It shouldn’t be possible to get a sunburn in April. And yet, I did. So did Niles while doing yard work, and Jay and Tom while on one of their mountain bike adventures.
Luckily for me, Niles had bought a real aloe leaf at Market Basket for $1. I borrowed it and lathered up my pink skin.
I went for a seven mile run this morning with Steve. Then we had delicious burritos at Tory’s (mine was veggie).
After, I went to Macys to pick up my awesome new purchases! Unfortunately, I think I wore my new FitFlops too long and gave myself a blister on my “pointer” toe. D’Oh!
Then, Maria came over and we went to get ice cream. After, we went to the dollar store to get more $1 soy milk!
Tonight is LOST!
I had wanted to do a meat cleanse for the month of April, and in fact, I started it a few days early! The last meat I’ve had has been on Saturday, so I figured Sunday was a good day to start because it’s the beginning of the week.
I have decided that fish will be allowed, because people are concerned about my not getting enough protein. I thought this was an actual concern, but then I realized that I have TVP (texturized vegetable protein). I did a google search, and according to this site, 1/4 cup TVP (which makes about 1/2 cup wet and is the perfect amount for me) is 59 calories, and has 11g of protein. I did some research, and I need between 70 and 90g of protein because I am an “athlete”. That’s a big difference, but I keep finding different numbers on different sites.
I get 18g from my 3/4 cup egg whites. My protein burgers have 13g. I have Kashi Go Lean cereal that has 11g! I’m looking for a yogurt that has high protein, such as Better Whey which has 15-17 grams of protein! However, they only sell it at Whole Foods near here, and that’s about an hour away. Perhaps if I do get a chance to go, I’ll try to stock up!
Anyway, I’m giving up meat until May 9th - the day of my half marathon. Should be an interested experiment.
*
Yesterday was a 3 mile run, and it was raining all day so I had to do it on the treadmill. I did the whole 3 miles without stopping once. It was great! But really, it was very hard, and the gym was very hot, and I was sweating, and I was tired and wanted to stop. It wasn’t really that I was tired or sore, but I just wanted to stop because I was bored. Today is a rest day, and I forgot to wear my pedometer when I went to my practicum, and also when I went to pick up trash. So today will be a stepless day on my exercise calendar.
*
Jeanne called me and joined Niles and I in our trash pick up afternoon. Niles also brought along his friend Jackie. On our way up the street, we found Chris (who hangs with us for Lost). We got to the house we really wanted to clean (it’s vacant, and a mess), and a girl across the street yelled out her window, “You guys are doing a great job. Thank you!” And I yelled “Come and help!!” And she did. Then, a friend of Niles’ or Chris’ drove by, then called Niles to find out if we needed help. Yes. His name was John, and he came back, and even helped us after Niles and Chris had both left. It was a good day for picking up trash, and I think we filled about 12 bags. At the busiest time, there were seven of us!
Sorry I haven’t written in a few days… I’ve been very busy. A brief recap:
**Don’t want to read it? Go to the bottom for a Twitter acceptable summary (less than 140 characters)**
Monday the 16
Uh, I know I had class from 5-10. But I can’t remember what I did during the day. I went for a 3 mile run according to my calendar.
St. Patrick’s Day (the 17th)
Dad and I went for a two mile run at 6am. Dad came ALL the way with me, and didn’t turn back at the .8 mile point like he usually does. I was very proud of him. I was at my practicum from 8-12. Then had lunch, then I walked downtown and went to the library. Then, I went and set up for the St. Patrick’s Day dinner at the Senior Center. I always get roped in to helping and running the 50/50 raffle. We made $118 for the Senior Center with the raffle. Chris came and helped out, too, and we were both crazy busy all night. It was a lot of fun.
Then we went to Hooligans, where Dave Gordon was playing Irish music. He was having contests for people to do an Irish Jig, and no one would do it, so I went up and did it. Then two other boys joined me, and one of them won a t-shirt. Which was stupid, cause I was the one who went up first!!!! I had the guts, and so then they did. I wanted that t-shirt! Then, Dave did it again, and no one would go up. This time, the place was a lot more crowded, but I felt bad, and Dave announced “This is the last verse, so it’s your last chance.” So I went up, and danced again. Someone else joined me, but this time I won. I got this stupid tall Dr. Seuss Guinness hat as seen here: (he’s also wearing leprechaun ears).
