Spicy citrus chicken stir fry

Shredded chicken, cooked quinoa, broccoli, zucchini, green onions, red pepper flakes, and ginger, all sauteed in coconut oil. 

 Added tangerine slices in at the end for something different.

Tasty and filling!  WW points plus for my giant serving was 9.  You could cut that if you needed to by using less chicken, oil, or quinoa. 

Great dose of protein, healthy oils, and good carbs.  Can you say Good Health Guideline masterpiece?  2 servings of oil, tons of protein, and 4 servings of fruit/veggies.

He’s not just trying to finish, but trying to beat his co-worker’s marathon time of 4:45.  He saw people running this past weekend at Livestrong that he knows he could beat, so he decided today he’d tackle 26.2.  I think he even used the word easy.

Read and follow more here , see live updates here or listen to their broadcast on I HEART RADIO (96.7 Kiss FM).

Thoughts?

Personally I don’t think he’ll make it the whole way through, but that’s just me.  If the physical strain doesn’t get him, the mental will.

Me:  Hello?  (cautiously, because I expected something bad to be said)

Dad:  Hey!  What are you doing?

Me:  I’m at work.  I’m working.  (snarky)

Dad:  I was calling to see how your trip to Waco was.

Me:  It was good, but i’m tired.   I have been gone from work the better part of the last 2 weeks, i’m trying to play catch up.

Dad:  How do I comment on something?

Me:  What!?

Dad:  I want to comment on something and it won’t let me.  Tell me how to fix it.

Me:  Are we talking about Facebook?  Are you trying to post a comment on someone else’s wall?  On your own?

Dad:  I already posted, but I want to comment.

Me:  On your own post?  I don’t know why it’s not letting you….Dad, I tried too, its not taking mine either, maybe your settings are preventing it.

Dad:  Well I want to comment on my post!

Me:  Well I don’t know how to help you, it won’t let me comment either.

Dad:  Ok, have a good day. I will talk to you later.

CLICK

I laughed at loud when I hung up.  My dad seriously called me at work to walk him through Facebook.  And for the record, he’s always ranting about Facebook being dumb and people posting stupid stuff.

I eventually saw that he posted his comment, as another status update, which made me laugh even harder.

*Sigh*.  Social media and senior citizens.

The slogan may have been eat, run, sleep, repeat.  But this weekend was volunteer, volunteer, volunteer.  I went downtown on Friday and stayed until late Saturday.  I had a great time and loved it, but man, not used to standing so much.  I felt like i’d run a marathon after the first 2 days of standing for 12 hour days.

This was the first year I’ve done packet pick-up which was incredibly fun and fast paced (so much so, that I never even got to look at the expo, which I heard was awesome).  Plus I was a team lead, which was super cool, thanks Megan! (here she is assigning our first crew). 

My job for the weekend

The masses in for their packets.  Friday was pretty steady, Saturday was SLAMMED! I was one of 2 team leads for the half marathon pick-up. 

I was more than exhausted after the weekend, but well worth it!  Now on to Waco for work for most of the week!

Maybe I am weird, but when I am out of my regular routine, I write down what I need to accomplish and count backwards to see what time I really need to get moving from the bed or computer.

I got to run through town once when I was there.  Unfortunately it had to be in the AM and it was dark and raining.  I wish i’d have an evening free to tour campus on foot.   Hoping to talk Dan into a SEC game this year and we can make a roadtrip

Nothing too exciting food wise.  Fajitas at Papa Perez were really good, although I was disappointed there weren’t really sides with them that i’d eat (we went there for Valentine’s night).  Lunch at Ozona on Wednesday was great, I had salmon tacos.  I loved that kabobs were a side option (I got 2).  Everyone else at the table was jealous over my plate, lol!  I’ve never thought about making salmon tacos, but it worked.  Plus their cilantro vinaigrette was very tasty on both the fish and the kabobs.

I’m glad to be back, but now i’m off to spend all weekend downtown volunteering at the Austin Marathon.  Needless to say, there probably won’t be blog posts until Sunday night, i’ll be too busy and not taking my computer!  First stop though, Endocrinology appointment.

Happy Friday!  Good luck to all running this weekend!  I’ve never run Austin, because I LOVE volunteering for it so much!

Yes, I decorate my office at work and our dining room at home for it, because I think the decor is cute.

