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Food For A Friend

28 May

I don’t invite people in to my place often, the main reasons are:

(1) my cat doesn’t like people

(2) I only own one living room chair so that means only one person will get to sit comfortably

(3) I don’t own a table so there is nowhere to sit and eat

(4) my place is super small, having two people in it makes it feel crowded

(5) I am a sucky host

Despite all these reasons I decided to invite a friend of mine over for dinner, a dinner that I would be making!  I was happy with making the offer, even happier when she said yes but as the day of the dinner got closer I started to get a bit stressed. I was trying out two different recipes and I was freaking out about messing up and giving both of us food poisoning, or about the food tasting horrible and having to order emergency take out or about any other possible ways to screw it up that I hadn’t thought of yet lol.

I chose two random recipes from online, spoke to a chef friend of mine for some tips and explanations of things in the recipes that confused me, bought ingredients I would never normally buy and next thing I knew I was prepping food, in my kitchen, while listening to music, and kinda enjoying myself. Go figure.

I felt so domestic! 😛

The appetizer was Crusty Parmesan Herb Zucchini Bites. I rate them a 5 out of 5 for ease of making but I didn’t like them, my friend did though so I think it was just that I’m not a huge fan of rosemary but that’s in the recipe, a little less rosemary and I might like them better. Also, I kept them in the oven a bit too long so the cheese was browner than I cared for. shrug. Personal preferences, whatcha gonna do? 😛

washed, ends chopped off, halved, coated in oil

washed, ends chopped off, halved, coated in oil

drizzled balsamic vinegar

drizzled balsamic vinegar

mixture of parmesan cheese, rosemary and thyme

mixture of parmesan cheese, rosemary and thyme

cheese and herbs sprinkled on top

cheese and herbs sprinkled on top

I put the zucchini in the oven at 350F for 15 minutes, the last 5 minutes the broiler was on which was theoretically going to make the cheese a nice golden brown buuuuuut it turned out like this…

not quite how the picture with the recipe looked, sigh.

not quite how the picture with the recipe looked, sigh.

Like I said, I didn’t much care for them but if I try them again with different herbs I might. I normally love zucchini so despite this recipe not working out all that well I might try it again with different toppings, see how my tastebuds like it then. 🙂

The main course was a One Pan Pasta dish that I kept seeing floating around facebook. You put all the ingredients in the pot at the same time, add water, get it to a rolling boil, boil with occasional stirring for the length of time it takes to cook the pasta and boom! Pasta dish! It is really pretty looking at the beginning, at least I think so…what do you think?

See? Pretty!

See? Pretty!

There is whole wheat spaghetti pasta, washed and halved baby tomatoes, one thinly sliced red onion, salt, garlic, red pepper flakes, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil. Not shown is the 4 1/2 cups of water you add. Once it is all cooked according to the recipe there will be a small amount of water at the bottom of the pot which you shouldn’t worry about because it will thicken up in to a sauce. Um…hmm…small amount of water?? I don’t think so! More like whole whack load of water! I was worried I’d somehow screwed up since there was way more water than there was supposed to be but I used tongs to serve it and it was ok, actually better than ok, it was really good. I especially liked the addition of the red pepper flakes, they made quite the difference – in a good way! I also give this dish a 5 out of 5 for ease of making, there is a bit of prep work needed which to me seemed like a lot of work but that is probably because I never cook, I think compared to most recipes the level of prep work needed wasn’t that big of a deal.

The recipe said it would make 4 servings but it made way more than that…course most people eat larger portions that I do so that probably has something to do with it lol It would be a good dish to make then portion out in to servings and freeze for future meals, well, I think it would be, do baby tomatoes freeze ok? *confused face*

The final result was this…

not as pretty looking lol topped with parmesan cheese, Mmm!

not as pretty looking lol topped with parmesan cheese, Mmm!

Since I don’t own a table I put two tv tables against each other, kinda ghetto but hey, it worked lol The final look was…

my "table"

my “table”

My friend brought some fancy bread and she put together some balsamic vinegar and oil for dipping. The little mugs were filled with strawberry daiquiri , I don’t own glasses meant for alcoholic drinks either…I feel like I should start making a list of things I don’t have but apparently should lol.

All in all it was a good meal, with great company and I’m glad the evening happened. 🙂 Turns out my stress was about nothing cause even with the cheese getting too brown on the zucchini everything worked out alright…maybe I should invite people over more often…maybe lol 😛

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Mail Day!

