Nothing to do tonight.  Day off from the gym this week.  No need to get up early tomorrow morning.  Nothing but laziness.  Sometimes, days like today are necessary.

It’s actually not that bad out, but it did get gloomy pretty early on today.  Pretty typical day for this week.  Came home, took Pinot for a walk, and went for a run (treadmill today, which meant I got to continue working my way through Buffy Season 2.)  Talked to Nick for a bit, and then I  headed downtown to meet up with Melanie for one of her girls dinners!

Melanie’s girls dinners are sort of like wine club used to be – an excuse once a month for a ‘core’ group of ladies to get together, and then occasionally some scragglers like me join in   I have been meaning to go for awhile and this was the first time that it worked – so glad that I made it, it was a lot of fun.  We went to a Greek restaurant in Dupont that I’d never been to – the veggie platter was pretty tasty and really very filling!

More location deprivation – another rant session.  (Apologies in advance.)  It took about an hour to get to Bethesda and park today.  Luckily the metro was not delayed in my direction.  Made it down to Dupont and wasn’t that late.  And the ride home was late enough where it took about an hour to get home.  Commuting came up at dinner and one of the ladies mentioned that moving from Bethesda to Dupont (she works in Chinatown) gives her an entire 2 hours out of the day that she didn’t have before simply because her commute is less.  Can’t help but wonder what I’d do with all the extra time on my hands that is now dedicated to commuting.  It’s hard though, working way out – because while I’d love to live downtown in the middle of it all, that wouldn’t help my work commute at all.  And living to make my work commute easier would still pose the same problems for going out.   I got to thinking that maybe this adds to my love for Vermont – I lived within 7 minutes of a large lake, a bazillion tasty restaurants, church street, places to go out, ect…..and was able to afford a townhouse….and was only about 15-20 minutes from work on a backed up day.  Even the ROC traffic patterns, which seemed so terrible growing up there, are now laughably easy.  The commute from my moms to my dads house which used to feel like it took *forever*?  yeah – it’s a 15 minute drive.  tops.   Big cities have a lot of perks, but apparently this whole traffic thing is a lot higher on my list than I gave it credit before.

Yay to today being the middle of the week!  The countdown to the weekend is officially on!

I got a huge kick out of this xkcd comic today – so true.  Would it enhance the comic to put in the average salary for both positions?

By far, the gem of the week this week was the Autumn Kale Slaw Salad recipe from the Kitchn.  The peanut dressing with the crushed red pepper made it feel almost a bit Thai-ish, but very filling and satisfying.

Other highlights from this week include squash pasties, also adapted from the Kitchn, which have been on my list to make for a couple of weeks now.  I had thought they were going to be ‘harder’ than they were on a weeknight – these were actually really easy and relatively no fuss (as no fuss as rolling dough can be), very healthy, and warmed up really well for lunch the next day. Mine actually did look pretty much exactly like the photos too.

Those two were by far my favorites.  We had a lot of CSA broccoli to use up this week, which resulted in broccoli soup and broccoli with baked potatoes.  The mushroom leek risotto was also really good, but I wish I had broth on hand to add some depth to the flavor – I just used water.  It turned out good, but I think it could have been better.  And all in all, as far as risotto recipes go, that was didn’t need a lot of babysitting which was nice.

My adaptations of all the recipes can be found in this PDF:  Recipes 20091118

This is the first game I have been psyched about in a LONG time- and it hasn’t disappointed so far:)  It has the definite feel of SMB3 for the original Nintendo, which I loved.  It took me a little bit to get used to Wii controls (i.e. – shaking the controller to do stuff), but then it clicked and all was well in the world.  Tonight, I had game controller hand ‘cramps’ for the first time in years.

Pinot and I brought in a bit of the outdoors for Cashew today. Sometimes she likes to pretend she’s an outdoor kitty.

Well, the week has started.  Weekends never seem to be long enough, and this one was no exception despite my hunny being gone.  There is just something about getting up and having to go in to work….  though, I don’t know if this is a byproduct of getting older or what, but I always used to think that it would be *great* to not have to work.  Now, I’m not so sure – I think I may go stir crazy if I just had all day every day in the house.  Work this morning was pretty exciting actually, I got my new work laptop.  Fun!  (Yep, I am a dork.)  And this week is quasi cool because I’m working remotely in the afternoons and only spending the mornings in the office.   It’s still a good 6 hours in office every day, but still – not too shabby.   Pinot and I got a walk in right at sunset tonight, which was pretty.

