Hmmm food

So this monday I finally went to Trader Joes and stocked up in yummy healthy food for the last 10 days before leaving for France.
So as usual I roughly mapped out my week's menu. Gnocchis, Soup with meat balls, Ahi tuna, filet mignons....
Yesterday my neighbour treated me really treated me for an early birthday dinner to her favorite restaurant and boy was I happy that she had such good taste. So she invited me to the "Market Del Mar" it was absolutely delicious.
So of course today when I tried to put together my dinner I was still under the spell of those great cooks. So here I am with the following ingredients: Ahi tuna (for sure), asparagus or brocolini, israeli couscous also known as pearl couscous and the decision to make do I go mediterranean or do I go asian. Jessica suggested mediterranean and boy am I happy because it was really really good.
So I decided to dice some tomatoes, with some red onion, put that in a oven dish, with some olive oil, crushed garlic, rosemary and some balsamic vinegar.
I cooked this in the over at 350 for 30 to 45 minutes.
In the mean time I put the ahi tuna to marinate with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, crushed garlic.
Cooked the pearl couscous per package instruction.
On mine I added some basil at the end.

Now I have this dream well actually I have several here are two of them:
1- Open a little cafe for lunch with a restricted menu like 2 hot dishes and some salads and quiches
2- the other would be to buy an old house and to fix it up most of it myself as much as possible. Actually my father in law bought this beautiful little house and I would love to restaure it.

Just do it!

For those of you who wonder how I keep motivated.
I said a while while back that I would run a half marathon before I'm 35! That was 7 years ago. In the last year a lot of little events played a key role in my motivation first there was this doctor who simply stated that I was the perfect candidate for a Nike add, he basically said just shut up about it and just DO IT. It made me realize it was very true I was so scared of failing of not being able to run 13 miles that I didn't even try.
Then Jessica started training for the La Jolla half marathon and moreover I started going to the gym with her and that's where our friendship started, not over lunch some place but at the gym or running outside both of us listening to our tunes.
The last thing was reading a journal that I wrote 7 years ago about how I would like to run the Carlsbad half marathon.
So here I am training for the Carlsbad half marathon, however I decided to start training 20 weeks before the race itself because I want to keep it up even when the race is over. Trust me it isn't always easy to motivate to go for a 10 miles run when the kids are asleep and that a nap would be very welcome, but just thinking that Jessica will go for her run and that I said I would run at least 8 miles that day is enough motivation for me to put my sneakers and go.

Lazy lazy

I don't remember the last time my fridge was so empty of anything worse in turning into a dinner that we had to go out every night. Well here it is since wednesday I have eaten out every single night. Wednesday we picked up sushi from sushi Ota, on thursday we took the kids to Sammy's woodfired pizza, Friday it was mexican at la Puerta for Jessica's bachelorette party and finally yesterday we tried a new Italian restaurant in Cardiff.
All this because I was not feeling well last sunday after my run thus not inspired to put together the weeks menu. I was also under the delusion that I would have time after work to hope in Trader Joes and buy the rest of my food ahahahah.
Today however today I need to make the time to go to Trader Joes to fill up my fridge of goodies for the week.
Besides that friday night was a blast, my first bachelorette party and also the first time going out to clubs with girls. Eventhough I didn't drink it was fun. The only draw back were the sleezy men. I made it back home at midnight and was promply woken up by the kiddos at 7:30 the next day.
Saturday was mellow, bagels, kids haircut, ran into Roadrunner sport to find some jogging pants for Bryan then back home. I was planning a mellow bike ride since I am supposed to run 10 miles today, instead I went my neighbour Eric and we went for a short 8 miles bike ride but really really steep. But I made it up.
Bryan then for his run and when he came back I was soooo hungry thus the restaurant.
After that I am ashamed to admit that we put the kids to bed at 8pm and I went to bed shortly after at 9pm and slept like a baby until 7am!
This morning we have the swimming lesson adventure I hope Maia isn't going to cry too much, then lunch, grocery shopping, running for a long time and dinner at some friends.

Desert

My fridge is really empty of all ingredients to prepare a reasonnable dinner of course I am starving.
So dinner will be sushi from Sushi Ota yummy but I have to pull together the shread of energy that I have left in my body and drive down to PB.
Besides that I have been feeling really exhausted lately. I don't know if the fact that I'm leaving on vacation in 2 weeks, the exercize regiment I have kept for the past 4 month or the fact that I'm getting sick and go to bed too late but whatever it is is leaving me pretty exhausted.
Maybe I just need to eat! So I'm off to go pickup my sushi.

A little crazy...

Why do I promise the kids a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting on a monday nigh? Probably because I did promise one yesterday evening and my post run nausea kept me in no mood of cooking.
So when I got home tonight things were a little more crazy than usual. So here I am cleaning the kitchen, then starting the kids dinner and making a vanilla cake from scratch. Making the cake itself is nothing it is just the mess, the kids crying and asking for attention that is a little tough to handle. I didn't make the frosting. Since cake in France don't have frosting I never had to learn and never quite had the time. I will try very soon.
So although I cleaned my kitchen thoroughly yesterday morning it only lasted for about 2 hours and is back to a really dirty state which bugs the heck out of me.

This week's menu is going to be interesting since my trip to Von's yesterday wasn't inspired at all and I didn't even make it to the produce section! ahahah and of course I won't have time to hit the store this week so I'll make do...
We will probably have some fish one night, some pasta probably with roasted onions and porciutto, some tamales from Trader Joes, we will go out or go pick up some sushi and finally we will either have potstickers, raviolis or pirogis with a salad here and there and that will bring us to Saturday when I will go to Trader Joes for my weekly grocery trip
Tomorrow will be interval training which I will probably do in the evening since I have a parent teacher conference for Maia.
To end this random post we need to buy the kids christmas gift since we will be celebrating our christmas next friday and things need to get to the house before then.

The end...

The end of a long week end, the end of november, the end of my 7.7 miles run...
This was a busy busy week end but yet relaxing.
On friday we went to Road runner sport to get us both a new pair of running shoes and browse at the cold weather gear.
We did buy shoes but could not bring ourselves to spend 100$ on gear we would use once a year in France.
After that we headed to Jasmine for Dim Sum and spent for 4 what I spent for myself on monday. But full and happy we then headed to Guitar Center for Bryan to a) gawk at guitars, b) see what is there for small kids and c) buy some strings, picks and capo.
It was a little crazy but we of course did see some really nice guitars, the kids had fun and we found all what was needed.
Then we headed back home where Solana, Amber and Chris arrived as we walked through the door and we played at the park.
Finally the kids watched a movie, ate went to bed, I made us some tomato soup one of my favorite recipe from Williams sonoma followed by the chocolate cake we didn't have the night before. Bryan made me watched pan's labyrinth which was a good movie but extremely sad and harsh.
Saturday morning Bryan went surfing, I made the kids some french toast, then we went to the park. When Bryan got back I went on my bike ride by myself and went for a long one 21 miles. It was nice except that I fell well tipped over would be more appropriate ;)
After that famished we ran to Roberto's for a quick burrito and drove home where Jessica and Ryan were waiting for us. Ryan set up his drums in the garage and Bryan played on their really nice electric guitar and tried to sing. The poor thing we could barely hear him.
Miles decided to jam with the grown up too so he borrowed some drum sticks and set us various buckets around him and banged on them. It was really cute and I think I will buy him an electronic toy set for christmas.
I took my flute out and played with Jessica and I really hope that we will be able to play but sadly I first have to have my flute fixed one of the pad isn't closing properly.
That evening was relaxing.
This morning I decided that the kitchen had to be cleaned... So I cleaned while the kids were playing and Bryan was sleeping in. Once it was all shiny I made pancakes, talked to my mom. Then we decided that we needed a christmas tree.
We came back I wipped something for lunch put the kids to bed and I was off for my run.
I broke my weekly high at 19 miles and my monthly high at 60.8 miles ! The run was a little tough maybe because I ate only 1 hour before!!!!
Now I need to stretch a little, take a hot shower. The kids are still asleep and Bryan went for his run.

Happy Happy

First of all I'm super psyched because our camera recovered from the rain and is now working and ditto for Bryan's cell phone.
I finally bought new running shoes and we spent less than expected however I could not motivate to buy running gear for cold weather and I really think I'm gonna regret it. I talked to my dad and it is like 30 or less right now in France brrrrr.
Turkey dinner was good but the turkey was a little salty to my taste but I will rinse it better next time.
Today I also decided to give another go to my guitar playing.
Tonight I'm probably going to cook tomato soup or maybe something easier, I need to really really motivate and pick up my roller and finish the first coat of this stupid bathroom.... It doesn't look promising but maybe a couple glasses of white wine will help.

Turkey Dinner

So I could not take any pictures of our dinner since our camera didn't survive the pouring rain. I do hope it will dry up and be fine in a couple of days.
So I got all my recipes off the williams sonoma site and I of course adjusted them to the ingredient I have in my pantry cuz don't think that I made a list and gotten what I needed ;)

This is also my first turkey eventhough it was a baby one only 6.75lbs. I brined it for 24 hours in some brine mixt I bought at Williams sonoma and buttermilk. I did rinse it but I should have done a little more because the meat was still fairly salty.

