Summer 2k10 Plans

This summer, J.D. and I already have some travel plans in the works.

As I've already blogged, we're going to be spending one week in June in the midwest for my first time on a trip that promises to be jam-packed with baseball at all levels: professional, minor leagues and college playoffs.

Then on the 4th of July weekend, there will be a CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) Convention in San Francisco. Since J.D.'s a member, he'll be making the trip an hour west and I figured I'd come along for the ride :) We haven't really decided if we're going to stay in a hotel in SF (for the second time this year), or maybe just stay at my parents' house for the weekend and hang out in the East Bay as well as San Francisco.

And finally, I still have an itch for a beach weekend somewhere! San Diego, Orange County... who knows! Maybe we could find a dog-friendly hotel and bring little Woody along with us :)

But I haven't mentioned this yet. Our women's soccer team starts the year out in Hawaii this August. But a week before that, they're taking a trip to COSTA RICA! Which is one of the top 10 places I want to see in my life!! So if I am comfortable with shelling out the money.... I, too, could be on that trip. I'm too afraid to commit to spending that right now, but we'll see I guess.


As for next year, I think we're informally planning a big trip somewhere. Last summer both of us really wanted to go to Belize. Now I'm entertaining him with ideas of going to Sweden - homeland of his family! But above all, I really want to go on a tropical cruise somewhere :)

CRUISESWEDEN

What's your favorite summer travel destination? Do you prefer cruises, flights or road trips? Do you have any plans this summer??

I'm trying to eat healthy...

With the amount of running I've been doing lately (took a day off yesterday, however) I've been trying to eat healthier!!

You try running on a belly full of pizza and sugar. It's certainly not ideal.... Anyways normally I'd grab something gross and sugary for breakfast, but over the past week I've been very conscious of what goes in my mouth. Even if it means I have to come in to work a little later than usual. Or wake up earlier, but let's be real, I can't manage that one.

Today's breakfast??

Maple oatmeal with frozen mixed berries and walnuts, to go with a homemade nonfat latte! Yum :) I'm quite full and ready to get back for another run tonight.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Get thee to a grocery

This morning I read about the You Are What You Eat project by Mark Menjivar from The Bobby Pin blog. I personally find it super interesting!

....Except for the lady with the snake in her fridge. That's just f-ing creepy!!!

Short Order Cook | Marathon,TX | 2-Person Household | She can bench press over 300lbs. | 2007

Well, anyways I suggest you take a look over there and maybe play along with me :) So without further ado, here is my fridge/freezer:


Sports Writers/Media Relations | Stockton, CA | 2-Person Household | Seriously in need of a trip to the grocery store, even though 60% of our meals are eaten out | 2010

So that's my fridge! Hope you aren't judging us, our eating habits, and lack of free time to go shopping.... hehe. I'd be interested to see some of yours!

On a side note, I made a really yummy dessert with some leftover ingredients the other day. Wanna see what I threw together??

Apologies for the picture, I was just about to eat it in the napkin on my way back from lunch when I realized I should take a pic with my phone :)

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Oatmeal Bars
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. quick-cooking oats
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/3 c. peanut butter
1/4 c. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 (6 oz.) pkg. semi-sweet morsels
1/4 c. powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. peanut butter
2 to 3 tbsp. milk

***Note before baking, I would add a LOT more PB next time to hold it all together. It was very, very crumbly at first, which is why they say to cool for several hours. I actually found that by day two or three in the fridge was when they were more compact and at their best!

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan. Combine flour, oats, soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Beat butter for 20 seconds, add sugars (NOT the powdered, that's for later) and beat until fluffy. Add egg, the 1/3 cup peanut butter, the 1/4 cup milk, and vanilla, beat well. Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture, beating until smooth. Spread mixture in pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Immediately sprinkle chocolate pieces over top. Let stand until softened, then spread evenly. Cool. Combine powdered sugar and the 2 tablespoons peanut butter. Gradually add enough milk to make of drizzling consistency. Drizzle over top. Cool several hours before cutting.

***Instead of making a fancy drizzled topping (because I read "add sugars" as all the sugar, not realizing the powdered would be for the end), I just spread the chocolate chips on the top and melted them until they hardened. I think drizzling peanut butter over the top would not only be pretty, but would also incorporate more of the PB taste (which wasn't as strong as I'd have liked!). I also decided to go healthy and used skim milk and whole wheat flour, which was nice. Definitely a starting point, but I for sure think I could improve this dish in one more try :)

Gotta case of the Mondays? Tuesdays?

Every morning, I wake up at 7:30 a.m. when my alarm goes off. And every morning I struggle to stay awake, hitting snooze until 8, sometimes even 9 a.m. Don't worry, I'm off to work before 10 a.m. usually (hey, when you stay until 10 p.m. three nights a week AND work weekends, you can complain about me showing up at 10 a.m.).

But those days, it's suuuuuch a struggle to get out of bed so I don't have time to make anything to eat all day. Usually, I'll grab a yogurt out of the fridge and off I go.

