Nerdy 30 B-Day

I was so not ready for this weekend to end. I was having so much fun! Will turned 30 on Saturday, so I tried to come up with some fun gifts/activities to celebrate. The big party comes next weekend when we celebrate with our friends Josh, who also had a birthday the same day(!) and Amanda, whose b-day was the 19th. July is a popular month!

Still a cutie at 30! 

Friday, we had dinner at the Trolley Stop Market - always a winner! Afterwards, we scooted over to the Orpheum theater for The Princess' Bride. That movie seriously never gets old. We were a little late, and the theater was so packed they had to open the box seats - we were able to snatch one of those. Sweeet! The best part was that the entire theater would quote certain lines or cheer whenever Inigo Montoya said his famous line, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Classic.
Since I just couldn't wait, I gave Will one of presents on Friday night. I saw this on a blog one day and thought it was cute. So I did it too! I was too sheepish to buy that much beer in one place so I went to 3 stores. Lol. I bought 30 bottles of beer and tied pictures or tags on which I had written things I love/appreciate about him to each bottle. I think he liked it. :-)

Saturday I did a tough 12 mile run with my Star Runners friends. We all got soooo lost. Ha! I just followed Sally and Emily and they were able to figure out a way to get our miles in still. Those ladies are awesome! Afterwards, it was pet-sitting at the market. My faves of the day were these two chihuahua sized poodles named Coco and Chanel.

This is probably to closest I will ever get to wearing Coco Chanel. 

Saturday evening we went to Will's neighbor's apartment for a little birthday party. (Yes, her too!!). We used some spearmint I had noticed was growing near his driveway to mix up some mint mojitos. They were soooo delicious. Taste just like summer. Seriously. Sunday we went met up with my Star Runners friends (+ significant others) for a Redbirds game. They actually won too! It was so nice to hang out together as a group for something other than running or racing. :-)

Go Redbirds!!!

Now it's Monday again. Oi. Starting tomorrow, I'll be in something called "yellow belt" training for the next 3 days. Initially, I thought it might have something to do with karate. Unfortunately, it's about learning to do performance improvement projects. Yuck. I so wanted to learn how to karate chop through a bunch of wood blocks!

Coffee Chat with Deb

Back in the days of high school and college I remember how I would meet up with friends at coffee shops in the area just to hang out all the time. Sometimes I miss those days. Friends, if we were to meet for coffee today, here's a bit of the news I'd gladly share!
- I bought a ticket to Ireland on Thursday!!!! I am so incredibly excited to go visit Charis and meet Cillian! (Oh, and spend some time with Tony of course! Haha.) Initially, I tried to buy the ticket through Priceline and was charged 3 times! It never let me buy the ticket and I spent a lot of time on the phone the following days with Priceline and my bank. As soon as my account was cleared again, I went ahead and bought it through the airline directly. So. much. easier!
- Will got a new job! He'll be working for one of our Grad school profs, Dr. Steiber as the Senior Project Manager for research at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (ie. AND). As far as I know he'll be helping collect research outcomes to compile into a database for AND. I've known about all this for a while, but couldn't say anything until the job offer was signed! His last day at the VA is fast approaching. I'll miss getting to eat lunch with him and seeing him at random times throughout the day if I need!
- What does Will's new career move mean for me? Well, he can work from home here in Memphis for a few months and travel to the AND headquarters on occasion. Where is AND located you ask??? CHICAGO!!!! I'm pretty stoked to be moving back north eventually. I'll be much closer to my Bluffton friends and I may be crazy but I miss the longer months of chilly weather. (I'd much rather spend more time in skinny jeans and scarves than tank tops and shorts!) The only bad part is having to find a new job. :-(
- For about a month now, I've been doing a bit of the readings from this group, "She Reads Truth". I initially found out about it when the author of one of favorite blogs, EatLiveRun mentioned it. It's a daily devotional with discussion let on Twitter by some other really awesome bloggers.
- I'm excited for Will's 30th birthday this weekend! I can't wait to have him open the things I bought. I used an idea I saw on a blog a few weeks ago in an effort to be a little more creative for a mile-stone year! :-) We'll also be celebrating next weekend with a combined party with our friends Josh and Amanda - both of whom have birthdays the same day/weekend as Will!
- My Bluffton friends may be coming to visit me next weekend! I'm so excited to see them again! I seriously feel so blessed to have such great friends. :-)

Lazy River

Howdy!
  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I was able to escape Memphis for a couple of days with a few of my coworkers - Erin, Sara, Angie and Deanna. We headed to Arkansas after work on Friday to go rafting on the Spring River! How much fun. :-) I was afraid it would be kind of boring to just float down the river, but since the current was so gentle for the majority of the course, we ended up still doing a bit of paddling. My arms were even a tad sore in the morning. Ha! I think one of the best parts of the whole trip was getting to know my coworkers a little more though. I'm sure there are not a lot of medical centers where there are so many people on the nutrition staff who are so close to me in age.

River view...

We had to hold on tight over this drop!

Our Home Sweet Home for the weekend.

Obviously an RD created meal! So yummy!!! 

