Whine About the Wine Results

This weekend was nice and easy! Saturday morning we ran the Will Run for Wine 5k except that it turned out not to be a 5k and was instead 2.6 miles!! It was a little deflating knowing we didn't run the full 3.1 but it felt great to run fast. The ankle took about .75 of a mile to warm up and was a little sore during Monday's jog/walk. I did finally pick up my new orthotics- they are a bit awkward in my shoe but I'm told this is normal and they'll be comfy with time.

I'm trying to be more creative when it comes to doing cardio. So far I've tried bootcamp and zumba, today I worked up a sweat swimming laps! I'm not new to swimming but I don't rely on it in my usual cardio routine. I swam for about an hour and really did feel my heart rate rise. It was also a great way to spend some much needed time with the ol' fiance- we shared a lane and he totally kicks my butt swimming but with his triathlon training and my competition training we are so busy and have learned to appreciate even a few seconds in between laps to catch up and share a laugh.

Guess who, for the third week in a row, was able to curl 20 pound dumbbells all on her own??
Accomplishing this has really motivated me- I didn't think I could possibly curl more than 10 pounds and now I'm able to do so much more! I still have a long way to go before I'm ready for the competition but these steps along the way are good reminders to keep going!!

100th Post!

HAPPY 100TH POST! Between the BFF and me, we've managed to get 100 posts into the last couple months! Pretty awesome, if you ask me!

I am quite happily enjoying the long weekend. I got to jet out of work a little early yesterday afternoon, and had a surprisingly traffic-free ride. It was a GORGEOUS day. I didn't get out during lunch, but when I got to the car, the thermometer told me just how wonderful the day had been.

(yes I was driving when I took this, and yes I have a lot of thousands of miles on my car. Oh well).

I got home just in time to change and head out for a double date. We went with Johnny's bff Dave (although he tells me boys don't have bffs...so maybe his bromantic friend?) and Dave's girlfriend. We met up for a fancy drink at The Liberty Hotel. I used to work right by this hotel and have been a few times for drinks and I love it. It used to be a jail, so the architecture of the building is awesome. It's a little pricey, so I've never eaten here, but I love going!

After a drink, we walked over to the Museum of Science.

Like MY bff, I enjoy going to Museums sans children. We weren't there for the exhibits though, we were there to FINALLY see the tornado movie at the Omni Theatre! It was SO cool. It seems to be a little too real these days, with the many tornadoes touching down around the country, but it was really neat to see things from that perspective. We luckily don't deal with them here in New England, but it was fascinating all the same!

After the movie (which was only about 45 minutes long), we walked back to have dinner near the hotel. We settled on Antonio's, an Italian place with an extremely reasonably priced menu. I don't generally like going out for Italian for two reasons:

1. I can make Italian food. I know it's not nearly as good as resturant stuff, but I can make pasta and meatballs, so why spend so much money on it?
2. It's not very healthy. It's high in ww points and the portions are HUGE. I'd generally go for a lighter, healthier options, but every once and while, it's a good treat!

Dinner was amazing. I ended up getting the mussels and they did not disappoint. And the place itself was so cute and homey. There are only about 15 tables and it feels like Italy (I can say that because I lived there). It was worth the extra calories!

Today was another gorgeous day. After my carbo loading last night, I was pleased to get out for a bike ride! It was my first ride since I got my bike 2 weeks ago (bad weather caused that delay) and it was great. Unfortunately, it being a nice day, there were SO many people out and very much in the way, preventing me from ever really picking up much speed. I ended up covering 7 miles in about 50 minutes. It made me realize just how different real biking is from spin class! I'm going to need a lot of work on that for the tri!

I took my bike back to Johnny's office (that's where it lives since our apartment is small and up three flights of stairs), and headed home for a quick shower before an afternoon of errands! I have ZERO in terms of summer clothes, so my sister and I went shopping. I ended up with a few things, but I sill need a lot more! I did also buy 14 new pairs of underwear (Victoria Secret awesome sale!). This may be TMI, but in the 2+ years of losing weight, I've gone through SO many clothes. I frequently get rid of pants and shirts that are just not working any more. The one thing that I've kept the whole time? My underwear. I guess it continued to fit for quite some time, so I never needed to replace it. Lately, I've noticed that it really no longer fits. I bought a few new pairs a couple months ago, but now it's out of control. Tomorrow the underwear drawer will be purged and my buns will be happy!!

I hope everyone is having an awesome long weekend! I'm SO happy to have a day off!!

Are You Some Kind of Hippie Girl or What?

My sister is on summer break and was able to take a few days off work to come up and visit this past weekend. I always enjoy having her around. I made us a couple of appointments to get feather highlights- she chose a hot pink and green (so cute on her!) and I opted for a blue and blackish/white one. I am totally loving this look because I've always wanted blue highlights but have been too nervous about how it'd look and this is a perfect way to just have 1 blue strand. Which of course prompted the question from one of the guys at work "are you some kind of hippie girl or what??". Aren't guys funny? Speaking of my sister, she is an amazing zumba-er and convinced me to try a class- oh my awkward! Unlike my sister, I have two left feet (anyone seen that movie Dog Show- you can totally picture what I'm thinking, right?) and no rhythm. While my sis was able to step out of the room to take a sip of water and jump right back in without missing a beat, I had to study every move and tried to follow it exactly and looked goofy. I did work up a good sweat!

Explora is a local museum that teaches children about science through hands on experiments and once a month they host an event that we just couldn't miss out on! That's right, no kids allowed!! We had so much fun playing and learning without having to be patient and wait in line with a ton of kids. Can we discuss this photo below?
Yes, I took a creepy picture of strangers' behinds, but more importantly do you see their cartoon like tails? There were a ton of people wearing tails and ears and we just had to ask why. We were told that they are part of a club of furry fanatics and one can choose their furry character and join... Yeah, I still don't get it. There was also a group of ladies with fake mustaches and we also had to ask them. Now their answer I understood- it was a 21st birthday and the b-day girl wanted to have a fun, mustache 21st birthday bash. Cute!

Explora has an amazing craft section- there are buckets and cabinets of recycled materials, glue and kid-friendly scissors. I love this section! Jay made me a coconut bra- you can't see the straps of ribbon and the paper clip clasp he created. My sis made a cute flower in a ribbon filled flower pot. Using a graham cracker box, a stencil and a piece of material I made Jay an awesome hat... The weather here has been so much nicer! We took advantage of it by taking a walk through the aquarium and the botanical gardens. Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be inside of a pumpkin??
They have such beautiful flowers there!