Cookies for dinner

So.

I did the unthinkable.

Last night I went on a 5 mile run and got home and was STARVING. I had seen these cookies earlier in the day and as a person who ALWAYS thinks about dessert, I was thinking about them and thinking that, huh, I should just make these now while I am throwing together an actual dinner. Let's just say: NOT A GOOD IDEA. It was the starving brain thinking, not the rational person thinking. I modified the cookies, as follows, and I think I am going to call them "Vegan awesomeness cookies." Because they were Vegan and they were freaking awesome. Seriously. Here's the recipe I used (basically because this is what I had on hand):

1 cup old fashioned oats
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup dried cranberries
4 tbsp vegan choc chips, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds (gotta be honest, I just threw a bunch in, I have no idea how much...you can use whatever you have on hand)
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup flax (ground)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
2 tbsp almond butter
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp olive oil

Then I baked these babies at 350 degrees for about ten minutes.

The almond butter and peanut butter I used? The same stuff I grinded in the nut grinder machine at whole foods the other day (see here). It was PERFECT in this recipe. These cookies were so good. If you don't like maple syrup, you could definitely substitute agave nectar but I am not the biggest maple fan and didn't even taste the maple syrup. And since these cookies are totally vegan, I MIGHT have just indulged in maybe about 8 pounds of cookie dough before baking. Maybe. And then probably about 10 cookies after baking. It was BAD. Needless to say, after that cookie monster madness from a girl with a MASSIVE sweet tooth, I was not too hungry for dinner. I made a small salad and called it the dinner of champions because basically it was substantially cookies. Doesn't get much better than that in my book! And hey, at least they are fairly healthy as far as cookies go... don't judge!

A picture of the cookies baking from the remainder of the dough that I didn't eat.

And the finished product... after doing some more damage, of course.

Temptations are lurking....

I ordered a case of wine from a partner here who gets great deals on good wine... It is now sitting in my office just staring at me and taunting me...

Quiet nights at home? ...maybe

So, Mondays. What is my problem with Mondays lately? I've NEVER had a problem with Mondays. But the past three, I just CANNOT for the life of me get my head into the game. I just drag and drag and drag until I can go home from work. By Tuesday, the zest is back and I throw myself into work just like normal. Mondays used to be like that for me, what happened?! It's very bizarre.

This particular monday wasn't AWFUL but still, I could just feel that I was dragging. I got home from work early after lifting weights and doing a short 1.5 mile run. Naturally after working out, I felt the best I had felt all day. I think I might start working out early Monday mornings so that I don't have to endure the draaaag all day until I workout.

Anyway, I decided to come home early. As I was driving down a street in our nice, quiet little neighborhood, I drive past two cop cars with flashing lights. Weird. Then I pass FIVE MORE cop cars. What?! Um?

I live in one of the nice eastside suburbs of Seattle. Trust me, it is no inner city ghetto. I know my neighbors, the neighborhood is quiet, and it's nice. So why the hell there were EIGHT cop cars just baffled me. I called my neighbor and we decided it was probably just some crazy kids up to no good. NEXT THING YOU KNOW, we find out that someone had broken into a house in broad daylight and had taken everything and THEN an hour or so later, someone else spotted a suspicious man walking around in her backyard. WHAT?! Crazy. So, I guess the point of all this is to make sure to lock your doors. Even if you think you live in a safe, quiet neighborhood, it might not always be the case. I guess there are bad, screwed up people everywhere. It's a shame.

After that excitement, I'm freaked out so promptly dead bolt all doors. And then make a giant salad for myself for dinner.

And everyone knows what Monday nights are for right? Watching the bachelorette. I know, I know, it's my guilty vice. I had been out of it since, oh, I don't know EIGHT years ago when I watched it in college until I stumbled on it last season and now I'm hooked in again. Ridiculous. But I really like Ali and she has a lot of cute guys who seem actually genuinely nice, at least as far as you can really tell from reality TV.