I bought my Girl Scouts little glittery Valentines and fun pencils.  Why?  Because I think it’s cute for kids. No candy, I figured they’d get enough of that at school.  Plus one of the mom’s doesn’t like her daughter eating certain things.   Food is NOT love people.  The girls were so excited, although, they fought over the pencils, because they were all different.  I wasn’t really expecting that.

So Adam Corolla said this Sledgehammer wine was good and is one of their spokespeople.  This marketing worked, because then of course, Dan wanted the wine.  This wine is impossible to find in this area.  Their store locator lists a few stores, but none of them carry it.  I talked to the HEB wine manager and he ordered a whole case for me.  Problem is, it came in late, past our anniversary last week, but just in time for me to have to wade through the jungle of Valentine’s insanity at the store yesterday.  It was worth it, because I knew he really wanted to try it.  Hope he likes it, because there are 11 more bottles at the store, lol!

On the way out, there were the chocolate covered strawberries, something else Dan had been talking about after seeing them in the store.  I know I could make them cheaper and better myself, but i’m leaving town for work today.

So yes, I bought him wine and strawberries and I left them for him this morning on the kitchen counter.  I would have preferred to give him everything last Thursday for our anniversary, but alas, had to settle for today.  

So technically I guess I bought him a Valentine’s Day gift, although the original intent was Anniversary.

So Happy Valentine’s Day, whether you chose to celebrate or not.  I’ll be going out tonight in College Station with a bunch of my female coworkers.  Hope it’s a blast!

I wasn’t feeling great, I was really hoping it was really bad allergies.  Lots of sneezing and sniffling going on at work.  I have been really lucky, Dan has been sick twice this winter, most of my coworkers more than once.  I have not be sick at all and managed to avoid it from all of them.  Until now.

I had a really important late afternoon meeting, so despite boss lady’s efforts to send me home, I had to stay.  At this point, I was still hoping it was allergies.  That night I took Nyquil and went to bed.

Friday wasn’t any better. Another urgent meeting in the PM.  I got to work extra early to get things done, I made it until 9:30 when I caved and went home.  I offered to take the meeting via phone, but my boss didn’t want me to.   Dan came home, sick.  Great, I gave it to him too, that never happens.  I slept the rest of the day, another Nyquil night.

Saturday, got up to run with the Zooma group in North Austin.  My sister bailed on me, but I got dressed and left.  Stopped to put gas in my car and realized my nose was bleeding.  Ugh.  With AK having her marathon next week, it would be selfish for me to run with them and possibly get her sick.  I decided to drive to the park and run alone, but I started feeling worse by the minute.  Came back home and slept most of the day Saturday, with the exception of breakfast and lunch.  I was so out of it, I watched golf on tv with Dan for a whole hour.

I was determined to go out to celebrate my birthday, our 7 year anniversary, and Valentine’s Day (we usually do 1 celebration, my preference).  I was feeling better after we both switched to AlkaSeltzer cold.  (I saw a commercial that said DayQuil did nothing for the nose, which was right, so Dan went across the street for the AlkaSeltzer). 

We ate at Maudie’s which was good, but they totally robbed me on the meat on my beef fajitas!  Good thing I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t eat my usual portion size, or i’d be starving.  We had 11 people, so for time’s sake, we had to split into 2 smaller tables.  Got to see a few people I don’t get to see near enough, which made me very happy!

Then off to Antone’s (where Dan and I first met) to see William Clark Green (new to me), Brian Keane, and Adam Hood.  Adam was great as usual.  Not my favorite type of venue to see him in, but it was good.

I won’t go into details, but the evening turned south after dinner (had nothing to do with me being sick).  Quite possibly a sign that I should have stayed home in my pjs.   The evening ended around 2:45 am with me in tears.  I can only hope that I’m offered a redo on my celebration date.

Addressed to Dan________ and guest.  2nd one in a year. 

Maybe i’m just being overly sensitive, or maybe Dan is trying to tell me something, lol!  What really gets me is both couples know I exist.  In fact, Dan and I have been together longer that both couples combined!

*Stupid rant over*

That quote and title from Adam Hood pretty much sums it up.  I’m behind because i’ve had a ton on my mind.

Friday:

In trying to get my lunchbox, purse, and 3 cases of Girl Scout cookies in the car before work, I put my cell phone on top of the car, because I had too much stuff. 15 minutes later I hear a thud on the back of my car. When I got to work, realized it was my phone!  I’ve never put my phone on my car before and I am not sure why I didn’t just make more trips out to the car.

