WORKOUT –

Ran outside Lake Las Vegas -

8.5 miles/1:12   some hills

Bike/Elliptical in hotel gym -

30 mins/30 mins

Jaymo left at 6:30am to go golfing with a business partner so I decided to do a longer workout since he’ll be gone all morning and I can just rage on my own.

I ran some miles around the lake (it is beautiful weather here right now) which felt harder than they should have and then hit up the hotel gym for a little more cardio.  I love cardio and I love sweating; there, I admitted it.  We all have our faults.

BACK IT UP TO YESTERDAY

Remember that big bag of healthy snacks we packed for the trip?

Yeah, Jaybob forgot it at home.  Last weekend I forgot an entire bag of luggage at home.  Between the two of us, it’s a surprise that we make it back to our house every night.

Since we didn’t have any food and were about to go all Hunger Games on each other, we stopped in Primm at the Nevada border for lunch:

That there is the world’s most expensive sub sandwich – $7.50 for a 6” turkey.  My whole meal cost $94.

We hit some traffic but finally made it out to Lake Las Vegas and the Westin.

The grounds are beautiful and everything that is in business is kept up and clean, but it’s still sorta weird to see so much empty space and empty homes. 

We had a bet last night at dinner about the foreclosure rate; I said 10% and J said 85%. <–?!?!  He Googled it to determine the winner – last year 21% of the homes in this area were foreclosed upon.  crazy.

The hotel is done in a Moroccan theme and there are tons of outdoor lounge spaces, fire pits, water features, it’s all really pretty.

The hotel room itself is nothing spectacular; it’s nice but not amazing:

Since we were food-less and I didn’t want to pay $17 for a bag of nuts in the minibar, we stopped at a Target on the way and stocked up on the same snacks that we had left at home. 

I also bought some Keurig coffee cups that were on sale for the hotel room; this raspberry chocolate truffle is so good, I’ve drunk like 7 cups already.

Does anyone use a Keurig or other pod coffee system?  How much are the pods and how many do you drink a day? 

Should I buy one or just my own coffee farm?

It’s so easy and quick to use.  I really like it but see how it could be expensive if you mainline coffee like I do.

After a little pool time we had an early evening cocktail at the Arabesque Lounge:

And then we went out to dinner at Bernard’s Bistro in the Village.  Wait, I’m missing $100.  Oh yeah, we stopped at the Fiesta Casino and lost it there on 21.  good times.

We sat outside on the patio and listened to a live band play.  It was super romantic and we were both so overjoyed to be there and in the moment…

Or not.  I promise he hates his life as much as it seems.

Our entrees were decent, but the shrimp cocktail was really good and the roasted beet and goat cheese salad was killer, best thing of the night.  Our waiter recommended it – dynamite.

While we were eating, there was a surprise fireworks show which reminded me of our wedding 5 years ago.  It reminded Jaymo of the prison he contractually entered.

Afterwards we were feeling young and frisky instead of the old and saggy that we normally feel so we sat outside in one of the many lounge areas.  Jaybob smoked a stogie while I had a cup of decaf coffee with a shot of Metamucil.

Time to hit the pool like a fool!

WORKOUT –

Bike – 35 mins

Stairmill – 20 mins

Elliptical – 20 mins

I’m a little sore from yesterday’s class, not too bad but a little soreness is a good thing, right?

I thought about taking the same class this morning, but it was at 8am and we wanted to be on the road by 9.

My bags are packed and ready to go:

^{Someone needs to lay off the leopard.}

This morning we are taking off for Lake Las Vegas which is 30-40 minutes away from the Strip.  Earlier this week Jaybob was like, Let’s go spend the weekend somewhere out of town; normally I’m the one who’s all, Let’s travel, let’s go somewhere! so whenever he wants to go, I’m all about it.

We started brainstorming places to go… Santa Barbara, Las Vegas, Paso Robles, Palm Springs, but hotels everywhere were expensive because of Memorial Day.  A roachfest in Vegas that should pay you to stay was like $200. 

