Three Things Thursday

1. Gone With the Wind - I finally finished this book. I'm usually a very fast reader but it took me 3 and a half weeks to get through this 1,448 page book! But it was well worth it. Gone With the Wind was hands down the best book I've ever read. There isn't anything I didn't love about it! The best part about it was realizing that I never have actually seen the movie, so now I can go back and compare! It's a long book, but it is a wonderful story and from what I've been told, the movie doesn't leave anything out! So if you're of the "The book was better than the movie" cohort, you might consider reading this! I'll let you know my opinion when I watch the film, but definitely go read this movie. It gives you an incredible sense of what it was like in the South during the Civil War, reconstruction, etc. and is just a beautiful story about survival. Contrary to what I thought, Gone with the Wind is not a love story, it's about struggle and survival and having the 'gumption' to survive.  I can't say enough about this book, so seriously, go pick it up and read it while you're being lazy on the beach for the rest of summer! You won't be disappointed, I promise.

2. Computer Issues - Does anyone have a Mac and not like it? I bought mine 1 year ago and have been trying to get used to it, and it has caused me nothing but stress, frustration and aggravation. I've always been great with computers but this is just too hard to figure out. I even went to Mac last year when I bought it and took a Tutorial class. Things that suck about a Mac? There is no End button. You know when you're blogging and you realize you made a typo and you click back, fix it and then hit end so you can get back to the end of the sentence? Doesn't exist. Also, the File/Folder system is just ridiculous. I honestly hate my computer and am putting it on EBay later because I don't want it anymore. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, I just really want a PC. So, if any of you are looking into a Mac, you should reconsider and really play around with one before you do because I just listened to everyone say MAC, MAC, MAC without ever touching one and I made a huge mistake.

3. Moving to New York - I was supposed to move to my apartment this Sunday and without going into too much detail, I'm not. If any of you have ever tried to find an apartment in Manhattan, you'll know that it isn't easy. I have a few leads on places, but this has all been very stressful since it all came about while I was in DC and I haven't been able to do a heck of a lot of it having been in DC and Atlanta and now Chicago, next week. I've been praying about it a lot and God has been answering my prayers in some pretty, "Hey, now you know I'm listening" type ways, which is awesome. But I'm still praying and I'll keep you all posted.

By the way, if you've ever wondered just why I put visiting every MLB stadium on my list, read my article here at The Bullpen of RedWhiteBluePrint.com, and let me know what you think!

Ballparks #7 and #8: Washington and Atlanta!

So I'm all caught up on all of your lovely blogs! It's taken me quite a bit of time, but I did it! Now, I don't feel like such a bad blogger anymore!

I just got home from the best, spontaneous date night, ever! The bf came over and said, "Put shoes on, we're going out." I, naturally, said, "Where are we going?" He said, "It's a surprise" and then took me to see the Goo Goo Dolls (who, if you don't know, are my all-time favorite band) and they were nothing short of amazing!

*Sigh*

Well I'm back from my adventures! It was so nice to wake up this morning, go for a run and then sit around my house all day relaxing! I feel like I have been go, go, go for the last 2 weeks!

Well, I kind of was! 2 weeks ago, I left for a long weekend trip to DC where I saw got to see all my friends, do all those tourist-y things like seeing the monuments and visit Ballpark #7: Nationals Park, home of the Washington Nationals!

Inside the Nats dugout!

That's right, I was INSIDE the dugout! How did I manage that? Well, the Nationals weren't at home, so I took a tour of the stadium! Now, someone asked me if I can still count it as having visited it if I didn't see a game there, I say...of course I can! I knew I had to be in DC that weekend and the Nationals unfortunately weren't in town. The exact text of my 9th goal is to "Visit every Major League Baseball stadium in the United States and Canada" and so far, I've been to 8 games at 8 parks and visited 1 park. When I'm in Chicago next weekend, I'll do the same thing at US Cellular Field because unfortunately, the White Sox aren't in town. I'd love to catch a game at every stadium, but trying to do so in 2 years isn't exactly going to be easy, so I'll have to settle for visiting, going inside, taking a tour, etc! And I'm in DC often enough that I most likely will catch a game there at some point this season!

