Day One

Whoa I am tired. We had a super fun weekend with the husband's cousins, and today was my first day at the new job.

Like the bad blogger I am, I have no pictures to share with you, or anything exciting to say other than my first day was awesome, but I am SLEEPY.

Time to hit the sack. More on the new life tomorrow.

One Step Closer

Guess who forgot to bring socks to the gym today??

Oh yeah. Those are my naked feet in need of new nail polish. I busted out a spin class sock-less, but it was less than pleasant. I can't say it's something I'd like to do again, but I figured since I wasn't running it would be doable. Yuck city though.

Today a took a big step in working towards my first triathlon...

Yup, I actually register! I've been thinking about it and talking about it, and I finally bit the bullet. Partly because I spent a long time talking about it with a friend last night who may do it with me, and partly because Caitlin at the Healthy Tipping Point posted about how awesome triathlons are today. It was definitely a tipping point for me! I'm really excited and really nervous! I have just over 6 months to train for it, so I should be a-okay, but it will definitely be interesting!

Tomorrow is my last day at my current job! I'm really excited about this too! :) Here's to new and great things!

Late Lunch

First, I have to tell you about a delicious idea for a group dinner. We went to Jay's g-ma/aunt's home for a "potato bar" dinner. They baked potatoes for everyone and had set out a bunch of yummy toppings- sauteed mushrooms, onions, broccoli, nacho cheese, chili, onions, olives, and more than I can list! I fixed my tato up with a couple dollops of sour cream, onions, broccoli and a scoop of chili. It was such a fun idea! I don't think any two potatoes were alike and everyone enjoyed it.

Tuesday evenings Jay and I attend a religious education class at our Church, so our Tuesday dinners have to be really easy to prepare but we still want it to be healthy. The crock pot has been doing most of the work Tuesday nights but last night we decided to try a recipe from the latest Men's Health Magazine : Roasted Green Beans, Shrimp and Curried Cauliflower. It was SO easy to put together and super tasty! We hadn't tried curry powder before, but will now as it's a great way to flavor veggies without adding a ton of unnecessary sodium and calories. I think my picture looks a little greener than the actual product. I'm such a photo novice, could you tell??

Wednesdays tend to be my most hectic day of the week. I have a meeting at 1 pm which means I have to have lunch really early or really late- most of the time it's late. Thankfully I had a cup of Yoplait Light Thick & Creamy Blueberry Pie yogurt to help me last until my 2 pm lunch break! Sometimes I put this yogurt in the freezer for an hour before digging in, it tastes like a fro-yo treat right in the middle of my work day! At lunch today I will continue trying to figure out how to revise my usual TRX exercises without putting too much strain on my right ankle (a balance nightmare so far...).

With the optional door anchor I can set up the TReX anywhere. I love being able to pack it up in it's tiny bag and store it away or have it in my luggage when we travel. I don't know which lunchtime favorite will follow my workout: warm tomato soup....

or a cold, veggie filled salad topped with olive hummus??

I have a bit of a lingering cold, so maybe the soup will win. BTW- in case you noticed the background in my soup picture, we don't typically have THAT much booze in our home, we had an engagement party in October and had leftover bottles of wine and received some great bottles as gifts.

For Crying in a Bucket

I'm pretty sure that means the same thing as "for crying out loud", but it sounds way more fun, and much more like something my Gram would say.

I say this, because I am crying into a pot of soup! I am up bright and early this morning to make soup for tonight's dinner (we ended up having some friends over for dinner last night, so it didn't get made then). Johnny, who is the designated onion chopper in the house, is still sleeping. So I had to brave it. And it hurts! I remember why I made him do it all the time! My poor eyes still hurt!

I think I'll recover alright though :)

Yesterday I did a double work out. A brick? Maybe, I'm still not 100% sure what a brick workout entails. Regardless, I went to the gym and first did a swim workout, and then took the strength training class that I love so much (and haven't been to in about a month). It as all smiles in the beginning.

