Today I got to do some of my favorite things after work – I ran outside (2 miles), grabbed Natalie after 1.5 of the miles, then dragged her to the gym for a weights workout. It’s strange to say, but I think I might actually prefer hanging out with friends while working out (legitimately working out) as opposed to meeting up for happy hour. Not that there’s anything wrong with happy hour, but the best part of any happy hour (for me) is hanging out with people and commiserating. It’s just as much fun (plus cheaper and healthier!) to hang out and chat at the gym while getting buff.

When I got home, I was ravenous, so I popped this super-cheesy ham & cheese into the oven with some sweet potato chunks and got a shower while dinner baked. I emerged fresh, clean, and with the beauty above waiting to slide down my throat.

Dee-licious.

I Melt With You by lsnod · 365 Project

Waking up at the crack of ridiculous in order to make an 8 am doctor’s appointment sucks, but treating yourself to a Starbucks breakfast after the hassle almost makes it worth it.

Almost.

The egg-bacon-gouda sandwich was really good, though – even if I did ask for egg whites and they gave me egg beaters. Blech. The bacon made up for it, though. And, you know, the coffee.

Cause nothing beats battling 7:15 am traffic sans caffeine and then getting poked with needles while on an empty stomach.

But really, the sandwich was tasty and brightened my rainy day.

Top O’ the Mornin’ To Ya by lsnod · 365 Project

As much as I hate to admit it, there are benefits to the clean house I’ve been maintaining for a few weeks now… namely, my “yoga room” floor is clear and available for, well, YOGA. I haven’t done yoga in ages and it felt pretty wonderful tonight. In fact, I’m more sore from the stretching than I was from yesterday’s 4 miles.

I suppose that’s a good thing, right?

Ohmmmtastic by lsnod · 365 Project

Whelp, I’ve successfully been converted.

I used to run exclusively on the treadmill at the gym. Running outside “hurt my knees” and was harder for me. I came up with excuses to not run outside – “but I pay for the gym!” “it’s so cold out!” “it’s raining!” “it’s safer to run at the gym!” But lately I’ve been on a roll. I think I’ve run outside more times since November than I did the entire rest of 2011 (Jan-Oct), and that included training for my first half-marathon.

Now it seems I can’t stand to run at the gym – I can handle it for about 2 miles, but then I’m done. I hate it. I hate the hassle of waiting for a treadmill to open up, and I hate when people beside me run way faster than me – it very much lowers my running self-esteem. I also hate that I seem to run slower on the treadmill and take walking breaks more frequently…

Speaking of walking breaks, I finally called myself out tonight. My runs lately have consisted of many more hills and I’ve been forcing myself to run up them instead of walking up them. When I reached the top of one steep hill tonight and started trucking towards a long, steady incline hill, I thought to myself, “I should walk for a sec.” But instead of slowing to a walk, I actually questioned myself. Was I hurt? No. Was I in any pain? No. Out of breath? Not really. I’ve gotten it in my head that when I accomplish something (in this case, running up a steep hill), I deserve a reward (walking for a minute). So tonight, instead of giving in, I ran until I was completely out of breath, which happened just in time for me to reach a busy intersection. I walked a few seconds until the light changed, and then I ran the rest of my route. I walked a total of 3 times along a 4 mile route, and for only a few seconds each time. This was a HUGE breakthrough for me.

So now I run almost exclusively outside. It toughens me up for marathon conditions and it wears me out better (I’ve been sleeping like a baby). I make myself wear a sweet little reflective vest (pictured above), but that’s no big deal.

No more treadmills for me if I can help it.

Long live the road.

Rage Against the Machine by lsnod · 365 Project

A case of the Mondays deserves the “traditional” Monday meal.

It was my first time making red beans & rice, and I’d wager I was more than a little inspired by my venture to NOLA on the Square last Wednesday. My version was vegan and cooked in the crockpot all day, but it was not what I’d call a winning recipe. In fact, when I got home and sampled it before my run, I almost spit it back out. Wayyyy too salty. Then again, a hard pretzel stick was too salty for me today, so who knows? Maybe it’s just one of those weird days.

I scooped out most of the remaining liquid and added plain water, then left it cook on high for about 40 minutes. When I returned, it tasted much better. Still not great, but better. I pulsed a hand blender a few times to turn the beans into a nice thick paste (I would take more water out next time to make it thicker) and served it over pre-cooked frozen brown rice.

It certainly wasn’t bad, and I enjoyed eating it, but I think a second attempt will turn out better. Still, I’m not complaining – it was nice to essentially have a really healthy meal (no meat = no added fat) ready for me when I got home.

A Case of the Mondays by lsnod · 365 Project

One of my favorite things about going to work at the country club is that I just never know what to expect when I go in. The servers aren’t told the events ahead of time, so it’s always a surprise when we walk in the door. Sure, 9 times out of 10, if we’re coming in at 2 pm on a Saturday, it’s a wedding, but the rest of the events are unknown to us.

So when I walked in this morning to work on a birthday party, I was surprised to learn that another party – one I wasn’t working – was incorporating some interesting props. A “bird man” showed up for a kids’ party and brought with him a ridiculous amount of large birds. When I heard there were going to be birds, I automatically thought of little birds that kids buy as pets – parakeets? – and had to do a double-take when I saw the size of these suckers. I only got to peek in for a small portion of the show, but I was told that one of the birds rode a bike. Creepy and awesome, all at the same time.

The funniest story from the day, however, comes from one of my coworkers. Apparently she was standing behind the bar area (you can see the glasses – the edge of the bar – in the photo above) when one of the birds decided that her head looked like a nice perch. It sat on top of her head and wouldn’t get off. ::shudders:: Nightmares.

There’s no telling what next weekend holds in store, but I have my hopes set on hosting a party with a monkey that can crunk.

Birds of Prey by lsnod · 365 Project

I’ve waited so so long for the perfect day to use that title.

Turns out I don’t hate winter weather quite so much if I don’t have to go to work. It’s actually a nice excuse to stay home and catch up on Hulu shows and do some really exciting things that could hopefully come to fruition in the next couple months. If good things happen, I may have a greater appreciation for snow and ice… and be more willing to use up vacation time to deal with winter weather disasters.

Fingers crossed!

Ice Ice Baby by lsnod · 365 Project

I feel like this is one of my weirder habits, but it serves a good purpose – I like to cut the sleeves off my t-shirts before I wear them to the gym or volleyball. It started with my first PSL volleyball team (we all cut off our sleeves as a “team thing”), and then I continued the tradition every season thereafter. It’s been over 4 years now since I’ve started playing again, so I have an abnormally large sleeveless t-shirt collection in my house. Tonight after work I decided to add to the collection.

I kinda really like my redneck side.

Anyone have any suggestions for what to do with the shorn sleeves? I don’t have enough to make a quilt or anything (it’d be a pretty boring quilt anyways – all solid colors), but I feel like using them for cleaning/painting rags is also unexciting. Ideas welcome.

Bits And Pieces by lsnod · 365 Project

Today’s photo has a rather poetic title for a day when so many words with 4 letters entered my head.

The day started with a snarky email, continued with roadblocks at task I tried to perform, and finished much later than anticipated. It also ended much wetter, slower, and 100% less volleyball-y than I’d counted on.

But let’s not get into that angry talk right now.

Let’s instead look outside and watch the snow falling with fake smiles on our faces because as everyone will tell you, “It’s winter in Pittsburgh. Get over it.”

Let’s pretend to enjoy it.

Fake it till you make it, right?

Now is the Winter of our Discontent by lsnod · 365 Project

Tonight we won our first volleyball games of the season! Hooray! We’re only 3 games in, so you know, it’s about time…

As much as I hate going Downtown for volleyball, there is one distinct advantage over Greenfield – celebration options. Tonight, for example, we were all pretty amped about our wins, so we chose to celebrate at NOLA on the Square. Although I like the atmosphere, management, and beer selection at Hough’s, I have to say NOLA was a much more fun time.

