Thursday Thirteen: California Recap

1. I’m still trying to recover from the time change, and I haven’t been able to get a good night’s sleep. I finally slept better last night, but we stayed up late watching the last two episodes of Season 1 of Lost.

2. I went out with my brother on Friday night. We stayed out until almost 2 am, which was 4 am Texas time. Rock stars. The sugar-free “energy drink” (apparently bars in California are getting away from Red Bull to save $) on tap was definitely a life saver.

3. My mom and I did some serious shopping on Saturday – Dick’s Sporting Goods (unexpected detour, but they were having an awesome clearance sale outside the store), Nordstrom Rack, and H&M.

4. We had a lunch break at Togo’s and I ordered the 9-inch turkey and avocado sandwich on sourdough. 9 inches sounded so unassuming since I get the foot-long (I’m a growing girl) at Subway. It was a monster though. I still managed to make a happy plate.

5. Saturday was family dinner at Café 140 South. I ordered the Italian sausage pizza (and a side of broccoli, because that made it healthy).

6. I was planning on going out with my friend Sharon on Saturday night, but I had to bail. Friday night did me in.

7. I did Bikram yoga on Sunday morning (8 am) and Monday morning (6:30 am) at the studio on Colorado Blvd. They had a two-day pass for $20 (versus a one-day pass for $18), so they sucked me in. It was fun trying a different studio and noticing little differences.

8. My cousin, Holly, and her fiancé, Ryan, had a housewarming/engagement/birthday party at their new condo on Sunday. It was fun to see their place and visit with my extended family.

9. There were some awesome cupcakes from Hansen’s, and I’m not even a big cupcake fan.


10. My mom and I rented “Precious” on Sunday night. Talk about depressing. We love depressing though.

11. On Monday my mom and I went to Twohey’s and ordered the Napa omelette (spinach, mushrooms, swiss cheese, and avocado). We got the last two cups of au gratin (“cheesy”) potatoes, one of our favorite breakfast side dishes of all time.

12. I had to say goodbye (boo!), but fortunately my mom and Esther (“step-grandma”) are visiting next month!

13. I couldn’t post this without including that Khloe Kardashian was on my flight to Burbank! I always stare at the people in first class like a creeper. I walked by the girl in the first row near the aisle and noticed she had a cursive “I love you” tattoo on her forearm. I thought that was rather odd (I hate to judge, but you usually don’t see many forearm tattoos in first class). The lady sitting next to me pointed at a picture of Khloe in People Magazine and said “that girl is sitting in first class!” The flight attendant confirmed it. I looked up the tattoo later, and it’s Khloe’s dad’s writing. So that was my little brush with fame! I assume Khloe was on the way home from the Lakers/OKC Thunder game.

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Cool Happenings in North Carolina

(in chronological order, to be fair to all of my wonderful culinary experiences)

1. Portobello, fontina, arugula, and roasted tomato panini at Toast. The goat cheese and honey crostini rocked my socks.

2. Banana Bread beer and Double Chocolate beer. I had the genius thought to mix it, but the thought quickly passed and never amounted to much. Also munched on banana bread and banana chips... it was a banana kind of day.


3. Hangin' out on the front porch. Cute pic. Cute front porch.


4. Friday night dinner at Dos Perros. Chile Relleno... vegetable- and cheese-stuffed pepper with black bean puree.

5. Saturday morning run with Kate and her friend, Michelle, around the Duke campus. I really wish there were shade trees and front porches all over Texas.

6. Saturday afternoon breakfast burger from the Only Burger truck. Beef patty, fried egg, fried green tomato, and pimento cheese. A little bit of heaven in a greasy bun.


7. We stopped at the Scrap Exchange, and there was lots of neat stuff to buy. I got a cute little necklace (it was hard to choose between that and the used medical equipment - like IVs).

8. The Saxapahaw General Store. This was awesome. Their blog says they "provide as much local food as possible while also supporting other sustainable production methods." I had a goat (as in meat, not cheese) burger and goat cheese lasagna. The entrees were only $5.99, so I figured I'd splurge and get two (portion control has never been my strong suit).

9. I washed dinner down with an awesome 11.2% alcohol apple cider beer. Delish.

10. Whitney's robot show. How often can you say you spent your Saturday night at a robot play? Not very often. Cool experience.
Feeling the robotic ambiance:


Robot crush (or trying to get the robot a little tipsy on a Miller Lite tall boy?):


11. Arm wrestling contests. I would post pictures, but they were not the most flattering shots of me. My blog, my rules. No double chin pics.