And it ended not quite the same way. I made it through the strength class better than I thought I would, but I was sweating chlorine the whole time. The smell of myself alone was enough to make me want to throw in the towel. I guess next time I need to shower off a lot better after the pool? I'm not sure I'll try this exact brick (or not brick) workout again, but I'm pleased to know that I can handle them.

Tonight is the premier of America's Next Top Model! I'm so excited. I love reality TV and this tops the list of show I'm in love with. I haven't done any reading on the models on the website because I love trying to figure it out myself through the first episode. It should be interesting because Tyra is a little nuts and always has something up the sleeve of her onesie!

PS- The tater tots were amazing on Monday, in case you were wondering.

not so good photo of me by: johnny

Indigestion

Today I ran. It was a much better run than I have been having lately. I felt like my legs could have gone on and on for miles. But did I? No. Why? Because I had AWFUL indigestion. I took three walk breaks in my 3.5 mile run because I thought I might barf stomach acid onto the treadmill. I have NO idea what caused the indigestion. I eat the same thing most days, and the only difference was that I put raisins on my salad today. But could raisins I ate 5 hours before my run have been the issue?

I wanted to push hard today because we're going out to dinner. We have a coupon (I love using coupons) and the place we're going has tater tots. Who can say no to tater tots? I'm definitely happy with my run today, NOT having indigestion would have just made it better, and I'm going to enjoy a couple tots! :)

Duh, Maddie moment of today: I got my passport renewal paper work all squared away. I went to CVS and got new pictures and everything. I went to the post office to mail it off, only to realize it's a holiday and the post office is most definitely NOT open. I was all excited to have it done too! Oh well. It will have to wait until tomorrow.

And just for fun...here's my old passport picture (taken in 2006) and the one I had taken this morning. This might have to go on the before and during page!

I Have Not Left the House

Since I arrived in Vermont on Friday night, I have not left my mom's house. The weather yesterday was NASTY. Windy and snowy and perfect for staying in the house and working on a puzzle.

We didn't just work on a puzzle...we ate some great breakfast and baked.

It was really nice to spend the day with my family at my mom's...which just happens to be where Johnny and I got married. If we'd gone with a winter wedding, the backdrop of our ceremony would be this:

Not soooo bad, but I'm glad we went with the summer idea instead. :)

My brother also showed up later in the day for dinner. It was good to have him there, but I was most happy to see his dog, Dylan. He's a cutie.

Today we're actually venturing out to do some errands (woo oil change!) and eventually we'll head back to Boston. It's bright and sunny today, but FREEZING. Too bad we finished the puzzle late last night...

(I'll have to add the picture later. I'm on the hubs PC and I have no idea how to use Windows 7 and therefore the picture isn't rotating properly. More reason to be a Mac).

TGIF

I love Friday. Not only because it's the last day of work before the weekend, but also because I get to wear jeans to work! Big deal. I hate dress pants and four days a week in them is more than enough!

It's been a few rather uneventful days in Boston. I was busy, but nothing crazy. Yesterday was my last day as a volunteer, which was actually pretty sad. I love going to the hospital every week, but it won't work with the new job, so I had to say goodbye. Hopefully I'll have a chance to go back and visit soon!

Yesterday was also my first outreach event as a volunteer on the Fenway Community Health Men's Event. We had a party sponsored by Absolute where were tried to get more people to sign up as table captains (the people in charge of selling those seats at their table for the event). It was really fun, even though the male models we were promised by Absolute were not all that modely. I got to wear this super cool name tag.

 

At the beginning of the event I was really nervous. I didn't really know any one there, but everyone else seemed to know people. I'm outgoing, but I'm also a nervous and awkward person. I excused myself to the restroom (where I took this awesome picture) and had a little pep talk with myself. My job was to talk up the event. Easy enough. I am not approaching strangers to do it, I just have to chat with people who have chosen to come to the event knowing full well what it's about. I told myself to stop being a scaredy pants and get out there. It definitely worked! I went back to the event and just started talking to people. We were all there for the same reason, and it turned out to be a great night.