Low key Sunday

Sunday was relatively low key, just the way I like sundays to be. I was home alone doing whatever I wanted... it started off with a nap to take advantage of some downtime and extra sleep! After an hour or so, I decided to get moving and Bella decided that SHE was ready for the day. Well, of COURSE, the princess is. So I promptly took her on a walk to tame her craziness. We ran about a half of a mile until I decided my legs were tired from hiking the day before. And then we just walked the rest of the time... probably 5-6 miles or so.

Bella strutting her stuff on our early morning walk.

SUCCESS! Right after we got home = VERY. TIRED. DOG.

My stupid arm broke out in a rash from the tetanus shot I had on friday. And MAN, those things FREAKING HURT. HOLY COW. I do NOT remember how bad those stupid things make your arm hurt... like being tackled by 3 linebackers and having the crap punched out of one spot on your arm. It was unbelievable!

After the morning walk, I went and met my good friend Lindsay for brunch at Pomegranate, a local restaurant in Redmond. I forgot to take pictures because we were too busy chatting and catching up. It was so fun though to see her and to have a great breakfast #2/lunch (I had organic vanilla almond milk oatmeal with a side of fresh berries and toasted almonds... seriously so good). The first breakfast might have involved a very large amount of peanut butter.... my new/old current addiction.

After that fun excursion, I made my way home and did some house cleaning and then since it was mid afternoon decided I would take Bella on walk #2 of the day. It was actually fairly warm out Sunday (though cloudy still of course) so it was nice to be out again. This time we walked for about an hour and 15 minutes, maybe 5 miles or so. Bella was one tired pup after walking TWICE in warm weather after her day of running at happy hound on Saturday.

For dinner I was in the mood for a giant salad...plus some protein. So I made flax tempeh (which is cut up on here so you can't really tell what's what), cut up some almond cheese, and made some lentils to put on the salad along with all of the other veggies on hand. SO good. I would HIGHLY recommend tempeh to anyone who wants to add a different type of protein to their diet. It's a type of culturing process that originated in Indonesia that binds soybeans into a cake type form. The process that the soybeans go through (a 24 hour process!) to get to the final product actually make it have a higher nutritional value (protein, dietary fiber, vitamins, etc) than just eating tofu has... at least accordingly to all of my nutrition sources that I read. Either way, it's delectable!

Saturday night

Like I mentioned in this post, after hiking Tim and I had planned a Saturday night dinner. It's something we like to do every once in a while, you know, go out to try to enjoy each other's company... along with enjoying good food and wine. Saturday night we stayed fairly close to home and hit up one of our favorite wine bars/restaurants in the Seattle area: Purple. They have a great collection of wine and their food is, well, awesome.

A shot of our table... First, we sipped on a flight of local white wines and had some flatbread/crackers and three spreads: Walnut feta, Edamame hummus, and Artichoke hazelnut. I was in heaven. It was SO good. For me, it really doesn't get much better than wine and bread.

For our entrees, I got a GIANT spinach salad that had garbanzo beans, onions, toasted almonds and tomatoes. I think at the end of it all, I just had a HUGE pile of spinach left. The dressing was a sun dried tomato vinaigrette which I had on the side.

Tim got a wild salmon sandwich and a side of sweet potato fries. Their sweet potato fries are absolutely out of this world. Just saying.

And a picture of me, drinking more wine with the biggest pile of spinach EVER. Saturday turned out to be a really nice night and we had a table right by the wall that was open leading out to the patio. Purple did not disappoint, as always. So good.

Hiking, take 3

On Saturday morning, Tim and I got up at our usually "late" wake up time of about 6.15am. We wanted to go hike again since we were dog free but the weather is so crappy here (#*$&#!) that we were fairly limited on where we could go given that this girl did NOT want to deal with snow. We didn't really want to do Mount Si again since we've done that the last couple of weekends in a row. So, we settled on Rattlesnake ridge, an old favorite... with a twist! We decided we'd keep going up on Rattlesnake instead of stopping on the ridge... so essentially we did the Snoqualmie point trail.

