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Monday, April 6, 2015

Runs and Restaurant Reviews

You know, it doesn't really matter how long the weekend is, you blink and it's 9pm on Sunday and damn, I need to write a blog post because I'm going to be a good blogger again. Posting regularly, taking pictures of my food and my Garmin after a run. Heck yeah, that's blogging 101.

Saturday we woke up a little later than usual and made breakfast. After sitting around for a while I decided to throw my shoes on and head out for a run. full disclosure, I thought about going to 10am Body Pump but I didn't get up off the couch in enough time to get there. And honestly, it had bee a while since I ran, I had to get some of my mojo back.

First I headed to JC Penny in search of a few things to round out my capsule wardrobe for the Spring GYPO challenge. I was challenged to find white pants that don't make my thighs look like a busted can of biscuits. But more on that later this week.

I went to my favorite trail, the Lake Shelley Greenway to do 3.5 miles. I like it because 1.81 miles in, there's a water fountain and a potty. That way if your morning coffee shakes anything loose, you can take care of things... and get a drink instead of having to ration your water for the entire run. I also like running down Strickland Rd and onto Falls of Neuse because there's a Kroger on the corner that you can refill your water, and potty if needed, but the workers always give me stank eye when I come in all red faced and panting. Now I go to the trail.

Since it had been a while since I'd gone for a run, I decided to ease back into the swing of things with some intervals. I set my timer to run 5 minutes and walk 1.5.


I was pleasantly surprised with my runt times, not too shabby. I also found that mentally knowing I only had to run 5 minutes made it a lot more bearable.


Queen of the positive splits, right here.

I don't know about other people, but while I'm running, I like to think about the food I'm going to eat after I finish. All I could think about was the best sandwich in the world, Breugger's Herby Turkey.


I asked the lady to hollow out the bagel and she sighed and asked if I wanted both sides done... Don't worry about it honey, one side is fine. Then she broke the cardinal rule, she added cheese. Cheese doesn't belong on the Herby Turkey! You don't need it and it's not part of the heavenly creation. 

I gave the cheese to Cleo. She appreciated the mistake.

Quick shower, then it was off to get my hair done. My greys were OUT OF CONTROL. Sorry no pix, I don't pay for a styling after the color because I'm cheap and it's $35 to have someone blow dry and comb your hair. Nope, I'll just have to wash it the next day and bye bye $35.

It was a good thing that I got my hair done because Kev and I had reservations at Saint Jacques. Saint Jacques makes practically every list of the most amazing restaurants in North Carolina and we'd never been. Since we're going to France in a few weeks, I thought we should get used to French food.

Let me just say, everything was amazing and the service was some of the best we've ever had. It's crazy expensive and worth every penny. However, there were a few things that were lacking for me. 

I lurve me some Steak Tartare and since my last tartare was gross, I'd bee craving it for a while. We didn't want to hike to Vin Rouge in Durham and there's an amazing French restaurant 5 miles from my house. 

I made the reservations before I looked at the menu. No steak tartare. Insert sad face. But I decided to soldier on. 

After we sat down, Kev was presented with the wine list, he made his selection and I asked for a Grey Goose Cosmo, only to discover that they didn't have a full bar. Just wine, Sad face number 2. I instead had to drown my sorrows in some Riesling.

I was looking over the menu and got a little nervous that there weren't any prices on it. Then I looked at Kev's and his menu had prices. I guess my delicate self can't handle looking at the prices. I just need to choose my dinner without having to concern my pretty little head with money and other things that men handle.

I guess it's a good idea when you're trying to take your mom out for a nice dinner and all she does is fuss about how much everything is. Then she wants to slip you some money or cover the tip. When mom doesn't know the prices it's just easier.

We placed our order and soon after were presented with an amuse bouche. This was a tiny cracker with apple and cheese with a tiny dot of wine sauce. I was delicate and stretched it into 3 bites. My bouche was amused. It was really good!


The we decided to split the cheese plate. There was a cheese that put hair on my chest, one that was soft and delicious and another that was tasty. It came with honey, grape slices and those little orange squares are the BEST carrot cake I've ever eaten. I just need a bowl full of that to die happy.


It was amazing, and uber French. I see a lot of cheese in my future when we get to France. 

For my dinner I had the sole which was wrapped around a crab / lobster mousse. There were also little fingerling potatoes and super tasty cauliflower. 


I made my way through most of one of the pieces of fish and was super full. Partially because the 2 glasses of wine,  But the manager came over and asked several times if I liked my meal and why I hadn't finished. She offered to make me another dish if I wanted something else. Please don't feed me anything else. Everything was awesome.

We were even so full that Kev didn't even want an apple yummy treat. That, my friends is impressive.

Would we go back, absolutely. It's more of an occasion restaurant but definitely worth a return!

I hope everyone made it through yesterday without falling into a sugar coma and are ready for an awesome week!

Linking up!




BLovedBoston
Friday, April 3, 2015

We Were the C&E Relatives

Happy Easter to all of you who are celebrating today!

Easter was always one of the bigger holidays growing up. Mainly because we were the C & E relatives. That means we only ever attended church on Christmas and Easter. My Grandma said that we could make it to church twice a year and dangit, Easter would be one of those holidays. Growing up in a half Catholic, half Protestant family means that you don't really have one place to go and you get exposure to both churches.

