Tag Archives: bagels

Bagels and a new fish!

It’s Sunday, so you know what that means!

Like how I put the bagel on a nutrition paper? 😀  March is national nutrition month, so I am going to try to work in some posts on this topic.

We stocked up on so much fresh produce at the grocery store.  I am making an effort to eat extra clean during March for nutrition month and lay off as much processed stuff as I can (I’m looking at you Balance bars), and get in more fruits and veggies.  There will be a great veggie experiment this week, too!

Lunch showcased my increased veggies with a brown green smoothie!

Included in this was several hand fulls of raw spinach, 1 scoop of chocolate protein powder, 1 serving of frozen raspberries, 4 grams of oat fiber.  Doesn’t look all that attractive, but it was pretty good.  I actually got 2 glasses out of this, which I drank while working.

Snack time was the usual latte and couple of these:

The fresh produce brings up another FAQ:

What about the quality of food vs. the quantity? Food without pesticides, growth hormones or antibiotics, for example. I’m wondering how you feel these factors might contribute to weight loss!

I answered this a little in the comments that day, but I will post with a little more detail:  I don’t know as those really matter all that much to me personally.  We already eat hormone-free/antibiotic-free local meat and dairy. The pesticides – well, we just can’t afford all organic stuff. Hate to say it, but there it is. It’s too spendy up here. I would have to seriously cut back on my fruit and veggie consumption if it had to be organic. If it works into the budget, we purchase the organic version.  As far as quantity/quality goes, I would likely get the same sense of fullness from an apple irregardless of whether it was organic or not.  I think eating clean matters more than eating organic. I think it is better to eat regular grown strawberries than a 100 calorie snack pack any day.  In a perfect world, organic food would be the norm, and I wish it was.  Maybe it is moving towards that.

Also of interest, Cammy from Tippy-Toe Diet posted comments regarding how several bloggers measure success (including me).  Interesting comments!

So, out of my food comfort zone for dinner.  I decided to try fish (again).  I was just looking at the fresh fish case and I saw some silver Hake (also called whiting).  What caught my eye was the sign that said Hake was similar to sole, which is one of the only fish that doesn’t taste ‘fishy’ to me (but it costs $$).  So on a whim, I bought some and John pan fried it up with some lemon pepper for dinner.

The verdict?  I actually liked it as much as I have liked any fish.  It was good, but I’ll take chicken any day over fish.  It had almost a buttery flavor and clean tasting.  Not dry at all and very tender.  I would probably give this one another go around.   Yay me!

I’m liking doing these FAQs in bits and pieces.  I will be doing 2 separate posts one on running and one on lifting because a lot of questions centered on these, so they deserve their own posts!

Overall a good eating day today, and a nice rest day from exercise.  The last few days were not so good on the eating front.

Stay ‘tuned‘ for a give away on Monday!!

Question:  Do you eat organic?

Snuh-oh!

Keep your questions coming by email or in the comment section for the FAQ time!

We got hammered with snow!  I shoveled late last night for a while and I am glad I did because it is heavy, wet, and sloppy.  That actually kept the roads from getting too bad, so I wandered out to the gym this morning.  There were only 2 crazy people of us there because of the weather, I think.

Stationary bike warmup, then:

  • Chin ups:  2 sets of 2, 1 set of 1  (these are not getting any easier!)
  • Barbell Romanian dead lifts:  3 sets of 8 at 95#
  • Seated lat row:  3 sets of 8 at 55#
  • 1-legged dumbbell deadlift:  3 sets of 10 (each leg) with 15# DBs
  • Horizontal cable woodchop:  3 sets of 8 (each side) at 50#
  • Dumbbell pliet squat:  3 sets of 10 with 35# DB
  • Bent over reverse fly:  3 sets of 8 with15# DBs

Worked the hammies today!  Then I tried out the elliptical for the heck of it.  I have to say that I do not get the excitement over this piece of equipment.  It felt awkward to me, and my legs felt too far apart.  I just stayed on for 5 minutes and then went treadmill walking.

Came home to pick John up and we braved the weather to get bagels.

Probably should have stayed home, but we didn’t.  The coffee shop was pretty busy, so we weren’t the only ones who needed a fix 😀

I was reading this paper with breakfast to see what new events are coming up and I see this!

Results from the duathlon last October – 5th in my age group.  Maybe there were more than 5 in my group, but I don’t know.  Yay me!  I am doing this event again and my goal is to shave 10 minutes off my time.

