Perfection

Last night was kind of perfect.  I didn’t have time to work out during they day, so I hit the gym after work  putting me home a little later than usual, but that ended up working out nicely.  I parked my car at the curb in front of my house, and the second I stepped out I was hit with the smell of charcoal burning away.  That’s a great smell.

Inside the roommates were preparing peppers and onions, and met me simply with a “sausage and peppers?”  I grabbed my book, a glass of wine, and sat my ass on the back porch with the two of them for the rest of the night.  The three of us were so engrossed in our books, me the second Hunger Games book, Adrienne the first, and Dani with the Anthony Kiedis autobiography.  It was so quiet that you could hear the peppers sizzling in their tin foil.

We stayed out there until the mosquitoes staged an attack and it was too dark to see the words on the pages of our books.  Everyone relocated to the living room where we all continued to read until separating to our various bedrooms to sleep.  I finished the second book of the Hunger Games trilogy last night, and am officially addicted.  I started on the third while laying in bed, and will probably finish it soon.  I’m very excited to see how these movies end up.

Yesterday’s workout was 33 minutes on the elliptical followed by chest and triceps, and ouch I am feeling it today.

Chest Press	Incline dumbbell Chest Press with Twist	Tricep Kickbacks	Dips (assisted pull up machine)	Tricep Pushdowns
10 x 40lb	12 x 10lb	12 x 10lb	8 x 100lb	12 x 17.5lb
10 x 40lb	12 x 10lb	12 x 10lb	8 x 90lb	12 x 17.5lb
10 x 40lb	12 x 10lb	12 x 10lb	8 x 90lb	12 x 17.5lb

For the incline dumbbell chest press, they have you twist your arms together at the top so that your pinkies are touching.  It’s not easy.  Also, I almost fell off the dip machine because my arms were shaking so much, that would have been embarrassing.

Today is like my Thursday, which is excellent, because I’m so excited to see Darren.  I’m on a 5:30 flight out of DC on Thursday, but I kind of want to see if I can get on an earlier one.  Originally I thought I would have to come in to work that day, but now that I don’t I want to get to Chicago sooner rather than later.  I know United has a policy where you can check into an earlier flight on the same day for $75, and I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth it.  I guess we’ll see on Thursday.

Happy Flag Day!

Summer Reading

Words cannot express how desperately I needed this Thursday to arrive.  Thursdays = pay-day, and my bank account was severely struggling.  Back in the black now, so it’s all good.

Last night was a rest night so I spent some quality time on my couch watching Ghost Whisperer (I love this show and I’m not embarrassed to admit it) and trying to finish the latest Jodi Picoult book.

I’m a huge fan of all her books, and this one is no different.  Once I start reading, they are impossible to put down because you know the ending is always going to have some kind of crazy twist.  I am so close to the end, it’s killing me to sit here at work right now and not to be at home reading.  I should have saved this to read on the beach while on vacation in two weeks, but I couldn’t wait.  So now I need some suggestions of good beach reads to stock up on.  They can be silly girly books, things with diamonds or shoes on the cover, as the bf describes them, mysteries, anything really.  Come on guys whatdya got?

Dinner last night utilized my last piece of TJ’s flatbread.

Not last nights actual pizza, last night I only had turkey pepperoni on it, but you get the idea.  And then, because I still feel like crap, I got in my bed at 9:30.  It was delightful.  I’m debating whether or not to work out tonight, I’m feeling a little better cold wise, but my knee is scaring me a little.  It’s not swollen, and it doesn’t hurt to walk on, but it’s still tender to push on.  Ugh, I will be so mad at myself if after weeks and weeks of PT I get hurt while drunk.  Stupid.

We’re having an ice cream party at work this afternoon, so that is giving me something to look forward to today.  Then on Saturday I’m off to Baltimore for an Orioles/Nats JMU alumni event.  That should be a great time, hopefully we will be able to watch the USA game also.

Alright, I hope everyone has a great day, don’t forget to give me some good beach reading suggestions!

A weekend of normalcy

It’s Sunday night, and I’m sitting here with a glass of Malbec, Smartfood popcorn, and wedding Sunday on We, pretty perfect by my standards.  This weekend was relatively low-key, I wasn’t traveling and didn’t have any visitors so I apologize if you all find this post boring.  Friday night my sister arrived with her boyfriend, whom she went to Pittsburgh to pick up and then bring back here to head back to school (they are both  Juniors at Villanova).  My sister gave me the Hungry Girl cookbook for Christmas, so I decided to cook us all dinner with one of the recipes.  I ended up choosing the Chicken Quesadillas, and they were pretty fantastic.  The recipe calls for 1 medium low-fat flour tortilla with about 110 calories and at least 6 grams of fiber, 2 ounces cooked boneless skinless chicken breast (when cooking the chicken I added my own seasoning mix of chili pepper, oregano, garlic powder, salt, and cumin), 1/3 cup shredded fat-free cheese of any flavor, 1 tablespoon diced scallions, and any optional toppings like sour cream and salsa.  I also added red peppers.  I tripled these ingredients since there were three of us, and we had a delicious dinner.  Cooking is always something I enjoy, so it’s fun to finally cook for more than just one person.

Saturday I had every intention of getting a nice long run in at the gym, but on Wednesday in an effort to get my training back on track I pulled a muscle in my right lat and extending my arm or any movement of it at all was extremely painful so I struggled through 5.5 miles.  15.5 miles for the week isn’t so bad I suppose.  Today I can almost extend my arm fully above my head, so hopefully my runs this week will feel better.  For my sisters last night home, we celebrated by going to our favorite BYOB restaurant, Duck Sauce.  It’s local and has some of the best Chinese food around, and Colleen and I had tried to find time to go for weeks.  After dinner we went over to a local sports bar to watch the Eagles playoff game.  We left at halftime because, well, it was that awful.  I’d rather not discuss it beyond that.  I still get so excited about drinking with my sister in a bar.  I can finally go out with my best friend!  And she’s such a light weight that getting her drunk is always amusing.

I recently finished reading the book Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell, and for those of you that don’t know, it is her book and cooking blog that the movie with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams is based on; which I watched this morning, so that is where this tangent is coming from.  Julie Powell was just a normal 29 year-old living in Queens with her husband, unhappy at her job as a temp, and looking for something more.  She decided to spend the next year of her life cooking all the recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1, and the hilarity and chaos the ensues is enthralling.  I couldn’t put the book down, and then couldn’t wait to watch the movie.  One of the things I could relate to the most, was how excited Julie is when she sees she has a new comment on her blog, and then even more excited when it is a comment from someone she doesn’t know.  At one point she makes a remark about wondering if her blog as any purpose, if anyone is actually reading it, and sometimes I feel the same way.  But hey, I guess this really is for me to write about me.  Either way, I recommend both the book and the movie, but read the book first.

Tonight I tried another recipe from Hungry Girl, the Cheesesteak.  Three ounces raw lean filet beefsteak (I used flank steak), 1 hot dog bun (I used half of a wheat pita), 1 slice of fat-free American cheese, and 1/3 cup of onions.  Brown the onions in a pan with non-stick spray for about five minutes, remove them, re-spray the pan and add the meat.  Cook for 1-2 minutes, turning over about half way through.  Then add the cheese to the meat while still in the pan.  Transfer to bun (or pita in my case), and top with onions. Voilà!  You’re done!  The onions really add a lot of flavor to the beef, and you have a delicious low-fat dinner.   Guys, I would suggest using a little more beef since this is a recipe for us hungry girls.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and if you are as lucky as me next weekend is a three-day one!  Woo!