Every Easter we'd get brand new outfits, get up super early, search for our Easter baskets, not be allowed to eat any of the treats,  and head over to my Aunt's house for breakfast. All the relatives would be there and we'd go to my mom's church.

Let me tell you about church, The same preacher was there for as ling as I can remember. Every single Easter he'd do the same sermon and we'd sign the same three songs. Seriously, every dang year, it was the SAME three songs. Now I try to get Kev to add those songs into the service at the church he's the muscial driector for, and he won't do it. Rude.

After church there was usually lunch, then home to devour the best parts of our Easter baskets. For me, it also included taking all the candy out of my basket, sort it but type, then artfully rearrange it in my basket. I guess looking back, this was an indicator of my mild to moderate OCD. But you know what, I'd do it again today and if I had to make an Easter basket, that -ish would be so perfectly arranged.

Some things were always staples of the Easter basket.

 - Starburst Jelly Beans. When those things came out, it was like the heavens opened up and the gods rained happiness son us mere mortals, So flipping awesome.

 - Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs. Who doesn't love PB eggs? I look back on them with fondness.

 - Some sort of foil wrapped chocolate egg. I remember Crunch eggs, Butterfinger eggs (these were awesome) and sometimes plain chocolate (meh)

 - A colored hard boiled egg. Meh... No one wants those mucking up their chocolate.

One time my dad bought the Easter candy and it was nothing but white chocolate


Dad also loves those giant chocolate eggs that are full of some awful fruit cream. Every year he'd try and get us to eat them. Nope...

Easter dinner always followed, and always ham. Ham and scallpped potatoes or macaroni salad. it's what's for Easter dinner!

Holiday traditions are awesome and when you grow up you can choose to carry on the old or make your own.

Kev and I stink this year and Dinner might be frozen pizzas. Then again, it's not like we did a Seder for Passover either. I keep trying to get Kev to do one. One day...

Whichever holiday you chose to celebrate this weekend, I hope it was a good one, full of memories!

It is a Good Friday

I'm sitting here, blogging from my couch while bacon cooks in the oven. Why Because for the first time in my career, I work for a company who closes their offices on Good Friday. CRAZY! Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to have the day off and I've go plenty of things on my agenda today, I'll definitely take the 3 day weekend, but it's still odd.

I have big plans to get my nails done. I'm actually leaning towards a pinky, spring color, what? A departure from my usual darky dark colors? It just might have to happen. If I hate it, I'll get them done again in a few weeks. I need to take the dog for a walk, do the dishes, there's a 4:30 spin class I'm contemplating and I need to do a little shopping.

Today's post is kinda random but if we go with that whole 5 thing Friday thing, it works. Just roll with it. :)

Recently I've developed a small Kendra Scott obsession. I've been coveting the tassel necklace online for a while but I just couldn't pull the trigger. Tuesday I was over at the KD house for initiation and one of them was wearing an orange version of the necklace and I loved it even more in person.

Any who, that night Kev was off playing poker and when he does well, the poker fairy visits. Gambling winnings are always spent on fun things. Needless to say, the fairy visited and I headed off to Southpoint mall to the new Kendra Scott store that recently opened.

They were having a promotion where you opened an Easter egg and got a percentage off. Mine was 15% off and I walked put with these awesome earrings.


And of course, the necklace. I debated for a while which color to get. Black was really, really, high on my list but I ultimately decided that the mother of pearl was more versatile. LOVE IT. 


I also discovered that if you sign up for their e-mails, you get 50% off any 1 item during your birthday month. Thank you, I will. There's a pair of druzy earrings that I had a serious love for and are next on my wish list...

The other day, my brother sent me this video from the Onion. It questions if companies should discontinue unpaid intern fights.


I sent it to my interns.... By no means am I encouraging my interns to fight for my amusement, but I wouldn't oppose it. My interns asked if they did fight each other, would the winner be allowed to spin the wheel of gift cards. I'm OK with that, The winner can spin the wheel. lol I love having interns.

I really should start thinking about what I need to pack for Europe. Like, really, really need to think about it. I have no idea what I should bring. There's a part of me that really wants to get a black beret and wear it in France with a striped shirt, because that's what I think they wear there. My frame of reference is Bugs Bunny cartoons. Who am I kidding, I'm absolutely bringing a striped shirt. Probably several.

Since I really needs some help, I decided to sign up for the GYPO Spring challenge. Have you heard about this yet? You sign up for the Challenge, it's $29 and you get a shopping list to create a capsule wardrobe. There's a HUGE online community of women who are shopping and sharing their looks. I'm super excited to get started. We got the shopping list last night and now I need to pick up a few things to round out my capsule.

It's geared a little more towards the casual and I'll probably need to swap out some of the jeans for some dress pants. I could wear jeans every day if I wanted to but I think I should dress more professionally than most of my team, most of the time. Check out Allison's website here to learn more!

Unfortunately I have several things on the shopping list that don't quite fit my ass right now. I'm not buying new pants because of 7 stupid pounds. Instead it's back on the Whole 30 starting Monday, maybe Sunday depending on things... I started it at the beginning of Feb but not feeling well threw me off track. When you feel bad and only want to eat bagels and cream cheese, it throws a kink in only eating meat, veggies and fruit.

I've got 3 weeks until Germany, let's get as much of this gone as possible! Except on the 14th, we have a huge company dinner at the Angus Barn for hitting a big milestone. I'll keep it as clean as possible but I'm totally having booze.

Have a great Friday everyone!!

Linking up with Amanda!