26 May

It’s not often I get fun stuff in the mail, usually I’m getting hounding letters from the student loan people, bank statements, boring stuff. But today I got two fun things, yay! 🙂

The first is a package my parents sent me, it had a letter written by both of them, newspaper clippings, some Weight Watcher info in case I wanna try again aaaaaand a package that came to them but is for me. That package within the package was the tab for my BMO Run medal! Yippee! The back of my medal has a spot that has been waiting oh-so-impatiently for the tab to fit in it. The tab shows my name and my official finish time, which is good cause otherwise I’d forget lol. 😛 I want to show you a picture but my full name is on there soooooo sorry but the picture of it won’t be put on here. Don’t be offended, I still love ya! 😉

The next package had this:

First is the postal envelope...

First is the postal envelope…

 

Then comes the pretty envelope...

Then comes the pretty envelope…

 

And finally the super pretty wedding invitation is revealed!

And finally the super pretty wedding invitation is revealed!

 

It is my cousin’s wedding invitation! I knew it would get here eventually, and I already knew I was going to the wedding, heck, I planned an entire trip to the UK around this wedding, but getting the invitation was still exciting lol It made it that much more real. 🙂

The mail was pretty much the highlight of my day today…is that sad? I’m gonna pretend that isn’t sad lol 😉 I had a super busy work day, I hate when I have to actually work at work, sigh. Then I did some quick grocery shopping, or at least it would have been quick if I knew what a zucchini looked like (don’t fret, I got help and now I know!), then homeward bound was I. My landlady was in the backyard when I got home so I chatted with her for a while then eventually made it inside to my little slice of personal space. I was hungry enough to want to gnaw my own arm off (well ok, not quite that hungry but getting there!) so I made a super fast meal of maple flavoured baked beans on toast. Mmm! I love how it is a classic British dish but I Canadian-ize it by using the maple flavoured baked beans, it’s the best of both sides of the pond! lol

Since then I have done nothing interesting which would be why the opening of mail was the highlight of my day *rolls eyes*. Never fret, I will have more interesting days later this week, I’m just getting a bit of a slow start to the week is all, resting up for the really good stuff…or something like that lol 😉

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Grocery Store Guilt

21 May

Today after a nice 10.45 km walk I stopped at a grocery store I don’t usually shop at to buy eggs, exciting huh? 😉  Eggs are a ridiculously important part of my daily food intake and I ran out yesterday. Payday isn’t till Friday so I couldn’t technically afford to buy the eggs but after careful deliberation I decided I had to find a way to get them, I’d be fairly screwed food wise if I didn’t buy them today so in to the store I went.

I wandered a bit until I found the eggs and this is what I came face to face with…

2014-05-21 15.46.39

The small print on the sign is hard to read in my picture, what it says is:

Cage-Free: hens roam indoors and outdoors

Cage Eggs: hens in cages, behaviours restricted

Um…don’t tell me that right when I am about to buy eggs!

It’s not like I don’t know that chickens have sucky lives but I am on a ridiculously strict budget and even if I wanted to buy cage-free organic eggs I wouldn’t be able to afford it so don’t try laying on the guilt at the crucial picking-the-eggs-from-the-shelf-stage of my shopping trip. That is just…mean! 😛

Every single egg carton had a sign letting me know if the eggs were from Cage Free hens or Caged hens so not like I could even buy a different brand and keep my ignorance about the happiness levels of the hens that produced the eggs I will be ingesting, sigh.

In the end I did what I always do when buying eggs, I bought the cheapest, shrug.  Then I did what I always do when confronted with something that makes me feel sad in regards to animals, I went home and hugged my cat, at least I can make sure he has a happy life.

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I Literally Missed The Boat

20 May

My day was going so well, slept in, had a yummy breakfast wrap, finished a book I am reading, chilled with the cat, got ready in plenty of time to leave for dragon boat practice aaaaaaand that is where the good day ended, sigh.

I couldn’t find my keys. How is it possible I couldn’t find my keys?? I put them in the same spot every time I come home but apparently yesterday I didn’t put them in their spot and I got screwed over today. double sigh.

