!!!

Aaahhh!!

179 google reader posts to weed through!

Get house in order for college roommate + baby for Friday visit!

Get mom a gift for her birthday!

Make pie for Easter!

Give dog a bath!

Work!

Buy groceries so I can stop eating out/eating random meals!  (ie deviled eggs, hummus and pita chips- hello?  veggies?  are you there?  no...

Write post about awesome bachelorette party in the Texas Hillcountry Wine territory!

Buy new computer!

Remain calm!!!

heh- I like how google reader is first...  but I will probably not catch up until next week...

in other quick updates:
I fell while running with CutCut and hurt myself decently but I'm ok.

Meatless month update to come at some point.

Thanks Diana for the vegoutaustin.com site!

Negative v. Positive

I don't consider myself a negative person or necessarily a positive person.  Of course, I try to be a positive person but sometimes negative stuff gets me down.  Particularly when those negative things keep happening and seem to pile up and up. 

This post isn't all about all the negative stuff in my life but bear with me for a moment...  I think I said in an earlier post that the last couple of months have been pretty stressful with the move and all that but then all this little negative stuff kept happening.  CutCut got out of his crate not once, but twice!  The first time he got out he ruined a bunch of blinds and we came home to a house that from the outside looked like a bomb went off.  When I raced inside I forgot to lock my car and the next morning I discovered the face to my stereo had been stolen.  Bummer.  But strange that they only took my face...  The second time he got out it was at Scott's folk's place and again, he went for the blinds.  And he got hurt!  He rubbed the skin around his nose raw trying to get out of his crate and cut one of his dew claws.  Needless to say we have postponed further crate training... 

Anyways, so all this piddly negative stuff was going on all around me and I was really getting down.  A few weeks ago on a Monday, I was driving to work (not listening to the radio) and listing all the negative things.  Then I told myself "Stop!  If you keep up all this negativity it's going to keep happening and never go away.  Think positive, change your attitude and good things will start to happen." 

Forward to work.  I'm printing a ton of reports and go pick them up off the copier.  When I get back to my desk, I see a message on my phone from an unknown number.  I check it and it's some one named Neil who has something of mine I lost and to call him if I want it back.  I couldn't understand the message he left but I immediately start thinking about what I could have possibly lost.  I called him back and he says he has my bag and he works at a coffee shop in a town about 25 miles away. 

I could not believe this guy had my bag!  About 9 months ago I lost my bag in the smaller town because I put it on the trunk of my car and drove away.  Yeah, I know...  I looked and looked for it but didn't find it and figured someone else did.  I canceled my bank account on recommendation from my bank, had to go back to my old phone I'd just replaced, etc.  And this guy calls me and has my bag with everything in it just the way I lost it?!?  The craziest part of it is that the very next day I was going to be working in the same small town!  Weird...

But that Sunday before the guy called me, I had dinner with my parents and my mom told this parable about how we have two wolves inside, a negative and a positive and the one that wins is the one that we feed the most.  Later that day I read this post from Tracey at Tropical Happiness.

Same parable!  So weird. 

So I'm on a positive upswing- I feel good about how things are going and where I'm at.  I'd been considering getting a new stereo for my car anyways...

For more on positivity check out this post over at Andrea's Wellness Notes.

Hope you all had/are still enjoying a great weekend!

Impromptu Thursday

Man, I am so glad it's the weekend!!!  I've been trapped in a training class all week that has dragggged!  Yesterday I got home from work to find CutCut had been up to some serious mischief and was now in need of a bath...  So I headed over to my friend's (and now neighbor!) to chill in the yard while CutCut waited in stinky shame at our place. 

We basked in the sun and sipped on some Ska Red Stripe Ale.  So good!  This beer hails from Durango, CO and is delish.  I used to go to school up there so that's how I heard of it and they recently started carrying it down here- very glad! 

After I got home, wrestled the pup into the tub, and gave him a good scrub down, I was ready to eat!  It was a farmer's market/local feast!  I popped some cauliflower (from the farmer's mkt) into the oven to roast up while I put some sliced tofu I basted in local spicy mustard (farmer's mkt) and pepper sauce from the Silver K Cafe (in Johnson City, TX!)  This pepper sauce is seriously awesome- I eat it on almost everything and one bottle has not lasted me long.  I am dreading running out of it...  I also sauteed some farmer's market mixed greens (kale, brussle sprout leaves, chard and brocolini) in some garlic.  This meal was freakin' awesome!  I really need to start posting some pictures- I think this meal really motivated me to locate the necessary hardware!

Despite my delicious veggie-meal I had a really weird dream last night...  I was eating a huge, juicy rib that was the size of a person's leg.  For real.  I kept saying how good it was and I ate the whole thing.  It was like some sort of Flinstone's rib...  Thoughts?  I should look it up in my dream dictionary.

