Water in my ear

Like clockwork we had our 8am priority meeting, despite the fact that we had been doing manual labor the day before. Oh well. My boss tried to make up for it by buying us some breakfast tacos. Worked nicely for me. I had a bean, cheese and potato one. Tasty.

For a snack later that day I had some cashews with seseme seeds from Trader Joe's.

For lunch I went home. I wanted Mexican food really bad but didn't feel like going out of my way to buy it or make it. I had some leftover refried beans, some hard boiled egg, and some cheese. I added a bunch of spices and did away with it. It was tasty but odd.

My work is torturing me right now by providing peanut butter filled pretzels. I had some today. I will never regret eating a peanut butter pretzel.

To edge off my hunger even later in the afternoon I ate some more baby carrots.

After work I met up with a friend to go swimming at the 24 Hour Fitness near my work. I ended up swimming 66 laps which is 1 lap over a mile.  It was intense and I didn't really rest a lot between laps. Once I got going I just didn't want to stop because it would end up taking even more time to get it over with.

Once i got home I was starving. I wanted something quick. I heated up some frozen asparagus. Yes, frozen style not terrible. I added some garlic gold, red chili pepper and oregano.

I also had another brie sandiwch with some bacon and some cherry preserves. Ahhmazing. Mike made a similar one earlier this week and I had been craving it since so I made it, with a slight variation on the jam.

Tonight I was all alone in my house. This is the first time in a long time. I spent my night cuddling with the pups, watching greys anatomy and private practice and blogging. Sounds like a perfect night to me.

Now I am pretty sure I have water in my ear but I can't do much about it. I tried all my old tricks and nothing is working. I am going to lay down soon and hope the act of laying down will make the water get out. If you have fun tricks on how to get it out, or prevent it from getting it, let me know.

Building a House

On Wednesday, my work was set to help build a house for Habitat for Humanity. We do it every year, and this was my third time. I always look forward to this day, because I get paid to work outside. I have to admit part of the day I was considering doing construction instead of a desk job. Then I realized no one would ever hire a 5 foot one woman. Well maybe thats a lie, but it wouldn't be that easy.

I was put on projects such as putting cardboard down on the floors to protect them from damage, helping put a ceiling thing in over the water heater, and painting the side panels. Nothing too exciting but it was decent work.

I started off my day with a breakfast at home. I didn't know if my work was providing breakfast or not, but either way I wanted something better than a bagel. Not that I chose the healthiest breakfast choice of all. I ended up just having some graham crackers in milk.

We ended up getting out a little early from the house building because Habitat for Humanity had a fundraiser to attend. This was no problem with me because I have never gotten off work by 2pm ever before. It was amazing. I met up with Mike and Teddy to to buy stuff for their halloween costume. My back was killing me and I had a few hours to kill before another event. I convinced Mike to go to BJ's and have an afternoon beer and share some avocado egg rolls and spinach artichoke dip. I ended up eating way more than I should have.

A few hours later I went with Teddy to a Food Blogger tasting at Con 'Olios, a local olive oil and balsamic vinegar shop. I got to try a bunch of olive oil on some tasty bread, some wine, a croque monsoiur sandwich and some cheese tasting. We had some pretty tasty treats. Unfortunately I was full from BJ's and my back was killing me from the manual labor I did during the day. I had fun but went home earlier than I wanted to.

I didn't get pictures of everything but you can see how the vinegar and olive oil is set up. They have them in silver tins, with spouts. They tell you about the vinegar/oil and give some recipe suggestions. Cute. I wanted a few of these but have zero dollars right now. I am considering going back for the Black Truffle Olive Oil.

No Playoffs This Time Folks

Tuesday was a decent day. Work was stressful as usual but I left at a decent time to play soccer. We had our last van of the season. This was the first season in awhile that we did not make playoffs. We attribute that mostly to losing half the team we were used to playing with and not having SUVs for most of our games. Plus there were a few games where we had no subs and were down a few players. No good. Either way we tied the game up in the second half but with a few minutes left the other team got a goal. Oh well. We still had a lot of fun and some great exercise.


To fuel for my game I started my Day with some cheerios and some coffee.