With that said, the weekdays are sort of weird because I’m so used to Nick coming home at a certain time, and even though I know he’s out of town, I still subconsciously get excited when the clock starts getting closer to that hour.  Have to remind myself this week that I won’t be hearing his foot on the doorstep.  :/

Tonight, in an attempt to avoid the realization, I preoccupied myself with baking.  A fall favorite – Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread.  When I was in college, I made this with a full bag of normal sized chocolate chips – tonight I used a half bag of the minis and it was more than enough (ha – thinking back to this bread in college, it was mostly chocolate with a bit of pumpkin melted in!)  I have been all about making a big loaf into 4 mini loaves lately, and I used that method with this recipe tonight.  Four mini-loaves in an attempt to not eat the entire thing myself in one sitting.   Pairing with a nice cold glass of soy milk was wonderful tonight, but it would have been perfect if the boy had been home to share it.  (Not much sugar in there sweets, I promise!  With any luck, some will be waiting for you when you get back.  Maybe.    )

As a random side note, I saw someone on facebook posting an item or two a day from now until thanksgiving of things that they are thankful for.  Today – I am thankful for my immediate family.  My wonderful husband, who can make me laugh even at myself despite how stubborn I can be.  The sweet little kitten who is obsessed with the ‘bird’ that lives in our closet.  And the brown eyed pup, who wants nothing more than to be by our sides.

A November Sunday that is sunny and 70? Yes please! What a way to end the weekend. Pinot even thought it was warm enough to go swimming. (Despite my love for water, I did not dive in too- just in case you were wondering.).

Also, in a strange twist this evening, I did not bake cookies. usually when my sweet tooth calls, and answer closely follows, but tonight I guess I am a bit lazy.

For a Saturday, today started pretty early.  Just about as early as it does on a week day.  Why you ask?  Well – we had to drive down to DCA to drop Nick off to catch a flight to Portland (OR, not ME) for the SuperComputing conference.  I think that he was volunteered to go and set up because he’s done it before, which means he had to leave a day or two before the conference actually starts.  What would any unintentional morning person do when this task was done and I was back home by 7:15AM?  Sieze the day?  Absolutely not.  I went back to bed.  You see, I’m not really a morning person.  I just play one Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

I think Cashew wished that I had continued sleeping, even when I did roll out of bed for really at oh, 11AM – glorious 11AM.  Pinot and I made it outside for a longer-ish walk.  Well, longer-ish than we have the past couple of days in the rain.  It’s amazing how it seems like not so long ago, all the leaves had changed and it was all so colorful outside, and now the leaves are mostly on the ground.  It just looks like winter is coming, which does make sense given that it’s mid November.  It was nice to have a nice day today though, overall

Feel free to skip this next paragraph if you aren’t into my ramblings on fitness.

–(begin ramblings)—-

So my big goal for today was to get my long run for NEXT week out of the way today (9 miles) and to do my long run for this week next week (5 miles) because next week I’m heading to Philly with some cool people to watch this ocean of awesome run a marathon, and his counterpart (the lake of awesome?  the coral reef of cool?  — that girl — ) run the half.  Should be good times, and the almost Italian bella and I want to get there before it gets too late!  Which means, probably better for me to have a shorter run next weekend.  No problemo. I had it all set.  Had my route planned and entrusted to Minges, my counterpart in having someone know where I was going and when I should be back.  I should mention – yep, the 9 miles for today – it’s a mere 2 miles more than last weekend, but in the overall line up of me running - I ran somewhere between 9-10 miles once.  The first time I attempted to train for a marathon.  6 years ago.  And at that point, I decided that 9-10 miles was more than enough and I stopped right after that.  Course, I was younger then, and more into going out all the time.  That may have been a factor.  Maybe.  Anyway – so while I kept telling myself that it was only an extra 2 miles – really, this makes it up on the board of ‘runs that I have done that are quasi long’.  And so I set off on the Capitol Crescent Trail and ran all the way down to Melanie’s house.  I put-put, not speedy at all, but I was happy to have done all 9 (!) and to have done it faster than 11min/miles average.  Most, in fact, were shorter time wise, but the last 2 killed me.  I’m blaming it on the stop and go of being in the city.  Today I also realized that lifting weights on Fridays before the long runs tires me out – I waited on the lifting this week and todays run was actually easier than last week in that sense.  My biggest complaint from today is that my heart rate monitor strap attacked me.  Don’t ask.  Special thanks to Mel, JJ and Snowy for not minding that I stunk when I did make it to their place to get some water. 

