Monday

Not only is it Monday but it's the end of September. How did that happen??

Saturday was a busy day so I went to the lakes to run early.

LSU played in New York so all was quiet. 

I only had time for 10 miles. 

It wasn't my best but it was by far not my worst either. I talked to my brother for a little bit. He ran 10 too. Of course he started after me & finished before me but that was expected. 

Kickoff for LSU's game was at 11:00 am. That meant brunch & mimosa's for the football party. I was bringing Mimosa stuff & monkey bread. 

I knew there might be a problem when I opened the oven to take it out & the liquid was overflowing into my oven. sigh. The little speck looking things on top are crushed pecans. When I flipped my bundt pan over a couple of pieces came out & that was it. I didn't have time for this commotion. I beat on the bottom of the pan, I tried to ease it out using a spoon around the edges & nothing. This is what I ended up with.

That's a platter of monkey bread. Not that any of this is surprising. What would be surprising is if I cooked something that turned out perfectly. 

Some of the food - grits & grillades, shrimp & grits, breakfast casserole, fruit, banana nut muffins, monkey bread, pumpkin bread and a waffle station.

I had strawberries, blueberries, chocolate syrup, vanilla ice cream & whip cream on my waffle. Considering how things went with the monkey bread I got Allie to make my waffle. I didn't want to make a mess or break something at someone else's house. Everything was so, so good! 

Not long after kick off I left with my mom to go to Anna Claire's Sip & See. 

The picture is deceiving. She only weighs like 7 lbs. She's tiny with a tiny head. She's also not awake during the day. LOL! 

I loved the cake!

It tasted as good as it looked! After we visited for awhile it was back to the football party to watch the end of the game. LSU won but it certainly wasn't pretty. 

We didn't do a thing Sunday but watch football & a movie & I napped. It was great!

This morning I got my 6 miles in. 

I had to use Map My Run because I forgot to charge my watch.  I'm trying to do the workouts that the Varsity Sports running group is doing even if I'm not running with them. Today was just an easy run which was fine with me. 

So basically the same old thing is going on over here.

Toodles!

Game Day!

Friday after work I had a hair appointment & then some of us went to Caliente. Typical Friday night.

The LSU game was at 2:30 & we were hosting this week's party so I ran early. 

The scenery is just so pretty. I was planning to run 11 miles so I ran all through campus. With the game being early there was even more activity than normal. People were everywhere getting their tailgate parties set up. 

Since Varsity's running group wasn't starting until 7:30 I couldn't run with them but I did their workout. The last 4 miles were to be the fastest of the 11 & it's supposed to be at "marathon pace". I'm not running a marathon, I'm just trying to run a faster half. 

My time this week was 7 minutes faster than last week but last week was a slow run for whatever reason 

After having my watch for almost 2 years I finally hooked it up to the computer & figured out how to upload the info from my watch.

I was very excited to see the splits for my last 4 miles. Now if I can just start out a little faster things would be great!

We had a ton of good food. Dean cooked pork on his Primo for like 7 hours, we had baked beans & coleslaw to go with it, along with apps & dessert. 

I love Great American Cookie Company's cookie cake. I don't know what they do to those cookies but I swear I could eat the whole thing by myself. I did refrain.

Then there was this

So, so good. Anna's living in Houston now & she came home this weekend & brought a bunch of it home in a Yeti. I think she should've brought more. Based on the reactions I got when I posted the pic on FB she could've made a ton of money!

We had a really fun night. We had a house full of people, good food & drinks & LSU won! 

Yesterday was a total rest day. We went to Mass & grocery shopping & I didn't leave the sofa very much the rest of the day. 

On Monday's Varsity runs at 5:30 p.m. It's still really hot at that time. They post the workouts online so I did today's workout at my normal 4:45 am run. It was 2 880's, 2 440's & 2 220's with a minute in between to rest. I did warm up & cool down miles for a total of 6 miles. 

Speed work works!

Toodles!

Friday Faves!

I wouldn't know about half the stuff I love if it weren't for blogs. Seriously, I pretty much live off of recommendations so here are some of the things I love right now. 

These are so good!

These are the closest thing to restaurant chips that I've found. Thin & crispy is really so much better than the thick chips. We haven't been keeping chips in the house but I made 7 layer dip for the football party last week. 

These are so good!

If you like coconut. They're only 120 calories & it has real pieces of coconut. 

I don't remember whose blog I saw these on but I questioned them about what these tasted like & she assured me they tasted like "real" ice cream. She was right!

Only 100 calories & the little chunks of cookie dough & chocolate chips really make it taste like real ice cream.

