Some Random Pictures

Here is Miss E eating pizza at Central Market a few weeks ago. 

I know I'm her mom and I'm biased but come on.  So cute, right?

Garden fresh, bitches!  This salad was made exclusively from 

vegetables harvested from the Chez Jones Effect garden and includes

romaine lettuce, some teeny tiny carrots and one cherry tomato.

The Aviation cocktail I made as a part of Engagementversary 2011.

The gorgeous lavender color doesn't really come across in the iPhone pic,

but The Hubs took some actual photos of dinner prep that I'll post soon.

Blurgh!

It has been a Blurgh! couple of weeks.  I don't know, I've just been mopey and down-the-dumps. Overwhelmed. And exhausted.  Just really, really tired.

There's not a whole heck of a lot to be done about this, as I:

• Work full-time. They want me to show up!  Every day!  ALL day! And like, do stuff!  Gah. 
• Have an engaging, delightful and energy-draining toddler.
• Try to exercise regularly and make at least semi-healthy, homemade food.  Because, you know, you want to do that.  Plus regular exercise really beats back the crazy in my head and keeps me on a somewhat even-er keel.  
• Try to give some basic care and feeding to my relationship with The Hubs.  Finding the sweet spot on that spectrum between having a cocktail and a hot meal ready at 6:00 sharp and grunging around in sweatpants is harder than you'd think.
• Attempt to have, you know, a social life.
• Continue to fail miserably at general home upkeep, laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, dog walking and other domestic chores (Thanks to the lovely Beatriz, though, I can maintain the illusion for a few hours on Thursday afternoons and sometimes even Friday mornings.  Sometimes).

Everyone I know has some permutation of these responsibilities/issues/joys/pains/whatever-you-want-to-call it.  And everyone I know gets a little wiped out, a little overwhelmed, a little freaked out on occasion.  Why, in the past 36 hours I have both been talked down off the ledge by a good friend and, I think, helped another one at least not lean out the window quiiiiite so far.

I don't think there's a magic bullet except for taking a deep breath, having a good cry, kvetching with friends and a glass of white wine or six.   As my wise, ledge-talking-off friend S said, it's OK to have a little pity party for yourself.  Because then you can get over it and carry on.

I don't think there's a magic bullet.  But if there is, someone please let me know, for the love of all that is holy.  

Carry on.

Rain, Rain, Hooray, Hooray!

Wow!  It's a gully-washing frog-drowner out there today.  Though it made my morning commute a little dicey, it's so great to get a good soaking.  Especially since it probably won't rain again until sometime in October.

View from my parking garage.

I was very grateful this morning to be able to park in a parking garage, and even more grateful for the architects who had the foresight to connect said parking garage to the building with a covered walkway. Way to think it through, architects!

It's been a busy and emotionally exhausting week.  We have been working on moving things out of The Hubs' mom's house, and it was the first time we've been back since she passed away in October.  I'm not even sure what to say about that, but moving furniture, going through mementos and other special items all on top of the general busy-ness of life has seemed very exhausting.

Because of that, my workout routine has fallen to the wayside.  I got up yesterday to do my weights workout, but about half-way through I realized I just wasn't into it.  So I dragged my mat out onto the deck and did some yoga instead.  I was sitting there trying to be calm and centered thinking, "I should totally be calm and centered!  That would be really awesome if I could be calm and centered."  I don't think it worked. 

Meanwhile, I'm trying to eat healthy but with limited success.  Check out my super-healthy smoothie, though:

Pre-blend.

Post-blend.  Love that VitaMix!

That was frozen bananas, blueberries, almond milk, a scoop of whey protein powder and a handful of spinach.  It didn't look pretty, but it tasted awesome and kept me full until lunch.

Of course, today I had a Coke Zero and a Luna Bar for breakfast.  Just trying to keep balance in the universe.

Glad To Be A Mama Day

Well, Mother's Day was fun!  I got up early and went for jog in the neighborhood with Tucker Dog, my little dog baby.   Later in the morning, we went over to my parents' house for mimosas and burgers on the grill.  They've done a bunch of work on the garden and house, and it was fun to see all the updates.  After sleeping off all the delicious food and drink, it was time to go to the pool!