It took so long to find them I missed practice, I literally missed the boat, by about an hour and a half. Oops? I felt like such an idiot. I tore apart pretty much everything in my apartment trying to find them, it was ridiculous. Having to text a team mate to say I wasn’t going to be able to make practice because I couldn’t find my keys…who does that?? *rolls eyes*

When the latest time I could leave and still get to practice came and went I was slightly less frantic in my searching, not like finding them would get me to the boat on time anymore, but obviously I had to keep looking otherwise I’d be in the same predicament tomorrow. I figured if I was tearing the place apart I might as well clean it while I was tearing so by the end of the night I had a clean apartment and keys. Yay! lol

I am going to pretend that the cleaning counted as some sort of exercise, even if I didn’t work up a sweat lol Right after I was done I did a bunch of squats so I feel that should count for something, at least a little something…maybe?

My brekkie wrap, Mmm!

My brekkie wrap, Mmm!

Some info about the breakfast wrap I ate today, it was super delish! There is one triangle of laughing cow cheese spread on a whole wheat tortilla, then a slice of white cheese (don’t judge! I like cheese! lol), two slices of turkey bacon, lettuce, salsa, half an avocado and an over easy egg. It doesn’t stay closed unless I am holding it which is why the pic is of the wrap when open lol The avocado was a massive treat! I have a bunch of foods I don’t buy anymore cause I am strapped for cash and avocados are one of them, this one was given to me by a friend yesterday and boy did I enjoy it! 🙂

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Thyroid Update

16 May

I had a doctor’s appointment today, to find out the results of the tests done on my blood from last Monday. It would appear that everything is working a-okay within my body.

How messed up is it that I’m a little disappointed right now? *rolls eyes* I was sorta hoping I’d have a thyroid problem and that I would get medicated (even though I hate taking medication) so that I would then have an easier time losing weight (although from what I’ve heard the meds don’t always help with that…) but instead my thyroid is apparently functioning as it should be so nooooo meds for this girl.

Which really, in the long run I am happy about because meds are so not my thing lol In the short term though, grr! and Boo! lol 😛

The doc says the reason I am having trouble losing weight is because I am subconsciously restricting my movement/activities due to the hip problem. She says it is normal for someone whose had an injury to hold back a bit and not be as active as they used to be because they have to baby the injured body part but most people don’t change their eating habits so they are eating more than they should be considering the reduced activity and bam! Weight gain! Then, as the person starts to regain their active lifestyle, they, without realizing it, hold back, or just do a bit less day-to-day which of course means the weight doesn’t come off as quickly as they would like.

Speaking as someone who was badly injured years ago and took for freakin ever to become fully mobile again and then even longer then freakin ever to lose the weight she gained while gimped I am not impressed with this analysis. I understand it. I just don’t like it.

I am back to being active. I mean yeah, I am a lazy person in general but I am back to my twice weekly dragon boat practices, and my hiking (though not as often as I would like but that is not my fault! life gets in the way *pout*) and my random other activities that are generally not planned but just happen. I mean c’mon, I just ran the BMO Run two weekends ago, isn’t that a sign of an active person??

Apparently not. sigh.

How much more do I have to do to be considered active and for my body to stop being a jerk and drop this weight? *glares at body*

I know that when it comes to weight loss it is 80% what you eat and 20% your exercise and I will admit that I am not the greatest when it comes to food. I try, sorta, in spurts lol I’m pretty sure though that I undereat, shocking I know! Except for the days I indulge in something stupid and them boom! Overeater in the house! *groan* I annoy myself. 😛

I’ve got to get my food back on track but no big gimmicks, no weird tricks, just, I dunno, normal healthy eating, in the proper portion sizes, and no more treats just because. I mean yeah ok, I’m not going to cut out every single treat but I have to be more careful with them, actually have them be treats and not daily occurrences ya know? Oh, and I think maybe I should be eating more than once or twice a day…but I always find that hard, sigh.

I’m starting with baby steps, which may seem lame, but I figure every little change will help and will eventually grow in to a big change *crosses fingers and hopes* So, in that vein, when I got home from work this evening I had a cup of tea but no snack. Not gonna lie, I miss having a snack, but my night time snack was almost always something not nutritionally beneficial to my body and not really needed for anything other than taste bud happiness and those little buggers can just suck up the loss as far as I’m concerned lol

I will have to come up with an actual eating plan of some sort otherwise nothing will actually change, but that can wait for tomorrow, when it’s not one in the morning and I’m not kinda tired. 🙂

ecard-complicated-food

 

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In Pairs If You Please

16 May

Sure everyone knows about food rules that are about calories, or cheat days, or good vs bad foods to eat but what about food rules that are about portion? And no I don’t mean portion like half your plate should be veg, a quarter of your plate protein and a quarter or less some sort of starch. I mean something weirder than that, I mean things like…

…certain foods are always eaten in pairs

Yup. Pairs. I don’t know if this is just me but certain foods I always eat in pairs. shrug. It’s such a habit now I don’t even think about it.

