My friends are funny…

by S2S Posted on May 19, 2012

MK and the RocketScientist are funny so A’ and I decided to hang out with them all weekend…like we do every weekend.

Last night

Remind me to never wear that shirt again.

You look darling in this picture MK (you do too RocketScientist).

We went out to dinner at one of my S. Tampa faves: Fly Bar

I like it because they encourage ordering many things and sharing. My kind of place! I also like it because they make a mean skinny girl margarita.

Notice funny girl hiding behind the glass. Creepyyyy.

I complained to the waiter about how fat my straw was (insert funny jokes here) and he told me the straws were fancy straws. I don’t understand what a fancy straw was but I drank this baby in about 5 minutes because it was like two sips worth.

Today

Thank you Living Social for providing us with our entertainment for the day.

JK – we didn’t have a living social deal to Publix. We picked up Publix subs and headed over to a local winery called Keel and Curley.

Let’s go eat lunch! We picnicked outside while listening to some live music.

Veggie sub on multigrain:

and then headed inside to start wine tasting before our tour time. I would recommend doing this if you go there. It splits up the wine tasting in half. We did tasting, tour, tasting and it worked out perfectly. You want to bring your cup on the tour because they pour you a giant glass of wine on the tour.

My favorites were the Dry Blackberry, Black Rasberry Merlot, and Wild Berry Pinot Noir. The Dry Blackberry is made from fresh fruit while the other two are what they called ‘fusions’ which is half grape, half something else.

Customer service was wonderful and so were these little crackers they gave us to eat between tastings.

After doing some tasting we headed out to our scheduled tour time on a tractor.

Further proof for how hilarious the RocketScientist is (Sorry MK, I couldn’t resist).  

Apparently I wanted to go undercover today…glasses and hat was so necessary.

Off we go!

Proof of full glass of wine on the tour (and also proof that MK is creepy) (and also proof that I’ve been working hard on my biceps – just sayin’ :) ):

And because you haven’t seen enough:

And guess what I’m doing now? Getting ready to go out to dinner with those fools again. Someday I’ll learn…

What I didn’t do while I was with MK and the RocketScientist:

1. Went to the gym! TODAY WAS MY LAST SATURDAY WITH NO LONG RUN AND YES THIS DESERVES TO BE WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS. ONE MONTH OF NO RUNNING IS OVERRRR ON TUESDAY! I have much more to say on this matter but it will have to wait. Today I took a spin class, went on the elliptical and spaced out for 20 minutes, and stretched on the foam roller in preparation for my run on Tuesday :)

2. Got fro yo with a lawyer and her British husband who I adore and always forget to take a picture with :(

3. Sat around waiting for the wine/fro yo sugar high to come crashing down on me….

xoxo,

S2S

 

 

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Ciccio’s Water South Tampa

by S2S Posted on May 18, 2012

There’s an area in Tampa called SoHo (South of Howard). In SoHo, there are A LOT of restaurants/bars/things to eat in general. Just so happens my dog’s groomer is there too :) .

Howard is a street that is popular with the UT (University of Tampa) and USF (University of S. Florida) students. It’s the place I go to eat when I can’t think of anything else.

There is a group of restaurants/bars there that are owned by the same owner. They are Ciccio’s Water, Lodge, Lime, and Daily Eats. They all have good food and all have a cool vibe about them. My favorite one is the Lime. I like them all but my least favorite, up until last night, was Ciccio’s Water.

I don’t really eat fish and every chicken thing I ordered just didn’t hit my taste buds. I always tell A’ “everyone loves that restaurant! I think I order the wrong things!”. Their menu has everything from pizza to sushi. Last night I ordered something from the wraps section for the first time. I think I hit the jackpot.

I love how they grill their wraps and wrap them so tightly. My only request is that they come up with some kind of vegetarian wrap :) . The wraps all come with a starch and a veggie. I should have asked what the starch was because I probably would have asked for something else besides mashed potatoes.

Everyone enjoyed their meal/drinks/company.

I should also mention that the service is wonderful. We had a group of 7 and last minute made them change our table from outside to inside. They did it with no eye rolling and lots of jokes/smiles.