12. Human bench pressing and spotting. Melissa benched Whitney. If I ever start to mouth-off at a bar, I'm going to make sure Melissa is there. She'll have my back.


13. Melissa, Kate, and I stopped at Kate's parents' house for a visit on the way to the airport on Sunday. It was fun to catch up with her family, and we got to eat again ;)

Thursday Thirteen

1. I made two short-term goals last week (Monday, April 5). The first goal was to run 20 miles that week (achieved – ran 25miles) and the second goal pertained to weight loss (and I’m only 1 pound off with one day to go).


2. I’ve pretty much kicked bootie on my runs the past week or so… 12 miles on Saturday, 6 miles on Monday, 5 miles on Tuesday, and 6 miles yesterday.

3. Cliff went to the last regular season Mavs game last night (they won – woohoo!) and I went to bed early. I was super excited about my slumber.

4. My favorite quote this week was when I asked Jessie where he and Cliff went to dinner last night before the game. He wrote back and said they had salads and talked about how they need to be more patient and attentive husbands.

5. I’m looking forward to lunch with friends at Great Outdoors today. Why can’t Subway make a fat-free (or even low-fat) tuna sandwich?

6. Since I have lunch plans, it will be my first day this week to forgo my lunchtime run. I feel a tad bit guilty about it. Although I can still workout from 3-4 and maybe run a few miles when we get home from work.

7. Tomorrow morning is going to be an EARLY wake-up. My flight to North Carolina leaves at 6:15. I need to get there early enough to park in the remote lot. YAWN.

8. It’s getting up to 80 degrees now during the day, and the pool temperature is getting a bit less frigid. GusGus went for his first swim yesterday.



9. He was visibly upset when the swimming fun ended. He decided to go outside and lay down by his life jacket.

10. Masters Zones was insanely fast. 1:04 in the 100 breast and 4:25 in the 400 IM? Yeah, I'm thinking my "swimming 2 days a month" plan wouldn't have been very successful.

11. I watched the Ohio Grand Prix swimming coverage on Universal last night. It was very odd to see hairy male swimmers. Beards, chest hair, etc. Odd.

12. We're done with Season 2 of Damages, and now we have 3 discs at the house (1 episode of "Breaking Bad" and 2 discs of "Lost"). At least "Lost" is quite the commitment. Season 2 of True Blood comes out next month. Soooooooookie.

13. The 10-day Bikram pass that expires after 40 days stresses me out. I'm always counting the number of sessions completed (6) and the number of days left (15ish).

The Fight for UC Davis

Wow, this article really hit home. It's difficult to hear about swimming programs like Cal State Northridge and UC Irvine getting cut, but I felt a bit removed from them. My mom and I visited the UC Davis campus the summer before my senior year in high school, and I absolutely loved it. The campus was beautiful, a lot of the students commuted by bike, the nutrition program was excellent, and the swim coach was incredibly friendly (and the article mentions how she has volunteered to give up her salary for 2 years to save the program). I actually ended up applying to UC Davis (instead of UC Berkeley) and UCLA. I really wanted to swim at a Division I school though, so UC Davis was not one of my final top 5 choices. I did look at the school again when I realized I wasn't going to swim at TCU after my sophomore year, but I ended up quitting swimming and staying in Fort Worth. Hopefully UC Davis can rally enough support to keep the swim program... one more reason why pot should be legal... so California can dig itself out of this huge budget crisis with some amazing sales tax revenue.

Thursday Thirteen

1. I swam here as an age-grouper for nearly a decade. Cool shout out.

2. After a weekend of laziness, I’ve been hitting it hard this week (and abstaining from the sauce).

3. The summer concert trifecta is in place! Blue October (April), Lady Gaga (July), and Kings of Leon (October).

4. I was in a quandary over the Lady Gaga tickets. I was tempted to purchase the floor seats (for close to $200) since the sound quality in the 300’s is horrible. The acoustics in the 300’s at Fleetwood Mac were dreadful (although the acoustics at New Kids on the Block wasn’t bad, but it’s not like they had quality music to begin with). I went with the $85 tickets (which were actually $100 with taxes and processing fees). I saved some money, but I’m hoping we still enjoy the concert. My brother and I had good seats in LA and the tickets were only $27 plus taxes and fees. The American Airlines Center is a rip-off.

