Monday, July 27, 2015

Weekend Recap

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a great weekend!  Mine flew by as they always do.  Here's how I filled my time.

On Friday night I spent several hours working on dishes for the dinner party I hosted on Saturday night.  I also threw together a quick dinner using more pesto from my basil plant.  That thing just keeps growing like crazy!  After dinner we headed to Phil's place.  He had brought home some mini cans of champagne from work (his office occasionally brings in beer or other cocktails when they have a good month or have something else to celebrate - I guess that is one perk of working for a small, private company!).  I'm not a huge champagne fan but it was nice to have a little cocktail to celebrate completing my first week at work.


The rest of the night was spent playing cards and playing with Oscar.  By the way, we recently found out that Oscar is actually a girl...  We were told the cat was a boy when we got it but after inspecting the cat the week after bring her home, Phil was pretty sure it was actually a girl.  The vet confirmed that 2 weeks ago - but it actually took 2 different vets to confirm the sex as the first one thought she might be a boy (who knew it was so difficult to tell the sex of a cat??!?).  So we are adjusting to referring to Oscar as she/her.  Phil decided to stick with the name Oscar since we are already so accustomed to using it.  I know of 2 other people who thought their cat was the opposite sex of what it really was so at least we aren't the only ones to make this mistake.  Girl or boy, we of course will love her just the same.
Even though she has lots of toys, she prefers playing with things that are not toys, like my hydration belt and running shoes.
On Saturday morning I ran 17 miles with my club.  It was so hot and humid so it was a tough run but my overall pace was good (9:30 min/mile pace).  That's probably a little faster than I should be doing my long runs but when it's so hot out there, I just want to get the run done as fast as possible.


After the run, a local running store had a 25% off shopping day for us.  I bought some new shoes and a couple of other essentials like body glide and salt tablets.  There were 4 different color options for the model of shoes I run in but I was excited to see this pink color as an option as I love pink!


After the run I dashed home and spent the afternoon working on the rest of the food for the party.  I kept the menu pretty simple and just did pork tacos, black beans, fajita vegetables, and chips/guac/salsa.  If you like pork, I recommend trying the recipe I made, which can be found here.  Even though the menu was pretty simple, it's still time intensive as there is just so much chopping and dicing to do!  Not pictured is the banana cream pie I made which obviously doesn't go with the Mexican theme of the meal but I couldn't come up with a Mexican dessert that was GF (tres leches cake is of course an option but I'm not crazy about it).

The food table looks a little sparse but I promise that no one went home hungry!

Our guests arrived at 7 pm and everyone seemed to like the food, especially the pork!  Between dinner and dessert we played a game of Apples to Apples and then at 10 pm we watched an awesome fireworks show from my balcony.  The fireworks show is sponsored by Target and they put on the best show!

On Sunday morning I biked over to a local lake and went to a tire changing class.  I've been biking more lately so figured it was time for me to learn how to change a tire.  The instructor did a great job as she showed us how to do it and then had us practice on our own bikes.  I can now say that I know how to change a tire but I hope I never have to because I think it is very difficult/tricky to do!  The rest of Sunday was low key and productive as I cleaned, did laundry, ironed, went to church, and did a video chat with Amber.

I definitely had a fun, full weekend!  I felt pretty tired at the end of the weekend but this coming week should be pretty low key!

How was your weekend?  

17 comments:

katielookingforward said...

I hate changing tires!! i can do the tube part, I can even take the rear wheel off (although I never want to) but its the putting the c02 cartridge that I can't do. I always try to bike with my cell phone so I can call someone if something happens.

Marisa A. said...

Haha, people always asked if I would change Elvis's name once I found out she was actually a girl. But I was like...she's a cat and she already knows that's her name. I'm hoping this Saturday the humidity dies down. I was tempted to just go back inside to the air con as soon as I stepped out the door at 5:30 on Saturday.

Marlys said...

I love your new shoes - PINK! Hurray!
That pork recipe sounds great so I made a copy of it for future use.
Oscar is growing since we saw him and so cute!
We have a fun weekend at the lake and it was a beautiful one weather wise, too.
It was fun to have 5 of the grandkids around and it was a great diversion for your Dad who did so well in his recovery! I think the kids, fresh air and company breathed some new life into him! He is at work today, so we will see if he lasts longer that one-half a day. Progress is good!

