Does syrup have sugar in it?

Tuesday night was an all-around amazing night. I ended up taking the subway from work down to the lower east side, and met up with Blondie, and my work BFF (who had the day off) and his wife. We went for dinner at Wylie Dufresne's restaurant - WD 50. It was my work BFF's bday so we wanted to celebrate in style.

The restaurant was beautiful but casual which I loved - you felt like you could talk, and didn't have to whisper, and the waiters wore jeans, so showing up in my business casual was totally fine. We had a 6 pm reservation and had no sooner sat down then we saw Wylie Dufresne in the kitchen. I geeked out a little because for awhile, I was obsessed with Top Chef including their master's edition which he was on.

We all ended up doing the 12 course tasting menu, and I did a wine pairing with my meals. It was incredible - there were so many dishes that I would go back and eat - including pho gras; veal tartar; squab; wagyu beef. OMG. And since it was 12 course, the bites were small enough to give you a taste but not too big to overwhelm you. And some of the wine pairings were off-the-hook good - I even took a copy of the wine list so I could look into getting some of the bottles I loved.

4 hours later, without even realizing it had taken 4 hours, we got to go back to the kitchen and meet Chef Dufresne on our way out. He was very nice and very pleasant, and when I said how good our waiter was (because he was awesome), Chef Dufresne cracked a joke about "you don't know him that well". I laughed my ass off. And to give me credit, I wasn't all like "TOP CHEF!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU RULE!"

Wednesday a coworker and I headed out for lunch - we went out so I could buy my boss a xmas gift, and ended up wandering around our area for awhile before sitting down for a meal. It made the day go really really fast. And Thursday, my boss' boss took her direct reports out for a late lunch which they weren't coming back from. So as soon as that crew was out the door at 2, my friends came by and we took off for a late long lunch also.

Thursday night, I decided to walk home and halfway there, my bar friends texted to come meet up for 1 last visit before holiday. I called Blondie who was still at work and pretty busy, but said he join up when he could. The bar that night was a blast. Everyone was in a good mood, and my bar friends decided to buy a round of "doomsday shots" for the group - we were trying to decide what a good doomsday shot would be, when our bartender came up with the idea that everyone who was doing the shot (8 of us - 6 locals, our bartender, the waitress) would put in their favorite liquor and we'd mix them together and do a combined shot - his reasoning was that if we were going out on Friday, we'd go out drinking what we love.

Our shot ended up being a mix of jaeger, jose cuervo, malibu, gin, patron silver, tullamore dew (me), cheap white wine, and then one of the guys took pity and said his favorite drinks were orange juice and cranberry juice. And the shot ruled. We have no idea how it turned out so good, but it did.

Right after the shot, Blondie showed up to the bar. I was all whooping when he walked in because the night was so good. He took off his jacket, and I started laughing - he had gotten swag from his corporate job! A really nice hoodie which made me a bit jealous - I've gotten a ton of t-shirts from places I've worked, but I love hoodies and have never gotten one of those. He started catching up with everyone, when my bar friends all of a sudden, gave us gifts.

I love my bar friends - they are both awesome people, and the gifts were spot on. I got a 5 lb gummy bear that's as big as my head (and my ass after I eat it). And they gave Blondie a toaster that toasts the Green Bay Packer logo on your bread! We already told them what we were going to give them - which is bringing back cheese curds from (appropriately) The Land of Cheese. But then Blondie also came up with another idea that night, so we'll do that also.

Yesterday was spent being hung over. I went to lunch with a friend again, said goodbye to my best female friend who had quit, and then we got sent home early for the day. Which was good. I spent last night being extremely lazy. But now today I've got to pack up for our trip.

No workouts again. I'm enjoying holiday right now. And I'm not going to feel guilty about it. Until I eat that 5 lb gummy bear - then I'll feel guilty.

Happy Holidays.
--K

Blah

This weekend I hated the following: Santa, Buddy the Elf, elves in general, anyone wearing fishnets, anyone wearing tutus, Rudolph, and Xmas trees. More on that to come.

Work last week was about what was expected. Very busy due to my project, but then 2 early days which helped my mood because my other days were so swamped. We got let out early on Wednesday for the overall company holiday party. I decided to skip the party because last year the space was so crowded you couldn't move, and I spent the party trying not to sweat on people. My besties and I were going to skip together and just hit up a bar, but they both decided to go last minute to the party. So I headed home. And got texted from them both about 30 minutes later that they had already left the party because (shocker) it was so crowded. And hot. At that point, I was already home in my pajamas so I told them I was skipping on more festivities.

Thursday my bar friend texted to come play trivia. But the weather that night was bitter cold. So being a big giant baby, and being totally against my blog post a few weeks ago about how I never say no to invitations during the holidays (god, 2 paragraphs, and I've said no twice - go me), I declined the invite. I just wasn't feeling it. It turned out that her dad had flown into NYC to surprise her for a short weekend, so I missed the whole shindig! I was so bummed when I heard, and totally wish I could've been there to see her face when her dad just showed up in front of her. I learned my lesson about saying no, and will now stick to my "just don't say no" plan.

On Friday, we had my immediate work group party at the office - we did a massive gift exchange and I ended up with a nice set of wine gear - corks, pump, (haha - sounds filthy!), and 2 servers. They had brought in a massive spread of food also, so we spent the afternoon just chatting, picking at food, and swapping gifts. Not a bad way to end the week. When I left on Friday, the weather was pleasant also so I decided to hoof it back to my hood - and I'm glad I did. Everywhere I looked is lit up for holidays, and crossing 5th Avenue was amazing (home to Saks, Harry Winston, Bulgovi, etc). When I got home that night, Blondie and I decided to stop in at our local for dinner and to see if my bar friend was there with her dad. They weren't there, but we ran into a ton of other people we knew, had some dinner, and just hung out into the evening. Which made my nice-week-ending even nicer.

Saturday brings us to the first line in this blog post. Santacon invaded NYC. Now, they do this every year, but this year it happened to start one block from our apartment, so Hells Kitchen bars were the starting point (and honestly, mostly the ending point too) for these "festivities". What is Santacon you ask? It's an excuse to get drunk off your ass, and dress up like Santa. Or Buddy the Elf. Or elves in general. Or wear fishnets. Or wear tutus. Or wear a Rudolph costume. Or dress like a Xmas tree. The problem was that there were about 10000 people who participated, and they just overran our neighborhood. I watched a guy (in an elf costume) cross the middle of the street, against the light, blowing a whistle to get cars to stop, and watched 3 cars in a row have to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting him. And his friends fucking cheered him on.

My friend from TX was also in town on Saturday so unfortunately we had to head out into the mayhem to meet up with her. We managed to find a nice bar at the very edge of our neighborhood that only had a few respectful Santas in it. We sat with her for a long time there, eating and drinking, and just finding out on the last 6 years of each other's lives. After several hours, we headed back down into the fray to show her our local bar. We walked into madness. The place was trashed - it literally look like the Santas had a beer bottle throwing contest - the floor was covered in broken glass. You couldn't hardly move in the place. We only lasted a few drinks there before calling it a night.

Sunday I headed out early afternoon to meet up with my bar friend and her dad. We met at Pony bar, and the bartenders there filled us in on how bad it was at Pony and their sister bar during Santacon. After we heard the news and shared our stories, we spent rest of the afternoon just hanging out and watching the Packers roll to NFC North champs! Goooo Pack!

Plans coming up: Wisconsin, Blondie's bro coming to visit, poker night at our house in Jan, launch of my major project late Jan, Spokane/SF late late Jan.

Workouts (sucked):
Tuesday: 30 mins on bike - 2 mins level 6, 2 mins level 11, 5 min cooldown; 7 mins on treadmill - 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph, 5 mins running at 5.5 mph (wanted to see how my neck felt).
Wednesday: 3.1 mile run in 35:44; 5 min cooldown; weights
Thurs-Today: none. Shame rattle. Shame rattle.

--K

Hanging in Jersey

Tis the week of sickness and throwing out of backs.

I ended up having to take it easy last Sunday - because while I was busy shovelling lunch down my throat, I managed to throw out my lower back. Yes, that's right. Apparently I eat with such gusto, my body can't handle it. So last Sunday was spent babying my way-getting-old body. Loads o' fun.

