work hard, play harder

last week was HOT & HUMID. i got two good runs in and 3 decent bike rides. i went to a welcome back party on wednesday evening and to my sisters house for a pork shoulder dinner on thursday. then, i went to a twin's game, which included a pre-game and post-game party. saturday was filled with errands and playing frisbee at calhoun followed by a trip to the orpheum to see wicked. sunday included yardwork and a birthday party....and then - BAM! monday hit and i had a 8+ work day and today was a 10 hour day....this weekend will be a grad party and a half marathon. you know what? i'm ready for summer craziness to end and autumn relaxing to begin! i can't wait for lazy football sundays! i mean, don't get me wrong, ALL of it was SUPER fun, but when it comes down to it, i'm exhausted right now.

no tuna...again!

tonight is the SECOND time THIS MONTH that i've made rice...(fine, the rice cooker made the rice, but still) and go to put tuna and mayo in it...AND THERE IS NO TUNA!!! seriously. i'm. not. that. old. am i already starting to lose my mind? it's one of my favorite meals and i typically only make it when paola is not around and i get all excited when she isn't going to be here for dinner, and i think about it, i crave it, i get all fucking giddy and EXCITED about my tuna/mayo/rice combo! i SWEAR that the last time i was at the store i purchased 4 cans of tuna (i always buy 4 cans at a time, don't know why). so, for the second time this month, another half cup of rice goes to waste. and i have this lame sandwich instead :(

just another thursday

it's been an active week for me. after monday's 9.5 running miles, i got out and biked 27 miles on tuesday to loosen up my legs, which i needed BADLY. omg, i was SO sore on tuesday.

on wednesday, i biked over to the tin fish and met my dad and little sister for dinner. it's a super cute little 'order at the window' place on lake calhoun. very minneapolis. i love being able to bike there in 15 mins and meet my fam for weeknight dinner. when i got home, my neighbor was in the yard so i borrowed his ultra heavy duty hedge clipper thingy and cut some weeds, or should i say, little trees, growing behind my garage. as we started chatting he cut me some zenias from his yard for my table. he's just SO darn nice!! (picture attached)

tonight i went for a quick 5 mile run after work and made dinner for paola. she's been working so much lately, i feel so bad for the poor girl. here i am running and biking and meeting people for dinner and she's been slaving away at work :( hopefully it doesn't last too much longer. she did, however, stop and get a chirimoya from byerly's. i've never had a chirimoya before. you know, it's one thing i LOVE about dating and being with a colombian, or, i guess, an immigrant in general. i get introduced to so many different foods i probably wouldn't try. i STRONGLY suggest trying a chirimoya. it kind of tastes like a pear. SUPER bien ;) (picture attached)

gaby and marco, our current housemates, came home shortly after we had finished eating. gaby is one of paola's bff's and they are staying with us for the month of august. they LOVE phoebe, and it's SO cute how affectionate they are with her! phoebe is getting SPOILED with this double attention. she's going to have withdrawls when they leave.

9.5

i tend to life in the extremes. i'm all in, or not in at all. i took off at 5:30 and ran 9.5 miles. it was HOT. it was HUMID. it was SLOW. in fact, it wasn't pretty at ALL. but i DID it. and the only reason i did is because i woke up this morning and told myself i was going to run 9.5 miles. i wanted to see if i could, if i had it in me after all this time not running or training. you see, i signed up for a 13.1 on august 22nd back in may, before my accident. although the accident didn't leave me with any broken bones (thank god), it did leave me with a sprained foot, and whenever i run or put extra stress on it the next day it's really sore and aches and just doesn't feel right, so i've been extra careful, perhaps a little too careful, on not over doing it. but two weeks ago i ran a short 5 mile and 3.2 miles with only a day in between and the foot felt pretty good. because i was in texas for work last week and consumed with work i didn't get any running in. so this week, i wanted to test myself. and that's exactly what i did today. damn! it was painful. damn! i'm out of shape. but damn it, i'm running 13.1 on august 22nd, ugly or not!

go, go, go

i left for dallas monday evening around 7pm. a fitness center needed some help with some accounting issues so i went down to help out. it reminded me of my audit days and my auditing experience sure helped me solve the problems and figure out how to implement new processes. of course nothing can be solved in three days, but i feel like i accomplished what i intended to, and that feels GOOD! i might be seeing more of dallas in the coming months...but i guess i'll cross that bridge if/when it comes. i do know that i worked 10 hours on both tuesday and wednesday and i didn't get to my hotel and in bed on monday night until midnight or so. by thursday afternoon i was EXHAUSTED. i went into work early friday and left at 4pm. what i REALLY wanted to do was have a relaxing evening reading a book or watching a movie, but nope, we had a camping trip planned.

i came home at 4 and immediately went upstairs to pack my clothes and help load up the jeep. an hour later we were off for wild water state park, about an hour and a half north of the cities along the st. croix river. we camped with a bunch of paola's friends and some of her friend's friends; there were 13 of us around the campfire on saturday night! i do want to pause and and promote wild river state park, though. it was my first time there and i was impressed! it was beautiful, clean and HEAPS of activities to choose from. we tried to rent canoe's, but they were fully booked, which i was totally bummed about, but instead, we went for a short mile and half hike to a beach area and played there for the afternoon. it was fantastic. dogs were allowed, so of course, phoebe had a blast chasing her ball all afternoon, i took some time to take pictures and paola and few others swam. when we got back to the site a bunch of others had arrived, so we basically...ate, drank and were merry :)

we got up early this morning so i could get back and do laundry from the weak, shower and clean up and then i hopped on my bike and rode into the office to do more work. since i was out for 3 days doing other work, i have WAY more than is humanly possible right now, so i wanted to at least get a few things done so i'm not working 12 hour days this week. i really wished i could have spent the afternoon canoeing and enjoying the park more, but i'm SO glad i got some work done. i'll be thanking myself monday morning!

around 5pm, paola met me at my office and we loaded our bikes into the jeep and headed over to the highland park reserve in bloomington, not too far from my office. we got 20 miles in and discovered some awesome trails!! - for running, blading and biking. there is also a super cool park area where you can picnic/grill and rent canoes or kayaks. we will definately be hitting this place up again. i can't believe i hadn't been there before. i had been to parts, by the ski hill, but not where we were today. it was good find to end our week....or, should i start the week ;)

this week FLEW by, and, um, it's august people...o.m.g.! here we come monday and let the july month end close start!