We're off to Vermont again this weekend after work and I'm so excited. I can't wait to see my brother and my mom. I've got plans for a 12:30 spin class to get my sweat on before I have to sit the car for three hours. I'm really hoping it's not the crazy man instructor I had on Wednesday....

Noah

I'm baaack! Today has been hectic but I just had to take a few minutes to update.

Our trip to New Orleans was great despite not being able to run the marathon; I was definitely emotional walking into the convention center to pick up my race t-shirt (I paid for it so I might as well have it as a reminder of my experience).

Jay and I have this goal of attending a pro basketball, football, baseball, soccer and hockey game at least once in our life (so far we've been to 3 MLB games). Because I did not have to worry about an early wake up call the day of the race, we were able to check another off our list by attending a Hornets vs Bulls basketball game Saturday night!We walked around NOLA (quick story: when we arrived we were directed to call "Noah Shuttle", when a car marked "NOLA Shuttle" showed up we realized our mistake but continued to call our driver Noah), shopped, ate and took a city tour as well as a tour of the Houmas Plantation.
We were a bit disappointed with the plantation tour but the city tour was amazing. We were able to visit the lower 9th and realize the devestation that is still there. The BFF has volunteered as part of the rebuilding efforts and told me about it, but seeing it in person is such an eye opener. Note to self, ask the BFF about the efforts we can make from afar to help.

Our Valentine's Day was a bit unplanned but completely perfect. We exchanged presents (I gave him a pair of shoes!) and he gave me the sweetest mother-of-pearl earrings, found a cute restaurant on Frenchmen St. to have dinner and enjoyed some live jazz at the Spotted Cat Jazz Club.

Overall, we had a great time exploring a city and getting away from the hussle and bussle of work for a few days.

It's finally time to pick up my pup from the puppy boarding place and do some much needed grocery shopping.

Triple Tangent Tuesday

It's Tuesday again, so I'll follow in tradition with a tangent for you. I'm glad to have something to write about because today was one of those days. I was tired in the morning. I felt weird having to pee in a cup for a stranger. I didn't want to be at work. It was cold at work, and I got bored in my afternoon meeting. I ate too many jelly beans as a result of said boredom in said meeting. I didn't feel like going to the gym. I made mac and cheese for tomorrow's dinner, but ate a dinners worth in the process. I also apparently feel like complaining about how badly I felt today. Good thing it's almost time for bed and I can sleep off this funk!

MOVING RIGHT ALONG. My tangent...

1. My husband and I have been together for 8 years. He invited himself to be my senior prom date and we were both 17 years old when we had our first date. He kissed me outside the pool hall after we saw the second Harry Potter movie. A few weeks later he asked me to be his girlfriend. That's how it was done back in the day. No wondering if we were official or not, or if he liked me or not. I obviously said yes. We made an awesomely awkward high school couple.

I picked an especially awful picture to show you just how cool I was in high school

2. I love made-for-tv movies. Basically anything that could be on ABC Family is right up there on my list of awesome. I most recently watched "Beauty and the Briefcase," with Hilary Duff, but I've also been know to enjoy a throwback Disney movie like Rip Girls or Zenon: Girl of the Twenty First Century. I enjoy that there is always a good moral behind the not so good teenage acting, and I usually end up crying. Clearly I'm way cooler than I was in high school.

3. I'm not too much of a beer drinker, but I love going to breweries. I have been to a few, including the Heineken brewery in Amsterdam, and I can't seem to get enough. I love learning about how the beer is made, and tasting it fresh out of the brewery. The hubs and I make a point to try out brew-pubs or beer fests just to try some fun new stuff. He's much more adventurous when it comes to tasting, but I love it all the same...and tasting glasses are pretty small, so I don't have to worry about finishing a mondo-sized beer I don't like!

quite possibly one of the coolest pictures I've ever taken

Oh hey there bff! :) We did the Coors brewery tour together in Colorado

So that's my tangent for today. Now I'm going to clean up from dinner and pass out. Tomorrow has the potential to be a much better day.

ps- the bff has been away all weekend...in the city where she was supposed to be running the marathon. Here's to hoping she had a good time despite the boot and the not running! Love you, queso! :)
*Disney images from here and here.

