My running is going well so far.  I haven't felt any soreness or anything, even after my long 8 mile run Saturday.  I think running about every other day or so has helped to give me good recoup time.  I ran about 5 miles (no Garmin so not sure on the exact distance) on Monday night after work by myself since Jen had dinner plans that night.  This was one of those runs that felt pretty forced for the first mile or two until I reached a comfortable place somewhere in the 2-3 mile range.  Sometimes I get out there and feel great from the minute my feet hit the pavement and sometimes it's a real concerted effort to get there.  This was one of those nights.  Anyway, I was happy that I pushed through and got it done.
I also want to mention something I've noticed.  Running socks actually make a big difference.  At least for me.  At the advice of the guy at Charlotte Running Company  when I got my new sneakers, I got two different pairs of running socks (Nike and some other kind).  The guy told me that cotton socks are not ideal to run in, especially if you have issues with blisters, which I did after the trail run in my old Adidas sneaks.  He talked me into trying some running socks, and I'm glad he did, because I really feel like they help.  The two times I've worn them running have been way more comfortable than my regular socks.  I think I'm going to get a bunch more pairs and will definitely wear them on my long runs.
Tennis is kind of on hold this week.  After my two lessons and practices I was feeling semi-prepared for my first team match tonight, but my team leader isn't having me play after all.  I think it's because a) he hasn't met me or seen me play yet and probably wants to assess that before putting me in and b) we're playing one of the toughest teams in the league tonight so again- makes sense to go with people you've seen play and know are good.  My plan is to go watch and meet my teammates tonight though.
I got quite a surprise yesterday afternoon when Greg called and said he was on his way home and would be getting into CLT around 5:30!  Turns out the airline is still finishing up his background check and he can't fly or observe in the cockpit til he's clear.  He knew his might take longer than most with all his different companies, some now defunct but didn't know it would buy him more time at home.  Hey, I'll take it!  He still gets paid the minimum time anyway, so that's good!  Clyde came with me to get Greg at the airport and proceeded to shower him with kisses from the minute Greg got in the car!  We went to Petsmart for some dog food and bunny litter on the way home and Clyde got spoiled with some new tennis balls, a platypus toy, new treats, and....wait for it...a doggie SNUGGIE!  LOL!

At home I whipped up another round of Bok Choy ginger stir-fry (as seen here) for us for dinner.  This time I added a zucchini and some mushrooms in to the mix and we had it over Uncle Ben's Ready Rice (brown rice).  I loooooove brown rice, but making it can be a pain in the butt if you don't plan ahead since it takes so long to cook.  The Ready Rice cooks in the microwave in 90 seconds.  Handy when you are crunched for time!

We played with the puppy and watched LOST.  Um, how crazy was last night's episode???  Do you guys watch it?  I can't believe it's almost over and we're going to find out what's really going on soon!  Can't wait!

Yay!

I won a blog contest!  I was on April Ziegler and entered to win some doggie clothes from Beantown Handmade for Clyde and won!  Very cool!!!  I found the website/contest on Leslie's blog recently because April is her wedding photographer and did her engagement picture shoot.  I guess being a blog stalker pays off :)  Clyde has won this hat, which will be custom made for him:

Now I just need to pick out colors for the hat...  Any suggestions???

 I have to pick a base color and a trim color.  Help!

Mother's Day montage

Here's some pictures of my mom and I in honor of Mother's Day :)

8 MILE(s)

Greg's time at home didn't last long, just as I suspected it might not. I left work early Thursday to get him at the airport, and then decided to take leave on Friday to spend the day with him. I'm really glad I did, because Friday night he got called and was told he needed to fly out Saturday night, so we didn't have him home for long.
Thursday after picking Greg up and hanging out for a little while, I met up with Jen, Michelle, and Kelly for a 5 mile run on the south side. My new sneakers felt great and Jen said that our pace was faster than usual when she checked the Garmin. I attributed it to my new "magic shoes".

