Pacing For Pretzels

This will have to be short and sweet, since I am a  bit tired and Monday mornings are always a little tough. Last night, the hubs and I saw Paranormal Activity at the sweeeeet new cinema (leather reclining seats and free tickets for us) about 6.5 minutes down the road, and I don’t think I slept too well because of it. Not because I was scared, no. The hubs woke me up at some ungodly hour and told me he heard “scratches” in the attic. I am pretty certain I gave him a look of bewilderment and told him he was insane. Grrrrr.

Quick weekend recap:

On Friday, I met the girls (plus one very cool boy) at Carraba’s for dinner. I had a tasty small portion of salmon and a side of zucchini. I asked for the salmon dry and it didn’t happen, but I try not to be too high maintenance…. or I just knew that caper sauce wouldn’t be half bad. My favorite part of the meal was the wine I saw on the wine list… Paul Newman’s Chardonnay. I first saw this chardonnay at Bonefish Grill and haven’t seen it since. I went as far as to try to buy it online, but didn’t have much luck. It is very refreshing with fruit undertones and a tad bit of oak – but not much. I am no sommelier, I just like my wine white and relatively dry. Easy enough, right? After dinner, we headed to the local Irish pub and listened to a blind man sing. He was fantastic.

Our crew has really dwindled, but we are still hanging tight:

Saturday breakfee with my new mug – thanks to my awesome NYC sponsors!

And I have to compare these two almond butters… wait, there is no comparison. Maranatha is more expensive and does not spread easily. Nutritional stats are almost identical. How is that possible? Thanks Mom for bringing me the Whole Foods brand all the way from CT. It is fabulous!

Yesterday, I got my hair cut on the other side of town and was super excited to try the .99 pumpkin iced latte at Dunkin Donuts. Being a New England girl, I was raised with a DD on every corner. Their coffee reigns supreme in my book (and wallet). I couldn’t wait to try it…

Alas, they forgot the pumpkin part. It went into the garbage and I was very, very sad.

Today, I had one of my long runs (9 miles) planned. My friend Shannon was going to do the first few miles with me which was a pretty big deal. Why? Well, because 99.9% of the time I run alone and think my personality has changed because of it. Due to running, this reformed extrovert spends most of her time in solitude. Not that I am complaining. However, chatting for the first 4 miles made me a happy camper. I got back from the run with Shan and felt amazing.  The weather was cool and crisp and I had no where to be. So I figured, why just do 9 miles? Why not do a half marathon? To be honest, the fact that my training plan only called for a 10 mile run prior to the half marathon worried me. I like to know what I am getting into -  I was born planning.

The spontaneous 13.1 went great. I did have some pain up the back of my lower calf but it subsided during my post-run shopping.  I really wanted to finish in under 2 hours and did it!

I then treated myself to a pedicure (what running does to my once cute toes is the worst part of training), pumpkins for carving, and $5 flowers. I also picked up Halloween “candy”  for the neighborhood munchkins. By “candy”, I mean100 calorie pretzel snack packs. What else would a pretzel obsessed lady get? And what is the worst case scenario – kids don’t want my goods and I have to keep them? What a travesty.

My bowl of somewhat healthy goodies:

And my 5 dollar flowers I congratulated myself with:

I meant to make a fab Indian dish tonight out the new Cooking Light (I bought all the ingredients yesterday) but I failed to realize the recipe took three hours and required a dutch oven. Oh well, maybe another day. Instead, the hubs did what he does best – he grilled the chicken breasts and threw the sweet potatoes in a foil pack on the grill. Not going to lie – it was great. So much for all that curry and turmeric.

I did make one recipe out of the magazine – Frosted Pumpkin Cake. It was pretty tasty yet seriously dense. I think slightly undercooked too (woops):

I didn’t stretch like I should have today and am probably going to be sore and whiny tomorrow. I have to hit the sack, but will leave you with two cute puppy pics from the weekend.

Denver being Denver:

And my two of my three stinky boys hanging out/snoozing:

Night little world.

~ Tay

Tags: baking, dogs, friends, half marathon, halloween, pumpkin, running