Niles and Jessie got there around 9:30. I had already been there since 7:30, and almost bailed when my dad left at 10:30, but decided at the last minute to stay. I finally went home at 12:30, after being at Hooligans for 5 hours. I had had enough, and I wanted to sleep.
Wednesday the 18th
Went for a run downtown, and tried to use a new iPhone app to log how I did. (This is an actual screen shot of my phone when I got home… look at how much it drained my battery [top right]). It says I’m doing an 11 minute mile, but I’m pretty sure I had stopped running and was taking off my phone (I had it in a holster on my shorts).
… but I’m a doofus and didn’t do it correctly (I stopped at the Rec Center to get a drink of water, paused the app, and thought I had resumed it, but I had not.) Here’s my info from RunKeeper.com. You can actually see me run to the Rec Center, turn off the program, and then it starts back up at the library, and then my run home. I think I did about 4 miles total.
Once home I cooked dinner, then went to Niles’ for Lost.
Niles made bruscetta (delicious, and SO easy)
and he had shrimp cocktail for us.It was crazy hot cocktail sauce, though.
Jessie made cheesecake! Delicious. She looks proud.
I brought over stuff to make delicious yogurt parfaits: vanilla yogurt, strawberries, cantaloupe, granola, and high fiber Joe’s Os. We assembled them ourselves in little cups. They were sooooo good.
Thursday the 19th (Today!!!)
My dad’s friend Bennie asked me if I wanted to run in a half marathon with him on May 9th. As you may remember, the other half marathon I was going to run with Shauna and Jon falls on the same Sunday as my cancer weekend in Stowe, Vermont. This one is the next Saturday, May 9th. I told Bennie that I would do it, since I still have seven weeks to train. However, I’m very nervous, and don’t want to fork over $45 for an entrance fee if I’m not sure I can do it. I’ve never run more than 5 miles, and a half marathon is 13.1. I talked to my dad’s friend Larry, and he said he thinks I can do it. He even offered to go on some of the longs runs with me (you only do one long run a week). With half marathon training, it’s very important to take rest days. I never take rest days, and in February, I ran at least 2 miles Every Single Day. I woke up at 6 to run, but I was soooo tired, and my legs were sore, I decided “today will be a rest day, as per my marathon training.” It was a good decision, because it is 10:30pm and my legs are still a bit sore.
I went in to City Hall with my dad at 8am to help Trevor in his IT department. He is in charge of all the photo copiers and the cell phone bills, and instead of getting one huge bill for everything (all the cell phones, and then all the copiers), each department gets their own bill. It is super confusing, and very stressful, and because of the city’s budget, he has no clerical help. He has to do everything himself. So I decided that since I usually don’t do anything during the day when I’m not at my practicum, I had some spare time to help him. At 10am, I went to the first meeting of the Fitchburg Farmers Markey Association (FFMA). At 11:30, I went back to work on Trevor’s stuff. I didn’t end up leaving until 1:30. I worked on the photo copies stuff for a good four hours.
At 2, I had an appointment to discuss being tested for diabetes. The doctor said “Yes, you do have some of the symptoms, come back tomorrow at 8:45 am having fasted, and we’ll check your blood.”
At 3, I had a massage appointment. There was a special advertised in the paper for $39 for a one hour massage. That price can not be beat, so I called immediately to book an appointment. It was fantastic, and the therapist was this girl Veronica who I had gone to school with! She was great.
Went to the store, and I almost bought chicken, but I stood there looking at it, and thought “I do NOT want to eat this.” So I decided to make a vegetarian pot pie instead. I had sweet potatoes, and wanted to make sweet potato fries. Oven Crisped Chicken and SP fries would have been good, but then decided a pot pie would also be good. I invited Larry over cause the meal was 100% vegetarian, and I knew he enjoyed the pie last time I made it.
My uncle Richard and cousin Benjamin are coming in tomorrow night from Portland, Oregon. Ben is looking at colleges in the area (cause the east coast is swimming in colleges). I was all stoked to clean up the entire house to make my mom super happy, but now I’m just too tired. I’ve been so busy that I don’t want to do anything but sit and relax. I didn’t even want to blog tonight, but knew I had a bunch of picture to post.
Tomorrow:
I have the appointment at 8:45, and then I am going to eat breakfast. I’m hoping I wake up kinda early so I can get some cleaning done before my appointment. After breakfast, I wanted to go to City Hall to help out some more, but I also have to get a run in, plus my dad wants me to go to Boston to pick up the relatives. I’m not sure how much of that I can fit into one day. Perhaps I will only help Trevor from 10-12, go for a run, have lunch then leave at 3 for Boston.
Saturday:
Even busier! From 1:00 - 2:30 I am going to a workshop on organic gardening. We will get an overview of “organic gardening, garden planning, compost, preparing healthy soil, fertilizers, and tips on how to have a low maintenance organic garden.” It’s at Roots Natural Foods, and if you’re in the area, and interested, it’s only $5, and the information is here. At 3, my cute baby is turning 1, and they’re having a birthday party. I bought her some cute books. Then, I’m going to hit the road to Lindsey’s house to celebrate her 25th birthday at her house. She lives in near Boston. To save gas and time, I need to be planned for all three events before I go gardening. They are all conveniently on the way to each other. I also need to get in a long run - 6 miles - because Sunday I will still be at Lindsey’s, and don’t know when I will be home. Sunday will be a rest day. I will eat an early breakfast, and run before lunch. How long will 6 miles take? An hour? I want to find somewhere that is 3 miles away that I can run to, and then turn around, because Roni from ronisweigh.com likes to do that because she knows then she WILL do the 6 miles. Do Fitchburg people have any suggestions as to where I can run that is about 3 miles away? There should be an Internet program where you enter in a starting point, and then give it a distance, and it maps out a route for you. That’d be cool.
And now, for some reason I am super exhausted. I don’t remmeber the last time I almost fell asleep sitting up, but that is how tired I am right now. And it’s not even 11 yet! You can bet your ass that I’m going to be awfully starving and grumpy tomorrow morning since I can’t have breakfast until after my appointment.
I like having stuff to do, but it sure makes life more stressful, and requires the need to map out specific times to do things. That’s why I’m saying “mini house = no need for time.”
**Twitter acceptable version: Very busy. Run half marathon on May 9th, helped at City Hall, test for diabetes tomorrow, busy Friday and Saturday planned. **
Oh my goodness, it seems like everyone wants to know who Rob is! Jeeeeez!!!!
I used to work with Stephanie at Destare. She lived with her boyfriend, Mike. Rob and Mike are good friends. I went over to Steph’s house a few times, and that’s how I met Rob. We’ve hung out several times. The four of us got ice cream and saw Vantage Point one day, and then we hung out the night before Easter last year. I couldn’t sleep cause I was wicked sick, so I stayed up all night coughing. My coughing kept Rob awake, and we tried watching movies to pass the time. I felt awful, both because I was sick, and also because Rob couldn’t sleep because of me. That was the last time I saw him. I was suppose to go to a wedding with him last April, but I had my Saturday class, so I couldn’t go. Bummer. We chat pretty much every day on AIM, and we read each other’s blogs. He loooooooooves Batman, so it’s funny that my name is Robin (but not ha-ha funny).
Does that answer all Rob-related questions?
Rob wrote a blog post about our weekend from his perspective.
I completely forgot (until today) about other things that Rob was wicked cool about. At the grocery store, I easily convinced him to forgo the plastic produce bags, and he also didn’t even consider us getting plastic bags at the checkout line. We carried everything ourselves (of course I had forgotten my ChicoBag).
He also didn’t freak out when I ate my yogurt (he says that even the smell repulses him), and he let me sit next to him and eat it.
He was patient as we tried to capture a picture of me preparing for Watchmen, as we took these pictures first (I couldn’t stop laughing!)
My mom said that we spent too much time watching TV (we watched three movies on Saturday!), so next time I go down, we should do something that doesn’t involve watching TV. I was thinking about asking him about board games, but I didn’t see any. Perhaps next time I’ll bring some down.
Rob’s very very very picky about food (but not as picky as Dylan), so I think I’d have a challenge cooking for him. He won’t eat onions, and it seems like all he eats is chicken. Friday night when we were planning dinner, I had to stop and think about when the last time was that I had eaten meat. Perhaps next time I go down I’ll say we should have a meat free weekend!
(In the voice of Strong Bad).
My super fun, awesome weekend is over. It was a great weekend on all counts, and I ate a crapload of strawberries. I sat on the floor at Rob’s house after my run, and I was drinking my water, and Rob was sitting at his desk playing music, and I looked up at his DVDs and thought “I don’t want to leave!”
We finished off last night by watching Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show, which I had never heard of, but it was pretty good. Then it was time for bed. I was up at 9 (but it was really 8, cause of Daylight Saving time) and took off for my three mile run. I did the correct route, but it was pretty hard because it was a) pretty warm out for being 9am and March (60ish degrees), and b) I hadn’t eaten anything yet.
Here is the stupid sign that caused me to mess up my run yesterday. The way I was running, I just saw this sign that said “Entering Westport Mass.” But in the other picture, you can see the street sign of the street I was suppose to turn on, “White Oak Road.” It is clearly hidden. I ran past it, saw “Old Pine Road,” and turned up that. Pine and Oak are close (both trees), and I mistook “Old” for “Oak.” Clearly, it was not my fault that I didn’t see the street sign!
I returned to Rob’s, showered, and Rob made us delicious egg sandwiches again. We also had more strawberries. Then I did all his dishes (I’m trying to woo him into moving in with me by doing all his dishes - I think it’s working), and we both took off from the house at 11. He was going hiking with his friends, and I had tons of stuff to do. It worked out great because I was able to follow him to the highway. I had gotten a bit lost driving to his house on Friday.
At the Wrentham Outlets, I went to Gap and Banana Republic because those were the two places I had gift cards for. Both were for $20. At BR, I found a cute little brownish cardigan sweater, and after doing some math, it’d be about $30 (cause it was $46, but 30% off or something). I figured with my gift card, I’d be okay with spending $10 cash for a nice sweater for workish type things. At the register, however, I found out that the gift card was for $30, and the sweater was only $26.99. The lady gave me the $3.01 back in cash.
I’m up $3.01.
I go to Gap and find a cute long sleeve shirt in coral for $4. Steal! Also another cute cardigan, but the one I wanted wasn’t there in my size, so I got it in my second favorite color. I decided since I was going to Worcester anyway, I could see if they had the one I loved at the Worcester Gap Outlet, and I’d just do an even exchange. At the register, I found out the gift card was for $25, and ended up having to pay only $1.16.
I’m now up only $1.85. (3.01 - 1.16)
In Worcester, Dylan and I went to lunch at Tweeds. I got an awesome Cranberry Turkey wrap with walnuts and delicious lettuce. Dylan got Fish and Chips. He spotted the tip for our awesome waitress, and I paid for our meal as a little treat for Dylan. It was nice to see him, and I’m going back to Worcester tomorrow to pick him up for his spring break because he has a meeting at 4pm on Monday, so I couldn’t bring him with me today (curses!). The co-op was closed, so I couldn’t get any more of my TVP (double curses!) and they’re not open on Mondays (Ack!). I’ll check my local organic foods store for it. In Worcester at the Gap Outlet, they did have the cardigan I wanted in my size, and I exchanged it. For some reason, it was cheaper in Worcester, so the lady gave me back $1.20.
I got two cardigan sweaters for work/internship, and a nice long sleeve shirt, and I ended up with THREE DOLLARS AND FIVE CENTS in cash MORE than I had when I started shopping at 11am. My two gift cards had been sitting in my wallet since Christmas 2007. How on earth does that work???? Talk about an awesome shopping experience.
That just made my entire weekend that much more perfect.
