.  20 minutes later I had some delicious sweet potato wedges ready for eatin, and I partnered them with some leftover tortellini pasta salad from last week.

Dinner

yummy sweet potatoes

Pasta

I really can’t believe that I didn’t eat sweet potatoes like this until this year, not only does it taste amazing, but it is seriously one of the best smelling foods to ever come out of my kitchen.  After dinner I watched the season premier of How I Met Your Mother, delightful as always, and then some of Dancing With the Stars.  I’ll catch the half hour that I missed later this week.  Rick Fox really surprised me, he did so good and I was really surprised by it.  So happy DWTS is back!

Check out this adorable photo I forgot I took over the weekend:

My favorites

Can you see Pumpkin’s little face poking over the counter top?  Haha, Alex went to sit down to eat his leftovers Sunday afternoon and was immediately joined by the little baby.  She sat there next to him the whole time he was eating, just waiting for maybe a little piece of rib.  She’s too funny, for some reason she thinks she’s a dog and will beg for food, wait at the front door for you to come home, and always wants to sit on your lap.  Anyways she’s the best, and Alex and I both love her, which is amazing for him since he’s super allergic to her.  Also, in somewhat related news, I hate long distance relationships.  That is all.

Alright, happy Tuesday everyone.  Glee is back tonight and I am BEYOND excited, I love that show and I need some new Glee tunes to add to my running playlist.  Can’t wait!  Five miles on the training plan for tonight.  Unfortunately they will have to get done after I drop my car off at the dealership to get its sunroof fixed and annual maintenance done.  Have a great one!

Also, if you didn’t get a chance to vote for me yesterday for Project Food Blog you still can today!  Thanks to everyone who does, I really appreciate it!

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!