So I started expanding the search and found the Westin in Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, Nevada.  We can drive there in a couple hours, it wasn’t that expensive and looks pretty nice although there isn’t a casino… a drawback for Oceans 11 1/2 cast member Jaybob.

I started Googling about the area and found out that it was built including the manmade lake in the boom as a resort town for wealthy Vegas-ers to get away from Vegas.  There were million dollar mansions, three golf courses including one designed by Jack Nicklaus, and fancy resorts like the Ritz and Loews.  Then the real estate bust happened and the whole town practically went into bankruptcy.

The Ritz closed (and later opened as the Ravella), Loews was sold to Starwood (Westin), 2 of the 3 golf courses closed and many of the homes were foreclosed as well.  So… sounds like gallons of fun.

I read a lot of reviews that said the two hotels are perpetually half empty and understaffed so it will be interesting to see if it’s busy on a holiday weekend or just a dying town.  Whatever happens, we’ll have a good time.  Or I’ll force Jaymo to.

For those of you traveling this holiday weekend, here are a few healthy eating travel tips:

Step 1

Pack your own meal on the airplane flight. This provides you with an alternative to eating the expensive and typically unhealthy prepared meals offered. Bring protein- and nutrient-dense dry food that won’t easily leak or get smashed in your bag. Examples include nuts, protein bars and firm fruit, like apples.

Step 2

Drink plenty of fluids during your trip. If you can, choose water over other beverages while you’re in transit. Milk and juices are adequate, but avoid soda and an excess amount of alcoholic beverages. Avoiding the latter is especially important for minimizing travel-related health conditions, such as jet lag.

Step 3

Stock your hotel room with bottled water, fresh fruit and healthy snacks like granola bars or fiber cookies. Doing so helps remove the temptation to raid the room’s mini bar, and can be indispensable for staving off hunger between business meetings or tourist activities.

Step 4

Avoid fast food outlets. Though they may be a comforting choice when you’re in a new city, these kind of meal options are often high in fat and calories, and more importantly, they may cheat you out of experiencing the local culture. Wherever you decide to eat, focus on meals that incorporate healthy components, like fresh vegetables and lean proteins.

Step 5

Don’t forget to eat breakfast. This is usually easier said than done in the whirlwind of a vacation. However, breakfast helps prime your system and prepares you for a full day of activities or business meetings. If your hotel offers a complimentary breakfast, choose a high fiber and protein meal, such as whole grain toast with peanut butter, to give you instant energy and fill you up until lunch.

I’m decent at all of the tips except #1 – I never bring my own meals while traveling. 

Do you?  If you do, what do you bring, like a sandwich or something else?

I definitely bring lots of snacks for the hotel room and car ride…

{Protein powders, Popchips, fruit, jerkey, and lots of energy, granola, protein bars}

And I try to have a healthy breakfast to start a vacation, and what’s crazier than a nice breakfast salad:

Yeah, baby.  When I sweat a lot in the gym I always crave salty foods over sweets… unfortunately, this only last for a couple hours and not my whole lifetime like I was hoping.

YESTERDAY

We went to a local gun range to shoot JJ’s pistol… except I went all girly and wussed out.

I have my own shotgun and although I’m a terrible shot (I couldn’t hit the sky if I was laying on my back), I like shooting it and attempting to pheasant hunt which is really just hiking since I can’t hit a thing.

But Jaybob has a super loud and powerful pistol that has some serious fire power; I’ve never shot one before and I thought it’d be a tiny black thing like in the movies.  Yeah, no.  This thing was a hand cannon.  I pictured this:

It was more like this:

So I passed on it, but Jaymo had a good time:

He might be a slightly better shot than I am; they’d probably bar me from the entire range.

WORKOUT -

Elliptical – 30 mins

“Core, Cardio & More” class – 55 mins

This morning I finally manned up and tried another class at the gym: a combo cardio and strength workout that was honestly, sorta weird.  But I think I liked it.

First I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and then took the class.  It started a little late, but it gave me plenty of time to wonder what we were about to do.

