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  • What I Did On My Winter Vacation – Part 2

    3 Comments
    January 6, 2010 /  Uncategorized

    Continued from Part 1…

    Sunday – Hat Pick – stay in, play video games, and order delivery.  Yeah, if you insist.  We played Peggle, Crystal Chronicles, finished Brutal Legend, and started Dragon Age.  We ordered way too much chinese delivery (although, you’d be proud of me, I stuck mostly to my egg drop soup, shrimp with garlic sauce, and vegetarian delight and saved half of the latter two for the next day).

    Monday – Hat Pick – make the trek to ikea and buy ONLY what’s on this list.  This is huge – we usually are AWFUL at Ikea and buy way too much stuff.  We had a set list – new curtains, a new comforter, a new body pillow, a wok, and a few other things.  We ended up with a few odd things in the cart, but it was less than 10 bucks extra.  We had a lot of other shopping to do that day, plus we had hit the gym first for a run.  It was a long day!

    Tuesday – Hat Pick – Make a movie.  FAIL!  I wrote up a script, and then my back decided to go all rogue on me.   We went out to help my parents pick out a TV and then went up to help them set it up and have dinner.  I’m not sure if moving around a bit helped or hurt it, but it was what it was.  We decided to put it back in the hat for another time.

    Wednesday – re-organize the DVDs.  FAIL!  I was just in so much pain I couldn’t really leave the couch.  We played lots of games and watched movies.  Zliten went out with a friend and I couldn’t even go with.  I sat on the couch and felt sorry for myself, and tried to mow down some chocolate to make me feel better, but instinctively after 3 hershey kisses, I exchanged it for a mad large bag of carrots and pea pods.  Srsly, I can’t even emotionally eat properly.

    Thursday – Not a hat pick- New Years Eve outing.  I was still hurty when I awoke but better than I had been.  We cleaned the house and headed out early to have some dinner and drinky shenannegins!

    It was cold and windy so we pretty much stayed inside everywhere we went.  I had some appetizers and wasn’t hungry so I skipped dinner when everyone else ordered, but then forgot to grab anything later.  Needless to say, I remember toasting champagne at the bar, making a resolution to spend next NYE in Cancun (I was very specific), and then woke up in my makeup and contacts around 9am the next morning.  Yay NYE fun!

    Friday – Not a hat pick – Hangover day.  Zliten and I woke up early feeling pretty good, so he whipped us up some breakfast and we had another couchy day.  Then, the hangover started to settle in mid-afternoon so we ordered some pizza.  I ended up eating 5 slices of pizza and most of a gigantic family size salad.  Not my finest hour, but not ridiculously horrible for 2 meals worth of food when I forgot to eat dinner the day before.  Early sleep was awesome.

    Saturday – Sort of a hat pick – Day trip to Fredricksburg.  It was going to be in the hat, but we had made plans to go with some of our friends so it had to be planned.  I woke up early to finally get in a workout because I friggin’ felt better (fiiiinally).  They drove us up, we met one of their friends and had beers and lunch at a brewery (my god, the best meatloaf I’ve ever had, and Zliten got down a whole sausage sampler – bratwurst, knockwurst, and pepperwust), and then we walked around shopping for a while.  Want some slabs of marble?

    Geez, everything was ridici-expensive.  I’m sorry, but thrift stores have spoiled me.  The only thing I found that I would have purchased was this vintage-y looking black and white psychadellic coat that was a one of a kind from France somewhere, and only 80 bucks.  Alas, it was a little too small.  Zliten found an awesome cowboy hat, but it was too big.  So we left to drown our shopping sorrows with more alcohol.

    We hit up a fancy little wine bar where I had a yummy french chardonnay and a truffle or two (yes, breaking my no sweets and alcohol together rule but now I understand why people who drink nice wine eat chocolates with it – yum), and then we moved on to another german place to have dinner.  I ordered some goolash and a salad.  Goolash = sounds gross but it was AWESOME spicy beef stew.  One of our friends ordered a dish – I don’t remember what it was called, but it was pickles, onions, and mustard rolled up into slices of roast beef, baked, and smothered in gravy.  Sound FREAKING GROSS, right?  Nuh uh.  It was way yummy.  The boys loved it too.

    The verdict?  I could never live there, as I would get super fat on German food.  As it was, a lot of people in the town had a beer and brat gut -  call me superficial, but it was VERY obvious healthy living was not generally the norm there.  It was freaky weird.  I forget how healthy-fit Austin is sometimes compared to the rest of the world.  It was a cute little town and the people were SUPER NICE (though we were being led around by a local friend of a friend who was super awesome too).

    Sunday – Not a hat pick – Laundry, Cleaning, and Grocery-obtaining.  Normal Sunday stuff.  I didn’t want to go into Monday with a tumultuous house, no clean clothes, and no menu for the week, so we did stuff.  But mostly, we spent the day glued to the couch for one more day.  Zliten made yummy burgers for lunch and we rid our fridge of leftovers for dinner.  Finally, at the end of the day, I realized I was very very much ready to return to routine the next day.

    Yesterday, my first day at work, it wasn’t so bad to be back.  I enjoyed my run.  Waking up at 8:45 (which was 45 minutes later than I wanted) was freaking early, but 11pm came and I was tired.  Like normal.

    So, is it spring yet?  This is my least favorite time of year.  At least when it’s starting to get cold, I have the holidays to look forward to – but now it’s (Austin’s version of) butt-ass cold here for at least the next week, and I don’t have another super cool thing to look forward to until the half marathon (which right now, means running outside so I’m not entirely sure I’m looking forward to it at the moment… though I did actually sign up and pay today so I’m pretty pumped).  What was the coolest holiday thing you did?  What are you feverishly looking forward to now?

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  • What I Did On My Winter Vacation – Part 1

    3 Comments
    January 5, 2010 /  Uncategorized

    Ah, it feels like forever ago I left work and did a happy dance as I left the building for 2 weeks of bliss and awesomeness.  If you’ve been around for a little while, you know about the magic hat.  And if you don’t, you might click over there to see.  If you are truly lazy (it’s ok, I understand), we put some things we wanted to do in a hat and planned to pick one out every day.  Here is a quick play by play before it all fades into a distant memory.

    Friday – Not a hat pick – came home and slept because of too much fun the night before.   Seriously, sometimes I wonder what goes through my head staying up until almost 5am drinking heavily.  This is later than I stayed up ALL VACATION.  By far.  On a schoolnight.  Seriously woman… anyway.  We vegged on the couch and I believe we barely made it to 10pm.  It was a perfectly nice way to start break.

    Saturday – Not a hat pick – white elephant party #3.  I think there were errands, some gaming, I got an AWESOME 8 mile run in, and some relaxing before we headed out.  Details here.

    Here is me laughing at Zliten’s present:

    Sunday – Not a hat pick – video games all day.  We decided to start the hat picks the next day and play the hell out of Crystal Defenders and start Brutal Legend.  It was a sacrifice to be so lazy, but I made do.