Greg and I had a quiet night and home. I made veggie quesadillas and he and Clyde caught up on lost time :)

Friday we enjoyed a lazy morning before venturing out for some errands at Lowe's and Harris Teeter. We also had lunch out at this place called Bullfeathers. It was nothing to write home about. I had grilled chicken strips with BBQ sauce and sweet potato fries and Greg had a veggie burger and regular fries. I could have easily created the same meal at home myself, which is kind of my benchmark for weather a place is worth going to or not. Oh well, it was a "date lunch" out, so still kinda fun :)
Jen and Jeff came over for casual pizza and salad Friday night so they could finally meet Greg. We got FOUR Donato's pizzas, since we all like leftovers, and I made us a big salad with homemade balsamic dressing. Clyde got a lot of attention.  Jen and Jeff are big fans of Clyde.
Saturday morning I got up EARLY for my 8 mile run. I was almost as nervous as I would be for a race! This is maybe the longest distance I've ever run, at least conciously! I fueled with a little bit of coffee, one of Kelly's coconut chocolate date balls, and half a bagel with almond butter and banana.

The group run I was doing is really two seperately schedule runs from the same location, but a lot people come and do both. The first is a 5 mile loop at 7am, and the second is a different 3 mile loop at 8am. Gibson met me there and stayed with me for the 5 miler. I wasn't really feeling the run at first but somewhere around 3-4 miles in I got my stride and felt awesome. We got back to the starting point and I got to pee and grab water before starting the second loop. The second loop was HILLY. I had to scroll to some AC/DC on the IPOD to stay motivated and did end up walking for around a minute about twice on some of the worse hills. I finished though, 8 miles down!  Yay!  I was TIRED after.
I got home and showered and contemplated a nap. I couldn't really sleep though. I was just physically tired, not really sleepy tired. After a couple hours I made Greg and I sort of a brunch meal, since by this time it was pushing lunchtime. I've been eyeing this recipe for Pancake Truffles ever since Caitlin posted it a couple weeks ago, and OMG I'm so glad I made them- they ROCKED!

I recommend making them immediately.
We did some not very fun yard work (not exactly how I like spending my limited time with my honey, but it desperately needed to be done!), and before I knew it, Greg was packing and getting ready to leave yet again (thumbs down). I drove him to the airport. We think he'll be gone about 2 weeks for this round of training, but aren't really sure.  This portion is known as IOE and he's flying the actual plane.  He doesn't have a set monthly schedule like he will when he's back flying, they kind of schedule him as he goes, which is why we aren't sure how long he'll be gone or when he'll be home again.  They estimated about two weeks though.
After dropping him off, I headed to meet Kelly, Brad, and Josie for dinner in South Park at Maggiano's. I opted for Shrimp Pasta and a glass of Chianti. Brad had attended the Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ Festival in South Park that afternoon and was coming down off his buzz...lol. He headed home after dinner and us girls went to a nearby wine bar called Dolcetto. I was in the mood for something sweet so I got a Reisling and we split a delicious molten chocolate cake with raspberry sauce. Sooooooooooooo good!
Today is a lazy Sunday. Clyde and I are mainly lounging. I had a bowl of yogurt, strawberries, and mango and some green tea when I got up. Also one of Kelly's Cranberry Almond Protein bars that I heated up.

I caught up on TIVO and watched the Netflix movie that's been gathering dust on my TV stand for about two weeks. It's so hard to find time to watch movies lately!! I watched Martian Child. It was decent. I also took Clyde for a walk around the hood. More lounging to come!

Tennis, Running, and the return of the pilot!

