FMM: ABCs in 2013

My weekend was busy and felt like it lasted forever, which I guess is a good thing.

Friday night, we went out for pizza with a big group of friends to a new location of a favorite pizza place.  It's authentic Neapolitan style pizza, and as with all authentic Dallas pizzerie, it's amazing right when it opens and the ingredients and pizzaioli are top-notch.  Then, usually, after it's been open for a few months, the pizzaiolo moves on and the quality goes down.  But for now, it was great.  We had a fun night.  I ended up talking to a guy most of the night who is moving to San Fran this week and is originally from Dallas (surprisingly rare).  His parents are Chinese though, so he speaks Chinese!  While we were actually conversing in Italian most of the evening (this was a group of Italian-speaking friends), I threw out a few sentences and questions in Chinese.  It was much fun.

The highlight of the weekend was a 5k Saturday morning.  It was a hilly course (well, hilly for Dallas), and it was warm and humid, but I ran surprisingly strong.  I was only about 30 seconds off my 5k PR.  Really, with better weather and/or a better course, I feel like I could have made up at least 15 more seconds.  That means I'm really improving!  It was quite exciting.  I think I'm going to race again next weekend.  I want to race frequently in May and see where I end up before I start marathon training in a few more weeks.  Hubby ran the 5k too, which was fun.  And a bunch of my running friends were there.  I ended up with an age group award, which surprised me -- most bigger races do age group awards by 5 year blocks, but this was age groups by 10 year blocks.  So I really didn't think I'd get one, but it was my lucky day (and not a big field). 

We came home and just hung out watching TV for a while.  I was stalling since I was being punished in the afternoon. 

Here's the back story to my punishment:  Friends who moved were getting rid of their guestroom headboard and offered it to us.  As our guest bedroom is just a box spring and mattress, I was excited.  Hubby thought it would look great.  Since his car is in the shop from his accident a few weeks ago, he decided to rent an SUV so we could go pick up the headboard. 

Well, since I was traveling for work a lot last week, he went to pick it up on his own.  Because he's seriously that awesome.  I didn't have to ask, I didn't have to nag, and I was seriously thinking we'd do it together this past weekend.  Well, he brought it home and he was pissed at me.  The headboard was for a queen bed, and our guest bed is full.  Argh!  And since they had a neighborhood yard sale coming up, he had to drive it all the way back to their house so they could sell it.  He was so frustrated that he'd wasted about 3 hours of his days off dealing with it, so the punishment was that I'd have to waste 3 hours of my days off doing the grocery shopping (usually his chore). 

I actually felt like that was fair.  I felt so bad that he'd wasted so much time dealing with the bed.  And I haven't grocery shopped in years, so part of me thought it might not be so bad.  

The junk food I bought, things my husband would normally never permit being brought into our house.  It's a lot, but it has to last me for years until I grocery shop again!  My vices (none of which he will eat): 

Among other things, I got Kraft mac and cheese, and organic mac and cheese, wasabi peas, yogurt raisins, yogurt pretzels, a block of cheese, a can of Pringles, bottled water, granola bars with chocolate, and a big box of not healthy cereal.

And here's a photo of part of this week's haul of groceries.  Several bags were already put away.  Somehow for just the two of us, we spend about $300 per week on groceries.  I think we're doing something wrong...

 

 

Overall, it was a beating.  I will gladly trade my household tasks like laundry in exchange for having him do the grocery shopping.  After the shopping on Saturday, we didn't really do anything Saturday night.  Hubby was detoxing (while I shopped, he went out for drinks with one of his coworkers), and I was just tired. 

 

Sunday was also a big day in terms of running.  I went for a run with friends in the morning and I was pleasantly surprised.  I held my former marathon pace for all 10 miles, the downhill first 5 and -- more critically -- also for the uphill second 5 miles.  Of course, improving that pace by about 25 seconds per mile and holding it for 16 more miles is a different story, but this run at least made me feel pretty good about it.

 

After the run, we went to Torchy's for tacos for breakfast.  I had the fried avocado again, and tried the independent (which is fried portabello mushroom).  I think I like the avocado more, but they were both good.

 

Then I went home and got cleaned up, started laundry, took a little nap, then went out to meet a group for breakfast number 2.  One of my former running buddies moved to Minnesota a couple years ago, and he was back in town.  I'd missed out on the happy hour and dinner plans (a downside to being off facebook), but he texted me and I was able to make brunch.

 

 

I had awesome cinnamon apple pancakes that were really more like a dessert.  And there were plenty of mimosas...  The rest of the day Sunday was low key.  Laundry, visiting hubby at work, packing clothes to take to work for the week, and not doing all the stuff on my list.  Oh well. 

 

It was, all in all, a great weekend.  And now, back to Monday...

 

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

 

FMM: ABC’s of Me

 

Here’s how it works…you’ll choose topics about yourself, your likes, dislikes, etc. according to each letter in the alphabet, and share a little with us. Oh shhh…you know you love it.

 

 

A.  Abs.  The part of my body I most wish I could wave a wand over and make look awesome.  I'd love to have a six-pack. 

 

B.  Berlin.  Where I will be on Sept. 29 this year, hopefully running the marathon of my dreams.

 

C.  Cats.  I am allergic to them but hubby really wishes we had one. 

 

D.  Dogs.  I am allergic to them too and am very afraid of them when I encounter them not on leashes while I'm out running.  Terrified might actually be a better description.  Dogs on leashes don't freak me out.  Dogs not on leashes when I'm not running don't really freak me out.  But dogs not on leashes when I'm running are scarier than texting drivers and rapists in my mind! 

 

E.  Efficiency.  One of the things I prize most.

 

F.  French Laundry is one of the best restaurants in the country, near San Francisco, and I'm thinking about talking to my brother to see if all 4 of us should try to go one night when we go visit them in November.  Think the bill would be over $300 per person though, so not something I want to undertake lightly! 

 

G.  Grapes are something I eat almost daily, love them. 

 

H.  Husband.  I've been married just over 4 years and one week now.  I'm so glad I didn't get married younger than I did since I feel like I did a lot of growing up before we were together.  I'm very lucky to be with him since I really think he's a better person than me in many ways.  He has a kind soul, I have a bitchy soul. 

 

I.  Italy is probably my favorite place in the world.  From the time I was in high school, I always said I'd consider changing my last name when I got married if it was Italian.  Funny enough, my husband's parents are Italian so his last name is Italian, but I still didn't change mine.  We go to Italy together about every other year, and hubby goes without me most of the other years to see his family there.  He also has family in the US (his parents and brothers). 

 

J.  Jerry Maguire, still one of my favorite movies of all time. 

 

K.  Kathy, my mom's name; Katie, my local bestie's name; and Kathi, my favorite attorney to retain when I have a case go into litigation in Pennsylvania, which is frequent.  I love lots of ladies with first names beginning with K apparently! 

 

L.  Liechtenstein is one of the remaining countries in Europe I have never visited and I am working hard to make sure it is on our itinerary for our vacation in the fall.  I do want to increase the number of countries I've visited -- I'm around 40 and I haven't been to a new one since 2010, when we were in Russia (2011 was Italy and France, 2012 was China, and I didn't count that as new since I was in Hong Kong in 2001). 

 

M.  Marathons are the races I keep coming back to.  I like shorter races a lot, but something like a 5k hurts so much for 20 or so minutes (well, more than that for me), but at least with a marathon, it never feels quite as painful, it just lasts so much longer.  I really, really, really want to run a particular time this year in Berlin.  But I just love the hard work and the many variables that go into running a marathon. 

 

N.  Nuts are something I can't eat because of a very serious allergy. 

 

O.  Ottawa is somewhere I've never been.  So is Oman.  So are Oswego and Okinawa.  But I have been to Oklahoma and Ostuni (Italy). 

 

P.  Photos.  On vacation, I take thousands, and I love that now it's digital so I can quickly retake if I don't like the first one.  But now that I'm off facebook this year, I find that I'm not taking as many as I did before.  I should work on that.  My memory is poor, so photos are important. 

 

Q.  I used to work with someone who goes by "Q" (his real name is Quitman) and he almost always had an upbeat attitude.  We've both left the firm, but I need to make plans to have lunch with him one of these days.  It's so easy to let those past connections slip, even to people you really like, when getting bogged down with the day-to-day.  I need to make it mor of a priority. 

 

R.  Running is my favorite fitness activity by far.  It's so efficient (hard to burn more calories in less time than running), it gets my heart rate up (on an easy run, my average heartrate is in the 160s, on a hard run, like the 5k this past weekend, my average overall was in the 180s, and for the last mile, my average was 191), it keeps me social (I rarely run solo), and it helps me stay ambitious.  I have yet to find another physical activity where I can sustain high heart rates like that for a period of time. 

 

S.  Seventeen used to be my favorite magazine when I was growing up. 

 

T.  Tacos are one of my favorite foods in the last year or so.  We live a couple blocks away from a really trendy taco place, so that's great, but even just bean and avocado tacos at home, I can't get enough.

 

U.  Underwear.  I just recently learned that some people when they start running wear underwear with their lined running shorts, which is just shocking to me. 

 

V.  Virginia is where I went to law school, one of the top 10 in the country and I think the absolute best in terms of lifestyle and quality of education combined.  Loved it.  And loved the job prospects that came with it. 

 

W.  Warm is the type of weather I prefer.  My dream climate day would be in the mid-50s overnight, about 80 for a high, and about 75 in the office. 

 

X.  Xrays.  The last one I had was about a year ago from when I fell while running and thought I broke my finger.  The doc said it wasn't broken, it was just torn ligaments, but now, 13 months after I fell, it is still slightly swollen and misshapen, and I still can't grip small things like bottle caps with that finger. 

 

Y.  Yellow is a color that makes me look ill when I wear it, so I rarely do, but I love how sunny and happy it looks. 

 

Z.  Z is the nickname I use for my best friend.  Her name is Elizabeth, and her now-husband sometimes called her Z, and I've adopted that.  She has twins who are 6 and she lives in Virginia where we went to law school.