    Monday – Hat pick – clean out the pantry.  Our first pick was so super exciting!  But, it was needed and it was REALLY, REALLY nice to be able to find things, our pantry is very shallow and very big so it’s hard to lose stuff, but things were beginning to fall behind the doors and get stuck on the sides.  We almost painted it but decided against it.  Then, we hit the gym for a super awesome run and otherwise vegged on the couch again.

    Tuesday – Hat pick – mini golf.  After a workout and some lunch, we headed out to an outdoor mini-golf course called peter pan.  It’s not changed since the 70′s and has all sorts of classic obstacles including a 15 foot tall peter pan, and a whale that you shoot your ball into and it comes out the butt.  Written on the butt?  San Diego.  Tee hee.  The place is actually BYOB friendly but being 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon, we refrained.

    The coolest thing?  A film crew came into shoot a movie.  They had everything – two big boom mics, cameras, a director, and two dudes dressed up in full golf attire with clubs and bags.  They were shooting on the white rabbit hole.  I wish I knew what it was all about.

    The second coolest thing?  We tied on both 18 whole courses!

    Wednesday – Hat pick -bbq adventure in Lockheart.  I’m very happy this one came up.  I got my run on early, and we left shortly after noon.  We drove the hour or so out of town and decided to hit up 3 places for lunch.  We brought a cooler to bring back leftovers and only ordered a little bit at each place.  Vegetarians, you might want to skip this part.

    Black’s – it was our favorite.  Everything was great, and they had the best selection of side dishes.  This is not my plate of food but very similar.

    Smitty’s – was the most expensive, and while the meat was good, the place reeked of bbq smoke so much it was distracting.  Also, the sides were crappy.  There wasn’t much of a selection, they were tiny, and they tasted like they came from the store.

    Kreuz – the meat was a little tough, but the sausage was amazing and so were the ribs.  We didn’t bother with sides because they didn’t look good here either.

    Verdict – Blacks was the best, but we still like Mann’s best which is within walking distance from our house.  So there.

    Thursday – Not a hat pick – X-mas Eve present opening adventure.  I got up early, got in a workout, and then headed to work for a few hours. Pics somewhat unrelated, I just picked out some of my faves from the day.

    There was a lot under the tree so we opened a present every 30 minutes.

    It was great fun!  I got such awesomeness as a leopard print snuggie, a runner ID tag for my shoes, a poopin’ polar bear, and the last present of the night – a garmin forunner.

    Even though it was WAY over what we decided to spend on each other (ahem!), Zliten decided that was what he wanted to get for me so he did.

    He got the 205 but decided he wanted to get me a 305 so we took it back and it’s on back order.  Soon, I will play with it!

    Zliten baked us computer bread.

    And since I am a less awesome present giver, here are some of his favorites, the hot sauces…

    …and the Rush Limbaugh book.  Comedy gold he has said so far.

    And then, we passed out just after midnight very sleepy-tired.

    Friday – Not a hat pick – X-mas fun with the parents.  After a workout in the morning, we headed up north for lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and copious amounts of sweets (candied popcorn, almond roca, fruitcake, pecan pie).  We played games all day – hand and foot (card game), dominos, golf (card game).  We got (beside money) a set of mugs for each card suit and embroidered aprons with our names on them for each of us.  Rock!  My dad ended up winning all games but the last one – I upset the game.  All in all, it was a great day.

    Saturday – Hat Pick – Go see a mooovie.  And well, we had wanted to check out Avatar in 3D for a while so it was a good excuse.  Great movie, even though we had to sit in the front row.  I highly recommend seeing this one in the theater, it was good fun.  It was a full day – we started with some pho, then shoppings, then the movie, and then hit the gym for a run.  I’ve never been so late on a weekend day, so I got there about 50 minutes before closing, so I had to modify – I did a quick warmup, 5 miles, and a very quick cooldown.  Then, we watched some really horrible movies (Troll 1 and Troll 2) and played a drinking game to go along with it.  Good fun!

    Part 2, tomorrow!

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  • Second Half Marathon Training, Week 6

    1 Comment
    December 28, 2009 /  Half Marathon Training

    Wow, this upcoming week’s end marks halfway through.  Crazy.  It’s been… not a breeze so far, but seems like it hasn’t completely eaten my life.  But I know the second half of the training gets up there.  I’m definitely at the point now where the long runs start taking over a bit of my weekend (resting up the night before, getting out to do them for an hour and a half plus, and relaxing after) and some of these tempo runs (8 miles this week and then again 2 weeks from now) and sprints (5×1600 a few weeks before the race) aren’t child’s play either.  But still, it’s nice that I run 3 times a week, non-consecutive days, and I get my weights and cross training on 2 days per week still.  I’m liking this well rounded training.  I’m faster, stronger, and feel way less prone to injuries this way.

    But, I’m only at 8 miles.  I still have quite a bit of distance to add before I’m ready.  All I can say thus far is that this training is making me a way stronger mid distance runner.  Hopefully that strength will carry on all the way through 13.1.  This week is another jump in mileage, and it will certainly test me.

    As much as I didn’t want a break this week, my body showed me it was for the best.  Most of my runs this week were not exactly top notch, and I was having to expend a lot of effort to keep my paces where they should be, even at the shorter distances.  It’s a little disconcerting, because it all shoulda been easy, but I’ll just be happy that I had an off week on a rest week.  Maybe, just maybe, I’m finding I can settle into a pace during higher mileage runs better?  Who knows.  We’ll see.

    By the details:

    Monday: 3×1600 sprints – check.  I did these outside on the track and was a dummy and forgot my timing watch.  My tummy was a little upset from lunch and the first sprint was brutal, I almost heaved.  The second and third were better though.  I wish I knew my pace – I’m betting I just ran the first too fast but we’ll never know…

    Tuesday: DDR circuits – check.  Didn’t wanna but I did it.

    Wednesday: 4 mile tempo @ 8:59 pace – check.  The inside of my pants had a hole in them and I shredded the inside of my leg (it was ALL bruised and raw after), it was super humid – muggy almost, and I couldn’t really find a comfortable pace.  But I finished under 9 minute miles and I think I could have done way better if conditions would have been better.

    Friday: 30 mins DDR – check.  I was supposed to do this Thursday but I was feeling crappy (happy fun knock-me-on-my-ass TOM time) so I rested and just got up before heading out to celebrate with the ‘rents.  Wasn’t feeling the weights and didn’t have time for ‘em anyway, so I figured ONE day off would be ok.

    Saturday: 10k pace – sorta check.  I ended up running 5 miles around 9:25 pace on the treaddy.  I ended up at the gym less than an hour before closing so I didn’t get a proper warmup (or cooldown), and couldn’t do the full 6.  I’m pretty happy with the pace though.

    This week, up, up, and away with the mileage.  Oddly enough, it’s been HARDER to want to run/workout on vacation when I have all the time in the world.  I guess there is something to be said about routine.

    Monday: 4×800 sprints.  Debating between outside and the ‘mill.  Sprints seems so much easier on the treaddy.

    Tuesday: DDR circuits.

    Wednesday: 8 mile tempo @ 8:55 pace – should be able to do this outside.  If I can just accomplish my same run from the Saturday before last, I’ll be happy.

    Thursday: DDR circuits.

    Saturday: 9 mile long run @ 9:40 pace – hope to do this outside as well.  If I can do Wednesday’s run, this should be a piece of cake.

    I might be going out of town for a night tomorrow night/Wed, so if that happens I’ll have to bust out the tempo tomorrow before I go.  Not thrilled because I’ll have to do it inside because it’s supposed to be rainy and not making it out of the 30′s, but such is life.  Looking forward to taking on this week.  Cross your fingers for me!

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  • Second Half Marathon Training Week 5

    1 Comment
    December 21, 2009 /  Half Marathon Training

    Aaaah, vacation.  Being able to run outside in the mid-afternoon when the sun has warmed everything up into the 60s if it’s too cold in the morning.  Being able to not feel rushed out the door, and having the time to do a nice, lengthy stretch before getting cleaned up.  Moments like this could make a gal want to quit her job and…

    …yeah, reality check.  Never gonna happen.  But I am certainly going to enjoy the hell out of it for the next 2 weeks.  The only problem is once I get into “relax on the couch” mode, sometimes it’s hard for me to wanna get up.  I could easily sit here and continue to be a lump on the couch and play video games all day, but it’s a nice sunny day and as soon as the sun does it’s warm up thing a little more, I’m gonna head out to the track and do some sprints.

    So, last week.  I posted a lot about it.  I always have this weird feeling when something’s good, it’s hard to believe it’s gonna last.  Week 3 I felt so damn strong, finally.  I figured week 4 was gonna trip me up.  Go back to being rough.  Hey, sometimes you just have to have a little faith, I suppose.  I didn’t just continue, I blew the last week out of the water.  Now, week 5 is supposed to be a recovery week.  I’m almost sad – I don’t feel like I need it.  This 3-day a week training keeps me feeling rested, I’m never running and feeling worn down, I’m rocking some of the most amazing paces I ever have, and I like it.

    By the day:

    Monday: 6×400 sprints  @ 1:58 pace – check.  Not much to say about these except it seems weird when my sprint days feel like my easiest.  Oh well, I’ll take it.

    Tuesday: DDR circuit – check.  I probably need to vary my cross training a wee bit more, but for now it’s working.  It’s not as if I’m lacking cardio on the other days…

    Wednesday: 6 mile tempo @ 8:55 pace – check (technically 8:56 but who’s counting).  Oh hell yah.  I was dreading this, and it was ROUGH, but I made it.  And I think I could probably tack on another 2 miles if I promised myself something REALLY nice after.  Pain by Jimmy Eat World is always my last song on the playlist for these for a reason, tee hee,

    Thursday: 30 Day Shred Level 2 – check.  Had to be up early and off work early so I only had time for a short workout.  For the 30 mins I put into these, I always feel pretty worked.

    Saturday: 8 mile run @ 9:40 pace – check.  More than check.  I have NO idea how I accomplished this, but I ran this at a 8:50 pace.  Maybe it was finally getting to run outside.  Maybe it was the gorgeous 60 degree weather.  Maybe it was my awesome new playlist.  But I finished my 8.03 mile course around the neighborhood in 71 minutes.  And – I wasn’t feeling AT ALL like I was on the treadmill.  It was a fast pace that was pushing me, but not uncomfortable and no head games needed.

    So, this week is recovery week.  I *almost* wanna keep the building going for the next 2 weeks since I have the time and recover AFTER vacation, but that kinda sounds like playing with fire to me.  So I’ll kick off the first vacation week with a low mileage week to boot.

    Monday: 3×1600 sprints (and I even get to do them outside yay!)

    Tuesday: DDR circuits

    Wednesday: 4 mile tempo (chance of rain that day, but it’s supposed to be warm, so maybe I can squeeze it in outside)

    Thursday: 30 day shred/DDR circuits (depending on how the day goes, this is my one 3-ish hour workday)

    Saturday: 10k pace (hope to run this outside, but it IS supposed to be chilly that day – I’ll wait until mid-afternoon and see if I can tough out the 50s, heh)

    This is all sorta subject to magic hat picks.  This week I hope works out just about the way it should above, because I’ve got set plans on Christmas Eve and Day.  Speaking of magic hat picks, we drew the first one today and it is…

    …wait for it…

    …wait for it…

    CLEANING OUT THE PANTRY!!!  WOOHOOO!

    Heh, well, at least I have plenty of time to relax, wake up, and run when it’s warmer.  Well, I’m gonna keep things short and sweet because as I mentioned a few times, it’s vacation.  Happy Monday, everyone!

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  • The Bucket List

    2 Comments
    December 18, 2009 /  Uncategorized

    Glad I posted yesterday.  This one is going to be short.  Last night was a late (epic-ly fun) night, and I’m paying for it today.  I’m not sure at WHAT point last night I forgot it was a Thursday and not a Friday night, but that’s the only possible explanation.  Just another reason why I am not a role model.  Pictures next week when I sum up all the white elephant parties.  This was number two, number three happens tomorrow.

    So, anyhoo, every time we have time off at home over the holidays, we have *big plans*.  We never travel anywhere because traveling this time of year is for the crazy, and our families are both firm believers in “it’s a holiday when we visit no matter what time of year”.  So both in San Diego and Austin, we’ve had a week off (at least) together each December’s end.  And nothing major to do.

    We say to ourselves – this will be the year we do <insert lots of random awesome plans here>.  We do one, maybe two things, and then end up with our butts planted on the couch, playing video games and watching movie marathons.  Soul soothing in it’s own right, sure, but not very memorable.  I can honestly not remember much about those weeks beyond takeout, the couch, and the TV, and alcohol.

    This year, I’m not settling.  Oh, there will be all those things above, for sure, it wouldn’t be Christmas without it.  Some people think of Santa and presents and reindeer and crap, my favorite holiday tradition is the week of freedom and loafing after the Christmas Stouffers lasagna is consumed.  However, upwards of two weeks of it sound like excess.  I want stories.  I want something blogworthy and more important, memorable.  Without leaving a reasonable driving radius.  So I present to you our concept: the magic hat.

    We will be picking one thing out each day and doing it.  Most are fun things, a few are just things we need to get done, but they’re all going in a hat.  We’re not being super strict on it (because what fun would that be), so if we pick something that just doesn’t make sense (a bike adventure after a long run day) or the weather isn’t cooperating for (a day roadtrip on a crappy rainy cold day) or we just plain don’t feel like it, (a beautiful day we wanna get outside and we pick something that doesn’t have us leave the house) we can put it back.  Or save it for tomorrow.  Or something, we haven’t figure out all the rules yet.

    Some are all day adventures (or even overnight).  Some are just an hour or two, so if we’re feeling frisky, we might do two in one day!  I do have to work half training in there, but considering that’s my ONLY obligation, I’m feelin’ pretty confident I’ll be ok.

    The Awesometastic Holiday Magic Hat Bucket List of Awesomeness:

    -Beer and Breakfast in Fredricksburg (like bed and breakfast, but better!)
    -BBQ in Lockhart (apparently this is the best place in Texas to get BBQ)
    -Salsa dancing at Copa
    -Regular silly dancing at a random club
    -Gaming all day, ordering delivery, no interruptions, no leaving PJs
    -Rock climbing
    -Bike adventure
    -Roller Skating
    -Watch all 3 lord of the rings in one day
    -Go to a museum (Austinites, any suggestions?)
    -Clean out the pantry (exciting I know)
    -Space museum in Houston
    -Steak and crab night
    -Make a movie
    -Upscale thrift shopping (not an oxymoron, I swear.  Hitting the cute little second hand boutiques I see everywhere)
    -Esther’s Follies (a comedy show downtown we’ve wanted to see)
    -Afternoon cocktails somewhere

    We’re adding to the list as we think of things, but that’s what we have so far.  So, I ask, what’s in your bucket?  Any suggestions (keep in mind we are broke so the cheaper the better) for what I should add to mine?

    Happy weekend.  Just found out my vacation begins tonight (the shippable is delayed, which is yay), so after last night, I’m thinking the perfect way to kick off vacation is dinner and card games with the parents.

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  • 5 Random Things – Braindead Edition

    3 Comments
    December 16, 2009 /  Uncategorized

    Since I haven’t been pulled in one way or another with a post to write today, I think I’m going to pull out a 5 random things day and hope y’all will forgive me.

    1.  I rocked the sprints Monday.  I actually ran them at 1:57 per 400m because that’s the closest I could do via the treadmill.  7.7.  Is it odd that my EASIST days are my sprints?  Today, I’m going to tackle a 6 mile tempo and feeling really nervous even though I rocked the 5 miler.  Can I add a mile and still maintain my pace?  We shall see.

    2.  It seems that the closer to Christmas you get, the more CRAP FOOD is around.  And by crap I mean so-yummy-but-bad-for-you.  So far, some gourmet popcorn, a few rum balls, and a small tin of homemade Christmas cookies have made it into the fortress of casa de Quix and Zliten.   I’ve decided it’s not the end of the world.  Yesterday I had a cookie and a rum ball while the rest of my food was totally rockin’ (protien bar, homemade chili, the rest of the bag of carrots, super veggie homemade chicken noodle soup, blackberries, and a laughing cow, melba toast, and turkey summer sausage).

    Today, I had half a tiny piece of cake for desert with lunch, and I will probably allow one tiny cookie after a healthy dinner.  I think the key is not to try to stoically deny myself, but definitely limit myself.  I think denying myself now will backfire once next month hits and the mileage goes up.  THAT is when I will need the most resolve, when I actually feel the hunger and my body crying out to feed it sugar.   But who knows, maybe training this way will cut out the desire to stand in front of the freezer and shovel in chocolate chips and make me crave more sane things like whole cows and 1 lb bags of veggies.

    3.  I’m trying to look forward to Holiday break, but today I’m in limbo because I don’t know what day it starts.  I was originally going to be off starting Friday (minus Christmas Eve – they are not giving it to us off, but typically send us home at lunch…I live 5 minutes away from work so I’ll come in for 3 hours and save the time off for a full day, thank you very much).  However, I have a deliverable that MIGHT be due 12/22 or it might be delayed until next year.  If it’s not delayed, I’ll work 12/21 and 12/22 at least half days.

    Hopefully I’ll know within the next day or 2 so I can really and truly look forward to a certain date!  One of the things I love about vacation is the anticipation counting down the days before and the “last day of school” feeling when you walk out of the building on the last day (I’ve been known to do that toe-tap jiggy thing before on my way out).  I’m really looking forward to some quality time off without traveling or obligations – just FUN TIMES.  Well, we might do a night stay somewhere, but nothing crazy.

    4.  I’ve been doing a lot of navel gazing lately so I’m going to spare you a 2009 wrap up (this week at least), but I have started to think about what’s next.  The half marathon and marathon for sure.  Finishing what I started during NaNo and getting myself on a consistent schedule with my fiction/memoir/whatever writing.  Then there are the unknowns… should I give myself a year off really pushing weight loss and maintain and work on my running and my head?  I think it’s about time to start figuring out what’s next career-wise.  Do I want to stay here and gun for a promotion?  Do I want to stick my toes in somewhere else?  Back to school?  I do know it’s time to at least coast towards a path.  I’m 30 – no longer a spring chicken.  I have lingered in lower-middle management long enough.

    And what do I want to do with this blog?  I love my lovely gaggle of wonderful people that comment here, but I feel like I’m doing something wrong because sometimes I feel like the dorky kid with the glasses and the braces that gets picked last for teams.  I’d love to have a bit larger exposure on the interwebs simply because I am a closet fame whore, but I just haven’t figured that one out yet.  And I’m not sure the level of effort I am willing to put forth to make it happen.  And I’m not sure even WHY I want this, as this place just started as a soapbox for me to shout on.  Maybe it’s that I feel like it’s not worth as much not shouting AT anyone.

    Yeah, ok, expect a 2009 wrap up and 2010 resolution post coming up.  There is obviously more for me to say here.  We’ll just call this Navel Gazing December.

    5.  I hope to wrap up all that navel gazing soon, and will be taking things a little lighter during the next 2 weeks.  What that means is I have a bunch of recipe posts I’ve been meaning to do.  I’ve even got a fashion-y one planned.  I think I’m going to try and join in MizFit’s virtual talent show.  So what am I saying?  Expect some fluff starting next week through the end of the year, and if you get super awesome well-thought-out posts, be happy!  Because this one is so well thought out and intelligible.  MMmmmhmmm.

    I guess that about wraps up my world.  Off to finish out the day, knock out my tempo (cross your fingers I don’t die at that pace), clean more of my messy house (love when my parents want to drop by randomly on a Friday), make some dinner, pack my lunch for tomorrow, and fall down tired and zonk out!  At least tomorrow = happy fun white elephant party and Friday should be pretty mellow.

    How is your week going?  Got any ideas for posts for me so it’s not all recipes all the time?  Crazy questions or stories I should tell?  Wanna tell me how to become one of the popular kids?

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  • Wedded Bliss, And The Road Thereto… Part 2

    7 Comments
    October 13, 2009 /  Uncategorized

    Oooh, you actually wanted to hear about my WEDDING, not just partying in Vegas?  Ok, ok, here we go…

    Sunday: A Nice Day for a Tropical Wedding…

    Zliten and I both had issues sleeping past about 7 am, but we made a go of it until at least 8, when I got up, looked at my mop of a head, and decided to wash my hair instead of trying to style my ratty 2 day old casino smoke smelling fro.  Oddly enough, given enough time, even my hair plays nice and does the straight thing well.  Then I touched up my nails/toes – so glad I did the polish coat earlier or I would have been in trouble here.  At about 9:30, the first of the girls showed up to get ready and Zliten took off for the reception area to make sure the sound system worked properly and to set up the decorations.  Yes, the BOYS ended up setting up the reception tables.  How cool is that?

    We grabbed some breakfast and poured some champagne and my maid of honor started on one of the bridesmaid’s hair while I did my makeup.  It took me longer than I thought it would because I was trying to be SUPER careful that everything was perfect.  Then about an hour before I had to be down there we started on my hair.  Since it was freshly washed it was taking forever to hold a curl, so my poor MOH and one of my bridesmaids spent the whole time curling, spraying, and pinning to get through my entire head.  I ran down there about 10 minutes late with my dress in my arms (we were supposed to be there 30 mins early).

    I got to the ready room and the wedding coordinator was NOT happy with me.  Apparently I was supposed to traipse through the entire length of the casino and dirty my dress, and she put her foot down and FORBADE us to wear the silk flower clips we had made for our hair citing that I had signed the contract saying no outside flowers.  What. the. fuck.  No outside real flowers I understand, but HAIR CLIPS?  And who seriously yells at a bride 10 minutes before the wedding starts?  After answering a few questions on how I wanted things to go (Yes, Dad walk me down the aisle.  No, bridesmaids can just stand up there.  Yes, you can say God, why not, it’s a special occasion.  Blah de blah) I got into my dress and waited for things to start.  Finally, at that point, I was starting to be a little nervous.  “Don’t trip” was my mantra.

    It was suuuuper windy so my hair probably got a *little* windblown on the short walk from the ready room to the chapel, but then the doors opened and I saw everyone at it was pretty much surreal.  My dad walked me down the short aisle, and then Zliten and I got up to the podium and things started.  Apparently everyone but me was an emotional and nervous wreck (all my girls, half the guys, Zliten, and all the parents besides my dad were tearing/choking up).  I was a little shaky up there but it’s more like the culmination of SO MANY MONTHS of work for just this short moment finally hit me.  I wasn’t so much nervous as *overwhelmed* by everything.  I guess I get it from my dad, I’m just not a crier.

    The ceremony was very short and very sweet, especially the speech that T gave – he was supposed to officiate but the casino had rules against it, so we compromised and they let him speak for us.  It felt like almost no time passed and it was over, we walked out and let out a sigh of relief.  Whew – we r married! :)   Then, it was picture time.  And more picture time.  And still more picture time.  They took about 130 pictures in all.  Finally, we got to come to the reception and be announced as Mr. and Mrs. Zliten McGnome*!

    Things just flew by once we got there.  I remember visiting with family and friends, there was some wine, and I remember being told I had to eat so I ate.  The food was pretty much delicious!  Then, we visited with friends/family that weren’t sitting at our table for a while and then it was time to toast!  My MOH gave a very sweet, short toast, and then the BM got all emotional on us (it was very sweet), and then I got up and thanked and introduced the wedding party and family and the champagne got flowin’.

    Then, we cut the cake.  We sorta fumbled it because we hadn’t discussed how to do it, but the maitre’ d stepped in and helped us.  We did *NOT* smear cake all over each other’s faces, but after being egged on, we gave each other a little streak on the cheek.  The cake too was delicious – it was vanilla and buttercream frosting with strawberries.  Very, very nummy.  I’m not a huge cake person, but I got down almost the entire huge slice they gave me.

    Then, our first dance.  We had prepared a fairly elaborate east coast swing thing, but Zliten kinda lost it.  After everything that day, we barely had it in us to just keep triple step, triple step, rockstep and do the dip at the end.  However, I saw the video, and we still looked pretty cute doing it – so it worked out.  After that, a lot of the family had cleared out and we were left with mostly friends, so we collapsed all the people into one table and worked on polishing off more champagne and wine.  The zune kept playing the SLOW songs so we went ahead and DJ’d ourselves and got down to some Zoot Suit Riot and chatted and the rest of the time just flew by and we had to give up the reception room, so we moved the rest of the people and the booze up to our room.

    We spent the next few hours just chillin’ and drinking a little more and piling onto the bed for pictures and I happily shed the dress for some jeans (as wedding dresses go, it was pretty casual and comfy, but it felt goooood to be out of it).  We got hungry and headed out for The Noodle House, which was delicious.  We have a BUNCH of Chinese/Vietnamese food snobs in our collection of friends and they all loved it.  We then meandered to the Luxor to hit the club…which was closed for the night.  We lost a few people on the way who were tired, then lost a few more when we couldn’t get in, so we walked back to the Excalibur and hit up Dick’s Last Resort for some drinks (as some of us weren’t dressed for the club yet), and then after some yummy drinkies, it was just Zliten and I.

    So what does one do on their wedding night?  Quarter poker and whiskey until 5am of course… and talking to some crazy lady from Arizona who kept giving us martial advice.  Finally, we hit the room and CRASHED.  It was the first night we slept well all trip.

    Monday: Still Recovering

    I woke up around 11 and just couldn’t sleep anymore.  I did the read my book in the tub thing and sit at the pool thing again and then FINALLY Zliten got up and we walked around the casino for a bit and then went to our 1:45 appointment to check out the pictures.  We got a few prints for free, but decided to buy them all (since it came with the pictures on DVD, as well as the rights to enlarge/print/distribute them).   I joked that I was just too hungry to pick which ones I wanted, but it was sorta true.

    We then meandered looking for food at the MGM and ended up passing Emeril’s restaurant.  If you’ll remember, we missed out on Emeril’s in NOLA, so we figured this was perfect.  To be quite honest, we weren’t that impressed with the food itself, but the atmosphere and pace of service was great.  We realized we hadn’t just sit down and had a leisurely meal with each other in…forever.  We played a bit more slots after lunch very leisurely (I think we started with 20 bucks and ended with 20 bucks and played for 3 hours) and then headed back to the room and changed to go out for the night.

    We got free show tickets and a free dinner with the wedding package, so we hit the 7pm showing of Dirk Arthur’s Xtreme Magic.  Sure it was cheesy, and we ended up seated on the very side of the stage so we sorta kinda saw behind some of the illusions, but it had flashy costumes and good music and big kitties (lions and tigers and panthers, oh my).  After that we hit the steakhouse and had yummy bread, gigantical caesar salads, and awesome steak and seafood.  Another nice, leisurely meal with just us two.  We agreed we have to do that more often.  We wanted to try for desert since it was comped but just couldn’t do it.  After that we played roulette.  At first I was down, then I was up and Zliten was WAY up, and then we both came down some, and we finally left a bit up.  We hit the hot tub and then called it a night.

    Tuesday: Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

    Got up at 9am to pack and just barely fit everything into our suitcases (Zliten thought we’d need to buy another bag, but I knew our pack fu was strong).  We then took a cab over to In-N-Out and yep, it was just as good as I remembered.  Mooyah just cannot compare.  Since it was actually pretty close we walked back, tinkered around the casino with some money for a while, I ran over to MGM and turned in our last money voucher (machines don’t give money when you cash out, just vouchers) and then we waited for our airport shuttle.

    The flight was totally uneventful EXCEPT getting through security.  So we had repacked quickly and changed which of the 4 bags we were carrying on at the room that morning, and I remembered in line that we had our toiletry bags in our carry on (so one round of repacking right there ensued).  Then, when we went through the x-ray machine, apparently we had forgotten one bottle of wine and some of my hair products in the carry on, so we decided to check it instead (what’s another 15 bucks, right?).  Zliten went to take it down to the terminal and when he tried to get back in, they had given him the wrong boarding pass.  The machines to print them out kept rebooting when he hit print, so he had to stand in line AGAIN for the ticket counter AND for the security check.

    We got home, and our lovely friends had made dinner for us and fed us some drinks and then we went home and enjoyed the hell out of being in our own bed, and didn’t leave the house or our PJs until we had to for work Thursday morning.

    Next Vegas trip (which, why lie, will probably be within the next year because it’s way too fun to go), my plan is to come up Thursday, do the nightclub thing that first night, spend Friday doing a straight casino night, take Saturday mellow and do a dinner and show, and then fly out Sunday morning.

    Whew, I’m exhausted just reliving it in text.  If you want to see a few more pics have at it.  If you’re actually on FB and want to see more, add me as a friend and check out my tagged pictures, Zliten’s mom uploaded a bunch but I think they are only viewable by friends of friends.  Eventually I’ll have all the disposable cameras and digi pics and videos from everyone and upload that into one massive flickr or something, but I’ll wait to gather all that until everyone is less sick of hearing wedding, wedding, wedding.  So what’s the plan moving forward now that I can check a major milestone off my list?  Stay tuned to find out…

    *Of course they didn’t actually announce us that way, but ya know…

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  • Wedded Bliss, And The Road Thereto… Part 1

    5 Comments
    October 12, 2009 /  Uncategorized

    Hindsight is 20/20.  On one hand, there are a lot of things I would do over if I could min/max the trip to be perfect, but on the other hand, it was an awesome, magically delicious time so why worry about it, right?

    Thursday: Let the Debauchery Begin…

    It started well – the parking lot we wanted to park in was full, but a spot opened up just as we got there!  We even made it through security without the white glove search (though we were carrying lots of weird wedding favor stuff).  The flight was very…uneventful.  We flew US Airways and I actually think I’ll refrain from using them again even if they are the cheapest.  I’ve never had a flight that landed on time (and have missed connections with them before), they cost the most to check bags, and their service – meh.

    We got our bags without incident (I had major nightmares about this because I was forced to check my wedding dress) and shuttled and got to the hotel and the room.  After checking in, this one was much nicer.  This one was right at the front of the casino, had a comfy bed, DIDN’T have mirrors all over the walls and ceiling, and we didn’t have to walk past the rejected mall kiosks to get to our room, hoorah!

    We were starving and parched so we found the best man (who had actually gotten there 9 hours earlier, and spent the day by himself cuz he was the first one there, oops) and after a few libations at the Tropicana and some quarter video poker, we headed out to the strip and settled on Planet Hollywood as our food destination.  After balking at the steakhouse prices, we settled on the Spice Market Buffet (for more detailed food reviews, hit the yelp links).  The one thing I will say – while I doubt it was *all* the food’s fault, I’ve never felt so sick after a night in Vegas.  And I am a pretty accomplished drinker, so…take that how you will.  After that we hit the piano bar for some ridiculously expensive drinks (though we had a 2 for 1 coupon so it wasn’t *too* bad) and enjoyed the piano guy’s humor.  I could sit at a piano bar forever – but this is Vegas so we continued on.

    This is where the events of the night gets hazy.  I know that we played a bit more at PH, and then the New York New York (where I won 80 bucks and Z and the best man lost about that much), and I know we made it back to the Tropicana to drop our best man (BM from here on out because I am lazy) off who was exhausted, and ended up meeting some people playing more quarter poker (I think).  We convinced everyone to go swimming (even sleepy BM) – gotta love 24 hour pools.  Then, after completely ruining my hair we went right back out and hit up the Hooters Casino.  I believe there may have been some wings and onion rings ingested, as well as a little lot more whiskey.

    Then, we sat down at these machines that have this fishing networked bonus round where if anyone at the machines won, you got to play.  In my drunken state, I was FASCINATED by them and got so excited when they came up.  The quote of the night was – Me, “Winner winner chicken dinner!” Zliten – “No, they’re fishies!” Me – “Oh yeah…winner winner FISHY dinner!”.  Apparently it was adorable.  The cleaning crew (as it was 6am-ish around this time) kept cheering us on every time we hit the bonus.  I even made Zliten pull more money out because I was having too much fun playing (which is VERY uncharacteristic of me).

    When we left it was sunrise, but silly us, we decided that that just meant it was time for champagne!  We went to the MGM across the street and sat down for more quarter poker and mimosas.  This is where it gets VERY hazy, as Zliten seems to remember us going through about 4 bottles of champagne (I am *pretty* sure that it wasn’t all us but who knows).  Around 10:30 am Friday, my Thursday ended with a ceremonious pass the hell out on the bed.

    Friday: Not for the Squeamish

    Seriously, skip this day if you don’t want to hear about throwing up.

    So, we had the limo scheduled for 2pm to pick us up and take us to the courthouse to get our marriage license.  I told Zliten to do whatever it took to get me out of bed for it, but apparently it was NOT happening.  So instead, they took the limo and rode around.  I’m glad SOMEONE got to use it.  I woke up around 6:45 pm and still felt like a mach truck slammed into me, but we had some friends to meet at 8pm at the Centrifuge Bar.  I choked down a little of the leftover room service I had demanded we order that morning, got dressed, and headed back out to hit the bar.

    I got through a few hours alright, and the rum almost made me start feeling better (hair of the dog, indeed), until I just all of a sudden felt WORSE.  Like, eject button impending.  Since I’m pretty accustomed to airing a lot of dirty laundry on my blog, I might as well share another secret about me – I am a VIOLENT puker.  I get this crazy rash all over my mug because of the ridiculous face I make at the toilet.  I would make a HORRIBLE bulimic.  Getting this rash is NOT optimal 2 days before my wedding.  First I tried a public restroom that was crowded, and got shy and decided I’m going to tough it out for now and do the deed in private. Yeah – I’ve always had incredible puke control.  It’s one of my super powers.

    After the gathering disperses, I said I need to go back to the room and tried to figure out how to make myself feel better without throwing up.  So I tried a nap and some TV.  Worse.  I tried to pray to the porcelain god and my brain wouldn’t let me – though I felt SO SICK.  Finally, after a few hours I get the hang of relaxed face upchucking and get rid of what ails me.  I feel better, but now my throat tastes awful, making me feel sicker.