5. I have a weekend with Cliff and then I’m going to North Carolina (April 16) & California (April 23). I’m looking forward to some family n friend time!

6. I had some great lunchtime runs yesterday (5 miles tempo) and today (6 miles easy) in this beautiful weather (minus the random hail yesterday). I’m aiming for 20 miles this week and hopefully I can start being a bit more consistent with my running.

7. I’m totally getting into Lost. We’re still on Season 1. Now that we’ve finished Season 2 of Damages, we’ll be seeing a lot of the island (and apparently multiple dimensions?).

8. Zones (masters swimming) is this weekend. I kind of miss it all, but then at the same time, I think about competing and it doesn’t sound so swell.

9. I have absolutely no races or goals until January 2011. I need to think of something. Or do I?

10. The weather is absolutely amazing, and I’m hoping Cliff and I can play some tennis this weekend.

11. We haven’t started any of the home projects we were talking about doing last weekend and this weekend. The entry way still looks like poop. Maybe I need to post a picture on my blog to embarrass myself enough to inspire action?

12. My wedding weight seems unattainable, so now I’m working on short-term goals. I have one in mind, but Cliff saw my blog one time (I probably forced it upon him), and he thought I was lame for talking about my weight. But if I hit it, I will celebrate (and post accordingly) and then work on short-term goal #2.

13. This is absolutely perfect happy hour weather. I might have to break the “no drinking on a school night” rule on my second Thursday in a row because it would be a travesty not to enjoy a tasty beer out in the sunshine.

Recovery Weekend

I wasn't planning on being a lazy bum this weekend, but I think I needed it. I didn't workout at all (yikes!), and I had an awesome massage on Saturday. I didn't fall off the diet wagon too hard, but I did have some drinks. We went to Taste of Italy on Friday night and I got my favorite dish (chicken with marinara sauce and big chunks of broccoli, squash, etc.) and then we had sushi on Saturday night. We didn't get much done around the house (because why not procrastinate and do it next weekend), but it was nice to chill out. I did work on my scrapbook a bit. I'm now in October 2008 ;)

My brother sent me a long email after he spent Easter with our extended family. It made me miss everyone, and I got online and scoped out airline tickets for the weekend of April 25 (my cousin's housewarming/engagement/birthday party). I have a ticket on hold for $249! That is such a good deal. I just need to make sure my family can shuttle me to and from the airport.

Thursday Thirteen Fail

I was almost done drafting a Thursday Thirteen post, and I forgot to finish it yesterday. For some reason my laptop won't paste into Blogger. Very odd technical fail.

I've been working out pretty hard this week, and I'm definitely feeling Sunday's half marathon. My quads are shot. They started feeling a bit better, so I ran 5 miles yesterday at lunch. That was probably a mistake, because I physically could not get up from the toilet after that (I had to put my hand down on the floor = sick out!). While I was waiting for Cliff to finish work, I lifted (upper-body) for 50 minutes and rode the bike for 10 minutes. My upper-body was feeling a little left out of the pain party, so I tried to include it. I've also mixed in some swimming and yoga this week. I plan on going for a swim today at lunch and giving my legs a break. I have a massage tomorrow at 2:45, and I can hardly wait!

I went a week without drinking (I know that doesn't sound like much, but I like my wine, and that also means I didn't even have a celebratory post-half marathon beverage), and I cracked last night. I went to Gloria's (Mexican restaurant) with some friends of mine. At least I opted for wine over margaritas though (small victory). I had never been to Gloria's before, and I thought the food was awesome. Stacy and I ordered the fish tacos (grilled tilapia) and they were really simple and there was no extra grease on the plate. I like when Mexican food seems fresh and light versus the Tex-Mex that swims in a puddle of cheese grease. So two thumbs up for Gloria's!

I am really looking forward to two weekends with Cliff. We don't have any big plans, and we're hoping to get some stuff done around the house (finally remove the horrible desert-themed wallpaper from our entry way, hang up some pictures, etc.) and have some date nights. We're currently sucked in to Lost (Season 1), Damages (Season 2), and Breaking Bad (Season 2) on Netflix, with an occasional 30 Rock disc. So I imagine there will be quite a bit of TV-watching as well.