With that I made what was supposed to be Apple-Shallot stuffing which turned out to be Apple bacon red onion stuffing. It was delicious.
Bryan made his famous mashed potato to which we added some cheddar cheese. I did make some real gravy.

Finally for dessert I made the chocolate fondant from the williams sonoma site. But since we are too stuffed we will be eating those in a little bit.
Of course as usual I started a little late since I was kicking back while the kids were sleeping. I actually watched 2 episodes of Bones... This isn't good I'm starting to watch TV during the day.

Oh gotta go major crisis, the kids are screaming, Bryan is playing piano. Sugar is kicking in.... and it is time for bed

Thanksgiving 10K

We started our thanksgiving celebration by getting up at 6 am to go run a 10K. Bryan was wishy washy to go since rain was on the menu. When he looked at the forecast they predicting a 10% chance of rain. We loaded up the car with kids, strollers and en route for our 10K.
After my debacle of the 5K I was a little stressed. We met with Jessica and Ryan and Kevin although we lost them.
Here we are starting this 10K and of course in the midst of the crowd we ran a nice 9min/mile pace... At mile 2 my knee started giving me grief. Grrrr should have bought a new pair. Since I really really wanted to finish this race I decided to manage my knee and slow down a little and I was able to. At about 4 miles it started raining and then 2 minutes later it started pouring!!!! I sent Bryan up ahead so that the kids would not be too wet. At miles 5 Jessica and Ryan caught to me and nicely helped pushing through the last mile. I picked up my pace for the last miles and sprinted nicely in the last downhill before the finish line so when I hit the flat part I was not in a good shape but eventhough I slowed down a bit I finished and according to my Garmin and Jessicas we finished with an overall pace of 9:38!
I am so proud of that accomplishment.
But oh boy we were sooo drenched and as we walked back the car a few blocks away from the race we totally got dumped on and my shoes were so filled with water than they were making sloshing sound... We got the kids in the car, removed their soaking wet pants and put them in their car seat. Blasted hot air in the car and drove to a nice warm shower, followed by the best waffles ever thanks to a french chef yum yum.
Now I want to know the official race results and I will load the Garmin stuff and see a little better how the race was.
But a l'ordre du jour we are going to relax maybe even take a nap!
The turkey is brining in a brine mixt from Williams sonoma I didn't have time to buy all the spices to make my own and buttermilk, I will make some stuffing too and mashed potatoes and some chocolate mousse or cake.
Stay tune for more....

Formal apologies

I have to apologize online to my husband for hinting in a previous post that he was showing off by running 6.4 miles pushing the kids when I was home. He did it just for me since I was sick that day he took the kids away from the house in order for me to rest.
Thank you.

Holiday week

I knew this morning that the day will be very calm at work when I hoped on the 56 and there were no cars in sight! Bryan stayed home with Maia since she was sick yesterday and the school has a 24 hour policy.
I on the other hand went to work. I have a project to finish before I leave for my christmas vacation and unfortunately it is only 2.5 weeks away and with this mangled week time is going to go by fast for a change ahahaha.

What else is new I am back on the running scene I went for intervals today 2 miles warm up 6x0.25 miles at 8:40 min/miles, 2 minutes recovery and then I was supposed to finish by a 2 miles cool down.
Unfortunately during my 5th interval my knee started hurting and I was only able to run 4.92 miles.
Now I of course have the headache, the kneeache but I am pretty content. Also I calculated that since I've started my training 15 weeks ago I have run so far 165 miles! Even with low weeks yuppy!

I found a small turkey so for the first time ever I will cook a real Thanksgiving dinner and not a french version of it. I think I'm going to use one of the recipe from Williams sonoma which I will be looking for right now!

Monday creative day...

I'm in serious need of inspiration when it comes to my blog title ahahaha. So today I had to leave work a little early since Maia had thrown up 4 times in less than 1 hour and I didn't want to leave Bryan alone with the 2 kids one sick. It's just plain no fun. On my way home I went to Von's to pick up all the things that I forgot to put on the list for Bryan's trip to Tradder joes. I stopped by the flower stand since the last items I have to do for the wedding flowers are the corsage and the bouttonieres. I don't know by which end to tackle that problem and since my ADD has a tendency to kick in in such situation I procrastinate.

Except that I don't have much time to procrastinate since the wedding is coming up fast! So here I am picking up white roses, curly willows love those thing and a bunch of greens. I decided to at least try a corsage and make my weekly bouquet.

So here is the result of 30 minutes of wrestling with flowers, green, curly willow, flower tape and wire.

Now I just have to figure out how is it going to pinned and if it is too heavy etc.... I also have to adapt this corsage into a wrist thingy. Also to match the wedding flower more closely I will add some of the hypecurium (I think) or coffee berry, and maybe replace the long leaf eucalyptus by some more round foliage.

Anyways I was pretty happy with my first try.

I also made a neat flower arrangement for my kitchen but didn't take a picture maybe tomorrow.

Sometimes I wonder if I should use this creative inclination of mine and make something more of it. Nah lets keep it as a hobby unfortunately I think I still need to use my brain or the little of it I have on a regular basis. So I will still be a Software Engineer / Geek for a little while longer.

I'm planning on having an intense running week to make up for my previous week and beat my 60.5 miles of last month. I would like to run 6 miles tomorrow, 6 miles on thursday and then maybe 8-10 miles on sunday!!!! Of course now that I put that down and published it to the world I'm gonna only be able to run 2 miles ;) Stay tune cuz right now I feel like running into my bed!

Cooking spree...

Towards the end of the week I felt bad for being lazy in the kitchen and went on a cooking spree.
Thursday night I was hungry as usual, desperate at the state of my fridge and craving something homey but healthy.
So I decided to slice some potatoes, toss them in a mixture of pressed garlic and olive oil, and then I decided to add some leeks sliced. I put everything in a pyrex dish and into the oven, where it cook for a good 30 minutes until the potatoes were golden.
This a side dish I will keep in mind when making pork either roast or chops or even steak.

On friday night I went one step further and actually started cooking dinner before the kids went to bed. I decided to try something entirely new and to adapt a Jamie Oliver recipe couscous and lamb recipe. I replaced the lamb by chicken since Bryan doesn't like lamb. The recipe is a little complicated since there are actually 4 steps to it.
1- First rub the meat with a mixture of spices since I'm always missing something I tend to extrapolate. Here I mixt cumin, coriander, rosemary, a little curry powder and a little paprika I think. I rubbed my chicken drumsticks and put them in the oven at 400 to let them cook.
2- Then you need to sautee oignons in olive oil added garlic and chickpea with some water and balsamic vinegar. Didn't put the whole cup of vinegar since I didn't really know how it would taste and I have to admit that I was a little suspicious.
3- Finally I cooked the couscous in chicken bouillon.
4- Then I put a layer of couscous at the bottom of a dish, poured the chickpea in the middle, added the chicken and covered with the rest of the couscous. Then you cover the dish with a piece of foil and you cook for another hour.

This was very tasty. However next time I do it I will add more spices and definitely more juice it was a little dry. I would also put less couscous and more meat/chickpea.

Finally today I made an upside down pear cake. I am the queen of fruit crumbles and Bryan asked me to find another way to bake fruits. I started making upside down cakes. It also reminds me of my paternal grandmother's cake.

Bryan loves them and since I don't bake that often I decided to make the kids happy and save my pears at the same time.
http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/recipes/caramelized-pear-upside-down-cake.aspx
Since once again I don't have all the ingredient I replaced the brown sugar by granulated sugar I didn't put the ginger nor the cinnamon. The result is pretty good maybe a little sweet. I will put less sugar next time.
Tonight will be back to lazy night with Tamales from tradder joes.
Or not, Bryan looked in the freezer for tamales and we are out of them ;( So I looked at recipe online and invented a "mexican casserole".... It was a huge success. I will write down the recipe in another post since I'm falling asleep. Stupid cold.

Blah day

We had a wonderful evening at Sushi Ota with Jessica and Ryan last night the food was awsome and we had a lot of fun.
Today after going to bed way to late and being woken up way too early I know only 7:30 but still, we went to swimming lesson. As usual Maia burst into tears as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. She has this miserable little face. She did stop crying and almost laughed. We are making progress. Miles of course had a blast!
After the pool we went back home, and I knew I had to blow off my run tonight arghhhh I feel crapy just enough to not be able to do anything athletic but not enough to just go to bed so instead I sent Bryan to do the grocery shopping, the kids to bed and I watched an episode of Bones while folding laundry.
Then the kids woke up and as Bryan got ready to go for his run they both wanted to go with him. So we bundled them up and they left with their dad. I think he wants to train for the 10K next week or to just show off. Anyways I cleaned up the kitchen watching yet another episode of Bones and baked an upside down pear cake to a) save my pears and b) bake something for the kids and Bryan to reward his effort.
This week has left me very frustrated on the running side. I was only able to log 5.5 miles!!! I know I know its like I totally got lazy I was a little sick I even had a temperature of 99.6 ahahah the good joke maybe I'll convince myself that I am not a lazy butt.
Anyways the cake smells delicious and is going to make the whole family happy.
On another front I started spending a lot of time of facebook where I reconnected with kids I went to school with, well they are not kids anymore we are all approaching 35 at an alarming rate. I wasn't sold on facebook at first but the opportunity I had to exchange news with people I haven't seen in 20 years is awsome! Thanks to all of you who sent me a little hello it means a lot to me.

Sushi here we come...

Yeah we are going to sushi tonight!!!! wait why am I so exited we only go to sushi like almost once week and never less than once month ahahah but I am sooo addicted and I am looking forward to tonight.
In the mean time I am glad to report that this really irritating week has ended. Nothing major happened but just a series of little nagging events happened all week long.

The tempermental treadmill which turned a 5 miles run into a 2.5, a presentation which took a lot of my week, a wallet who played hide and seek and won, a DVD who decided to stutter just at the end of a Bones episode leaving us frustrated after trying to play it in 3 different computer, a cold which decided to show up a week before my 10K.

On the other hand this week wasn't all bad, I did run a "real" tempo run with Jessica at 9:35 min/miles pace even with a little walking break, my presentation did go well, I did manage to cook something for Miles classroom potluck if only a salad. Sorry Maia I ran out of salad and energy for yours on friday .

lotz...

A few nights ago I did write this long post since it had been a very frustrating day but of course the laptop I was on lost the connection and my post got lost in lalala land bewteen my computer and the server which totally summarize my day.
Anyways it was tuesday interval day and after fighting trying to figure out this health insurance coverage thing I went to gym with Jessica. We went early so all the treadmills were free... The weather of course super dry and hot. Anyways feeling like walking rather than sprinting I started my warm up after 5 minutes I zap myself on the treadmill which in returns just dies. Start again 5 minutes later same thing..... Grrrrrr... Switch treadmills, warm up 5 more minutes and do my first intervals, cool down and as I start my second half mile interval at 9:15 min/mile pace the treadmill dies once more. This totally disrupted my rythm I decided to stop after a 2.5 miles the lowest mileage in like 14 weeks! I decided to go back to the gym in the evening.
Disgusted I get back to my desk only to find an email from my boss volonteering me to do a presentation on thursday morning at 8:30am.
Of course frantically I try to gather some thoughts about the backbone of my presentation and now I have to get the kids from school and of course here goes my second half of my run.
Anyways wednesday was spent working to put together this presentation no break for lunch, so no swim, worked until 7:30pm. Thank go for my husband!
Thai for dinner, call from the boss discussion about the presentation at 10pm, scratchy throat and running around frantically to clean up a little before the house keeper.
The presentation wen well although I feel like it lasted 2 minutes and today was recovering from the preparation of that talk. Jessica took me for a 3 mile tempo run and i did succeed to drag her outside and we started soooo fast and we kind of got tired midway through, had to stop a little bit because of side stich and then sprinted down hill and ended up at 9:35 even with the walking.
We were both panting for a while. It was fun though. I like running with someone who is as fast as you and as "competitive". We have a great dynamic and push each other without competing in a bad way. Really fun
Then I left work a little early and spend 30 minutes at Anthropologie to scout for christmas gift for my sister. This store is evil, I found so much... But settled for a really cute hat and a cute blouse which I would have gladly kept for mysefl. I did buy myself a white shirt on super sale for 20$ did try the cutest dress but 99$ was out of my budget!
Anyhow I need to go cook since my lunch was very miscellaneous : small bag of cheetos, a banana, the second half of my chocolate croissant with a hot tea, half a rice cake before realizing that I was craving salty rather than sweet, and popcorn. Needless to say I am famished!
Yes I forgot to mention that I am getting sick!!! a week before my 10K Grrrr.... I have to at least run 8 miles this saturday but may just go for 5

Sooo late

Short post since I should probably be sleeping by now but I still have some laundry to do! Can't we invent this great little robot do unload, fold and put away laundry!
Anyways sunday morning swimming lesson was less traumatic for the whole family. Maia almost smiled but kind of frowned the whole time which is a huge step up from the screams of despair we had last sunday. Miles of course loved it.
After that we spent the afternoon at home, enjoying the 90 degree weather (30-35) trying to motivate to go for our long run. Since I weasled my way out of my bike ride it was tough to weazle my way out of my run too. Especially with all the moaning and whining I do about my weight appearance etc... So thank god the temperature went down enough for us to run a pleasant 5.2 miles.
Today I did some yoga with Jessica since I don't think I really stretched for the past 2 weeks and like 30 miles! I can tell you that my legs were tight but then again I am not known for my flexibility. She did made me do the bridge with my head on the floor that was painful for me but to look at too I'm sure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy17YZ8lJOw&feature=related
I only put my head on the ground. I tried again later tonight to show my husband but he just laughed at my effort...
Anyways I am sore and I really hope that the temperature is going to be better tomorrow.

Another saturday in paradise...

I know I complain a lot about the weather and the fact that it is like 85 degrees fahrenheit (28 celsius) in mid november. This totally sucks for my running cuz I hate running in the heat and now it is dark super early. However today I sure enjoyed the weather.
We spend some time at the beach. The kids played in the sand and the water crazy!, Bryan surfed of course and I read a little bit.
Today I was way too lazy to go for a bike ride which was partly due to this new chick lit that I started yesterday and I can't put down so I read until like 12:30 and the kids woke up nicely at 7 am this morning :(
Anyways nothing that a nice cup of coffee can't cure, after cleaning the kitchen mess from last night making some banana pancakes from my fav recipe site williams sonoma and ok a 10K project on our backyard auouch we went to the beach.

I started knitting again, I just finished a sweater for Miles and I am hoping to finish one for Maia soon. Sophie in a yarn store is like a kid in a toy store. I think I get more excited than when I go into a clothe store or even shoe store.
I just love the colors, the textures and the creativity.
So anyways I willed myself into buying only what I needed and one pattern book. Miles already ordered his next sweater too cute.

Besides that not too much, I am cooking bolognese sauce since our neighbors are coming for dinner.
Last night I settled for chicken with paprika, wild mushroom and creamy sauce over rice. Yummy but not healthy at all. At lunch I had a lamb burger again yummy but not healty and I am still full.
I feel such like a blob right now but ah well I'll run my 7-8 miles tomorrow and all will be better.
Anyways better help the hubbie who had to deal with the little one falling into the toilet and then peeing on the floor ahahahah. Parenthood is always an adventure ;)

What's for dinner...

Oh boy when every night of the week I struggle to find something to cook we are in trouble. It is time to open up the cookbooks and look for new ideas. Thanks to Jamie Oliver I can find multitudes of ideas now the difficult part is to figure out what the dinner menu will consist of. I have pork chop in the fridge, chicken and ground beef in the freezer. It is already 7:40 and all I know I want something good which isn't "my idea" of fast food.
I think we have a particular definition for fast food which is easy to prepare food also food that can be prepared by my husband. The favorite of the moment are ravioli with brocolinis a little cream and some olive oil. The other one is Potato Cheddar pirogis, first sauteed in a little bit of olive oil, I then add a little cream, chopped cilantro. Bryan on the other hand developed a very interesting sauce. Once the pirogis are crispy he sautee them in General Tsao sauce. Then he adds soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. Sometimes we also have tamales from Tradder Joes.
So now I am starving and hungry something but I don't quite know what!

Today didn't escape the series of blah Friday, I went to the bookstore looking for garden magazine in order to present the landscape artist what I have in mind for our backyard project and came out with runner magazine and two books. Then I went for lunch at the little sushi place and ate sushi at the bar while reading a book.
Finally I wanted to buy some mums to test the pomander making but nothing in the store inspired me! Sorry Jessica. In other word I should have gone swimming although now I have something to read!
On a bright note I completed the project I have been struggling with all week Yuppi onto another challenge/puzzle. Also I finally put together the family pictures requested by the kids teacher just about 6 month ago! I feel such like a bad mother.
So onto the beginning of my post what the heck are we going to have for dinner tonight:
- potato leek soup
- pork chop with something
- gnocchi with some kind of sauce
- I have no F... clue
- Just wine...

I almost forgot but yesterday I flew my husband's newest toy which is an indoor little plane. It was actually really fun but really looks and sounds like a dragonfly.

Hmmm

Earlier tonight I had a great subject for my post. Something different from running, complaining about my weight! But of course since then we had dinner, a little wine, watched TV fell asleep in front of the TV and now all I can think of for my post is how hard my run was at lunch.
Today was 5 miles tempo run, of course today it was warm even a little hot around 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit and no cool breeze. I started great, felt good. I was following a guy who seemed upset that I was so close behind him but unfortunately it made me go at a fairly fast pace of 8:30-9:30 min/miles. Of course at miles 3 I died, well my legs died. The last 2 miles were run 1.5-1.75 and walk 0.25 miles. Ah well can't be good every time ;) I will download the data from my Garmin GPS tracking device.
Other than that my pants got here and I fit in them. A few pounds less will be better but at least I don't look like a saussage and that was 80$ well spent. I of course have to hem them.
Tonight I was lazy again and instead of cooking lasagnas like I planned to we made an easy meal of raviolis and brocolini.
I finished the back of Maia's sweater I think she will be able to wear it for a couple years!
This is the end of a very dry and boring post!