    Finally around 2:30 am I feel like a human again and considered going back out because I kept getting texts about people having fun, but then got up and walked around the room a bit, and realized that it was not a good idea.  If I was at 20% before I was only about 45% now.  And I had to get married in a day and a half.  So my Friday was spent mostly in bed, feeling like poopcakes.  Around 3:30, Zliten tried to drag me out, but with a little twist of the arm he fell right into his pillow and started snoring before I could say please.  It was really cute.

    Saturday:  A Little Jittery

    I woke up WAY early and all the caffeine I had over the last two days (yes, the diet soda … sometimes my complete lack of caffeine tolerance backfires) hit me.  I felt twitchy and if I got panic attacks, I’d imagine this is what the beginning of one feels like (heart racing, can’t stop your brain, needing to pace, etc).  Also – the fact that it was the day before my wedding I think *finally* kicked in the butterflies.  I got up, read my book in the bathtub, got myself some breakfast, played some poker, sat out at the pool for a while, and then FINALLY Zliten got up and we got out and got moving.

    We took a cab to get our marriage license and then met up with a group of friends at Caesars to get some food in us.  Since beyond a few bites of leftover room service I hadn’t eaten since Thursday night, I was SO READY and felt zero guilt getting myself some yummy meatloaf and almost finished the entire gigantic plate of it.  Then we hiked back to the Tropicana with our friends in tow and played around the casino a bit and then headed up to the room where we had accumulated a bunch of alcohol somehow.  I finally decided it was time to have a drink or 2 as I was about to go deal with a HUGE group of my family, and after the day before and the weirdness that morning, I didn’t feel terribly social or hospitable.

    After a quick getting ready we left in a cab and headed to the Ruben family dinner my dad had arranged (we just went for the cocktail hour).  The nice thing about losing 115 lbs from the time when they last saw me means there were compliments lavished all around and we had lots to talk about – and things which I am very comfortable talking about (my running, how I eat, etc).  That part went quickly and some wine certainly helped.  Next, we ducked back to the Mandalay Bay for our “rehearsal dinner” (no rehearsing but we needed to eat) and stuffed ourselves full of delicious crab and shrimp and all the other nummy stuff.  After that, Zliten ventured to the room for his early retirement, and I enjoyed another glass of wine with the survivors of dinner and caught up with a friend I hadn’t seen in 10 years!  However, wine + tired = SUPAHTIRED so I went to bed pretty early.

    …next installment – the wedding day!  See ya tomorrow!

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  • I’m Back: The Short Version…

    3 Comments
    October 8, 2009 /  Uncategorized

    So, in short:

    Vegas was fantastic, the wedding went off (almost) without a hitch, and a great time was had by all.  I am happy, full of relief, and finally feeling how EXHAUSTED I am after being under that much stress for that many weeks of planning and preparation.  I didn’t really sleep well from the time I left for Vegas until Monday night, and my sleep schedule is kinda screwed up anyway from being 2 hours behind in pacific time and getting up later than I should regardless.  Although I got 9 hours last night and feel like I needed about 20.

    So I’m going to leave you with a picture, go catch up on your blogs, and get some mother lovin’ sleep over the next few days and get back into it on Monday.  Everything.  Life.  Running.  Calorie counting.  This week is for sleeping, eating what makes me happy/healthy/feel good, and moving only as much as I feel like.  I feel a little guilty pulling the “I’ll start Monday” BS, but it doesn’t feel like an excuse, it feels like my body REALLY needs some time to decompress and not worry about ANYTHING.  Oddly enough, since I’m pretty much convinced fruits and vegetables don’t actually exist in Vegas, I’ve been naturally loading up on those since I’ve returned and plan to continue with the soup and salad bar for lunch today.

    Oh yes, the picture… caption should pretty much be “Whew, we actually made it!”

    Now, I’m going to try to get through the rest of the day without tripping and falling face down into my pillow.  See ya next week with more details!

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  • New Orleans Vacation Part 2: Tour De Fried Foods

    1 Comment
    August 13, 2009 /  Uncategorized

    Here’s the continuation of my vacation stories!

    Friday, later:

    Oh, jester bar and your many, magical potions...

    I had spent the last week reading up on things to do, places to go, places to avoid, what to eat and drink, etc. and I had made a list.   Hand grenades are pretty much something that one must have at least once.  The bar that sells them brings them in pre-mixed and they are a secret recipe.  If any other bars are caught selling something called a hand grenade, they get in trouble (plus whoever reports it gets a 250 dollar bounty).  I’m usually skeptical of fruity strong drinks but this one packed a g’ddam punch.  One drink and I went from sober to a bit tipsy – which with my Russian tolerance just doesn’t happen.  There was a dude playing guitar and singing, and he was really quite good!

    Next, we made our way to the carousel bar in Hotel Montelione – which was pretty disorienting in a sweet way.  You sit at the bar and it rotates around slowly.  It took us about a revolution and a half to finish our 8 dollar vodka and cranberry drinks.  That drink price was disconcerting in a not-so-sweet way, so we moved on, after I got my fill of the snack mix they had out.  That was sweet and not disorienting!

    Hurricane the size of my HEAD!

    On the list after that was the jester bar, as Zliten had declared that we get our touristy, fruity drinks out of our system in one night.  The jester bar was the next stop to get our namesake jester drink (Zliten is pretty much obsessed with jesters so it was a natural thing).  We met a bartender dude there that had been up 30 hours straight and also was a sidekick owner.  We talked phones a bunch while we drank our drinks.  They were pretty much full of kiwi strawberry, love, and rocket fuel.  After a bunch of brain freeze and the sun going down, we headed out.

    Next was Pat O’Brien’s where the original hurricane drink, uh, originated.  This drink was so the size of my head, even more than the drink was on the cruise.  Somehow, this was the most serious drink of the night even though the others definitely contained a ridiculous amount of jet fuel.  This place was super cool because there were fountains on FIRE!  Also adding to the supercoolness was the hundreds of individuals dressed in red lingerie who were in town for a running/drinking event of some sort.  I am totally going to have to look that up.  Apparently the “race” (though they said they hated calling it that) had a beer stop every mile and they had 6 hours to hit up as many of them as they could or something.  Sounds like a recipe for dehydration – but too fun.

    Recursive Mirror is Recursive...

    Next, Zliten decided on another hand grenade.  If I would have had a little sense in me I might have protested.  But I didn’t.  Went back to the Tropical Isle and the same dude was singing and guitaring with a keyboardist this time.  They were even better!  We snagged two more seats at the bar and found a recursive mirror!  It was quite a trip indeed.

    After that one, I wasn’t doing so well.  I needed food (note that it was encroaching upon midnight and I had only eaten a late lunch).  We ended up hitting a Krystal because I was getting desperate (which is fast food… note that I have not eaten a fast food meal in about 3 years).  While Zliten was standing in line I started feeling really rough and started towards the bathroom to pray to the porcelian god, and three sorrority sisters cut in front of me and ran in.  I then decided it was time to go back to the hotel RIGHT THEN.  I power walked back and made it to the room and removed the offending elements from my

    Evil, evil little man-drink...

