Destination Costa Rica!

Hi friends, it's Monday again. It snuck up on me. Probably because I spent the ENTIRE weekend on the couch. I am feeling better today, but still not 100%. I cannot even remember the last time I was that sick. I went to Target on Saturday and literally had to take a 2 hour nap when I got back because it took that much energy just to grab detergent and socks. Crazy.

I did manage to go out Friday night with Danielle and Kristen to my favorite place, Yardhouse. I had 2 beers even though they were not tasting good at ALL. I wasn't going to go out but I hate to cancel on people, and I haven't seen my friends a lot lately due to the traveling. Even though I was sick I still had a great time with my girls. I also went to my friend Meg's christmas party Saturday night and indulged in some delicious food and exactly half of a peppermint martini (again, the alcohol was not agreeing with my illness).

I was the first one to leave the party (another thing I hate) but it was still a good time even though I was not my usual peppy self.

So on to the title of my post. The boy and I have decided to take a vacation. We had been throwing Costa Rica around for a while, but now it is official, it has been decided and we are going to book next week. I am literally so excited I can barely stand it. This will be our first vacation together and I can't wait for it. We have a lot of fun things planned, like a canopy tour and some rainforest excursions.

Luckily he is outdoorsy and active like I am so I know we will have a blast. It's time for us to start tackling that bucket list anyway.

Breakfast this morning was a Strawberry Banana Chobani yogurt bowl with granola.

Lunch is going to be some leftover soup that the boy made me yesterday to make me feel better. Yes he actually cooked it and no it wasn't campbells! I was very impressed.

I am going to be super clean with my eats since we only have 3 months until Costa Rica and I want to look fabulous in all the photos I'm going to take. Another goal is to acquire a better camera before we go. My little point and shoot is old and on the verge of death. I really want a Canon Rebel and hope it will be in my budget at some point. Maybe even a Christmas present from the boy!

Do you have any fun vacation plans? Any good camera recommendations?

Food and Beer and Movies, Oh My!

Hey guys, back in Springfield this week! You know I'm super excited! At least I am only here until Wednesday this week.

I had an eventful weekend, so below are just some of the highlights. The one and only meal I remembered to photograph this weekend was yesterday's breakfast. I had a bowl of yogurt, pumpkin, and granola with a side of half an english muffin with peanut butter and a few bites of banana that the boy wouldn't eat because it was too ripe. I have a cast iron stomach and the boy gets squeamish about just about anything when it comes to food. So I manned up and ate the banana for him ;)

Friday night the boy and I went out to play some pool and eat gross bar food. I won't name the place because since pool was free until 7, I'm sure the boy will want to go back there at some point. But let's just say that I will be eating before I go next time. It's really really hard to screw up bar food, but this place did a damn good job of finding ways. Anyway, after that we went home to rewatch Harry Potter 6 in preparation for seeing it yesterday at the Imax. And because we are LAME we both fell asleep on the couch half way through the movie. Apparently we got old overnight.

It was the boy's first ever trip to the Imax. I joked beforehand that seeing a movie at the Imax would ruin him for all other movies. Well that would have been true, had the movie actually been good. I know a lot of Harry Potter fans will eviscerate me for saying this, but Part 1 of the Deathly Hallows was BORING. They must have spent an hour and a half out of the over two hour movie just sitting in the woods. There was a LOT of sitting in the woods. The action parts were very good, but they were very far apart. I know that a lot of this is build up to the ultimate showdown between Harry and Voldemort, but I almost wished I had just waited for the second one to come out.

Since I'm randomly living at the movie theatre lately, Saturday afternoon I met Danielle to go see Burlesque. Scoff if you will, but I really liked it. Plus, Xtina and Cher both rule my world. I love me some divas. Apparently Danielle and I were not the only ones as there were a bunch of people in the theatre, including two older ladies who did a sort of Rockette-esque kicking dance into the theatre in an effort to mimic Burlesque dancing. It was slightly tragic, slightly cute, but very odd.

Also when I was in the movie theatre waiting for Danielle, one of the showings of Tangled sold out. Apparently this movie is HOT right now because there were a ton of very upset little kids running around. One girl actually left crying. The mother was dragging her to another movie theatre. This will pale in comparison though to when the Justin Beiber movie comes out. Yes you read that right. There is a Justin Beiber movie coming out. Can you imagine the hysteria?? Avoid the movie theatre at all costs that weekend people.