The two most common foods I do this with are toast and cookies lol 😛

Mmm carbs!

Mmm carbs!

When I make toast I always make two pieces and if I am grabbing a cookie I always grab two.

Every now and then I will make one piece of toast in an attempt to be healthier but I inevitably go back to making two pieces in a day or so. And well, I don’t think I ever try to take just one cookie, that would be weird an un-natural lol 😉

I’ve got some other random food quirks, for instance, if I am drinking a cold drink not from a bottle or can I use a straw. Foods like grapes, or pieces of cheese or anything that is individual like that I always eat in even numbers…um, I chew food an even numbered amount of times before swallowing…hmm, I can’t think of any others right now but I’m sure there are more!

Anybody else got any odd food rules? I can’t be the only one…right?

 

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Doctors Visit

7 May

Sigh, spending any part of my day at the doctor’s office is not how I want to spend my time. I am very anti-doctor. Not for everyone, I don’t mean I shun Western medicine or anything, just that I personally don’t like doctors and would much rather let my body fix itself when it gets sick or injured. I have an immune system right? Might as well let it earn it’s keep! lol

Having said that I have been seeing a lot of doctors since January, ugh, I’m so done with this, and yet, I am not, sigh. Mentally I am done, physically I have to keep going. *rolls eyes* It’s annoying.

Last week I had an appointment with a specialist I am seeing in regards to my hip, if you want a refresher on that lovely little story click here.

As a result of that appointment I now have to go to physio, sigh, and get an MRI, double sigh. Then my normal family doc calls me, well her receptionist called me lol, to set up an appointment. I guess the specialist had sent over to her the results of the most recent tests he had sent me for so my family doc wanted me to come in so she could talk to me about it.

I saw the family doctor today, she told me what the test results were and what they mean, then she made a comment about what activities I do. Now, I tend to downplay what I have been up to with these doctors cause I don’t want to be told to not do something but I figured since the BMO Run was already over I might as well make a comment about it, not like she can tell me to not do something when it’s in the past right? 😉 lol I mentioned I did the 8km run last Sunday and then went to compete in a dragon boat race and her reaction was “So you’re fit”. Um, what? Obviously from looking at me you can tell I am not fit, eesh. So I commented back something along the lines of “you’d think but doesn’t matter what I do I can’t lose this fat”.

That comment actually got her attention, the rest of the convo went something like this:

Doc: You haven’t lost any weight?

Me: Nope.

Doc: Not even from the run? You didn’t lose any weight from running? Or dragon boat racing?

Me: Nothing. Trust me, I’m trying.

Doc: Have I had your thyroid tested? (she looked at my file) I haven’t had it tested…I’m getting it tested. If you are this active and you aren’t losing any weight you might have a thyroid problem.

Me: Um, ok?

So here is where I am at. I try to shun doctors and all their tests. Buuuuuuut if this blood work shows something wrong with my thyroid she might prescribe some form of treatment or pills that will help fix the thyroid and have a happy result of me losing weight and how awesome would that be?? I am now wondering just how twisted I must be to be sorta hoping I have a thyroid problem…fairly twisted? Or just sorta twisted? Maybe just desperate…not that that sounds any better…

sick and twisted

 

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8km BMO Run…and a Dragon Boat Race

4 May

Today I ran. 🙂

I know to a lot of people running an 8km is nothing, it isn’t even long enough to count as their training but to me 8km is a huuuuuge accomplishment. I’ve never run that far and today I did. Today was a good day lol

The race didn’t start till 9:30am which means I got to sleep in later then if I had gone to work, yay for sleeping in! lol I had to be downtown by 8:30am at the absolute latest in order to catch the shuttle bus that would take me to the start area, I decided to get there for 8am just to play it safe, I was highly paranoid about missing the shuttle and not being able to get to the start area in time and not running, that would have sucked. Luckily that didn’t happen.