Happy Weekend!

Overnight oats: success! Planning well for workout: fail!

Last night I made overnight oats for the first time.  I'd been reading about them for forever and never had the nerve to try them but last night I decided I was bored of granola, yogurt and frozen blueberries.  I wanted to keep it simple my first time but I took the plunge and now see speedy breakfasts in my future!

My Plain Jane Overnight Oats had:
1/2 cup of rolled oats
1/2 cup of plain Horizon yogurt (just can't seem to join the Greek fan club!)
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 of a super ripe banana
4 or 5 strawberries

I have to admit when first looking at this mixture I thought I should add more oats and maybe a squirt of agave but resisted.  So glad!  These turned out so good!  The texture was perfect and the fruit was just sweet enough.  I used regular milk cause that's the only thing I had but I think I should try some almond milk next time.  And I want to try it with pumpkin!  Possibilities...

Last night my friend that I'm doing the training group with and I made a plan to meet up before the group.  I'm in a training all week that keeps me later than normal so I told him I would bring my stuff with me to work and go straight there.  Well...  I got all my stuff together last night, looped the bag on my front door knob, and left it there!  I mean, I touched it as I was leaving!  So now I'll be having a nice workout at home sans friend.  It's ok, I'm sure CutCut will appreciate the company...

Meatless and Workouts Update

This past Sunday was the two week mark for no meat for me and Scott.  I haven't had many cravings for meat or felt like I was missing out or anything like that.  I've only craved meat twice and both times were for fish.  The first time was when I was out in the field and forgot my lunch at home.  I went to a sandwich place and the only veggie option was cheese.  Begin immediate craving for tuna sandwich!  The second time I had a craving I was on my way home and passed one of my favorite sushi places and thought "Yum!  Sushi for dinner tonight!...  oh wait...  that has fish...  bummer..." 

But other than that it's been fine as far as cravings go.  My energy level is normal (well, except for the hit from springing forward!) and my stomach is on par. 

I have had some challenges with eating out though.  I went out for Chinese for lunch one day and there was no veggie option on the lunch menu and the waitress wouldn't let me sub tofu.  Lame!  I ended up having to order off the dinner menu which was a huge portion of course.  Other than that I'm just kind of bored of the veggie burger or roasted vegetable sandwich options.  Granted, I don't need to be eating out that much anyway but still! 

I have been making really good stuff at home- eggplant parm, tofu yellow curry, fritatta, broccoli cheese soup.  I actually kind of messed up the soup but it's pretty tasty anyway.  It's a tad watery...

Training is coming along but slowly.  I can't seem to get over the 5 minute mark.  Maybe this will be the week...  I've been working on putting together my home gym and it's finally usable so the other day I did a quick elliptical workout.  It's slightly squeakier than it used to be and CutCut came in and barked at it while I worked out- which I thought was funny.  We have been having pretty gorgeous weather around here so I think I might make my next workout a walk/jog around Town Lake.


Do you think it's difficult to find good vegetarian options when dining out?  I always thought of Austin as being a pretty veggie-friendly city but now I'm starting to think maybe not so much.  Maybe I just need to try some new places...

The week of poof!

Well I think it's safe to say that blogging while I'm working out in the field is difficult!   This week it was back to work for me and with a vengance!  I don't know if it was just work though.  We have been instructed to not go over 40 hours a week (I usually work 50-60 hours when out in the field) so it's not that I was working really late but I was seriously tired!  And busy with other stuff.

I've been working on planning a friend's couples wedding shower and spent all week doing stuff for it.  Shopping, shopping, making decorations, prepping food, forgetting to order beer, etc.  I guess that's why I'm tired!  Usually my schedule is work, come home, workout, relax for a bit, make dinner and continue relaxing.  This week it was all about work, errands, tasks, dinner, tasks, sleep!

No workouts for the whole week!  At least I did a good job of packing my lunch and making dinner at home.  Last night Scott made homemade pizza and it was delish!  I love it when he makes pizza.

Things are getting ready to change drastically around here though.  Scott goes back to work on Monday.  Boo.  He usually works for about 4-5 months then takes a few months off.  We've really gotten into a good groove with chores, making dinner and hanging out together.  I know he has to work but I'll miss him!  He works 14-16 hours a day so we don't see each other much during the week and he is fed 3 meals a day so...  I'll be cooking for 1 again!  The good thing is that we have really good friends that live right down the street so they can adopt me while Scott is working!

The good news is I'm in the office for the next 3 weeks!  It's almost like being on vacation again!  It'll be a good time to organize and get back on track!

Time to go hang a million tissue paper poof balls!