More Love

I had a wonderful Valentine's Day date with my husband. He's a super amazing guy...the kind who will bring me flowers randomly, and do the dishes before I get home so that I don't have to. He makes me laugh, he hugs me when I'm sad, and he's always willing to get up and get me a drink when I'm being lazy. That's love right there.

In true Valentine's Day fashion, I got flowers today.

Johnny is sneaky and I'm still not sure when or where he got these! We left the house together this morning, but these were waiting for me when I got home! I love lilies so much, and these were a wonderful surprise! Especially because I had to leave these gorgeous blooms at home and spend the first part of my evening at the laundromat!

We don't have a washer and dryer, and although we do our best to make frequent enough trip to my gma's for free laundry it doesn't always happen. The nice thing about this place is that I can do more than one load at a time. It still bites though.

Luckily my evening got much better when I met this handsome stud for a drink and dinner.

Our Valentine's Day tradition (at least in Boston) has been to go to a fancy bar for one drink, and then go to dinner at one of our favorite/cheapo places. We get to be a little fancy for the holiday without going overboard. This year we had our drinks at a new-ish place, Island Creek Oyster Bar. We'd been there once before to celebrate the engagement of my uncles, and we really liked it. Tonight was no different. They have good drinks, good music, and a beautiful space.

Some day we'll splurge and actually eat there, but tonight was not the night. We walked across the street to our favorite sushi place instead. It was hopping for a Monday night, and they even asked us if we'd made reservations! This is not usually a reservations kind of place, so we were totally surprised, but luckily they sat us really quickly. I love sushi, but when I say that, I mean I love all the stuff that cooked and I never eat raw fish. Johnny on the other hand?

He can't get enough! (And yes, he said it was ok to post this picture). I had beef noodle soup and a sweet potato tempura roll. So delicious.

As a nice touch to the evening, the resturant was giving all the girls roses. It was a sweet idea, so i added it to the bunch when I got home. More flowers is always a good thing in my mind! It was a lovely night, and I'm ready to hit the sack. I'm beat from a mid-day spin class (the instructor is awesome. She yells and looks like she's having the work out of her life throughout the whole class...can you say motivation?), and I have to be up early to take a drug test for my new job (luckily I'm not worried I won't pass it lol). But to cap off Valentine's Day, I will leave you with a quote. This is on the back of the card the hubs got me today:

Married life is okay

as long as you love, honor, 

and take turns

doing the dishes.

I LoVermont

I had such a wonderful weekend in Vermont, it was SO hard to come home last night, and to get back to the grind this morning (only nine more days of this job!) This is a somewhat long post since I didn't blog all weekend. It never crossed my mind that I'd need my laptop for anything, so it didn't get packed. OH WELL. Next weekend we're going to VT again (this time to see my mom in a different part of the state), so I'll try my best to remember.

The weekend started off well. It was a really sunny Friday and I took my lunch break to hit the gym. It felt like I was out on a run in the spring. The sun made the gym bright and warm! If only it had been that warm and I was running outside...but I'll take the substitute in the dead of winter.

the bright sunny gym. i have no idea what the sculpture is supposed to be, but I think it looks like a tooth.

The hubs and I set off for the cold northern state of Vermont around 5:15. Well that turned out to be a REALLY bad idea. We sat in traffic for HOURS. The first leg of the trip that should have taken us an hour took over two. Our eta of 9pm was a major fail and we didn't get to Burlington until 10:15. I was so very done with being in the car at that point. Luckily the cousins were still up, and we all chatted and enjoyed some of my awesome cake before bed.

Saturday morning we were greeted by homemade doughnuts. The cousins just got a doughnut maker and they busted it out for us. I was a little iffy about them at first, as I'm not a big doughnut fan, but these were so light and cakey...way better than the deep fried ones you buy at Dunkin Donuts.

so adorably delicious

 Saturday afternoon was the baby shower I went up for. The cousins we stayed with are having a baby too, but that little one isn't due until July. The shower was for another one of Johnny's cousins who is preggers (the hubs has 24 first cousins just on his mom's side...sometimes it's hard to keep track). This cousin is due in April and is having a little girl! The shower was appropriately pink and the food was good. I won a prize because I took the most necklaces from people who said the word "baby". I said it about a million times too, but apparently no one noticed it because I kept all my necklaces. I'll just say that this little girl will be super well dressed because pretty much everyone gave her clothes!

the cousin with her ribbon hat/belly decoration.

The highlight of the weekend was definitely going to Costco. I know it sounds stupid, but the hubs and I don't have a Costco membership, so we never go, and we get excited about being able to bulk buy. We'd get a lot more at Costco if we had anywhere to put it in our apartment, but unfortunately our little place can only hold the essentials.

Yes, I do consider Diet Coke, coffee and Yorks to be essentials. I need caffeine and chocolate on a daily basis, don't judge. And yes, I take Flintstones vitamins. My sister is a pharmacist and said it's perfectly okay for adults to take them, so I do, and avoid the agony of trying to swallow the gigantic horse pills that are normal multivitamins. Again, don't judge.

We watched the Celtics game yesterday afternoon, and then drove home, luckily with no traffic. I am the sole driver in our house, so I'm usually wiped out when we get back, but I was alright last night and even unpacked! I hate unpacking. I usually leave it for days and days until I get sick of tripping over my suitcase. Totally win for me!

Tonight the hubs and I are going out for dinner. We're not huge into Valentine's Day, but seeing as it's our first one as a married couple, we figured we do something fun. I also bought him a new food processor. That spells romantic like nothing else ;)

Moving On Up!

Note to myself: If you continue to go running only once a week, your runs are going to be SUCKY and you're going to turn bright red and want to die having only run a few miles.

(yes, I am in the bathroom stall at the gym bc I felt weird taking a picture of myself. No, I am not using the bathroom at this point)

On my way home I made a pit stop at my favorite shoe store to upgrade my sneaks. It's been almost a year since I bought my last pair, so my feet were most definitely feeling the need for new ones. The guy who helped me at the store was awesome. He put me in the upgraded version of my Asics, but I didn't like them. There was so much heel to the shoe that is was too bulky. I ended up with Asics GEL-Nimbus 12. (Bonus bc 12 is my lucky number!)  I'm pretty much in love with how light they are and the off center laces. I'm excited to go for another run!

After the gym and shoes and a few other errands I finally made it home. On the agenda for tonight, waching Top Chef from last night (I was SO sad. I loved the one who had to leave this week), and baking a cake! Tomorrow we're going to Vermont for the weekend to see the hub's cousins and I'm going to a baby shower. The hub's cousin's wife's birthday was on Saturday, so I wanted to bring up an extra special treat!

I love making cake, but sometimes there just isn't time to make it from scratch. Today is a Red Velvet cake-in-the-box made lighter. You can make any boxed cake with 12oz of soda. I use the diet variety (calorie saver, obvi) so root beer went into this baby.

I did make the frosting from scratch though...and I had to improvise softening the butter. I was using the microwave for the cake timer, and I wanted to get to the frosting right away. Good thing we have a giant radiator!

It worked like a charm and I have butter cream frosting in no time. I may have added a little too much sugar (it's on the sweeter side), but it's pretty darn good. SO much better than anything that comes in a tub!

THE BIG NEWS

So before I leave you for the day, I'll leave you with my big news...