Had to call Dan from work and ask him to log-in on Verizon and file a claim for me.  He wasn’t amused, he’d just boarded a flight to come home after being in Canada all week.

More tests being run.  2 hours at the imaging center Friday afternoon.  I was a grump afterwards, so I went to the gym, which actually helped.

At least when I got home, Dan was back from his trip and we had pizza night.  We hadn’t had pizza night in AGES! (mostly because I am still not really a fan of GF pizza, this time I made my own crust for mine).

Saturday:

Wasn’t sure if it was going to keep storming, plus I was in a funk from the stupid tests run on Friday.  So I drove down to the lake to run.  I’m not training for anything, but I thought it would be good for the soul.  It didn’t rain, but I got a nice 8 miler in.  It was super humid and gross, but the run was good.  Plus I hadn’t been to the lake in months, it was a nice change.

Later we made a roadtrip to Stephenville.  I’ve never even been to that area of the state before.  Good times.  Got to see 3 friends who came in from Fort Worth.  We ate at Hard Eight BBQ which was awesome.  Then we went to City Limits to see Jason Boland.  I’ve never experienced such wonderful people watching.  Wow, that was enough entertainment on it’s own (Boland was fabulous as usual). Great time, although I am still not 100%, mostly due to the after-effects of all of the damn smoke.  Smoke and I don’t get along.

Things that are not so fun?  Driving back to a hotel in town in a town you’ve never been to, without a map or GPS.  At least Dan was sober enough to operate his iPhone GPS, because otherwise, i’d probably still be driving!

Sunday:

My body doesn’t know that I stayed up WAY late, I was up at 5.  I took 2 different types of allergy medicine to try to make the breathing better from the smoke. At 7 I couldn’t take it anymore and I showered, got dressed, and hung out in the lobby until Dan was ready.  The hotel’s breakfast was kind of crappy, so we went out before we left to go home.

The rest of the day was groceries on the way home (insane Superbowl shoppers), laundry, nap, gym, and dinner.  We had some kick-ass beef chalupas for dinner.  I forgot to get cake or some sort of birthday dessert for us, so while Dan was packing for his work trip I had GF cookie, dark chocolate chips and ice cream.

Back to the quote and blog title being from Adam Hood, one of our favorite musicians.  Dan has known Adam since college.  I’ve know him since I have known Dan.  ACTUALLY, ha, funny story.  The day I moved to Austin I had an email from Dan that said, “Hey, my friend Adam is playing at Copper Tank tonight, you should come.”   No, I didn’t know Dan, I didn’t actually meet him until a month later through our mutual friends.  That show he emailed me about actually got cancelled because the bar shut down, so it never happened and I never went.  But yes, Dan was trying to get me to go see Adam even before i’d met him.   I was a fan of Adam’s immediately once I saw him live.  If you don’t know his music, check him out

We had a stressful morning at work, so a coworker and I decided to make the trek to the Arboretum to the Zoe’s Kitchen there for lunch.   As we were nearing the restaurant, I was doing about 45 on the road, someone pulled out across the road directly in front of me and stopped!  I am not sure how on earth my car stopped and how I didn’t t-bone the stupid guy.  It was such a short distance, I am shocked my car wasn’t totaled.  Really impressed with my car and the brakes.

Then later than evening, I went to run before going over to pick up my Girl Scout cookie order from one of the moms.  The last 2 weeks, while I was waiting for her to get home, i’ve run in the county park down the street (tons of sports fields and courts, not isolated).  Last week I ran the actual trail only.  This week I wanted to do more, so I ran on the sidewalk outside of the park first, then onto the trail, and then into the greenbelt.  Going into the greenbelt wasn’t my brightest idea because there are no signs and it wasn’t clear where the park boundaries were.

When I went pick up my cookies, my friend told me I shouldn’t be running alone and Dan needed to get me a dog.  This is a really nice and affluent area.  I didn’t ever think about something happening.

Thank goodness I ran the sidewalk 1.5 miles first.  Because something really bad happened WHILE I WAS THERE.  The same friend sent me this yesterday afternoon, with the note, “OMG Melissa, you were right there when this happened!)  http://m.hillcountrynews.com/mobile/news/article_51c17278-4e8f-11e1-91e1-0019bb2963f4.html

I spoke too soon, I’ve never really had a scare.  That was until now.  I am hoping the young woman who was attacked will be ok and I’m sending many prayers for her.