Favorite Things Friday!

Jun 072013

Hey there! Has everyone taken advantage of their free donut today? I don’t think there are any Dunkin’ Donuts on my way home or anything, so I probably won’t have mine today, but if there’s a DD near you, go take advantage of your free sugary treat! Me? I’ll just stick to the free ice cream stocked in the freezer at work. Heck yes for summer ice cream at work! This year they even have 100 calorie ice cream sandwiches so I don’t feel too guilty indulging ;) Win!

Alright so it’s finally Friday (this week has felt both super slow and somewhat fast to me at times, if that makes any sense) so let’s go over some of the things I was loving this week!

Favorite Surprise

On Thursday I celebrated my two year anniversary at my job! Hooray!!! I also have The Best Manager Ever who brought a whole bunch of mini cupcakes by my desk to surprise me. Isn’t she the sweetest??

I wound up eating a graham cracker one and the red velvet one before sharing the rest with my coworkers. Crumbs just so happens to be my favorite cupcake place (it’s better than Georgetown Cupcake, in my opinion!) so I was thrilled. What a nice surprise!!

Favorite Workout Outfit

When Fabio and I ran our half marathon a few weeks ago, my grandfather was kind enough to pick up our bibs and packets for us a few days before the race so we could avoid lines on race day (what a nice gesture, right?). Anyway, due to a mix up at the registration table, I got a t-shirt for the 5K and 10K instead of the half marathon t-shirt.

Although I was a little bummed about the mix-up, I didn’t think it was worth bothering the race coordinators to get it switched so I just brushed it off. Then last week I got an email from the organizers of the race asking if anyone needed a race t-shirt. On a whim, I decided to email them telling them that I got the wrong shirt to see if they had any of the half marathon tees left in my size. Lucky for me, they did!

They were super friendly and sent me the correct shirt practically overnight. How awesome!

Now I finally have my half marathon t-shirt and happily wore it for a run on Wednesday. Even though it was just a little thing that I thought I didn’t care about, having the shirt made me pretty happy

Favorite Delivery

So, remember how I didn’t go to the beach this year for Memorial Day Weekend with my friends because 1) my grandfather was getting out of the hospital and 2) Fabio’s whole family was going to be in town and they wanted to celebrate?

Well, Fabio knew how much this meant to me and he knew how much I was giving up to be there with his family, so he surprised me by sending me thank you flowers to my office. He is just the sweetest.

This still makes me so happy when I think about it. Fabio is just so good to me

Favorite After Work Activity

Kickball!!

This past Wednesday was our last day of regular season kickball on the National Mall. While we still have playoff games next week, I feel like our season really came to an end this week. Kickball has been such a good experience for me and I’m so glad I went a little outside of my comfort zone and signed up.

I don’t know why, but on weeknights I don’t usually like to do anything too crazy. I like my routine of coming home, working out, and making dinner, so when I signed up for kickball with a bunch of my friends (and also a lot of people I didn’t know) I was definitely stepping outside of my comfort zone.

There’s also the fact that I am absolutely terrible at organized group sports and had anxiety every time the ball came near me. Yep, that happened. During this week’s game though, I had some pretty great kicks (for me) and I could see how much I improved since the beginning of the season. Woohoo!

It’s been such a fun season and I am going to be really sad when it’s over. Wahhh.

Favorite Pictures of Jack

Us with our tongues out.

And Jack being silly.

I picture him saying, “Haaaaayy gurl”

“Haaaayy.”

Or something like that, lol.

Alright guys, that’s all I have time for today! I hope you all have a great weekend and if you live on the East Coast, let’s hope this rain clears out, huh?

Question of the day: What made you smile this week?

WIAW #53: Speedy Gonzales

WIAW, Workouts 10 Responses »

Jun 052013

Hey guys! Happy Wednesday!

I hope the weather is as beautiful where you are as it is here. Man, it’s gorgeous outside! Luckily I have a kickball game tonight (the last one of the regular season!) so I will get to spend some quality time in the sun with my friends. Life is good.

Anyway it’s Wednesday which means I’ll be showing you all my good eats from yesterday, so let’s get to it! Thanks, Jenn, for hosting the linkup!

So without further ado, here’s a snapshot of what I ate ~~Wednesday~~ yesterday.

Breakfast Ah yes, this looks familiar. In this delicious bowl we have:

1/2 cup of Oatmeal Squares
1/2 cup of Multigrain Cheerios (I’m almost out of these and will probably wait a while to buy them again since I have so many Oatmeal Squares in the cabinet. Wahh. My bowls are about to get less interesting.)
1/2 banana (I ate the rest right after I finished this bowl)
A handful of blueberries from the local Farmer’s Market
Skim milk

Have I ever told you guys that I let Jack drink the milk from the bowl when I’m done with the cereal? Yep. It’s probably his favorite part of the morning. He sits therevery patiently while I eat, pretending like he is just there to love me (ha, as if I were so stupid) and then suddenly when I stand up his tail wags like crazy and he sprints into the kitchen. Then I put the bowl down for him, eat the other half of my banana, and by the time I’m done all the milk is gone and so is Jack. Hmmm, so much for the love. Then the bowl goes into the dishwasher. Just a little snapshot of my morning ritual

Lunch/Snack #1

Lunch yesterday was a little different! See, on Sunday I made some tuna salad for lunch, and I purposely made a little extra to have for later in the week. Love when I prep ahead of time!

