Lasagna Rally and Au Fond

After work last night, I ran by Muddy's for cupcakes and Lucchesi's for garlic bread and then headed over to Madonna's for dinner with the girls. Heather is staying with her right now and she loves Aimee's lasagna so we decided to bring some to her so she would eat a little. April W. and April H. came over too. Madonna busted out some wine while we got everything ready. I got a little crazy with the decanter.

And Aimee and I found something really funny about our LSU cups.

Dinner was very, very good. I ate way too much but at least I didn't clean my plate because Aimee put way too much pasta on there.

I think Heather enjoyed the girls night because she did a whole lot more laughing than she did crying.

I was able to get home at a decent hour even though I didn't want to leave these bitches. I was in bed by 11:00 but I didn't get up early for a workout. I slapped together a peanut butter and banana sammy and made it to work in a storm. Memphis is suppose to be hit pretty hard this afternoon and tonight with bad weather. They have been calling for severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and heavy hail. Apparently the Weather Channel thinks it is going to be so bad that they have sent in Jim Cantore. He is broadcasting from downtown right now.

I just got back from lunch with Marcy. We went to Au Fond and I had the B.E.L.T.

Bacon, egg, lettuce, tomato dressed with remoulade. It was delish! Back at work to wrap up a few things before heading to the Key Indicator meeting and then out of the office for a week!

Shrimp and Grits. Mini Taco Salads. A trip to the vet and finally some workouts!

I did not get home in time for a workout Monday night. I forgot I needed to hit up the grocery store since the cupboards were bare. I was luchy enough to be able to find the makings for a 'dilla for an afternoon snack though.

Monday night I tried a new dish I found a recipe for shrimp and grits and gave it a whirl.

Everyone gobbled it up, including Gina (the cleaning lady at work). I got up in time for an early workout Tuesday morning....first time in forever. I did Jillian's Yoga dvd and then mixed up blueberry smoothies for the little boy and I. I went to the gym at lunch to get some cardo in. 25 minutes bike and 30 minutes treadmill, 4.2mph and 3% incline. I worked up a great sweat and headed back to the office after a quick shower for some more shrimp and grits. Taco and Margo had appointments with the vet that afternoon for their yearly exams/vaccinations.

They did a great job and luckily didn't stay made at me too long after it was over with!

Dinner was mini deer taco salads, oven baked corn tortilla chips and black bean and corn salsa.

After dinner, we got to watch the Tigers get another W over Houston. I was up early again this morning to get on the ellip and watch the first episode of Criminal Minds I have been able to tape this year since Comcast was so sucky. Still lovin the Directtv :) Breakfast was an egg/cheese/pico burrito and a banana. Lunch was a pilates workout at the Y and the last of the leftover shrimp and grits w/ some tomato and cucumber salad and spaghetti squash.

Sharky's. A friend in town and another friend's crisis. Sunday Funday and Interim.

Friday didn't start off on the best foot.....I had to take our Comcast router and cable box back to them to close the cable account and this is what I walked in to:

But I got through it and a don't have to deal with this stupid company again!!! Friday afternoon seemed to drag on forever but when it finally ended, I started the weekend off great. K and I had a couple of drinks and decided where the night should take us. We originally had plans to go to Sweetgrass for dinner with Mel and Chuck but MM got sick so we were on our own which was cool too. We decided to head to Sharky's and see what was going on there.

I had a little cleaning to do before we left though. At Sharky's I had a few glasses of wine and we split the appetizer trio (tuna sashimi, bacon wrapped grilled shrimp and crab cakes) It was some of the best tuna I have ever had.

For dinner, I had the iceberg wedge and the red hot roll. K had the filet and shrimp. Everything was really good but nothing compared to the tuna!!! After dinner, we went home and started to watch Dexter but decided it was time for bed.
We got up Saturday and everything started normal. We ran to Lenny's to grab a sub for lunch and then came home and started doing some chores and cleaning up since Susan was on her way to town. Even the pups got cleaned up....doesn't Taco look thrilled?

After all of the chores were done and my lunch was settled, I was about to go on a long run when Heather texted me and told me Jason was leaving her. I jumped in the car and picked her up. We went back to the house to wait on Susan and then headed over to the Courtyard by Marriott since I had more house guests than K was expecting and to give us some girl time. We got ready and headed over to River Oaks for some dinner and to watch the Tigers basketball game. The game wasn't so great but the food was to die for. Suz and I split a whole bunch of small plates.

I still had tuna on my mind after Friday's dinner so one of our plates was the tuna tartare.

We also had cheese beignets, mac and cheese and frites! All very, very good but the mac & chz was my fave. We hung around there for a little while and had a few laughs at some of the guys at the bar and posed for a few pictures, of course!