After a stop at Ladro for our infamous tea and cookies, we got out to the mountains and started the hike in the FREEZING cold "summer" day.

A picture of Tim about 5 miles in.

And a picture of me... see, wearing a beanie and fleece! What. in. the. hell. IT IS JUNE!!!

A shot of a cool looking part of the trail in the fog. Once again, we were DRENCHED from essentially walking through the clouds.

Doesn't this sort of look like we are walking dead into the twilight zone or something?

On a quick water break, sitting on the weird fence in the middle of the trail.

And Tim playing tree man or something. He wore his new toe shoes for the ENTIRE hike. Brave guy. I would not do the same.

Awesome mossy tree... the green seemed so vibrant (and the above is just an iphone photo too!)

And more of the mossy part of the woods...cool!

Coming back down, we stopped at the Rattlesnake ledge where the clouds were TRYING to break up.

What? What is that shiny yellow stuff? No WAY, sun?! At the VERY end of our 9 mile hike, the sun FINALLY broke through. Awesome!

Since the sun was out at the mountains, we assumed that it had broken through back by the lake so the weather people were right and we might actually be able to lay out at the beach that afternoon. So I changed into all of my actual summer gear (swim suit, short skirt, flip flops) and was READY to hit the beach. No dice. It was cloudy as all get out back at our home turf and the sun didn't break through until about 4pm. We opted instead to snack in the car on the way home and once we saw the clouds, we just hung around at home before heading out to pick up Bella and then having a Saturday date night at one of our favorite wine bars/restaurants in town.

Tim eating a PB&J.... a sandwich that I made before we left for the hike, in which I may or may not have eaten copious amounts of peanut butter. Seriously, like I said in an earlier post: might need a nut butter intervention.

All in all, the hike was actually really awesome, much to our surprise. Not too challenging but fairly long. It was a great way to spend the day!

The lady doctor.

I went to the, ahem, lady doctor today for my "annual appointment." Anyone who is a girl that reads this knows what that means and seriously? I DISLIKE this appointment. HUGE, GIANT, MASSIVE thumbs down.

I mean, I KNOW that this is just one of those "have to do" things but I really hate the whole experience.

Besides stating the obvious total VIOLATIONS (gross), I just hate the whole thing. Everything, from the minute you walk in the door, is just ick. It NEVER fails.

Example: my appointment today.

First thing, in the elevator, I'm riding up with a lady who I swear, is about 1.5 seconds away from popping a baby out. That's great and fine and awesome for her but HI, I only know CPR here, pretty sure that WON'T HELP YOU if we were to get stuck. Luckily, we made it out ok...but with some "uggghs, oooohs, aahhhh" from her in the 2 minute ride up. I even asked if she was ok and she did the whole, "Yeea....ooooh" thing. I was a little freaked. I mean was I supposed to rub her back or something? I HAD NO IDEA, since I have never actual experienced that myself...

Secondly. In the waiting room. KIDS GALORE. And come on, what is it about the kids in waiting rooms? They are always CRAZED. I have never heard so many "Let's ready this doctor Seuss book" or "Look, a Pooh book!" as I heard today. Not to mention the million kids running around like crazed little people. I wonder, is this a form of birth control for those of us that are there just for our annual exam? I think if I were to be sitting there pregnant I would be thinking, "Oh my GOD, what am I getting myself into?" I know that my kids will be no exception to the crazed kid waiting room rule. But still. Wow. Oh, and not to mention the fact that you wait FOREVER.

Third. The actual appointment. Peeing in a cup? I HATE THIS. WHY must we do this?

Fourth. The up-sell. Last year it was a myriad of blood tests that I wasn't anticipating (which all turned out phenomenal, so I was happy I did it) and then this year? A combo Tetanus/Diphtheria/Whooping cough shot... since my last tetanus shot has expired and apparently the other two vaccines are usually only given to kids but they are seeing increases in those diseases in adults as the kid vaccines are wearing off. (Insert sad face). Now I have a sore and heavy arm. Weight lifting today will = boo.