Yesterday I had the rest of the tuna salad with Parmesan flavored pretzel crisps for scooping. Yum! Here’s what was in my tuna salad:

Tuna (duh)
Fat free plain Greek yogurt
One wedge of Laughing Cow cheese
A squirt of mustard (probably about 1 tsp.)
Celery
Carrot
Craisins

Yummmm. I just love tuna salad and I don’t know why I don’t make it more often. It’s so easy and delicious!

I also had a mini Babybel cheese, but I was pretty full after the tuna and didn’t break into the cheese until a little later in the afternoon as my snack.

Snack #2
One of my coworkers just got back from Disney World and brought us these fun chocolate-covered rice krispie treats. I planned to just eat “a bite or two” since I’m not usually a huge fan of rice krispie treats, but it was delicious and throughout the rest of the afternoon I wound up eating the whole thing. Woops. At least it was good!

About half an hour after I finished it, I realized there were a whole bunch of tiny rainbow sprinkles all over my desk. It looked like a teeny tiny party had been going on since they were so colorful. And everywhere. Oops. Maybe I should pay more attention, huh?

Dinner Dinner yesterday was nice and simple. It included a baked sweet potato and brussels sprouts! I seem to be liking the bulleted lists today, so I’ll keep that trend going with dinner. My sweet potato included:

Black beans
One wedge of Laughing Cow cheese (I seriously use that stuff in everything!)
Fat free Greek yogurt
Salsa (this is what makes it!!)
Chopped cilantro (just because we had it and it is almost bad- normally I probably would have left it out)
Salt & pepper

Yummmm. I love, love, love this meal. It’s also super easy since I just cook the sweet potato in the microwave and then mix the insides up with all the yummy ingredients. So easy!

My brussels sprouts were tossed with a little olive oil, salt, and red pepper flakes, and then roasted in the oven. When they came out I tossed them with a bit of freshly grated parmesan cheese. Delicious.

So there you have it, what I ate yesterday!

Daily Activity

I actually got a lot of exercise in yesterday. I planned to work out only in the morning, so as soon as I woke up I ran one mile with Jack and then completed a workout from Jillian Michaels Total Body Revolution (they are getting tough!). Then after work I was feeling a little antsy so Fabio and I went for a three mile run.

When we started off our run I gave us (and by us, I mean mostly myself) a little pep talk about not pushing our speed since we haven’t been running as far lately. I thought three miles might be a little harder than we were used to when we were training for our half, especially last week we tried to tackle a 4.5 mile run in the heat and really struggled.

And then this happened.

Mile 1: 8:58 min/m
Mile 2: 8:37 min/mi
Mile 3: 8:59 min/mi

For Fabio and me, that is really fast! I don’t know what the deal was, but since I run in front of Fabio I must have been setting the pace. Weird, huh? Regardless of why we went so fast, I was pretty happy about it Between a one mile run in the morning, an intense strength workout DVD, and a super fast three mile run in the evening, I’d say it was a great day for working out! Woohoo!

Alright guys, that’s all I have for today! Have a good Wednesday!

Question of the day: Does your speed ever surprise you?

Sidenote: This article about how different regions of the US pronounce different words is super interesting!

I ran a half marathon!

Weekend Recaps, Workouts 8 Responses »

May 202013

Guess whaaaaaaaat?

I did it! I ran my first half marathon!! It went really well and I accomplished my goal (WOOHOO!). But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s rewind to Friday night.

Friday

After work on Friday, Fabio and I quickly packed up our bags and headed over to my grandparents’ house, since they live about 30 minutes from St. Michaels, Maryland, where the race was being held. They were super generous to let Fabio, Jack, and I stay there before the race, and I was excited to see them and get the weekend started.

The weather on Friday was beautiful, so Fabio and I rolled down the windows and blasted some fun music on our drive down.

Once we hit the bay bridge we knew we were almost there!!

It wasn’t long before we arrived at my grandparent’s house!

We said hello to my dad, grandma, and grandpa, and then headed inside to drop off our stuff in the guest bedroom that my grandma made up for us.

My grandma decorates her house beautifully (it’s the perfect mix of comfy and cute) and I was so happy to be staying there There’s nothing like the comfort of a grandmother’s house!

Once we dropped off our stuff, we let Jack play outside with my grandparent’s black lab, Cindy. Can you tell them apart in this Vine video?

Looks like I messed up the video at the end there. Woops!

After letting the dogs play outside for a while, we headed inside for dinner. On the menu was salad, pizza, and my grandmother’s homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert

Yummm. Talk about carbo loading before a race!

After dinner, we watched a great family movie called Hachiko, which was really cute and definitely a tear-jerker, especially for all of us dog lovers. Relaxing and watching a movie with my family before the race really helped calm me down and prepare me for the day ahead. It was great!

After the movie we all headed off to bed, and I set my alarm for a 5:30 am wake-up call. Yikes!

Saturday

When my alarm went off on Saturday morning, I was ready. I didn’t hit snooze at all and I bolted up with energy/adrenaline. I was feeling pretty nervous about the race, so I felt wide awake (even if I didn’t look it, haha! Look at my sleepy eyes!!)