I tried Arctic Zero before & thought it was just okay. It's kinda bland. 

The cookie dough has more calories but it taste better too. The salted caramel is the lower calorie choice. It's only like 150 calories for the entire pint. It taste better than the butter pecan that I'd tried before. It wasn't bad, just a little bland. 

Several blog peeps have bragged about this.

It's a milk frother to make lattes at home. I didn't really understand what it was or how it worked. I ordered it from amazon & this thing is a life changer. I had no idea what I was missing. If you like lattes buy it here. Best $17 I've spent in awhile. I feel like I say that a lot though.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000E170W?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00 

Something else I'm excited about is my cholesterol. I had blood work done yesterday to see if watching my diet & increasing my exercise worked. It did! It's still a little high but my LDL is now in the normal range. My Dr. said to continue what I'm doing. So for the time being, no meds. 

Have a great weekend!

Toodles!

Weekend Fun!

Friday night Dean's cousin got married. She was gorgeous & the wedding was really pretty. The cake was one of the best I've ever had.

Saturday morning my plan was to run with the Varsity Sports running group for 8 mi. I started a little earlier to try to get 3 miles done before they started. Around mile 2 I remembered that they were meeting somewhere different than where I was. Just completely slipped my mind. 

I just ran 11 mi. by myself. While I was running Dean was buying me this.

We finally got everything squared away with State Farm meaning they talked to the punk that hit me & left & got his side of the story. I still think that's ridiculous but at least it's taken care of. Dean knew my first choice was white with tan interior. There aren't a lot of them floating around but he found one! 

We had lunch at Caliente, a nap, Mass & then to our friends to watch the LSU game. It was a late night because kick off wasn't until 8:20 & then they won by the skin of their teeth. No doubt Les Miles is the luckiest coach in the country. 

Sunday I visited my parents, saw Logan, Lydia & Scott for a bit & then went to see babies!

CC wouldn't stop moving enough to get a cute picture. 

On the left is my friend Allison's baby Anna Claire that they just adopted. She was born September 2nd. The chick that looks like she has a wig on is Allison's sister's baby, CC's baby sister, Lydia. She was born Sept. 6th. 

Monday was a FABULOUS weather day. It was 55 degrees when I ran.

No humidity, low dew point. It was fabulous. Sadly, there isn't more of the same in the forecast for the rest of the week. 

My first pumpkin spice latte of the season. Someone had to run an errand yesterday at work so she brought back latte's. It was good as usual. Everyone's been talking about how much better they are this year because they started using real pumpkin or something. I couldn't tell a difference.

Toodles!

Weekend Happenings

Friday after I work I was on a mission to find shoes & a clutch to go with my dress for a wedding we have next weekend. Not just a fail, an epic fail. I found nothing. I can ALWAYS find shoes. It was depressing. I saw on FB that the Strawberry Shortcake Frap would be leaving Starbucks soon since it's seasonal. I'm not a huge strawberry fan but for some reason I really wanted one.

It was incredible! I'm kinda glad I hadn't tried it sooner. I would've had way too many. 

Friday night was the usual dinner at Caliente. 

Saturday morning I was up early for my long run at the lakes. 

It was a beautiful day but hot & humid. 

 I'm trying to run with one of the running clubs in town to help me get faster. They were meeting at 7:30 for a 6 mi. run. They're training for the Louisiana Marathon & Half which is in January. Since my Disney race is in Nov. I needed to run more than 6 mi. I started at 6:30 & did 4.3 mi. before meeting the group at 7:30. 

I've been wanting to run with the group for awhile because I get tired of being by myself but then I don't want to go to the group runs by myself. It finally occurred to me that if I want to do something I just need to do it. I can't depend on other people. I'm glad I went. I was uncomfortable standing around by myself waiting to start. I was all sweaty from the 4 mi. I'd already ran, everyone else looked fresh as daisy's which I don't understand because the humidity was awful! Anyway, I stood there by myself & then I ran by myself with the group. It was my fastest 6 miles ever. Yes, it was hard & I definitely pushed myself but I was so happy when I was done. Hopefully, Scott & Lydia will be able to go with me some so I'm not always by myself. 

Saturday night was LSU's first game. All of our friends were out of town so Dean grilled steaks & we were all ready to watch & eat. Then the lightening started. I think they played 10 minutes. There was delay after delay after delay, then the rain came. When I went to sleep they were still waiting it out. They ended up cancelling the game sometime around 11:00.

Sunday we went to Dean's parents for lunch. Scott, Lydia & Logan were at their camp which is only about a half hour from Dean's parents house to we went to visit.