Which is why over the past several months, I've been going leftover crazy. I loooove making enough dinner for 4-6 people. When J.D. and I are done, I portion out several different Tupperware containers for various lunches and/or dinners! Leftovers might just be my favorite lunch :)


Today it was a mix of Zatarian's jambalaya with spicy andouille sausage and cilantro lime rice. So yummy! As a follow-up meal a little later in the day, I grabbed a bag of trail mix from Trader Joe's!

Some mornings when I'm feeling ambitious enough, I'll make a French press latte or a fruit smoothie. Or in the case of yesterday: I ran 3.25 miles and made a post-run smoothie. I know J.D. doesn't really care much for the smoothies, so I had an entire pitcher to myself! Instead of going crazy and not having room for dinner, I plopped it in the fridge and voilà, had enough for breakfast (and an after-work snack) today.

Leftovers really are the lazy man's meal :) And I wouldn't have it any other way.

What do you do for lunch/snacks at work? Do you go out? Do you make something in the morning? Or are you too tired in the a.m. like me and bring last night's dinner??

Accomplished and exhausted

Remember in January how instead of making an over-arching resolution, I challenged myself to 101 goals in 1,001 days?? Well, today I knocked down my 20th goal, with 888 days still remaining.

The 55th goal I made for myself in January (and what I've been actively aiming for, without actually trying) is to run a 5K (just over three miles) in under 30 minutes. Back in my prime high school days I used to run cross country. At my best, I finished at 22 minutes. Mind you, I only ran to get in shape for basketball so I wasn't really a distance runner, but I do like running.


Over the past few months I've been wanting to get back there, but haven't really put forth the effort in order to attain that result. Well, the past few weeks I've been trying to run again, adding on a half mile each time. So as you can imagine, my first run started around the block, my second was to the nearby park, then a 1.5 mile loop in that park and before today, I worked all the way up to 2.15 miles. My hopes this afternoon was to run over three miles so that running three miles would be easier the day I actually try to hit the under 30-minute mark.

Once I finished the path I envisioned in my mind, I checked my iPhone's GPS (ps, Map My Run is such a SWEET application!), and I was at 3.25 miles, feeling EXHAUSTED. So I decided to take my warm-down lap. And then checked my phone only to see that I had run my 3.25 miles in.......



.......26 MINUTES!!!!

What?! I wasn't even trying to hit the mark, but I made it! So my goal now is to try and keep that pace and not feel like death the next time. Eventually, I would like to get close to that 22-minute mark. Maybe I could even run a 20-minute 5K??? :)

In case you're curious, other goals I've accomplished include: losing 5 lbs, learning my blood type (O+), blogging every day for a month, becoming a dog owner and begin language courses (after becoming fluent in French and studying Spanish in high school, I'm now learning Swedish because J.D.'s family is Swedish).

Super exhausted. But I feel super good and can't wait to get better!!

Don't worry, I'm safe

I had a fun day today. I'll share more deets later, but it concluded with me, J.D., my boss and three other coworkers eating frozen yogurt on the baseball field on campus because it was one of two "safe zones" after campus police received an anonymous call saying a bomb would detonate on campus later tonight.

We made it back safely, in case you're wondering. Also, they think the whole ordeal was a hoax.

And now back to the fun stuff (teaser):

Lots to put in my mouth

I've been on the multiple small meals per day kick lately.

For breakfast I tried Dannon's new plain Greek yogurt and mixed it with Trader Joe's (loooove that place) Omega 3 Trek Mix which is loaded with cranberries and nuts. Also chopped up a banana at my desk and voilà, breakfast was ready! Oh yeah, I made my own nonfat latte earlier with my French press - frothed the milk in it as well.

But I'm definitely going to get some more of that Greek yogurt. I really like Trader Joe's own flavors, but its kind of high in sugar. However the fig one is taaaaasty.

Then came home for lunch and chowed down on a mini sandwich with sea salt pita chips while playing with my doggie a bit. At work, I packed an apple, 100% fruit juice fruit snacks and a stick of string cheese. You know, having food at my desk all afternoon is kind of a pain. Even though I was still full from lunch, I wanted to eat it ha. But I told myself I couldn't have any more food until 2:30 p.m. and it worked.

I had zero desire to grab crappy food for a snack when I got home too! So that's a big plus for me. After walking Woodstock to take out the trash and get the mail (our complex is weird, the mail center is located in the middle of the condo complex so it's not like I walked my dog five feet to get the mail and then came back in, for those of you who previously had been judging me haha).

Then I went for nearly a two-mile run in the sunshine! It was actually fairly warm outside at 6 p.m. When I came home, I was beat. But I pulled out some flank steak we'd been storing in the freezer and lathered it in lavender pepper and some garlic salt.

I grilled the steaks on the stove with some onions and peppers, made cilantro lime rice and had...... FAJITAS for dinner! We wrapped them in whole wheat tortillas and chopped up a quarter of a watermelon on the side. Nothing says summer is just around the corner like a fresh watermelon :)

It was delicious! As a reward for all my good work (or, maybe canceling out all my hard work?), I had some Breyer's double-churned ice cream with chocolate hard shell on top!