I think I need to go back and try another wrap!

Today

I’m off to Spin class! Gotta get my sweat on :) I am so sore from yesterday’s beefcake workout that the idea of lifting a 2 lb weight sounds like agony.

xo,

S2S

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No Power. No Problems.

by S2S Posted on May 17, 2012

Last night was caraaaazy. Ok, it wasn’t too crazy. One of my besties Ms.Fine is in town.

RedStamp=Awesome iPhone app.

Anywho, about 15 minutes after she got here we lost power! We had about 10 minutes left of sunlight so I ran around lighting like 15 16 candles. It was a very romantic dinner of pizza and salad. Just me, my husband, and Ms.Fine. I sort of liked the aura all the candles created. We were talking about how things must have been before electricity and I decided that they had much better quality candles then.

The worst part came when I realized no power meant a.) no AC and b.) the fridge turned off! EEEE! However, as soon as I started getting all nervous about not being able to have a Juice in the morning, the power went back on. It was only off for like 20 minutes. Just enough time for me to drop an entire slice of pizza on the floor and clean it up :) .

This got me thinking about a few things…

1. What would happen if we actually did loose power for a long period of time. A’ and I eat mostly stuff from the refridge (fruit/veggies/hummas/salad…ect). There’s like nothing in the pantry that would sustain us if we lost power for a long period of time. I guess we’d have to drive somewhere to eat.

Do you have things in your house you stock up on for emergency situations like a power outage?

2. We are so dependent on all forms of technology. Like seriously, what the heck would A’ and I do without power all night? I couldn’t even read w.o electricity. I couldn’t watch TV, check my email, go on FB, BLOG (heavens forbid), video chat, microwave my muffin top for dessert, or even make a stinking cup of tea. All I can think of is go for a walk?

What would you do to entertain yourself during a power outage that lasted more than 20 minutes? 

Meditate?

Every year I seem to forget how bad FL thunderstorms get over the summer. We sit over here in the south all winter long sticking our tongues out to the north and saying ‘na na na boo boo it’s 70 degrees and sunny here and it’s snowing and freezing up there’, but then as soon as May/June hits we are hit with a tidal wave of heat and rain and humidity and thunderstorms. You can pretty much assume there will be a T-storm everyday between 2 and 4.

Today

Going to get beefed up at the gym, working on something for class at an elementary school I’ve never been to (excited to check it out!), and then attending a yoga sesh with some friends in a park outside (hopefully the rain stops…).

Have a happy day!

S2S

 

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Chicken Quinoa StirFry

by S2S Posted on May 16, 2012

Well, I made my own recipe!

Yesterday when I was doing my Tuesday legs workout, I was talking to a Paleo Diet follower and was thinking about trying to incorporate more of their guidelines into my diet (i.e. say no to flour/sugar/dairy). It would be close to crazy to go all the way Paleo for me but I think I can maybe do like 60/40 or 80/20 Paleo.

Anyways, I had quinoa in the house from when it was Passover so I decided to use it and make a stir fry.

 Ingredients

  • lb Chicken Breasts
  • 3/4 cup of Quinoa
  • 1 cup of water
  • Teriyaki sauce
  • 2 tsp Sesame Oil
  • 1 tablespoon Honey
  • 3 broccoli stalks
  • 1 large carrot sliced
  • 1 red bell pepper sliced
  • Salt/Pepper to taste
  • Vegetable Oil
  • Olive Oil
  • 1 egg

Process

  1. Cut up chicken breasts into chunks and sprinkle with salt and pepper
  2. Heat up a pan, put EVOO in, put chicken in
  3. Put some teriyaki sauce into the pan and cook all the chicken (about 3-4 minutes on each side depending how how big your pieces are)
  4. Put the chicken to the side
  5. While the chicken is cooking, you can put 1 cup of water and 3/4 cup of quinoa into a pot
  6. Once the water is boiling, reduce heat and cover until the water is evaporated
  7. Fluff up the quinoa with a fork and put to the side
  8. In a large pan/wok heat up about a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil
  9. Put in broccoli and cook for about a minute, add carrots and peppers and cook for about five minutes
  10. Put veggies to the side
  11. In the same pan/wok that you cooked the veggies in,  add the quinoa and a cracked egg
  12. Mix the quinoa and egg until the egg is cooked and evenly distributed throughout
  13. Add the chicken back along with honey, teriyaki sauce, and sesame oil
  14. Add the veggies back
  15. Let the mixture sit for about 3 minutes and stir during this time
  16. Enjoy!