In that envelope is the resignation letter I gave my boss today. Two weeks from now will be my last day with my current company. Yesterday I was offered a new job at a company that I've been trying to get into for two years. They finally had an open position, and they offered it to me! It will be a HUGE life change, but I'm SO ready for it. My job has been just a job for the past few years. It's been good at times, not good at times, and just ok at time, but it was never the industry that I really wanted to be in. On February 28th, I'll get to start the job I've been dreaming about! :D

I Am Not a Morning Person

The morning workout I had planned on yesterday didn't happen. And right now I was planning on being at the gym, yet here I am on the couch in my pj's thinking about showering for work, clearly having not worked out.

I did, however, make it to the gym after work yesterday...and fully intend on going after work today. I'm actually pretty good about going after work (since my building is literally right next to the gym) so why on earth am I trying to drag myself out of bed when I know I will just go later? Who knows.

I've got some big news that I'm really excited about! It has nothing to do with food or fitness, but it's definitely awesome. I'll post more about it later! (and let's clear this up right now, I am NOT preggo. No need to start that rumor).

Not So New News

I do declare it has been far too long since I've blogged!

As you can imagine, my exercise level has reduced substantially! I've been able to lift weights, work my abs and am perfecting a 2 armed-1 legged push up (I'll post a pic of that not so graceful pose soon!). I'm also trying to figure out ways I can use my TRX (t-rex! grr!) without putting so much weight and movement on my still swollen and aching ankle. I was using the T-Rex (http://fitnessanywhere.com/) about 3 times a week prior to my injury and I loved how it gave me a full body workout even though I only did a handful of different exercises. I've been told Youtube has some great ideas, I'll have to scope it out and share them with you!

Monday night we made the most amazing fish tacos! Yum! We simply grilled some salmon, heated up some corn tortillas and whipped up a fresh batch of grilled pineapple salsa. Unfortunately, we gobbled them up before I even thought to snap a photo. Fear not, they'll be back on our menu soon so there will be a picture. In other news, I had to take Chaca to the vet yesterday for a vaccine update- they found some plaque on her teeth and it was enough that I have to have her scheduled for a full teeth cleaning. I didn't realize how much is involved with a puppy teeth cleaning, they have to put her under anesthesia! I feel like a terrible mom! I try to brush her teeth and give her treats that clean, but I guess given her genes, it's just not enough.

In between working out and making a protein shake for lunch, I put some chicken in the crock pot with a little dash of seasoning for crock pot fajitas tonight. We have a basketball game tonight so dinner will have to be a little earlier than usual. Maybe I might save a little room to enjoy one of those amazing smores at the game.

Triple Tangent Tuesday

I'm going to do a Triple Tangent Tuesday a la Hungry Runner Girl, but first, banana frozen yogurt!

So I've been reading around the blogosphere that you can make "froyo" from just frozen bananas. Since I'm a calorie saver, I figure I'd try it out. We had a banana already in the freezer, so the hubs did the dirty work of peeling it (we froze it a while ago, and now we know to peel them first).

That one frozen banana went into the food processor and after a couple minutes (our food processor is OLD...a new one might be in our near future), we most definitely had something that resembled frozen yogurt!

And it was pretty darn delicious to boot. It had a really strong banana flavor (obvi) but I added some chocolate chips and peanut butter Puffins and toppers and was quite pleased with my dessert. We'll definitely be revisiting this one again (unlike the dessert hummus).

SOO! On to my tangents (even though I'm pretty sure all my entries are just tangents anyway!)

1. I am a middle child. I have an older sister and a younger brother. I don't look all that much like my sister, but with my brother next to us, we are clearly all three related. I used to fight with my sister so much that my mom slept on the couch for two years so my sister and I wouldn't have to share a room (my mom is amazing, duh). Now she's one of my best friends and I live less than three blocks away from her. My brother is graduating from college in May and is thinking about moving to Boston. That would be amazing because it would be the first time we all lived in the same city since 2001.

2. I don't care for cantelope or english muffins because of how they smell. I like how both things taste, but the smell gets me first and I can't eat them. If someone else toasts my english muffin for me, I'm all set...that one just has a weird yeast smell pre-toaster that I can't handle. I am also very picky about carrots...raw baby ones are about the only way I'll eat them...or in soup if they are mushy enough. (and on a random note...the bff and I have the same food allergies AND she's the middle child too!)

