Adjusted Reality

Tag: Drinking Page 4 of 7

What I Did On My Winter Vacation – Part 2

On January 6, 2010

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?

What I Did On My Winter Vacation – Part 1

By Quix

On January 5, 2010

In 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. Since this afternoon at the mini golf course, I will be buying a simulator here to play at home.

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!

White Elephant Wrapup

By Quix

On December 23, 2009

In Uncategorized

Thus begins a week or two of mostly fluffy posts. I’m kinda tired of digging in my head, scooping out my brains, and attempting to analyze the contents. So, enjoy!

I think in attempts to get some holiday cheer (and humor) for a relatively low overhead, we attended not one, not two, but THREE white elephant parties. We brought just about the same presents for each one (except the first, because it was 15-20 dollars, and present was only 10 – and it was my work one – so I didn’t want to look like a cheapskate and splurged on the 16 dollar DISCO BALL at Big Lots).

My present:

Zliten’s present:

For those of you who don’t know what a White Elephant gift exchange is – essentially you bring a silly present of some variety (hence, our gifts above). Sometimes there is a dollar amount set, sometimes there isn’t. You draw numbers and when it comes to your turn, you can choose to unwrap a new present, or steal one that has already been unwrapped. Most often, the rules are the gift can be stolen 3 times before it’s out of play. It’s a bunch of laughs, because you would never ever elsewise see grown humans fighting over a snuggie.

The first party was, as I said, at my work holiday party. Near the end, we all converged around the stage and started the game. I got a fairly early number, walked over and almost tripped and fell (just call me grace) and picked out a present. I unwrapped it and HOLY FUCK it was a leopard print snuggie. After a few glasses of wine, that was THE COOLEST PRESENT EVER in my eyes and I gave everyone the stinkeye if they looked around the room for things to steal. It worked for a while. Being the boss has its benefits. However, someone got brave enough and purloined my snuggie right at the end (yes, a dude) and then one of the BIG bosses stole it. Who knew that would be such a hot commodity?

Zliten ended up with a magnetic dartboard (that is soooo going to my office in the new year for some stress relief) and I ended up with a pretty ornament that’s now on the tree. The guy that ended up with fake voltron wasn’t too happy but one of our artists loves the disco ball and it’s at his desk to annoy everyone at the office.

Next was a sponsored party at one of our favorite bars downtown (though we don’t go often cause it’s semi-pricey). Open bar, sponsored goodies, an arts and crafts table, free hair styling and makeup refreshes, and of course, a table full of presents to pick from. Some were from sponsors, and they were supposed to actually be pretty cool (some jewelry, gift certs, etc). The rules were different (I mean, there were at least 100 people there) – you give a present, you take a present. That’s all. No steals, but consensual trades.

For a while, there was just too much to pick from so I waited and sipped on some free mint margaritas. After a little bit, Zliten decided to be “that guy” and picked up the biggest, heaviest package on the table. Here is the definition of literal.

Yes, Zliten picked the WHITE ELEPHANT (wearing a tutu, no less) at the white elephant party. We ended up finding a seat and meeting some very cool people who want to be nerd friends with us. They also ended up with Zliten’s robot and loved it. Other presents around the table included a half eaten box of chocolate, embroidered christmas tree button covers, and then I realized I need to pick something as the present table had dwindled. This is the gem I ended up with. Here is the story:

…and the present:

Well, at least the next door neighbors have doggies, and can use the jerky. Then, we proceeded to have a wild and crazy night. Which ended way too late for a school night. Which made the next day hell. But hey, I went full holiday and looked festive.

The next last one was Saturday night, with a few friends. This one was pretty low key, but the hilarity factor was definitely there. Presents included a foot massager, some cheesy porn, a yanni CD, a sarcastic magic 8 ball and more. Zliten picked early in and ended up with some cat figurines and cat food (which is ironic because ALL OF OUR friends have cats, and he is terribly allergic) and I ended up with a poop calendar. Yeah, you got that right. A POOP calendar. Every month, a new poop. It is SO going up in my office. Also, the gnome and the robot were both stolen gifts, so they were a HIT!

But the pictures are not of a cat. A deal was brokered later over some beers, and Zliten ended up with this:

So all the holiday parties (not including our traditions Christmas Eve and the family Christmas) are done, and we ended up with, among other things, two heavy ceramic figurines. Way too fun! What is the craziest holiday gift you’ve given or received?

FYI, the pantry is clean from Monday’s hat draw, today (Tuesday) we picked Mini Golf which was a BLAST, and tomorrow is a BBQ adventure in Lockhart (the BBQ capital of Texas, apparently). So excited!

Second Half Marathon Training: Week 4

By Quix

On December 14, 2009

In Half Marathon Training

I want to bottle this feeling I had about this week’s runs. Just the sense of pride I have right now. Week 1 of training was a little mixed up because of the Turkey Trot. Week 2 was screwed up because of illness. Having the first two weeks not go as planned did not do well for my confidence. The training plan I picked makes each and every run TOUGH. In these 12 weeks, there are no happy fun lazy runs around the neighborhood. The SLOWEST goal pace is 9:40, and that’s on my long runs (which are 8-12 miles here on out). My tempo runs, which are up to 8 miles, are at 8:55. The sprints are even faster and get longer and longer.

This week I finally got the chance to do a normal week of training. Monday, it was sprints. which is honestly the thing I am MOST confident with keeping the required pace. This week, it was mile sprints. I have to say, I LOVED this workout. It was difficult but the rest intervals made it tolerable. The first mile was felt great. The second and third was TOUGH by the end but not falling-of-the-treadmill hard. It’s going to be brutal to tack one and then two more mile sprints at the end of this, but I look forward to the challenge.

Wednesday was COLD as HELL (ok, I don’t want to hear from you people with windchills below 0, it’s cold for me) and was in the low 30s in the morning. I was planning to get up and run. I even got dressed in my running gear, poked my head outside, and went right back in. I left my running gear on, put a sweater over it, packed my bag, and headed to work. I would conquer the cold at lunch. I ended up out in about 40 degree weather. At first it was a little chilly, but it was a huge breakthrough – it wasn’t that bad at all! Also, I had planned to do my 5 mile tempo but ended up actually going 7 (my route went NOTHING as planned because of construction and I ended up on the other side of our office area at 5 miles so I just kept going). I really enjoyed knocking my long run out in the middle of the week! The mileage was estimated – I spent a lot of time running circles around parking lots – but I was bookin it and ran for 70 minutes. I definitely don’t PREFER running in the cold (give me a 70 degree morning ANY DAY) but I felt awesome that I conquered my hesitation to run in winter temps.

By Friday, I was SO dreading this run. Five miles. Under 9 minute pace. I didn’t even get that on race day. It was Friday night, I was a little bummed that we were missing a fun-sounding holiday party, but I just kept telling myself that I had 5 miles between me and my weekend. And if I made my pace, I would celebrate somehow. I did a 5 minute warmup, reset the treadmill, and started again at 6.0. I decided that I was gonna attempt a true tempo, so after the first .75 of a mile of ramping up, I hit 6.7 and just WENT. I felt strong, I felt confident, and most importantly, I felt like I could hold the pace even if it was tough. So I did it. For 3.5 miles. Then, at 4.25 miles I knew I had some time to make up, so I started ramping it up again, and by the end I was going 8.0. My final pace? 8:57 miles. Under 9. I beat my race time 2 weeks ago by 1:05.

Then, we made amazingly delicious homemade pizza for dinner/breakfast the next day, which was much better than any crazy holiday party. Or at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The DDR circuits were in there too (Tuesday and Thursday) and I yoga’d Monday. I meant to do another yoga session but got busy with holiday stuff. Oops. MUST YOGA TWICE THIS WEEK SOMEHOW. I stretched well after each run but I can still feel tension. MUST YOGA.

I went into this week scared. I am coming out of this week feeling like a badass. I am ready to conquer these next 9 weeks because I have it in me. Sub 2 hour half, here I come!

Training for week 4:

Monday – 6×400 sprints @ 1:58 pace (with one mile warmup and one mile cooldown and 400 rest in between) = 5 miles

Tuesday – DDR circuits

Wednesday – 6 mile tempo run @ 8:55 pace

Thursday – off (holiday party)

Friday – 30 day shred (need something effective and quick as I have dinner plans)

Saturday – 8 mile nice outside long run @ 9:40 pace

Sunday – rest

Next week in theory should start my holiday break and I should be back to 2 weeks of training on whatever schedule I want, but since I have a shippable at work I’m in charge of that has to be done by the end of the year, I might have to work some half days that week. But we shall see.

This is the week where the appetite starts to kick in too. I can already feel it. At least this time, I’m craving boatloads of protien, more dairy, and veggies instead of all carbs all the time. I’m sure that will come later, or perhaps training this way is changing the way I crave. It could make sense. Each workout is brutal, so protein/dairy helps build my body back up stronger, but I have enough rest time that I don’t need to be pumping constant FUEL ME NOW energy into my body.

The problem is I’m sitting here at my desk, having eaten a 20g protien bar this morning, a huge buffalo chicken lunch meat sammich for lunch, and I’m currently destroying a full 1 lb bag of baby carrots. It is not long for this world, folks. And I’m pretty sure before the workout, I’ll be digging into the pistachios and the blackberries too. I mean – it’s all ridici-healthy and all (minus the nummy onion bun instead of the normal horkin’ fiber bread), so I can’t be too upset.

The plan is to really watch it this month. Eat super healthy on most days so I can just kinda let myself graze until I feel fueled without being restrictive. On days I have holiday plan-type-things, make sure I watch my portions and fill up on all the healthy stuff I can. Or moderate. Like last night’s party where there were 4 appetizers and 3 desserts and NOTHING was healthy and the meatballs actually ended up being the best option. Or Saturday night when bacon fudge made an appearance. It was AMAZING. I broke my no sweets/drinking in the same day rule twice this weekend, but it was totally worth it.

So I’ve got my playlists set, my gymbag with me, and I’m ready to rock some sprints tonight. Hopefully I can stop shoveling carrots into my mouth by that time.

Photobooth Phollies

By Quix

On December 2, 2009

In Uncategorized

Ridici-busy is what I am today, so no REAL post. However, I just wanted to share. Just like we always croon on about how magazine pictures are photoshopped and are not accurate representations of the actual models, it can occur in real life. No shopping or mal-intent necessary.

Enter the photos from the yelp event last month. I usually like this photographer’s shots of me, but this time, ugh. I might as well be 50 lbs heavier than I am here.

The angle is all wrong, all you see is my gigantic protruding chest because I’m arching my back a little, but you can’t see any of my waist to realize that – hey, my whole body is not proportional to my shoulders/bazooms there. My hair is all nappy and I’m doing the cheesy smile where I squish my chin back which displays some pudge that I can only produce that way. I had half a second of “uck” when I saw this, and realized that it wasn’t because I somehow gained back like 50 lbs, it’s just a TERRIBLE photo. Maybe I wasn’t looking so hot that day, but I wasn’t looking THIS bad.

Then, today we found the other photos from the “photo booth”. These photos were taken within 30 mins of the other ones.

Picture one: RAWR!

And picture two: I see what you did there?

Now, if I ACTUALLY looked like that, I’d probably throw a freaking party (especially that first pic). She’s using the famous down angle trick. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, try it – get a camera, hold it above your head, and snap a picture. It’s a good way to get a very flattering head shot. Our heads are in focus, and our bodies are stretched out weirdly. I’m not cut off at that weird part under my boobs where it looks as if I am about twice my weight because that’s just the biggest part of me.

In person, I’m somewhere an average of all my pictures taken recently. And I think I’m ok with that for now. I just always have to remember that some are going to be winners, and some will be losers. But I can certainly put the best ones up on facebook and let the other ones fade into obscurity…

Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Tag: Drinking Page 4 of 7

What I Did On My Winter Vacation – Part 2

What I Did On My Winter Vacation – Part 1

White Elephant Wrapup

Second Half Marathon Training: Week 4

Photobooth Phollies

About Me

Search

Pages

Archives

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

Login