After dinner, we ran over to Brookhaven to meet Laura, Madonna, Billy, Mary and Vicky. We stayed out until about 1:30am and Heather actually had some fun so it was not a waste! Suz and I fell right back into our old ways and had so many laughs together about anything and everything. Our minds think so much a like and we are able to find so much humor in everything we see or do that it is always a laugh riot when we are together. Some of our biggest laughs came from Frederick Douglas, Flight of the Conchord, O Brother Where Art Thou and Coexist bumper stickers.

I also started talking to her about the possibility of coming on part time with Rodan + Fields, the skincare company she has been working for. I placed an order and am going to try it out to see if I like it and if I do and going to try my hand at selling it on the side to make a little extra dough. She has been using the product for a few months and looks amazing so I am pretty excited about it. So we got back to the hotel Saturday night and Heather went right to sleep. Suz and I stayed up even longer laughing about everything after I got over being annoyed with having 3 women using one vanity and having no room at all to get my makeup off.

We got up the next morning and got ready for another day with the girls and headed out to find a patio for lunch since the weather was so amazing. Mellow Mushroom was our pick and the patio was great.

We enjoyed a beautiful day with good food and good friends. We had the homemade hummus, avocado and bacon sandwich and chicken tortilla soup and everyone shared everything.

We sat under this tree that everyone loved! I would really love a few of these in the backyard. We left there and took Susan to the house where her R+F event was being held and said our goodbyes :(((( I circled back to  Lakeland and took Heather home and finally made it back to mi casa in time to relax with my guy for a while. Sunday night, we went to Interim for dinner. It was the 1st time K had been there and the 1st time I had gone for anything more than drinks. It was a treasure! I wish I had gotten pics of our food but forgot. I really am meaning to keep up with my food pics better but not doing so great here recently. We started off with the quail for an appy. It was grilled and served on top of roasted squash and mushrooms with a balsamic reduction. It was the best quail I ever had, not that I have had that much but it usually just tastes like dried chicken to me. This was really good. For dinner, I got the mussels and mac & chz and K got the pork tenderloin served on top of mashed sweet potatoes with roasted brussel sprouts. De. Li. Cious! All of it!! We were both exhausted and went straight to bed when we got home. Today has not been anything like I planned but oh well, I'm rolling with it. Have missed both workouts that I planned and my breakfast bowl was a total fail.

I mixed some greek yogurt, peanut butter and walnuts in with some oats.....blech! I have come to the conclusion that the only way I will ever like oatmeal is when it is drenched in butter and sugar. Lunch was some leftover Mardi Gras pizza that K brought home from Old Venice Saturday night. I am hoping to get home in time to do at least some form of exercise before dinner but not so sure since I have to go to the grocery store.

Cortisone, Baseball and Michael Oher

Tuesday was a busy day. I went home at lunch to clean the house because it was being shown that evening, I met the Directtv installer and after 2 nights with it hate that I didn't get it before and had to go to the podiatrist to get a cortisone shot in my heel. After all that, I was pooped plus I couldn't feel my foot so I grabbed the boy and we ran by Olive Garden to pick up some soup and salad for dinner and chilled the rest of the night on the couch with Directtv :)
Yesterday was pretty eventful too, luckily I felt good and had all feeling back in my foot. The day seemed normal at first. I got to work, went to the gym to work out at lunch and about an hour after getting back from the gym is when the panic set in. I went to rub my ear and felt my diamond earring was gone. I felt the other ear and that one was gone also. I knew I had not taken them off in weeks and the only explanation was they fell out while I was at the gym swimming. I made a beeline back to the Y, suited up and went on a hunt with the help of the guy that was using the lane I had used earlier and luckily enough we found both earrings and the backs. Both backs were broken. I have no idea what happened but was so relieved to have found them. After work, K and I took J to Davis Kidd bookstore to meet Michael Oher and get him to sign our book.

J waiting patiently in line.

We were getting closer to the front of the line.

J and Michael Oher.
He was humungus but seemed as sweet as a puppy dog. The place was packed and they were rushing the lines through so we didn't get to talk to him for long but it was still exciting. After that, we ran over to Swanky's to grab some dinner and watch the second half of the Tigers game. It was a close one again but the got the W over UAB. We made our way home and loved on the directtv a little more.
Today started crazy from the go but has calmed down. I went to a new class at the gym (yoga/pilates fusion) and liked it a lot. I have been staying off my knee as much as I can and it feels like it is pretty much healed but I'm still taking it easy. I will head back out Saturday sometime to try another 7 miles.