Sake talk

Since the results of the body fat calculator of the magazine didn't make me happy and I can't really lose 3% body fat overnight I decided to recalibrate my body fat scale. Yeah my 2 year old is able to recalibrate the age, and height but it took me 10th trys and some serious motivation me on the acceptance range to do it.
So this morning just before my shower like every morning I know I'm insane here I am on the scale. This is a much nicer body fat measurement which puts me in between the in shape and acceptance zone, it is the gray zone the no man's land. This is made me much happier.
Especially because I knew today I wouldn't be able to make it to my swimming session. Lots stacked up at work and those longer runs take too much time at lunch for me. I either have to run faster thus more mileage in less time, get out of bed at 6 and run before the kids get up or run less! Thankfully the bulk of my training is going to be during my vacation in France.
Today I went to lunch really quick lunch with Jessica. It is actually nice to sit down and have a meal together and talk instead of either running alongside at the gym with our headphones jammed in our ears or via a keyboard. we can actually talk to each other and not t
When I complained to her that I was tired and not really in the mood for cooking she convinced me, I am weak, to go out to sushi my favorite. However when I invited them to join us she came up with a lame excuse... Hmmmm I wonder why a dinner with 2 young kids at a restaurant wasn't too apealing ;), maybe because she did it before and competing for attention with a 4 year old may be out of her league... Sorry I'm getting carried out and very facetious ;)
Then I folded 3 loads of laundry in front of 3 episodes of Bones one episode for a load ;) Gosh I love that show.... Then off to bed cuz tomorrow I have 5 miles tempo run scheduled and I'd like to make it in tempo time if weather permits meaning in San Diego terms if the temperature is below 80!

Running running but after what....

Today was interval training, the dreaded 3x1miles at 9:15 min/mile pace. Including warm up and the 2 min recovery I managed to run 5.2 miles. I wanted to go longer but I can't take 2 hours lunch break, 1:30 is already a stretch.
I forced myself to drink G2 before and after the run. I hate it it is siropy and salty at the same time. I also had a pack of GU before running. All this actually kept headache and nausea at bay!
The run was actually much easier than I expected and I was totally drenched in sweat. Each time I exercize I wonder how those beautiful woman manage to look so sexy and refreshed when I am sweaty and red. Do they actually have AC installed?
When we came into the gym, 2 guys were walking on the treadmill. One of them was slow walking up hill in a meditative state.... In which part of the world is this considered working out.... Leave the runners on the treadmill and go enjoy the fresh air outside.
Oops sorry that was really mean and uncalled for but maybe true! I am incorrectible.
I took several break during the afternoon to try to figure out my ideal weight!. According to my BMI I am in the healthy range why don't they have a hot and sexy range. Since I think the BMI stuff is a little crap I decided to use the body fat calculator Of course as expected the result was a little less positive. According to this rough calculation I am 25.6% which is in the acceptance range! Unfortunately I can't lie to myself it is exactly where I am I can hide it under my clothe but not to the naked eye :(
The problem is that at the rate this is going I will be in the in shape range (21-24) in another 10 years or so...
Yeah sadly I have been working on consistently and pretty hard for 13 weeks now. Without being on a hard core diet but yet being careful about what I eat and how much I only lost 1.5lbs!
It is hard to be a woman and it is even harder to grow older! Well maybe it is just the woman part since my husband's body fat puts him in the great shape borderline athlete zone! Not fair furthermore I am not even allowed to complain about not losing weight until an entire year of this workout regimen. Well in those all grim news I can hope to be hot for my 10th year anniversary and 35th birthday!
Now my homemade pizza menu doesn't sound as good as it used to an hour ago...

I just had 2 slices of homemade pizza and lots of salad.

Running aftermath (continued...)

After my post-running traumatizing experience I decided to do a little research on the internet and it appears that my post running nausea is due to either dehydration or "water intoxication". Both issues have the similar symptoms and both have similar remedy drink 16oz sports drink 1 hour before running and again drink plenty of sports drink after a run especially if the run is more than 1 hour long!.

This makes total sense since besides coffee and wine my only other beverage is water! Sports drink here I come....

Also yesterday after recovering from my sickness I IMed Jessica who told me eat a lot. I confessed that I felt like going to bed without ingesting any food but promise to eat. But I have to admit that I don't think 8 potstickers and some yogurt was what she had in mind in the lots of food department!
Tonight's menu which I have yet to prepare is ahi tuna, stir fry veggies and somen noodles. Since I am hungry and things don't seem to get done by themselves I will have to end this passionating post and get busy!

Lost and found...

OMG I felt like such a moron this morning.
After going back and forth about 10 times between the car and the house to gather all of the few items I need for the day, my brain or what is left of it and if you so much think of helping me I will scream and throw a fit" phase we are on our way to the daycare.
As we drive up North Torrey Pines about 4 miles from the house I hear a clonk clonk noise. Hmmm I asked the kids if the dump any of their book which follows by a battle of "Miles do it" "No I didn;t do anything" etc... As I step out of the daycare some 15 minutes later wanting to inform my dear husband of the whereabout of the stuffed animals Baby and Bear, the center console is staring up at me empty. Where the eck is my cell phone I swear I can visualize it sitting neatly in the center console. But then my 2 brain cells rub together (hey give me a break I haven't had coffee nor breakfast yet!) and that was the noise, my cell phone taking a dive from the top of my car and exploding miserably on the side of the road!
I already lost this month, brand new headphones and my Montblanc pencil that I got for my 18th birthday :( Arghhh I feel like when I was pregnant without the excuse (the baby)
Age!!!!

Run aftermath...

So I had great run but then an hour after the run I started feeling nauseous and I just threw up it was very unpleasant! WTF. I don't know if it is the run, if it is because I don't feel good.
I often have a post run headache, and nausea but I can always manage it eating fritos helps a lot. I think because those chips are really salty but today I feel like crap and I don't know what to do.
Well hopefully the tea I'm drink and some bland food will help!
I HATE throwing up I want my mommy ;(

Week end

As usual we had a frantic week end...
Friday evening cheese fondue was on the menue so lots of white wine and late night. The kids for some reason woke up earlier than usual so the crazy idea of running by myself pushing the stroller turned it a nice cup of coffee and a trip to the zoo followed by brunch at our favorite place BeachGrass cafe in Solana beach.
Later I actually motivated myself to go for a bike ride with my neighbor which was nice a relaxing then park and movie galore with the kids. James and the Giant peach and Meet the Robinsons a good distraction from little Einsteins.
Sunday morning was a traumatizing experience both for Maia and us, she had a first swimming lesson and although she loves the water wasn't too happy with being left alone with the teacher. She screamed the first 15 minutes until a very nice second teacher soothed her the next 15 minutes. Miles on the other hand had a blast.
After brunch, grocerie shopping tiddying up the house we went on our run. I had 7 miles planned and felt like going to bed. But huffed and puffed Bryan pushing the stroller and me pushing my butt and we had a really nice 7.9 miles which would have been 8 if Maia didn't lose her flip flop. But hey this seals my weekly record at 18.1 miles!!!!
Now I have to tackle my laundry pile :( but I think I am going to plop my butt on the couch for a little bit. The first time of the day!

Damm

So today I had a brow wax appointment just next to the Limited. I popped in just after to check out their dress since I am still kindof shopping for Jessica's wedding and the company party.
I found a strapless pink dress that was perfect for the burgundy sandals I had but I knew Bryan would not love the shape.
I did try it on and it looked really nice but I still asked the lady if they had it in black and she brought me this one.

This is exactly what I was looking for. I knew Bryan would love it. It fit perfectly and for once I feel good and beautiful! To top it all it was reasonnably priced. I felt a little guilty since I bought a pair of pants at lunch on "gilt". This site should be renamed the Guilt!!!!


We will see if I can fit in the size 2 and I won't probably look like the model one can still dream but I am sure Bryan will appreciate the closer fit of those pants.
Anyways I do feel guilty for all the spending but I do feel pretty in the dress soooo I guess it is money well spent.
I guess all that running is paying off... I did another 5 miles outdoors today, it was hot but not too bad. I was sick to my stomach all afternoon lack of electrolytes.

Wednesday night already....

I know I sound like a broken record but oh boy where does time fly? I mean I looked at bunny's site and realize that my last post was 3 days ago but wait I feel like I posted yesterday.
So what is going on in my wonderful life for me to not see time go by... Well not that much but we are still really busy and it always feel good when I can finally sit down for 10 minutes and write something.

On monday I had my second life coaching session which was part of a gift certificate. For those who know me I am very skeptical of those things and also very proud. I don't need help I can do it all and if I get help then it removes a little from the pleasure of succeeding like I cheated. I know twisted but anyhow.
I have to say that I am very glad that I had those 2 hours. Although it is not something I will pursue at this time it is something that I may consider later when I have a little more time and cash.
The thing that makes me happy is that eventhough I always doubt myself, can't find myself and feel lost and confused I do deep down know who I am and live by the core qualities that make me. But I can tell you that the layer around the core is a real turmoil of questions, self doubts etc...

Besides that I went for my interval session on tuesday and was proud of a 5 miles run until I my other half told me he just ran 6.4 miles which included climbing up Torrey Pines hill the tough way (inside hill).
I hate him well not really I am just really JEALOUS because I can't do that. Well maybe I can one can wish upon a star no...
We were wondering with Bunny who the heck just goes for a run at lunch and goes down Torrey Pines than up just like that.
Today I went for my swim and managed my kilometer and swallowed half the pool in the process. Well maybe not quite but it is how I feel after a swim.

Although I don't like talking about politics I have to say that I was really happy for Obama to have such a clear victory I am hoping for a brighter future. On a sadder note I can't believe prop 8 passed. I mean don't we have more important problems/issues in California than worrying about gay marriage. Let them be and lets worry about why art programs are cut out of our schools, why working people don't have medical insurance etc... Grrr... should have taken care of my citizenship and voted1
Back to life and cooking a new chicken noodle recipe with oyster flavor sauce, hoisin sauce and brocolini.

Kid's gem

The kids are taking their bath and a moth falls in the water. Bryan tells Miles to hurry up and scoop him off the water. Of course he takes too long and the moth dies.
Miles finally gets him out of the water and says he is dead can you take him off my finger please. And adds very seriously he had a bad day!

Where did that come from. I don't know but it is funny as hell and I love it!

Hmm I've been looking for 10K runs between now and January and I may do the run for the hungry on thanksgiving morning... Still have to check out the map before registering ahahaha big hills at the end of race aren't welcome!

Race day

Today we went to the Susan Komen race for finding a cure agains breast cancer. When talking to Jessica a few weeks ago I was so high on running on the treadmill at a 9 min/mile pace and started thinking that I could run 3 miles at 9/9:30 min/miles. Then we learned that the race ends with a pretty big hill and Bryan signed up too so since he is pushing the stroller with 2 kids we decided to just run it.

First of all it was really cool to run that race and I am very proud to finally have taken a morning of my year to join a cause. Also I forget that this is also for my mom who is breast cancer survivor and my brother in law who is surviving a non Hodgkins Lymphoma. To be honest with you I never think of my mom as a breast cancer survivor since I forget about this unpleasant event and being with her you would too. She is so full of energy that I don't want to dwell on an unpleasant time of our life.

But since I am very competitive and very harsh on myself I have to admit that my race was very disapointing to me. Not all of the race but I did end the race at 10 min/mile pace (that hill just killed me) when I did probably 2/3 of the race at 9-9:30 and both Bryan and Jessica the first one pushing a stroller with 2 kids and the second on running on a sprained toe finished at 9:35-9:40 min/miles.
I felt like a big slug and not too sure that I can pull off that half marathon in like what 3 months!
Eventhough I felt deflated it was a nice race and I will try again. This was my first race ever and I didn't quite know what to expect, I didn't have my music which was a big mistake and I didn't realize that the finishing line was at the end of the hill. I think I would have pushed a little harder on that hill.
Ah well enough Me me me... we had a great time. It was great to see Miles super excited to go to a race, I want to find him a kid race.
After that event we went for breakfast at the coffee cup and we waited for an hour but omg the breakfast there is so good the potatoes especially. Then we went to the children's museum downtown. It was awsome.
Now time to chill out with a nice glass of wine and be proud of who we are...
I'm sure if I say that enough time I'll end up believing it ahahah.

Hurra

Just came back from my first ride with my new bike! Since I could not find my sunglasses I decided to ride to work see if I left them there and come back. It's about 20 miles there and back with Torrey Pines hill and a bunch a smaller hills. I am pooped but very pleased.

I am even more pleased because I lost about 1lb since this morning which never happens.

OK gotta go since are getting crazy here and we are both famished it's like 4:40 and all I had to eat today was a bowl of cereal and half a bagel with a little tomato. Time for real food...

Halloween

Soooo for everyone I know Halloween means fun and for me I just realized tonight it means stress for me. This is the 4th Halloween and I am always frazzled. Maybe it has to do with a change in the routine, the fact that I have to get home earlier to get the kids in their costume go trick or treating figure out dinner afterwards, meet friends and lots of other people.... I don't get it all this should be fun and I am a wreck.

Unfortunately tonight was no different. We didn't have big plans, actually our dinner plans got cancelled for cause of illness from our guest. We were just meeting friends to go trick or treat. For some other weird reasons fridays have been blaah days lately. Today was no different. I had a long day at work, I was frustrated by misplacing my new sunglasses which are still missing (I hate that) and finally my car decided to welcome me with a series of annoying alarms. I know I was running low on gas and windshield cleaner but did it have to yell at me for not buckling an already bucled seat belt... I think it was hypoglycemic with the lack of gas and was trying to tell me go to the gas station but instead was saying buckle your seat belt buckle your seat belt. Very very irritating. That made a very interesting ride home, between the car trying to talk to me in a weird linguo, Miles trying to tell me all kinds of story, Maia screaming for her baby, the music and the weather being so hot was probably not the best way to get me all calm and relaxed!
Anyways we went trick or treating, I did unwing after 10 minutes of walking and talking to my friends and I did have real pleasant time.
The kids got loads of goodies yum.
After that I got the dinner started since I didn't work out today I made homemade tomato soup from a williams sonoma recipe the best recipe ever. Bryan got me very nicely a glass of wine, the kids got a ton of fruits and a little cheese for dinner to balance out the sugar. Did some yoga moves with Mec and Mac too funny, some jumping jacks then in bed they went still high on sugar.
After that we had a nice quiet evening in front of a few episodes of CSI with our soup, some white wine.... Pretty much like any other nights me half asleep in front of the TV and Bryan playing his computer game.
Note to self go work out when you are free on friday at lunch much better for your!
You are getting forgetful but maybe it's because your brain reached its capacity of things to think about or maybe you are just getting old.
Tomorrow is another day playdate and bike ride... Will I be adventurous on my first ride or just conservative...

Tired ...

The temperatures are still in the 80 during the day which makes it hard to motivate to go run outside at lunch. I mean it is Halloween end of october for crying outloud. I talked to my mom and they were thinking it was going to snow. I have trouble realizing that we are going to France in like a month in a half. At that rate we are going to go from tank top to down jackets. Last year the temperatures were in the 20....
I still ran 6 miles at lunch but on the treadmill. I always feel like I am a slacker when I run on the treadmill although when I see Carmen (in great shape!) it makes me feel a little better. So I ran 6 miles the first 3 miles at 9:40 min/miles but then I slowed down. At the end I wanted to be done sooo bad that I started sprinting ahahah the good joke I had to jog at 11 min/miles for a miles to recover my two sprints ahahaha. That'll teach me.
It was so hot in the gym that I was literally dripping... I feel sooo feminine when I run. To add to the complaints of all my female friends I have been working out pretty seriously for 12 weeks now, and I eat pretty well I would say. I lost a whole lb maybe. I haven't seen the scale lower than 117 for more than a few days in a long time.
Oops that is without taking into account my snacking on the kids food.
But on the bright side I've lost 3 lbs since last february! But hey muscle weighs more that fat right ahahaha! And lately to be honest I don't really care about my weight as much as how I feel and look. I still weigh myself every morning and pouts if I don't like what I see. Come on I'm still a woman.
Why every single woman I know skinny or not need to lose at least 5lbs!
To finish that post I am very proud since I ran 60.5 miles this month the most I ran in my whole entire life!!!! Yay! I just have to keep it up

Eventful day

Whaoa today was eventful... First of all I ditched swimming in favor of picking up my new bike. I am super happy I rode it around the block and it is super nice. The shift gear is not as smooth as Giovanna's bike but it may be due to the lower quality and the fact that the bike is brand new.
Work was good today we got praised for our hardwork and in the world of software in a non software company it is nice to hear.
Finally I picked my new glasses. It was time because each time I put my head down my old ones would fall of my nose which is highly irritating. I like my new glasses but they are not as slick as my old ones. I think I went back to the librarian look although pretty active one I may add since they are oakleys.

Finally I have to bitch a little about franklin covey. I love their stuff really especially the 2 page day wirebound planner but tell me why all the cool designs are only available as weekly planner! Now I can either have a cool looking planner or a useful one arghhhh so frustrating.
Along those lines why woman's line of stuff is cutsy, woman's bike are usually of pastel colors, helmet even for adults are pink, fleece from LLBean are declined in all shades of purple, pink, magenta cyan a palette that I aborr (except for the occasional pink)
But then again I am such an hypocrite since I am knitting a deep eggplant sweater for my daughter. But hey there are pink and pinks.
Tonight for dinner, homemade pizza yum yum yum

I did it

OK I have been thinking how I can justify buying my bike all sunday. After a lot of discussions I decided to do it. I even decided to return the shoes to Nordstroms the shoes I bought last week I know weird.

So here it is I will pick it from the store later this week so I can ride it this week end.

I really wished that women's bike were not allways these weird pastels color. The only pastel color I like would be a light pink or salmon pink. Anyways let say this is more of a blue than a purple. Besides that I am really excited. Now I just need a helmet and a bike rack and I'm good to go!

Today I ran intervals on the treadmill and it was hot but I managed to run 4 miles.

Marathon saturday

What a day... We woke up at 7:30am were ready at 8:15 to all go for our 5-7 miles run which was nice although my knee started bugging me at mile 4 :( and so I had to stop at miles 5, which brings my monthly mileage at 50! Maybe I will reach 60 by the end of the month.
One thing for sure is that I need to start doing yoga at home once a week to strech my legs better.
After a quick shower we headed out for a play date while hubbie went surfing. After a few hours of playing, a few drama back to the house, the kids took nap while I ran to Tradder Joes for my weekly grocery outing to stock up on a bunch of goodies. On the way I stopped at a bike store to 1- buy some bike shorts 2- buy some more of the GU and 3- gawk at bikes.
Tada this is the object of my "convoitise" don't know the word in english on sale from 1200$ to 800$

It would have been cool if the actual bike was that color....
The big question now is am I a good girl and I wait until christmas like I said and ask Santa a bike for my christmas and my birthday, save money over until christmas and have the remainder of the bike as a christmas present or will I be a bad girl and jump on this deal. Anyways I am looking forward to my ride tomorrow, I think I will do the ride I wanted to do last week and who knows maybe I won't have to get off my bikes in the hills!!!!!

After the grocery shopping and my gawking we had a halloween party to go to. Gosh I hate crowds that I don't know. I always find myself sit in a corner wondering when I can leave.
It was really nice party.
In a little bit the kids will go to bed and we will have a nice quiet evening with some wine/beer and a nice episode of Bones. Ahhh I love those evenings at home.

Dilemna dilemna dilemna

Ah the difficulty of being a somewhat reasonnable woman. So I need a very pretty dress for Bunny's wedding and today on Hautelook's BCBG sale I found that very pretty navy blue dress

I have always wanted a navy blue dress, it was at a very reasonnable price of 130$ and I had the approval of my husband. But yet I didn't purchased it... The size weren't quite right and I could not try it on... When deep down I really would like a bike, I just spend quite a lot on glasses and I am simply shopped out.

How can a woman be shopped out? Don't worry bunny I'll have a nice dress for your wedding.

Thursday grumbles...

Today wasn't a great day... First of all I am sick still at the onset stage of a cold, scratchy throat, itchy nose and lips and sneezing every 10 minutes. This plus a very hot and dry weather steered me away from the gym and my 5 miles of interval and stress reliever.
A month and half ago as I was putting my glasses on the frame just fell apart and I had to tape it together. Hello I am a software engineer but it was really too much. I went to the place I bought the glasses from and they ordered me a new frame to replace this one under the warranty. It has been like 7 weeks and still nothing. I called and oh frustration of frustration, I learned that the frame is back ordered and that actually I can't benefit from the warranty cuz it's been more than 1 year.
I love this country, you can return a pair of worn shoes to Nordstroms because the stitches came apart after an intensive 11 month of wear and they will replace it but you only have a year warranty on a pair of glasses when you are eligible for a new pair every other year.
So frustrated, I made an appointment at another optometrist hoping that my vision would not have changed enough to need new prescription but of course no such luck and so 464$ poorer I will have a new pair of glasses in a week or so.
The last episode of an already long day was the dive that our daughter decided to take off the back of the couch onto the pergo floor. She landed on her forehead and now has an egg! ouch.

I hope to have a better day tomorrow at least it is friday!!!!

Me too me too...

Me too I had some accomplishments today just a small one really I finally swam 12 laps non stop in freestyle at the end of my 44 laps swim session... yeah yeah. When I started 8 weeks ago I was able to swim 1 lap free style 5 breastrokes, 2 free style etc... I still have to tackle the open water part of the triathlon challenge and I am delaying that one as long as possible.

On the other hand I am starting to get a cold, scratchy throat and itchy nose are a give away. I hope it won't affect me too much and I will still be able to run this week maybe not the 12 miles intended (in 2 sessions) but we will see.

Tonight I cooked Chocolate Chip Banana bread for the kids and us and I even took a picture that will be added a little bit later. The kids are in bed, for once the dinner is almost done instead of getting started, a 2nd glass of red wine is calling me and NCIS is waiting for us.

Where it all started...

I didn't one day wake up and decided I am going to run and ran 40 miles the first month! Like everything else it is a slow and painful process. I am lucky in a way I like running maybe not the run itself but the feeling of accomplishment that I experienced afterwards. The runs are also more and more pleasant and satisfying.

You would have told me when I was 20 and weighed about 98lbs for my 5'2 frame that I would run 40 miles in a month I would have simply laughed at this ridiculous statement.

I didn't grow up in a competitive sport environment. Although my parents always saw the benefit of exercize on a regular basis (walking, hiking, biking, climbing 5 flights of stairs daily etc...) I never won any medals.

Then I moved to San Diego, yes you have couch potato but you also have people who get up every morning at 5:30am to exercize for 2 hours before going to work. I have a tendency to look at those people and start wondering.... Hmm could I do that (not the waking up at 5:30am part but the ability to run for long periods of time) so I started running since it was the easiest. I did join some gyms, rock climbed for a long while until my husband started surfing again, biked but hey Torrey Pines Hills sucks at 7:45am and even more at 8pm in the dark.

So here I am after 10 years running my 3 miles here and there sometimes more consistently than other but never doing much more than that and 8lbs weight gain in a year. I can even blame my babies for it ;(

Call it a mid-life crisis I know a little young at 33, call it a wake up call, maybe it has to do with finding a journal and realizing that 7 years have passed and I still have the same goal run a half marathon before I am 35.
One of my doctor also told me "Sophie you are the perfect Nike add, JUST DO IT!" so this is where I am, turning 34 in december and not wanting my first half marathon to be La Jolla. I am ambitious but I'd like a somewhat pleasant experience.
I also have my views on triathlons, I read that article about a 76 years old woman completing an Ironman that is so huge I mean the running portion is a full marathon not talking about the 180km bike ride that precedes it. I find it very inspiring and a little voice in my head is whispering hey maybe you could do that too you could be that athlete.
So I decided to try and workout as much as I can and I trained myself to go by myself so that I don't depend on anyone to go so I have no excuse to not go ;)
I rest of monday, run on tuesday, swim on wednesday, run on thursday, rest on friday, long run on Saturday usually with my husband who pushes the kids and stops at 5-6 miles, bike on sunday.
I have to say I have fun, it keeps me away from junk food, eating out too much at lunch, keeps me away from the UTC mall, keeps me obsessed with something else than clothes, keeps my mind away from my dark feelings. It makes me feel good about myself and I also want to eat healthier.
I never thought that this post would be that long. The bottom line is if I can do it you can too. I may a little more stubborn than most but I am not wonder woman. It took me a lot of will power and sweat which is why you still see my mileage.
As the NIKE add says just do it because in the end whether you walk, you run, you do the elliptical exercize is good for you, your mind and your health... Now I sound like the add for Kaiser permanente.
So I am glad to report that although Sunday morning run was really painful and a little discouraging todays run was really really satisfying and I am looking forward to tomorrows swim. So JV be sure that if you exercize consistently your 3 miles will turn to 4 and maybe 5 but into whatever it is that you want!
By the way for all of you I run slow... Bad day 11min/mile good day 9:30min/mile

Biking adventures

After my painful unrewarding almost humiliating 6.2 miles run on saturday I decided that I would have a long bike ride with my neighbor. I was planning on going for a good 1:30 to 2 hours bike ride. Of course 15 minutes into the rides my legs felt heavy and I decided to be a little more humble and go for a shorter ride.

My friend tells me so what do you want to do hills, easy, long.... We decided on going from Carmel Valley (Carmel Country Rd) to Rancho Santa Fe Farms to Rancho Santa Fe back through El Camino Real.

He warns me the the El Camino Real hills is going to remind me of the ride a couple days after it. Meaning I'm going to suffer, but that was my first ride and I didn't remember El Camino Real being that steep. Long and steady yes, steap not really.

But here was my mistake there is an Old Camino Real and new Camino Real pretty much like there is an Old Torrey Pines steep and a new Torrey Pines road much more steady climb.

It was painful but nice.... and yes I had to stop once in the Rancho Santa Fe hills and actually walk a little bit on the El Camino Real hills.
Need to buy bike capris!

Wedding flowers

As we are getting closer to Bunny's wedding we had another flower bouquet making session to finalize some of the designs.

We focused on the table centerpieces. Here is what we came up with. For once the color scheme and the flowers are right.

The last pieces of the puzzle that I have to work on are the corsage and the boutonnieres... and then to make everything perfectly and deliver it. I am very nervous, I really hope that everything turns out beautifully ; )

I will have a summary post with each piece of the flowers for the wedding. I think I will secretly practice each bouquet again with the right flowers and colors...

Annecdotes

OK this is the third time I'm trying to write this post. Since this shouldn't be what did Sophie do this week I decided to collect a few annecdotes of the week:

I know I need to be more in tune with my kids preschool life when the teacher asks me as I walked in their open-house did you bring the pictures for the scrapbook. Usually I can exclaim ooooh crap I forgot but no this time I had this blank look on my face what are you talking about! I had no idea.... Note to self be more attentive. Man juggling everything isn't always as easy as I'd like

While I played house mom for the day I decided to go shopping so since I gave myself a more than enough budget to splurge I could not find anything that I wanted. Finally I found a nice pair of shoes at Nordstroms. I asked a guy there to get me my size in that model they usually bring you several other shoes that you might like. Although I had flats on and was with a kids I looked fairly hip. But boy this guy totally surprised me by bringing this old grand ma shoe. I was so flustered and insulted and still cannot believe that this guy thought I would actually even consider those shoes.
Ah well I bought the other pair which are different from what I usually wear more funky.

Although I have been seriously working out for about 9 weeks now and that I really eat better my weight has barely budged. I started at 119lbs and I am now at the neighborhood of 117.6lbs. I want to go back to 113lb to be nice and 108lb to be real nice. I don't know if my body will cooperate.
On thursday morning the scale was at 116.6lb but I took care of this promptly by making cheese fondue that evening.... So yummy!!!! We made it from scratch since Von's didn't carry the already made stuff and it was so well worth it. At least I enjoyed it tremendously I'll just have to exercize more ;)

Anyways I dutyfully ran my 4.5miles and 3.2 miles on the treadmill as the temperature are in the 80 and this morning I ran 6.3 very painful miles at 11min/mile pace. I don't like running right out of bed. Eventhough I was planning on running 7 miles I shouldn't be depressed by 6.3 miles run but I am... Ah well I'll do better next time. I think my monthly mileage is my highest and I still have 2 weeks ;) Sorry Bunny 9 min/mile-9:30min/miles sound great and after running on the treadmill sounded doable but after this morning's run I have much humbler goals for the Komen 5K race... 10 min/mile would be nice! How in the world am I going to run a half marathon at 10min/mile pace!!!!! Even finishing it would be nice..... I wish sometimes I'd settle for smaller goals like running 5 miles and be happy!

Thoughts on food.

I love food but most of all I love good tasty food. Doesn't have to be rich, doesn't have to be junk doesn't have to be sweet. It can be a good homemade soup tomato, or even zuchini, can be a saussage risotto, simple pasta with roasted onion, porsciutto and a little cream and parmesan (my latest recipe and a big winner). I honestly don't remember the last time we had junk food without travel involved, because lets face it a big mac is much more appealing to me than airplane food ; )

I lucked out since I grew up with a mom who cooked every night more than just throwing something in the oven or the microwave and I love checking out new recipes.

Last week was our 9 year anniversary since it was on a thursday we had a nice dinner at home and the next day we went out to sushi our all time favorite.

For our dinner in I made some steak with a really really nice red wine sauce. I cooked the steaks then I sauteed some onion in some butter (usually I would have used olive oil) added some fresh thyme, deglaced the brown bits with some red wine and 1 teaspoon of veal demi glace. Let it boil a little bit then I thicken the sauce with butter. You gotta love french chefs, you either bind the sauce with butter or lighten it with creme fraiche. Anyways it was absolutely delicious I served it with some potato pancakes yummy. We had a really nice wine bottle with that.

On friday night we feasted on special sushi from the bar at Sushi Ota. I still haven't understood japanese food so different from occidental food and so delicious.

On saturday we went for a run (see previous post) with a very painful recovery and so I needed something good but easy for a late dinner. I decided to sauteed some onion in olive oil, sliced some prosciutto, and cooked for awhile. Meanwhile I boiled some water and cooked some pasta. I added the onion mixture to the pasta, a dash of cream and some parmesan.

On Sunday we had people over and I cooked a pork roast with lemon zest, thyme, rosemary, sage and white wine with mash potato, for dessert we had a simple chocolate mousse.

Tonight it is soup night and I think I will make a cauliflower soup/veloute with sauteed onion and prosciutto.

Sorry bunny no pictures. I know how much you love pictures of meals but I honestly really never think about it ; )
Hmmm now I am hungry... time for the kiddos to take a bath and go to bed and then we can feast on some cauliflower soup yum yum...

Lastly I know I am very opiniated and although I have about 10lbs to lose to get to my weight of 10 years ago 108lbs for 5foot 2. I am always amused by people who don't use butter or cream because it is "unhealthy" but yet drink soda, eat store bought pizza and all kinds of other food.

It seems that what works for me is rather small portion of good food which often involves a little cream and butter.

On that thought my glass of white wine is calling me, my kids need to be put to bed and my evening with my husband needs to get starting although he is singing Hey Julie from fountain of Wayne wait oh wait would he remember the whole song heheheh
Lets put Buzzlighter to bed!

I'm beat

OMG you would think that after running 8.5 miles last sunday a mere 5.5miles maybe even 6miles, hey I can dream can't I would be easy. Well the run wasn't that bad but the recovery is painful. Maybe it has to do with the anniversary celebration of last night with more alcohol sake than water and the light breakfast 2.3 piece of bread no lunch and a run at what 1:30pm.... Anyways besides that my exercize regimen is on track and I can say that I do feel stronger and faster than ever. Well thank you I'd be pissed otherwise. I run like 3 times week at least 3-4 miles, swim 1K once a week and bike 10 miles once a week.
Eventhough my fitness level is much better, my weight isn't budging much but hey I do feel better.

Other than that we just celebrated our 9 year anniversary. I can't believe that 9 years just went by. I know I am going to sound sooooo gagging romantic but it has been a great 9 years and I hope we have many more to come.

The kiddos are growing too fast. Maia is biking with little wheels and Miles is just zooming by. We just moved Maia from a crib to her twin bed and she almost clean at night.... Where did my babies go? Well maybe they turned into the cutest ever how did that happen the wonders of genetic ahahaha.

With everyone around me pregnant celebrating their 1-3 years anniversary getting married I do feel a little old for my 33 years. So my answer is to work out.
On this note I am going to try to recover from that stupid run where I gave up 100yards from the end! I mean come on how could I do that!!! the wind maybe or just my body saying huuuu can't we just go dring a glass wine instead.
Tonights program, glass of wine in front of BONES love that show along with CIS, CIS NY, NCSI, and so many more it is impressive how many shows we are watching lately with no TV/CABLE

What is possessing me

In the last month I have decided that I will run the Carlsbad half marathon in January. Since this event will happen 3 weeks after we get back from France where we exercize our forks and glasses more than running I decided to start training early. Oh boy I didn't realize that 2 month of very very little running will throw me back to the really starting point of running.
Also it has been really muggy lately and I hate running when it is humid and warm.

But I have to admit that after 3 weeks I was able to run a slow 5 miles loop at 2pm and it was hot (about 87F)

I also started obsessing about triathlon. This is one activity that has always tempted me and I decided that the best way to start would be to add swimming and biking to my training.... So now I run 3 times a week, swim once a week and bike once a week.

My body isn't really happy with me. It went from relaxing on the couch to do all those things. Anyways this is my latest obsession. I don't know why maybe it has to do because I was never very athletic. I did swim and run and bike but never to a point where I would push my limit.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that I am not getting any younger and that my body isn't as slim as it once used to and never was that muscular.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that I live in a country where you see so many kids already big and that I want my kids to get used to the fact that exercize is part of life.
Finally maybe it has to do with the fact that I have to challenge myself and maybe find an activity that both helps my mind and my fitness level.
We will see where this adventure will take me I just hope that I found something that I like. My husband has surfing I would like to have my own atheletic outlet ;)

Drape crisis....

I haven't posted in ages, I have been swamped with work deadlines, sick kids for the past two months. Anyways after 2 months of silence my first post will be on my drape crisis.
A few months ago I repainted the wall with all the windows in a beautiful shade of blue and the other wall a nice wet sand color. I was really happy the bedroom looked way more cozy which was what we were looking for.
The only problem is that I decided to replace our rundown blinds by drapes hence the crisis.

I never realized that it would be near impossible to match both the wall light color and the blue and keep the light out.
I tried an ivory microsuede but ivory and sand don't match, then an oatmeal linen panel closer but not close enough, a dark blue but the purplish hue was awful against the blue and finally a beautiful silk stone brown which goes very well with the ligh wall but not with the blue....

If I want to keep the blue and the sand I either have to bite the bullet, buy white curtains and use blackout curtain to prevent the light to get in or start visiting the fabric store of the neighborhood for the perfect shade of navy blue.
Otherwise I guess I will have to repaint that blue wall the same sand shade than the other walls.

Drama drama drama....
Very meaningless on the grand scheme of things but stressful and frustrating at the same time...

I hope to post pictures of the completed project very soon.

So after 5 trips to

Fav Summer food

My newest favorite food consist of Nectarine or Peach or Juicy apricot with Greek Yogurt and a touch of sugar.
Sometimes I add some pecan, praline granola from Tradder Joes for a healthy breakfast
Yum!

Running in summer ...

Well I'm trying to keep up with my exercize regimen which isn't allways easy. Errands, sick kids, work deadlines and meeting are often getting the way of my lunch run but now the weather is not helping me. Well it is summer in San Diego after all and I shouldn't be complaining about the beautiful weather we have been getting but hey running at lunch when it is 90 degrees is not easy for me.
Some people I know love to work out in the heat. It justs cuts my legs and energy and after a painful 2.5 miles with stops, I have headaches all afternoon.

I am proud cuz I did it but I will have to figure something out for the rest of the summer! I will try one of the following:
- get up early 6:30am and go for a run then
- get up as usual but get to work around 8am and run there
- run in the evening - not likely to happen since I like to spend time with the kids by that time and have my evening glass of wine to end my work day and start my evening ; )
Will keep you posted on the progress of my new workout regimen! I hope I can find something that works because running is so good for me.

Busy busy busy....

Oh boy am I busy right now... I am squeezed like a lemon between tight work deadlines, sick kids, the need to go exercize and life in general.
Today I had to take my son to the pediatrician because he had headaches and it is always good to check things out. So instead of going for my planned run I picked up my son from daycare and took him to the doctor. It was a great visit, he is fine which helps a lot and he was so happy to have this unplanned time with me. He talked about it all afternoon!

So tonight when I picked up the kids I was looking forward to Miles asking to go eat out like he does. I was tired, I had a headache I didn't feel like cooking!
But no no mention of Sammy's woodfired pizza so like a reasonnable person I took the fish out of the freezer and decided that we would have a healthy dinner tonight.

So after the kids went to bed I looked in my french cookbook and found the sauce I wanted to make to go with my fish... Well I should say my version of the sauce because french gourmet cook have a tendency to lighten a sauce using butter which is for Californian heresy ahahah.
Anyways I sauteed some shallots and garlic in olive oil added a dash of ginger,
Then I added a glass of white wine followed by a little bit of beurre manie (which is a mixture of butter and flour used to thicken sauces) a little cream always for a sauce. I let it thicken a little and finished the sauce by adding a dash of curry powder.

Bryan likes fish only with sauce to distract him from the fish hehehe! except when eating sushi.
I breaded some orange roughy fillet and sauteed them in a little olive oil, boiled some brocolini which I find much more tasty than brocoli, along with some rice noodles I needed some carbs and was felt like experimenting.
We drank some Honeymoon Viognier from Tradder Joes.
It was a really nice dinner which helped put the tension from the day away!

I am dreaming of a vacation in the carribean.... Maybe one day! My bed is calling me along with my laundry.

Hmm my posts are few and far in between.... Is it because I am lazy or maybe because I don't really have a whole lot to say... Hmmm but yet I can't ever shut up when I get started on things...

Yeah the construction started in our house, we are turning our loft into a real room with a wall and a door and even a built in closet so that we can sale our house as a 3 bedroom. But wait a minute when we bought the house 3 years ago it was advertised as a 3 bedroom... go figure. The only oddity will be a big glass panel instead of a wall but I think it will look real nice.
So as a built in closet we decided to buy the Pax closet from IKEA and have it built into the wall... So yesterday after dinner we started building this closet. We measured everything to make sure that we could build it laying down and could still tilt it back up. It was just but according to the tape measure we were good... Needless to say that we were short a quarter of an inch. After trying to force it make the ceiling buldge ahaha dig into the carpet we gave up! Unfortunately instead of playing it safe once more and undo everything to start over following the instruction properly we decided to be smart. Well the all thing collapse so we have to redo it tonight ; (
My husband was really mad which I totally understand, the contractor and his guy had a forced day off and another evening will be spent building IKEA furniture....

Besides that I started working out again, went to the gym on monday, ran on tuesday and of course Maia is now sick so I will have to summon the courage to go for a run tomorrow and push her in the stroller!!!! I can do it I can do it.

Chick lit part 2

Since we are watching less TV I have been reading much more. In an earlier post I shared my fondness for chick lit.
We had some friends over for dinner, our guest picked up one of my books from the counter and asked me to describe the book to him. When I described it as a chick lit he immediately asked me if I went to see the Sex in the city movie.
I like more the romantic comedy type chick lit, The holiday, Notting Hill, Sweet Home Alabama, Just like heaven. I'm not a big fan of sex in the city, desperate housewives and the like.
Since I drained my two favorite author Marian Keyes and Jane Greene I tried a third one Sophie Kinsella. I like her shopaholic series although the main character is a little upsetting. I mean how many times is she going to put herself in serious debt before realizing that she needs to shop less!!!
I liked her two other books better.
Since I am planning on studying for the Microsoft .NET certificate I won't have as much time to read : ( I am going to need to find myself new books!!!!

Flowers flowers I love flowers ....

Something you need to all know is that I love flowers. I even worked at a flower shop when I was in highschool on sunday morning.
It is one of my secret dream to open a flower shop.
So my friend Jessica is getting married and since they try to keep a reasonnable budget and that flowers in this country are insanely expensive I opened my big mouth and offered to help. Since then my brain has been fizzing with ideas literaly ideas are popping like bubbles in a soda... yes that many. Trust me I think Jessica is wondering what she got herself into. I NEED creative outlets...
Anyways the wedding is not until december but since I want to deliver something professional looking and different I did play around this week end with different ideas and made my first "wedding bouquet". To get a feel for what she likes but also to show what I do. Here are some pictures so you can judge for yourself.

I only had 10 minutes to do it so it is not as finished as I would like it to be but it is a first idea. She is looking for a longer, simpler bouquet rather than a round bouquet.

The color theme is green and white which I think is really beautiful. The flowers I used in this bouquet were green calla lily, bells of Ireland (green bells), lys, bear grass, some twig, tea leaf, and another flower I don't remember the name.

For my next try I would need to replace the lys by another white flower. They are beautiful but their perfume is too strong. I would chose white calla lily instead of green.

I then added the rest of the flowers and some deep red gerberas to finish my weekly bouquet.

The bitter sweet moments of life

Yes Yes I finally did it. I finally picked up my rollers and started painting my bedroom. I started last week end while the kids were supposed to sleep! Yeah right the naps in our household have been lately wishful thinking. Even Maia decided that sleeping during the day was completely overrated. So here I am firmly decided that I will paint my first wall pretty interesting experience I have to say. It started very well, they both sat at the edge of the plastic covering the ground looking at me in awe ;) commenting on how the blue looked nice etc... Then they moved to the bed were they jumped and jumped. We had a few fights, a few tears played a few counting games and it was all done in about 1H30min.

Since in the evenings I am just not motivated enough to do anything else than read or watch a show. Saturday early afternoon, sunday early afternoon and sunday all evening was spent to paint and I completed most of my bedroomand the beginning of the bathroom. It looks awsome and I am super happy.
Other than that we went to Sears outlet bought a new high efficiency washer and a dishwasher, had a nice breakfast, cooked indian food, went to some friends house for a really nice bbq, went to Julian for lunch and a nice little walk and baked two huge aple crumbles for my uber boss's birthday celebration. I peeled 9lbs of aple ; )
That was a great week end!

Then tuesday came our new washer was delivered and installed. They started it to make sure that it worked well. I did try to reset the settings to not use too much hot water since it was a dry run and found it a little suspicious when I couldn't do it. Since I had to rush back to work I decided not to worry about it. Well at 10:30pm after loading up the washer with all my dark laundry I just couldn't choose the program that I wanted I felt defeated and mad and depressed.
Yes the brand new washer electronic doesn't work!!!! ARGGGGGH!!!!! The pain the frustration.... It lasted until today early afternoon ; )
It is amazing how quickly the feeling of accomplishment and happiness is replaced by utter frustration, depression and anger.
Someone will come between 8am and 12pm on friday hopefully something decent will come out of this ;) I love that they ask you which 4 hours of your day already crazy busy would you like to waste waiting for some service guy who is going to tell you that nothing can be done ;)
In the meantime my laundry is accumulating and I hope to have enough clothes until I have a working washer.
In the meantime I haven't exercized one bit since my last really painful run and will try to get out tomorrow evening.

Saturday evening ramblings

I did it, I mustered the courage to go for a run this morning despite my lack of sleep, despite the fact that I had a piece of french toast an hour before and the heat starting to rise up. It was slow but nonetheless I ran my 3.5 miles with a little break at the end!
Besides that I was looking for a ticker since I think I'm committed in my head to run the Carlsbad half marathon. I still can't decide since I've been wanting to run a half marathon for the past 6 years without making it past the wishful thinking. Maybe this time since I'm surrounded by women who did run a half marathon I will actually be able to do it... Anyways as I was browsing the internet I stumbled on a praise to moms starting by before I was a mom .... I thought I would write a few lines about motherhood since it is a big part of my life having two wonderful children of 4 and almost 2....

So here it is
Before I was a mom I slept 10 hours straight...
Before I was a mom I only made round pancakes now they are race cars, boats, trains etc...
Before I was a mom my husband didn't make very yummy chocolate chip cookies
Before I was a mom I didn't have to sing (off key I might add) because my son demanded it every night for a few month
Before I was a mom I didn't have to leave work abruptly...
Before I was a mom we didn't have to bring the class pet rabbit home who is now running all over the house I can hear him running around and wonder if he is pooping all over the place... Hmmm I'll have to clean the floors tonight.

Since I am a mom I've still been able to shower every day, cook nice meal which turned out to be one of my creativity outlet eventhough I now start at most of the time after 8:30pm.

I love being mom eventhough it isn't always easy to juggle family, work, home and all the things I like to do.

It isn't always easy but it sure is rewarding and fun!

Now off to cooking my saussage risotto yum!

Tragedy of shopping

So I went online to this website called www.shopbob.com, within seconds I found my style under the section haute mama. Hey why not I'm a mama maybe not a haute mama but who knows... I quickly narrow down my style: modern sophisticated in other word classic chic classic but not too boring or so I wish. Finally after a quick browsing I found:

the purse I've been looking for

a really cute dress

a nice pair of shoes....

Price tags 675$, 628$ and 425$! At that point I reluctantly closed the browser and went back to my code.
Unfortunately two daycare payments and a mortgage in beautiful San Diego are taking care of most of our spare change.
And then if any desire of splurging survived the financial dilemna the voice of reason starts its little serenade do you really need a 650$ purse you already have 3 that you hardly rotate, don't you need a pair of pants a jacket and a pair of shoes etc... So I think I will revisit this beautiful site and browse the trend and then go to the sale section of my other favorite sites JCrew, Banana Republic, Max Studio and try to get the same style at a more reasonnable price...

But darn that purse was beautiful and now the Marc by Marc Jacob purse at 430$ seems almost cheap in comparison ahahahah.
The tragedy of shopping!