Things I Did Instead of Running

So this weekend I didn't run 12-15 miles as planned.  You already know about that.  But even though I wanted to curl in a ball in the fetal position and sob my life away about how I'll never master the marathon, or PR in any distance ever general, and just feel sorry for myself in general, I didn't let myself do that.  Instead I did a million other fun activities instead.

Instead of running, I went to Rachael's baby shower.  Delicious food, amazing cupcakes from Saint Cupcake (highly recommend it - the frosting is to die for), and good times in general.  I was in charge of games, I hope I didn't fail completely! 

Isn't she the most adorable pregnant lady you've ever seen?  Seriously.  And why is my posture so bad?

Instead of running, I sucked at golfing.  But had a blast in the sunshine.

Hole #3.  Two of my balls found a new home in that lake you see there.  

Instead of finishing Hole #3 I had a photoshoot with this adorable little duckling instead.

Instead of running, I went to see The Avengers.

Just like some other fan favorites, I decided to ostracize myself once again by not liking it.  I was BORRREEEDDDDD.  I think there was just too much set-up time with all the characters and I was surprised it was about aliens.  And poor Natalie Portman, her boyfriend Thor comes to Earth like once a milennium and he doesn't even look her up.  It didn't help it started way past my bedtime (aka 10pm).  In conclusion, me no likey.  Sorry folks. 

Instead of running, I still got my sweat on by riding the recumbent bike for 60 minutes and taking Cooper on a 4 mile walk (with a dog park pitstop, lucky guy).

Cooper likes playing.  He said "Thanks Mom."  Though he didn't get me a Mother's Day gift!  How rude.

 

Instead of running, I brunched it up for Mother's Day and the sister-in-law's birthday.

And instead of running, I was actually super productive and got a ton of work done, including fixing all 700 of my copies that had the WRONG phone number on them.  That's right, that happened.  Only I would do something so stupid.

This became my best friend.  Correction tape is truly amazing.

And that my friends, is how you drown your sorrows of not running. 

How was your weekend?  What did you do?  Have you seen The Avengers and if so, what did you think?

The Weekend's Over Already? Boo.

I was all excited for a weekend mostly free from planned activities, but somehow this weekend was action packed once again and I'm exhausted.  Why does the weekend have to go by so fast?  I need one more day!

As I mentioned yesterday, this weekend included a 7.35 mile tempo hilly run Saturday morning.  I didn't get out the door until around 9:45am and it was feeling quite toasty by the end.  I wore shorts, a tank, sunglasses, and sunscreen!  From the beginning!  I love summer.

My thumb looks ginormous. 

After my run we did some major work in the yard.  We haven't really worked on the yard since Fall so it was in dire need of mowing, moss-out (we have a major moss problem and our lawn looks radioactive), and pruning.  JMan took care of the mowing and I spent an hour turning this mess:

into this:

Okay okay so I kind of underestimated the size of the flowers and they look a little puny in there alone.  Hopefully they grow quickly!

We decided randomly to try out some Top Pot donuts:

I had the raspberry bismarck.  But honestly, I don't really like donuts and these were no exception.  I mostly just ate the filling out of mine.  You know if I didn't eat it all THAT'S saying something!  Voodoo Donuts remains the only donut for me.

A new Yogurtland opened by us!  So we had to check it out:

I stole this photo from Zoe - Thanks Zoe!

While Lauren thinks Mechie's is better in terms of topping selection (which I totally wholeheartedly agree with), I think Yogurtland's actual frozen yogurt is less chemical-tasting.  I had Root Beer Float, Red Velvet Cupcake, Coconut, and Pistachio flavors.  And holy yum it was delicious.  Too bad it's still not all that convenient.  Or maybe that's a good thing for my wallet!

I also found out important brand new information about Nuun.  Apparently it is NOT for placement in carbonated water.  I'm a big fan of Club Soda so I had a brilliant idea of making sparkling tri-berry Nuun.  Serious disaster ensued.  JMan just laughed and said, "Haven't you heard of the Mento's & Coke effect?"  Um, NO, clearly I haven't.

It looked a lot like this.  All over our kitchen.  And the mail.  And the floor.

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I'm no scientist (clearly), but here's why Wikipedia says this happens (at least in the Mento's context): "The numerous small pores on the candy's surface catalyze the release of carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas from the soda, resulting in the rapid expulsion of copious amounts of foam."  Now we both learned something.  Don't ask me to paraphrase.  


Golfing happened on Saturday.  One par and a lot of crappy holes including a 10 happened.  I got a 58 - that's good right?  For only 9 holes?  I'm pretty sure the pro golf tour will be calling any time...

9 more holes of golf on Sunday happened.  Then I had to rush off to my tennis match, JMan and his friend were troopers and played a full 18.

Okay, you caught me, this is a recycled photo.  But it still fits!  It wasn't that sunny on Sunday.

Finally, a tennis match happened.  I won, 6-1, 6-0, and it was over quick, in about 50 minutes.  I haven't lost yet this season which sadly means I'm probably going to get moved up levels for next year, which I'm NOT pleased about.

And I worked.  Not nearly enough.  I'm still way behind because of a few crazy weeks of work and some travelling for work to Vancouver, BC and Philly.  But I made a little progress.

And now the weekend is over.  Why do weekends go by SO fast?!?!

How was your weekend?  What did you do?  How do you stay on top of your yard work?  And keep it from looking radioactive?  Any tricks and tips you can share?

Happy Easter Peeps!