Logan wanted us to go for a boat ride so we did.

He loves boats so much!

I on the other hand am not a big fan. I sat on the floor of the boat because it's the least scary spot.

His daddy lets him "drive" in the open water. It's serious business!

Gotta love boat hair!

On the way home from their camp I saw on FB some other friends were at their camp which was just a few minutes away so we stopped there. We ended up on another boat ride. This one was more my speed - a party barge that goes slow! We had a really nice day.

Monday I made the mistake of not setting a clock. I got up a little before 8:00. 

The temp felt good when I started my run but the humidity again was 90%. It was awful! So awful. My time wasn't bad so I was happy about that. I didn't think I'd ever cool off. We ended up running errands & going to lunch so I didn't take a nap & then I couldn't sleep last night. I tossed & turned & tossed some more. 

How was everyone's Labor Day?

Toodles!

I HATE State Farm!

What's going on in my world? Same old thing. Some things never change. I'm still waiting on State Farm to pay my claim from the infamous hit & run accident of August 10th. I'm frustrated, annoyed & extremely aggravated. It seems that breaking the law means nothing to the insurance company. I guess I'm crazy to think that leaving the scene of an accident should mean you forfeit all rights to give your side of the story. State Farm doesn't agree. They also give the little punk that hit me 14 days to respond to them. Seems excessive in this day & age when everyone has a cell phone glued to their hand at all times. I filed the claim August 19th. Why a week after the accident you ask? Good question. That's because of the police dept. They wouldn't give me any insurance information for the punk because I may have gotten the license plate number wrong & we can't have anyone filing a false claim. Um, ok, the license plate number belongs to a silver Olds Allero which is the kind of car that I said hit me because when the punk was standing at my window begging me not to call the police he told me "it's an Oldsmobile Allero". Moving on. As of yesterday, contact hadn't been made with the punk. Apparently, he doesn't have voice mail on his phone. Aside from being annoyed I'm also confused. HOW were the police able to get in contact with him?? They didn't go knocking on the door like I thought. They called him. Apparently he answered the phone. He even went in to the police dept., gave the insurance information, admitted he was driving the car & was charged with hit & run & failure to maintain control. That's not enough for State Farm. Well, it might be once the 14 days is up & they transfer the claim to another dept. that uses different measures - the police report.  Funny, seems like being that it's the official document you might want to use that first but what do I know? Of course that would be a problem because State Farm doesn't have the police report. It takes 10-14 days for them to receive it after they request it. That was done August 20th. Funny, that wasn't mentioned when I was filing the claim & asking about getting the report because I could've had it to them within a day. Have I mentioned I'm annoyed? 

So while all that's been going on I was having pain after eating. My first thought was my gallbladder. Went to the Dr. & had the ultrasound & everything came back fine. I was extremely relieved because we have a lot going on in the coming weeks & months & I do not have time for surgery! The pain could be all sorts of stuff apparently. I haven't had it since before the ultrasound & the Dr. gave me some meds to try for a month. I'm kinda thinking the pain could be from being so annoyed with the hit & run fiasco. Stress does funny things. 

Friday night we went to Fete Rouge for the first time. There were a ton of restaurants there with food & wine  tastings. It was a lot of fun & we got to visit with friends we hadn't seen in awhile.

Me, Karen & Renee'

If you're wondering what that thing around neck is - it's a wine glass holder. Awesome for when you have a plate & fork in your hands & you're trying to eat! 

Saturday morning I went for my long run at the lakes. I ran 3.5 mi. then met up with my brother & sis-in-law for Fleet Feet's Brooks Power Hour. There was a contest to see how many miles you can run in an hour. 

There was no chance I would win but I guess I'm a little competitive because I managed 6 miles in an hour. First time ever! 

After my run I went & had a mani & pedi with Amelia-Ann. It always feel good after a long run.

Saturday night was the wine dinner that the Knights of Columbus host every year at our Church.

Me, Steph, Suzy & Jackie

It was a fun night!

Dennis, me, Matt, Suzy, Jackie & Steph. Dean must have been talking to someone.

Monday I ran with Cindy.

I did a leg workout after work & now I'm sore!

Yesterday was arm day & I signed up for this.

Registration opened yesterday for OLOL's first annual Half  Marathon in March. Being registered for races keeps me motivated. So I have the Disney Half in Nov., the Louisiana Half in Jan. & the OLOL Half in March. 

Cindy ran with me again today.

 Horrible humidity & sore, tired legs made me feel like I was moving much slower. I was happy to see that I wasn't. 

How's everyone doing?

Toodles!