Las Vegas, NV + Charlottesville, VA

It has been QUITE a busy week for yours truly! I spent Monday through Thursday in Las Vegas for an exciting little work conference. Working in the alcoholic beverage industry + Las Vegas = one fun PARTY! We ate, we drank, we panelled, we gambled and we businessed.

By Thursday night, I was utterly exhausted. I got to see Sammy Hager perform live, ate at the restaurants of Giada DeLaurentis and Buddy V (The NJ Cake Boss), strolled through almost every Vegas hotel and watched the gondola singers row along the river through the Venetian.

But when I got home Thursday night, the week wasn't over! Early on Friday, Brother Leister and I drove down to Charlottesville, VA so I could run the Charlottesville Half-Marathon Saturday morning. We stayed with our buddies Antonio and Hannah, who graciously showed us around the city.

We ate 28 inch pizzas, played law school charades with UVA law students, drank the Nicaraguan specialty Flor de Cana, visited two different breweries (Champion and Three Notch'd)... OH, and I woke up at 5:30am to run a half-marathon. AND kicked it's hilly, windy butt.

And now, I'm going to eat my Cadbury Egg and have a lovely Easter Sunday. May the Bunny treat you well today!

Do not FEAR, Spring is HERE!

It's spring time, loyal readers! It has finally arrived. Yesterday was the first official day of spring, and with it came 30 degree weather and a morning full of snow flurries. But did that stop me from having a delightful day? NO, SIR!

Since the owner of my company is Irish, St. Patrick's Day is an official company holiday. However, I have an important meeting every Tuesday afternoon, so I took yesterday off instead. I pledged to myself that I would take advantage of my free Friday and make it a legitimate staycation that I could be proud of.

I maintain a list of local restaurants that I want to try. It mostly consists of friend and co-worker recommendations and raves from Tom Sietsema's reviews. Yesterday I managed to cross off THREE of the restaurants on my list!

I had breakfast at South Block Cafe, a local juice and smoothie bar recommended by one of our neighbors. I ordered the Super Green smoothie, (pineapple juice, spinach, kale, bananas & mangoes), and the breakfast burrito, (whole wheat tortilla, potatoes, avocado, egg whites & salsa). The Super Green smoothie was alright, (could have used some more sweetener) and so was the breakfast burrito, (could have used some ketchup), but I wasn't incredibly overwhelmed. Next time I'm going to order the Caveman Bowl, (acai blend, dates, coconut, banana & granola), and the King Kong smoothie, (chocolate, bananas, cashew milk, dates, peanut butter & protein powder).

Breakfast kept me full for several hours! When I was finally hungry again, I ordered a Shack Burger from Shake Shack. (No cheese fries! Had I been more hungry, I would have DEFinitely ordered cheese fries). The burger was very tasty. Now I know what all the hype is about. And next time, I'm definitely ordering cheese fries.

Dinner took place at Pupatella Pizza, a local joint in Arlington, VA that serves up authentic Neapolitan pizza pies. The restaurant wasn't very organized, (their ordering/seating/delivery system is a hoopla of insanity), but the pizzas were very good. The pizzas were clearly made with fresh, high-quality ingredients and were pleasantly flavorful. YUM!

To me, spring and summer mean finally getting outside, trying new things and having fun adventures and new experiences. I am proud to say that the first day of spring was a success! 

Fruit & Vegetable Cleanse!

One of my New Years resolutions for 2015 was to complete a 3-day fruit and vegetable cleanse. For 3 full days I would eat nothing but fruits, vegetables... and nuts, (for a lil kick of protein and fat). On Tuesday morning I woke up early, ready to embrace the day and start my exciting new food experiment!

Unfortunately I was REALLY hungry when I woke up Tuesday morning, so I decided fruits and vegetables wouldn't cut it. I decided to have cereal and yogurt for breakfast instead. BUT - I did have an orange for a mid-morning snack. For lunch, I had sweet potatoes, an avocado and broccoli. But broccoli sucks when eaten plain, so I dipped it in a dab of hummus. I had almonds & grapes for an afternoon snack, but was still hungry like 30 minutes later so I ate my Thai leftovers from the night before - tofu and white rice in garlic sauce.

Wednesday and Thursday, I did a LITTLE bit better. I ate mostly fruits, vegetables & nuts, but also helped myself to some pretzels and chocolate covered cherries. Oh, and a few granola bars... and M&Ms... and popcorn.

What have I learned from my little food experiment the last 3 days? I've learned that cleanses are stupid. Unless you're sick and dying and being ordered by a doctor, you shouldn't do a cleanse. You should eat healthy most of the time, but treat yourself too. Everything in moderation, friends! Eat what you want, and what makes you feel healthy and energized. If anything, all the fiber from my cleanse has left me feeling overly full and bloated. No more cleanses for THIS pretty lady!

NOW - If I'm not mistaken, yesterday was National Wine Drinking Day. Because of my cleanse, I missed that oh-so-holy of holidays. ERGO- Pass the Pinot!