First of all - could it be?  Is it spring?  This is, after all, how Seattle greeted me on Friday.

 

Look at those cherry blossoms!  Better than DC's?!

Second of all, Happy Easter peeps!  Not you, the actual marshmallows.  They deserve to enjoy Easter before they’re eaten too, don’t you think?

We drove down to Portland (Oregon, not Maine!) again this weekend for the big Cadbury Egg holiday, and this is how the wonderful in-laws welcomed us when we got to there late Friday night:

 These are just MINE, JMan has his own.  This was just the beginning of my sugar-overload.

This weekend was a whirlwind of activities.  I think I need a vacation from my weekend.  If only the weekend was just one day longer, one extra day to do chores and relax on the couch.  Anyone else ever feel that way?  Unfortunately April involves just one thing after another including two big trips involving travel for conferences, so there isn’t much of a break in sight.

 Cooper hates it when it's just go-go-go with all of his modeling contracts.

This weekend was basically one big food-fest of stuffing-my-face full of sugar, but I’m going to devote an entire post to that so check back in tomorrow.  Needless to say there’s no need to weigh myself until after at least a full week of detox.

Lots of things happened and we were go-go-go from arrival to departure.  First up was a (almost) 10 mile run, including 3 big hill repeats in the last mile.  Proof that I ran hills – the road even had the word “hill” in the name!

Then golf happened.  We had to enjoy the one day of spring and that sun we'll probably never hear from again!  The golf skills were atrocious.  The best I got was one bogey.  The rest was a disaster.

 

Dinner with our friends at le Bistro Montage happened.  Good, but not as great as we had expected.  They’re famous for their mac and cheese, and maybe we got the wrong version, but while there was mac I didn’t get much cheese.

It's a little hole-in-the-wall place under the Morrison Bridge but there was a line out the door of people waiting to get in!   source

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We had the "Spold Mac" and it was a little too spicy for my taste.  We also had the gumbo, which was pretty good, but also very spicy.  Cornbread good but not great.  Alligator bites, frog legs, and hushpuppies were also shared amongst the table.  In conclusion, Le Bistro Montage was good, but not great.  I would go back, but it's not an absolute must have, though it is for our friends, so obviously other peoples' opinions differ!  

A trip to Voodoo Doughnuts (aka deliciousness) happened.  I don't like spelling donuts that way but since it's on the sign I adhered to their spelling. 

Kennedy School (the best McMenamins!) happened after that.  Meeting up with more friends of JMan’s at a bar happened after that.  Are you bored yet?  In conclusion, we were busy on Saturday and Sunday was no different.  Church and brunch with JMan’s family, dessert with my family.  Driving to and fro.  Driving back to Seattle.  Blah blah blah.

This post was boring.  I’m so sorry for subjecting you to this.  Cooper was also sorry I subjected him to this:

The End.

How was your Easter weekend?   What sorts of fun Easter traditions to you have with your family?  Do you like to dress your pets up? 

A Weekend Recap & More Peanut Butter on Crack

We headed to Portland this weekend for many fun activities.  Remember when I died and went to heaven and ate this peanut butter?  Well when we rolled up to my in-law's house I found this bad boy - the brother of Peanut Butter & Co.'s White Chocolate Wonderful:

Not as fabulous as his sister, but Dark Chocolate Dreams is still pretty dang good. And we continue on my mission to ruin good 'ol regular peanut butter for me for good.  And I will continue the dream of getting this trending on twitter: #peanutbutteroncrack

Saturday morning started out with an absolutely lovely trail run with Cooper, my friend Kasey, and her pup Kenzie.  Forest Park is just about the loveliest place in the world to run and I wish I could run there everyday of my life.  I didn't bring my camera but this is what it looks like, except mostly much hillier:

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6 miles (or less, silly Garmin never found the satellites and there was quite a lot of hill climbing) in 62 minutes, on a rare beautifully sunny day in The Pacific Northwest.  Cooper was also having the time of his life on this run with his girlfriend!

The dog park happened:

The driving range happened:

JMan doesn't realize I took this picture or posted it on the blog.  He can thank me when he's famous with a golf sponsorship.  

Drinking coffee happened:

Does anyone love this stuff as much as I do?  If I was going to pick the people who should definitely sponsor me (besides Saucony because hello, 5 people found my blog this week by searching Saucony Mirage, don't you think that's enough traffic to warrant a sponsorship?!), Coffeemate would definitely be one of them.  And obviously Peanut Butter & Co., as I've been demonstrating.

Playing 7 holes of golf happened (yes 7, not 9, we skipped ahead to avoid waiting).  I haven't played in who knows how long, and the first two holes I was putting for par!  And the last hole I was putting for birdie!  The fact that I didn't get either of those pars or that birdie (but did transform the birdie into a par!) perhaps means the thing I need to focus on the most is putting???

Look at that blue sky and those gorgeous mountain views.  And it's FEBRUARY!  What a great weekend.

A Burgerville lunch with our long-lost friends happened, a 30th birthday party happened (Jess doesn't read or even know about this blog but HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS anyway!), a Superbowl party (complete with the most delicious chicken wings ever) happened, and a long drive back to Seattle late at night happened.

A lot of work (but not nearly enough!) also happened.  I have a big deadline for graduate school coming up and just sent off 93 pages of my dissertation to my advisor.  Cross your fingers she doesn't think they suck!

And another weekend bites the dust.  What did you do this weekend?  Do you play golf, drink delicious creamer, or eat peanut butter on crack?  If so, please share your story.