Miss E looks like a rock star in this photo, and my Dad and I are her bodyguards.

The fam.

The pool.

Swimming is hard work! Sometimes you just need a snuggle.

The Last Few Weeks

Where does the time go?  The last couple of weeks have just flown by.  I can't believe it's May already.  It got hot for a while there but today we've got perfect, sunny spring weather.  And!  I saw a puppy when I walked over to a nearby cafe for a post-lunch coffee (decaf of course--I don't live on the edge, people).  Sun, grass and a puppy?  Come on.  It was a nice pick-me-up.

Easter weekend was really fun this year.  We re-created an old family tradition.  When I was a kid, we'd go out to the Ranch with family friends and have this epic Easter egg hunt.  This year, we reconnected with those friends, only it was our kids doing the hunting.  It was such fun to see old friends and new faces and have such familiar good times.  The weather was perfect, the kids were adorable and the food was delicious.  Here's hoping it becomes Easter Tradition v2.0 from now on!

Little cuties in their Easter dresses, digging into the Easter baskets.

Found one!

EEEEE-gg!  Where AAAAA-re youoooooo?

Like my Easter crown?

The aftermath.

Otherwise, work has ramped up so my days have been busy, which keeps the evenings pretty quiet and low-key, except for all the commitments we chronically have (Moms/Dads nights out, book club, board meetings, dinners with family, etc.).  It's all fun and great stuff but it does keep us from, say, having a semi-regular date night.  It also keeps us good and worn out--but I really do mean that in a good way.  Boredom is the enemy!

I've been running a bit more consistently, until my long run last weekend in which I think I gave myself tendinitis in my foot, so I've been off it this week.  Instead, I've gotten back into doing my weight workouts in the garage.  While I was being "forced" to do them by our trainer, I moaned and groaned enough, but I actually found myself enjoying them this week.  Which is awesome: it's a lot easier to get up before dawn to work out if you don't mind doing it.  

I am looking forward to the weekend and to Mother's Day!

Sunday Funday

This morning I woke up to a house without electricity.  As it turns out, I need electricity for literally EVERYTHING.   I kept flipping on light switches while the power was out--nothing will make you feel stupider.

I happened to wake up before Miss E and realized breakfast was going to be a problem (smoothie?  no. toaster waffle? no. arrgh stupid modern-day dependence).  I decided we'd pop down the hill to Russell's bakery to get breakfast....forgetting that I'd put my car in the garage the night before and couldn't get the garage door up without power.  #firstworldproblems.

So we grabbed the handy-dandy Bob stroller (seriously, one of the top 10 inventions ever) and walked.  Which, let's be honest, we should have been doing anyway because it's really not that far.  After a chocolate croissant for Miss E and a bran muffin for me (what was that about not eating so many carbs?  Hm), we headed over to the Perry Park playground to burn off the sugar rush.

Due to the power outage, I hadn't been able to get up in the morning to do my planned Brazil Butt Lift workout.  Full disclosure:  I hadn't been able to get up to the my planned Brazil Butt Lift workout well before I discovered we were power-less.  But I made up for it during Miss E's nap, in which I completed the classic "Bum Bum" as well as nearly two-thirds of the "Tummy Tuck" workout before I completely collapsed.

As a person who has worked out for most of her life, I feel I have encountered most exercises out there that are accessible to the masses.  I've done your step aerobics, core classes, stairmaster, elliptical, spinning, yoga, pilates, capoeira...my point here is that if it's out there, I've probably done it.  But these ab exercises that ol' Leandro throws at you in the Tummy Tuck...well, I've just never encountered anything like it.  It's unbelievable.  There are reverse crunch twists (yeah, give that a try). There are bicycle crunches. There are plank pushups and side planks.  It's killer, is the point.  One of these days, I'll get through the whole thing.

The Hubs got home from his trip to the coast in the late afternoon, all sunburned and exhausted and we were so happy to see him.  Miss E was a little mad at first but she warmed right up, and by the time I got back from Randall's with the evening's libations they were sitting in the rocker reading Maisy At Home--signs that all is right with the world.

For dinner, I made Fish Algiers from the Moosewood Cookbook.  I used HEB frozen cod (which was a little meh but a fraction of the cost of the fresh stuff).  You put the fish in a baking dish and cover it with thinly sliced tomatoes.  Then you pour over a marinade of cumin, cayenne, olive oil and lemon juice and bake it.  It was real good.  I forgot to take a picture.

To go along with it, I made the Marinated Zucchini from the same cookbook:  zucchini rounds sauteed in olive oil with garlic, then scattered with fresh basil from the garden and red wine vinegar.  It's just about my favorite way to prepare zukes.  I also had these Sister Schubert's rolls--the frozen kind where you just bake as many as you want--and they were really good.  Not quite as good as homemade but closer than you'd expect for something from the freezer aisle.  We had a nice chilled bottle of sauvignon blanc and strawberries for dessert.

 I love my deck, ya'll

Miss E, of course, was having none of it.  She had leftover Mandola's pizza and a roll with her milk.  I'm just hoping to lead by example, at this point.  And how, you ask, were we able to enjoy a lovely Sunday evening dining al fresco with a 2 1/2 year old?

I live with a monkey.

You jump, I sit and drink wine.  Aw yeah.

Workout for the Weekend

Well, due to illness and asthma, my Brazil Butt Lift challenge was a total bust.  I wasn't able to work out all week, until today, and I was too worn out to deal with following the diet.  So!  On to round two.

This week, my goals are pretty simple:  to work out everyday (that means setting an alarm, Jones!) and to eat as clean as I can, which for me means no sugar or flour and eating mostly vegetables, lean protein, fruit and a little dairy (cottage cheese and fat-free plain yogurt).  The good news is that since I didn't make a bunch of the meals last week, I have a fridge stocked with healthy stuff.

While being sick sort of busted up my week, the weekend so far has been great.   By Thursday I was basically feeling like myself again, just in time for the Hubs to go out of town on a birding trip to the coast. I thought about going with Miss E, since I think she'd love to see the birds and the beach, but a 5 hour car trip alone with a toddler to spend 24 hours there = not gonna happen in my book.

But lots of mama-kiddo fun has been going on!  Last night (Friday) we had an impromptu pizza night out at Mandola's with S and her little one that ended with chocolate fro-yo dripped all over Miss E and her panda bear lovey.  We had such a nice time and ate so dang much, we decided to all meet at Town Lake this morning for a run.  The mamas pushed the strollers while the little ones rode.  Miss E likes to run, too, so we had some fun with her running along side.

It was a beautiful spring morning and, feeling ambitious, we took the four-mile loop.  At Auditorium Shores, they were setting up for the Reggae Festival.  We had to do a little stroller off-roading to maneuver around some fences to get to the ramp over the bridge, and there all kinds of college-age hippies camped out on the ramp gettin' high.  We practically got hotboxed in the out of doors:  these people were not messing around.  Did I mention it was about 10:00am?  Yes, they took their reggae festival quite seriously.  I had hoped Miss E would at least make it to high school before being in such close proximity to weed, but what are you going to do.

Next up on the bridge was one of those Play Me, I'm Yours pianos.  The player was accompanied by a gorgeous opera singer, who turned out to be a mom from the same daycare S's little one attends.  So to recap:  we encountered 20 people smoking dope on a public trail and a professional opera singer performing before we made it halfway across the First Street Bridge.  Only in Austin, right?  I'm so glad we live in this quirky, charming beautiful little place in the world.  But nobody else come!  Unless I already know you. :)

This afternoon we were invited to a 3-year-old's birthday party at Gymboree, where I'd never been before.  It was great:  essentially a padded cell, but for preschoolers. Miss E was so excited and ran around like a banshee.  She played all the games and was not overwhelmed or intimidated at all.  A lot of the kids there were from her school, so I think she was really comfortable.  Given our busy morning, I was surprised she has so much energy!