February 14th - Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, loyal readers! I hope you all got to celebrate the day with loved ones and eat lots of chocolate, drink tons of wine, wear bright red and do corny fun things. If that's not your style, I hope you got to celebrate the way YOU wanted to. (Wear black, binge on Ben & Jerry's, adopt a pet, make baked goods for friends, watch horror films, burn the clothing of ex-boyfriends, whatever!)

Mr. Handsome didn't get home from a business trip until late afternoon so we celebrated the holiday with a romantic night in and a delicious homemade dinner. There were beautiful flowers, homemade decorations, salmon, couscous, and Pinot Noir. We finished the night by watching "Chef" on Netflix. It's a GREAT movie that I highly recommend.

Happy Valentine's Day to all! Much love to you :)

January 2015

The weather is freaking cold outside. RIDICULOUSLY cold. The holidays are over and Christmas trees have been dumped and abandoned on sidewalks all over the country. The days get dark at 5:00pm and all I want to do is hibernate like a grizzly bear until March... or June. LUCKILY, I've managed to survive January thus far using the following techniques...

1) Goofy Hand Puppets!

2) Happy Hours... and Alcohol... lots of Alcohol... (Gotta stay warm somehow!)

 3) Friends!

4) Looking at FOOD ART on Pinterest

5) Hodge-Podge Dinner Dates! (Ex. Spanakopita, Steamed Asparagus & leftover Red Lobster Cheesy Biscuits)

6) Discovering New Facial Expressions...

7) Carbs... LOTS of Carbs!

 

8) Finding my MAID of HONOR Dress! (Blingity Bling)

Keep your chin up, readers! Spring is coming. SPRING IS COMING!

Happy New Year, 2015!

Happy New Year, loyal readers! I hope you all had a fun, safe holiday and got your tipsy face on with all your favorite peeps (WORD!)

I rang in 2015 at the abode of Mr. Handsome's bandmate, Todd. (Did I mention Mr. Handsome was a real life rock-star in a real life rock band?) ANYWAY- Todd cooked us a FABULOUS meal and made us Moscow Mules in legit copper mugs. We then watched "The Interview" together, played some Cards Against Humanity and scratched off some scratch-offs... winning a whopping $1.00 to split among the six of us.

New Years is a great time to look back on all those resolutions (realistic or not) that you made 365 days ago. My News Years Resolutions for 2014 were the following:

1) Travel a LOT!
2) Do some sort of cleanse
3) Get a new job
4) Keep track of all the books I read and write a blog post about them in January 2015

I am happy to say that I have accomplished (after this post) all but #2! I never did a cleanse. ERGO, that sucker is rolling over to my 2015 resolutions.

 Here is a list of all the books I read in 2014. I read a grand total of 24 books this year!

1) Insurgent (Veronica Roth)
2) The Heights (Peter Hedges)
3) The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (Katherine Howe)
4) Game of Thrones Book #3 (George R R Martin)
5) The Rosie Project (Graeme Simsion)
6) Calling Me Home (Julie Kibler)
7) Austenland (Shannon Hale)
8) Imaginary Girls (Nova Ren Suma)
9) Game of Thrones Book #4 (George R R Martin)
10) Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (Maria Semple)
11) Dark Places (Gillian Flynn)
12) The Fault In Our Stars (John Green)
13) All the Summer Girls (Meg Donahue)
14) Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls (Anton Disclafani)
15) Wedding Night (Sophia Kinsella)
16) Rosewater and Soda Bread (Marsha Mehran)
17) The Alchemist (Paulo Coehlo)
18) Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone (JK Rowling)
19) The Splendour Falls (Susanna Kearsley)
20) Paper Towns (John Green)
21) Beautiful Ruins (Jess Walter)
22) Eventide (Kent Haruf)
23) The Best of Me (Nicholas Sparks)
24) Looking For Alaska (John Green)

I would have to say that my top three favorites were "The Rosie Project," "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?" I would recommend these to anyone who's a book worm like me!

I thought long and hard and made the following resolutions/goals for 2015. Here's to keeping them! (I'll check back in January 2016 with the results).

1) Do some sort of cleanse (carried over from 2014)
2) Use the Crock-pot at least once
3) Whiten teeth

Happy New Year!

Shrimp & Grits and Sweet Southern Christmas!

Merry Belated Christmas, loyal readers! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and friends. Unfortunately I was sick for most of the festivities on the 24th and 25th, but on the 26th Mr. Handsome and I hopped on a jet plane and flew down to Charleston, SC to spend a few days hopping around the south.

We spent most of our time eating and drinking our way through Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. (Butter was our staple food group for 6 days). We went to 2 local craft breweries and some hot & trendy restaurants like Husk, Fig & SNOB. We saw the famous Mercer house in Savannah and took some interesting walking tours of both cities.

We ate oysters, shrimp & grits, fried green tomatoes and pimiento cheese! We enjoyed the beautiful Spanish moss on the trees in Savannah and took a nap under a Palmetto tree in Charleston. We've decided that when we eventually become rich through one of our schemes, we're going to spend our winters in Charleston and our summers in Seattle. OH, what a wonderful life :)

Cheers, Ya'll!