What a week.  I've been remarking to some of my friends that I think I may have gotten a little overly ambitious by taking on a tennis league and training for a half-marathon at the same time.  I pretty much have one or the other going every day so it's been kind of all-consuming.  Monday I got about a 4 mile run in with Jen after work.  That will probably be my last run on my Adidas sneakers.  I decided it was time for them to go to the sneaker grave yard and for me to get fitted for SERIOUS running sneakers now that I'm taking on real races and more miles.  I finally had a chance to get over to The Charlotte Running Company and get a good pair of shoes at the advice of several serious runners.  It came down to choosing between three pairs: Brooks Adrenaline (a known favorite among friends and bloggers, I've noticed), Asics (forget the model??), or Nike Zoom Structure Triax.  Now, a long time ago I tried Nike running sneakers and didn't like them at all.  I thought they were really narrow and uncomfortable and vowed I would avoid them in the future.  Upon trying these Nike's I was surprised at how light and cloud-like they felt on my feet.  After careful consideration I went with the Nike's deciding they did indeed feel the most comfortable.  I think I could have gone with any of the three and been good though.  Here are my new sneaks (we New Englanders like calling them that, sorry for the over use of the term!!):

I like em :) I'll get to test them out tonight on my 5 mile run with some of the girls. I think I have started a running group on the south side of Charlotte, we have like 4-5 of us running tonight- COOL!
I had a tennis practice session with my tennis recruiter Tuesday night. We did some ball machine drills and some volleying. Mainly I worked on basic forehand and backhand. No serving! Wednesday night I had another lesson with the pro. This lesson was great. We worked on everything and she went over a lot of the things I needed to work on for doubles matches, which is what I will be playing in my league. I'm very nervous about playing doubles. I would almost rather play singles matches, because then at least I'm only responsible for myself if I win or lose and not someone else's matches. Plus, I'm hoping I don't ping someone in the head with the ball on the way over the net...tricky tricky. My serve seems to be improving, but I still want to practice it more. I also worked a lot on my short game for when I'm at the net. I'm just hoping I don't embarrass myself on the court!
I got a text from Greg this morning that he passed his sim check ride last night (it went late- after midnight) and was headed home to Charlotte! I decided to take tomorrow off since we don't know how long he'll have off before he has to start IOE/flying. I'm hoping he's home a couple days at least, but I'm not holding my breath. I know how this goes! Can't wait to give him lots and lots of hugs and kisses!!

Birthday weekend recap part 2

Saturday afternoon I mowed the lawn, walked Clyde, then passed out for about an hour before I needed to get up and get ready for my big bad birthday party.  Kelly and I found out a while back that our birthdays were two days apart and have been saying ever since that we should have a joint birthday party.  A couple weeks ago, we got organized and sent out a mass Evite to our friends for the festivities.  We decided to have the event at Las Ramblas, a tapas place we had previously visited back in the fall.  About 20 people came, and I thought it was really fun. 

The only drawback was that because we had such a large crew we had to break up into two tables, and Kelly and I didn't get to sit together.  We table hopped though, and I thought overall it was a great success.  My friend Sarah was at a wedding, so her boyfriend Tim came by himself, and I happily snagged him to be my "date" and share tapas with me.  We got a goat cheese and spinach salad, a goat cheese/spinach/garlic pizza, calamari, and chicken skewers with tzikiki sauce.  Josie and Gibson got us a delicious cake with huge tall silver candles in it, which Kelly and I blew out together. 

Some of the group went to Andrew Blair's to after party for a little while.

It was a really fun night :)
Sunday morning was really my only downtime of the weekend.  I walked Clyde and caught up on internet junk.  Sunday afternoon I set out to find tennis sneakers and then met Gib at Target to get some baby stuff.  We went over to a co-worker's house to deliver the goods and meet their brand new baby boy.  SO CUTE!  I totally want one!  He was such a good baby.  I held him for about a half hour while we all talked and he pretty much slept in my arms the whole time.  Ahhhhh :)

I rushed back home to take Clyde out and change before heading to my first tennis lesson.  It went well.  I need work on my serve for sure.  The rest of my game isn't bad though.  I really am enjoying getting back into tennis.  It's a fun sport.
I stopped off at the grocery store on my way home after tennis and then took Clyde for a second walk to make up for all the time I was gone during the afternoon.
I sauteed bok choy, onion, and spinach with a little oil, garlic, and ginger and served that with some coconut rice for my dinner.  Good stuff!