It was a bit similar to BodyPump where you work a specific body part for one song/track, but we did it for 3 minutes each and then in between did 3 minutes of cardio.  Half of the cardio spurts used hand weights which seems a little funky to be jumping around with weights, but it was fun (we used my love, the step) and I REALLY sweated:

I wish I had bought a heart rate monitor with my Garmin because I’d like to know how hard I worked – was I sweating that much because there was 7000 people crammed into an enclosed room or because I was pulling an Arnold and building some serious muscle?  I guess I’ll find out if I’m sore tomorrow morning.

What’s the last class you took?

Have you ever taken a weird, off the wall or just plain terrible exercise class?

Do you use a heart rate monitor?  Can anyone recommend a good, affordable one?  Or should I just buy the Garmin one?

Speaking of tomorrow, we are going on a little long weekend road trip to somewhere we’ve never been.  In anticipation of a real bangin’ time, I went to the library.  Cool kids, unite.

I think there will be some pool time happening so I picked up some deep reading.  Both my brothers got me into murder mysteries like Harlan Coben, James Patterson and John Sanford (just finished his Stolen Prey).  And I returned the favor and got them in Bergdorf Blondes and The Devil Wears Prada.

Ever since hearing about Hank Haney’s new book (about his years coaching Tiger Woods) on ESPN or one of the other 40 sports channels that are not allowed to be turned off ever in our household, I had been wanting to read it.  I saw the hardback at Costco but it was $15, too much for me. 

But of course, when you take Shopping Cart Boy along, you end up buying extra stuff.  His justification:  “Since we’ll both read it, it’s only $7.50 and that’s really cheap for a hardback.”  There’s a reason he doesn’t do our finances…

What are you doing this holiday weekend?  Traveling, BBQ’ing, running, BQ’ing?

*The winner of the CLICK giveaway is #101 Kalynn:

I was already a fan of CLICK on Facebook, but posted on the page for you!

Kalynn, please email me your shipping info at sr@skinnyrunner.com and if you’d like Mocha or Vanilla Latte.

WORKOUT -

Rest day

Walked Marni – 4.65 miles

This morning I took Marni on a 2.8 mile solo jaunt.

And then in the afternoon my friend Katie and I (and that fatty 4 pounder) went on another walk.

Sporting a different pair of black capris (and the random Jesus pose): Juicy Couture from Nordstrom Rack.  I haven’t worn pants all week… not something to really brag about.

Then I made the mistake of inviting Jaybob to go to Costco with me.  Big, big mistake.

When he goes out in public with me, things like this involuntarily happen:

I.MARRIED.A.MAN.CHILD.

While in Costco, we met a reader (sorry, I forgot your name!) right as I was about to tell off Jaybob for something or rather.  Lucky him.

We bought a crapload of stuff including a bag of nuts so I could make some super healthy food: candy coated pecans. 

When we were in Phoenix a couple weeks ago, my mom made a killer salad with candied nuts and Jaymo loves them so I wanted to make them at home because those little bags can get pricey.  Especially when you eat the whole bag in one sitting before they even reach a piece of lettuce.

I normally buy walnuts but pecans were cheaper this time, weird because I always thought pecans were more expensive?!  I followed this recipe but doubled it and used the entire 2 lb bag. I’ve used a different recipe from the Joy of Cooking cookbook before but it uses butter.  I mean, if you’re going to sugar coat your salad topper, you don’t want any butter calories, right?

To store them, just use an airtight container.  or chipmunk them in your mouth, whatever.

…Pecans are high in healthy unsaturated fat and just a handful a day can lower “bad” cholesterol. They also contain more than 19 vitamins and minerals including vitamins A, B, and E, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.  Just one ounce of pecans provides 10 percent of the Daily Recommended intake of fiber.