Valentine's Day

I made it through another stupid Valentine's Day. I think this is by far the silliest holiday ever!!!! I'm not going to waste any time about what I have against it and just talk about this year's events. I got up early and snuck a card and some candy onto the nightstands for J and K to find when they woke up. I got to work and had a really good Valentine's laugh:

This was part of Kim's outfit. I swear I could not walk past her without cracking up. Joyce, another girl in the office, gave me a little heart with candy.

2 of the candies were chocolate and caramel and so delicious and the other 2 were bullshit. I always check these kinds of chocolates before eating them because the bad ones make me gag and want to vomick. At lunch, I headed to the gym for a muscle works class and as soon as I was done, realized it probably wasn't a very good idea. My knee was hurting pretty bad. After work, I went over to mom and Roy's to have dinner with them and J. J talked mom into stopping at Walgreen's after she picked him up from school and got me a card and some chocolate turtles....one of my favorite candies. When we got home, K had a card, some Godiva chocolate and my favorite flowers waiting for me.

There's no flowers I love more than some tulips :) and I love that my boyfriend knows that! We spent the rest of the night lounging, icing my knee and watching Kansas State beat Kansas in basketball!!!!! Here's the horrible get up I had going on before bed:

I'm beginning to think running isn't worth it anymore.....

More snow...seriously! More homemade goodies. More store found goodies. Friday Family Date Night. Warm Weather. Grilling out. Pre-Valentines Day.

I was able to get back to work Tuesday but it didn't matter because we got slammed Wednesday and Thursday. SO. SICK. OF. IT!!! Tuesday night, I tried my hand at some homemade granola bars.

They were actually really good. J and K loved them too. I am going to tweek them a little next time. The recipe called for cinnamon and quite a bit of vanilla which I am going to do without and use some applesauce instead of oil but good turn out for the first time. Wednesday was a very annoying day. J was dismissed from school at 12:15 and by 1:30 the roads were unmanageable. Leegan came over to play with J and K braved the streets to grab us some wine and whiskey. It took him 30+ minutes to get to the liquor store that is about a mile and a half away. J spent the night at Leegan's and K and I worked on a new dinner. Deer steaks and gravy and it turned out damn good. I should have taken a picture but was heavy in the wine and forgot about it. We watched movies and Dexter on Netflix and I tried to forget about the weather. The boys came back to the house Thursday morning because Angie had to work. They were totally exhausted and laid around all day watching tv, which was fine by me because I was feeling a little under the weather and stayed in bed all day. After Angie picked Leegan up, J and I went to Walgreen's to get a poster board for his book report and found an awesome new treat.

This stuff was the bee's knees! J and I decided that we need to try our hand at making some homemade one day. We got back home and I was pooped, almost as pooped as Taco.

I'm not sure if it was the weather getting me down or if I really was under the weather but either way, I was a mess. I thawed some chicken white bean chili for the guys for dinner and we watched The Blindside. K had never seen it and I cried like I had never seen it either. The snow and ice had pretty much melted and the streets were fine by Friday morning. J went back to school and I went to work. I popped into the gym for a lunchtime pilates class and things were warming up and the sun was shining so by the time I got off work, I was in pretty good spirits. We met the Mays for some hibachi at Nagasaki Friday night.

The boys loved our food being cooked at the table and the adults loved all the riff raff that was there for our viewing pleasure. We had a lot of nascar fans, a lot of Joe Dirt look alikes and quite a few very large girls that had a fondness for the blue drinks. The food wasn't all that impressive but everyone is ready to go back ASAP! J and I got started early Saturday. We went to Gibson's to grab him some donuts. When we got home, I suited up for some marathon training since the Nashville Half is creeping up on us and I haven't done any long runs since November.

I took it pretty easy since it has been so long but it still was hell. It kicked my ass actually BUT I DID IT! I now have a swollen and achy left knee with some kinda -itis in it :( but I bought a brace for it and hopefully it will help. I also bought a foot brace for my plantar fascitis and woke up this morning with no heel pain! Anyways, after my run, J and I ran a few errands. I got 2 new Brahmins in exchange for the one K bought me for Christmas that I wasn't too fond of, J got his new fish, Harry, and we did some major damage at Sam's Club. We decided a grilled meal was in order for Saturday night since the weather was so much better than it has been so I picked up quite a few goodies at Sam's. This was our meal as I was prepping things:

And this is the finished project:

Cedar plank grilled lobster tail, cilantro lime shrimp, loaded potato and roasted broccoli. We got stupid on this meal and ate until we could barely walk.
Sunday was J's baptismal birthday and he and I met mom, Roy and Sis at church and then went to Huey's for lunch (his choice!!!). After lunch, we ran some errands and went home to enjoy the weather. We played around with his bow for a while.

The best archer there is!