Before having to head back to Springfield, last night I randomly got a raging craving for Yardhouse all of a sudden. I had been wanting to take the boy there because I knew he would love it, and sure enough he did. I ordered my usual Avocado Swiss burger and the boy got the Pepper Jack burger, but the real star of the show was this guy.

The boy and I inspected the beer menu for quite a while before getting a recommendation from the waitress. This right here is a seasonal beer. Caramel. Or as the waitress referred to it, "christmas in a glass." Well cue the tinsel throwing because she was not exaggerating. I started out with Wachusett Blueberry because whenever I get wachusett blueberry on tap and actual blueberries are involved, I can never turn it down. I switched over to the caramel after trying a sip of the boy's though. Oh my yum. Best beer I've had in a while, possibly ever.

What's your favorite beer? Seen any good movies lately?



Let's Go to the Movies!

Happy day after Thanksgiving bloggies! The boy and I went to the movies Wednesday night (Thursday is typically date night for us, but since it was Thanksgiving, we moved date night to Wednesday). The evening started with him making stir fry for us for dinner (he's getting so much better about cooking) and then we sat down to see what time it was playing. I had voted for Love and Other Drugs and much to my surprise, he agreed to go see it. In looking up times for the movie, I saw a movie called 127 Hours that I hadn't heard of, so we watched the trailor.

I was hooked. It wasn't playing until 10:10, but I was so jazzed about it that I didn't mind waiting and staying up late. It was a holiday after all. We killed some time by going to the mall until it closed and then over to Barnes and Noble for some book browsing and coffee at Starbucks. Finally we headed over to the theatre.

The movie in a nutshell is a true story about a guy who was canyoning and had a rock fall on his arm, trapping him. 127 hours is how long he was trapped, with very little water and eventually resorting to drinking his own urine and in a final desperate attempt at staying alive, chopping his arm off with a pair of pliers and a dull knife. I happen to love survival movies (what movies don't I like actually) and I was absolutely riveted and left the theatre in awe.

The boy asked me later on if I thought there was going to be oscar buzz for James Franco and I said no, basically because it's an independent film and I hadn't even heard about it until we went to check movie times, but then I did a little googling and discovered that yes, it is in fact being talked up for the oscars. After all, there has been basically nothing that has come out this year worth even talking about besides Inception and the Social Network. So here I am trying to generate a little buzz...go see it!

Yesterday morning I made a big breakfast for the boy including chocolate chip pancakes for him and french toast for me, bacon, and orange juice. We weren't eating our big Thanksgiving meals together so I at least wanted us to have a big breakfast to share on Thanksgiving. It was my first time making chocolate chip pancakes and much like anytime with pancakes, the first one is always a "test pancake." As in, I completely mangled it :/ Well the boy wolfed them down so I assume they had to be good.

I needed just a light dinner, being it was Thanksgiving and all, so I just sliced up a sweet potato and some brussel sprouts and threw them in the oven to roast. For dessert (and some protein) I had some tofu pudding with whipped cream. Simple, but delicious.

I even managed to fit in a 2 mile run today. It was short, but I don't get to run during the day very often anymore since it gets dark so early, so I thought I would take advantage. It was a little cold, but the run felt great. I really do love running outside so much more than on the treadmill. It's unfortunate that my running suffers in the winter because of this. I have vowed to be better about it though and run 3 times a week no matter what. Since I'm getting out of work early tomorrow, I will go after work tomorrow as well and then again on Sunday.

How was your Thanksgiving? Are you participating in Black Friday?

The Heat is On

Hi bloggies. So 2 very frigid days in my house and $325 later, the heat finally works again. The numbness in my fingers and toes still hasn't totally returned though.

Breakfast yesterday was cereal. I decided to work from home yesterday since I wanted to wait for the oil man to come and assure me there was nothing wrong with my heat and fill up my oil tank. I was originally told that the oil in the tank would last until Christmas. Well, it's not even Thanksgiving so what gives? Mr. Oil Man said nothing was wrong, it was just empty and my fault for not checking the gauge. Grrrr.