    Evil, evil little man-drink...

    body.  Food then came.  I enjoyed the hell out of it, full fat mayonaise, nasty fast food beef-like burger, and greasy salty frozen-from a package fries and all.

    I was done.  I sat on the bed for quite a while.  Zliten decided he was going back out and I decided that even though I was done drinking, I was on vacation and I was going to hang out.   So I rose from the dead and we got him another jester (in a souvenier jester glass this time) and then some  blue death drink which ended HIS night.  Sleep was imminent.

    Saturday:

    Zliten, waiting for the trolley that never came...

    We slept in pretty late.  Combined with about 8 hours sleep in the last 2 days and the curious events of the night before, it was about 10:30 before I got out of bed and close to 11:30 before I got Zliten up.  We decided it was the day to hit Emeril’s restaurant for lunch.  We walked the 3 miles down there, and enjoyed seeing a different part of the city we hadn’t yet traversed.  And… we got there and it was closed on the weekends until dinner.  Boo!  We were pretty hungry (and both were craving something including freaking VEGETABLES) and had wanted to hit the casino, so the buffet it was.

    Pretty much the OPPOSITE of our plans for lunch – instead of gourmet, we were all about the big troughs.  It did give us a chance to eat the biggest salad ever and then sample some regional fare (though I’m sure it was crappy regional faire, I got to taste jambalya and seafood gumbo).  We ended up gambling for a while after – up, down, up, down…though we were only playing penny slots, so it was like wooo! up 3 dollars, noooo down 4 dollars.  Just fun to play.  I think we spent 10 bucks to be amused for 2 hours.  Then, it was back to the hotel.  I think it was to change shoes, but really… just to visit the comfy bed and tv for a bit.

    One thing on my list was riding the trolley around to see the sights.  Being that it was nearing late afternoon on our last

    Me, waiting for Godot. Or the trolley. Both had the same outcome.

    Me, waiting for Godot. Or the trolley. Both had the same outcome.

    day, we decided it was time.  On the way back to the hotel from lunch, it had passed by us.  No one on it, no one waiting.  Now, it was totally packed on the street waiting and after about 20 mins we gave up on it.  I wasn’t sure we would make it on the trolley the first time, and I didn’t want to spend our last day of vacation waiting in line.  So instead, we hoofed it.

    We decided to head back down to the water and see if we could find somewhere to eat overlooking the river.  We happened into a mall and walked through soaking up the AC.  This thing was a freaking half a mile long.  At the end, we found a place called the History of Food and Drink Museum.  We were intrigued, it was only 5 bucks, so that’s how we spent our early evening.  It was really cool to see the history of the regional food (like po boys, red beans and rice, crawfish, etc), and though we rushed through the bar exhibit, it was neat to see the first bar bottles of booze, stuff on prohibition (they showed a book with the title “Four Swallows”, and it had 4 test tube size shots inside) and some of the historic bars around the area, one of which was at the hotel where we were staying.  We resolved to have at least ONE drink there that night.

    After they shooed us out because they were closing, we were ready to eat

    I give this museum 2 thumbs up!

    I give this museum 2 thumbs up!

    inanimate objects, so we headed to a place we saw just outside the mall called the Crazy Lobster.  It was on the water, had some fun live music playing, and sounded yummy.  I know not what possessed me, but this was the place I got the crazy meal I talked about during the intro, sharing an appetizer of fried pickles (seriously, try this once in your life… it sounds gross but it’s AWESOME),  and an entree of a crab cake po boy (which was HUGE, I could only eat half the sandwich, I ate the crab cake out of the other half and left the bread) and cajun fries (which I didn’t finish but could have finished a lot LESS).  Our stomachs settled as we walked back and we hit the pool one more time, marvelling at the pretty lights and wishing we could take it home with us.

    Then we got all swankified and headed down to the hotel bar.  Unfortunately, it was WAY too crowded, so we walked up and down looking for some of the dive bars on my list.  They were all either crowded or further than we wanted to go.  The

    At the Alibi.

    At the Alibi.

    last one we hit, called the Alibi, was perfect.  Not too crowded, really close to the hotel, cheap drinks, and Mad TV playing!  We hung out there for a while and talked to some of the red lingerie-clad runners, one who said he had been up and drinking since yesterday afternoon.  He was looking pretty ragged.

    After a bit, we headed back to the hotel, and success!  We got seats.  The rest of the night was summed up with my facebook status update from my phone:

    Went back to the hotel bar and got a sauzerac which was <3 and is now enjoying the dive bar across the street. Do not want to go home tomorrow. Considering draining my savings taking up residence in the roosevelt hotel and drinking in nola. Will surely reconsider tomorrow.

    So yeah.  Also, there were cheese fries.  We got to bed somewhere around 2-3ish and planned to be up bright and shiny to leave at 9am.

    Sunday:

    We bolted out of bed just after 10am.  Oops.  One more shower in the awesome bathroom, packed up our stuff, and

    Just before the horizontal rain...

    Just before the horizontal rain...

    waved bye bye to the pretty pretty room.  We checked out, got the car from valet, and then went in search of a gas station.  Half of them were still closed.  Just outside the French Quarter, things looked way different.  Buildings collapsing, windows boarded up… very sad.  We drove back through all the cool bridges and shared a turkey sandwich for lunch got stuck in a very SCARY rainstorm.  Seriously, it was almost horizontal rain and we could barely see the car in front of us.  I was so very happy I wasn’t driving.

    After getting back under sunny skies, we decided to take a different route home and skipped Houston in favor of a more direct route through little towns and smaller roads.  We had a BBQ pit stop for dinner and saw it fit to have more turkey.  Was delicious!  Had to convince Zliten to stop instead of driving straight through, but it was for the good of everyone involved as we were getting cranky.

    We got through months of podcasts on the way there and back.  Zliten drove the whole time so I let him pick what he wanted to listen to.  The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful (we attempted to stop at the Blue Bell factory about an

    Hey there, bbq (to be)...

    Hey there, bbq (to be)...

    hour outside town and it was sadly closed), except we ran out of gas RIGHT as we were pulling into the gas station 7 miles from home.  Yay for hybrids, as all it did was go into straight electric mode.  If you’re curious, we made it there and (essentially) back on a 10 gallon tank of gas each way, and it was about 525 miles.  Do I love my Prius?  Yes I do!

    We got home, hugged the couch, watched a movie, and then hit the bed.  Great vacation,  would definitely do it again.  I’d probably consider flying instead of driving and maybe giving myself one more day either ON vacation or after I got home.

    Damage done: gained about 5 lbs (as of this morning).  I’m going to guess about 1.5 is actual calorie overage, and the rest is bloat due to weird eating.  I got all huffy about it today but I will give myself another week before I panic.  Miles walked – 15 (Zliten kept track).  Different bars hit – 12.  Number of different fried food items I ate – 12.  Number of awesome vacations had: 1.

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