I didn't bother taking off my Sunday linens for the play.
Mel texted me to let me know Weezer was back in the hospital for dehydration and that things aren't looking that good. I was going to meet her when she went back but after working all night and getting home to nap, she didn't wind up going back until late Sunday night. K and I took J out to dinner for his coming to Jesus birthday at Old Venice Pizza Company and then to Yo Lo for dessert. I was spent by the time we got home and pretty much went straight to bed. I cannot wait til the days are longer and warmer so my energy will be up.

Friday Family Date Night. Saturday MMA Fight Party. Superbowl. And more snow (Surpirse, Surprise!)

Friday night was Family Date Night with the Mays and Feathers. J had Jackson over to spend the night and we ran by Bass Pro first to get his bow restrung and the sights adjusted.

The boys had a lot of playtime in the store since it didn't take near as long as we thought it would. We finally made it out of there when it was time to meet everyone else for dinner. We met at My Favorite Place and enjoyed a few beers and a whole lot of food. K and I barely made it home before falling asleep. I think we were in bed and down for the count by 9:30.
J went over to his dad's Saturday and I ran a ton of errands while K cleaned out the garage and got the storage shed organized :) We went over to Joey and Katie's Saturday night for a MMA Fight party. There were a lot of people there and a lot to drink......my kegstand can be attributed to the lots to drink.

Yeah I still got it.......Jeesh! Wonder if I will ever grow up? I am kinda doubting it!

Melissa, Candace, me and Katie

K and I

The Aprils and me

This little party left K and I not feeling too hot Sunday so we decided to chill and hang at the house with each other and the puppies for the Superbowl. We ordered pizza and were able to actually watch all of the game, which was a hell of a game to watch. I couldn't have been happier about the Steelers losing!!!!!

Margo wasn't all that interested though!
Monday was a super short day. It started snowing that morning and school was cancelled by lunchtime so I had to head out to pick up J.

This was how Poplar Avenue looked when I left....as you can see, the roads are completely fine and there was absolutely no reason to dismiss school! When we got home, Grown Ups had come in the mail from Netflix so after a nap, I got busy making deer tacos, black bean and corn salsa and a salad and we were able to have a movie night with dinner.

The tacos were super duper and the movie was somewhat funny. Not one of Adam Sandler's best though. I got up early this morning, had an elliptical workout while I watched an episode of Dexter (just started watching this and like it a lot!) before work. I ran out to the gym at lunch for 15 minutes on the bike, 15 minutes jogging on the track and 15 minutes lifting weights.....All or nothing. All or nothing. All or nothing!!!! I really would like to look a little better in a bikini this summer than I did last summer. It would be super fabulous if I could look like I did 5 summers ago! Lunch today was a curried lentil soup that I also made last night and that can still be smelled in the house....not sure I want to cook with curry ever again. The house REEKS! And I can't get rid of it but the lentil soup was the bomb :)

Winter weather still messing with me. Pete & Sam's.

The weather Monday was pretty good, all hell had yet to break. I joined the Y at lunch time and ran a few errands. Went out to Mom and Roy's after work for dinner with J. By the time we got home, the rain had started and by the time I woke up Tuesday, the temperatures were falling. I went to the gym at lunch and had a really good cardio workout. 1 mile on the track, 15 minutes on the bike, 15 minutes on some new machine that is a combo of a stair climber and an elliptical (guess I will call it a climical until I figure out what it is). After work, I bundled up and made it home as quick as I could. The wind was blowing like crazy and it was f-f-f-f-f-freezing. Wind chill was 15 and wind gusts of 55mph were recorded. What a nightmare! Luckily our power stayed on and I was able to do a crab leg boil for dinner. Yesterday, I went to the gym at lunch and had a fitness test done on me before my workout. I'm in better shape than I thought!!! My body fat is 23.5% which is fine for a woman my age....."normal" is 20 - 25% but I want to make that better. Everything else I was tested on (strength, flexibility, cardiovascular health, blood pressure....) I scored good or excellent on. SWEET! :) After work, J, K and I met Nancy, Tony, Harry and his wife, Pat at Pete & Sam's for dinner.

Pete & Sam's is one of my favorite restaurants and not because of the great food, even though it is really, really good. I love Pete & Sam's so much because it brings back childhood memories. Mom and Roy use to take me there all the time and hardly anything in the restaurant has changed. Actually the only thing I can recall that isn't the same are the little personal jukeboxes that were at the front booths are gone now. I use to be so disappointed if we didn't get to sit at a table with one of those :( There were about 8 booths up front and on the wall next to each booth, there was a little bitty satellite station type thing where you could play the big jukebox right from your table. I really thought it was so cool! Here is a pic of the closest thing I can find to what they looked like:

 After dinner, we rushed home to get out of the cold AGAIN! I hate this shit!!!!! I woke up this morning to find out they are calling for an ice storm tomorrow. Just Great!