Working Out, Shoe Shopping and Eating Out

Saturday Update:

You will be shocked to hear we started our morning at the gym. However since the gym doesn’t open until 9am at least we got to take our time getting there. I guess college kids never get up at 6am on Saturday. ;-)

When we arrived at the gym the parking lot was packed. There must have been 100 cars. This was highly unusual since when we normally arrive there are between 6 and 12 cars there. The first thought that came to mind was who are these people and what are they doing at “my” gym. Clearly I have become too accustomed to having the facility practically to ourselves, LOL. It looks like it is time for an attitude adjustment on my part. ;-)

Once inside the gym we could see that something was going on. When we got around the corner the pool was full of splashing little ones, or so we thought. We watched for a minute and concluded that either middle school students or maybe high school students were using the pool for a swim meet. Dan noticed a tattoo on one “kid” but we dismissed this as a rebel and went to work out.

I am happy to report that I almost reached my 700 calorie burn goal. I continue to increase the incline on the treadmill and that seems to be making a big difference. If this keeps up I will be upping my calorie burn goal again very soon. I have to keep myself challenged right?

The practice rock climbing wall is always open at the gym. This is a picture of Dan playing around. He is so funny and thankfully didn't hurt himself while goofing off. ;-)

When we left the gym I had to ask the person at the front desk if the kids in the pool were middle school or high school teams and he told me it was a college swim meet. Really? Can I tell you how old that made me feel? I was convinced that the kids in the pool were at most in high school. *sigh* Okay now I feel extremely old. *sulks away to lick her wounds*

Breakfast was a kale, frozen wild blueberry, frozen banana, avocado, ground flaxseed, cinnamon and ginger smoothie. We also had a bowl of lentil soup from the other day before we started getting ready to go out.

After eating we had to shower and get ready for the art show. I decided to wear my new black and white boucle jacket and the gray wool Talbots pants I picked up at Marshall’s a month ago. Given the feline hair I don’t get dressed to go out until we are ready to run out the door which saves on lint rollers.

When I got dressed the pants were a little too long even though I bought petite. I hate being vertically challenged as Dan puts it. I couldn’t find my grey boots so I put on a pair of black heels that I hadn’t worn before and ran out the door. Do you see where this is going? Yep before we had gotten to the art show my feet were hurting so bad I didn’t want to get out of the car. It wasn’t the bottom of my feet that were bothering me but the tops. These shoes had extremely thick uppers and they were not good for me. I was so whiny I knew I could not stand for any length of time so we bailed on the art show which was very disappointing.

We decided to stop by the health food store in Towson (The Health Concern) instead since we were around the corner.  I have not been in this store in decades. However I will be back soon since the selection was great. It is a small store but was also too much walking and standing. I knew we either needed to go home immediately or buy shoes, it was that bad. Since I had a $20 off coupon from DSW in my purse and it was about one mile away you know what we did. I was so happy to get out of those shoes. Those babies are in the pile for charity as I type this. Hopefully someone can use them, because I can’t. Too bad since they were really cute but nothing is worth the pain they caused. I guess that is more a sign of old age than the kids in the pool. LOL

Dan thought he “needed” another little whole wheat pizza so you know where we ended up. When we got to the restuarant it was between lunch and dinner which meant everyone had time to chat. Even Ian came out and sat with us for a while.

As always Ian wanted to know why we didn’t let him know we were coming. He really isn’t comfortable with the whole vegan thing in case you hadn't noticed. I wish he would stop worrying about it since we are always happy with everything he makes. Like usual we read the specials menu to see what components he had on hand and asked for a whole wheat pizza with hummus, grilled baby eggplant, and roasted red peppers and anything else he thought would be good. It also came with roasted red onions and artichokes. Like always it was delicious and really beautiful we thought.

Since the pizza is sized for one we needed a little something else to go with it and ordered the roasted vegetable side with balsamic glaze and pine nuts. Keeping to our pattern we washed this down with two pots of tea before heading for home.

While we were chatting with Ian I asked him what size shirt he wears. Yes, I am that pushy, LOL. We saw a great T-shirt that is very “chefy” that will be perfect for Ian. What? You don’t buy presents for the chef at the restaurants you frequent. Maybe you should. ;-) I have picked out a few things for Ian because he is always so accommodating for us. The servers are always the recipient of our generosity we decided it was time we took care of Ian too. I will share what we got for him once he has received it. Everyone at the restaurant knows about my blog so I don’t want Ian to know the present details ahead of time. Surprises are the best part of presents IMO.

I am not sure what we ended up doing in the evening because things are blur now. Must be another sign of getting old. I have no idea why I am stuck on the whole idea of old right now but I am.

Pet Peeves:

Do you guys have any pet peeves? The reason I ask is that someone in the blogosphere wrote a post recently and referred to an Italian as a wop. As you might suspect this Italian American found that to be offensive. It really got “my Italian up” as a friend of mine puts it. Why do people think it is okay to use racial slurs of any type?  Your turn, what bugs you?

Happy Thoughts:

In spite of the shoe fiasco Saturday was a good day. Here is what I am thankful for:

• It was another good day with Dan and like always we had a great time together.

• I love the way the new jacket and wool pants fit and the fact that both of them were so reasonably priced. I love a bargain.

• It was great to have a $20 coupon in my purse for an unplanned shoe purchase. I would like it to be easier to find vegan shoes in a hurry though.

• We had a nice time at the restaurant and enjoyed seeing everyone. I got my required hug from the chef which always makes dinner taste better. ;-)

• It is getting very cold outside now which makes me happy to have a nice warm house. Not everyone is that fortunate and I always think of that this time of year.

• The scale decided to be my friend this morning and went down 1.5 pounds of the 4.0 it went up. Eating out, particularly when it is Chinese, shows up on me instantly. It is always nice to see the number go back down almost as quickly.

• We are having a very quite Sunday which is nice. I love a day without drama.  *ahhh*

• The snow that is predicted tomorrow is only flurries. That is a relief since I need to be somewhere tomorrow that requires driving.  *ugh*  Driving in Maryland in the snow if very unpleasant since people freak out.  Can't say I am looking forward to the road trip tomorrow.

• I have “met” so many great people through having the blog. Joy went to Israel last week and put a prayer into the Wailing Wall for us. Both Dan and I were very touched. If I haven’t said so recently I appreciate all your thoughtful emails, comments and gestures more than you know. You guys are the best!  :-)

Signing Out:

That is going to be it for me tonight. Tomorrow we are back to the gym at 6am so I need to turn into a pumpkin soon.

I do have a few things on my schedule tomorrow that will have me out and about. I have already started to write the post for tomorrow because of my schedule. With a little luck that post should be up but the end of day tomorrow.

Today I made two very different soups which will be in the next post. Both are veggie with chickpea though one has a tomato, peanut butter base with Indian flavors and the other an almond milk chowder base.

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend. Talk to again tomorrow. Good night!