Fifth. Freezing in basically NOTHING and then MORE TALK ABOUT BABIES. I mean, it's not like I don't already get asked FOUR MILLION times a year when I'm going to have kids. But then the doctor starts in on it... and family planning...and if/when I might want to do any genetic testing. And OH MY GOSH, please just swipe my vagina so I can leave. (sorry mom, yes, I just said that publicly).

Sixth. The whole body exam. VIOLATION VIOLATION VIOLATION. HATE IT. Boobs, back, heart, head, throat, stomach, digging around INSIDE OF ME for what feels like an eternity, oh and the whole swiping of the uh, lady parts...you know, the whole POINT of this madness. I won't even GO there with the whole metal contraption that they stick in us. Oh man, everything combined for these appointments, just suck. I'm not afraid of doctors and have a pretty high pain tolerance but I just find this whole experience COMPLETELY and UTTERLY unenjoyable. Guys have no idea how easy they have it. And I KNOW that this is a far cry from what so many of my friends have gone through having experienced the whole pregnancy/labor/delivery thing BUT I have never experienced that so right now, this is my definition of violation yuck-ness. I know, waaaah, all of my mommy friends are definitely not feeling sorry for me.

The good news about all of this?
1) Apparently everything felt ok
2) All my vital stats were great (IE: blood pressure was at 102-62 and it's supposed to be less than 120-80). And just a note on everything they tell you? IE: when they told me my blood pressure numbers... PLEASE tell me what that means! I have NO CLUE if that means I'm going to die in the next three seconds or if that's good and my phrase of these appointments is usually, "So what does that mean?"
3) It's OVER for another year. I practically raced out of there... of course, not before I got trampled by a few little munchkins as I was walking through the waiting room.

Seven is a lucky number.

Ok, usually not... if you know me, you know that I have some weird thing about the numbers 7 and 13 and typically I'm not a superstitious person. BUT, BUT!

Last night?

I ran seven miles.

WITH NO PAIN.

YEE-HAW!

I am seriously over the moon about this. I ran a little over 6 miles on Tuesday, ran 3.5 miles Wednesday and then did an hour long bike ride with Tim, and then since Thursday was my last weekday of pure cardio (since Mondays/Fridays I combine a little bit of cardio and do mostly strength training), I decided to just push it. Not usually the best choice as evidenced by my battle of the injuries but since I have taken care of myself and have gotten back into it sloooooowly, I was ready to tackle a longer run. It was still slow at a 10 minute mile pace and I did do 20 minutes of sprinting in those miles to break up the monotony (and because sprinting is the thing that ultimately "healed" the achilles) BUT! I ran seven miles! Whoo hoo!

While I was running, Bella was also getting her run in at a park by home:

Ok, I guess here she isn't exactly running as cooling off in the dirt. I mean, who doesn't lay down in the dirt to cool off? Duh. And just a sidenote? This frisbee? Her FAVORITE thing EVER, hands down. She is obsessive about it. It's great for getting her energy out.

After that awesome pain-free run, I was, of course starving. After cleaning up and getting de-sweat-ified, it was time to think about dinner. Oh the most asked question, EVER, "What for dinner?" I feel like I often get in a dinner rut because I don't usually care too much and just want something fast and easy. So, I usually revert back to just throwing together a salad with whatever is on hand, as I've mentioned a million times before. Last night I felt like I needed some sort of protein source and was just slightly motivated to break out of our rut, so I took the other half of a block of tofu (from my tofu recreation experiment) and baked it for about 15 minutes in a Teryaki/sesame glaze. It was SO good. And naturally I was starving (again) after running so didn't take pictures. Guess you'll just have to take my word on how yummy it was. Of course, on the side I had some organic whole grain pasta and the staple spinach salad with walnuts, chickpeas, and assorted veggies. But man, baked tofu? Awesome. It's a definite for the easy dinner do-over...and soon.