Pecans are also rich in age defying antioxidants. In fact, research from the USDA shows that pecans are the most antioxidant-rich tree nut and rank among the top 15 foods with the highest levels of antioxidants.

source

PARTY TIME

If you like to waste your time on twitter, you probably know that today is my sister-in-law Niki’s 30th birthday today.  I wanted to get her Robert Patterson’s skin to wear…

But she’s white enough as it is and I thought it’d clash with her hair…

I kid.  She’s normally not disgusting looking in public…

{From Matt and Marlie’s wedding in September}

You might not know this about me cause I don’t like to brag, but I am a pretty talented mixed media artist, and I wanted to create something really special for Niki’s big day.  After numerous hours of brainstorming, this is what I came up with:

You’re welcome, Niki.  Love you!

And Happy Birthday to this girl today as well.  Y’all are a bunch of old farts.

**The answer to yesterday’s question in Honolulu with 58 hours.  Weird, seems like it should be way more.  and a different city.

**Last chance to enter the CLICK giveaway.

Just some random pictures with absolutely no point to this post.

Consider this my pinboard of stupidity for the day…

My manlover has been working hard lately, lots of meetings all over LA and OC, but I came home to see him so elegantly draped on the couch and wearing my hot pink sunglasses… indoors…

Ate lunch at a fancy outdoor joint:

Actually it’s just my concrete cell of a backyard.  I don’t need to commit a crime to feel like I’m in jail.

Wore a super fancy outfit today including a free shirt from the Eugene Marathon:

With all the money I saved on apparel I want to go buy this entire room:

LOVE that chair.  iwant.

Or I could use the money and go buy some happiness…

My friend Reese sent that to me; she knows me well.  And she knows that she can buy my friendship.

Instead of a cupcake, I tried a new bar: kinda tasted like a Luna bar with coconut, I liked it… not as much as a Crumbs cupcake though.

All fueled up I went to the bank and witnessed a love story:

smart love.

Question of the day and don’t go Google it or I’ll punch you:

I heard this on the radio this morning while driving to the gym,

What US city has the worst traffic and how many hours per year does the average person in that city spend in traffic?

What do you think?  I guessed LA and 43 hours.

WORKOUT –

Piloxing class – 1 hr

Bike/Elliptical – 30 mins/30 mins

I took the 6am Piloxing class at Xtend barre from my friend Bri. 

I love this class but my 10 class deal is up and even with a sale, the classes would cost me $10 each. 

My gym membership (that has classes but no barre classes) is only $24 for a whole month so I’m not sure what I’m going to do.  How much would you pay for an exercise class?  I’ve heard that the SoulCycle classes in NYC are super pricey.

WORKOUT OUTFIT

Let’s talk workout clothes because I like clothes and I liked my workout clothes this morning: everything was super functional and comfortable, a double whammy win.

**Zebra BIC Band – Besides a nice plaid, I love a good animal print.

**Moving Comfort Vixen bra – makes me look like I’m not a boy, always a good thing to not be gender ambiguous.

**Reebok tank – from the Fitfluential/Reebok event that I attended, I like that this tank is fitted but also long so no creeping up.  There is no place in my heart for too-short shirts.

**Reebok running capris – also from the event, I think these are good fitting and at a decent price point.

**Reebok RealFlex Transition shoes – comfortable shoes to cross train in, but I’d never run in them.

I think every woman should have a good-fitting pair of black/dark workout capris because they are useful for any workout: running, yoga, kickboxing, shoving your kids into a closet, whatever.  And they easily go from workout to running errands to giving up on real clothes and just living in workout gear.  what? 

If you pick the right pair, they can be flattering on any body shape.  I’d recommend finding a pair that isn’t too thin: you want the spandex to hide the ripples and bulges that we all have instead of magnifying them. 

It’s also important to pick the right size: you want them tight but not creating a muffin top or making you feel uncomfortable.  And if they hit above the knee, congratulations, you now have really long shorts.

Of course, the gold standard is Lululemon – ridiculously expensive but they do the tight right: they’re like Spandex in the best way possible.

This picture from yesterday, I’m wearing the Run Crops.  (You can read about my Lulu dressing room adventures here and here)

Last week I was walking with Monica and I had to tell her about the fat day I was having: I had to change out of my shorts and into the Lulu crops; it sounds counterintuitive, but these things suck you in and shape you like no other. 