This is definitely the kind of trip I would do again. Even though I said canoeing/kayaking on my 25 while 25 list, I think I'll make an exception for rafting! I still got to spend some quality time on the river. :-)

Weekend Highlights

I think I need a vacation. I just never feel like I am ready for Monday! Oh well. This weekend was pretty similar to last... we need to get back into the habit of reading the Memphis Flyer to see what other fun things are happening in town!
Friday we grabbed a pizza at Memphis Pizza Company (awesome way to carb-load!) then walked across the street to see Ted! 

Mmm... I love my pizza loaded with veggies!

Will had been dying to see this movie - and I admit, it was pretty funny! The best part of it was this middle-aged woman accompanied by a 70+ year old man with a cane who sat right by us. Will and I looked at each other and thought that they must have accidentally come in to the wrong movie. (I mean, Ted was written by the same people who do Family Guy so...) To our surprise though, this older man loved it! He was tapping his cane and cracking up the majority of the movie. Ha!
Saturday I met my running friends for a 10 mile run in Midtown. This was a tough one as Star threw in a 5K time trial in the middle! In other words, we ran 4ish miles at an easy pace, then ran our estimated 5K pace, ie. booked it for 3.1 miles, then finished the 10 miles at our easy pace again. Let me just say, I was exhausted by the time the afternoon came around.
After running, I did my usual pet-sitting shift at the market with Will. My friend Emily even stopped by with her little dog Olive. Such a cutie!This little guy slipped out of his harness when his owners were still signing him in! He seemed to like Will. :-)

At least a good hour or so of my Saturday afternoon I spent stuck on the phone with Priceline's customer service. The problem isn't fixed yet, but hopefully in the next day or so! More on that later. :-) Will worked some magic so that I was able to even be able to talk to a person. So kind of him!
Sunday has been pretty low key. I did a nice bike ride on the Greenline this afternoon. I love that Star included the option of a 1-hour cross training session on Sundays instead of a 3 mile run. I have definitely been taking advantage! At the market yesterday, I was on a mission to get the veggies I saw in this post by KathEats so I could replicate the recipe at home. Just eggplant, okra, and cherry tomatoes tossed with olive oil, S+P, and a sprinkle of red pepper. I made them for dinner this evening and they were so delicious and easy!!

I totally wish I had known about this before!!! I bought a lot so I'll be working on these all week. Yum. :-)
Now, back to reading the latest book for book club. I'm struggling a little with finishing this one!

Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit...

I don't know what it is, but I have been on a total bean kick this week. Like, I have honestly eaten beans every night for dinner. Good thing I live by myself and can eat the same thing over and over again! One of the blogs I visit frequently had posted a recipe about some bean and corn dish so I was already craving something with this combo. I bought a few ears of corn at the market on Saturday and combined one ear with a can of black beans, a small can of roasted green pepper, a sprinkle of red pepper, and 1/4 cup of bear in a saute pan. I cooked until warm and wrapped in a tortilla with cheese, salsa, and a bit of plain yogurt. Delish! Trust me, plain yogurt is a totally legit substitute for sour cream. You can't tell the difference once added to the burrito!

Burrito + salad  = super easy and filling dinner!

When I opened my fridge tonight I noticed I had just a little bit of bean/corn mixture left. It wasn't enough to fill a tortilla but just enough to fill a green pepper! Since I had a total of 3 green peppers hiding out in my veggie drawer, I decided to make up another can of black beans and corn to fill them all! This time I just mixed the beans and 1 ear of corn with a few tablespoons of salsa, 2 cloves minced garlic and 1/2 cup shredded cheese. Just heat together until thoroughly warmed and the cheese is melted. Spoon into a green pepper whose top and seed have been removed. Top with more shredded cheese and bake @ 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes. So easy!!

The great thing about beans (besides the song!) is that they are a fantastic source of fiber and protein (for a vegetarian like me!). Here are a few bean facts...
In 1 cup of black beans there are:
    - 15 grams of fiber (almost 1/2 of the 25-38 grams of fiber recommended daily in the DRIs!)
    - 15 grams of protein
    - 227 calories
    - 20% of the DV for iron

Weekend Shenanigans

Hey Friends!
  It's almost Wednesday again and boy am I happy to finally get a day off tomorrow!!! So looking forward to sleeping in and catching up on a few things. :-) The rest of this past weekend was just dandy. After a much needed nap on Saturday to recover from my Shelby Forest run of course! I refueled at Las Delicias for dinner on Saturday- probably one of the best Mexican restaurants in town. They make their own tortilla chips, salsa, and guacamole which they sell at all the local farmer's markets - love that! Obviously, I wasn't the only once Mexican deliciousness - we ran into two of my fellow StarRunner friends there!

Afterwards we grabbed a blanket and headed to the Levitt Shell for the Stax Music Academy's summer concert. They are such an energetic and talented group of high schoolers. The Levitt Shell venue is so great. There are truly few activities greater than chilling in the grass with a cool drink and listening to live music. :-)

Sunday I woke up with a craving for pancakes! Major. So, I whipped up these fluffy flapjacks chock full of some of the sweet little blueberries that have been all the rage at the farmers market. Yum!

After a bit of grocery shopping, a bike ride, laundry, and some reading, I headed to Will's for some dinner! One of the U of M intern's we both had for rotations recently gifted Will with this Iranian boxed soup mix. We were both really curious about trying it out. All you do is add water and cook. We ate it topped with yogurt like they suggested on the box. It was really tasty and satisfying too - it was full of lots of beans and noodles. Mmmm. Noodle Vegi!