Organic beer?

Yes, please!

Check this out:
http://naobf.org/index.html

An organic beer festival in Portland this weekend? Hmm.... I'm not as into beer as I am into wine but this could be very tempting... It's been a while since I've been to Portland. An organic beer festival might be a great reason among others to venture down south...

My little buddy.

Lately on my way into work, I've been taking the boulevard that runs along the lake instead of the freeway. And everyday, without fail, there is an 80 year old man wearing a BRIGHT orange vest that salutes me, smiles, and waves. And not just a little wave. A jumping up and down, both arms, kind of a wave.

One of these days, I'm going to get out and talk to him. I have no idea who he is, other than an elderly man who is out for his morning walk.

And then subsequently makes my whole morning better for it.

Ahhh, could it be that summer is finally here?

Yesterday's run and bike ride were awesome! I ran 3 miles at a 10 minute mile pace and then went on a bike ride for a little over an hour. It was SO nice out. 75 degrees and sunny... crazy! Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather stays this way.

Bella enjoyed the weather, too. She rang her bells (which she is supposed to do when she has to go to the bathroom) because it was so nice out, she just wanted to lay in the sun. I don't blame her.

Since it was definitely feeling like summer yesterday, I made a summer-y salad with heirloom tomatoes, onion, fresh basil, and corn. I put this on top of veggie patty's (Amy's- so good). And had a spinach mixed salad on the side.

And because I was in such a good mood last night from a great workout, awesome dinner and FINALLY feeling the summer weather, I made whole wheat banana blueberry bread. It was a muffin recipe but I was lazy and just made it into bread. Pretty much the same thing, right? Seriously, so good. And moist too because the recipe had applesauce in it. Mmmmmm. Blueberries are the ultimate summer berry, or so it seems to me.

Tofu tomato basil recreation

Last night I tried to recreate the amazing tofu-tomato-basil dish we had at Wild Ginger a week or two ago (see here). I threw in:

-2 garlic cloves, minced
-1/4 onion
-Good handful of fresh basil
-Firm tofu
-About a half of an heirloom tomato
-Balsamic vinegar
-Olive oil
-Pepper

I put all of that on the stove and let it simmer away. It was actually pretty tasty! It wasn't QUITE as good as Wild Ginger's version but I think I could play with it and get it just right by adding a little bit more garlic and maybe a dash of sea salt. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture...

I am back and running again and have been for a couple of weeks; however, I have just been running 3-4 miles at a time at a slower 10 minute mile pace during the week in an effort to remain injury-free (I still run 1-2 miles on Mondays/Fridays and strength train those days as well...obviously weekends are my play days for hiking, biking, whatever). Anyway, yesterday I decided I have been going slow for a while so thought I'd up it a notch. I did 3.5 miles at a 9:40 pace, then walked at a 4 mile pace for 5 minutes then did intervals for 20 minutes (one minute at a 4 mile pace, 1 minute sprinting at however fast I could go- I think I topped out around a 6:30 min mile pace). All in all it evened out to a little over 6 miles over the course of the hour and NO FOOT PAIN!! I am ecstatic! Of course, I was a good girl and stretched and "sticked" my calf for a while last night too in an effort to avoid any more such foot/achilles injuries. So, after that workout, I was STARVING, so, alas, no picture of the tomato-tofu-basil recreation and the spinach salad with garbanzo beans on the side... all I could think about was eating it! It's too bad I have no photo since I don't usually have a whole lot of time at night to actually cook and usually just throw together a quick salad, which doesn't seem entertaining enough to ever post on the blog.

I think the plan today is to do a short 3 mile run then go on a bike ride. We actually have hit 70 degrees today (GASP!) The sun is a little sporadic but the temperature is a GIANT improvement. I cannot wait to get outside.

Welcome to...summer?