The weather was actually pretty perfect for a run, warm (but not too hot) and cloudy (it probably got up to about 65 or 70 degrees once it was race time).

Before the race we stopped for breakfast at 7-11 where I purchased a blueberry Chobani, a banana, and a Kind bar. My grandparents had a bunch of breakfast food at their house, but it was mostly sugary stuff (e.g., danishes and donuts) which I didn’t think would be smart to eat right before the race. I wound up being pretty full after the yogurt and banana, so I saved the Kind bar for later

Then my dad drove us over to St. Michael’s for the race!

I won’t go into too many details about the race in this post because, as with my Bike New York post, I think it deserves a whole recap post to itself. I have a lot of thoughts that I want to share with you guys about it, so you’ll have to wait for another day (hopefully tomorrow, but no promises).

Sorry, Charlie!

I will say that the race was awesome and I enjoyed every minute of it

After the race, we headed back to my grandparents’ house to shower and change before heading to the Crab Deck for lunch!

The Crab Deck is usually one of my places to eat, since it’s right on the water and we can take the boat up and park on the dock. Unfortunately the weather turned pretty crummy by lunchtime, and we had to sit inside. Boo.

At least we were still able to see the water a bit from our table.

Although the weather wasn’t great, I had a great time celebrating the completion of my first half marathon with my grandparents, Fabio, and my dad. Everyone seemed really proud of Fabio and me, and it was so nice to just bask in the enjoyment of having completed something major.

Oh, and getting to eat whatever I wanted to without worrying about the calories was pretty nice too, obviously

For my lunch I chose a crab-cake sandwich with french fries, and it did not disappoint. YUM!

Lunch was wonderful, and my dad and grandpa treated Fabio and me to a free meal What great guys!

After lunch Fabio and I headed back home (with Jack, obviously) and then immediately crashed on the couch. I think we napped for three hours or something crazy; we were wiped!

We didn’t do much for the rest of the day, except walk to Safeway to pick up a frozen pizza, ice cream, and two Redbox movies. Yep. It was that kind of Saturday night.

Perfection.

Sunday

Sunday was a little more productive than Saturday, and Fabio and I spent the day cleaning the apartment, doing laundry, and running errands.

A trip to Costco:

And Trader Joe’s:

Check out all that wine! As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Fabio and I want to get more into wine, so we bought a bunch of cheap (read: under $5) bottles at TJs yesterday. I can’t wait to try them out!

After running all our errands, we settled down to watch a movie (we rented Argo and Life of Pi from Redbox and loved them both- even though I’ve already seen Life of Pi!).

While Life of Pi was on, I worked on a cooler that I’m painting for Fabio. I actually started this cooler last year, but when I didn’t finish it in time for a beach trip Fabio took with his friends, I put it aside and never finished (womp womp). I’m trying to pick it back up again so he can take it with him on a beach trip this year, but I still have a ways to go!

The bottom portion is Fabio’s favorite alcohol (Kraken, Patron, and Captain Morgan)…

And the top portion is from Fabio’s favorite Vineyard Vines bathing suit!

Here are some photos of the real thing so you can compare…

…and now I just want to go back to the Caribbean. Oh well. At least I have a trip to Italy to look forward to!!!!

So guys, that was about it for my weekend! I am already itching to give you more details about my race, but you’ll just have to wait…

Questions of the day: Are you good at arts and crafts? What do you do after a long race; are you active and busy or do you rest all day like we did? Do you like my cooler? Haha.

Cinderelly, Cinderelly…

Random 8 Responses »

Dec 102012

Hey there chickadees! Happy Monday to ya’. I’m actually in a pretty good mood today, despite the fact that is Monday. This is probably because I had a wonderful weekend and also because Christmas is only two weeks away!! Yayyyyy!! I just have to make it through 9.5 more work days and then I have off for eleven whole days.

When was the last time I had eleven days off from work? Um. I think it was in college. For winter break. Yikes.

Needless to say, I’m excited.

Anywho (that reminds me of Whoville, which reminds me I need to watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas, which reminds me to check ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas schedule, which reminds me that Home Alone is on tonight at 9:00. Score!) Woah. Sorry. Anywho, let me tell you about my weekend!

On Friday when I got home from work, I decided to be ultra-dedicated to my Weight Watchers plan and work out. On a Friday afternoon? Work out? No happy hour? No getting ready to go the bar? Yep. That was me! To some people this might seem normal, but to me this was crazy!

I usually work out in the mornings on Fridays (if at all; sometimes it’s a rest day) but I was feeling sleepy on Friday morning and skipped my workout. Knowing that I would probably want to stuff my face in holiday treats all weekend, I sucked it up and completed a 20 minute Insanity DVD after work.

It felt great to sweat and I was so glad I didn’t give into temptation and skip my workout. Yay!

After my workout I got to work making dinner. On the menu: homemade chicken noodle soup with whole wheat noodles. My new favorite!

(I still have to post that recipe for you guys).

It was delicious and so comforting!

While Fabio and I slurped on our soup, we watched Dexter, our newest addiction (I know we are like three years late on this lol). We have been watching for a couple weeks now but on Friday we finished Season One. It was soooo good!! So much drama with the Ice Truck Killer! Haha!

It was honestly the perfect way to spend the night after a stressful week at work I love spending the evening with my boys!