The entire experience was new to me – I’d never eaten real New Orleans food except for the one time my roommate in Paris made jambalaya (Carrie was from New Orleans, but usually stuck to French food in Paris). I [still] have never eaten gumbo, crawfish, or a po’ boy. I did get to try a whole bunch of other New Orleans specialties tonight, though.

We started off with a 45-minute wait at the bar, where we noticed both Luke Ravenstahl and Bob Pompeani hanging out (separately). I felt like I was surrounded by Pittsburgh royalty for a hot minute. I would have felt better about the whole “surrounded by celebrities” moment had I not been slumming it in gym shorts and volleyball kneepads. Hawt.

Once we finally made our way to our table, one of my teammates ordered the alligator as an appetizer and another ordered red beans & rice. The red beans & rice app was good, but I believe the person who ordered it asked for minimal spice. I wasn’t sure what to make of the alligator, but it was the surprise of the night. At first, I was freaked out. I mean, alligators swim in swamps. And swimming pools. I don’t associate them with food. However, I blocked out the actual animal and just took a bite… and it was delicious! It was like spicy popcorn chicken, only a little chewier. I wound up snagging 4-5 forkfuls before I felt I was being a pig.

For my entree, I decided to go with something off the bar menu – a muffaletta! I knew the basic premise of a muffaletta, but never in my life would I have imagined how much meat was involved. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much meat on a sandwich before. It was impressive, and I only managed to eat 1 of the quarters and about half of the fries (with the pickle!). I’m still stunned by the sheer volume of meat.

Though we were all full by this point – everyone else had gotten actual meals instead of sandwiches – we saw the table beside us order dessert and knew we had to make room. The desserts of the evening were a turtle cheesecake atop homemade caramel, peach cobbler with french vanilla ice cream, bananas foster bread pudding with salted caramel ice cream (I soooo wanted this, but this isn’t the dessert you go to NOLA for!), and… BEIGNETS! We snagged 2 orders of beignets for the table.

Each order came with 4 beignets dusted with powdered sugar and a trio of sorbets – mango, coconut, and persimmon-honey. The mango sorbet was good, the persimmon-honey was unique, and the coconut was amazeballs. I’m happy to say my first beignet experience was a good one (is it possible to have bad beignets??). The first pillow of warm fried dough and powdered sugar practically melted in my mouth and my eyes just about rolled into the back of my head. So good. Essentially, a fancy funnel cake, but so so so good.

NOLA itself was pretty cute – I liked the bar area, and there was enough room to stand behind chairs without being shoved around by servers. Speaking of which, our waiter was very cordial and knowledgeable. The only downside was the wait – we had to wait a long time for a table (on a Wednesday night, which was weird), and once we were seated and had ordered, our appetizers came out in the wrong order and there were huge gaps between our courses. I’d estimate we waited over 40 minutes for the first app (beans & rice) , and another 15 minutes after we finished that before we got the 2nd (alligator). Add onto that another 20-25 minutes or so until we received our meals. To be fair, our waiter apologized and they were super-busy. Also, one person ordered her steak ‘medium’ and it was practically rare – it wasn’t pink inside; it was blood red. She hardly ate any of it, but didn’t really care – she filled up on apps, salad, and fries – and though she didn’t complain in the slightest, our server told the manager, who in turn apologized and comped her meal. That was a nice touch.

I’d definitely go back to NOLA; perhaps after a 7 or 8 pm game instead of a 6 pm game. By the time we started on our entrees, the craziness was dying down. Our entire visit took nearly 3 1/2 hours, so I wouldn’t say it’s a quick bite to eat, but it’s definitely a good bite to eat. I will see that alligator again later.

See You Later Alligator by lsnod · 365 Project