Yesterday, this was the headline of the news. "Welcome to...summer?" And it's what EVERYONE was talking about here. HA, it's summer. Yeah right. Like I SAID, I am vetoing Washington and it's stupid weather. Not really sure what that veto thing means but essentially I am over this weather and absolutely despise it. It is seriously depressing to see red hot temperatures across the country and then cold/rainy temperatures in our little corner of the world. But, some people love it, I guess. I am just a sunny, warm weather girl at heart so I am MISERABLE. A few highlights from the first day of "summer" in Seattle as well as a link to the news story:

From KOMO 4 news (link below):
So let's recap just how gloomy it's been, so we can brag to the grandchildren someday....

-If you haven't heard, this is now the longest stretch (by far) that we've gone into a new year without hitting 75 degrees. The old record was June 9th, set in 1991.

-This is also the longest streak of consecutive days without hitting 75. Monday makes Day 271. (TWO SEVENTY ONE...that's ALMOST A FULL YEAR! And seriously, only 3 months of weather in the 70s? Um, yuck.) The old record was 253, done twice (Sept. 28, 1990-June 9, 1991, and Sept. 22, 1999 - June 3, 2000.)

-Through June 20, the average high temperature from May and June combined is 62.0 degrees. If that holds, it would be a record as the coldest May-June is 62.49 degrees set in 1953. Just taking June into account, the average high temperature is 63.8 degrees would be third-coldest behind 1971 (62.73) and 1953 (63.27)

-On June 15th, the weather at 18,000 feet was colder over Washington than any other place on the North American continent -- including sites within the Arctic Circle! (Oh, that's just LOVELY).

-Going hand-in-hand with the chilly weather has been persistent rain.
The 5.32" of rain since May 1 makes this the third wettest May-June on record -- with more rain in the forecast before the month's end. The record is 6.19" in 1984, and second place is just ahead at 5.34", set in 1993. And the rain has been spread out across several days. We already tied one record for consecutive days with rain in the dry season (May-Sept.) with 11 in a row from May 25-June 4. And perhaps lost in the shuffle is a second 8-day streak from the 16th to the 23rd leading up to it that itself ties for fourth-longest. But put it all together, and in the 30 days between May 16 and June 14, it rained on 25 of them, with our only dry days coming on May 24 and June 5. That is completely unheard of for this time of year -- and a wet stretch like that is actually not all that common during the rainy season either. You have to go back to January of 2006 which had 28 of 31 days with rain to find a wetter streak. Overall, we've had 35 days with rain of the 51 days through June 20. (Are you freaking kidding me? I mean, I've lived through it but WOW, that SUCKS).

...And a few more golden nuggets from the full story....

-This weekend was among the longest -- and darkest days of the year! While Sunday was nearly the longest day of the year in terms of length of daylight (16 hours, exactly, for Seattle), it was the darkest June day in at least the past 15 years when it came to amount of sunlight energy reaching the surface, according to research done by UW meteorologist Mark Albright.

-So far in June, 18 days out of 20 have featured 70% cloud cover or more during the day, with nine of those days at 90-100% cloud cover. Seattle at least averages 5 sunny days in June. So far, just one... (SEE YOU GUYS, I DON'T EXAGGERATE)

And a link to the full story:
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/96822259.html

In honor of the first day of summer, I made a piping hot pot of minestrone soup including: sauteed mushrooms, spinach, beans, veggies, and of course some red hot chili peppers. Not really ideal "summer" food but I was freezing...

It's official!

I'm certified to do CPR and AED.... even though if something actually happened, it would take every ounce of control I possess to not go running in the other direction. I don't deal well with injuries... or illness... I like to think that if the situation actually came up, I'd be able to get past that.

Phone disease?

So, I was just reading in my whole living magazine that there is such a thing called "digit distress" aka repetitive motion injuries that lead to approximately 20 missed days of work a year and can be attributed to thumping, texting, whatever on iphones, blackberries, etc.

Seriously? This really exists? And really causes so many missed days of work?

That kind of makes me laugh.

The weather did not listen.

Day 2 of this weekend was much like day 1 in regards to the weather... sucky. Actually slightly more crappy because it POURED and was even more cold, if that's even possible. It was supposed to be the better of two days too. Huh. After having a couple of things to do that morning, I entertained myself with various chores and fun.... cleaning the house, pulling weeds, walking with Bella for 2 hours in a sort of dry break, and reading/attempting to stay warm and inside.

The rain as of late has made the weeds in our yard BLOW UP. I went to town pulling them out. Too bad I didn't take a before and after picture. It was pretty dramatic. I didn't put the pile up because when I start to lift part of it, it started buzzing. YIKES. I DO NOT like bugs and whatever was in there was HUGE. No thanks.

I also staked up my growing tomato plants... I'm so impressed they are actually growing so well!

And plant number two... also doing well.

And look! A little tomato guy! Cool!

Mount Si, take 2

Oh Washington, I veto you and your stupid weather. I am FREEZING and in sweaters, listening to the heater still kick on while I lay huddled under blankets drinking hot tea in sweatshirts, living in a perpetual winter... while the rest of the country basks in glorious sun. Because, um, hi? It's, like, ONE DAY from being "officially" summer... shouldn't we at least TRY to get there sometime before September? Maybe? This sun and summer thing is a foreign concept around these parts... lately. Lately meaning, oh, the last TWO MONTHS. And 70 degrees? Haha, nice tease last Saturday WASHINGTON. Loved it for a day but you are just having a blast making us all miserable with your 50 degrees and incessant rain and intermittent teases. Why do we even tolerate you and your randomness? Well, I veto you. DISLIKE BUTTON ACTIVATED. Officially. And I officially retroact the dislike button all the way back to April when this weather nonsense started. So go, fix it. Sunny, hot weather NOW. You have one day until summer, go!

While I contemplated the (still winter) weather in Washington yesterday (and as an aside, truly, it's like winter here since our winters really aren't cold), I decided to flip Washington the middle finger and get outside anyway. Well, it gave us the middle finger right back as we FROZE our way up and down Mount Si for the second weekend in a row. We decided to do Mount Si again because 1) It's a good hike, great workout and 2) The weather sucked so there would be no view anywhere so no point in doing an awesome view hike. It was a great time although about 10 minutes in I wanted to quit. It was cold and I was grumpy and my legs hurt from lifting the day before (waaaah, I know). Eventually, about 2.5 miles in I stopped being a baby at which point we FLEW up. Not quite as fast as the prior week but I'll blame the weather for that too since it was so cold my joints literally felt stiff.

At the top, 4 miles in and up... we are soaking wet because for the last 1.5 miles we were hiking through clouds. Literally so foggy we couldn't see 3 feet in front of us. Glorious!

Oh and an absolutely disgusting picture of yours truly... covered in cloud and yuck weather. Shortly after, we both threw on beanies (stocking hats, whatever you call them). Thank GOD Tim had the foresight to think, "Hey, it's kinda cold out, let's bring these." Otherwise, I would have turned into an ice statue. No, seriously.

And our "view." Slightly different than last week, no?

All in all it was a great hike.... despite the suck of this weather. Which, I must end by saying, is still very much vetoed.

Currently reading:

The above are two of my new favorite magazines. Of course I still love Whole Living and Eating Well but the two magazines above are AWESOME. Love love love. Of course, I don't get a whole lot of "style" from these magazines but, hey, I live in Seattle not New York City so the occassional glance at a fashion magazine or a walk through Nordstrom keeps me pretty well in tune there. Besides, I'd definitely say that health, fitness, and eating well are much more of my hobbies than fashion.... though I do enjoy fashion.

I'm also plowing through some rather interesting books, too, since I have so much more spare time in the non-busy season months but I'll save those for later posts.

91 years young.