Fabio will kill me for posting this picture so let’s hope he doesn’t read today’s post Haha!

On Saturday morning I woke up bright and early for a two mile run with Jack.

Unfortunately running with Jack is never very speedy since he stops to sniff and pee like 50 times.

It was a great way to start my day!

After my run I quickly showered up, grabbed a banana for breakfast, and hopped in the car to head to a fun girls’ day with my mom and step-sister.

First we headed to lunch at Riccuiti’s, a cute little restaurant in Olney, Maryland. I had been there once before years ago, but I forgot how good it was. Gosh! I hope we go back soon.

First we split some appetizers including spinach and artichoke dip and calamari.

I had a few bites of everything and tried really hard not to fill up on the delicious appetizers. It only sort-of worked lol.

For my entree I chose sweet potato black bean chili with grilled polenta and acorn squash.

It was so delicious and had a wonderfully spicy kick. Plus with the sweet potato, black beans, and acorn squash, it wasn’t that bad for me either. Given the choices on the menu, I was happy to find an entree that tasted delicious and wasn’t overloaded with extra fat and calories. Win! (And we can just forget about the fried calamari and cheesy spinach artichoke dip haha!)

After our lunch my mom, step-sister, and I headed over to the Olney theater for a matinee showing of Cinderella!

We had front-row seats!

My mom and I used to watch Cinderella (the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s version) all the time when I was little and it was so nice to be able to go see the show.

There were no pictures allowed during the show, but luckily there are plenty available online.

[Source]

For being a small, local theater, I was really surprised by how great the show was! The singing and dancing were much better than I was expecting and I absolutely loved it!

[Source]

My mom and I both agreed that the step-sisters were particularly funny and definitely made the show. One of the step-sisters used to perform on Disney cruises! What a fun job that would be, right?

After the show we headed back to my mom’s house to sit by the fire, enjoy some homemade oatmeal raisin cookies, and decorate the Christmas tree.

Such a fun afternoon!

After we finished decorating the tree, I hopped in the car and quickly headed back to Arlington so I could meet up with all my girlfriends for a dinner date!

It had been so long since we were all together and I was so excited to see everyone. We met at Chef Geoff’s restaurant in D.C. which a bunch of us had been dying to try out.

We each had a few glasses of wine and spent 99.9% of the time catching up. Our poor waitress had to come over to our table like four times because we kept chatting instead of reading the menu. Oops!

For my entree I chose herb-crusted salmon with asparagus, an artichoke-potato pancake, and black garlic sauce.

It was delicious!!!! I tried really hard to stop eating when I was full but it was just too tasty and I wound up eating almost every bite. So. Good.

We stayed at the restaurant until past 11:00 just catching up. There is nothing better than girl talk!

After dinner I headed home and fell asleep immediately. Such a fun day!

Sunday was quite a bit more relaxing and in fact, I didn’t change out of my sweat pants all day Gotta love those kinds of Sundays.

We did manage to take Jack for a fun long walk.

(And then unfortunately got locked out of the apartment because our front door’s timer is broken and locks at random times. Grrrrr. Luckily someone else finally came out of the building and we were able to get back in. So annoying though!)

We also did some cleaning and laundry…with Jack’s help of course.

He wears his Redskins gear proudly

And I was even able to get a few presents wrapped and bake some healthy chocolate chip cookies (only 2 Wight Watchers points!)

Homemade pizza for dinner! So delicious!

(With a side of broccoli since my weekend veggie intake was seriously lacking).

Such a fun weekend!

Question of the Day: Have you ever seen a show at a local theater? Was it as good as you expected, or better??

I actually saw The Sound of Music at the same theater last year, but somehow I was way more impressed by Cinderella. I’m wondering if the front-row seats and beautiful costumes had anything to do with it

See you all tomorrow with a full Weight Watchers update (this post is already seriously long) and a new recipe!!

Jack’s Second Birthday!

Random 8 Responses »

Nov 192012

Hey there people!! Happy Monday to you all! I for one am in a fantastic mood this Monday because work has finally calmed down (yay!!) and it’s a short work for me. We even got an email from our office director saying we could all leave at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday instead of the usual 5:30. Woohoo!! Now let’s just hope I get all my work done by then so I can actually leave on time!

So, let me tell you about my weekend!! First of all, I should tell you that it was quite relaxing. Fabio and I didn’t do too much, except for running some errands and visiting both of my parents on Sunday. Two of our friends from Baltimore were supposed to come stay with us for the weekend, but at the last minute they told us they couldn’t make it That turned our busy weekend into a suddenly empty weekend with no plans. I’ll take it!

One thing we did do was celebrate Jack’s second birthday!! We rescued him from the shelter one year ago (or at least- it was the Saturday before Thanksgiving – close enough) and when we got him, the people at the shelter told us he was about one year old. By our guess-timation, that makes him two!! We had a fun weekend celebrating Jack’s birthday (minus an obligatory stop at the vet’s office to update his vaccines and get his annual exam) and I think he had a great time!

Anyway, since we didn’t too much else this weekend I will leave you with the pictures and some brief captions to explain Enjoy!

Saturday

Breakfast of champions…whole wheat pancakes and turkey bacon

A trip to the vet and one overly-excited pooch.