Rob invited me down anytime I want, and maybe I’ll make it a monthy thing. We can pick a new movie to see every month. It cost about $20 round trip in gas (200 miles roundtrip), but for a fun filled weekend for $20, that’s not bad at all. Next time, though, I need to eat more vegetables.
Friday morning I went to my practicum, but my supervisor had regular patients all morning and the patient I was going to see didn’t show up, so I didn’t really get to do anything. I read Watchmen pretty much all morning, and I was able to finish it before we saw the movie.
Rob had decided it would be best if we saw it Saturday afternoon rather than Friday night. It’s a two hour drive down to where he lives, and a 30 minute drive to the theater, so he figured I’d be sick of driving by the time I got there. He was right, I was also pretty tired and hungry.
I got there a bit after 5, and soon after I got there we headed out to the supermarket. We decided to make chicken tenders and sweet potato fries (which I had never had before, but loved). We got home, made dinner, and watched tons of episodes of Scrubs.
I hadn’t been caught up with this season, but Rob had all of them on his Play Station 3. For dessert, I had yogurt with strawberries, and read Watchmen while Rob played videogames.
Saturday morning, we made wonderful egg sandwiches and had more strawberries.
Then we watched Unbreakable to get into the superhero mood. At noon I went out for a three mile run, but I got lost and didn’t follow the route Rob had mapped out for me. It was a three mile loop, but I missed my turn, and just ended up going three miles straight out. I realized I’d have to then run 3 miles back when I realized my mistake, but because we were in a hurry to shower up, eat lunch, and head out to the movie, I called Rob, and he had to come rescue me. It was awful! But I did make it a bit over 3 miles, so it was good in that way. On the way home, we realized that the street sign where I was suppose to turn was covered up by another sign. There was no way for me to have seen it coming from the way that I was running from.
For lunch, we had leftovers. I made my chicken tenders into chicken parmesan by adding tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese and baking it. I also made more sweet potato fries. Then we headed out to the movie! It was great, and we were both pleasantly surprised at how well it followed the graphic novel.
We went to dinner at Panera, cause we got out of the movie and we were both starving. Then we went back to the grocery store where we bought ice cream to make sundaes, and I bought strawberries to bring home.
Now we’re watching Ratatouille because last time we hung out, we tried to watch it, but it just skipped and skipped and we had to abandon it after only about 20 minutes. I decided I needed to blog, so I went and grabbed my computer.
The reason we ate so many strawberries was because they were on sale for $1.67 a POUND. So we bought two pounds yesterday (we’ve finished a whole one already), and then I bought two more pounds today to bring home. They’re so delicious, and they’re American, not from a foreign country.
Tomorrow I’m going to run before breakfast (and I’ll run the correct route), have breakfast, then I’m going to stop at the Wrentham Outlets, the Trader Joe’s in Framingham, and then I’ll go out to lunch with Dylan. Very eventful weekend!
Niles had called me and asked if I was going to bake anything for Lost night, and I said yes because I had nothing to do all afternoon (after I went running), and he was busy, so I would cook.
I decided to make Spinach Pinwheels and Cranberry Pumpkin Cookies. I found both of these recipes using the Allrecipes.com app for my iPhone. It seems very neat, and it only gives out recipes that are rated 4 starts or higher! The chances of getting a good recipe are pretty high.
Wednesday night I went for a run, and ran to the grocery store. I walked back to City Hall and my dad gave me a ride home. I was planning on running home from City Hall (which is why I went - to drop the groceries off), but Trevor and my dad both agreed that I had run enough already. It was a good thing, too, because I would soon find out that I was very stressed for time (It’s about 5:30 at this point).
I get home and immediately start cooking. I had already made the dough with the bread machine, so I got the dough out (it had been preparing while I was running), and set that up. I separated the dough in half and two equal sized balls that I rolled out into a circle. Then, I cut them up like they were pizza.
This was a mistake. I was following two recipes. One was to make the Spinach Pinwheels out of Pillsbury Cresent Rolls (bought at the store), and the other was how to make my own Cresent Rolls with a bread machine. I cut up the dough thinking I was just making regular rolls, but then the recipe told me to roll them up, and let them rise like that. I had to put stuff in my rolls….. how was this going to work? So I cut them up, and let them rise like that, just flat and cut.