Today was my Grandma Mac's 91st birthday. She lives with my parents now and is in generally good health, considering, well, she's NINETY-ONE. I have fond memories of her as a child... mainly going to her house in Springfield, Missouri every summer... and eating biscuits and gravy and homemade raspberry jam, blueberry muffins... and everything else good. And playing and playing on the property she had in Springfield... with the HUGE oak trees and plants and multitudes of buildings (the house was built in the 1800s so it was really cool as a kid). Oh, and we always got toys from Grandma. Isn't that what Grandma's are for?? When I was about 10, she moved up to Kansas City to live closer to my parents and I have good memories of that time too since she was only 2 blocks away then and always accessible. I was thinking about her all day today and it was fitting that when I walked outside tonight, I saw this awesome rainbow:

Happy birthday, Grandma! Cheers to 91 years....I love you.

Dogs and dogs and dogs and dogs

Over the weekend of June 12, we were the lucky couple to be blessed with not one but TWO boxers. (Sidenote: can I just say thank god Tim was around this weekend?! I would have died by myself). One of the boxers was Bella, the other my neighbors (who, is now a total saint in my eyes for watching two boxers many days each month). Things I learned during this whole experience: 1) Two boxers are a lot of work even though they do keep each other entertained, they don't really sleep/relax much 2) Bella is as INSANE with energy as previously thought 3) It was CRAZY, beyond comprehension to have a dog that only poops TWICE a day. Pictures, below, of the adventure:

First thing in the morning Saturday we picked up our neighbor's pup, Sadie. My goal for the day was to get the dogs so tired that they couldn't do anything BUT sleep that night. So, we went straight to the park to let them run for 15 minutes.

Of course, Bella did a beeline straight for the disgusting mud puddle so smelled like she bathed in complete shit. Sadie, of course, was the un-pig dog that avoided the puddle. We then had to stop at a gas station to give Bella a quick rinse... otherwise, the two people in the car would have been puking. And if you know my thing with puke, well, yeah... a quick rinse was necessary.

And again. She was not a fan. She likes smelling like shit. My neighbor thinks she is part pig. I tend to agree.

Since that Saturday was the first day in MONTHS of gorgeous weather, we took full advantage and went to the mountains for hiking... after of course the park sprints for the dogs, the quick rinse, and a stop at caffe ladro for tea and cookies to munch on for the 30 minute car ride to the mountains. Once there, it was PACKED. Shocking (sarcasm). Seriously, we hadn't seen sun OR 70 degrees, in, I don't know, FOREVER, so everyone had the same idea. We had decided just to do Mount Si, a relatively easy 8 mile hike just because it was easy, accessible and we didn't have to deal with snow while we had the dogs. Up at the top, we had a great view!

With Bella...

And... one more try....

A picture of Miss Sadie at the top.

And Miss Bella....

And one more of Sadie where she's looking at me. Gorgeous views that day!

A picture of Tim with the pups. They sort of look like sisters! Both reverse brindle but Sadie has more white on her face.

And me with both dogs. They did SO good on the hike! We were HAULING up the mountain and were passing people left and right. It's 4 miles up and I think the elevation gain is 4500 feet or something and we did it in just over an hour... I was SUPER impressed with us (and the dogs)! It was a great workout, we worked hard! Going down we made it in an hour or so.

After the hike we went to the beach... gorgeous! Both dogs got to swim because it was actually hot out. Sadie was not a huge fan. Neither was Bella, really, but she's used to us making her swim. And it cools them off, which they liked.

Sadie hanging out on her towel, basking in the sun.

And getting ready to go swimming again.

The next day was pretty much a repeat of Saturday...except for the weather, because god forbid we actually have two awesome days in a row! Sunday was MUCH cooler and more cloudy but we decided to still tough it out. We went to the woods closer to our house and did a mini-hike (not as many inclines). It was still probably 8-10 miles, though, so by the end we were tired and sore given all of our hiking over the course of the weekend. We went to the beach again afterwards and tried to catch a few rays of sun though it was not as prevalent as the day before. After that, Sadie went home. And I subsequently enjoyed the rest of my sunday. Quietly. With only one dog. And a tired one at that.