Worst Week Ever

I just could not catch a break this week. Perhaps it's because Ryan was out of town (he could be my lucky charm, I dunno), but I had day after day of issues and frustrations.

In the beginning of the week, I dealt with irritating personalities at work. There are far too many people at my company with Napolean complex who are constantly trying establish dominance or territory. It's like working with children.

On Wednesday, I went to lunchtime yoga desperately needing a break from the general populice. Unfortunately, drama was lurking at every corner. Long story short, the room I had reserved for yoga was not set up correctly and we had to delay class for thirty minutes while we tried to track down Facilities. Imagine 20 people dressed for yoga waiting in the hallway, getting increasingly impatient. I ended up having an argument with the Facilities manager who was irrationally upset that we interrupted his lunch to ask for help. God forbid he be asked to do his job! Anyway, it was all rather upsetting. Since I had already considered stopping work yoga (not worth it since it's too easy and I have a montly unlimited pass to a studio), I decided this was the last straw and I'd be giving up my duties as yoga coordinator. Many have tried to guilt trip me out of my decision but I shall remain firm.

On Thursday, I was feeling more optimistic after a good night's sleep and came hopping downstairs in a chipper mood. To my shock, there was a fat trail of ants snaking from our front door, through the living room, through the dining room, all over the cat food, and out the patio door. This was as grotesque an infestation as I had seen in a while. Unfortunately, we had no chemical warfare so I grabbed some soapy Lysol wipes, got down on my hands and knees, and reigned havoc on the intruders. I even hosed down the patio and garden, hoping to drown the colony. After about forty minutes of meticulously and obsessively killing every ant I could find, I thought I was in the clear. Unfortunately, the buggers continued to stream in from the front door so I knew it was time to get down to business. Racing over to Longs and arming myself with Raid, I was able to gas every last one of them, including the ones outside. Poor Henry and Fred had to be locked in the bedroom in the meantime. Finally satisfied that the job was complete, I had to wait around for the Raid to dry, then mop the floor so the cats didn't get sick, then wait for the mopped floors to dry before I could let them out. What a way to start the day.

On Friday, I had a dentist appointment where it was discovered that I have two more cavities. I was also fitted for a night guard since my dentist was suspicious of night time grinding. Unfortunately, no one bothered to mention that it costs almost $400 and that insurance covered nada. Great. As if I didn't have a wedding to budget for.

Luckily the week was redeemed by our tasting on Friday afternoon at Estancia. Overall, the food was delicious and Ryan and I put together what we think is a great menu. I've very excited to eat it at our wedding. Additionally, I went to Neiman this afternoon for my first dress fitting! It was lots of fun and the dress looks more beautiful than I remember. I also found a pair of gold shoes at Bloomingdale's that are the perfect height and style. Not too formal and definitely rewearable in the future. And finally, Ryan and I went back to Ashoka the Great tonight with Ryan's parents for yet another delicious Indian feast.

I guess the weekend is doing a prety good job making up for the week.

Disgrace

Of late, I have accused Monkey several times of being the worst food blogger ever. She's constantly telling me about delicious meals she makes and the story always ends with "oh I forgot to take pictures". Sadly, tonight I join her ranks as a failed food blogger. We went to Ashoka the Great, my favorite Indian restaurant, with Ryan's parents and his brother Kevin - who, as a side note, ran a 4 mile race today at a 5:40 min/mile pace - and I completely forgot to bring my camera to document the feast. And boy was it feast. Lucky for me, Ryan is going to Las Vegas tomorrow for business and I'll get the leftovers all to myself muahahahah *cue insane laughter.

More Meals

I'm too lazy to write much, so here are a couple shots of meals made last week. The first is rigatoni in a homemade tomato sauce with spinach and mozzarella. This was heavily modified from a recipe I found in Gourmet based on the ingredients I had on hand.

The second is Curried Chicken Salad with Spiced Chickpeas and Raita. This dish was very tasty, and surprisingly much lighter and healthier than expected. I omitted the rotisserie chicken but next time I'd definitely add it in. Will keep in our lunch rotation.

Meals

Here are a couple of shots of meals this week. The first is salmon with sour cream dill sauce, broccolini and red bell pepper, and cheddar mashed potatoes. The second is steamed artichoke with mayo. I added a bay leaf and lemon slice to the water I used to steam the artichokes. The artichokes were actually baby artichokes meaning less meat on the leafs but a more tender heart with no choke. So tasty.

Olympics

I love watching the Olympics. There's something captivating about seeing ridiculously fit men and women, who are completely specialized for one physical activity, excel at the sport they spend most of their life trying to perfect. Whether they're cutting through water like fish or twisting and turning through the air like putty, you can't help but be amazed by the sheer intensity and determination these athletes bring to the table. It makes you want to work just a little bit harder at some aspect in your own life.

As usual, one of my favorite sports to watch thus far has been men gymnastics. It's just incomprehensible how freakishly strong and flexible these men are. In particular, the Chinese team have stood in a league of their own in Beijing. I'm not surprised they won Gold (by a landslide as well) because their talent and dedication definitely warrant top prize. The US team performed well, taking home Bronze, but I was perturbed by the way the young and inexperienced team members kept talking at the camera every time it went by. Not only were they saying obnoxious things like "US all the way, yeah baby!", but they all had very hick-like accents, making them sound like trashy frat boys. The Japanese, who won Gold in the last Olympics, made away with Silver despite their sleepy and uninspired performance.

Men's swimming has also been great to watch. Of course, it's been very entertaining to watch Phelps collects his Gold medals like cutely painted eggs on Easter Sunday. But on top of that, men's swimming hosted one of the most shocking turnarounds I've ever seen: the men's 4x100m relay. The French were highly favored to win this event even though the US team was comprised of heavy hitters like Phelps. The fact is, the French are just better sprinters, so everyone said. Most of the race played out as expected with the US falling behind by almost a full body length by the fourth leg. However, as Lezak, the 32 year old US closer, turned off the wall to complete the last 50m, Ryan and I watched in utter amazement as he somehow found the energy to push his body into a supernatural frenzy - the type of frenzy you hear about when moms lift buses to rescue their trapped babies. The man was seriously swimming for his life and before we knew it, he had closed the gap to the enormous Frenchman in the lane next to him and just barely out touched him to take Gold. Utterly amazing.

While all this has been exciting to watch, I feel like my blood pressure is taking a big toll during these games. The announcers don't help either, especially in gymnastics. They always go on and on about how spectacular someone is and just as they reach the peak of their praise, he/she eats it and makes a horrible mistake.

Up next tomorrow: women's gymnastics and more swimming!

Dinner Party

Last night, we had my parents, Ryan's parents, and Simon and his family, who are visiting from Ireland, over for a casual dinner party. The starter was a baby spinach salad with white beans, red bell pepper and green onions; the entree was baked ziti; and the dessert was a berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. I followed the ziti recipe exactly and while it was delicious, I wish there had been a bit more tomato sauce since I like my pasta saucy. The cobbler crust I also made exactly as directed, however the fruit mixture was made according to my whims. Basically, if you have delicious sweet fruit, you don't have to add much. Ryan's parents brought over some wine and Laura found the cutest plates and napkins. With everything set, all eleven of us squeezed around the dining table and had a very enjoyable time.


Today, I made some easy breakfast tacos and am just sitting around watching Olympics until my parents head out. Strangely enough, my mom decided to bring her bread machine from LA and has been pumping out loaves of bread like a sweat shop. We're currently waiting for the 5th loaf to finish before they head out.

Wow

My mom and Uncle Jaime are visiting this weekend so Uncle Jaime can install free satellite tv for us before my mom goes to Taiwan next week. It is truly the ultimate wedding present. We now get over 700 channels, including numerous pay per view and international channels. Simply put, it is amazing.

In other news, I forced myself to run 5 miles today for the first time in a long time. I ran at a slower 10:20 min/mile pace so that definitely helped, but I'm still proud that I managed to pull it off. To reward myself, I had a large piece of a chocolate oreo mint cake that Kim made and brought to work. So delicious.

Tomorrow we'll be inviting Ryan's family over for a big dinner party. The menu is still undecided but I do know I'd like to make a berry cobbler for dessert. Can't wait!

Next Half

I've signed up for my next half marathon, the Carlsbad half, which is on Jan 25th. It's a while away, which is good since I haven't run more than 3 miles since my last half marathon in April. All the training I did for the La Jolla half has pretty much been wasted and it's back to square one for me *sigh*. Hopefully, I can convince some people to run it with me. I'm sure Kristen, Ryan's sister, would be interested even though she's due to give birth in late Nov. She's still running 6 miles to date! If I were pregnant, I'd be sitting on my butt eating ice cream and possibly steak with A1 sauce and complaining till the cows came home. I'm sure Ryan's brother Kevin would run it too considering he runs 8+ miles regularly and recently won his age division for the Naked Juice run. Fat chance getting Ryan to run though. He abhors long distance running because he has a short attention span. Maybe it will be his wedding present to me hehe. At least I know my friend from work Sophie will run it, so that's plenty of motivation. Training to come in November. Until then, I'll continue doing yoga like a maniac.

The Hut

Ryan and I are officially obsessed with Pizza Hut. We've been ordering buffalo wings, breadsticks, and pizza at least once a week which is probably SO bad for us, but it's just so delicious and so easy (within walking distance). I need to make more of an effort to actually cook. After today, I swear...

San Francisco Fun

Last weekend, Monica and I visited Maya in San Francisco for her birthday. We both flew in on Friday night but Monica was whisked away to the 'burbs to see some family members while I was picked up by the birthday girl herself. Starving, Maya and I got some chicken shawarmas from a local fast greek food joint and brought it back to her super cute apartment in the Mission to eat, chat, and drink lots of white wine.


The next morning, we got breakfast at a delicious French bakery nearby (I miss city life); I got a flaky beautiful chocolate croissant while Maya got a savory pouf pastry thing with Gruyere cheese. So satisfying. We also picked up some fruit bread pudding for dessert later - yes we were already thinking to future meals...


Energized by baked goods, we went to an 11am yoga class at Maya's studio. The class was packed with weekend warriors and unfortunately we had an obnoxiously hippy dippy substitute instructor who spent the first 20 minutes yabbering about nothing in particular. By the time we actually started asanas, I was so tense and irritated I could have slapped the woman silly. Luckily, the flow sequences turned out to be quite interesting and fun and I quickly found myself enjoying the rest of the class. As usual, I sweated my butt off so it was a good workout indeed.

For lunch, we picked up some bread, cheese, salami, fruit, and couscous salad from the grocery store and drove north 20 minutes, by way of the Golden Gate Bridge, to a beautiful cliff area overlooking Muir Beach. The views were great but it was so windy that we made our speedy escape after taking some pictures.





Monica arrived on the train that afternoon and the three of us had dinner at an Italian pizzeria where we ordered a yummy broccoli rabe, mozzarella, and yellow tomato pizza and split a bottle of red wine. That night, Maya had some friends come over to preparty and we drank many more bottles of wine and made mixed drinks. By the time we headed to a bar called Double Dutch, we were all pretty drunk which explains why the rest of the night was so hazy.

The next morning, I felt like I'd been run over by a bus. I just don't recover the way I used to! We met some more friends for brunch and then it was time to drop me off at the airport to return to sunny warm San Diego. It was a brief trip but a great time with old friends. Should definitely occur more often.