Busy Week

I can't believe it's the weekend already! So what have I done...

Saturday last week, Steve's birthday, we went out for dinner. We haven't gone out for so long because of this whole recovery deal, it was so nice. I've been gradually increasing my fat intake - it may sound silly, but after not eating fat for 5 months, and digesting gallbladder-free it doesn't always go well :(. So we split the tappas plate (flatbread, roasted garlic, chevre, cranberry chutney, papaya and mango salsa and a blackened corn dip) and I had the butternut squash ravioli with tomato chevre sauce sprinkled with toasted pecans. So yummy! My tummy was only a little sore after that, though I only ate half of it, taking the rest home for Sunday lunch.

Sunday was Steve's birthday breakfast with the fam. It was nice to get things back to normal. I read and played Rock Band the rest of the day.

Monday I went back to work. I had been reading my emails but not actioning any of them, so at least I had them mostly sorted. Unfortunately, it also meant 3 days of responding to queries that were so old, I'd hoped that everyone had opted to log help desk tickets instead of waiting for an answer from me. Sure enough they had! I was handed two projects to become familiar with, with the expectation to be fully ramped up in two weeks. Yikes. I have so many meetings in my calendar now, it's exhausting! I'm still trying to finish transitioning my old job too. Thankfully it was a short week - we had Good Friday off.

Yesterday was my nephew's 8th birthday and we were invited to my brother's house for brunch. It's so nice to be out and about! I can't believe how icy and cold it still is though - woke this morning to -23C, and it's supposed to be spring!

I have run/walked, or walked every day this week except yesterday. Feel's good! Today I started r2/w1, for 42 mins on the treadmill.

We're on our way shortly to buy mountain bikes! yay! we're 90% decided on mountain bikes, since we want to bike the trails in the gats this year. I just don't think hybrids will be tough enough for some of the trails. We already have road bikes, so we're covered there.

Oh! And today I baked Bunnygirl's Carrot-Apple Bread. Freaken AMAZING.

Guess that's it!

I had a date!

It's been so long since Steve and I went anywhere or did anything... I think we saw a movie over Christmas, but I'd been feeling so lousy before the surgery, and so lousy afterwards, that I didn't want to do anything.

We had planned to go out last weekend but we had some snow. After last Wednesday's foot, we woke up to a little over 2 feet!

This was the view from the patio door. The patio door is 4 steps up from the ground, the snow is higher than that. It was gorgeous! You can almost see our neighbour's little fence. Hope he doesn't let the doggies out because they'd be gone!

And from the front door, let's just say when we're standing next to the cars, we can't see our neighbours on either side. Reversing out of the laneway is a challenge too, the snowbanks are now at least 8 feet high :D. Oh, and we've had several inches since, with more to come next week. We may indeed break Ottawa's annual snow record from 1972!

So back to the date. Steve went for a run with some of last year's Gotta Run team, and was given a preview pass to see 'Run Fatboy Run'. It's got Shaun from Shaun of the Dead! The movie won't win any awards, but it was really really cute. Made me want to run! But that will be a later post. In researching what I could eat at the movie, I discovered that a large buttered popcorn (20 cups) has as much fat as 8 Big Macs. EIGHT. Without the topping? 6 Big Macs. YUCK. Now I've never been able to eat my way through a large in one sitting, but always brought my bag home for the next day. I LOVE movie popcorn. I think those days are long gone! Even a small popcorn (7 cups) without topping is too much. I'll stick to my homemade stuff from now on! I settled for a pretzel and mustard. Not as good as the ones at the hockey games, but good enough. And much better for me! We had a lovely time, and life felt NORMAL. Awesome :)

Date Night

Steve and I have very little time together. He's working 6.5 days a week getting the new store set up, I'm working weekdays and schooling two nights a week.

Yesterday we threw my brother a birthday bbq in our new outdoor living room! It's awesome, but darn it, we woke to a temp drop. Boo-urns. We reached a high of 13C and in the sun under blankets it wasn't bad! Ok, it was, so we took it inside after an hour. But the patio was a hit!