Nora said...

Pork tacos sounds delicious... even though it is only 10:45 am right now =)
Such a full and good weekend you had! Way to go on the 9:30 pace at that mileage + heat. It's been so humid here that it makes working out outside miserable for me right now. Dark and chilly basement it is ;)

Kelly (She Wears a Red Sox Cap) said...

Impressive running 17 miles in the heat! I was sweating at 2 this morning, yikes!
It's so cool you had fireworks right outside your place- such a good idea to have a dinner party and watch them.
I never knew it was so hard to tell if a cat is a male or female- so funny! Oscar is an adorable name either way :)

Leigh said...

Haha that's too funny that Oscar is actually a girl :) Nice job on the long run! Howcome the store put on the sale for you guys? That's pretty awesome of them!

Stephany said...

Haha, that Oscar story is funny! My mom had a coworker who did the same thing, but thought her boy cat was a girl cat... so now he lives his life as a "Vanessa." ;) I wonder why telling the sex of a cat is so difficult!

Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend! Mine was spent recuperating from the terrible cold I picked up last week. I had to cancel plans for book club and a friend's birthday brunch, which I was very bummed about. I ended up just staying in and my biggest adventure being a trip to pick up some necessities at Target and a book from the library. Woo! ;)

Amber said...

My weekend was very laidback and low key which was awesome! The rest of August is going to be pretty busy so I'm glad I got in a quiet weekend when I could.

It was so great to catch up yesterday and I can't wait for your visit!!

San said...

Oscar is adorable... regardless of him being a her :)

Also: love your new shoes! Pretty color!

Gracie said...

A tire-changing class sounds like such a good idea. I need to find one in my area, because that's one reason I don't ride my bike to work (the other being the heat index at 107, of course,,,).

Jenny said...

What a fab weekend! I've only ever had boy cats but I would like to get a girl cat someday - Oscar is oh so cute, I hope your running gear survive haha!

I have no idea how to change a bike tire, mine are made of Kevlar and have some kind of slime in them so hopefully that will hold until I can get to bike shop! If there isn't already, there should be some kind of roadside assistance for cyclists :)

Kyria @ Travel Spot said...

Wow! Another busy summer weekend in the books, eh? How are you already up to 17 mile long runs in your training? It's been a long time since I have done marathon training, so maybe I am forgetting (conveniently) all of the LSD runs that I had to do!

If you get a flat on your bike, pray that it is on the front tire, as the back one, which is attached to the chain, is a pain in the butt to change!! I actually learned how to change mine when I got a flat and so I walked the bike home and used YouTube to figure it out. Of course, I did not have the right tools, so I used two spoons to get the tire off of the rim. Then I patched the tube and put the tire back on and THEN I found out that the patch didn't work and I had to take it all back off again!!! I guess there is no better way to learn than to do!!

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

Yummy sounding Mexican dinner!! Pork tacos sound really good ... and the pie!!! Mmmmmm!! We spent the weekend in Saskatoon visiting my mom.

Cherry Blossoms said...

Love the new shoes and way to go on your 17 miles! Thats awesome. I want to hear about the party. I saw some pics someone had posted somewhere on line of the fireworks that night in Mpls and they ooked so pretty!

Jeanie said...

Sounds like a great weekend, wonderful party, good tastes and more! LOVE your shoes! Love that OSCAR loves your shoes! Sigh. Life is good, isn't it?

Emilie said...

My cat growing up was named Bob and was a girl! My dad named her Bob because he named everything Bob, and then later found out Bob was a girl. Too funny. Orange females are pretty rare! I always wanted one because of how rare they are. When I met Marley I fell in love with him and didn't care that he was a he and now I can't imagine not having him. Way to go on your long run! 9:30 is an awesome pace and I totally understand wanting to be done and running faster than you should.

Charis Faith said...

Congrats on your first week of work under your belt! I LOVE your new running shoes! I currently have green mizunos but it's time for another pair again! Your food, oh my word!!! Wow I'm jealous of all your dinner guests!!!