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From DC, I came home but was in NYC from sun-up to sundown the 2 days I was here showing my best friend who was visiting around and trying to find an apartment =/ (more on that later this week). And then Wednesday night, I left for ATL to go visit The Pilot's sister and boy, oh boy did we have too much fun together! We went to Ballpark #8: Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves on Thursday!

Visited the World of Coca Cola on Friday,

Played a round of Pub Golf on Saturday,

Don't you just love the socks? Ryan's sister and I had matching outfits! If you don't know what Pub Golf is, I highly recommend you look at this page  or this one because it was an insane amount of fun and I'm already starting to plan a round of Pub Golf for my birthday! Sunday we needed some rest after the night's festivities, so we watched Elf in honor of Christmas in July!

Now, I'm back and will probably be just as busy this week as the last few weeks except I won't be moving around so much!

It's good to be back!

Marathon Monday!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! I'm back from the Peach State and boy did I have a great weekend! If any of you have ever played Pub Golf before, I'm disappointed that you didn't tell me about it because it is fantastic!

Today begins my first, albeit belated, Marathon Monday post! Now that I'm back from the heat, humidity and hills of Atlanta where I got in a few good runs, I can start sharing my training!

I'm currently in Base Trainining mode for the Philadelphia Marathon in November. After taking 4 weeks off of running due to a knee injury, I've been working at building a base of mileage so I can start my real training. I'm taking it slow so as to avoid injury and today marks Week 3 of Base Training. Week 1 gave me 4 easy 2-mile runs, totaling 8 miles for the week. Week 2 gave me 2 2-milers and 2 3-milers, totaling 10 and this week will give me a 3.5-miler, 2 2-milers and a 4 miler totaling 11.5 miles for the week. I've been feeling great so far and have been doing a good job at icing my knee after each run and really resting on my rest days.

I have 2 more weeks of Base Training where I'll build up to 9 miles to start my Training Cycle and in the mean time, I'm just cross-training and taking ot easy.

So this week's plan is:
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 3.5 miles
Wednesday: Cross-Training
Thursday: 2 miles
Friday: Cross-Training
Saturday: 2 miles
Sunday: 4 miles

I feel good about this week. I've done a great job at sticking with my schedule over traveling the past 2 weeks and only missed 1 x-training session, so I'm confident about getting all of my workouts in this week and building up my cross-training sessions.

Goals for this week:
-Run in the early morning for one of my training runs.
-Build up to 30 minutes during a cross-training session.

And now that I'm back home, I can catch up on what I've missed with all of you over the past week and a half! And of course, I'll drop in a post this week (with pictures!) about DC and Atlanta!

Cheers everyone!

three things thursday

I know, I know! Where have I been? Since I started blogging, I haven't been away from Blogger for more than a couple days and here it's been a week! Well, there's no better to catch you all up than with a weekly Three Things Thursday post, so here goes!

1. Washington, DC- I had an amazing weekend in DC! I got to see all of my friends, spend time lounging poolside and do all those fun, touristy things that one must do upon a visit to the Capitol! I was also able to cross another ballpark on my list: Nationals Park, which is all very exciting!

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*Sorry guys, I'm having trouble accessing my WiFi on my own computer, so I don't have any pics of my own to share! Otherwise, this post would be full of them!*

About an hour after I got back from DC on Sunday night, my best friend got to my house after a long drive up from North Carolina with her daughter and sister. We've known each other since out Freshman year of high school... from me moving up north to switching high schools three times, her getting married and having a baby, me going through college and traveling overseas, we've been through it all! So, I spent the early part of this week showing them all around New York City, which was quite exhausting having spend the previous 4 days doing the same thing in DC, but needless to say, it was a blast!

2. Marathon Mondays - I was planning to start this feature on Monday but due to my unplanned absence from Blogger, it'll have to be postponed until next week! In the meantime, I'm back running again and feeling great! You can see just what I've been up to running-wise here! It was awesome running in DC this past weekend and I'm excited to run in Atlanta this weekend and in Chicago next month! I have a 5k planned for September, a Half-Marathon in October and of course the big 26.2 in November, so I'm glad I'm training again!

3. This Weekend - I'll be at Ballpark #8 this afternoon: Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves! That's right loves, I'm in Atlanta, GA for the first time! I flew in late last night and am staying with a friend of mine who moved here in February! We're catching the Braves game tomorrow, lounging poolside on Friday, and doing all those Georgia Peach-like things one must do in Atlanta! The best part about it? My family is in town from Texas and I haven't seen them since April! So I'll get to see my dad, brother and little sisters!