I like working from home because then I can make my lunch. Of course I opted for a big mouth sandwich (I don't usually pack those just because I hate soggy sandwiches and the mustard, tomato, and avocado can make everything soggy). Cracked pepper turkey, stoneground mustard, tomatoes, and avocado on toasted whole wheat bread. YUM.

On the side I had some wheat thins and a gingerbread man. I will have you all know that I did not buy this gingerbread man. The boy drives an ambulance for a living, and apparently he looks emaciated or something because the nurses like to feed him, so he comes home with all these little snacks and cookies all the time. I try to avoid them, I even put them in a jar on a high shelf in the pantry. But this little guy was calling to me today. I always eat the head first, anyone else? There is something oddly satisfying about biting the head off of a gingerbreadman.

I made a trip over to Trader Joe's yesterday to pick up a couple of things...the fresh mild salsa for one thing. But they were out of it. This scares me. Everyone familiar with Trader Joe's knows that they rotate their products a lot, and the last time I couldn't find something I was looking for they had discontinued it. I cannot live without that salsa. I would have to resort to making my own and that is way too much vegetable chopping for this lazy girl. On the bright side, I did find this finally:

I am obsessed with the pumpkin butter which is also seasonal like this is, but for some reason, I hadn't been able to find this until now. I can't wait to try this in my oatmeal. I forgot the bacon that I had specifically went to TJ's to get since I was so upset about them not having my salsa. But coming home and watching Bailey play in the bag cheered me up a little bit.

All the expensive cat toys I have bought for them and they get more enjoyment out of a paper bag than anything. Don't you wish life was that simple?

Dinner was a random hodgepodge of things. I started out with a green monster, but I was still hungry after that, so I made some popcorn for the boy and me while we caught up on Boardwalk Empire. Then while making our lunches for tomorrow, I decided to have a piece of bread with butter. Then I finished my eating spree with two fig newtons and finally called it a night. I'm not sure why I was so snacky.

Do you ever get snacky? How do you make it stop? And do you bite the head off your gingerbread men first?

Home At Last

Happy Monday y'all. It's back to the grind.

I am home for the week instead of in Springfield (yay!) but there was a few girls who were not as happy as I was about that. For the first day I was home, I got a lot of this.

She is on my lap, but she wouldn't face me and got up when I tried to pet her. Finally yesterday when it was about naptime for me, both kittens stopped being frosty and decided to forgive me for being away so much and we all cuddled together and took a little siesta.

Can you see my feet in the picture? Cute socks, right? Bath and Body Works fuzzy socks are the best. I have about ten pairs of them and wear them all winter long. The reason I was wearing them all weekend is because I ran out of oil. What a disaster. I got home yesterday after being out all day and noticed it was chilly in the apartment. It was a cool crisp 58 degrees. So after much running around and phone calls, I discovered that if I wanted someone to make an emergency trip out, it was going to cost me $100. Otherwise I would have to wait until Monday. So I went out and bought some space heaters to keep the apartment warm for the weekend. I figure I will use them even after the oil gets replenished, just keep the temperature lower since the price of oil is so astronomical. Never a dull moment in my life, I promise you that.

After I got the space heaters going and got the apartment back to 65 degrees, I started to get ready to go out. Saturday night's destination was Rock Revolution with Danielle and Mike for Danielle's friend Ariel's birthday party. Danielle even did my hair! Here is a blurry side shot of my hair (and no I was not already drunk when I took this picture, it was just my third attempt at a picture of myself with my phone and I gave up after this one). I never ever curl my hair because let's face it, I'm way too lazy to mess around with a curling iron, but if I have someone who is willing to do my hair for me, I'm not going to say no! It came out really good, girlfriend has some talent.

Don't mind the ginormous bags under my eyes, I got almost no sleep Friday night and was hungover from a trip to Santarpios and Margaritas with the boy. I felt better that it was dark at Rock Rev and no one could see the five piece luggage set I was carrying under my eyes. Of course I had a little too much Saturday night too, but the boy put his sweet hat on and decided to wake up early and make me breakfast in bed :)

He made me two fried eggs (he has never fried an egg before, I was extremely impressed), two pieces of toast, and some applewood smoked bacon. He even went to Starbucks and got me a gingerbread latte to go with my breakfast. Am I a lucky girl or what? Breakfast was delicious. The only problem is that now I'm going to expect him to cook more often. When I said this to him, I may or may not have gotten a look of fear. I spent the rest of the day napping on the couch with my kittens, catching up on my TV shows and doing laundry.