This evening, I asked her what she wanted for dinner:  leftover pizza or shells and cheese.  She said shells and cheese (I asked twice), I made them (FROM SCRATCH mind you) and they were of course rejected outright.  ARGH.  I am going to have to find a way to keep this picky eating thing from driving me insane!  Of course, I think it's also a toddler thing ("that one that one that one....NOOOO NOT THAT ONE).  Serenity now.

But these are minor, compared to getting to spend quality time with the little bug. I generally feel a bit guilty all week for working full time and having to rush around everywhere all week:  to daycare, back home, get dinner done, bath bedtime hurry hurry hurry.  I try to cram in as much fun time with her on the weekends so that I don't feel quite so bad during the week.  I don't know if that makes up for it, but it's what we've got for now.

Off to set and alarm to wake up and get my butt kicked, Brazil style!

BBL Challenge: Asthma Edition

I woke up this morning feeling AWFUL.  Achy, exhausted, congested, coughing...just plain ol' sick.  I've been at my new job for two weeks and I had to call in sick.  Well done, Jones.

The good news is that I was able to get a doctor's appointment in the morning and she said that I have a cold, but that combined with my nasty allergies have made my asthma flare up again.  I haven't had issues with asthma in about 3 years!  So I'm back on the inhaler.  Which, honestly, seems like a bigger deal than it really is.  At first it's like OMG ASTHMA!!! But really it's two puffs twice a day.  And I am lucky in that mine is very mild--it only really shows up on a breathing test and I cough a lot.  But still, freakin' asthma.  Geez.

So, my Brazil Butt Lift Challenge is off for today.  It will hopefully continue tomorrow, minus the workout component until I feel better.

Arrgh.

And Lo, A Miracle Occurred.

My sweet darling child, aka Miss Picky Pants, ate pasta tonight for dinner.

<cue chorus of angels here>

This trend, assuming it continues and is more than a one-time fluke, opens up a whole world of kid dinner opportunities that have previously been closed to us.  Think about it:  no lasagna, no ravioli, no mac & cheese.  See, I told you it was serious!

So given that tonight she ate whole wheat linguine with marinara bodes extremely well.

Otherwise, it has been another busy, fun weekend.  After my 7 mile run (thanks, Phillis!  I would have quit at 3 without you), I attended a super-fun birthday playdate with a bunch of mama friends and kiddos.  I love that most of our little ones have gotten to an age where they can run around the yard while we sit and drink our coffee.  I remember about a year ago as I chased Miss E around a playground that I couldn't wait to keep just one eye on her instead of full body contact.  Also, I am so pleased and lucky to have such a great group of moms to count as friends.  They are all amazing ladies and I am always inspired.

Last night, I had the opportunity to see how the other half lives.  Well, it's actually probably the other .00001%.  Fayrene and I attended a beautiful fundraising event at a home in Tarrytown.  Sorry, not a home, an ESTATE.  We we walked through the entrance onto the grounds and we both commented that we felt like we were on a movie set in LA.  There were three buildings:  the main house with pool, natch;  a four-car garage (that's right, count 'em, four) with a guest house over it and a yoga studio.  Yes, a full-on, separate building dedicated to a yoga studio.  The grounds were a perfect green carpet of lawn dotted with oaks and strung with white lights and paper lanterns.  The event organizers had a wine-tasting table set up, a delicious buffet (beef on a stick, OMG) and table scattered around the lawn.  So it was NIIIIIICE, ya'll, and I think we even managed to not embarrass ourselves.

Today, Miss E and I took care of the grocery shopping before heading to the Paramount Theater downtown for the Knuffle Bunny show.  Unfortunately, it did not go real well.

The backstory here is that we've been talking this up for literally months.  We've got both the Knuffle Bunny books at home and we've been reading and re-reading them for days, getting so excited.

So we went in and found our seats, which were pretty close to the stage.  Miss E seemed a bit overwhelmed but I wasn't surprised--we went to see Sesame Street Live a few months ago and she did fine there.   But as soon as the main character, Trixie, started to cry about 30 minutes in, poor Miss E's little face just crumbled.  She was so sad for Trixie and just started crying and crying.  I took her out in the lobby to take a little break and we went back to try again.  But she was so upset there was no going back and she just kept saying she wanted to go home.  So we left.

I felt so bad for her.  Such a sweet, empathetic little soul!  So we cheered her up with a visit to Amy's Ice Cream.  There's nothing a little Just Vanilla can't cure.

While we were at Amy's, I couldn't resist a Tiny cup of the Gingersnap ice cream.   While it was not exactly on my diet plan,  it was delicious and totally worth it.  Segue to...

So Day#1 of my Brazil Butt Lift Challenge went pretty well.  Instead of doing the BBL workout, I wound up taking Tucker Dog for a jog in our neighborhood but I figure the calorie burn is approximately  the same.   I didn't get to the store yesterday, so I subbed spinach for the asparagus with the morning's poached egg.  Then I forgot to pick up almonds for the afternoon snack, but that's OK because I had that ice cream instead.  For dinner I marinated chicken breasts in lemon juice, lemon zest and olive oil and sauteed them in my cast iron pan (it's well seasoned so I can get away with almost no oil).  I also made a green salad with the last little radishes from our garden and tomatoes, along with some sugar snap peas sauteed in a tiny bit of SmartBalance "butter" and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Then of course I served up some leftover pasta so Miss E and The Hubs would have something to eat.

Tomorrow, I'm scheduled to get up and do the Bum Bum BBL workout and then I'll take Tucker Dog for a walk/jog.   Breakfast will be oatmeal, lunch is a salad with turkey and EEEK we are going out for dinner.  The dinner on the diet plan is supposed to be tilapia with broccoli and brown rice, and I believe there is a tilapia option on the menu where we are going.

Send me good vibes for a successful day 2!!

Big Plans. Big.

Whew!  Another week down.

I got through the second week at my new job and am feeling really great about it.  I think I'll be able to contribute something valuable while working towards an important cause with nice people.  What more do you want?  So, check!

But it has been such a busy week.  On Wednesday, I was able to meet up with my old friend Dr. Henrotta for a meet & greet with her new baby--a 6-week-old little one. So. Stinkin. Cute.  It is always a bit of an emotional smack-down to see someone that you grew up with become a parent.   Dr. Henrotta was such an important part of me growing up and doing that whole coming-of-age thing:  she came with me through the depth of teen angst and out the other side, never losing her sharp wit and laser-like insight.  I'm so glad I got to be a college roomie, give an embarrassing speech at her wedding, attend her baby shower and now see her being such a wonderful, caring, funny mom with her wee one.  I would say I'm speechless, but clearly that doesn't happen to me.

Thursday was my monthly book club.  The book was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is about the history and the personal stories behind the (apparently famous, just not to me) HeLa cells.  The cells were the first to be grown in culture and helped launch the whole bio-industrial complex in addition to being the base for a huge number of medical discoveries--including the discovery that HPV causes cervical cancer.  The story gets really interesting because Henrietta Lacks was a low-income African-American woman who died of terminal cervical cancer in the 1940s.  The story of her life and the struggle of her family and her children is utterly heartbreaking, and calls into question all kinds of issues around race, class, biomedical research and progress.

Now, I haven't quiiiiiiite finished it yet but I do plan to.  Really.

Next month is Water for Elephants so I'm hoping I can get through that one in time.

My little "5 lbs in 3 weeks" plan is going spectacularly badly.  I've gained weight this week!  Since The Hub and I finished our workout program, I've gained 3 pounds.  Not acceptable--not when we spent so much money to get fit!  But without the structure, I'm having a hard time sticking to a workout regimen and diet plan. So here's what Ima do.

(Backstory:  I am completely obsessed with Leandro Carvalho and the Brazil Butt Lift workout.  OMG it is soooo good.  They are complete ass-kickers but they are so fun the time passes really fast.  Plus he's got this fabulous, thick Brazilian accent and constantly says, "this is for your boom-boom!" and "don't settle for less!"  It is Awesome.  LOVE.)

I am going to follow the Brazil Butt Lift Six Day Slimdown plan--it comes with the DVD packet--starting on Sunday.  It will be very hard, but I can do it!  And I will use this blog for accountability, to post my plan vs. my actuality every day.