—(end ramblings)—

So for those of you that skipped that, around 3:15 I was feeling pretty good because I had just run 9 miles from Bethesda down into the heart of DC.  Woohoo!  And what, you may ask, would any self-declared Husker fan who isn’t actually from Nebraska but loves the team just as much – what would that gal do when it is 3:15 and she’s downtown and parked in Bethesda but kick-off is at 3:30?  Well – hop on the metro to get back home to the game of course!  I even ran from the Bethesda metro exit to my parking spot.  (I guess I had some energy left after the long run.)  Never mind that all my layers were a bit caked with sweat.  And – when not driving of course – take a sneak peak at her sports app to see how the team is doing.  When I got home, I am happy to report, we were up 7-0 and I’d only missed the 1st quarter. The game – while it ended well – ended up being a good game to watch.  I’m glad that we won (Go Big Red!)   I’m also glad that I had dried off by the time the game had ended.   (yes, I am gross.  it’s the weekend.  priorities people.)

So at this point – it’s like 6:50 PM.  Crazy how quickly Saturdays go by, isn’t it?  If you read and were able to make sense of my fitness ramblings above, you may have noticed that in passing, I mentioned that I had moved my Friday weight routine to Saturday this week.  And so, with the game over and won, and in a pretty chipper mood, I tackled my weight workout.  Which was easy and painless.  And once that was over, finally, sweet, sweet shower.  And at that point, I realized that I should probably eat dinner.  This is beginning to sound like “If you give a mouse a cookie”, isn’t it?

So where, do you ask, does the effects of location come into all of this?  Well – here is my dilemna.  It is 9PM.   Friends are downtown on the hill, and have been since about 3 this afternoon.  I want to go out.  However -  capitol hill is a good hour drive (including parking).  Or – I could metro, but that would be a 30 min drive to Bethesda, followed by another half hour metro to the hill.  With the ‘kids’ at home, there is no option of going out and crashing with friends downtown, which means that going out would be a fairly dry affair.  And everyone has a pretty good (6 hour) head start.  At this point, I made the insane decision to stay in this evening.  If folks had been in Bethesda even?  Out in a second.  So, this evening, excuse or not – I’m upset that we live in Gaithersburg, and that Gaithersburg is not a cool trendy suburb of DC, wedged between Penn Quarter and Dupont Circle.  I may even settle for it being walkable from our place to a metro stop, but nope, that too is too much to ask.  Silly housing prices dropping so we are stuck here infinately.

Now – I have a feeling that some may say that strait up, I am being completely anti-social, and that I should just suck it up and go out.  If Nick were home, I am almost 100% sure that we would have.  Maybe Nick is more social than I am, but I don’t think so because I actually do want to go out.  I just don’t want to drive an hour each way to do it.  Maybe I’m lazy.  Maybe I’m just missing the yin to my yang (while I say – it’s so far away! Nick says ‘lets go!’ and I groan but I go, and it’s good.  Not because he talked me into it, but because he gets that it’s far away and he doesn’t let it bother him and that in turn helps me to get past it.  And having some companionship for the long long drive there and back isn’t so bad either.   I think that goes for both of us, though I am usually the one falling asleep on the way back.)

And so – the ladies of the house are planning on having mushroom leek risotto with some Boordy apple wine for dinner while watching some girly movies until all hours of the morning.  After I check a few more football scores.

The verbiage in this post made up for a weeks worth of minimalism.  Hope it kept you entertained.  Feel free to chime in on my dilemna – am I anti-social, or just location deprived?  You be the judge.

After living here for, what-5 years, I just today realized that the shelves in one of the kitchen cupboards was adjustible. This, of course, lead to a complete revamping of what was located where. Added bonus was an organization of all of the spices. Cashew was a big fan of this now empty box.

Nick has been- how should we say- a bit stressed in prepping for SuperComputing conference next week. Pinot (and Cashew and I) were more than a little excited when he emerged from the office this evening:)