For lunch I went home and mike made me a tasty Brie, ham and lingonberry jam sandwich. I ate it alongside some tasty sweet potato chips.

I had a lovely snack of baby carrots. Oh how I missed these.

Dinner was made around 10pm unfortunately. I cooked up some frozen rissoto and added some corn, mushrooms and some pork. It wasn't the best thing I ever made but it was great for hunger level I was feeling.

A few people came over to watch the first 2 basketball games of the season. I watched half of one game and called it a night. I had plans to help build a house the next day and needed some energy.

Need Time for Me

These past few weeks have been pretty insane for me. Working 60 hours a week really cuts into your social time. The only time I went out last week was to go to a work happy hour to discuss very important matters. Not being sarcastic. They were important. I was invited out almost every night for fun things, but working 12-15 hour days, where you are using your  brain at full capacity the entire time, does not make for good motivation to hang out with friends after. And then I was out this past weekend so I didn't have time for my friends either.I have failed as a friend in some regards, but I swear it is out of my control. Sorry friends!

Yesterday I was invited to an event, but I knew I needed to focus on me for once. I only worked out once last week. That makes me a grumpy more tired person. I knew I needed to make working out a priority. So I had to turn down the plans so I could focus on my date with the gym.

After work I ran 3.2 miles. I did it interval style though so I can continue to work on my speed. I wanted to do weights but for some reason I didn't. I think because I am not a fan of the gym I went to and the weights were disorganized and were bothering me. It felt great to get out there and get some exercise in me.

After working out, i was more energetic then any other time during the day. I went to the grocery store after the gym, with a plan to pick up a few small things. I ended up picking up a lot instead. All useful things that we needed though. Mike is in between jobs right now (literally, he has one starting in January) and so he is at home a lot. He needs food. So I bought him some of his favorite things that he can make quickly while he is in between writing articles for AFI. I didn't get home until 845pm. This will explain my simple dinner that I will get into soon.

So overall, I think I need to focus on me sometimes. Stop working so many insane hours, make the gym a priority, then social plans. I have a half marathon I have to start training for this week. I also have a 5k in 2 weeks. I think people will eventually understand. I also plan to start taking some night classes soon. So if I can figure out a better routine where I can fit more of what I love in, I can be a better person overall.

Alright now onto breakfast. I just had some pumpkin spice cereal.

For lunch i went home and ate with Mike while figuring out several bill type things. I had some leftover pad thai.

I had a snack of some Trader Joe's cat cookies. Mmm.

For dinner I had a brie, lingonberry jam, and ham grilled sandwich on whole wheat bread. Then Mike and I shared an entire bag of frozen veggies. It was a lot of veggies. It was nice to eat. I seasoned mine with some kickn chicken spice I have. Don't worry,  no chicken was involved in the spice.

Tonight I have a soccer game after work. Super excited. one of the last of the season. I am not sure we will have any subs though, or even enough girls, so I will at least be playing a lot during the game. Sweet. Good cross training right?

Sunday Moving

The In-Laws are in the middle of a move from Houston to League City. Mike and Dean were set up to help with the moving and the ladies were set to help manage the situation and we even got some shopping in. We started the day off with a delicious meal made by Dean. He mad perfect eggs, bacon and we had some fruit and a cinnamon roll. Diva actually made the fruit bowl. So good.

After some shopping at the largest Forever 21 I have ever been to in my life, I had a turkey and swiss sandwich on whole wheat bread and some whole wheat Ritz. I also had a few other snacks but forgot to take photos. I was extra hungry for some reason on Sunday.

Mike and I didn't end up getting back into Austin until pretty late. I wanted veggies but we didnt really have any. So I had leftover pad thai that I ordered with extra veggies the other night. I am making the one meal I bought from IM Thai into 4 meals. Sweet. I ate this while watching Dexter.

I ended up going to bed shortly after dinner, only because it was pretty late and we had a long day. Mike moved a lot, I shopped a lot, and then drove the 3.5 hours home. Well Mike did drive about 25 minutes of it because it was causing me neck pain. Either way, pretty great weekend!

Saturday Road Trip

Mike and I slept in later than we should have on Saturday morning. Well it was good for our sanity but not for the road trip. Once we got up we decided to just have toast for breakfast and some coffee of course. I was in charge of the toast. So hard right? I just had some butter and honey on one, and some chocolate pb on another. I also had some grapes. Tasty.

