Category Archives: latte art

NROLW and thoughts of christmas!

It’s the start of my weekend! Fridays still just don’t feel like the weekend, even though I have been working at this job since February with that schedule. Still up early, though! I waited until 7:15 to bike to the gym, just so it was lighter. Pretty durn cold, too! I think we can start counting down the days before the bikes get hung up.
New Rule of Lifting Stage 6 B:

  • Reverse Lunge, one dumbell on shoulder:  3 x 8 at 20 pounds
  • Dumbbell 2-point row:  3 x 8 at 25 pounds
  • Dumbbell push press:  1 x 8 at 15 pounds, 2×8 at 20 pounds
  • Back extension:  2 x 8 at 100 pounds
  • Incline reverse crunch:  2 x 8

Push press increase to 20 pound dumbbells! That is really hard. That little extra push helps with heavier weights. Short and sweet workout with 25 minutes on the treadmill after that.

Pink item at the gym:

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The wallpaper in the women’s locker room :eyeroll: Sorry for the pic, the battery died on my camera just as I took that. Too bad, because I was going to make more videos. Are there any moves you want to see on video that you can think of? Hopefully, I will get the ones I have made compiled onto my workout page at some point 😉

Since the battery was charging on my camera, no pictures of breakfast or lunch! I kept myself busy making peanut butter and some blueberry jam.

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I cannot wait to get back onto my  regular computer.  This old one is really giving me fits trying to do posts and pictures.  Grrr… Cord hopefully will be here tomorrow.

Anyway, I made a Halloween inspired latte today, complete with spiderweb!

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Pixie likes having me not working, too.  She gets the full lap instead of sharing it with my laptop!

pix1023Finally also taking some time to have fun! I wanted a little more bling on the christmas tree this year, so I am making some sparkle ornaments. Here is the first shot of what will hopefully be a colorful ornament when I get done:orn84

This started as a clear glass globe, and I used gold spray paint and am now doing the glitter. I see that this will probably take me a few weeks to get these done LOL!  Colored glitter to be added tomorrow after this dries.  Good thing I started now.

This computer is frustrating me with this post, so I think I will sign off now. I am going out with my mom to see a bluegrass concert at the revamped train station in town. Should be fun! Admission is a can of food for the food bank 😀
Question: Are you crafty?

Brick training day!

I actually slept until 7 a.m. this morning!  Yay!  It’s so hard for me to sleep that late, although I didn’t get to bed until after midnight.

It looked pretty cloudy this morning, so we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to ride or not.

Breakfast was so yummy:

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  • 40 grams oats
  • 4 grams cocoa powder
  • 1 small banana
  • cinnamon
  • Topped with peanut butter and (oh no she didn’t!) a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

Yum!  After dinking around on the computer for a while and checking the radar, it seemed clear and I really wanted to check out the duathlon course since the road was all marked up for the race in 2 weeks (!!!!).  I actually was overdressed for this, as the closer we got to Albany, the warmer it was.  It was probably close to 60 and really humid.  Ugh!  I had on jogging pants and a long sleeve technical shirt.

We started on the bike route and first thing is a big hill, a steep hill!  Holy crow.  This is a tough course.  It is a beautiful course, though, I have to say.  It’s going to be awesome with fall colors in 2 weeks.

With the humidity, I just wasn’t feeling at my peak and was slow on the climbs.  John actually went ahead of me, which is pretty rare.  We stopped at mile 8 to have a snack (Balance bar).  I likely won’t do this on the actual race day, but I needed it since it had been several hours since breakfast.

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Then finished up that route.  After we got back I wanted to do the 2.2 mile run and John decided to go with me!  I about fell over.  Drank some coconut water and headed out.  After about 1/2 a mile, there was a hill…. a long hill…. a really long hill.  Probably 1/4 mile or so.  We managed to plod up and keep going.  This was the big reason I wanted to do the course ahead of time, because I didn’t want there to be any surprises, and now there aren’t.  I do have to say that I am a little scared though.  Remember that I have to do the run *twice* – once before the 16 mile bike ride and then at the end.

I think I can do it – does my face look scared? It is.

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This was after we did the run part.  I was drenched in sweat.  I just don’t do well in humidity.  GoWear fit said 658 calories burned for the bike/run. Sweet.

I think I scared the geese with my sweatiness – they are running away!

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It was time to eat then and we stopped at Pasta Factory:

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Ironically, neither of us got pasta 😀

I did have an awesome pear and gorgonzola salad with walnuts on a bed of spinach.  It was sooo good!

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Shopped for a while and looked at some fun Halloween stuff.  The mall had one of those giant costume stores that seem to pop up this time of year.

Then a stop for a latte!  Yum, yum.

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They made it all purty for me, too!

I am pretty beat.  I feel a mix of both being excited and nervous about the duathlon.  It is going to be tough, no 2 ways about it.

Throwback for dinner!

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Eggs in a basket!  This was fun, since we actually had bread slices big enough to do this with (Nature’s Pride)

So – lucky you guys to have an early post from me tonight!  Tomorrow is back to work for me, and then football where my Broncos take on my dad’s favorite team the Cowboys (booooo!!!).  So we will be watching the game together.

Question:  Ever have eggs in a basket?

Dog show and chowda

Saturday was busy, busy!  My sister had invited me to see a dog shows where she was showing one of her Clumber Spaniels.  I had a nice PB&J oatbran breakfast using PB2 (with extra water).  Banana cooked in.

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And John had his first bowl of souped up oats ever!

