Saturday Run

I am still enjoying those flowers sent by my not-so-secret admirer. The roses and lilies have opened up and they smell amazing! Today I turned on the air conditioner for the first time this summer and cleaned out my dresser and put all my winter clothes away. Yep, summer is here!

My not-so-secret admirer also made me dinner last night. This is amazing because he doesn't cook often so I enjoyed it thoroughly. Pan seared scallops, shrimp and sauteed mushroom and spinach. Yum! We talked about going to Yogurtland for dessert but decided to save the calories for all the food that we will likely be eating this weekend. So I had a mango for dessert.

Plus, I finally finished one of the hats for my niece who will be born around October. I hope that it will not be as warm then so that she will wear it. I am also working on some matching booties. I'll show those next week.

I was an hour late getting to the Back Bay this morning for my long run. I had wanted to get there at 6am to avoid the heat but my bed was just so comfortable. I finally go there a little before 7am and the Back Bay was covered in a fog.

By the time I finished my run, all the fog had burned off and it was a nice but very warm. It's going to be a warm one folks. Probably all weekend long. Stay cool and hydrate! Oh, so I manged to get in 11 miles. I was tired but felt great. I will pick it up another day.

Peonies

I caught a cold or something over the weekend so I am home sick today. Luckily I had picked up some beautiful Peonies over the weekend at Trader Joe's...

...and they've all opened up today and look simply amazing! So at least I have some beautiful flowers to look while I am laying in bed.

Well I guess this little guy is also keeping me company so it's not all bad. :o)

Things got busy this weekend so I did not have a chance to start on that fondant project but we did make some progress on the baby shower planning for my sister.

Sister S and the BIL finally found some time to set up their baby registry. This was an item on the baby shower to-do list. For the most part, this is more than half completed now.

Babies have a lot of stuff!

But really cute stuff!

I thought this jogging stroller complete with racing stripes was the coolest thing ever but Sister S was not for it. It was awesome, you can even pop a wheel-y with it.

After a couple hours of scanning items for the registry, we were all pretty tired. We headed to the Tea Station for a pick-me-up. It really hit the spot.

Speaking of baby stuff...I've gotten back on the knitting wagon again but it has been slow going. I was hoping to have something to show by now but it is currently still a work in progress. Don't think I am going to get any of it done today since I am not feeling well.

Obviously, no working out today. I hope I feel better tomorrow. I didn't do my long run this past weekend because I was pretty sore from this past week's workout schedule. I think I need to readjust my schedule a bit and maybe stick in a rest day or par down on one of the double days. I'm not really focused on training right now because I don't really have any important races coming up but I still need to keep up the training so that I have a good base when the time comes to start training.

Blankie

Back around Labor Day of this year, I started crocheting a granny square blanket/throw and after about a month and half, I finally got it done. This was an impressive feat on my part because if you know me, you would know that I am notorious for not finishing up projects that I've started. Normally it is due to getting bored of the project or not liking the way it is turning out mid way through the project. But this time, not only did I complete this blanket but I did so during the heaviest training period for the Chicago Marathon. It's a small yarn victory for me and now I have a nice warm blanket to show for. I thought it would be fun to chronicle the construction of this blanket. Strangely, I was a good record keeper for once and took progress photos of my work. And as I write this post, I've already started on a second one as a gift to my sister.

Start Date: September 4, 2010
Complete Date: October 14, 2010
Yarn Used: Lions Brand - Cotton Ease (in Almond and Lake)
Pattern: a modified version of this pattern on Lions Brand website

This was the very first square of this blanket. I didn't think it would turn into anything at that point. It is also my first granny square made.

Here is a stack of squares about 2 weeks later, but still a very long road ahead.

Here I am neck deep in squares. I had a lot of squares at this point, some are not shown in this photo. But I still had to finish up more and sew in the "tails" which I dread doing.

At this point I thought that I was done except after I sewed the squares together in rows, I realized that it was smaller than I had wanted so it was back to the crocheting again to make more squares to enlarge the blanket.

Then one fine day, I mustered up the energy to finally put the finishing touch on it, which actually took a while to do...about 2 more days just to put the edging on it.

TADA! I'm really happy with the way it turned out so this was all worth it.

Here's another shot of it with the flash on, don't think the flash helped.

Summer is Not Leaving Without a Fight

Looks like Summer decided to have one last harrah here in SoCal. While I do enjoy the nice warm evenings, the heat can be unbearable for long runs and midday runs. In fact, I think it's insane to be running midday this past week. Nonetheless, this past Saturday, I got to the Back Bay around 7am for what was my final 20 miler. It was already warm by the time we headed out for the 2 loops but I do well in the heat so for once I was actually the front runner of the pack; or it could have been that it was so unpleasant that I was just running fast to get it done. Possibly a combination of both. In any case, I am done with the long runs. Feels like I've done so many long runs. I think I've trained just the right amount because any more long runs and I think I would have mentally lost it.

After my 20-miler on Saturday, I had some frozen blueberry waffles from Van's. They hit the spot.

Then my sisters came to visit. We all went swimming because it was so hot.

We had some snacks of champions: chips, salsa, salami & cheese, pickles, crackers and pate.

Mixture of carbonated lemonade and blood orange juice.

Sunday dinner at MC's parents house. It's the place to be for nothing green or multi-grain.

For those keeping track of my blanket progress. This is what I have so far. It's is about 75% done. I'm very close!

On Sunday, it was even hotter than Saturday so we ventured out in search of Shaved Hawaiian Ice, I found this place casually searching the web but they had Italian Ice...not Hawaiian Ice. I need to read more carefully next time. This is Frostbites in Cypress. As the signs says, they have crepes and frozen delights.

Feasts your eyes on this frozen delight! This is called a Sorbet Cream - layers of Italian Ice and Vanilla Ice Cream. Amazing!

This was my dairy-free one called Sorbet Chill, Mango and Coconut! Really tasty.

Menu on LCD monitors.

Lots of tasty flavors and the samples were free flowing.

The crepe making side of the store.

That's my order being made.

A Nutella Crepe! I think I like the way the Japanese make it because it is crispier.

Frostbites - Crepes & Frozen Delights
9111 Valley View St., Suite 103
Cypress, CA 90630
(714) 484-1577
Mon-Thu 11a - 10p
Fri-Sat 11a-11p
Sun 12p - 10p

Yelp:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/frostbites-crepes-and-frozen-delights-cypress

Note: SkinnyRunner is giving away Mission Skincare Products so go and check it out: http://skinnyrunner.com/2010/09/27/a-big-time-giveaway/

20-milers, do they ever get easier?

I remember many years ago when I use to think that 6 miles was a long run. Now, 6 miles doesn't seem all that bad. Will that 20 miler ever get easier? Ok, that's all I have to say about that. I completed a 20-miler this past weekend and got a foot cramp at mile 19 but it is going away, so no biggie. Just wished I was a better runner so that I could enjoy these training runs more. That only means I need to run more.

And now some photos...

So I went to the DMV with a friend on Friday and may I say that those DMV lines are just awful these days. Who thought it was a good idea to cut DMV hours? Anyways, I ended up getting Flame Broiler's veggie bowl for lunch because of those long lines. Then I remembered why I don't go to Flame Broiler anymore. It's because it tastes gross.

I went to Pomodoro on Friday night for some delicious carb for my 20-miler on Saturday morning. I will likely do a proper review of this place in a later post.

Can you tell I love this bread? I even tore a piece off before I snap the photo. This focaccia bread is amazing! Crusty on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. You can't tell by just looking at this bad photo I took but it is piping hot and have grill marks on the back and they serve this with the most delicious pesto dip. I think I had 3 of these servings. I think they were about to kick me out for eating so much bread. :) It is the perfect carbo loading IMO.

Went out to the Upper Back Bay early Saturday morning. The weather was amazing!

Sorry for the bad photos. I didn't want to look like a goober snapping too many photos since my running group was there. I completed my 20 miles but barely, I got a foot cramp at mile 19 and had to run/walk the last mile back to the car. Sad, but it is healing so all is good in the running universe.

Here is the product. It's very good. The noodles have a nice "bite" to them and the pork is good but the soup is just so oily. This dish got a lot of good reviews but the oiliness turns me off.

Later that day, I went to the Mitsua Market because they were having yet another food festival and Komaoka Ramen was there hawking their wares and you know I had to be a part of that.

Visiting ramen purveyors always squat at the empty food counter.

It came with these little rice balls. They were plain rice balls.

I also purchased 3 of these Obanyaki for $5. They are the size of hockey pucks and are made on an iron molded griddle. It is made of really chewy dough filled with either sweet red bean, sweet potato or sweet red bean and soy milk. I selected the sweet red bean variety. These were ok. The doughy outer part is really chewy. I can't even describe the texture because I've never eaten anything like it.

This is a new project I am working on.

And this is an older project that I am still working on. I thought I would have something to show today but at last this is what it currently looks like. I spent a couple of hours this weekend on it and by that I mean 5-6 hours but I decided to make it bigger so more work is needed. Let's see how far I get next weekend. It is a blanket, just throwing that in there in case it is not apparent.

I had a slice of this Entenmann's Raspberry Danish while I was crocheting. Yummy and bad for you! Very evil stuff. This little slice has 210 calories. Craziness! Worth it though. :)

So I mentioned in a couple of post ago that I've been having one too many of these at work lately.

Jean from A Delightful Repast recommended I try these Fig Newmans. Probably a tiny bit healthier than Fig Newtons and they are not half bad. Thanks Jean!