And the fabric is thick enough that you don’t feel like you’re exposing yourself to the world.

But if you don’t have $100 to blow on some tights, here’s a few cheaper options:

{Mizuno Exodus 3/4 Tight on sale for $34.99 and Reebok Zigtech Running Capri on sale for $39.99 at 6pm.com}

{Fila Performance Skimmer on sale for $24 and Nike Dri-Fit Performance Capri on sale for $34 at Kohls}

Check out stores like TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, Ross or Nordstrom Rack for deals too; I’ve found workout gear from all those places.

If you’re looking for a capri to really get sweaty in, look for the words “performance” or “tech” in the name.  If it’s called a yoga pant, it’s really for yoga and not running. 

The unfortunate part about online shopping is that you don’t get to try them on and see how you feel which I’d recommend.  No matter what the brand or price or color is, you gotta feel comfortable and confident in what you’re wearing… or else you won’t wear them.

What brand/style/color workout capris do you have and love?

Anyone out there who wouldn’t wear a pair of capris or tights?

How much would you/do you pay for an exercise class?

The Road Runner Sports sports bra coupon still works – 20% off for VIP members and 10% otherwise.  Just use the code CX12B216.

WORKOUT -

Ran outside, hills

9.0 miles/1:18

slow and hilly, blarch

Walked the dog – 2 miles

Like I’ve said before, coming off a big mileage month in April, I’m trying to give myself plenty of rest this month and do mature stuff like core work, stretching and icing, other workouts besides running, and foam rolling.  Basically all the super lame stuff that I don’t like.

I don’t even know where this foam roller came from, I probably stole it, but I think today is the first day I’ve ever used it.  I say this because I had to wash off all the dirt and lint on it before I could even deposit my own grime on it.

Rolling improves circulation, which gets the body ready for a workout and helps it recover afterward. And because rolling breaks down knots that limit range of motion, it preps muscles for stretching.

So it sounds like you should roll first and then stretch.  Oops, I did it backwards today.  My legs will probably die tonight in their sleep.

JANK FACE

I just foam roll on whatever spot that is tender and almost hurts, but this Runner’s World article has a few short videos on where to roll for specific issues like the IT band and Piriformis.

And then I iced: I hardly ever take ice baths but after almost every run, I put 2 packs on my knees and I sit on 2 packs for my hips/thutt/butt muscles.  I do this for about 10-15 minutes while I stalk my favorite gossip sites and blogs.

DRINKING HEALTHY

After a weekend of barely moving from the pool to lounge chair, champagning and lots of grazing instead of real meals, I purposefully started the week off eating right.  And by right, I don’t mean a mimosa.  sadly.

I made a CLICK protein drink yesterday morning and a smoothie this morning.  This is one of my favorite CLICK drinks:

*Splash of chocolate coconut milk like Zico

*A big handful of spinach

*Small splash of sugar-free coconut syrup

*CLICK Mocha

*leftover coffee instead of water for liquid

*ice ice baby

So good.  It’s like a chocolate coconut milkshake with protein, fiber, vitamins, electrolytes and all sorts of healthy stuff without too many calories.

And if you wanna be dorky like me, CLICK wants to give away some goodies to one random winner.

What the winner gets:

*Canister of CLICK (flavor of choice)

*CLICK Shaker

*CLICKed-Out Pink Tumbler

*CLICK Bondi Band

To enter,

You have to go on CLICK’s Facebook or CLICK’s twitter and say something about the giveaway:

“SR sent me and just like her husband, I do what she says or I’ll get spanked.”

“SR smells like rotten goat cheese and is a terrible runner.”

“SR says coffee (and Prosecco) is the nectar of the gods.”

Whatever you want really.  10 million shares of Facebook if you make it funny.  Just let me know in the comments.

*An extra entry for tweeting, FB or Myspacing it.  And if you’re into Myspace still, $10 to you for perseverance.

The contest will run until Friday; winner will be picked at random, official rules.

Since I left my computer at home all packed up and ready to go, I have a few more pictures from this weekend to catch y’all up on.

Reese and Betsy getting ready to hit the pool for the first time.  There’s a reason Palm Springs is called a desert – it was so dang hot.  And actually because it is a desert.  Look at me, geographical whiz.

Christina and Betsy having mimosa time.  Christina is newly engaged and planning her (next) summer wedding which was fun to talk about and hear all about the planning details.

Bri rocking her new glasses: Betsy had made us all these cute little “welcome baskets” with sunglasses, champagne flutes, suntan lotion, etc in them so we sported our pink and white glasses all weekend.

Our other college friend Jenn stopped by in the afternoon with her daughter Emma and husband.  He is a legit lawyer so he was probably questioning why I was allowed to hang around Emma unsupervised…

This is about as active as we were all weekend… don’t want to pull a hammy or anything.

Good times with all the girlies.

Christina, in the blue on the end, is on the Primal Blueprint Diet and has lost 10-15 pounds, I believe, and looks amazing.  I had never heard of it but it sounds a little similar to the Paleo diet. 

Anyone ever tried it, follow it or know anything about it?

Sunday morning we packed in a little more pool time and I unintentionally created the forward ponytail with faux bangs.  I was outside laying stomach down reading a book and my hair kept getting in my face until I mindlessly put it up.

A few minutes later I went back inside to get another cup of coffee and everyone was like, Oh geez, what is wrong with your hair?!  And while we’re at it, your face?!

It was like Justin Beiber gone tragic.  Reese wants nothing to do with this.

One last group picture before we left:

Friday morning my college girlfriends and I drove out to La Quinta (Palm Springs area) to spend the weekend talking about how dumb we used to be and how old we are now.  good times. 

We all try to get together every year or so, but it seems the older we get, the harder it is to plan things and have everyone attend.  A couple girls couldn’t make it… some lame excuse about “I just had a baby last weekend.”  Uhhh, that was like 6 whole days ago; rally up.

My friend Betsy took the lead this time and rented a house for us through VRBO in Bermuda Dunes.  Thanks, Bets!

The house was huge and nicer than we expected, although the pool table right at the front door is sorta weird, right?

When we decided to rent a house instead of a couple hotel rooms, a pool was non-negotiable since it was at least 90* degrees every day.  Pretty much all we did on Saturday was lay out by and in the pool. 

There was also a hot tub that we didn’t use, a BBQ, fire pit and two tables and sitting areas.  You could pay more to heat the pool which might be nice in the winter, but it was already hot enough to glaze pottery in your kiln.

The house had 4 big bedrooms each with a king-sized bed so I had my own little hotel room, and splitting the cost five ways was cheaper than staying at a nice hotel.  We figured with the rent, food and drinks, it was less than $200 per person for the whole weekend.  Not too bad for a once a year trip.

Betsy, Reese and an errant rolling pin

I found this recipe for birthday cake jello shots months ago and wanted to make them but never had an excuse to, well, besides the random Tuesday morning. 

I only had blue food coloring and use whipped-flavored vodka instead of cake-flavored, but they were good and fun to make.  Plus, you don’t use that much alcohol so they’re not too strong.

Professional shot

Bri, my professional model. 

Like any recipe you make, mine were nowhere near as appealing looking as the picture, but if you have a girls get-together coming up, make these.  On second thought, maybe hold off for that baby shower…

This picture pretty much describes the entire weekend:

Pool time

Besides a lot of hummus, crackers and cheese – our standard girls weekend food – we also had some Zonin Prosecco, another standard. 

I always buy their Prosecco at Trader Joe’s and have blogged about it before so the company sent me a few different bottles to try out.  The Zonin brand is really affordable ($6.99 at TJ’s) and has a great taste without being headache-inducing sweet.

From a selfish standpoint, everyone needs a friend who’s a gourmet cook.  Depending on your penchant for extracurricular activities, you might also want a friend who’s a cop or a really good lawyer.

Anyways, Reese is a great cook and enjoys doing it; she says it’s cathartic for her.  I say she’s crazy.

Besides making a Cheesecake Factory-inspired Chicken Madeira dish (here’s a similar recipe) Friday night, she also made blue cheese stuffed olives.  Who does that?!

Family dinner time with Nina and Bri

And breakfast Sunday morning:

This weekend I was a total doorknob and forgot one of my packed bags at home; it had all my toiletries, computer and Garmin in it.  It could have been worse… it’s a lot easier to buy a toothbrush and stick of deodorant than a weekend full of clothes, but still, how do you forget 50% of what you packed?!  And when I got home yesterday, it was right on the kitchen counter by the door begging to go.

Do you forget stuff all the time or never?  Have you ever forgotten something big or important?  Did you get it back?

I left my camera at the Bismarck airport in October and it was returned.  Of course, people in North Dakota are super friendly and nice, basically un-Californian.

When we were getting ready to leave Palm Springs yesterday morning, the guys called us and asked us to stop by a golf course because Jaymo’s friend had left his wallet there.  oops. 

So I helped myself to a finder’s fee for it.  Oh, you had cash in your wallet?  Yeah, not anymore.

WORKOUT -

Ran on TM

8.5 miles/1:11

1.0 incline

ab workout

I wasn’t planning on running this morning, I really, really wasn’t, but then I made a deal with myself that if I did some ab work first, I would run instead of cross training.  Nothing like making a deal with the devil.

So I did a set of 15 reps of the reverse bridge, jackknife, and 1 minute plank three times each.  This post describes the moves a little more.

And then I ran some easy miles on the ‘mill.  Although I’m sure my body appreciates the time off, I hate it.  I feel like I’ve forgotten how to run and lost all endurance.  drama queen, what.

Now my college friends Betsy and Reese are waiting for me to stop farting around and get headed off to Palm Springs for a girls weekend.  It’s suppose to be 100* so we’re looking forward to doing some serious online video gaming and Parcheesi playoffs.  or champagne and laying out by the pool.

Let’s have some super funny Cat lady Blogs: Kelsey

Hi! I’m Kelsey from Ready Set Feast! I’m a born and raised girl from Maryland who’s now living in the Windy City known as Chicago.  I moved to Chicago to spice up my life and live here with a guy that prefers to be called PartyDogUSA over his real name.  We are clearly young, happy, and in love and radiate it for the entire world to see.

I spend most of my days my days being really classy and listening to Justin Bieber (or J.Bieb for those of us that are close personal friends) and BSB while I try not to fall off the treadmill. The good thing about running on the treadmill? I get to stare at this face for hours.

The bad thing about running on the treadmill? I have to look at this face for hours:

Would you want to stare at that face for an extended period of time? No one does. I considered just sending SR bikini pictures of myself for her to post as my CLB but then realized everyone would be so jeal of my bikini body and never read my blog so I just sent one:

My blog is totally critical to the blog-world. Where else can you go and read about adventures on the treadmill, healthy delish recipes, and general words of wisdom from my uber cultured brain? Certainly not my blog that’s for sure. My blog is full of nonsense and exceptional photography like this gem:

In this blog, you will find posts on running, recipes, books and other topics, but I must admit, it’s mostly a place for me to share with the world my incredible photography skills and all of my important thoughts. The blog is supposed to capture my experiences of living in a new city, the tasty treats I cook, and the progress of tricking my body into believing it loves to run.

But more importantly it’s about me and how seriously cool I am. Unfortunately since I’ve started my blog, I’ve spent most of my days doing this to avoid  the paparazzi that is constantly following me around:

So stop taking pictures of me already and go read my blog. Thanks SR for featuring me, it’s totes cool of you!
 

You heard the woman, go check out Kelsey’s blog stat.  Thanks Kelsey for the email!

Question of the day: what’s your screensaver picture?

Mine is of my nephew Big K in the wheelhouse of the boat.  I swear he looks exactly like my older brother Byron… minus a couple years.