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He said it gave him lots of energy.  He went out and ran 5K in a little over 27 minutes, so I guess so!  He is going to rock the race next weekend 😀

Then I left for the dog show.  This was an obedience rally and Colleen’s dog was going for the 3rd and final leg of novice rally obedience (hope I got that right!).

Meet Storm:

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He is a big goofball and was very good today.  They had to go along this course and do various sit, stay, turn, down, etc.

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He did very well on the course (except for some face licking) and qualified, which meant he completed his novice rally title!

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Congratulations Storm and Colleen!

Storm loves his aunt Lori, too:

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That was fun.  I have never been to a dog show before.  We went out for coffee to celebrate at MochaBlend Espresso Cafe in Troy.

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Fantastic latte!  Wish this place were closer to us.  It blows Starbucks out of the water.

I think I might have eaten this, too.

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Yum!

On the way home, I took a wrong turn and had to backtrack some. Gotta love that.  Once I got home at about 4pm, we turned right around and headed out grocery shopping, as my folks were coming over for dinner!

We decided to cook a clam chowder and used Alton Brown’s recipe

This is a pretty healthy recipe, as the only fat is the bacon and whatever milk % you use.  We used a good pepper bacon instead of salt pork (as that is what we had), and didn’t use fresh clams.  We used 1% milk.  The chowder wasn’t super thick, but it was very, very good:

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You puree some with a stick blender to thicken the soup with potato rather than a roux.  This one is a keeper!  Served with a crusty artisan multigrain bread (which I forgot to photo) and salad.

Dessert was an apple crisp:

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I had 2 of these 😀  Crisps can actually be a healthier dessert because the topping uses oats and you can control how much goes on.  Plus there is no bottom crust, as it is all fruit.  There are a lot of variations on the recipe out there.  For me, granny smith apples are the key because their tartness balances out the sugar.

After dinner we played a little playstation and then looked through photo albums.  That was fun!  It’s hard to believe how people change so much.  We were looking at pictures of my niece Logan when she was only a year or 2, and now she is 10!  Time sure flies.  I also hardly recognize myself.  I need to transfer some of those to digital.

Not the best of eating days today and not a whole lot of exercise.  Hope you September challengers are doing better with your respective goals this weekend than me!  It was a very busy weekend and back to work on Sunday – plus watching some football 😀

Le ride!

It’s my weekend.  Yay!  Another chilly night in the 40s.  It’s crazy!  No gym this morning, but could I sleep in?  No!  I woke up at 6am…. sigh.  Then I just laid there for an hour trying to make myself get back to sleep LOL!

Fueled up for my ride with protein pancakes and blueberry sauce!

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Extra good on a cold morning.

This is the shirt that I got the other day for $10 at TJMaxx!  It’s a New Balance.  I loves me a bargain.  John proclaimed this his favorite outfit!

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Side note: Did anyone watch Project Runway last night?  Doesn’t this shirt look like the bowling ball dress? LOL!

I new that I wanted a sweet treat at the lake, so that meant packing a lunch and not buying something there (even though I love the little Indian place there).    It was a nice ride, maybe a little breezy, but nice and cool so I didn’t get really sweaty.

Arrived at the lake and ate on the dock.  I had a tuna/hummus wrap, Food Should Taste Good Chips and applesauce.  Except I forgot a spoon!  Good thing it was kind of drinkable 😀lunch16

View from my wrap:

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Since I was by myself, I could dawdle around the stores and did a lot of window shopping.  Riding a bike is good shopping control, as I couldn’t carry much home in my bag!

Lots of flowers blooming today, including a bit of globe thistle.

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And this little bumblebee hard at work.  Look at all that pollen on his legs!

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Was hungry for a snack at this point!  I wanted a latte, but knew there was another stop on my agenda first:

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I decided on an almond danish.  I was like a cinnamon roll, only with almond filling.  Yum.  Then I picked up a skim latte (hey, gotta save somewhere, right?) and sat at the beach and enjoyed:

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There was latte art on this, but it disappeared as I walked to the beach!

I then biked home, the harder of the 2 ways because you start with a 2 mile climb uphill!  John actually met me at the frozen yogurt place on the bike path, although I didn’t get anything there.  It was nice to have him accompany me the rest of the way.

30 miles done!  I remember last year how I was so scared to bike to the lake and how tiring it was.  Now it’s no problem.  The hills are still tough, but it is a fun ride!

We decided to try a new place for dinner.  Kind of like a local Denny’s.  They serve breakfast all day, so you know I wanted to go there!  I decided on an omelet made with eggbeaters.  It was so tasty!

dinner19 The home fries were very good and not too greasy.  The wheat toast was buttered, though.  Didn’t stop me from eating it!  We so bad wanted a piece of pie, but I had already eaten a danish, so had to say no.

This is what my day looked like activity-wise:

gwfNow it’s relaxing time with Futurama and probably some football!  Hope your day was as great as mine was! 😀

Morning jog and latte art.

Went for a jog this morning. Bright and early, since I was up. Was back on my familiar track. I moved to the center of the track, as I wonder a little if the distance really is 1/4 mile around. So, I still had a new PR today. 3 miles in 33:05 seconds!! Just about an 11 minute mile, pretty damn close – quite pleased with that.

I hopped on the scale this morning, and it shows me up 1.5 pounds from Wed. WTF??? This is really annoying. I don’t normally fluctuate this much, I just don’t – so I honestly don’t know what to think.

Went to a jazz festival on the lake today.
That was wonderfully fun. Good music and then we stopped at a cafe. I really love when cafe workers take the time and make your drink special, like lattes should be.
My lovely beverage: