Shopping and Eating Out (too much)

Yesterday (Tuesday) I spent the day at the courthouse for jury duty. Talk about a major snoozer. I was bored out of my mind. I took a book to read and was finished with it by 10:30 with many hours to go. Luckily they seated the last jury 2 jurors before they got to me. Thank goodness I had a high number. I was very relieved to not get selected this time since I normally do. I had intended to write a post when I got home but I was too tired and got into bed early since we wanted to be at the gym at 6am this morning. Here is what we were up to on Monday. I am going to post Tuesday separately since the number of pictures would make the post load too slowly.

Monday:

Dan took the day off and we ended up playing, shopping and eating out. It was good day but one that out of out of the house most of the day. We started with Dan responding to a few work emails and then we hit the gym. The gym is definitely busier at 10 am but still not too bad
Once we were running errands we started by stopping by REI to buy the Marmot jacket Dan had his eye on a couple of weeks ago. They had it marked down by $50 so he “had to” buy it. Dan loves a bargain as much as I do.

(Pictured:  Hunt Valley Mall from the second level outside of Jesse Wongs)

Since we were in the neighborhood we stopped at Hunt Valley Mall and went to Jessie Wong’s for lunch. Typically we stop there for dinner but Monday it was lunch. We found out that at lunch they have a hot vegetable bar that you get with the order of lunch. Hot veggies, sign us up. ;-)

I grabbed some spicy eggplant, mixed veggies and one tempura green bean. I had to try the green bean but didn’t want too much fat. It was okay, but I have been off oil so long it wasn’t as good as I expected. Darn it, LOL!

We ordered veggie sushi to split, like usual. This time we got the shitake and sweet potato.

Then we ordered the Hunan faux duck. I am sure that isn’t a surprise since we get it every time we go. I seriously need to try to make that faux duck.

I wanted something a little lighter and ordered bok choy, carrot, and mushroom. Fortunately we had plenty of food leftover which I packed for Dan’s lunch on Tuesday.

We stopped at Greetings and Readings where I saw this flamingo Christmas ornament. I thought it was the funniest thing I had seen in a while. I have no idea why I didn’t buy it. Hopefully they will have more when I get back there this weekend.

After lunch we went shopping for new running shoes for me. We ended up at Holabird Sports since they have an enormous selection of athletic shoes and gear. I had every intention of buying my normal New Balance shoes that I have worn since the late 1970’s. Yes I am that old. However I tried on a few pair and ended up with Saucony this time.

I saw these ladies shirts and loved the slogans on them.

Next we ran by Costco for bananas because we are right there and we are always out of bananas. Somehow we spent $300 and yes we bought more than bananas, LOL. I picked up two pair of Adidas running pants and a jacket. Dan got a Nautica sweater. There was also miscellaneous stuff, like a Christmas CD, avocados, nuts, cocoa powder, frozen fruit (wild blueberries, mixed berries and strawberries) and other stuff that I have now forgotten about. Costco makes a fortune on us, LOL.

Since we were close to Marshall’s I ran in to see if I could find a couple of sweaters and came out with four. It is definitely sweater season and I can always use more. ;-) As usual Dan helped me pick them out. He is very good at saying that isn’t a good color on me or I don’t like the shape or length. I am very lucky to have him shop with me.

I also bought this cute like reindeer dressed like Santa. It came with Hershey’s kisses which I immediately got rid of. Isn’t she cute?

I also had to have these Spode Christmas ornaments. One is a tea pot and the other a tea cup. As much tea as we drink I thought they were must haves. Hopefully my little 12 paw wrecking crew won’t break them too soon.

We took the perishables into the house and went to dinner. Ian wasn’t working tonight but dinner was still very good.

We started with a mesclun salad with raspberry vinaigrette, Granny Smith apple, apple and walnuts.

Next we had our favorite marinated mushrooms.

Dan had to have a little whole wheat pizza. We asked for marinara, artichoke, roasted red peppers, portabella mushrooms and onions and anything else they thought would be good. It also came with roasted cauliflower, carrots and fresh basil.

As always everything was great and we had a little leftover pizza to take home.

Happy Chanukah:

To everyone celebrating The Festival of Lights I hope you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends. :-) To my buddy Louis, be safe coming back from Atlanta and have a great time with your family later this week. Hugs!

Happy Thoughts:

We had a great long weekend that extended through Monday and an okay Tuesday. Here are my happy thoughts this morning:

• I got some new running pants, socks and running shoes on Monday. New exercise apparel makes me very happy. ;-) I love my exercise clothes and wore them to the gym this morning.

• My new running shoes seem to be working out fair well. They have good cushioning in the ball of the foot. The heel of the shoe will take some getting used it. I am accustomed to more stiffness in my New Balance. But I did a little running on track today and the shoes felt fairly good so these may work out well.

• We got in a good cardio workout two days in a row. Tuesday was a bust after jury duty and Wednesday was interrupted by a power outage. But overall it is still all good.

• Dan and I enjoyed having lunch together downtown on Tuesday since we don’t normally get a chance to do that. I also loved getting some new ideas for things to make a home. Going out to eat is always a source of recipe inspiration for me.  I will tell you all about it in the next post but it includes curried tofu and a fabulous beverage.

• I was thankful that I was at the courthouse as a juror rather than as a defendant  ;-) and to not have been selected as a juror this time around. I was great to leave the courthouse Tuesday evening and know I wasn’t going back on Wednesday. I still have so much Christmas stuff to do at home I really didn’t want to lose another day at the courthouse.

• It was wonderful to have Dan leave work a little early on Tuesday since he didn’t want me to have to wait long (we drove downtown together). We had a nice long relaxing evening together Tuesday night.

• It was good to not be in the pool this morning when the lights when out at the gym. I am not sure what happened but it was raining hard and windy so a tree might have come down. The gym is really dark at 6:40am when it is raining hard and the power goes out, LOL.

Signing out:

Time for me to get some things accomplished around the house and get my strength workout in. Then I am back to Christmas decorating and catching up of my blog reading. I also plan to try out my new Christmas CD. I will let you know what I think of it tomorrow. I hope everyone has had a great week so far. Talk to you all again later today and will fill you in on Tuesday.