Beer and Bowling!

We are experiencing some wet weather here in Boston (at least it isn't snow!). Since it was raining, I decided to head back to my old pal Mr. Treadmill. I went back on the Woodway and ran a quick 6 miles in 53 minutes. Man, was it fast! I was sweating and huffing and puffing, but it was a good workout and I even sustained an 8.0 mph pace for a while! It was good to work up a sweat for the first time all week!

I am dealing with a little issue that I hope you guys can help out with....My training hasn't been going exactly as planned with all this snow and wedding stuff. So, I was kinda revisiting my race schedule for the spring. I noticed that a lot of bloggers are running a "Run to Remember" in Boston at the end of May. However, if I run the Providence marathon (with the DreamFar team) at the beginning of May it might be too much running in one month for my legs. However, I noticed that the The Cox marathon (Providence marathon) also offers a half marathon option at the same time/day/and place as the full marathon. So, I was thinking of running both the Cox half marathon at the beginning of May (instead of the full marathon) and then the "Run to Remember" half marathon at the end of May. There is also the New York marathon in the Fall or the Lowell marathon, and it would be SO much nicer training for my first marathon in the summer months........

What do you guys think? Do you think that would be too much running in the month of May? Would it be a bad thing not to run a marathon this spring and wait till the Fall of next year? Thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!


In other news, I had a lovely afternoon of beer and bowling today! Evan, unfortunately, had to work so I met my mom and brother for a little bowling. I had heard of this new bowling alley that opened up in Davis Square, so when we were thinking of something to do on a rainy winter afternoon I suggested checking it out!

The place was called Sacco's Bowl Haven and man was it cool! It is owned by Flatbread's, a pizza company, that offers a 10 lane bowling alley with a pizza restaurant attached. Flatbread's is an organic, locally grown minded restaurant that features unique pizzas and local beers. Also most of the tables and the bar were made from recycled bowling lanes.

VERY COOL!! We weren't hungry for pizza, but since there was a one to two hour wait we decided to sit at the bar and grab a beer! I started with a Ommegang Carranza-- Mmmm, yum!

After we finished our first round, our lane was ready and we started bowling! It was a LOT of fun, but I was not very good.....

As we bowled, I sipped on a glass of organic Cabernet Savigon that was dry and spicy and just how I like it!

Needless to say I lost both strings, but I had SUCH a fun time! I will definitely need to take Evan back, so I can practice for a future rematch!

Relaxing the rest of the night and getting ready for the big game tomorrow!

Any fun Super Bowl plans?

How to Spice up a Wednesday...

WINE!!!! O yea, I went THERE!

Why does wine make everything seem so fancy and great? Weeknight life just seems so repeated lately, so I decided a couple glasses of wine would spice up a Wednesday night! And boy did it. Dinner seemed SO much more fun with a glass of wine. I actually felt like I was out to dinner. Maybe I should implement this strategy more often....... Hmm, this could be dangerous!

My fancy restaurant dinner included Kale Chips, frozen mixed veggies and a chicken sausage.

Simple, yet delicious and fancy because of my glasses of wine! Haha

In other news, I went to a GREAT spinning class today. The class incorporated a lot more intervals than I am use to and instead of going up a large hill we did a fast LONG interval at a moderate incline. I am not sure if I loved this style of class, but I did like the change up from the usual class. Also, and the greatest part of the class, was at the end of class the instructor came up to me and said I looked really strong! This made my night (besides the wine) because spinning is my most challenging workout (harder than running a 1/2 marathon sometimes), so I am SO excited I am improving. I guess practice makes perfect.

What do you do to spice up your week nights?

To Complain or not to complain...that is the question?

Last night Evan and I met up with some of his work friends for "Happy Hour" at a bar near Evan's work called Jacob Wirths. It was PACKED but had a GREAT beer list. I started with a pumpkin stout:

It was good, but not as good as the oatmeal one I had last Friday. I think the creaminess of the oatmeal was lost and in its place was kinda a bitter pumpkin taste. I usually like pumpkin, but I was expecting the rich creaminess of the stout I experienced last week. Anyways, it was good and compared to my second beer it was FABULOUS. I am not sure what the name was because it was SOOOOOO packed at the bar we were at and the waitresses were VERY rushed and did not describe the beer to you that well. All they said was: "pumpkin ale or stout?" and when I asked the brand, she looked at me like I was crazy. So, for my second beer I ordered the ale.

GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Probably the worst beer of my life! It was SO bad that I could not take a second sip. It tasted like liquid candy. Which may sound good, but in a beer format was the worst taste in the world to me. It was SO sweet that I felt my teeth rotting with every sip. Needless to say I left basically the whole beer on the table. Oh well, you win some you lose some. I just wish I knew the name of the beer, so that sitch doesn't happen again!

After drinks, we headed over to Sonsie for dinner. However, before heading over, I called and confirmed that the wait time was not TOO long. The hostess said it would be 20 minutes for two and there would be no need to put our name in. Once we arrived the wait time, for the dinning room, moved to 30-40 minutes, but the hostess said there was no wait (or a shorter wait) for the Cafe section of the restaurant. The cafe has the same menu, but it is kinda in the middle of the bar and the waiting area and is VERY crowed. So, we opted to wait for the dinning room. After Evan and I got a drink:

Me: a glass of Syrah

Evan: Johnny Walker Black on the Rocks

My wine was pretty good, but not as good as the Liberty Hotel's Cabernet last weekend. However, Evan proclaimed it was one of his favorite glasses of wine. It was VERY smooth and full-bodied.

After about 20-25 minutes the hostess came up and said our table was ready. To our surprise, she took us over to a table in the Cafe! Not only was it in the cafe, but the table was on the outskirts of it. Evan's chair was basically in the main aisle. I asked the hostess why we were sat there and she responded that the dinning room was packed with people with reservations. I was a little confused at this point because I specifically called and was never told that or when I arrived was never told. But Evan said just to sit and enjoy our meal and not complain because we were both starving and it was getting late.

What would you have done at this point?

So, we did not say anything and ordered the Pumpkin Puree Pizza to start (recommended by Laura):

This pizza was VERY good. Very flavorful with a strong, but not to overpowering pumpkin taste! I LOVED it!

Kinda full from the pizza, we decided to split a burger and two veggie sides: Sauted spinach and Green beans stir fried with ginger, oyster sauce, garlic and chili.

The burger was great, but the bun it came in was incredible! However, the string beans were my favorite!!! They was SO, SO tasty!!! I also ordered a second glass of wine: Pinot Noir from the Hitching Post (the wine they drank in the movie Sideways). The wine was good, but not worth 16$.

So, overall the food was very good at Sonsie, but Evan had a terrible dining experience. He was continuously hit by traffic for his entire meal! He said he felt like he was in a packed college bar. It was AWFUL (he said)!! So when we finished our meal, we both felt it was time to complain. We asked to speak to the manager and explained the situation. The manager was apologetic and suggested we have dessert (on him) in the dinning room. Evan and I were kinda fed up and done with the restaurant at this point that we declined his offer, instead just asked if that table could be removed or moved to another location, so another customer did not have to have that same dinning experience. The manager just nodded, but when the bill arrived he comped our whole meal (minus our drinks). That was very generous of him, but we hope he took our advice and moved that table!!!

What do you guys think: Would you have spoken to the manager? If so, at what point would have you asked to speak to him? What do you think the proper etiquette is when complaining? Would you go back to the restaurant if the manager comped the meal?

After dinner, Evan and I met up with some friends at Top of the Hub (the restaurant at the top of the Prudential building) for some sights, drinks, and dancing. I decided to abstained from drinking, but enjoyed chatting, the views, and a little slow dancing with Evan!

Hope you are having a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Kick This!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!

I had a busy day at internship with a meeting that I presented at and lots and lots of children to see. So, I was pretty pumped when 2:45 rolled around. After work, I attended a "Cardio Kickbox" class. If you ever looked in on me "kickboxing" you would be laughing hysterically. Actually I was laughing at myself for at least the first half. My "moves" looked like a spastic chicken. My bounciness/dance moves exceeded my kickboxing skills. At some points I would just throw in a punch or a kick and nobody else would. However, half way through the class I got serious!! I started grunting and punching and at one point I noticed I was biting my lip with fearsomeness. I was a bad ass and was ready to take on the punks that might mess with me. HAHA, it was a really fun class!!! I am definitely going to try to take it again next week!!

Once home, I poured myself a glass of some delicious white wine that Evan's parents brought us when they were here a few weeks ago.

This wine was SO good!! It was flavorful and crisp. I highly recommend it. As for dinner I used a piece of the ham from last night's dinner, cheddar cheese from the apple orchard, and peppers mixed into scrambled eggs

with two slices of bread.

YUM!

I am off to meet Evan for a Friday drink! Have a FABULOUS night!!!