A celebratory trip to PetsMart. Happy Birthday Jack! Choose your toy…

The winning toy (P.S. the ball in this picture is already separated from the rope. He doesn’t mess around haha).

A birthday trip to the dog park.

Playing around with Fabio.

Jack’s birthday ~~cake~~ cookie.

Sunday

Brunch at my mom’s house.

Delicious home-cooked food (that left me stuffed).

Brandy milk punch.

Jack sharing a stick with Emmy.

On to my dad’s house! Jack ran around with Fabio and Max.

Jack was faster than Fabio.

Spaghetti for dinner

And there you have it! My pictures from the weekend As you can see it was nothing too crazy, but it was nice to have a weekend relaxing with my family.

Question of the day: If you have a pet, what do you to celebrate their birthday? Do you know when your pet’s birthday is??

I wish we knew when Jack’s real birthday is, but even more than that I’d like to know what breeds he is mixed with (other than labrador) and where he was before the shelter found him (they said he was a stray). Hopefully Jack doesn’t mind that we kind of “made up” when his birthday is and that it’s not even specific to the day. Woops! Somehow, I don’t think he minds too much Haha!

Favorite Things Friday

Random 12 Responses »

Aug 172012

Hey there people! You may or may not have noticed that the title of today’s post is not Fashion Friday number umpteen-million. Neither was last week’s Friday post. Why, you ask? Well, to be honest, Fashion Friday was never really meant to be a long-term feature on my blog. I felt like I was calling myself a fashion expert when really I just wanted to celebrate that I could wear jeans & casual clothes to work on Fridays.

At first, posting about Fashion Friday was just fun because it was the only day of the week where I wasn’t dressing like a business professional, and I wanted to share it with you guys. However, now that I have more readers, and this is no longer just a blog where I talk just to myself (at least most of the time…) I began feeling like Fashion Friday was not a good representation of me and all of my passions. Sure, I like clothes, but there are so many other things that I like too. I didn’t think my fashion (which, to be honest is just pretty average) deserved an entire day to itself every week, when there are so many other things in my life that I enjoy just as much, if not more, than clothes.

So, starting today I will be trying out a new Friday routine. I’m not going to get rid of sharing my fashion entirely, I just want to reorganize it a bit. Add a bit more to it so you guys can see what else I’m interested in.

Insert Favorite Things Friday.

I’m going to show you all of my favorite things from the week, mostly pictures from my life, but also occasionally articles or interesting things I have stumbled upon from around the web. This way you can see my favorite outfit of the week (not limited to Friday!) as well as the favorite thing I ate, thing I watched, favorite thing I did, etc.

So let’s get to it!

Favorite Outfit

Here is the outfit I’m wearing today! The skirt is from a consignment shop near my apartment called Current Boutique and it’s made by J. Crew. I bought it for $28 with the tags still on. Woohoo! Plus it has pockets! Hello, awesome. My shirt is just a black t-shirt, I think from Forever 21, and my leopard-print flats are from DSW.

Favorite Snack

Fabio made these for us to share before dinner last night. He chopped cherry tomatoes in half, added some fresh mozzarella cheese, and drizzled them in balsamic vinegar. Then he sprinkled a little salt and pepper on top. They were such a sweet gesture because I’d had a really hard day at work and was feeling a bit down. He knew I wasn’t feeling up to making dinner so not only did he take care of it for me, but he made me these tasty little appetizers to cheer me up. What a guy.

Favorite Moment at Work

That would be on Wednesday evening when the drinks cart came around. Yes, we had a drinks cart. Literally, they rolled a cart laden with beer, wine, and snacks over to our desks and encouraged us to help ourselves since we have been working so hard lately. Seriously, isn’t that the best? I got to finish up my work for the day while sipping on some chilled white wine. Awesome.

Favorite Surprise

This bag of juicy, ripe tomatoes that was in this week’s vegetable share. This week’s produce was pretty similar to last week’s only instead of squash I got all these tomatoes!! Fabio and I both LOVE tomatoes and I’ll have to think of a creative way to use all these up. Don’t be surprised if I whip up some homemade tomato sauce next week (maybe with turkey meatballs?? hmmm…)

Favorite Find

This jumbo jar of nutella. Seriously, look at the size of that thing next to my hand. It was GINORMOUS and cost like $75 haha isn’t that crazy?? I found it at a new-to-me store that’s not too far from my apartment called The Italian Store. Although it was bursting to capacity with people clamoring to buy the amazing-looking Italian subs, Fabio and I bypassed the yummy pasta salad and subs and just bought some whole wheat frozen raviolis, which I’m so excited to try. They also had a ton of precuitto, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and other types of pasta which made me a) wish I was richer so I could afford to buy more b) incredibly excited for my upcoming trip to Italy! Woo!

Favorite Indulgent Meal

This cheeseburger which I enjoyed (on Tuesday night? maybe?) that was made with lean ground beef (+yummy seasonings), reduced fat American cheese, a bunch of spinach, and a sandwich thin. Oh, and ketchup. Obviously. On the side I had some roasted fingerling potatoes. This meal was delicious and felt very decadent even though it was somewhat lightened up. Yummy.