How was your weekend?

Ew Monday

So it's Monday again. I feel like it was just Friday five minutes ago. All I did most of the weekend was just run errands, and then headed back to Springfield late last night. It was nice to be home for the weekend, even though I came home to 500 straws all over my apartment. And no, that's not an exaggeration. This little beast located my BJs box of drinking straws, knocked it over, and proceeded to strew all 500 straws ALL OVER the place. I am still finding them.

This picture looks fairly harmless and cute, right? Well right before it was taken she knocked the charger that was on the shelf onto the floor. She is the devil. I'm sure all of you who have pets can agree, as cute and cuddly as they are, they can be a pain in the ass.

Even though it was a busy weekend of errand running, I did have time to have lunch with the absolutely fabulous Danielle. We hit up Border Cafe in Burlington and consumed wayyyy too many chips. After our gabfest,  this license plate was spotted:

Classy, no? I pointed it out to Danielle and then we stalked the car until we got to a stop light so we could take pictures of it to laugh about it with all of our friends. You guys know how I am about stalking. I like to think I'm an expert. And you totally would have done it too. The only thing that would make this license plate funnier would be if it was either a man driving the car or a little old lady. It was neither unfortunately. Just a little license plate humor for you ;)

The rest of the weekend flew by in a blur. Checking into the hotel last night I was pleasantly surprised to be put on the other side of the building for the week, thus a much better view than that of the top of the parking garage that I got on the other side last week.

Breakfast this morning was an apple and a LaraBar. I know it's lacking in protein, but while I'm in Springfield it will most likely be my breakfast every day just because I'm trying not to completely go overboard on food.

I know I am going to be eating dinner out every night, so a lighter breakfast, a medium lunch, and a large dinner is how I am going to be rolling for the week I think.

Lunch today was a recent staple...chicken salad. I was bummed when they said they were out of pickles and had to give me carrot sticks instead. So to ease my disappointment, I grabbed an apple pie parfait. It was pretty good, but would've been better warm.



I am off to dinner...not sure where we will end up tonight, but if it's a new place, I will be sure to review it for you guys.

What do you hate most about Mondays? Have you ever stalked another car?

I Swear I'm Not an Addict...

There is a serious downside to my new job. Proximity to coffee shops. You guys remember how I tried to give up caffeine a few months back? Well I never really told you but that failed miserably as it usually does. Now, I'm just as addicted as ever.

Within 2 blocks of my work there is a Starbucks, a Dunkin Donuts, a Peet's Coffee, and a Bruegger's. This is not going to be good for my wallet. The wallet has already taken a hit having to pay for parking everyday, so the coffee addiction that I often try to fight has reared it's ugly head again since I accompanied my boss over to the 'Bucks yesterday afternoon and ordered a Pumpkin Spice latte. It was everything I remembered. Mmmmmm.

Breakfast this morning was an egg and cheese sandwich on a whole wheat english muffin.

Mid morning snack was a banana.

Lunch was a big mouth sandwich with a side of cookies...which I ate at Starbucks and I got a second coffee today. No, I have no willpower whatsoever. At least I only got the tall today instead of the venti. No need to go crazy or anything.

So it's confession time. I haven't been to the gym all week. I'm still trying to adjust to my new schedule. It's hard having the boy here since he keeps me up later than I'm used to, therefore making me too tired to go to the gym in the morning, and then at night I never have motivation to go. It's a vicious cycle. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things by friday. I hate how I feel when I don't work out in the morning. But I also hate feeling tired.

I would be interested in you guys' advice. How do you keep a routine with the gym? What do you do when you just don't have the motivation?

My First Day

Hi bloggies! So as you all know, yesterday was my first day at a new job (YAY!) and I can't really go into too much detail of course, but suffice it to say it's where I have been trying to get for years now, I get to travel a lot, and so far my coworkers are great! My boss and a coworker took me out yesterday to Elephant Castle in Boston, but since it was my first day and all, I felt a little weird about taking pictures, but rest assured, I will go back and review it officially for you guys. I'm actually excited about the prospect of reviewing all the restaurants in the area for you guys. Here is the view from my office kitchen:

They let me leave work a little early since it was my first day, so I came home and cuddled with this girl for a little while until the boy got home, at which point he snapped this lovely picture because she's sitting in such a ladylike way, don't you think?