There was also some new artwork at the cafe featuring 2 of my favorite men:

:mrgreen:  Now they need some of my framed breakfast pictures to go next to them!

Did some work and then got to shoveling our driveway for the UPS truck to come in.  About 45 minutes of shoveling. What a work out!  In hindsight, I should have not worked out with weights today, since shoveling heavy, wet snow is a strength training workout in itself…..

Lunch time and I celebrated National Tortilla Day with a tuna wrap!

I was still really hungry after this, so I had a protein bar.  It was still snowing at this point, so John went out and cleared out some more while I was working:

It has stopped snowing for the moment, but we are going to get hit again tomorrow.  Possibly another 5 inches? 😯 It might turn into rain, we are sort of on that borderline.

I was all excited about dinner tonight because I actually was able to use the fading light to take a picture of it.  Days are noticeably lighter now.

I used the GT express and added a cubed up laughing cow wedge to the egg mixture.  Outstanding!

I did okay with eating today.  I got snacky and had some peanuts and some crackers with my latte.  I was stomach growling hungry.  Think it was the shoveling.

Going to settle in with some pumpkin custard tonight and working.  It’s a late work night for me!

Don’t forget those questions 😀

Bagels and settling the mind.

I had a great night’s sleep – yay!  I wanted to stay up and watch the short track, but couldn’t make it past the semi-finals.  We headed on out to breakfast at Panera Bread.  I had a french toast bagel.  So good.

The coffee had grounds in it again, though.  What is up with that?? Only in my cup (twice), but not in John’s.  Still trying to figure that one out.

Slow work day this morning, so I got some much needed things done around the house.  I have a monster paper pile I am trying to tame, mostly junk mail, but other things as well.

We went grocery shopping today, and strawberries were on sale for $2 a pound!  You know who bought 3 boxes 😀  I had to incorporate into lunch today:

This is one of my very favorite combos – greek yogurt, strawberries, and hemp plus granola.  I have had cereal out of the house for quite a while, so I let a little back in.  I buy it from the bulk bin, so I can get as little as I want.  As you all know, I have a cereal snackage problem at times.
I need to see how well I do with this in the house.  If I am okay, we might buy a box of Kashi next week.   Baby steps.

Now that things have settled down, I have myself into a good routine again.  However, I am finding my mind still all over the place and racing around.  Meditation doesn’t seem to work as I can’t stop thinking about stuff.  Things that happened, things that are happening, things that could/are going to happen.  I guess I am just an inherent spazz, I don’t know.  Maybe it will just take longer to settle down my head and the longer I am in my physical routine, the better that will get?  I have decided it’s time to make some decisions on goal weight and all that and what I want to do.  After I finish work tonight, I am going to sit down and write out the pros and cons of what that will take and share them tomorrow.  I at least need to outline my goals for the week.

Went out for a chilly walk (not as warm out as yesterday!) then came back to a snack of this (x2):

And a latte.  I am so spoiled having my own barista in John, as he makes these pretty much every day for me since I started my job a year ago.

I also got some Cedar’s Lemon Hummus at the store today.  Gosh I love that stuff!  I used it for dinner in wrap with chicken.

Brussels and a very juicy bit of cantaloupe on the side.  I love fruit so much.  I swear that if fruit contained protein, that is all I would eat other than bagels :mrgreen:

After signing off, I am going to have a snack of crustless pumpkin pie.  John stole a can from my pumpkin stash 😯  and made this, so I am darn well going to eat some!  It’s yummy, though.  Who says pumpkin is just for Thanksgiving??

And because you all seem to like her pictures, Pixie posed for you doing what she does best:

Question:  Do you ever put a food ‘on hiatus’?

A magazine called….

Happy Wednesday.  Seriously, where does the time go?  I had a somewhat restless night of sleep last night.  Could be the party, or the caffeine, or just hecticness (my new word).  I was up a little early and just went off to the gym.  I did a little warmup and then kind of a random strength workout.  I didn’t want to push the muscles too much (as I will explain below).

  • Chin ups:  2 sets of 2, 1 set of 1 (almost 1 :mrgreen:  )
  • Cable squat to row:  3 sets of 8 at 60#
  • Bent over reverse fly:  3 sets of 10 with 10# dumbbells
  • Incline chest fly:  3 sets of 8 with 20# DBs
  • Lunges with a bar:  3 sets of 8 with 40# bar
  • Horizontal wood chop: 3 sets of 8 at 40#
  • Reverse lunge with forward reach:  3 sets of 8 with 8# DBs

Then I did the treadmill with a walk/run combo.  Here is a video of me doing the squat to row.  I love the dead lift/row, but this one is becoming a new favorite as well.  I love that I can do an ass-to-the-grass squat this way. Again, full body move!  Note that I am tipped back a little bit because I can’t stand fully upright or the weight pulls me over.

This is a great move for balance work as well.

I went home and got John moving for bagels.  He forgot it was bagel Wednesday, can you believe it? 😯   I was totally ready for this:

A little over toasted, but still good.

Okay, so I teased you last week about saying something was coming up for me?  Well, last November, a magazine emailed me after finding my blog and wanted to do a success story on me.  I emailed back and forth with a lot of information and then I didn’t hear from them again.  Well, while on the cruise (why did everything happen during that time, anyway???), I got another email that they wanted to go ahead and use my story.  Lots of coordination and freaking out later and I have my photo shoot on Thursday!  Ahhhhh!!!!!  The story should run in the May issue, if all goes according to plan.  I hope I didn’t jinx anything by talking about it LOL.  I edited this to take out the name of the magazine until it runs.

Can I tell you that I am flipping out about the photo shoot?  😯 😯 😯  With it being winter and all, we have to go to my tiny gym and see what we can come up with, although we are both game to doing a little bit outside if possible  😕   An NYC photographer is probably going to laugh herself to death when she gets up here….

I was told to wear well-fitted clothes to show off my body.  Omg – can I even tell you how nervous this makes me?  It’s one thing to put myself on the blog, but another in a magazine.  They said no patterns, so the trisuit is out (wah!).  Of course, that leaves the sweatstained long sleeve shirt or the droopy short sleeve one (in video above) LOL.  I am frantically trying to shop for a new outfit because they said to bring several.  Hello budget…..

For the Dr. Oz show I was totally comfortable.  This photo shoot puts me waaaaay out of my comfort zone.  Way, way out. I am totally excited, nervous, self-conscious, and proud all at the same time.  And I feel like I need to lose 10 pounds by tomorrow!

Hopefully I will have some pics as I have my sis and possibly John coming with to keep me calm.

Could the month of February be any more packed with stuff?  It has been insane!

Still have to eat, though.  Been eating some leftovers from the Mardi Gras party!  Chicken poboy and some cantaloupe:

I’m off to dog training class (which I am totally clueless about) and then frantic shopping before the mall closes!

Happy Valentine’s Day an Dr. Oz promo

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I had to work today, and John and I didn’t have anything special planned except we told each other 3 things we loved about each other this morning 😳

Off to bagels for breakfast, though!  Haven’t been out for a Sunday bagel in a few weeks.

Trail mix, with some coffee (and grounds….)

Starting to feel somewhat more normal, although I am so behind in my personal stuff like emails and house cleaning.  I still have laundry hanging up that I did from the return from our cruise last Sunday!  Good thing John has been doing some cleaning or the house would be a total wreck.

Check out the promo for Tuesday’s Dr. Oz show!  If you look at this still, I am at end of the 2nd row on the left holding the 105 pound paddle (mouth open).  That’s probably all you will see of me on the show LOL!

Quick lunch break:

Tuna salad and some soy crisps. I used to eat these all the time, but tried decreasing soy in my diet. Now that I am not eating so many bars and use whey protein, I decided to have some of these chips.  I love how many you get in a serving!

Lots and lots of work today. That’s a good thing. We made chocolate lattes for our Valentine snack 😀

Dinner turned out yummier than I was thinking. Don’t you love it when that happens? I sauteed some finely cut brussel sprouts (with new chef’s knife – super sharp!) and then sauteed a bit of pork with BBQ sauce.

Can you tell I am on a BBQ kick lately? LOL Good stuff.

Tomorrow I’ll post some more thoughts on seeing all of the Dr. Oz people. I am going to sit down with a snack and some tea tonight with John and try to muster up some energy to clean a little bit. We are hosting a Mardi Gras dinner on Tuesday!

Happy Vday to all, and spend it with someone special, even if it is yourself (cause you are all special).

5HTP and sleep!

Another good night of sleep.  Maybe there is something to the 5HTP stuff, but more on that later….  At the gym a little early and had a great work out.  After a warm up, I hit the weights:

  • Chin ups:  2 sets of 3, 1 set of 2.
  • Barbell deadlift/row combo:  3 sets of 10 at 55 pounds
  • Incline dumbbell bench press:  3 sets of 8 with 25# DBs
  • Reverse lunge with dumbbell on shoulder:  3 sets of 10 with 20# DB
  • Bent over cable row:  3 sets of 15 at 50#
  • Reverse crunches:  3 sets of 15

Ah yes, chin ups much better doing first!  While I am really slow at increasing the number, I have realized that I am actually performing them easier.  My body swings much less, which means I am using more strength rather than momentum to hoist myself up.  That’s a good thing!

Hopped on the treadmill and did a walk/run combo with 2 miles of running.  Felt pretty good!  I stayed on the treadmill for  a little longer before heading out to bagels.  With John sitting on the jury, he wasn’t able to join me, but my folks did!  Yay for family time :mrgreen:

Do you ever have those times where you just feel overwhelmed with life stuff?  Not all bad stuff, but just overwhelmed?  I am having that right now.  Seems like there is some intersecting of a lot of things all at once and I feel like I am juggling 20 balls in the air.  Again, most of it is good, but it’s still stressful.

Lunch break was some pseudo-overnight oats.  After I got back from the gym, I mixed some multigrain hot cereal with vanilla greek yogurt and let that sit in the fridge.  Mixed in some pumpkin, cinnamon, and flax seed:

Pretty good.  Very thick and chewy!  This will be made in the summer, I think.

Anyway, regarding 5-HTP, here is a little more about it. 5-HTP is short for 5-hydroxy-tryptophan.  Tryptophan is that amino acid that is supposed to help you release serotonin and get sleepy (turkey dinner, anyone??).  5-HTP is actually a precursor to serotonin and reportedly helps your body make more of it, which can allow for easier sleep.  It is supposedly plant derived, but I can’t seem to find out exactly what without having to weed through a lot of the sales pitches on websites for this stuff.  There is a lot of drivel out there (like with any supplement).  Some clinical trials have shown benefit to 5-HTP, although not as much as some websites would have you believe.  I have been taking this for the past several days (bought from Puritan’s Pride) 100 mg about 20-30 minutes before bedtime.  I have found that I have slept through the night, or if I did wake up, I fell right back asleep (from what I remember anyway).  I don’t know how much of this is due to the placebo effect or if it actually is doing something.

The added benefit to getting a good night’s sleep?  Less snacky during the daytime!  🙂  Some people report side effects of nervousness or headaches with 5HTP – so please don’t take anything I say as medical advice!

Speaking of snack…. I had a raspberry Attune bar today with my latte.

Jeez I really like these.  Good thing they are a little on the pricey side or I would eat a lot more of them.  Wonder if I could get them to sponsor me?  🙂

We bought some frozen salmon filets that have a southwestern coating on them to try for dinner.  I was pretty skeptical because most fish tastes… well, fishy to me.  I know that sounds funny, but it’s true!   Tuna tastes the most fishy, but I expect that from tuna.

I actually think I liked this!  It didn’t taste fishy at all to me.  This little filet is packed with 25 grams of protein, too.  Woo Hoo!  Roasted brussels and a pear to compliment.  Had a lot of those superfoods today.

I actually have to do more work tonight.  Vacation can’t come soon enough!

Question:  What is your favorite fish?

Let the countdown begin!

Thank you for all the nice comments on the Locks of Love post!

Sunday is the start of my work week – and the official countdown to vacation can begin!  WooHoo!!  (Can you tell I am excited??)  I realized that since we stopped biking on Sundays with the cold weather that I have a very relaxing start to the work week.  It’s my rest day, so no gym and I can sleep in.  Then we go out for bagels and chit chat.  Then I start my work day.  That is a *great* way to start the week, I have to say.   🙂   Easing into it.

So speaking of bagels, I decided on a blueberry one today.  Haven’t had that one in a while.  Nom, nom!

Plus about 3 cups of coffee.  Okay, not about 3 cups, definitely 3 cups :mrgreen:

We picked up a few groceries.  Judicious shopping to get us through the week.  Although, I supposed my parents can eat whatever they want out of our fridge (they are house watching and Pixie watching while we are away).

I made a vow that there was to be no intermittent snacking today.  I have been noticing lately that there has just been too much of it, which I correlate a little bit to the increase in mileage from running.   I really found the snacking habit hard to break!  Planned snacks are one thing, but the constant reaching into the peanuts or chip bag without thinking really needs to stop.  I think I will shoot to make this a goal in the week leading up to the cruise as well.  My pre-vacation challenge!

Lunchtime was a superfood fest!  Vanilla greek yogurt, protein powder, canned pumpkin, cinnamon, and ground flax seed.

Note – no cereal!

This week’s run plan will be to decrease mileage.  It’s a good idea when you up your mileage to take a week and back down again.  Helps prevent injury and over training.

Snack break during the football game (and work break).  Latte plus my beloved Attune bars!

I had a coupon for these, so I got some.  So good. Portion controlled (unlike chocolate chips!).

Dinner was ring around the hot sauce!

Plus 1/2 a granny smith.  I like apples, but I don’t eat them as often because there are other fruits I love more, but it’s getting down to eating up stuff in the house.  I had asked John to get me a couple tart apples last week (he likes sweeter ones) and I am just getting around to them.  Oops.

Come on on Saints – I’m rooting for you tonight!!

Question:  Do you start your week easy, or jump right in with workouts, work and eating right?

All the bits and pieces

Wednesday!  Only 2 more work days for me.

Had a date with peanut butter (while frowning at my finger) before hitting up the gym.  I did 10 minutes on the stationary and then hit up the weights:

  • Chin ups:  1 set of 3, 2 sets of 2.  These are not getting any easier.
  • Dumbbell pliet squats:  3 sets of 15 with 25# dumbbell
  • Arnold press:  3 sets of 15 with 8# DBs
  • Wide grip lat pull down:  3 sets of 15 at 50#
  • Split squats:  3 sets of 15 with 25# plate
  • Bent over dumbbell row:  3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs

Then I got on the treadmill for walk and run.  I just stuck 1 mile of running in there with no intervals.  My hammies are still pretty tired from all the dead lifts I did on Monday!  I listened to Gaelic Storm today.  Talk about making you want to move!  45 minutes went by in a snap!  I think I may need to find some more podcasts to listen to just to mix things up.  Anyone have favorites to share?

Then I swung by and picked up John, who was on his way walking to meet me and got our Wednesday staple!

And some of this:

To answer a couple emails – I do not put everything I eat onto the blog.  Just most stuff.  I doubt that you all would be interested in seeing the 3 or 4 chips I grab or bite of something John is eating LOL!  I haven’t been putting my pre workout snack for a while because it is dark in the morning when I get up.   However, just to show you – today will feature a snap of everything that passed my lips.

While decided what to make for lunch, I had this:

Lunch was a smoothie made with 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, oat fiber, fresh pineapple, coconut, and cinnamon.

I should have used ice, as it was somewhat lukewarm, which isn’t really to bad on a cold day, but maybe not the most refreshing.

Afternoon snack was the standard latte:

and a protein hit of this:

I wasn’t the only one snacking:

Pixie was sitting all pretty for a picture forever, but then she yawned just as I snapped this!  At least she is awake.

While thinking about dinner, I snacked on some of these:

Food Should Taste Good chips.  I lurve this brand.

Dinner was my world famous BBQ chicken salad!

Hello Rutville – population: Me 😀

Plus a tart American kiwi.

Finished up work later tonight and made a nighttime snack of chocolate chips and pretzels.  Unpictured on this are the few peanuts I sprinkled on there.  See my snacking problem?

I have an announcement to share tomorrow morning 😀 Stay tuned!

I will leave you with something that I say a lot, and it happened to be in a newspaper article I was reading this morning!

It’s true!  Do you speak to yourself positively all the time?  You should 🙂

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Red Beans and Rice

Thanks for the comments on me and my sis!  She is the older one, btw :mrgreen: , but only by 14 months.  Regarding yesterday’s run.  I had planned on 6 miles, so that is why I went to the gym to finish up the run.  I tend to be quite disciplined with my exercise (unlike my food), so I knew that if I wasn’t going to finish outside, I needed to go the gym.  I would have been disappointed if I had stopped at 2 miles.  That’s just me, though.  The gym is only a couple miles from my house, and it was just opening up when I came back home, so it’s pretty easy to pop over there.

Sunday bagel day!  We were up a little early (like that is new…) and headed out to Panera.  The gingerbread bagel is gone, but one of my favorites is back!  The trail mix bagel!

WooHoo.  Full of nuts and bits of dried fruit.  So tasty.