I woke up on Monday and was still incredibly achy, but decided to go ahead and work out anyway. I took a load of laundry down also, and threw that in the washer while I worked out. I felt a lot better when I was done, still creaky but moving around much better than before. Afterwards, I headed out and got my roots done. My hair looks so much better - he fixed my (unintentional) ombre hair, and trimmed it up - lurve it! After my hair, it was back to the bar to down a few beers and eat some nachos for lunch. I sat at the bar, and eavesdropped on conversations around me, and just generally enjoyed having absolutely nothing to do.

I stopped on the way home from the bar and got some gummy bears, and then treated myself to an afternoon of bad reality TV and sugar. And some napping. All in all, one of the best days I've had in awhile. I also realized that if I had won that crazy powerball lottery, basically the rest of my life would look like last Monday did. Sigh. Perfect day.

On Tuesday it was back to work. Which is insane right now. Blondie was working crazy hours too last week - almost 60 hours for him in 5 days. Wednesday I woke up and felt a bad cold / sinus thing coming on - I powered through Wednesday and Thursday but felt crappy both days. We ended up doing a group lunch on Thursday which was nice, but I felt weird about being away from work with how much I have left to do for my project.

Thursday night my bar friends texted, so I drug my increasingly sick butt to the bar to meet up with them for a few, and get caught up on each other's week. I decided my body needed alcohol to kill the germs, so it was straight into a bunch of scotch. Blondie texted around 8:30 pm and headed over to meet us for a bit. Afterwards, we went out for mexican and just enjoyed our evening.

Friday, if I had to give it a 1 word description, would be "Pbbbbbbbttttt". I went into work just feeling horrid - in addition to the cold / sinus which was in full on agony, I had been sleeping in a funny position because of my lower back and had thrown out my neck. My boss stopped by my office about an hour after I got to work, to lay 2 pieces of news on me - one was that I had been put on a committee that requires me back in SF in January; the other was I was being sent home sick. I had only gone in because I had a ton of meetings, but she helped me pawn them off on other people, and then by 11:30, I was home, in bed, feeling miserable. And pissed off about the committee.

I passed the day watching TV off of netflix, blowing my nose, and trying desperately to get my neck to stop hurting (literally, this is all I did all day - Blondie didn't get home from work until almost 1 am, so until almost 1 am, this is what I did). If I had to give myself a 3 word description on Friday, it would've been "barrel of fun". Saturday was more of the same - just trying to get better.

Then came Sunday - our bartender lives in Jersey, and he is a local at a bar there and had been asking the "bar crew" to come over to visit him on a Sunday to watch football and hang at his local. We decided to make the trek on Sunday. Blondie and I were a last minute decision b/c of how crappy I was feeling, but decided 20 mins before we had to leave to catch the bus to go.

5 of us walked up to Port Authority and caught a transit bus over into Jersey to our bartender's bar (it was about a 30-40 min ride). And we had a blast. I kept laughing because I felt like "wow, who does this? Takes a bus out of the city to go to a bar?" But our bartender was so happy to see us, and it was such a fun day. Everyone was in great moods, and the Jets actually decided to win a game. Beer was flowing, the bar tab was cheap, and it was great seeing everyone in a different location. Partying in Jersey? Absolutely.

We got home last night around 5:30 pm (we had gone over at 10:45 am), and I managed to stay up for 45 minutes, before crashing for the night at 6:15. And it was exactly what I needed, as I feel about 80% back to normal today from my head cold. My neck is still rotten, but everything else is on the mend.

Plans for this week - leaving work early on Wednesday as my holiday party is then, early day on Friday as we're doing a holiday swap in the office, possible trivia on Thursday, and good friend from TX landing on Friday night. Next week is my immediate office group party, before leaving for the Land of Cheese for a few days. Then it's NYE and Blondie's bro is visiting for a week. Then it's back to SF with a possible stop in Spokane to visit my cray cray aunt and uncle.

Workouts were not great - due to cold and neck, it was a struggle
Sunday: 40 mins on Precor, 2 min level 6, 2 min level 11; 5 min cooldown; 10 mins on treadmill - 6 mins running at 5.5 mph, 4 mins walking at 4.1 mph.
Monday: Bunch of weights, 20 mins walking on treadmill at 3.2 mph up 8% grade hill
Tuesday: rest day
Wednesday: 30 mins walking on treadmill - 2 mins 4.1 mph on 5% grade hill; 2 mins 4.1 mph on 0% grade hill; 5 min cooldown
Thurs-Today: Nothing
Tomorrow: Something - I promise.