I'll be catching up with all of your blogs soon, but in the mean time, have a great weekend!

Three Things Thursday

1. Marathon Mondays - On Monday, I'll be launching a new feature called Marathon Mondays where I'll post my weekly training schedules and counting down the days until Philly! For those of you who have been following, the doc gave me the ok to start running again this week and I've gone on 3 easy 2 mile runs and have been cross training with the elliptical in between runs. I've been RICE-ing after workouts and I feel great! So look out for Marathon Mondays starting next week!

2. Gran Torino - I crossed another movie off The Movie List this week! For those of you who haven't seen it, GO SEE IT! This has so far been my favorite movie on the list. While I'm not a huge Clint Eastwood fan, this was an unbelievable film. Set in Detroit, the film tells the story of Walt Kowalski, a bitter Korean war veteran who hates just about everyone. When an Asian family moves in next door, he's less than thrilled, but gang violence targeting the teenage boy next door leads him to be involved with the family in an unexpected way.


3. Weekend - I'm off to DC this weekend! DC has been my escape place for the past year - where I've gone when I just really needed to get out of Boston! I had a few friends there and over the past few months I've made friends with their friends and I'm so excited to see everyone! This time, I'm bringing The Pilot along and it's going to be a blast!

Christy in the kitchen

I've been busy in the kitchen these past few days cooking up some of my recipes from Real Girls Eat! I've raved on and on about this cook book, but I seriously can't talk enough about it! This is the book that taught me how to cook, how to substitute things to add different flavors and I just love it! So, here are a few things I've been sampling from the book! I'm sure you'll love them just as much as I did! And of course, as a reminder, I will not reproduce every single recipe in these books. To do so would probably fall under definition of some sort of copyright infringement and would probably make my two favorite cook book authors very angry. I will, however, do the following:

• Post pictures of all of these dishes attributing them to the proper author.
• Post my absolute favorite recipes that I feel must be shared.
• Post any recipes that I have, in any way, made changes to.

So, here goes: 

1. Banana Passionfruit Smoothie

I changed this slightly from the original, so I'll share!

To make:

Throw 1 large banana, a good chunk of passion fruit (I used frozen since this was impossible to find!), 1 and 1/2 cups soy milk and 1-3 drops vanilla in the blender! Blend well and serve!

2. Coconut Papaya Lassi

I typically don't like papaya, but this was tasty!

3. Fried Egg Sandwich

 

I wasn't thrilled about trying this one but it was delicious!

4. Picnic Pasta Salad

This is one of those absolute favorite recipes that I feel must be shared! I've made it several times and this time I made it for friends and everyone loved it!

To make:

[Ingredients]

1 package penne pasta

2 cans tuna, in olive oil (I used tuna in water)

1 punnet fresh cherry tomatoes

1 bunch green onions

1 red onion, chopped

Fresh Herbs such as chives, parsley & basil (I skipped out on the chives)

Balsamic Vinegar

Salt & Pepper

[Directions]

Boil 1 packet pasta according to directions. 

Drain tuna. If using tuna in oil, save the oil and use it in the salad.

 Flake the tuna with a fork and toss through the cooked pasta.

Add either the oil from the tuna or regular EVOO.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Slice the green and red onions and add to the salad. 

Tear or cut the herbs with kitchen scissors and add to the salad.

Drizzle balsamic vinegar over the salad. Add salt & pepper. Toss gently. 

Refrigerate and serve!

*Before taking it out of the fridge, add some more EVOO, as the pasta tends to dry up!*

5. Zesty Guacamole

This guacamole had an extra hint of lime and 1 teaspoon of chili paste which made it fantastic!

If you're interested in any of the recipes I haven't posted, leave a comment and I'll send you an e-mail with the full recipe. 

Enjoy!

It's Friday, I'm in Love, Life is Good

In one word or phrase - Excited!


I'm dreaming of you... Moving to my new apartment here:

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Song on Repeat - Cooler than me - Mike Posner


Gotta Write it Down... Marathon Training Schedule


Lesson Learned - I have the best mom in the world.


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Highlight of the Week - The perfect Friday afternoon with mom. 

Timeline of events

Woke up and made Banana Passionfruit Smoothies,

Drove to train station to go to NYC,

Decided against NYC due to pouring rain,

Drive to Hoboken to visit Carlo's Bakery,

Decided against Carlo's due to 2+ hour wait,

Took the PATH to NYC because it stopped raining,

Had yummy Thai food for lunch,

Walked around Washington Square, aka my new campus,

Picked up my Student ID card,

Stopped at this place for dessert:

had this:

walked around the Union Square Farmers' Market, 

jumped on the PATH back to Hoboken,

decided to try Carlo's again, 

saw these cakes:

ordered some of these:

and one of these:

along with some other goodies, 

came home and called it a night!

Weekend To Do List - More X-Training workouts, cooking for Sunday's BBQ, BBQ-ing on Sunday and watching the WORLD CUP FINAL!

Happy Weekend!

PS: After an hour and 20 minutes of trying to re-format this, I give up! Sorry for all the extra space between lines!

three things thursday

1. The reality of starting grad school is starting to sink in as I've spent this week filling out financial aid paperwork, advisement forms, student ID/employment forms, health information, etc. I've also realized that my plans of lounging lazily pool and beachside with books off of The Book List and off of my own personal reading list are slowly being shattered because the 6 books off of NYU's Summer Reading list are due to arrive on my door step courtesy of Amazon early next week.

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2. I watched The Matrix last night for the first time. It's number 25 on The Movie List. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's about a guy who learns that reality is nothing more than a computer-simulated expression of reality. It's kind of hard to explain. It was a weird movie. I didn't particularly like or dislike it. It was a good film but all the fight scenes were extremely cheesy. I'm glad I watched it but I wouldn't watch it again and I don't have much interest to see the two films that followed it.And Keanu Reeves? He's such a terrible actor! Everyone has always said, 'Oh but he's good in The Matrix'...mmm, not really. The only decent movie he was in was The Replacements and that was only good because everyone else was funny. It would've been just as good without him.

3. I joined a gym here in New Jersey - the same one the boy goes to. It's close to home and we can go there together since, you know, I don't have a car. I went on Tuesday to start cross-training before I get back to running on Tuesday. I did 20 minutes on the elliptical and then a CST (chest, shoulders, triceps) strength session. A typical cross-training session should be between 20-30 minutes and I probably could have gone for longer but I didn't want to overdo it. I came home and RICE'd my knee and felt pretty good yesterday. I'm going to go again tonight and try and go for 25 and then I'll double up for consecutive weekend workouts. I can't wait to start running again and I'm hoping I can get all of my planned workouts in next week without any pain.

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PS: Check out these awesome giveaways: The Perfect Compilation Tape & That's Why Her Hair is So Big! 

Everywhere and Everything

Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July weekend! I have quite a lot of catching up to do in my reader so bear with me if I'm not commenting/reading while I take today and tomorrow to catch up on all of your posts!

My weekend was absolutely wonderful, although on my Weekend To-Do List that I posted Friday, I listed that I would relax and I sure didn't do much of that! I was having way too much fun!

I spent my weekend catching up with college friends who I haven't seen since my birthday, bbq-ing and watching the World Cup and the Mets, swimming with new-ish friends who I adore, jumping around in fountains to cool off, dancing under the stars to the band who's music makes my heart stop a little bit, and enjoying absolutely everything about everything. From Long Island to New Jersey to Philadelphia, I was going everywhere and doing everything and I couldn't have been happier about it. It was exhausting and yesterday, after waking up from Sunday's sleepover and having breakfast, I wanted nothing more to do than lay on a couch and veg out all day. And that's just what I did =)

Some Pictures from the Weekend

I'm off to the beach to soak up the sun! I've got Scarlett O'Hara, Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler to keep me company! And I'll be catching up with all of you very soon!

Cheers and Happy Summer!

It's Friday, I'm in Love, Life is Good

In one word or phrase - Love

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I'm dreaming of you... Goo Goo Dolls show in Philly with my love and best friends =)

Song on Repeat - (If You're Wondering if I Want you To) I Want You To by Weezer


Gotta Write it Down... Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly - Langston Hughes

Lesson Learned - Cross Training is VERY important to injury prevention!


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Highlight of the Week - Spontaneous date night

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Weekend To Do List - Dance, Sing, Swim, Relax, Just Be Happy