It was one of those weekends where I totally did not have enough down time and could have used like two more days to get everything I really wanted to do done.  I had a great time though and everything I did was tons of fun.
Greg is taking his oral exam today and has his sim test on Wednesday.  In theory, he'll be home after that if he doesn't go strait to IOE.  Fingers crossed!

Birthday weekend recap part 1

Ok, sorry readers for the CAL rant.  It's not like it's going to change anything for us right now anyway, we just had been hoping for Greg to get recalled in the fall, which was the rumor before mergers talks happened.  The pay scales at CAL are pretty good, so it would have meant an almost an immediate double in pay if he got recalled since Greg was almost at year two pay when he got furloughed.  We were just looking forward to that instead of like year 4 of first year airline pay (which SUCKS!).  It would have made life a lot easier (money-wise) and helped us be confident in starting a family sooner.  Now we'll just have to talk about how to proceed and see how this all plays out.  I appreciate everyone's support though.  I know you all mean well and I'm sorry if I'm sensitive about this stuff, but it's been a hard couple of years and I just wish we had more good news.  I feel like Greg is so unlucky with his aviation career.  He's never in the right place at the right time!
Ok, moving on.  This was the busiest weekend I've had in a while.  My birthday was Friday, and despite Greg not being home, it was one of the best birthdays I've had in a while.  My work friends took me out to lunch at my favorite Greek place where an awesome Gyro salad was happily consumed and my arms got a slight sunburn from our choice of outside seating (totally worth it!).  After work, I didn't have anything planned for Friday night, as Kelly and I had a party planned for Saturday night.  I also didn't want to go too nuts partying Friday night because I had an 8K trail run scheduled for early Saturday morning.  Kelly called me and asked if I wanted to meet for a drink after work, and I thought an early evening drink outside sounded perfect.  She, Jen, and I (and Rascal and Clyde) met at my local wine bar for a nice bottle of Pinot Gris.  I ended up having more than I probably should have though and Saturday morning I woke up a little dehydrated and had to choke down quite a bit of water and smoothie to feel ready for my run!  Also, side note, I am a fan of adding spinach to my smoothie's thanks to Kelly and multiple health food bloggers that I stalk who do the same, but was out of spinach and thought I'd try a big leaf of romaine lettuce in my smoothie for a little greenage.  NOT THE SAME AT ALL!!  Definitely noticeable and GROSS!!  Oops!  Lesson learned!   I drank most of it anyway so it would not be wasted, but will never make that mistake again!

Jen, Michelle, and I met at the US National Whitewater Center for our 8K run Saturday morning.  The run was great.  Jen and Michelle had signed up for the first wave, but decided to take the 2 minute penalty and run in my wave after Jen recalled getting trampled by a bunch of hardcore people at last year's run.  We pretty much stayed together.  The wooded course was definitely challenging, but I kind of enjoyed it and felt like I probably did better in this type of race than I actually would against most runners in a road race.  The terrain kind of evens the field in a way.  My time was just over 54 minutes.  I have no basis for comparison, but I was pretty happy with my time.  I was 28th out of 55 runners in my age group.  I got some good swag too, some mini-Luna bars, a water bottle, a t-shirt, and a Bondi Band that I won in a drawing post-race!  Yay- I never win anything!  Michelle, Jen, and I actually ran two more laps around the WWC after the trail race to bring our day's total to 10K in preparation for my upcoming half-marathon, which they are running as well. 

After the run, Jen and I headed back home and got to thinking we were kind of starving.  I mentioned this BBQ place called Jim and Nicks, which Jen hadn't been to, and it was decided that we would go there for our post race mass consumption.  I opted for a brisket sandwich and side salad and Jen had a "pig in the garden" which is pulled pork over a salad.  The service was crappy, but the food totally hit the spot!