So I got downtown, checked my backpack, boarded a school bus (um, when did the leg room in those seats become sooooooo small? I barely fit!), got shuttled to the starting area and then proceeded to try to find shelter cause oh yeah, I forgot to mention, pouring rain! Brr! It was a funny sight, all these groups of people wearing running outfits huddled under huge trees trying to stay warm, limber and dry. I went under a tree for the length of time it took to write a text, I was trying to keep my phone dry-ish, after that I decided screw this I don’t want to huddle under a tree like cattle *rolls eyes*, so I wandered a bit. From where we were waiting we could see the half-marathoners go by so I went by the sidelines for a bit to cheer them on, I was encouraged by their speed. I’d had the horrible thought that I’d be the absolute slowest person out there and be passed by and left in the dust but the majority of them seemed to be running at a speed I felt I could maintain for quite a while, phew! One less thing to be freaking out about!

While standing around waiting I randomly started talking with a really nice lady named Kristi, she is from Manitoba and came here specifically for this run. Crazy huh? We chatted, she is one of those super friendly people that you just instantly get along with. Without even planning it we started running together, I thought she’d leave me behind super quick cause she has been training for this unlike I who kept intending to train and didn’t, oops! 😉 But she didn’t, we stuck together for 3-4km? I can’t quite remember the distance…the only reason we split up was she stopped to use the bathroom and I kept going. Now that I think about it maybe I should have waited, that would have been the polite thing to do…but before I could suggest waiting she waved me on and said she’d see me at the finish line as she headed off course to the washroom so I just kept going. I kept an eye out for her the rest of the run, I was absolutely convinced she’d catch up with me but I didn’t see her, and trust me I would have, she was wearing a very bright orange jacket.

At the same spot I left her there was a water station, I was one of those people grabbing a little cup of water while running by, how weird is that? I’ve only ever seen that on tv before lol Anyways, it turns out it wasn’t water, it was some sort of, I dunno, sickly sweet something, gack. It was nasty and made me thirstier then I was before I drank it. Not cool. This all happened right before a hill and about halfway up the hill I am sad to say I started to walk, I was super thirsty, had a sickly sweet taste in my mouth and I haaaaate hills. Looking back I wish I had managed to run that hill, I had run all the previous ones, because walking that hill somehow gave me permission to walk all the other hills if I felt like it, sigh. I know at the time I felt like I had to walk it, a quick walk granted but still a walk but I wish I’d pushed myself a bit harder, seen just how much more I could have done. Running is a mental game after all.

There were volunteers along the route cheering the runners on, for the most part I didn’t notice them much but there was this one group of 4 teenage boys who were holding up signs with quotes and cheering. One had a sign that was a quote from Gandalf (from Lord of the Rings) but this other sign really helped me. It said:

The voice in your head that says you can’t do it is a liar.

I know that quote, I’ve heard that quote, hell, we’ve all heard that quote or a variation on it but the timing of that sign, held by that stranger really helped me. It helped me to speed up, to run a little longer, and every time after that I wanted to stop I repeated to myself  “the voice is a liar, the voice is a liar, you can do this!”

Yeah I know,  I’m crazy lol 😛

I have multiple official times because of how they released the 8km runners on to the course, we were merging with the half marathoners who were already running, because of that our official start line was farther back which meant we started running before we actually go on to the race course. So, we crossed over two mats that registered our running chip at the beginning and then crossed over two at the end. This gave us our time for the actual distance of 8km as well as the time for the real distance we ran. My results are:

(heads up, don’t expect to be impressed or anything lol)

I did the 8km in 1:03:09

The goal I set for myself was 1:10:00 so I am very glad I beat my goal, screw glad, I am kinda proud. 🙂

But, to keep this in perspective, the fastest runner of the 8km was a guy from Victoria BC who did it in 28:20! Eesh! The average for the 1858 participants was 56:06 which means I was 7mins slower than average which, considering my lack of training and the fact that I am not a runner doesn’t seem that bad…to me lol

what my Runtastic App tracked

what my Runtastic App tracked

Every single persons name gets called as they cross the finish line, which I thought was awesome, made me feel special lol

front and back of my medal, there is a spot in the back that will get a chip inserted in to it that shows my time

front and back of my medal, there is a spot in the back that will get a chip inserted in to it that shows my time

As soon as you cross the finish line there are volunteers urging you to keep moving, they are thrusting water and juice boxes in to your hands, you get given a medal, then food, lots of food! A banana, some yogurt, this lunch box thing that had all kinds of yummy treats inside (all healthy) and because it’s how we roll here everything was recyclable or compostable. 🙂 I heard some people from the States commenting saying how you know you’re in Canada when not only do the garbage containers have multiple slots for all different types of recycling and composting but there is a volunteer at the garbage can to make sure you throw stuff in the right slot lol I guess I am so used to that I didn’t stop to think it might look weird to someone not from here. 😛