Mike made me a cappacino that was amazing. I added some cinnamon on top to make it even better. And is this not the cutest mug you have ever seen? I bought it in San Francisco in China Town. I am in love with it.

I ended up eating taco bell for my road trip meal. We were driving out to League City which is a 3.5 hour drive and we didn't pack any food. I got the crunchwrap thing minus the meat. It was gross. It has been 2.5 years or more since I had taco bell. And gross. Bleh. I ate about 1/2 only because I was starving.

Once we got into League City we got to see the In-Laws new place. We got the tour then headed to Keemah, a cute little boardwalk beach city. We walked the boardwalk area, ate at a tasty seafood restaurant and Mike won me a stuffed animal from a carnival game. Yayay. It was his first carnival win. It was awesome.

We ended up heading back after dinner, then talking through the night with some tasty snacks and some wine. We had a great night!

Ball of Nerves

Friday was another day where I was a ball of nerves. I showed up at work at 7am and left at 815pm. Awesome for a Friday right? Yep.

Anyway because I was a ball of nerves I had a nutri grain bar for breakfast again. I like how they say more whole grains, instead of, yes lots of sugar in this.

For lunch I had a sandwich with some roast beef. I ate about half of this.

For dinner Mike and I were both incredibly over tired and over worked. We got thai food to go. I got some Pad Kee Mao and some rice balls. Heaven. I might have eaten more than normal for dinner, but I blame the fact that I ate pretty much nothing all day before this.

Today, Saturday, we are heading out to Houston to visit his Dad for his birthday. Then we are  helping them move. It should be a fun weekend!

Salty Foods this Week

I did not end up taking many pictures on Thursday. Oops. I started my day off with a nutri grain bar. Not what I normally eat at all, plus it has no staying power. But I have been a ball of nerves from the work week that I didn't have it in me to eat anything else.

For lunch we got indian food. I had a bowl of delicious curry, as well as a few other curries and a piece of naan. This was a buffet so I didn't get individual servings of each, just small bites worth. So tasty. I did not stuff myself to the brim this time. Yay.

For dinner, I went with a few co-workers to Iron Cactus for a Happy Hour. Yes, 2 happy hours in one week for me is strange. But this was a strange week. I forgot to take photos for some reason. But i had a few bites of a lobster taco and some bites of crack cake that were too salty. What's up with me getting foods too salty this week? Gross. But the lobster tacos were amazing. I would get them again, even if not at Happy Hour prices.

Meals by Michael

Wednesday I started out my day with some dry kasi cereal.

This was catered lunch day and we got to pick what we wanted from the NXNW menu. I picked the 3 veggie sides meal. I got polenta, veggies and onion mashers. The polenta was gross salty. The veggies were good. I kept thinking I was going to get chicken poisoned from the onion mashers so I didn't eat much. Note, I did not get chicken poisoned. Because I ate so little I instead had part of a milkshake with a few co-workers.

The milkshake didn't have much lasting power. I ended up having pretzels for a snack with some chocolate.

For dinner, Mike made me fish stuffed with cheese, roasted veggies and potatoes and some rice. Such a great meal. I only ate about half of what is shown here, but all the veggies and potatoes of course. Mmmm.

While Mike made this meal I used my roasted pumpkins and made a soup out of them, then a pumpkin pie mixture. I will have photos of the soup soon. I havent eaten it as a meal yet. 

Happy Hour then Reverse Happy Hour

Let's just say everyday at work was intense this week, including Tuesday.

I started off my day with some dry kashi cereal.

For a snack I had some roasted pumpkin seeds.

For lunch I had 1/2 burger from Phills (the 78704, my favorite burger of all time) with some sweet potato fries (also half eaten).

Later I had about 1/4 of what is shown here for a snack.

For dinner I went to a happy hour with some friends. I got some mac n cheese and some rosemary garlic fries. Well the table did, I only had bites of things.

We ended up staying pretty late. We went to a happy hour at one place, then chatted for a long time, then went to a reverse happy hour somewhere else. Funny right?  Lets just say I did not get much sleep that night. Oh well. It was fun. 