3. I don't like to cook, but I LOVE baking. I mostly enjoy making cakes and cupcakes, but any kind of baked deliciousness will do. I like making bread a lot too, and when I was younger I told my father I wanted to get married so that I could register for a bread maker. He told me not to get married, and that he would buy me a bread maker haha. Well needless to say I didn't get married back them, but I'm married now and I still don't have a bread maker! :)

Well! That's my tangent for Tuesday! I'm headed to sleep in hopes of dragging myself out of bed early enough for a morning workout!

Early Bird Special

Last night I had dinner with my grandmother and five of her friends. We sat down at $5 Burger night at 5:30...I usually am not even home by then, so it felt REALLY early, but it was hilarious. My g-ma and her friend are like any other group of girlfriends catching up. They drank Manhattans and I drove home. What more could you ask for?

I left work early to make it down to dinner in time, so I had to squeeze in a workout at lunch time. Although I didn't enjoy going back to work with a pink face, I LOVED the spin class I took! The instructor was SO good and the music kept me totally pumped up. Way better than my too-cold Tuesday morning class. I'll definitely be taking that one again!

I stayed at my g-ma's last night because I had a doctor's appointment this morning (yes I still see my family doctor and no I don't mind driving an hour home the once a year I need to go. It means a night with my gram of course!) After getting home from dinner before 7, I spent the evening laying on the couch helping with crossword puzzles. I am horrible at them, but my g-ma is good so I just really pretend to help. I did some laundry and my gram did the folding. I love coming home.

Even though this is not the house I grew up in, my gram has lived here for almost 15 years so it's definitely what I consider home. My mom sold my childhood home in 2006 to move to Vermont and my dad lives with his wife, so this is it. This is where I come when I say "I'm going home for the weekend" and this is the part of Massachusetts I'm really from (even though I love living in Boston, I'm definitely not a life-long Bostonian).

Now I have to catch up on work from this morning (I didn't get in until noon, thanks to my appointment), and make a grocery list. I hate going to Trader Joe's on week nights because it's so crowded, but I almost never go on weekends. Apparently, I like to torture myself with the crowds.

Super Cooking Sunday

It's Super Bowl Sunday! I kind of don't care because the Pats aren't playing (I'm a born and bread New Englander...I love the Pats, Sox, Celtics, and Bruins...no one else can come close), but my dad is from Pittsburgh, so I'll root for the Steelers.

Sunday football wouldn't be Sunday football without good eats to go with it. My apartment smells absolutely amazing this morning because the hubbo made chili (he started it last night to get some good flavor mixing going on) and I made corn bread.

I'm pretty sure Johnny's chili is the best chili around. He could probably win contests. Luck for me, he's willing to make it less spicy than he'd like it so I don't die. (He loves the spice, but me, not so much). My corn bread is pretty awesome too, but I just follow the instructions on the side of the corn meal. No secret family recipe here! I put it in a basket so it looks super cute when we go to our friend's house to watch the game.

The only problem with making so much food is the amount of dishes we both generated. After the game, I'll be tackling these (pun most definitely intended).

(Yes, our kitchen has brown tiles from 1970. You just wish yours looked as awesome.)

On a sort of unrelated note, I went to brunch this morning with a friend I studied abroad with in high school. We didn't go to the same HS in the US, but we were in the same school in Italy and we lived there together for 6 months. It's been 9 years since I lived in Italy and this is the first time I've seen her since then. Not only did I have an AMAZING egg white omelet with brie and apples (I wish I'd taken a picture of it's deliciousness, but it was a plate of white awesome), but the company was perfect. It's so nice to know that time doesn't really change good people and good friends all that much. We chatted for three hours. Johnny started to get worried...but not too worried because he was enjoying playing video games. :)

Off to a Super Bowl Party! Go Pats Steelers!