I then had to rush to get my bag from the bag check area, snag a cab and get to the dragon boat regatta my team was competing in today. They knew I’d be late for the races but that I’d do my best to get there as soon as I could. I missed the first two heats but got to race in the third. 🙂 They were all so happy when I showed up, all proud of my medal and asking questions about how it went. I’m so lucky to have a team that supported my doing the run rather than be mad I was going to miss part of the regatta.

We had a good third race and I heard from the team the first two races went really well also. 🙂

Then we all went for food, which fyi, from the time the race was over until about 7pm I have felt like a bottomless pit lol I started the day off with a protein packed healthy breakfast and for the most part have eaten fairly healthy throughout the day, each time I ate it was a meal with protein to try to help my poor body get over what I put it through lol

All in all I am feeling great! A bit of muscle pain in the calves and thighs, my knees are kinda sore, but nowhere near as bad as it could be. It may have been a rainy day, and I may have spent it soaked to the skin from about 9am till 1pm but it was an awesome day and I’m so glad I decided to run the 8km! Who knows, maybe I’ll run a longer race next time!…wait, next time?? What the hell am I talking about?! I’m not a runner! lol 😉

Sidenote: I apologize for the lack of pictures but I was so busy enjoying the day I didn’t think to pull out my phone and snap pics of things as I went through the day, I know I know, bad blogger! 😛 There were official pics taken but I haven’t received a link yet to see them, once I do I’ll post one so you can see how much of  a drowned rat I looked like lol

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Race Kit Pick-Up!

1 May

Oooooh exciting day today! 🙂

I got up distressingly early (for me lol), met with a friend, went for a walk, went home, cleaned up, ate, ran errands, saw the doc aaaaaand went to pick up my race kit for this Sunday! OMG sooooo excited! Freaked out but excited lol 😛

I thought the process of picking up my race kit would be as quick as me walking up to a desk, showing my ID, giving my bib number and being handed a bunch of stuff. Easy peasy. Well, what really happened was easy but as far from what I imagined as possible!

The line was huge, and slow moving, ugh. While waiting in line I was trying to figure out what was going on because there were these blue fabric “walls” that had been put up so I couldn’t see past the front initial sign-in area but I could hear all kinds of stuff and was oh-so-curious.

At the first stop I got given a blue bag filled with all sorts of goodies. Some magazines, a newspaper that is exclusively about the run, coupons, a t-shirt and most importantly my race bib! Eeeeeek! I want to post a pic of it but it is recommended people don’t put pictures of their bibs online until after the run because I guess people steal bib numbers that get posted online, rude!

magazines, coupons, newspaper...these were all in my blue tote bag

magazines, coupons, newspaper…these were all in my blue tote bag

 

Yay for stuff!

Yay for stuff!

Then I was let loose in to a large area filled with booths. They were giving away stuff, had games to play, draws to enter, all kinds of merchandise to buy, oh and samples, don’t forget the edible samples! Mmm!

I nibbled and sipped my way through various energy bars, protein bars, energy jelly drops, protein drinks and greek yogurt. Yeah, I know the yogurt doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest but it was tasty and has protein in it and I got a coupon so yay! lol

I checked out the clothes, there were all kinds of things labelled with the name of the run, similar to when I compete in a dragon boat festival and you can buy a tshirt with the festival name on it. I opted to not buy anything with the run name on it, didn’t really see the point, I’ll have a medal to remember the run with so who needs an overpriced shirt? I did however buy some on sale socks that promise no chaffing and a baseball cap. I’ve been meaning to buy a baseball cap for weeks now, I have one but it doesn’t have that hole in the back for my ponytail which until now hasn’t been a big deal but the weather is getting hot and when I wear my hair in a braid or a low ponytail to accommodate the cap with no hole my hair is smooshed against my neck, which gets sweaty, and ugh, so annoying. I know I know, I’m a whiny brat. 😛

Oddly enough, besides the bib my favourite thing that I got today was the shaker cup I won. It is in the second picture up there. I spun a wheel and the arrow fell on it and it became miiiiiine lol I already have one, from Popeye’s but I’ve been wanting a second one, just not willing to buy a second one so this worked out nicely.