Since we were early, we could sit and chat for a while over 3 cups of coffee.  Then we did a quick grocery trip for things we couldn’t get at BJs yesterday.  Fastest shopping ever!   And strawberries were in stock – although $3.99 a pound (still got some 😀 )

Lots of work to do today.  I think some MTs are on vacation or sick, because there has been a backup of work, which is unusual for this time of year, so my workday started fast and furious.  Lunch was some fresh cut pineapple and an open-face egg sammie!

That was the last of the corporate waffles, which we will never buy again (unless the wafflemaker breaks!).

Afternoon break of a latte!

No snack with it.  I went waaaay overboard on chocolate last night while watching football, so today is definitely a lower calorie day.  It wasn’t even the chocolate from the giant bag of chips, either.  I go along so well, and then have a backslide from time to time.  Sigh……..  Good thing I did 6 miles.

Our house smells so fabulous.  We watched Good Eats last week and AB made some red beans and rice. They looked so, so good!  So, we decided to make them today.  Actually, John made because of me working.  He followed the recipe except for using a smoked pork hock (from the smokehouse) instead of pickled pork and left out the celery, as it was bad.  He also used less garlic 😀

It was very good!  I didn’t want kidney beans, so we found a bag of small red beans.  I was pretty okay with their texture.  Served with brown rice and hot sauce, of course!  We have enough of this to feed an army!  Anyone want to stop by?  🙂 Hope it freezes well.

Dessert was strawberries drizzled with a bit of chocolate sauce (that John also made today.

Perfectly simple and fresh.

We’ve got snow a comin’ tonight!  I like snow for the most part, but I have to say with the snow on the way and the red beans and rice for dinner, I am so looking forward to New Orleans in 2 weeks!  Eeeeeeeeeeeee!!! :mrgreen:

Question:  Do you like snow?

Liftin’ and bagels :D

Hello again!  Looks like we all have tried crazy diets in the past.  It’s amazing what we will do for weight loss isn’t it? 😯   Add yours to be entered into the giveway for the Lose the Diet book!

I am going to be so glad as the sun rises earlier in the morning to go to the gym when it is light out!  It feels so much earlier than it really is.  Today was lifting and a little speedwork.  I bring an extra pair of shoes to change into at the gym, and found that Pixie had left me a present:

This little paper ball was tucked into the toe of my shoe.  She likes to do this.  😀

Da muscles:

  • Chin ups:  1 set of 3, 1 set of 2, 1 set of 1-1/2 LOL.
  • Barbell deadlift:  3 sets of 8 at 65 pounds
  • 1-arm dumbbell snatch:  3 sets of 8 at 15 pounds
  • Dumbbell pliet squat:  3 sets of 8 with 35# dumbbell
  • T pushups:  3 sets of 3
  • Bent over dumbbell row:  3 sets of 8 with 20# dumbbells.

Treadmill included 40 minutes of walking, with 1 mile of speedwork run in there:

  • 1 minute at 5.5 mph
  • 1 minute at 6.0 mph
  • 1 minute at 5.5 mph
  • 1 minute at 6.5 mph
  • 1 minute 5.5 mph
  • 1 minute at 6.5 mph
  • 1 minute at 5.5 mph
  • 1 minute at 7 mph
  • 1 minute at 5.5 mph
  • 1 minute at 6.5 mph
  • 1 minute at 5.5 mph
  • 1 minute at 6 mph
  • cool down

That was quick and easy!  Much better than sticking it in at mile 4 of a 6 mile run (duh…)

Picked up John and hit Ridge street up for a bagel and coffee!

They were out of my multigrain.. booooo…. so I had a cinnamon raisin.

Backdrop of exposed brick.  For some reason, I really like exposed brick indoors, but only the authentic really old stuff (not circa 1970).

Late start to work on Wednesday, always, because of breakfast out, but it’s worth it. I almost had oatmeal for lunch, since John had some, but I decided to not be monkey-see-monkey-do and have some good protein:

And applesauce!  With no strawberries forthcoming for a while, you’ll see different fruits on the blog coming up.

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On a serious note, the earthquake in Haiti is just devastating to see.  Sometimes I  feel so helpless about the enormity of disasters like this.  Part of me wants to go down and help in person if I could.  Part of me wishes I could donate a lot of money.  Neither of those is really very realistic for us.  I can donate some.  I also just gave blood a couple weeks ago, or I would go out and do that again.

If you want to help, here are a couple links to some organizations that are on the ground there.

Partners in Health

The Lambdi Fund

Medical Teams International

Just a note that before you commit money, please make sure the organization is legitimite.  You can look up your charity at http://www.charitynavigator.org/