--K

Jam Packed

There is something about the holidays that for me, makes me want to busy all the time. The rest of the year I'm fine with turning down invitations, but holiday season, I can't say no. We had a pretty busy week to start off with, and the next few weeks are going to be the same or worse. But I'm looking forward to it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHUGS! Hope you have a fantastic day!

Last Sunday turned out pretty nice. I drug myself up to my nail place and got my toes done. I picked an orangey color for fall, and it looks pretty good. Afterwards, it was over to Pony Bar to meet up with my bar friend for many drinks. We wasted the afternoon away there, and met some pretty cool new people. I got home that night and Blondie and I decided to have one last bad meal for T-day weekend and ordered in a ton of chinese food. Then we watched the Packers "play" the Giants - and just groaned at such a horrible end to the weekend.

The week itself was one of those weeks where it feels like it's over before it even started. I swear, I woke up Monday morning and it was already Friday evening. I have a project we are trying to get closed out on, and taking care of that every day made each day FLY by. It was nice having the week go so fast, but it's extremely nerve wracking trying to get this project done (which we didn't do). And Blondie is also extremely busy with work - he's been working 12 hour days on his project and making great progress on what he has due.

Monday night, our bartender and one of the usual patrons of the bar both texted. We ended up going over as Blondie had won a little bit of money on the weekend's games. We only intended to stay for an hour, but that easily turned into 2 hours with a lot of talking and laughter.

Tuesday night, I went out with my friend group from work - we hit up our normal bar by work, and just got caught up on everything. We always have very weird conversations - and this was no different. We actually discussed (seriously I might add) that if you worked from home, and got an unwanted blowjob from your significant other, would that be sexual harrassment. What was supposed to be a few quick drinks at 5:30 pm ended up with me showing up at home at 9:30 pm drunk.

Thursday afternoon, my bar friend texted that trivia was a go for that night. I couldn't decide if I should go or not, as I was really tired. I texted Blondie and he said he had to stay pretty late at work that night, so I ended up deciding to go. Our team name was "Taint nothing but a G thang". We started out extremely sucking - and all of us admitted that trivia that night was making us feel stupid. Then, out of nowhere, we ended up coming from 8th place all the way to 2nd place in the final round (when you ask a bunch of 20 year olds questions about music from the 70's, you automatically give the lone almost 40 year old in the group a very big advantage). We actually ended up winning a $20 gift certificate to the bar.

Friday was also a good day - my BFF wanted to go to lunch, so we took off around 1 pm for some bites. And then we seriously took our time as it was Friday. It made my day fly by even faster than it had been going. Friday night was the only night Blondie got home on time - we ended up ordering BBQ for dinner, and then deciding to hit up 7-11 for some junk food to eat while we watched movies.

Saturday I made Blondie get up super early so we could get to the gym - afterwards, we cleaned up quickly and then headed up to Times Square so we could see the early showing of Skyfall! ($7 tickets before noon). I LOVED this movie - I have a major crush on Daniel Craig as it is, and the movie was just so good on top of it. Afterwards, we had a late lunch at a cajun restaurant before coming home and crashing out for afternoon naps (the weather was cold and cloudy yday - perfect for napping). We had some groceries delivered last night, and then watched some TV to end the day.

Today I have on tap a workout, and then meeting up with bar friend at Pony Bar. One of my old coworkers is in town today so he's also going to join us at Pony. Tomorrow I have the day off, so I will be doing some laundry before getting my roots touched up. Then I'm going to hit up Landsdowne to get some of my favorite nachos in the world and a few beers for lunch, before back to the office the rest of the week.

Workouts were good except for Monday:
Monday: Rest day. Not intended but so full from our chinese food binge I had no choice.
Tuesday: 30 mins on bike - 2 mins at level 6, 2 mins at level 11; 5 min cooldown; weights
Wednesday: 30 mins hill repeats - 2 mins walking 4.1 mph on 0% grade; 2 mins running 5.3-5.5 mph on 3% grade hill; 5 min cooldown; weights
Thursday: 30 mins speedwork - 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph; 2 mins running 6.2-6.6 mph; 5 min cooldown
Friday: Rest day. Planned.
Saturday: 3.1 mile run in 35:19; 5 min cooldown

--K