The weirdest thing I received was the rice, someone put a package of it in to my hands along with a coupon. I thought about giving it back (since I don’t eat rice) but then realized I am poor and shouldn’t put my nose up at free food lol

The most useful thing I received was the bus ticket. They try to encourage using public transit so if you want one you can get a ticket for the bus, well, duh, of course I want one, it’ll save me $4! lol I will be busing downtown to a meeting point, putting my bag in to bag check, getting a free shuttle to the start line and then being corralled like cattle until being let loose on the run route.

So there we have it, after the fun of getting my race kit I went to dragon boat practice, had a blast, and am now home thinking happy sleepy thoughts about bed *yawn*

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Food Baby

27 Apr

Oooomph, foooood baby! Right here! Right now! OMG so much food in tummy, ugh.

Why the hell do I over eat like this? There is absolutely no need for the amount of food I ate for dinner tonight, and yet, I ate it! Sometimes I irritate myself, sigh.

A friend and I went out for dinner, we met in my neighbourhood which was awesome cause that meant I walked to meet her and then we walked to the restaurant. I am trying to walk more just in general and it also meant I didn’t use my suv which meant I didn’t use the oh-so-expensive gas that is in the tank (currently $1.53/litre, lovely huh?). My hope is by walking whenever possible I will sneak some extra exercise in there all under the guise of saving money on fuel and parking lol. 😉

We ended up going to Burgers Etc which is a burger/bbq place. Neither of us had been there before and I’d been dying to try it since I moved to this area, that’d be, hmm, a year and a half ago?

burgers etc

We decided to split an appetizer, we almost always do, we wanted the onion rings with bbq sauce but they ran out of onion rings, meanies! lol So we ended up with the pulled pork cheese fries. As soon as they arrived I knew we were in trouble because the plate was huuuuge! Enough for 4 people to share easy! They were quite good though, loved the bbq sauce. There was grated cheese, pulled pork, bbq sauce and I swear some chili on there. Quite the combo. I forgot to take pics so the image below is one I found online, ours was served on a very nice white, fancy serving platter (not the dorky plastic basket shown in the pic) but the food looked the same. 🙂

burgers etc pulled pork cheese fries

Then we each got a burger. You choose beef, chicken or veggie burger, all options automatically come topped with mayo, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, onion and dill pickle. Then you choose any other topping you want, an extra dollar per topping, I chose mushrooms, cheddar cheese and jalapenos. The burgers are more tall than wide so you really have to squish it down to be able to fit it in your mouth lol You can choose from a list of sides: coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, garden salad, fries, corn, soup or baked beans. I chose the macaroni salad, my friend got the coleslaw and we shared. Both were good but I preferred the macaroni salad. According to the server the macaroni salad, potato salad and coleslaw are made fresh in-house, yay!

burgers ect burger

Again with an image from the internet since I forgot to take pics. The above burger isn’t mine but I wanted to give you an idea of what mine looked like. Mine had mushrooms and jalapenos not only on the burger but spilling out all over the plate. Oh! I forgot, I added bbq sauce, so don’t forget that, it made my burger messier to eat but I love bbq sauce, Mmm!

The whole experience was great, the staff were nice, patient, answered all our food questions. The food tasted good and was suitably messy – c’mon, we all know certain foods taste better when they are messy lol 😛

I really enjoyed the macaroni salad, seems weird that the side dish was my favourite part of the meal lol wonder if I can just order that one day as take out…something to think about…

As soon as you walk in you start to drool, the place smells amazing! Well, as long as you like bbq it smells amazing lol I’d really like to try the ribs I think, just to get some more of that sauce lol The sauce is what made the burger stand out, otherwise it was pretty much like any other burger, but taller.

I couldn’t eat the entire burger but didn’t leave thaaaaat much of it behind. I’m really regretting not cutting that sucker in half and bringing half home. The macaroni salad side was small-ish so no way any of that would have made it in to a doggie bag, shrug. Normally I’m semi-decent at bringing food home from restaurants, partly so I don’t overeat at the restaurant and also because eating out generally isn’t cheap and I’d rather the money I spend cover the cost of two meals if possible. Not this time however. Next time though, I swear! Next time I’ll bring half that burger home and heat it up the next day! 🙂

Oh, and if you were wondering, the walking I did to meet my friend, get to the restaurant and get home was not an impressive amount at all and in no way helped to offset the meal lol 😛

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