I'm really going to try to stick with this regimen too. Wish me luck :) But it feels good! And my goal is to get back to running a 5K in less than 30 minutes. So far, I'm averaging between a 9-10 minute mile. Which isn't terrible, but it's also not the 22:00 it took me to run three miles back in my cross country glory days ;)

BASEBALL Vacation

For those of you who know, one of my life goals is to attend as many Major League ballparks as possible! I've currently seen: the Oakland Coliseum (Oakland A's), AT&T Park (San Francisco Giants), Angel Stadium (Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles... I hate that name, it's either LA or OC, figure it out!), Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles Dodgers), Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles), Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox), Arlington Ballpark (Texas Rangers) and the former Shea Stadium (NY Mets). That makes eight... out of 30 teams - I've got a lot more to go!

But this summer, I'll set food in another :)

J.D. went to college in Des Moines, Iowa, and he absolutely loves the midwest. My former boss at Pacific recently moved to Omaha, Nebraska. Cool, so how does this all fit in???

Well, the College World Series has forever been held at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha and is rich in history, stories and above all - college baseball playoffs. 2010 will be the final season the CWS is held at Rosenblatt so I guess they're going ALL OUT this year. I've been told to do so by about five different people, so this summer I will be volunteering at the College World Series in Omaha! I can't wait to be a part of all of this, make some baseball connections and see some new parts of the country.

J.D., who also does the same thing as I do for a living at Sacramento State University, is also extremely interested in volunteering! The CWS runs from June 18-27 so what we're planning on doing is flying out to Omaha on June 16.

The night we fly in, we'll find a hotel near the airport and explore Omaha. On the morning of the 17th, we'll rent a car (yay, I'm 25 now and can finally do so!!!!) and drive three hours south to Kansas City where we'll explore the city and also catch a KC Royals game at Kauffman Stadium (MLB park #9!) in the evening. Then the plan is to stay the night in KC, get up on the 18th and drive 3.5 hours north to Des Moines, Iowa, where J.D. gets to show me his old college stomping grounds for two days. Maybe we'll even fit in a minor league Iowa Cubs game....

On the morning of the 20th, we're hoping to make another 3.5 hour drive to Omaha in order to volunteer at the College World Series for a few days before flying back to California on the 24th.

Can't wait!! There's going to be so much baseball jam-packed into one week. We started pricing it out last night and are looking to purchase flights and reserve the rental car this weekend!

After this I should really consider making a weekend trip to San Diego to see the Padres play and essentially knock down the last remaining California ballpark :)

Oh and did I also mention J.D.'s fav team is the Mets??? So for his birthday next month, I got him tickets to see the Mets play in San Francisco this July. Third row behind the Mets' bullpen... what a good girlfriend I am :)

Loooove it!

So I've heard everyone and their mom talk about Etsy. I never knew much about it and really had been way too busy to check it out.

But awhile ago, I thought of something I needed and checked it out. Then today, went OVERBOARD buying gifts (birthdays, mothers/fathers days are coming up and this was a super simple way of finding neat stuff!) for other people.

Next on my agenda is to scour Etsy for things for myself :) There's a lot I like and find totally adorable.

Have you shopped Etsy lately?! If not, seriously check it out.

Products I'm semi-in love with (if you like 'em, I provided the links just click on the descriptions):

Vintage inspired apron
Retro striped/polka dot apron
Lilly orange clutch
Made-to-order recipe card box
Fleur de lys messenger bag
Dachshund pot holders

Oh man, sorry, told you I went a little crazy looking through that site :)

I can't wait to play with it!

....The new iPhone I will be purchasing tonight that is!!!

Two years ago, I purchased my very first smart phone - the Blackberry Curve. I had always wanted an iPhone but at the time could not afford it. The Blackberry, as it turns out, was a horrible purchase. It was a neat phone but kept crapping out on me and finally one day refused to turn on any longer. Great purchase for only a six-month old product.

So for my 24th birthday, J.D. gave me his old iPhone, which was part of the first generation of iPhone sales (ie, currently it's THREE years old - dinosaur in phone years). His dad bought him a new one for his birthday, so I got the old guy. It was so great to finally get one!!

But now, as the phone nears the three-year mark, it's starting to die like my ill-fated Blackberry did last year. I must have bad phone luck in April, eh?! Well, this year J.D. got me a gift card to AT&T in the same amount the new iPhone will cost me on the date of my contract renewal.

And guess what.... I'm up for a contract renewal/phone upgrade TODAY!!!!!!

So not only will I have a fully functional phone that doesn't shut off on calls made or refuse to play sounds 75 percent of the time, but I will be skipping up two generations from the "OG" to the 3GS! So excited :) I can't wait for my new birthday present (13 days later). I'm really super excited and am patiently awaiting 5 p.m. so I can go home, back up my phone and the nstand in line to purchase the new one!!!! My old one is silver and since then they've come out with a white and a black case, so I'm going to see if the white one's available.

Oh yeah and being the AWESOME boyfriend (orrrrrr my most dedicated blog reader) that he is, he even got me the sweet phone case I wanted too :) Love him!!

EEEEEEEEEE!!!&@&#&@&#%&^%&*!!!!!!!!!!! (that was a squeal of anticipation, in case you didn't catch that)