Favorite Picture of Jack

Ok, so I will probably have this category every week lol. I just love that little mutt so much! This picture is from Sunday when he went swimming in the bay at my grandparent’s house. He just looks so happy

And that’s it for now! All my favorite photos from this week. I think it was a pretty good week based on those photos, don’t you??

Anyway, what do you guys think of my new Friday tradition? Do you like it? Hate it? Have any suggestions? Leave me a comment por favor!

Devilish dogs, guinea pigs, & frogs

Random 6 Responses »

Aug 062012

Hey guys! How are you all on this fine, Monday afternoon? Yeah, yeah, Mondays suck. I’m with ya. But at least I had a good weekend! Let’s recap, shall we?

[Rewind to Friday night]

After work on Friday, Fabio and I took Jack to the dog park. As you might remember, the dog park that we used to go to closed (which was really sad, since we used to run there after work and were able to get in a nice little workout) so now we have to drive to one that’s further away. Boo.

This dog park is pretty good though and it even has two child-size swimming pools for the dogs to romp around in. Jack had a blast!

However, between rolling around in the dirt with another black lab puppy…

And frolicking in the mud surrounding the kiddy pools…

He was a muddy mess!

Gross! Luckily there was a hose at the dog park so we did our best to wash him off before heading back home. Next time we will remember to bring soap!

After we got home from the dog park on Friday evening, Fabio and I decided to go on a little date out to dinner. I had won a $25 gift card from my office’s bowling party (first strike in my lane! Woo!) so we headed over to a place we have been eyeing for a while now called Cafe Asia.

We started off with a spicy tuna roll and “Chinese raviolis” which I thought would be kind of like dumplings.

The tuna rolls were excellent (albeit spicy!) but neither of us were a fan of the “raviolis.” They were supposed to come with a dipping sauce but instead they were just completed submerged in the sauce. It was a little too oily for my taste.

Next we split an order of chicken teriyaki and chicken lo mein (creative, huh?)

Everything was delicious! I don’t usually order chicken lo mein (I actually hardly ever order any Chinese food…I’d rather make my own!) but this was delicious! I loved all the green onions and sprouts that were thrown in for some crunch. Yum!

The rest of Friday night involved falling asleep on the couch watching the Olympics. This is an exciting life I live, I tell ya.

On Saturday morning I took Jack for a nice long walk around the neighborhood before coming back to make some healthified French toast. It was great! I’ll share the recipe soon

Then we quickly headed over to Baltimore to help Fabio’s sister move. It wasn’t very glamorous (lots of box-moving, wall-sanding, furniture-assembling, etc.) so I didn’t take too many pictures. I did manage to snap a picture of me on the balcony of the old apartment to show you the view of the ~~lovely~~ disgusting city of Baltimore. Although I am a Maryland girl at heart, Baltimore is not my favorite city. Check out that view though!

After helping his sister move, she treated us all to pizza and beer (though we girls sipped on Vodka sprites. It was that kind of day). Then around 4:00 Fabio and I headed back home!

We planned on seeing the new Batman movie, but we found out at the last minute it was sold out. We wound up walking around the Ballston mall, where we had planned to watch the movie, and soon we found ourselves in the As Seen on TV store. That place cracks me up every time. Check out these gems:

Pajamas you live in. Jeans you sleep in. Natch.

How about this one?

Really people? This is so sad.

Luckily we managed to escape without buying anything, although some of the dog de-shedders and cooking appliances almost got me. Phew! A narrow escape.

Later that night we wound up at a party at our friend’s apartment and then headed out to the bar with my former coworker, Ellen. She’ll be moving to Kentucky this week for law school and I’m going to miss her so much. Gah! At least we had a fun night together barhopping around Arlington. It was a great last hoorah!

On Sunday Fabio and I ~~conquered our hangovers~~ headed over to his coworker’s house to pick up two dogs that we will be dog-sitting throughout the week.

Here is with Angel, who we have been “fondly” calling The Rat. See, she is a rat terrier and not a very friendly one at that.

At first I thought she would be fine, until she started growling at me every time I looked at her. Then when we got home and tried to take her out of the car, she hid under the seat and proceeded to growl/bark/snap at us if we got our hands anywhere near her.

She even bit Fabio when he tried to put her leash on…

It’s a small wound, but still. That dog is NOT nice. Her owners must have thought they were really clever when they named her Angel. Finally (after about 45 mins, mind you) we got her out by covering her with Fabio’s shirt so she couldn’t see what was happening and carried her out of the car. Seriously, Rat Dog?

The other dog we are watching, Cash, is a sweet heart.

No problems with him whatsoever!

We finally got them inside, introduced them to Jack (who, BTW, is thrilled to have “friends” over) and then headed to my dad’s house for a pool day.

Here are the highlights:

My sister is baby-sitting a guinea pig

Jack discovered a frog in the pool

I sat by the pool all day (unpictured, because, well, you don’t really need a picture of that)

And we had a BBQ with plenty of watermelon for dessert!

Then we headed back home to watch more Olympics and pass out!

Phew! What a weekend. So tell me, how did your weekend go? Did you encounter and devilish dogs, guinea pigs, or frogs?

Fashion Friday #14

Fashion Fridays 6 Responses »

Jul 202012

First of all, can I just take a moment to point out that this is my fourteenth Fashion Friday post? That means I have been blogging for fourteen weeks. My little baby blog that I started back in April has really been growing, and all of you lovely readers who have been commenting each day really make me happy. Thank you all so much You make my day!