So my goal for this weekend is just to get the shopping done so that I'll be prepared.  My shopping list is almost completely filled with veggies and lean protein (Oh, The Hubs is going to love this...).

Here's the plan for Day 1 (Sunday)

Breakfast:
One poached egg with 5 steamed asparagus spears, 1/2 grapefruit and 1/2 whole wheat English muffin

Snack
3/4 cup cubed pineapple and 1 string cheese

Lunch
Tuna salad (4 oz tuna--and oh yes, I have a kitchen scale and will be measuring that bad boy) with 1 tsp mayonnaise on mixed greens with cucumber and tomato

Snack
10 unsalted almonds (this just kills me.  I mean, really?  10?)

Dinner
Lemon chicken (4 oz skinless chicken breast marinated in lemon juice and olive oil) with 1 c. sugar snap peas, steamed

It actually all sounds pretty darn good to me, and I am looking forward to getting my boom boom in shape for summer.


Tomorrow I am running 7 miles in the morning with Running Buddy Phillis just to get into the swing of things.  Wish me luck, and I'll report back on Sunday!

Slacking slackerness of slackitude

So if by "get up and workout" I meant, drink a bunch of red wine and stay in bed until the last possible second, then big win!  Otherwise, not so much.  But I did have a smoothie, so that's something, right?

This morning, I managed to get up and go for a 5-miler with my running buddy Phillis around the lake (and I had a smoothie after--with spinach!).  She is a Gilbert's Gazelle too, and we have been through many a grueling training regimen together, including last year's San Diego marathon and the winter/spring half marathon training.  Because she had been training hard and I have been training hardly at all, we haven't run together since before the Austin Half Marathon back in February, I think.  It was great to catch up and get a bit of a run in.  Though the 5 miles was harder than it should have been,  reminding me that it is high time I get back on the running tip.

It is not hard for me to get up early on a Saturday to go for a long run with the Gazelles. I love the group, I love the coach and I actually like doing the longer distances, believe it or not.  Plus, since it's a weekend, I can have a low-key day and even take a nap mid-day if I am worn out from it.

The hard part is the weekday running.  The training sessions are super-tough--usually an hour and a half and 5-7 miles of hard drills.  Super-effective, obviously, but also exhausting.  And did I mention they start at 5:45am?  Yeah.  Now that I am out of the habit, I don't know how I did it for so long!

But now that I'm not getting up to train with the Gazelles, and we don't have the personal trainer coming 3x a week (again, incredibly effective but not your cheapest option), I'm finding it a little too easy to sleep in and skip workouts.  Not what you should be going for as we head into summer and lots of pool time!

So I'm trying to set some goals, get back on top of it and drop a few more pounds.  Since last summer at this time I've lost nearly 25lbs and I don't want any backsliding!

Looking forward to a good workout tomorrow with at-home DVD fitness queen Dr. H, followed by mango margaritas at Santa Rita for lunch.  At least maybe they'll cancel each other out!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Chocolate Bar

This is what Miss E was singing tonight:

Twinkle, twinkle chocolate bar
My daddy drives
A rusty car.

And she's barely 2 1/2.  I'm so proud.

Anyway, what was that I was saying about being a rotten blogger?

So I have a new job!  That's kind of exciting, right?  I have been hired to be a social media specialist for a medical trade association.  [REDACTED, due to panic about posting anything even remotely job-related] So, yay new job!

One thing I was really concerned about as I was job shopping was that I had a REALLY nice office at my old place.  Most organizations have open floor plans and folks are in cubicles, so I was starting to get real bummed about going back to cube land, where you can't call your OB from work and all.  I was delighted to find out that I get an awesome office in a very nice office suite.  It's one of those buildings all done with natural limestone and the grounds are all wooded and whatnot which I guess is supposed to promote serenity and sh**.  In any case,  I've got this huge office with a big picture window that looks out on a lovely little wooded area and it's quite nice.  They've got a proper kitchen with decent coffee and I don't have to go on a fugitive man-hunt to find a plastic fork if I forget one for my lunch.

All in all, I think it's going to work out just fine.

In other news, I've been a big slacker with working out for the past couple of weeks and have put on a few pounds.  I'm giving myself 3 weeks to lose 5 pounds.  Bathing suit season is coming up fast and you do not want to mess around with that!  So tomorrow I'm going to get up, work out and have a smoothie for breakfast.  Deal?  Deal.

I See London

My underwear is on all wrong today.  Not inside out or backwards.  Not in the "I got my panties in a wad" sense of things either. 

underwear from Pompeii or similar...I can't really remember what it said on wikipedia

I just put them on all wrong today.

My waist is through a leg-hole and one leg is through the waist-hole.  What? How do you even do that?  And it's totally not correctable, because I'm not interested in taking my jeans off at work, even if it is within the confines of a ladies' room stall.

I think I may have been a leetle teeny bit distracted this morning.

To be fair, it was a bit of a mad scramble.  We got up at 5:30am to work out (OH, the dedication.  OH, the bitching from the Hubs.).  Then we both had to shower before Miss E got up so that I could be out the door before 7:30 to attend an 8 am workshop.  'Twas a bit much!

I am really looking forward to at least a somewhat quiet evening at home tonight.  Or at least a nice, big glass of red wine.

FIN

Worst. Blogger. Ever.

Turns out I am really not good at this.  Given that I don't have a readership, probably that is not the world's biggest disaster, but the upkeep?  Not so much.

In my defense, I did have an extraordinarily crappy fall. Since the last time I posted lo these five months, a lot of sh** has gone down.  Not sure I'm quite ready to go into it all now.

The good news is that things are calming down, life seems to be basically returning to something sufficiently resembling normal that I feel like I can deal with it again.  We'll get into all this later.  Maybe.

ANYWAY. 

Let's just start with where we are, shall we?

I had an absolutely lovely Valentine's Day and preceding weekend.  On Saturday, I got to go for a nice 8-mi run with one of my favorite running buddies and see the Gazelles crew for the first time in a few weekends (finally feeling recovered from my allergies, eye infection, cold and sinus infection.  Good times!).  Then my parents came over for brunch.  Post-nap, we went to the Triangle for a play date that was only marginally a failure.  Basically all the kids ran around for about 3 minutes before they started fighting over toys, wandering off and wanting snacks.  So it was on to a chaotic but fun dinner with 5 adults, 3 toddlers and an infant.  I am real sure they can't wait to have us back.

Sunday, we went to see the kids' show at Ruta Maya and then for lunch at Opal Devine's.  In the evening, one of these amazing friends I have offered to watch Miss E so the Hubs and I could go out to dinner.  Thanks, friend!

We had a delicious dinner at Braise.  It's sort of a Brazilian-inspired, meat-focused place and it was freakin' awesome.  We split two appetizers:  the escargot in a buttery, garlickly, herby sauce and a greek salad.  Both were great and they were good compliments to each other--one a little bit heavy and the other a lighter option.

Then I had their "surf and turf," which was the best duck breast I have ever had in my life (and I'm not one of those unequivocal fans of duck breast--it's one of those things that I like only contextually) and roasted shrimp over some spicy black beans.  Peter had a pork shoulder that was delicious:  rubbed with spices and completely falling apart.  We had it with a perfectly paired red wine whose name I forget that was suggested by the waiter.  Since we were too full for dessert, I feel this practically qualifies as a diet meal.

Yesterday, Valentine's day proper, we decided to do a family V-day with Miss E.  I took off work early to go to her daycare party (super cute).  Then we got some extra time at home to hang out.  Since the weather was sha-mazing, we decided to have dinner out side.  We laid out a heart-themed table cloth, lit candles and made some turkey chili.  By the time the Hubs got home (with a dozen red roses because he is AWESOME), we were ready to open the champagne and dig in.  Well, not for Miss E.  The champagne I mean.

It was one of those perfect moments.  Out in the fresh air, with dusk setting in and the candles flickering, we sipped champagne while Miss E opened some little presents and played on the deck.  It is an amazing feeling to be utterly content--to not want anything else in your own little place in the world.