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Posted on September 26, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

Back from the Beach

I got back from the beach yesterday at around 12:30 and by 3PM I’d retrieved my dog from the kennel and was sound asleep in my bed. I like to go on vacation, but a week is about my limit.

Today’s yard sale was pushed back a week due to the gloomy and possibly rainy weather, so instead I’m going to work on catching up on postings from the beach. I’ve taken 189 pictures since last Thursday…

Friday, September 18: Pre-Beach Day at Work

My current schedule at work gives me every other Friday off, and this was supposed to be an off day. But I had work to do, and it didn’t feel right to leave it until I got back this coming Monday. So I went in and worked 7 hours anyway.

Someone brought donuts in. I walked by the break room at some ungodly hour, like 6:30AM, and there were two boxes of Dunkin Donuts, essentially untouched. I grabbed the maple donut and hastened back to my cube.

Mmm, donut. I should warn you now, there were several Dunkin Donuts stores near our condo at the beach, and we got lots of donuts. I didn’t always take pictures of them, because if I had it would have been sad. I think I probably ate a dozen donuts (at least) over the course of the week.

In trying to use up all my food before vacation, it came to pass that I had nothing to bring for lunch. I guilted a coworker into walking over to Quizno’s with me instead.

I got another one of those delicious Turkey Pesto Torpedoes. So good!

After leaving work at 2PM, I headed over to Trader Joe’s. I wanted to get some more raw food bars and candy and cookies to share at the beach.

I’d been looking forward to trying the Mint Dark Chocolate UFOs, but I was disappointed. But Trader Joe’s so rarely disappoints me that I’ll forgive them…

While packing for the beach, I realized I had my very own bar stash!

I’ve read about bar stashes on other blogs and now I have one of my own. Yay! I took a lot of  these to to the beach just so that I’d have some variety to choose from.

After a wild afternoon of packing, I was looking forward to dinner. I used up my last two baby red potatoes, an onion, a carrot, and my last tomatoes. I tossed them in olive oil, Italian seasoning, and a Dolot garlic cube, added a piece of round steak on top, roasted it all together in the oven.

Mmm…tasted like awesome.

And now I must go to the store and buy food, because I have none. First day of vacation post when I get back…

Posted on September 23, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

A brief note from the beach…

Just writing to say I’m in the midst of my vacation at Myrtle Beach and it is delightful. Only two things could make it better: one, my dog, who I miss and who I know would have a good time romping in the surf and taking long afternoon naps with me, and two, a steady connection to the Internet. Today’s the first day I’ve been able to get on and stay connected for more than a few minutes at a time. That’s okay, I’ll just write an extra long post when I get back on Friday…there will be lots of donuts in the post.

Actually, it might be more like Saturday. Or Sunday. On Friday I have to  buy food, finish prepping for the yard sale, and retrieve Heath from the vet’s office, where he’s being boarded (and given a bath). On Saturday I have to get up earlier than one is meant to get up on a weekend so I can do yard sale stuff. At least I’ll have Sunday to recover from my vacation…

Posted on September 17, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

The Week in Review

Fortunately for me, I didn’t eat much this week, so there aren’t too many pictures to catch up on. Unfortunately for me, I’ve been battling stupid (and strangely sudden) allergies this week. And people keep asking me if I have swine flu. To which I respond, if I had swine flu, would I be standing upright right now?

I’m still feeling a little off and I’ve got packing to do for the beach (leaving on Saturday morning! Yay!), so I’m just going to hit the highlights of this week. Here we go….

There were the brownies with cheesecake topping that I tried to make on Sunday night. The batter was delicious and the brownies weren’t horrible, but the directions for baking were way off and I knew it before I started and did it anyway.They never finished cooking.

I ate the whole pan over the next few days anyway. Waste not…

My apartment complex has been having a resident appreciation week this week. On Monday, they were giving out Bojangles biscuits and drinks to residents as they left for work. I left for work a little later than usual so I could score some free breakfast.

This sausage biscuit with a cute little bottle of Deer Park was delicious.

Monday night, as I mentioned in my previous post, was my last day of Week 3 of the Couch to 5K. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to run since then. I’m hoping that tomorrow I can at least try Week 4.

Oh, also on Monday, I had a piece of apple bread that a co-worker made.

It was delicious. I’ve got to hit up the farmers market for some apples after I get back from the beach.

Tuesday was the first day I was feeling bad, and so I ate nothing particularly interesting.

Wednesday I felt like crap, but dragged myself to work anyway because I had something I needed to do Wednesday or Thursday and didn’t want to take the chance of feeling worse on Thursday and not getting it done. I also didn’t want to miss my first Spanish class on Wednesday afternoon.

Fortunately, there was red velvet cake in the breakroom.

Ah, breakfast.

I was very proud of myself for the choices I made for dinner. I felt awful last night, but I had to go to the store on my way home, as I was out of that essential houseware known as toilet paper. Also, Harris Teeter had Oikos yogurt buy one, get one free, so I was able to get 12 for a dollar each. w00t. But I’d told my mom on the phone on the way to the store that I was just going to stop at Burger King on my way home because I didn’t feel like cooking.

But! When I walked into Harris Teeter, I went in the door that leads directly to the Fresh Food Market, and I found rotisserie chicken quarters, two quarters for $2.99. So I grabbed a package and headed over to the frozen veggie section and picked up a box of Green Giant broccoli and cheese for 99 cents. And I grabbed a Diet Sunkist since I felt bad. But I was able to put together a nice, somewhat healthy dinner for less than it would have cost to get a combo at Burger King, and I had a piece of chicken leftover for tonight’s dinner.

I had my chicken and broccoli with a bunch of grapes and half a banana that had been hanging out in the fridge. Yep, it was good, and nice to eat something healthy instead of a hamburger when I already felt bad.

Today I feel much better than yesterday, although not 100%. During lunch a co-worker and I went to Whole Foods, where I was hoping to find many flavors of LaraBars. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any, but I did find a whole lot of Kind bars, and some sesame seed bars, and very reasonably priced chocolate soy milk, and a bag of veggie chips for $1.99, and an insane good bag of ginger snaps.

This was only my second trip ever to Whole Foods, and my first in several years. If I weren’t going to the beach in two days, I would have bought a lot more stuff…

On the way back to work, my friend wanted to swing by McDonald’s. I agreed, and resisted the urge to order off the dollar menu in favor of something (marginally) more healthful.

I got one of their delicious Honey Mustard Snack Wraps–grilled, even though I love the crunchy ones…

And a fruit and walnut salad, which I promptly mixed up and scarfed down. This cost me about $3.75…the cost of eating well at McDonald’s.

I’ve got to guzzle down some water and head to bed–tomorrow is my day off, but I’m going in to work anyway to get some stuff finished before vacation. After work (or maybe during lunch) I’ll be heading to Trader Joe’s to pick up some food for my beach trip, and then it’s home to finish packing…or start packing, rather. Right now all I have packed is Heath’s food, glucosamine, and bone to take with him to the vet when he gets boarded and a couple of books for me to read at the beach. Time’s a-wastin’…