After the mass exodus (it was hockey night in Ottawa), KT went out, and we decided to have date night. Yes, we'd miss part of the hockey game, but it's too stressful to watch the first two periods. Really.

We decided on The Notebook. All we knew is that it was a love story. We thought, woooo cuddles in the future! Um, what we didn't think of was that we'd spend the last half hour of the film sobbing. Snot is not conducive to cuddles. So we watched the last period of the game, and with fear we both had 'the feeling'. Sure enough, within 5 seconds of the horn, Buffalo scored. We continued to cry. Argh!! We won in 2nd OT, thank goodness. How I can watch the last period and OT, and not find that stressful is beyond me.

I woke this morning feeling all stuffy from crying. Not the best in date nights! Except for the win, that was totally worth it.

Good times

Finally! I hesitate to say it, as I don't want to jinx myself, but I finally feel like these healthy habits might have an opportunity to stick!

I'm still having some stomach pain, but so infrequent (a few times a day) and so minor, that I hardly notice them. It's more a reminder... "oh ya, I haven't felt this in a while". Yay!

I think I may have been saved. Well not really, but who know! Thursday evening we went to see the Blind Boys of Alabama. I didn't realize it was a benefit concert to raise money for a machine to be used for early diagnosis of degenerative eye conditions, for the eye institute. Even better! I fell in love with Gospel when I began volunteering at the Ottawa Bluesfest in the Gospel tent almost 15 years ago.

The show was wonderful! We clapped, we danced (eventually... this is Ottawa after all) and we sang. I left with a huge smile on my face, which hasn't left me since. Honestly, if I could find a church like that here, I think I could be persuaded to give this religion thing another shot. I am after all, a former Catholic.

Now to those healthy habits. Yesterday I had a frustrating moment, thought about ordering a pizza (seriously) but instead raced across the hall to get my running bra. I hammered out my first 10/1's since restarting this running gig in January. The last set felt hard (they always do don't they!) but I got a great sweat going, and had the endorphins to boot. Not sure I would have felt that great after pizza. Well maybe.

Today I went shopping for glasses, yet again. But this time I got lucky and found some I liked! And one pair of prescription sunglasses too. I'm so excited :)

After our shopping we went for a walk by the canal for an hour. It was lovely out (5C), though overcast. Since we moved I don't get to the canal as often as I used to, so it's a treat!

I can't think of anything else. Life is good! Run by the canal planned tomorrow (the canal two days in a row!), while Steve races.

A clip from the group, same lineup, of one of their slower songs played in December somewhere!

Date Day

It's been ages since Steve and I had a date day! I don't know why, but we always fall off track. Steve had to go in to work for the morning, and I had homework to do, so that worked out well.

We went to the Home Show. What a huge let down! The top floor was carny hell, the basement not much better. I was glad when the other pavilions were somewhat better. On the upside, we got some great quotes for central air.

From here we went to Bushtukah. We wanted to look at the new bikes (Steve found his soul mate) and wanted to look at shorts and socks. We didn't end up buying anything, but we loved looking.

We then decided to get Chinese food, but on the way we'd stop at the Running Room. Steve tried on the Garmin 305, and I bought it for him for his birthday. It was more than I'd budgeted for (I was originally going to get him a new BBQ), but I'll take the extra $100 from my bonus. He's worth it. He's so excited! :) I also bought some running shorts (my rubbing thighs blew through my other two pairs, yet again... they're stitched up, yet again, but it's time for a new pair!), and got some socks.

We then went looking at glasses. Steve's benefits year end is in a couple of weeks and since we qualify for every two years, we want to get them on this year's plan. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything. I hate glasses shopping more than anything else.

We're going to run tomorrow by the canal (Steve is off). The weather is supposed to be springy, which I'll find surprising since we've been having white outs and blizzards all afternoon!