She never leaves me alone for a second when I'm home, I have a cat appendage on me at all times. She's a cutie though. Then when the boy got home and we finished playing photoshoot, he asked how I liked his note. Not having any idea what he was talking about I just stared at him. Apparently he had written me a note for my first day and put it in the side pocket of my purse (which I hardly ever use). Since I left my purse in the car, I made him go out and get it. He didn't want me to put it on the blog, but I put everything on the blog, he should know this right? He actually wanted me to give him time to write a more "blog-worthy" note. The funny thing about this note is that it's actually a haiku, which he very proudly pointed out to me when I didn't realize it myself. He's a cutie too.

Don't mind the grease stains, apparently he found this piece of paper on the kitchen counter. I was nervous yesterday, so I wish I had gotten this note before I went in to work, but oh well, it still made me happy getting it last night.

Breakfast this morning was a banana and a bowl of cereal. I had briefly considered oatmeal (I'm craving a little pumpkin today) but decided to just stick with the cereal.

Lunch was leftover baked pasta from a few weeks ago. We are in leftover eating mode in this house because we have soooo much of them in the fridge and freezer, so you may not see any more new recipes this week :/

New music Tuesday today! There was some good stuff on iTunes this morning. The new Taylor Swift CD (which I'm going to go grab tonight), previews of the new Kanye and the new Kid Cudi, and a new Kesha single. Yes, I like Kesha. You have a problem with that? You know she's catchy.

Alright it's back to work for this girl!

How often do you get "lazy" with your meals and just throw together something really simple instead of actually cooking a meal?

Packed and Ready to Go!

Happy last day to me! I am all packed and ready to go!

Yes, those are my desk decorations, lysol, and phone charger. My desk is cleaned out and all I'm doing know is anxiously awaiting the go ahead to leave! Hopefully it will be soon so I can go out for a run this afternoon. Here's hoping!

Breakfast was the usual cereal and banana. Lunch today was an old standby...peanut butter and jelly! I cannot even tell you the last time I had a PB&J for lunch. I was in the mood for something super easy and quick, but was not in the mood for any of the leftovers I had in the fridge, so PB&J it was! I added a side of celery sticks and finished it off with one (ok ok, I can't lie, I actually had two) of my cookie fail from the other day.

Sorry for the quick post today bloggies, I have a lot of last minute things to finish up. I will holla at ya lata!

What Ever Happened to My Bedazzler??

Hi friends. So today is new music Tuesday! I love new music Tuesday. Not much good to download today though besides new singles from Taylor Swift and Duffy (it's about time for her, it's been ages).

So last night started out with a few laughs at the boy's expense. At some point during the day yesterday, I get a text from the boy that the button on his pants broke. He found a safety pin though, so it was ok. At various points throughout the day, I got updates on the state of his pants. Apparently the safety pin didn't work as well as he wanted it to.

He beat me home and was already in his comfies when I arrived. I went into the bedroom to change into mine and saw these on the bed. Notice what is amiss here??

Me to the Boy: Where did you get this belt?
Boy: I stopped at the goodwill store because my pants wouldn't stay up. At one point I considered trying an orange seatbelt but thought that wasn't really work appropriate. This was the only belt they had that fit me.
Me: Do you realize this is a woman's belt?
Boy: Really? How can you tell?
Me: Because it's BEDAZZLED.

I know the picture doesn't really do it justice, but the belt buckle had diamond rhinetones all over it. But really, I'm no one to judge because I did walk around for the last THREE days with Chuck E. Cheese stickers all over my jacket from Saturday with the Lamberts without even realizing it. So thanks to everyone who has seen me the last three days and not mentioned the action stickers staring Mr. Cheese that covered me.

After dinner, I decided to try baking up some delicious oatmeal cookies. The recipe I had called for some chocolate, but I eliminated that and it was clearly a mistake because my cookies wouldn't really stick together. I also may have used too much flour. They came out ok, but not amazing, so I will have to retweak my recipe before I can post it for you guys. I still ate them of course, I have never won a battle against a cookie.

This morning's breakfast was cereal and a banana. So interesting, I know. I decided to swap out my Bodypump class this morning in favor of going to the gym tonight and dragging the boy along to get some cardio in as well as this killer ab routine that I found on YouTube yesterday:



Looks really tough doesn't it?? I really want to start focusing more on my core. It has gone neglected for way too long. I do ten minutes here and there, but haven't stayed consistent and I know it's my weakest area. And on a good note, my knee is feeling a lot better today! I was nervous about doing Bodypump this morning with the lunges and squats with it hurting like it was. I will probably do low impact cardio tonight in the form of the bike or the elliptical just to give it a couple more days. Better safe than sorry.

Did you have a bedazzler? I sure did! I think I only did maybe 2 pieces of clothing before it got old.

A Little of This, A Little of That

Good morning!

It's finally my last week (well, partial week) here at the job and I am EXCITED. I have Thursday and Friday off for a little rest and relaxation. I'm very much looking forward to sleeping in, going for a run outside, and meeting some of my old work friends for lunch.

My weekend was hectic and crammed full of stuff to do, but the highlight of my weekend by far was dinner with this girl:

(And the rest of the Lamberts of course). Camera fun while waiting to be seated at Olive Garden. OG is so delicious, but there is always a wait. And waiting is that much more fun when you have 2 hungry kids and 3 hungry adults. I didn't photograph the food, but let's just say that I was NOT shy with the bread basket. I did save half my entree, but the calories saved there went to the Pumpkin Cheesecake naturally. At least I split that with Ben, so all in all the damage could've been a lot worse. Olive Garden is really hard to resist.

Another highlight was going to see the Social Network finally.

I really liked the movie. I had heard oscar buzz before I saw it, but I have to be honest, it wasn't THAT good. I will say however, that watching the film really makes you appreciate Mark Zuckerberg's genius. He took a shell of an idea and made it into the biggest thing of our generation. Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker was an excellent choice, but man JT was looking ROUGH. I know that was sort of the point with all of the hard living Sean Parker was doing, but at the same time, some of that was on purpose and some of it was not. He just looks old. Which makes me feel old. Ick. Either way, I highly recommend going to see it if you haven't yet.

Now on to the good stuff! I had a spin class this morning, which was a good thing, because I hurt my left knee somehow. I first noticed it during hiking with the boy saturday morning. Maybe I came down on it the wrong way, but it's a little achy just about all the time, and when I land on my foot in a certain way, I have a sharp pain underneath my knee cap (any knee experts out there maybe know what I did to it?) So low-impact spin was the perfect thing this morning. I don't have a scheduled run until Thursday so hopefully by then it will have gotten better. I am going to ice it a little after work today and see if that helps.

Breakfast was an egg and cheese on an english muffin that I made at home.

I was really craving one on the way home from the gym, but as soon as I finished it, I wanted more. So I added a banana and a couple of handfuls of wheat thins. That should hold me over until lunch.

Anyone else see the Social Network? What did you think?

My Last Bagel Friday

Hey y'all!

Sadly, today is my last Bagel Friday since my last day at this job is Wednesday. I was a wee bit late to work this morning so by the time I ventured upstairs for my bagel-y goodness, it was slim pickins! There was ONE everything bagel left that was a little bit mangled, but I was not to be deterred from eating it. I slapped some plain cream cheese on it, grabbed a cup of orange juice and ate it like it was the last supper.

I couldn't get my lazy ass out of bed to work out this morning. It was my scheduled off day but since yesterday's workout was cut short when I got steamrolled by stomach issues, I wanted to make up for it today. I had all the best intentions, really I did. But when the alarm went off at 5:45, I rolled right over and reset the alarm for 7:45. And for the first time in almost two weeks, I woke up this morning feeling well rested, so it was totally worth it.

I thought for fun today I would give you guys a little insight into my refrigerator.

I'm actually doing this because the boy and I made a trip to Trader Joe's last night. And I came home with 2 more containers of the Trader Joe's salsa that I am OBSESSED with. It's actually kind of embarassing how much of this stuff I eat. I have 2 full containers in my fridge and then 2 that just have the "juice" left that I like to use for salad dressing. Can you spot the 4 containers in the fridge?? I had some of the salsa today with lunch along with these chips (also from TJ's) that are obscenely delicious.

What exactly does obscenely delicious mean, you ask? Well it means that everytime I eat them I say obscene things, like "omfg" (unabbreviated of course) and "these are better than sex." That's what I mean by obscenely delicious.

Alongside my chips and salsa, I had a turkey sandwich. Unfortunately, I was out of sourdough bread so I had to use regular wheat...but on the plus side I bought peppered turkey breast! Add a little mustard, some tomatoes and avocado, and it's my pantented big mouth sandwich! In case you couldn't tell, I eat at least one of these a week and they always hit the spot. I am a slave to avocado.

I have a full weekend ahead of me (as usual)...dinner and a movie with a friend this evening (take 2 of the social network)...then tomorrow it's spending some quality time with the boy in the morning and then up to NH to see my bestie and her "circus" as she calls them (love you B). Sunday I am off to Jerry Remy's with the girls to eat delicious wings, talk about girly things, and pretend to watch the Pats game ;)

What is your favorite game time food? Any good plans for the weekend?

Tuscan Grill

Last night I had dinner plans with my friend Jimmy. Our original plan was to go to Tempo on Moody Street, but apparently they had no open reservations for last night, which I thought was strange for a Monday night, holiday or no. I hate restaurants that only take reservations and give you attitude if you show up without one (Melting Pot, I'm looking at you). So already I am a little soured on Tempo. The backup plan ended up being the Tuscan Grill right across the street, which was also on my list to try. The ambience was lovely, very rustic and intimate. The restaurant itself is on the small side, but they more than make up for that with the decor and the service (not to mention the food).

I was ravenous by the time we sat down to eat so I was VERY excited when I saw a bread basket coming my way...but oh wait. Where's the oil? Or butter? Dipping sauce? None of the above friends. Just bread. I will say the bread was really good, soft and chewy with a nice flavor, but it felt so wrong eating bread without the normal accoutrements (that is my big word for the day). They also give you unpitted kalamata olives, which I thought was strange. Why would they give you a plate of olives with pits? Puzzling.

For my entree I ordered the Wood Grilled Stuffed Chicken (stuffed with pork, herbs, and garlic) with a side of crispy red potatoes and roasted butternut squash. The chicken was amazing. Very juicy and flavorful. I will say that visually it was lacking, as the pork and garlic were the same color as the chicken, so you couldn't really see the "stuffing" so to speak. The potatoes and butternut squash were equally as amazing. The portion size was perfect. I have a huge appreciation for restaurants that don't give you a dinner for four when you order your entree. I apologize for the picture, the lighting was dark in the restaurant so I didn't want to do a retake as I was already drawing a lot of attention to myself taking pictures.

For dessert we ordered the Chocolate Budino, which was the best budino I have ever had. I typically order the chocolate budino for dessert when I go to Bertuccis, but the one at Bertuccis is more of a mousse than a pudding. This one was more like a pudding, but homemade pudding with homemade whipped cream and little homemade sticks of chocolate. The chocolate flavor was rich and deep, you could definitely tell immediately that it was homemade from scratch. I may or may not have moaned a little taking the first bite. I would've licked the bowl clean if we weren't in a very visible part of the restaurant.

I would most certainly eat there again. The great thing about Tuscan Grill is that their menu changes frequently (the menu online did not match the menu we got at the restaurant) so they are always coming up with new dishes to try, so I will definitely be back. If for nothing else than for that budino.

This morning I took a Bodypump class. I drove all the way to the gym this morning and then almost didn't go in. I just wasn't feeling it for some reason. But I made myself go anyway and I'm glad I did because I ended up increasing my squat and back weight!

Warmup: 15lbs

Squats: 25lbs
Chest: 15lbs
Back: 20lbs
Triceps: 10lbs
Biceps: 15lbs
Lunges: 15lbs
Shoulders: 10lbs
Abs: Body weight

Breakfast was a cantaloupe bowl with pineapple chobani and a little granola on top. Snack was a banana. On the agenda tonight is a turkey penne casserole and a 2 mile run with the boy. Today is the restart of his running (he ran track in high school) and I'm excited to see what he's made of (besides milk duds and pizza).

As a side note, I saw this post this morning and just had to share...Red Velvet Cookies. Oh. My. God. These are getting made this weekend. I can hardly wait. I'm thinking about taking the rest of the day as a sick day to go make these. Oh wait, I gave my notice and don't have any more sick time. Damn.