Hello,

Have I mentioned the fact that I can’t believe we’re more than halfway through the year already.

My folks were out of town for the weekend and I was tasked with getting their mail and newspapers. But more importantly to tend to their garden. I love it when they ask me to do that because I score some awesome herbs and veggies. The most recent haul consisted of zucchini, basil, oregano and some swiss chard.

Their basil plants are on steroids!

Their basil plants are on steroids!

I ran about 2 miles to their house and then 2 miles back.

IMG_4276

My body has been giving me some grief lately. My knee, is a bit wonky so I need to stay on flat ground and take walk breaks every so often. Also, the arch of my foot (on the same side as the knee) has been hurting (which i most definitely believe one is related to the other). And my left hip is still mildly sore. Batting 1000!

On Saturday I took a drive upstate to visit my friend Nicole. I spent some quality time with her (almost) 5 year old daughter.

 

I'm surrounded by cuteness

I’m surrounded by cuteness

I think I want a pair of silver sparkle jellies too

I think I want a pair of silver sparkle jellies too

And she made the best cake. It had hot pink frosting and marshmallow icing in-between the two layers of pink cake.

Pink poodle, pink cake. We take pink very seriously

Pink poodle, pink cake. We take pink very seriously

Duncan and I being silly

Duncan and I being silly

On Sunday I spent about 5 hours over at Mr. SOTSS’ to hang with Chester while Mr. SOTSS and his girls were away for the day.

You mean he's not going to be home ALL DAY?

You mean he’s not going to be home ALL DAY?

Chester gets depressed when his dad isn’t around but he was happy that I was there to feed him dinner and let him out in the yard and maybe he enjoyed watching the Olympic trials with me and Duncan?

Doing my freelance work, watching the Olympic trials and hanging with the pooches

Doing my freelance work, watching the Olympic trials and hanging with the pooches

I took advantage of the Chester-sitting visit to use Mr. SOTSS’ grill and grilled up all my garden loot. And while I was at it I grilled shrimp too.

getting ready to grill

getting ready to grill

I cut up the basil into ribbons and sprinkled it on the zucchini and the shrimp and then doctored everything up with olive oil, salt, pepper and some garlic.

Dinner is served! And I ate outside on the deck since it was so nice out

Dinner is served! Grilled zucchini and shrimp. And I ate outside on the deck since it was so nice out

In other weekend news, Duncan went to the groomer.

Before and After

Before and After

And now he smells delicious. I hope your week is off to a good start.

Do you have a barbecue? Do you like to grill?

Do you have a garden? What do you grow? I’m waiting for tomatoes, peppers and corn to come from my dad’s garden in the coming weeks.

Hi!
I’ve been so busy lately and haven’t had a chance to post in a while. My list of to-dos keeps getting longer rather than shorter. My day job is insanity and then on most evenings and weekends I have freelance work on top of that! And then there’s life—the other half of the work/life balance. Yep, I’ve been living it up lately 🙂 I had lots of fun stuff going on this weekend.
My niece turned 15 last week and I took her into the city on Saturday to celebrate.city-sushi-shopping
I told her how I felt like it was just last year that I was taking her to the American girl doll store. She’s not a little girl anymore but I am ok with it. I love the teenager that she has become and we have so much in common that I feel like I’m out with a friend or a sister. The day was filled with two of our favorites: shopping and sushi. Oh and we also went to this bakery where you can order a cookie shot. No vodka. This is milk in a warm chocolate cookie shot glass with melted dark chocolate at the bottom.
Cheers!

Cheers!

Sarah isn’t a runner but she is definitely an active person. She takes yoga/Pilates in high school for her required gym class which I think is so cool. And she loves going to classes like Soul Cycle and there’s one she insists I join her to called SLT (Strength Length and Tone). She also pitches on her high school softball team. And she loves to wear athletic gear. So we hit up Lululemon and the flagship Nike store. And then to top off our night we ate at KOI, an amazing sushi restaurant in mid-town.
I spent some time with Mr. SOTSS this weekend too. Sunday morning we had our coffee out on his deck enjoying the unseasonably warm weather (it’s been in the 80s which is a good 10 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year )
The dogs enjoyed chilling on the deck too

The dogs enjoyed chilling on the deck too. It’s like they have butt magnets. LOL!

We also each went for a run…

2-mile-run
I am limiting myself to 2 mile runs this week. I know I said I’d try and just cross train this week and not start running until the weekend but I just couldn’t find it in me to cross train at the gym. I almost took my bicycle out yesterday instead of running buy my rotator cuff is still a mess and I don’t know how steering and using the hand brakes would be. The whole arm is quite weak and stiff and can’t take on too much weight.
The ankle tendonits seems manageable at the moment, so my compromise is 1-2 short runs this week and some walking. Plus my stretching and foam rolling.
After our runs we went to my brother’s house for a Mother’s Day brunch and then, in the late afternoon we spent some time with the pups at the beach.
One of us knows how to look at the camera for a picture and the other blogs.

One of us knows how to look at the camera for a picture and the other blogs.

Mr. Sweat Out The Small Stuff in Shades...say that 10X fast. And then say "Sally sells snail shells" too.

Smiley Mr. Sweat Out The Small Stuff in Shades…say that 10X fast. And then say “Sally sells snail shells” too.

Pretty little snail shell

Pretty little snail shell

While temps inland had reach the mid 80s it was between 65-70 at the beach. Perfect for waking along the water. The only fly in the ointment wasn’t a fly but a tick…actually a few ticks. Yuck yuck yuck! I loathe those things. We gave the dogs a good look over and hopefully we got all those buggers. They get monthly preventatives too just in case. Later on in the evening we were back out on the deck for a little barbecue dinner and some frozen strawberry daiquiris. 🙂

drinks-patio

drinks to match the patio furniture

MMMMMM!

MMMMMM!

Duncan had one too many….

I should have stopped at one drink...

I should have stopped at one drink…

I’m signed up for the Brooklyn Half Marathon this coming Saturday and I’m really wrestling with whether I should be running it. I’m not going to make any decisions until the end of the week. And I do plan on going to the expo to get my bib so I will be prepared either way.
There are a lot of things to consider:
1. Status of my current healing progress of injuries: My ankle and hip are not 100 percent although the knee is.
2. Logistics: It’s a point to point course with a huge field of runners (30,000 runners I think) and two waves that are about 30 minutes apart. So since most of my friends will be in the first wave I might miss them or I might need to arrive that much earlier to see them and then sit around. And that means needing to find doodle sitting since I’ll be gone for 8 or more hours.
3. Potential consequences of running a half after barely running since my full 2 weeks ago: I am running a 5k the next day that I don’t want to be crippled for.
So you see why I have turmoil. Oh and let’s not forget that I had to bail on this race last year due to injury and that’s the one driving force that is making me stew about still running. I don’t want to miss it 2 years in a row 🙁
I’ll keep you posted.
So how was your weekend? Were you a busy bee or a relaxed chickadee?
Do you do the pro/con list to help make decisions.