Snuck in a Workout

On Monday morning I started my day with a whole wheat piece of toast w/ pb and honey. Mmm. One of my favorite quick breakfasts.

I then had some roasted pumpkin seeds from the night before. This batch had some pumpkin spices and sugar. tasty.

For lunch I had some leftover chili with some cheese and cornbread crackers. Mmm.

For dinner Mike and I met up at Kenichi (a sushi place) to use a LunchDeal coupon we got (similar to groupon). We got a spider roll, a japanese bagel roll (salmon, strawberries, cream chees, cucumber), appetizer portion of ribs with a honey miso sauce, and some sashimi but I forgot what kind. oops. It was too dark to take pictures in there, so you are left with your imagination.

After dinner Mike was still hungry while we caught up on Boardwalk Empire. He made a cheese, crackers and fruit plate for us to share. I had a few bites and it was very tasty. How cute does the plate look? Mike is awesome.

Another thing to note is that I parked downtown 45 minutes before our reservation by myself. To waste the time I walked around downtown the entire time. I got in a decent walk, some exercise, and some exploration. Much better than another option I thought up, which was to get coffee at a place near Kenichi.

A Day at the Theater

Since Mike and I have been pretty busy, then went out of town, we missed  out on a lot of movies we were hoping to see. We decided to make a day out of the movies, and watch a double feature.

We started our morning (11am) off with The Social Network. I loved it. I ate some creme brule french toast at the drafthouse. It was tasty but had no staying power. Also there were no lights on during this, so I couldn't snap a photo.

After our first movie we watched Never Let Me Go, another movie I loved. I ended up ordering lunch there, which was spaghetti squash with a marinara sauce and zuchini. It was really really good. And who gets served spaghetti squash at a movie theater? This girl did. I love Alamo Drafthouse.

After the movies Mike and I did a few more errands, then we went and played soccer at Zilker Park. We played for about an hour. It was a lot of fun.

For dinner I made a home made chili. Mike says it is the  best thing I make. Yay. I roasted 2 small pumpkins to serve it in, but they took too long to roast so Mike and I ate the chili without it. If we had waited we would have been eating dinner at 10pm. No thanks.

The chili has sausage, corn, kidney beans, white northern beans, red beans, tomato sauce, onions, garlic, jalapenos, and bell peppers. Mmm. Super easy to make too.

Do you have any theaters where you live that serve food that isn't the regular hot dog popcorn fare?

Saturday Night Mystery

Saturday started out with me sleeping in, then waking up to some coffee and toast.

After a bit of relaxation in the morning I went off to Target, Old Navy and then Sprouts for a few errands. I had to pick out my halloween costume and a costume I would be wearing for a mystery dinner I was going to later that night. I was successful in finding both. Sweet.

For lunch I had an avocado sandwich with havarti cheese,sprouts and chili paste and a side of sweet potato chips. Mmmm.

Mike and I got dressed and went to our mystery dinner party. I was the maid. Yes, I know how ridiculous this costume is.

Mike was the butler.

I ended up getting killed in the first half, but was able to be another character because someone didn't show up. We had a lot of fun and snacked on some cheese and crackers, as well as some turkey bacon bombs that my friend made especially for me. Yay.

Have you ever been to a mystery dinner? This was my second. It was a blast.

A Girl's Night Out

Friday I started out my day very tired. But I had some kashi cereal to fuel my for the day. I forgot a picture though, but it wasn't very exciting.

For a snack later in the day I had a payday, because it was my payday. and some cookies.

For lunch I was coerced to go to Pluckers. I had some mac n cheese there, and got sweet potato fries but they were cold so I just didn't eat them. I could have returned them, but I took it as a sign.

After working until 8pm on a Friday night, after starting at 730am,  I went out to my friend Kathleen's girls night. A few ladies hung out and got to eat awesome food from Kathleen. She made and amazing salad with pears. We had some brie and some wine. Then for the dinner part we had some ratatouille, a bean dish, and some roasted rosemary potatoes. Mmmm. For dessert she made us a dark chocolate truffle tart with some cayenne pepper, and a gingerbread crust. This was one of the best desserts I have had. Mmmmmmmmm. It was practically made for me. haha.

How was your Friday night?