Modifications

I would definitely use a half of a lb of chicken next time. I have no veggies in my leftover container, just large chunks of chicken!

Today

I’m off to bootcamp and then class later.

Bachelor

I know I didn’t do my usual bachelor recap yesterday. It’s because I didn’t watch it Monday night. I recorded it and watched it last night. My class is getting in the way of reality TV, not cool.

My thoughts: Emily is annoying. Does she have another line besides ‘oh, golly’? I also think she got a little slighted on her pick of men. There are a lot of weirdos. There’s like 4 that I actually like! More on that next week.

Toodles noodles,

S2S

 

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Under Pressure de de de de

by S2S Posted on May 15, 2012

Lot’s of pressure!

Do you ever have one of those days where you feel like everything is adding pressure? That was me yesterday. I broke two cups! First I dropped an entire glass cup of my morning green juice and green juice literally went flying everywhere. Luckily I had A’ home to help me clean it up and give me half of his juice. Then 10 minutes later I made a cup of coffee, dropped said cup of coffee, and had coffee flying everywhere with broken shards of ceramic cup…

I wanted to clean the floors anyways.

Think I was nervous for the first day of class? Yupp…

So I had planned to blog about my mother’s day, ect but cleaning up juice/glass/coffee/ceramic kind of took priority :)

I immediately left the apartment and went to a spin class and read trashy mags on the elliptical. Much needed.

I survived nine hours of class and it actually wasn’t too bad. Secret tip = packing healthy snacks and buying a healthy dinner to hold you over during your break.

What I was going to blog about yesterday:

1. Getting my father in law to drink a green juice and eat a Larabar…

2. Pre-Mother’s Day dinner at SideBern’s.

I had never been there before but I give it a 4/5 (which is good in my standards). The atmosphere there is cool, the service is good, the menu is interesting, and the food tastes good.

My only complaint is that I feel some of the food was trying too hard. I think saffron or lavender was part of every meal. I felt like I had a coating of saffron in my mouth for an hour after we left :) . Maybe I just ordered the wrong things.

4. Mother’s Day brunch at Jackon’s Bistro.

I’ve had never been to Jackson’s for their brunch before even though I had heard many great things. It’s buffet style which normally I don’t like. I still don’t really like buffet’s because I have a difficult time controlling myself, but this was a special occasion so I let myself go :) .

A’ got me flowers for being a good Doggie Momma…

and a card :)

I wish I took pictures of all the mom’s in our brunch best. Oh well, next year :)

Caught up

Now you’re all caught up!

I feel like I’m slacking in the blogging about ‘sneakers’ category lately. It’s really taking every ounce of me to NOT run for a month. Like, it’s been killing me. Talk about under pressure…

Yesterday after I broke two glasses full of liquid, all I wanted to do was go out for one of those runs where you start out crying and finish smiling. Does that only happen to me? I’m feeling sort of uninspired without being on some kind of training plan. The only thing I can think to do is sign up for a marathon and start looking for a good training plan. Thoughts?

Later gators,

S2S

 

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Sunday Smiles – Mother’s Day Edition

by S2S Posted on May 13, 2012

1. Happy Mother’s Day!

Philly and I on a boat

MIL with her two sons. I have no idea what A’ and his bro are doing in this picture and I’m sorry I’m embarrassing you by posting this but it’s all I could find.

Mom and I being cute and normal, unlike the goofballs above.

2. Can a swimsuit make you swim faster?

3. Bionic woman finishes London marathon after 16 days…Inspiration!

4. Coconut PB Oatmeal Cookies

5. Crockpot Meals

6. Next sewing project?

7. I have to go get ready for Mother’s Day brunch! I think I’ll do a little yoga for 30 minutes before.

Toodles noodles,

S2S

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Family Fun and More Sewing

by S2S Posted on May 12, 2012

Yesterday

Yesterday I went to a bootcamp class at the gym. It was a great one! P.E. style. For parts of it I felt like I was back in 5th grade on the playground. Don’t you love those workouts where you are having fun so you forgot you worked out? That was yesterday’s. We played a game where we started on our stomach’s (numbered 1-3). We had sweat towels tucked into the back of our pants.  The trainer called out a number (1 through 3) and whose ever number it was had to get across the gym basketball courts without the other two getting her towel. If the person who was called made it across they were safe and the other two had to do 5 burpees. If the number called didn’t make it across that person had to do 5 burpees.

Good times.

After the gym, I took a long walk with my in-laws to downtown Tampa. There was a ‘farmer’s market’ going on. I put it in quotes because there wasn’t much to see. It’s all good though, I had some good company and we got some good eats.

 We ate lunch at one of my favorite places downtown called Moxie’s.

I ordered a Pear and Blue salad. They do not skimp on their salads. It was huge.

After the walk/lunch I went to the pool with my FIL for awhile and I did some of my swimming drills.

Then, since I obviously hadn’t done enough that day, I completed my second sewing project ever.

What you see there is a travel underwear bag. One side is for clean and one side is for dirty! This picture was taken before the buttons were sewed on but I’m too lazy right now to take another picture :)

One of my BFFs sent me this incredible set of directions on how she made hers. Thanks girl! Here is a link to the directions on GoogleDocs:

Here is the progression of events along the way. I should get better/more patient at taking pics of my projects for you guys. I’ll work on it!

First we had to get the fabric cut to the right measurements. We used A LOT of pins and I HATE pins!

More measuring, more pins…

Cutting a beautiful square…

This kinda looks like a cami right? We had to sew part of the two pieces of fabric together.

Sewing in the elastic for the button holes.

Pressing, pressing, more pressing. Don’t you like that picture of A’ and I in the background? That was at my bridal shower :)

and you already saw the finished project. Holler.

More Family Time

My parents showed up!

Hi pretty family. In order from L to R: MIL, Dad, Mom… :)

Who you calling crazy? How many family members can you squish in a car? Probably no more than 6. BTW this picture is flipped around. The two of us didn’t sit in the drivers seat like that :) .

We went to a great South Tampa restaurant called 717 South. It’s like a trendy Italian eatery. You’d never know it by driving by but the inside is very trendy.

I ordered a pot roast w/ rice and veggies.

Hmmm…

Too much food.

Today

This morning I took a spin class, hung out on the elliptical chatting with my dad for 30 minutes, and stretched for a few minutes.

We’re waiting for everyone to get ready and hopefully head to St. Pete for lunch.

Have a happy weekend,

S2S

 

 

 

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The first thing I ever sewed…

by S2S Posted on May 11, 2012

Yesterday was the kind of day I long for… exercise, food, mani/pedi, and crafts!

In the morning I took my MIL to the gym. She walked on the elliptical while I went to a BeefCake shesh. I AM SO SORE TODAY and I love it. I decided yesterday that my ultimate goal is to bench press 100 lbs. Well I guess that’s not an ultimate goal, more like a short term goal. With the motivation of the people at the gym I know I’ll be able to get er done.

The first thing I ever sewed…

A tea towel apron! It was a really easy project for someone who has never sewn before/can’t sew in a straight line :) .

I used this tutorial: How to Make a Tea Towel Apron.

We started with this beautiful tea towel that my MIL picked up for me in Paris, France!

We ended up sewing the sides in like the corner on the Left. We wanted to catch the underneath flap so that it stayed better.

Then we sewed em down!

Then we sewed down all the ribbon straps. Pretty in purple :)

and we ended up with a beautiful apron. I can’t wait to get down and dirty in the kitchen with this. I feel like it’s one of those aprons that will look better with a few trial and error stains on it.

Day of firsts… 

I ordered fish for the first time in my life yesterday. Seriously. I ordered fish. I NEVER eat fish. I think I’ve eaten fish like 3 times in my entire life. Once at a wedding and once when I thought it was chicken and it was grouper and then last night.

A’ and I took the IL’s to my favorite restaurant in tampa Pane Rustica. MK and The RocketScientist joined us for the evening. MK also ordered the fish…

I don’t know why I felt the need to post another picture of fish. Probably because I’m so shocked at myself for ordering it. Could it be that the time in the pool is turning me into a fish, and now I’m eating fish? OK, I guess that’s kind of weird.

Today

Today I hope to complete another sewing project that one of my friends sent me. Let the suspense commence!

I’m off to walk the dog and head to bootcamp now.

Toodles,

S2S

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Squat For Success

by S2S Posted on May 9, 2012

In the past two weeks I have been taught how to do Olympic style weighted squats and  dead lifts.

I’m working on my squats and dead lifts so I can beef up all those muscles that will help me be a better runner :)

Two weeks ago we took this video:

And yesterday I had a PR! In the video above I am squatting 65 lbs, yesterday I squatted 75 lbs. Learning how to squat properly has been interesting. I feel like I’m at a school for gym rats or something. It’s hard to remember everything at once while you’re holding so much weight on your back/shoulders.

Things to remember:

  1. Where to put your weight (is it on your toes or your heels? i forget now…)
  2. Posture
  3. Push your knees out
  4. Drop low low low
  5. Breathe
  6. Is my butt over my ankles?
  7. Breathe
  8. Use my hips or my butt?
  9. Breathe.

Two weeks ago I started with a 65 lb dead lift and yesterday I did a 100 lb dead lift! 100 lbs?! Whattttt?

I have a lot of support around me and help with proper form. I would NOT suggest trying this stuff out on your own for the first time. If you have any questions please feel free to email me or do a lot of research on the subject.

Today

After bootcamp I spent all day running errands and organizing. I’m trying to get as much done this week as possible and I have a lot to organize. Like I said in a previous post, I’m clean, but I’m not organized. I went to Target and spent way too much time and money  buying shelves and bins. Organizational stuff is pricey! The Container Store has it made :)

Do you have anything you organize really well? I would love some tips! I even bought a rack made especially to organize my pot tops. I love it!

How do you organize your workout stuff? My stuff is scattered all over the place and not in any particular place.

Now

My in laws are in town until Sunday! My parents are coming to Tampa on Friday and staying through Sunday. I’m going to be attacking one of my NYE resolutions tomorrow…SEWING! My MIL is great with a sewing machine so hopefully I’ll leave this weekend with some mad skills. I’m nervous I’ll be bad and get frustrated. Wish me luck!

Time to get ready for dinner.

Peace out,

S2S

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Green Goddess Sandwhich

by S2S Posted on May 8, 2012

I apologize for the delayed response I did have post ready to go for this morning but I sorta got side tracked with life things today.

Last night’s dinner was inspired by Pintrest:

 

I ended up using a different pesto recipe than what was in the recipe above. I used my favorite favorite pesto recipe found here: Spinach Pesto Walnut.

After we made the pesto we started to build the grilled cheese sandwich. Instead of what it says to do in the recipe above we were going to use a Panini Press so I sprayed the bread bottoms with olive oil. Then we spread the pesto on the bread.

We put mozzarella, then avocado, then feta, then more mozzarella on one of the halves. We put them together and stuck em’ on the panini press.

Out came a beautiful ooey gooey warm healthy sandwich.

Repeat. Like every week.

Workout

Today I was at the gym twice. Once for bootcamp and once for swimming. This is how I ‘spoil’ myself during my summer break, I go to the gym twice. Something is wrong with me :) .

Bootcamp today was AWESOME and HARD. It was a lot of high intensity cardio drills. Like a bajillion burpees.

Diana: 1 million; Burpees: 0

Swimming is so frustrating but then so refreshing. What is up with that? And I swear everyone has a different way of swimming/learning to swim and everyone wants to share their opinion and I just have no opinion so I’m literally floating (no pun intended) in a million opinions and all I ended up doing was kicking on my back for an hour. Is this really going to help me be a better swimmer? I feel like I am rambling, probably because I am.

It’s been a long day in our household…time for bed!

Xo,

S2S

 

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