But anyway, let’s get to what I’m wearin’ today:

Shirt: Nordstrom Rack

Jeans: Nordstrom Rack (I think I have a NR problem…)

Shoes: Target

Head band: J Crew (though you can’t really see it ~~that well~~ at all)

I’m not sure why, but I had a really hard time picking out anything to wear this morning. I think I tried on like 7 shirts and didn’t like any of them. Plus, dressing for this weather is difficult because it’s been 100+ degrees outside but my office is freezing. Half the time I wind up snuggling in my work fleece (an awkward black zip-up with my company’s logo on it. Not cute.) So you can see my struggle.

It could also be that I just want some new clothes haha. I hardly ever buy new stuff (though Fabio might disagree :-/ lol) so everything that I have is pretty old and still in the college clothing era, unless they are work outfits. Annoying!

Workout

Ok, I know I normally don’t give workout updates on Fridays, but today I had a bit of a revelation and just had to share it with you guys! Last week I bought one of my favorite books ever (Pillars of the Earth- in case you were wondering) on iTunes. I figured that I can listen to it while I’m walking to and from the metro each day, but that it would also be great for when I’m running with Jack. So, each morning this week I ran my mile and listened to my book on tape (er- book on iPod?) and then went back inside to do part of an Insanity DVD, like usual.

However, today when the mile was up I was at a really good part of my book. It was an action-packed scene and I just didn’t want to take off my headphones and do Insanity. So you know what I did? I dropped Jack off and headed off for another two mile run. It was great! I loved being able to listen to my book while I ran and I still got a great workout in (3 miles isn’t too bad for a weekday morning!). If you ever need some motivation while running I strongly recommend downloading a favorite book to your iPod. I didn’t even want to stop running after mile three; and you know that’s unlike me

Fun Friday Favorites

So I saw some pretty awesome things around the web this week and thought I should share them with you all. I hope you enjoy!

1. This awesome recreation of Beyonce’s Countdown video. Apparently he named his snuggie “Blue Ivy.” Of course he did.

2. This picture of adorable puppies, along with 50 other adorable pictures.

3. This site that I have loved for more than a year now, but forgot about until today. I especially love the posts about iced coffee, tailgating, and tanning. So accurate!

4. If you have ever seen the infamous YouTube video for Honey Boo Boo Child, I saw this week that TLC is making a show on her whole family. Oh goodness, save us all.

And that’s it! I hope you guys all have a great weekend! Hopefully it will involve doing something fun, like say, dancing around your living room with your dog after one too many beers at happy hour. Not that I know anything about that…

Bye!

Brunch & Beer Gardens

Random 10 Responses »

Jul 162012

Hellloooooo everyone! I hope you had a great weekend! Mine was fabulous but I can’t believe it’s over already! Sheesh this summer is flying by. I think I already have plans for every weekend until the end of August! Where is the time going??

Anyway, this weekend was a blast! It started bright and early on Saturday as I drove Fabio to Union Station so he could catch a bus to NY. One of his good friends was having a house-warming party at his new apartment, so Fabs used the opportunity to have a boys weekend. Count me out! Haha.

As always, the scenery on the way to Union Station was beautiful.

Here’s the casual view from a red light. Normal.

Anyway, after dropping him off I had about an hour to kill before I headed over to brunch with some girlfriends. I used the extra time to attempt curling my hair with my straightener. Sometimes this works well, but other times I wind up having to wash my hair quickly in the tub if it turns out awkward. This time it was a success!

Hooray!

After curling my hair and getting ready, I met the rest of the Arlington crew so we could share a cab over to H Street.

The place we went for brunch was called the Argonaut and in addition to their amazingly delicious brunch entrees, they serve bottomless mimosas for $9 until around 3 or 3:30 p.m. (I forget which). Since we arrived around noon, we took full advantage of the brunch drink special

And although I didn’t capture a photo of the whole group, there were about 15 of us total. We had the poor waiter running around constantly refilling our drinks. I’m sure we were a pain, but he was a really nice guy and we made sure to tip well!

In addition to the bottomless mimosas, I ordered eggs benedict with breakfast potatoes and bacon. It was SO GOOD. Sorry I didn’t break out the camera to take a pic; sometimes you just gotta live in the moment and enjoy your time with friends.

After brunch a few of us continued our exploration of H Street (which, although is “up-and-coming” is still kind of sketchy so go with a group!) and wandered into a German Beer Garden. At this point it was clear it was going to be an all-day drink fest. Bring on the beer.

Upon walking into the “garden” I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere. I don’t know what I expected from a beer garden, but we had a lovely table on the roof and were surrounded by plenty of trees adorned with little white Christmas lights. It was really nice!

Here’s a crooked picture that I snapped while walking up the stairs to our table. I tried not to be creepy but wanted to document what the place looked like…

I blame all the mimosas for this awkward photo. Haha.

Once we were seated, we all ordered different types of beer. I have no clue what I ordered since it was in German, but our waiter assured me it was a nice light, fruity beer. Perfect.

These suckers were huge! I happily drank mine down while munching on the free soft pretzels and mustard. It was great

Eventually I looked at my watch and realized it was after 6 p.m. Where did the day go?? I finished my beer, shared a cab with a new-to-me friend named Natalie, and headed home to walk Jack and pass out on the bed. It was a fun day, but I was pooped!

Sunday was a lot more relaxing and I spent the day hanging around the house. At one point I went for a run with Jack to the dog park (I had to work off all the calories from the day before) and he found himself a comfy spot in a ditch.

I regretfully realized it would be our last time at the dog park until Spring 2013. So sad

Then we ran home and I did some baking (recipe to come tomorrow!)

And then soon it was time to pick up Fabio from Union Station again. Afterwords we went to dinner with my dad, stepmom, sister, and grandparents. We chose the Outback Steakhouse in Annapolis as our venue and after filling up on bread and bloomin’ onion, I was barely able to eat my entree of a 6 oz. steak with veggies and a baked potato. Hooray for leftovers!

I can’t remember the last time I ate/drank so much in a weekend. Maybe Memorial Day? Ugh. I need to work out extra this week to make up for it. It was so much fun though, and totally worth it to spend such quality time with my friends

After we got home there was a lot of lounging/crappy TV watching and we got to sleep pretty early. We were all exhausted!

Bahahaha look at that face

Anyway, what did you guys do this weekend? Any crazy all-day drinking extravaganzas like mine? Although I had a lot of fun this weekend, I’m looking forward to getting back on track this week with my healthy habits. Phew!

A Weekend Visiting my Family and a Trip to the ER

Random 2 Responses »

Jun 252012

Hi guys! I had a super fun weekend but now it’s back to the daily grind. But first, I’d like to share a recap with you all. I have a lot of pictures to share so let’s get started!

[Rewind to Friday night]

I got out of work on Friday shortly after posting my Fashion Friday post, which means that it was 5:30 and I actually got out of work on time for once. Usually on Fridays I need to send a bunch of weekly reports over to our clients and they all need approval from various senior-level employees before they can be sent, so a lot of times I’m stuck in the office until at least 6 or 6:30 on Fridays. Which. Sucks. But not this week!

After being released from ~~hell~~ work, I sprinted home and packed up my things and took Jack with me over to my mom’s house where we enjoyed a relaxing evening outside.

My mom cooked up a fabulous dinner and we sat around enjoying chilled white wine on the patio. It was super relaxing and I had a great night with my family.

Jack was confused by the outdoor lights…

…but he definitely had the most fun romping around my mom’s backyard and playing with her three German Short-haired Pointers. Jack loves going over to my mom’s house for this reason Then after a bit too much wine, we called it a night

Saturday morning I woke up nice and early to this beautiful sight:

A cloudless summer day with an empty pool = heaven in my book.

I spent the day lounging by the pool with my mom catching up and reading books. I finished this month’s June book club selection a while ago and spent Saturday finishing the next book I had started, Insurgent. It was a really great book and picked up right where it’s prequel, Divergent, left off. I owe you guys two book reviews now! I’ll have to get those started this week

When I wasn’t reading, my mom showed me around her vegetable garden and I oohed and ahhed at her new plants. This year they are enormous and she has a ton of tomatoes that will be ready soon!

She also has a boatload of basil, and some pretty roses that are blooming.

Here’s a view of some of her plants from the other side of the pool:

Soooo many plants! Now do you see why after living in NYC for a summer I really missed grass and trees? I grew up surrounded by green!

After laying around for a bit and relaxing, my mom cooked us up some lunch. Homemade white pizza with garlic, cheese, and basil, all cooked on the grill…yes please!

After lunch, I quickly showered and said goodbye to my mom and stepdad and drove ten minutes away to my dad’s house. I love that they live so close together.

When I arrived, my sister and I decided to take Jack and Max (my dad’s dog) on a nice long walk through the park. I didn’t remember to turn on my MapMyRun app until we had already been walking for about 10 minutes, so we probably actually walked for about 2.5 miles.

Walking with a seven-year old and two dogs who stop to sniff does not equal a quick pace so this was a very slooooow walk. It was fun though!

That evening we hung around the house, ate dinner, and got some soft-serve ice cream at Jimmy Cone, a local ice cream place. It was packed! My sister, dad, and I all picked vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. So delicious!

When we got home I played with my sister (who wanted to write letters to her favorite toys- don’t ask me why) and watched TV with the family.

Then on Sunday I played outside with my sister and Jack for a while before eventually heading back home. But not before Jack explored the trampoline.

Or found awkward places to rest.

Then I returned home where Fabio greeted me after spending four days in Ocean City with his friends.

I was so happy to see him, but not so happy to see the cut on his finger which was deep enough that it needed medical attention. We then spent the rest of the afternoon in urgency care getting it looked at.

He cut his finger somehow while romping around with the boys in Ocean City and it was just deep enough that he thought he better have it looked at. He also got a tetnis shot just in case any nasty bacteria was lingering. The doctor wanted to cauterize it with silver nitrate (which sounded extremely painful) but luckily it stopped bleeding so she decided it wasn’t necessary. Phew!

After we got home from the doctor, we watched the Olympic diving trials (awesome) and Sherlock Holmes 2, which we both fell asleep during haha. We are going to re-watch the second half of it tonight!

So, how were your weekends? Do anything fun? Did you spend lots of time with family? Or maybe you have a funny ER experience to share lol.