Then, after they rose, I filled them, and rolled them up.
This was when I found out that they were suppose to be mini. So I combined two of the triangles together to make a large rectangle, and rolled them up like that, then I had to cut the dough and cook them so they were very little. Cutting the dough sucked.
Then, they baked for about 12 minutes. I burned one tray of them, but luckily it was the last tray that only had about 6 pinwheels on it. I actually ended up cutting away the non-burnt part and eating it.
When I got to Niles’ house with this, I was angry at them. They were a pain in the ass to make, I didn’t think they were that delicious, and they sure didn’t look that great. My dad had one and said they were very good, but I was still bitter.
At Niles’ house, everyone LOVED them, and every single one was eaten. Yay!! Next time, however, I’m going to use the store bought dough. It will make them MUCH simpler. For something that isn’t 5 Stars, hours of work just isn’t worth it.
Spinach Pinwheels
Use either Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, or make your own dough. Here is the recipe for a bread machine.
Place wet ingredients in machine first, followed by flour. Yeast goes in last, on top of flour.
This is where the recipe gets tricky. I think next time I would let the dough rise before doing anything with it. Then, I would separate it into two balls, roll them out, and cut rectangular shapes. Then, inside the dough, you use:
and distribute evenly. I think I would use less dough so there is more cheese on each biscuit.
This recipe is all very confusing, and I don’t have the time right now to write it all out. Basically, buy the store bought ones and it will be a LOT easier. Plus, it probably makes less anyway, so there is more cheese per roll.
On to the cookies!
These were very fun to make. Actually, no they weren’t, but they are just so delicious I’m pretending that they were fun (because I have nothing but good thoughts towards these cookies).
Follow all directions according to recipe. I added more cranberries because I love them. I used about 1.25 cups instead of just one. I think it could use even more next time!
I also used a food processor because I was too lazy to chop up individual cranberries. I tried a couple of them, and I just made a mess (and squirted cranberry juice all over!)
Drop cookies onto a cookie sheet using a spoon. They should be about the size of a golf ball.
I was freaking out cause it was super late, and I was stressed I wasn’t going to get done in time (I was doing both of these recipes, and eating dinner all at the same time. My dad helped take the cookies out of the oven while I was busy rolling up stupid pinwheels. He wanted me to take his picture to show him being helpful!
These cookies were absolutely delicious. I like pumpkin bread, and I like cranberries, and this was a mix of the two. They are very cake-like cookies, and are extremely soft. They would be called something better than cookies, but I don’t know what. Someone said they are like soft scones. The dough was clearly the consistency of cookies, but the cookie themselves are very soft. I think next time I might make them in mini muffin tins.
I give this recipe 5 stars. My mom said she liked these ones a lot better than the cake-like Apple Cookies Megan made us in December (HA!).
I just ate three of them…….. and I ate one earlier today, too.
They’re just so delicious!!!
Cranberry Pumpkin Cookies
Niles had made food too. There was confusion there. I thought he was telling me he was too busy to cook, so I would cook. Then I got there, and he was cooking boatloads of food. Luckily, it was the biggest Lost night yet with 10 people, and all of the food was eaten. It worked out perfectly.
Sorry for the late post. Right now I’m in a hurry to go to Rob’s house in Dartmouth. I’m staying over, and we’re cooking dinner, and then tomorrow we’re going to see Watchmen. I bought the graphic novel yesterday and I want to finish it before the movie. I’m about 60% done. After my family reads it, I’m donating it to the library. It was a good purchase. But now I’m off for a 2 hour drive (I got an audio book for the trip - Bill Bryson!). I’m also bringing my computer and camera so I can blog about our adventures. I also asked Rob if he’d devise a 3 mile run for us tomorrow morning!!!
I’ve come to the conclusion that my scar gets to be a crazy bright pink color when I:
a)- exercise
or
b)- drink alcohol
I’ve just returned from Destaré where I hung out with Niles and I brought both of us homemade cherry pie. I also enjoyed a glass of wine, and came home to this craziness on my neck:
