Posted on February 7, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

Dogjog

I woke up this morning and set to work doing some more cleaning. My plan was to have tacos for brunch around 11AM, then clean until 3PM and head out for a jog.

Well, I ate the tacos as planned (and they were good!), but I got so much done that by 1PM I was in need of a break. So I grabbed Heath and headed out for a jog. We went 2.25 miles, me jogging, him walking. He did an excellent job both of walking nicely on his leash (thanks to the Gentle Leader) and of not freaking out when we were jogging on the sidewalk next to the road. When he was a puppy I made sure to take him for walks along the road so that he wouldn’t be freaked out by cars later in life, and it seems to have worked–he is sufficiently wary of them, but okay with walking five feet from a car going 50 MPH.

I didn’t have such a good jog, though…I should’ve known that two hours wouldn’t be enough for five tacos to settle in my stomach! Today was the closest I’ve ever come to being sick on a run. In fact, I contemplated turning around a few minutes in and walking back, but I decided to push through and managed to finish and to not be sick. But boy, I thought about it…

Heath did slow me up a little–when we picked up the trail, he moved to my right side and wanted to stop and sniff things. And he decided he needed to stop and pee. I tacked a little extra onto the end of my jog (enough to get me off the trail) to make up for it.

After we got back, I quickly devoured a plum, which helped settle my stomach.

I love plums and was happy to see that Whole Foods had a bin filled with them. And not the little tiny ones Harris Teeter’s been selling, either! I bought three for snacking.

After our run/walk, Heath was tired. He took advantage of the sudden cleanliness of my bedroom floor to spread out.

Poor dog. He’s all legs.

Then he decided to jump on my stripped bed and fall asleep in the sun, which may have been the cutest thing ever.

Except that later he did this.

That one judgmental eye was following me around. I felt thoroughly chastised for no good reason.

I took a nap with him in the afternoon (maybe he was mad because I woke him up?) and then got back to cleaning. And cooking. I made a big pot of rice, since there’s a lot of rice on my menu for the week. I also went ahead and chopped up the green pepper and onions that I’ll need for meals on Monday and Tuesday, since I already had everything out for stir-fry.

Rice and stir-fried green peppers, onions, and strip steak, with lemon-garlic seasoning. I mixed everything together before I ate it because the rice was unseasoned and tasted bland. It was fine in combination with everything else, though.

And I had some grapes.

I think I’m going to stay up for another 45 minutes or so and work on the laundry, and maybe have a yogurt…but I’m definitely going to bed at 10PM. Gotta get up and go to work tomorrow, plus I’d like to get a little extra time in to help make up for Monday. I’ve been checking the weather for next Saturday’s 5K and it looks like it’s going to be clear and in the upper 40s…I was worried after all the snow…!

Posted on February 6, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

Taco Taco Taco…

The purchase of the fixings for tacos was a priority at the store today!

I love tacos. These were so good. I’m having more for lunch tomorrow. Mmmmm tacos…

I made a menu plan for the week (again–didn’t work last time) and headed out to Whole Foods and Harris Teeter. Whole Foods was a madhouse. I was so happy to have a list so I could grab what I needed and leave! I didn’t realize that tomorrow was the Super Bowl, plus it was Saturday morning, plus it was randomly snowing outside, so the store was packed. The lady in front of me spent just over $400 on her order! My basket of food was only $40, and $10 of that was yogurt!

For dinner, I had blue corn tortilla chips, carrot sticks, and dip made from cream cheese and chili.

Oh, and some grapes.

I decided that for me, it’s cheaper to just buy a little container of grapes from Whole Foods than to buy one of the several-pound bags that you find in produce departments. All those grapes always end up going bad. These were nice and fresh tasting, plus there were three different kinds (green, red, and black).

The blue corn tortilla chips I picked up had no salt added. I didn’t realize this when I picked them up, but I was glad when I realized that was the case. I’m always crazy thirsty after tortilla chips…not this time!

Another reason I may not be thirsty…

Last night, on a whim, I decided that decaffeinated Crystal Light, while not inherently healthy, has to be better for me than drinking diet cola all the time. I’ve tried drinking only water and I can’t do it–I have to have something sweet to drink. So I did a little Crystal Light recon online last night and picked up three packages of Crystal Light On the Go–one in fruit punch (very tasty!), one in pink lemonade (slightly less tasty, but still tasty!), and one of the new Lemon Lime Fitness kinds that has added electrolytes. I’ve really only ever had Crystal Light before when it was available in my college cafeteria (which was affectionately known as “the Rat”), and I didn’t really like it then, but I’ve already gone through two of the On the Go packets since lunchtime, and I diluted them (20 oz of water instead of 16 oz), so I’ve already had more water today than I would’ve if I was just drinking straight water. Yay…

Not saying I’m never drinking diet soda again, just that I’m going to try harder to reserve it for special occasions, as a treat.

Also, my Nalgene bottle is pretty awesome for mixing Crystal Light. In fact, I think I might have been better off money-wise if I’d bought the packets of Crystal Light fruit punch that you mix up as quarts…need to remember that for next time.

The only other beverage I bought at the store was a bottle of Pom Wonderful Cherry Pomegranate, because I want to try it. That stuff was expensive–$3.99 for a 16 oz bottle (although the Teeter had it for $3.79 this week)–so I was glad to see that it’s good for a while after you open it.

Something new I found at Whole Foods…

I noticed last time while stocking up on Liberte Mediterranee yogurts that Whole Foods had added French Vanilla to their stock. Today I found Apple Crumble sitting on the shelf! Of course, I had to grab one to try. It was crazy delicious! And I was very happy when I checked the ingredients and found that there was no granola (or wheat) involved–I think the “fruit preparation” consisted of apples, raisins, cinnamon, and rice starch. (I’m not quite ready to try going wheat-free for a couple of weeks, but none of the items I have on my menu this week contain wheat. But if someone brings donuts to work this week, I’m totally eating one. Glad we cleared that up.)

Part of this evening has been spent watching Hoarders and cleaning…I don’t know how I ended up with so much junk. It’s not like I enjoy shopping. My living room is actually pretty clutter-free and has been for a while, I just keep putting things that belong in other rooms on any available surface. My kitchen tends toward entropy, and my bedroom is the same. I’ve got another half of a trash bag filled with mostly paper trash to throw away, and I cleared probably half of my bedroom floor and gave it a good vacuuming. There was dog fur, everywhere…I was shocked at how full the canister on the vacuum was based on how small an area of the floor I vacuumed. It’s no wonder my bedroom makes me want to sneeze…tomorrow, I must clean the kitchen!

Posted on February 5, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

Everything’s Better at Macy’s…

…it’s known as the quality store!

I slept in until 9:20 this morning–ahhh!–and had a lemon Larabar for breakfast. Then I headed out to Macy’s in the rain. We did get a little bit of freezing rain before I got up; there was slush all over my steps and on the windshield of my car. In fact, it rained all the way to Macy’s, during the two hours I spent there shopping, during the drive home, during my nap this afternoon…and it’s still raining!  There’s water everywhere!

My first trip to Macy’s was a success. I headed to the petites section as soon as I got there and found racks and racks of 70% off clothing. I ended up finding three different styles of slacks in three different colors (gotta get away from wearing black all the time!) and a pair of (black) jeans. Unfortunately, I could only find one petite-sized shirt that I liked and it didn’t really fit that well, and when I checked the price on it I decided that it wasn’t worth buying.

One of the reasons I hate shopping is that it’s so hard to find shirts that fit, an experience to which I’m sure other women with big busts and small waists can relate. I was expecting to walk out with nothing but the pants, which was all I really needed. But then I managed to find a couple of shirts in the regular section that fit!

Check me out! I’m a preppy!

Okay, this shirt…I walked by it several times on the rack and thought it was very cute, but the only size left was large and I figured that even if it fit in the bust, there was no way the rest of it would work. I tried it on and was happy to find that it fit nicely, and that the camisole I had on under it looked good with it. Then I wandered back out onto the floor and saw a zebra print camisole and immediately grabbed it and tried it on with the shirt. Yay for layering! This combo is my favorite purchase of the day, and to think I almost didn’t try on the shirt!

So I got three pairs of slacks, a pair of jeans, two shirts, and a camisole, for $99.33! One of the pairs of slacks was $4.60! I happened to show up on a day when you could donate $2 to the American Heart Association, get a red dress pin, and save 20%, which is what pushed me under $100 (I saved $19.31 by buying that $2 pin!). The camisole is the only thing I paid full price for–it wasn’t on clearance and didn’t qualify for the 20% off. The total savings on my receipt: $181.77. Whoo-hoo…I told the cashier that I would definitely be back!

I was starving when I came home and almost stopped in for some Chinese food, but it was raining and I didn’t want to wait. And then I couldn’t find anything appetizing, because I haven’t been to the store in a week and a half, so I had a piece of smoked gouda and half a cup of cereal. Then I took an awesome nap and when I woke up I seriously considered going to the store for the ingredients for tacos.

But it was still raining. So I ordered Domino’s.

And it took 55 minutes for my order to arrive. I was starving and annoyed when my food arrived, because Domino’s has an order tracker on their website and I knew that my food had sat at the store for 20 minutes after it was done cooking. But I gave the driver a big tip, since he got it here quickly once it finally left the store and it was pouring outside.

Since I didn’t eat much today, and because you have to get up to $10 before your order qualifies for delivery, I got the chicken bacon ranch sandwich, a bag of Doritos, a Diet Coke, and a molten lava cake.

As I wrote in the comments section about my order, I was shocked that it was still hot after sitting at the store for so long. It was good, though. I ate it while watching Up, which I almost quit watching after 15 minutes–what a sad way to start a movie! It was very good, though.

I was going to find another episode of Hoarders to watch tonight, but I think I’ll save that for tomorrow afternoon…Groundhog Day is on Bravo (again)!