Double duty December 30, 2008

How about a two day recap for ya?

Monday morning was painful since we had to get up before 8.  It was really dark, raining hard, and I had to drag my ass out of bed.  Ugh.  Thankfully I had prepped some of the lunch stuff, so that went more quickly than usual.  When I got to work I had my oats and a cup of coffee.  After not having the coffee from our service at work for 2 weeks, I noticed just how caffeinated it is!!  Wowza, I was buzzin!  My oats were yummy:  1/4 cup steel cut oats, 1/4 cup almond milk, 1/4 cup water, 2 tsp Barney Butter, 1 tbsp raisins, and a big dash of cinnamon.  I was so busy while eating it I forgot to take a pic until my last bite!

My day was busy busy busy, and went really fast.  I had a technology issue with one of my software applications, and while I was on hold for like an hour I ate some lunch and continued getting ready for my meeting.  I eventually had to hang up without getting the issue resolved.  Grrreat.

My wrap was a sundried tomato flatout, a few slices of turkey, grated parmesan cheese (ooh-la-la!), spinach, broc slaw, and ground pepper.  I also had ~1/2 cup of cottage cheese, and 1/2 a Fuji.  Yes, my place mat was a client file :-O

I was in meetings all afternoon, and quickly had a little snack between meetings around 2:45.  Dannon Light & Fit vanilla with 1/2 a nana and lots of cinnamon.

I had an acupuncture treatment after my last meeting. Yay! I have been feeling a bit out of whack the last few weeks as you know, and I think my treatment helped.  Afterward I thought I was going to get Lily, pick up Chris, drop him at home, and meet Erin and Andrea, but Chris suggested that he eat at Mexican and my mom could meet him there.  That turned into her picking him up, taking Lily with her, and having dinner with him, and me getting to go downtown to get Erin earlier than anticipated!  Sweet.  I had the other half of my apple on the way out of the office. 

Erin was shopping when I arrived downtown (I’m jealous!), and after I picked her up we headed out to NoPo (North Portland) to Dalo’s for Ethiopian cuisine.  I remembered Andrea mentioned it before, and I was excited to try something new.

Our evening there started off with a laugh, as the door was locked and no one would let us in when we knocked!  Eventually someone left and we headed on it.  For dinner we all shared a vegetarian platter with a lentil chili, other lentil mix, cabbage/onion/potato mix, and spinach with onions.  The bread was really intriguing…spongy, stretchy, and cold.  I’m not a big fan of cooked spinach, but everything else was nummy.  Thanks, Andrea, for the great suggestion!

 The injera up close

We had a blast talking about life, blogs, and our crazy young histories.  It felt so good to laugh, reminisce, and have a really great time. I miss socializing with the lady friends, especially Erin since we don’t see each other much.  Thanks for the great night, ladies!  I was totally high on the laughing endorphins for hours afterward 🙂

Today (Tuesday) was still a painful morning, but not as busy of a day.  I started out with the same oats as yesterday, which I totally thought I photographed but didn’t. 

Work, work, work, and then lunch while on hold for yet another technology issue (this one related to personal stuff).  My lunch was the same as yesterday, too:

The afternoon flew by, too, and when we got home Chris wanted a burger, so I fired up my new grill pan.  Low and behold we still had some bacon we took from Christmas, and I cooked that up for him, too.  My burger was a bit more plain, no bacon, but that was fine by me 🙂

In all I had 1/4 lb. 93% lean ground beef with grated Parmesan and spinach on top, 1 tbsp. organic ketchup, a sliced dill pickle, and about 1/2 a Fuji.  I became full more quickly than anticipated, and made sure not to overdo it since I knew I’d be heading to the gym.

Yoga was okay; I had a difficult time detaching enough to fully get into it.  Afterward I did an upper body workout, and a cardio circuit of 10 intense minutes each on the treadmill, stairmill, and elliptical. 

After I played with Lily and got cleaned up I knew I needed a snack, and some nut butter had my name on it.  I had the rest of my Fuji, a few tsp of raisins, and a tbsp of Barney Butter. 

And so Tuesday ends….have a splendid Wednesday/New Year’s Eve!  No big plans for us… how bout you?

Hi all! Post coming tomorrow… December 29, 2008

Hi everyone–I got home from a great evening with Erin and Andrea, and I’m too tired to post right now. It was a good day, tho!

Busy bee! December 28, 2008

Wow, the last Sunday of nearly two weeks off of work.  Like Andrea, I’m not sure how it is going to feel to be at work tomorrow!  I just spoke with Erin and she, Andrea, and I are going to dinner tomorrow night.  Yippeeeee!  I’m so excited!

Today was a very busy day; I felt like I was going non-stop from 9 to 9, but in a good way.  My oatmeal this morning was nummy; it consisted of:  1/4 cup steel cut oats, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup almond milk, 1 tbsp raisins, big dash of cinnamon, and a few tsp of Barney Butter.  Tasty goodness!

I headed to the gym for yoga, and was dismayed at how dirty and ugly everything looks outside now that all the snow is gone.  It made me want to live in a snowier area several times today.

Yoga was great, I sweated a lot, and I’m glad I went.  I felt so good, in fact, that I headed to Target afterward to get crew socks and check out the grocery section.  The grocery area is pretty expansive now, and the prices seem really good on some items.  It could be dangerous, though, if I go there more often and end up shopping in other areas! I love Target. 

Once home I made a quick lunch that was very tasty indeed:  sundried tomato flatout with one egg white, 4 slices of warmed turkey, a little parmesan cheese, spinach, a few small slices of Fuji, a dash of red wine vinegar, and ground pepper.  Mmmm!  I also had the rest of the Fuji and about 1/2 cup of lf/ff cottage cheese.  A perfect lunch 🙂

Love the detail of the parmesan rind!

I think I got online for a few minutes, watched TV for a few, and then started my cleaning fest:  unloaded, loaded, and ran the dishwasher; put away snow clothes; cleaned kitchen counters; swept floors; washed wine glasses; put away Christmas wrap and decor (tree is still up, tho!); reorganized recycling in garage; put wine glasses to donate in boxes; did Lily’s laundry; played with Lily; organized Lily’s food and the birdseed….  Eventually I made the grocery list and went to the store.  I even returned bottles/cans and took back a boatload of plastic bags (I hardly ever do those two things, hence the pile that had grown in the garage).

Dinner was easy to make, and turned out yummy.  We had roasted chicken breasts with carrots and onions, and mashed potatoes.  Amidst the storm craziness the only chicken I could get at the store the other day was split chicken breasts with skin and bones on, but they were great for roasting.

After dinner the cleaning fest continued:  loaded stuff into d/w; did handwash; did my laundry; prepped oatmeal; prepped lunch items; made to-do list for work and personal items for Monday; put Lily’s biscuits away (I transfer them from the box into a reusable tub to stay fresh); organized receipts…

I’m so glad I got all that stuff done today, you don’t even know!  I hate coming home to a dirty house during the work week.  Nothing like dirty dishes (or a clean d/w that I need to unload), dirty floors, and shit stacked up to ruin my mood.  How ’bout you?

I had a new snack tonight that I’ve seen all around blog world:  a banana with nut butter (specifically BB).  This was really tasty, and I think will be even better when the nana is a litte more ripe. 

Well, the day is winding down and I think I’ll head to bed.  I know it will be tough to get up, no matter how much sleep I get. 

I hope you all had a great weekend 🙂  Toodle-oo!