Running and cooking

It finally hit me that Drew is an adult when he signed up for a Spartan race in Atlanta and went there with his girlfriend a couple of weekends ago. Got himself up and left at 7 in the morning, did all the checking in, then ran that thing over 2.5 hours all by himself. Camille was there to cheer him on and take pictures, but this is the only one I got. God bless him!


Meanwhile, Dean and I forced Lucas, uh, I mean joined Lucas for a 5K that same day, and he dropped his time from the previous 58 minutes to a very respectable 37 minutes - woohoo! Now we couldn't convince him to join us for O'Daly's Green Dress Run downtown, so we went by ourselves. They take the Green Dress part very seriously, and if you look just to the right of center, you'll see a lady wearing a green tutu...who has also pained her entire body green, down to her eyelids. Now that's commitment....or needs commitment - ha!


Here's the starting line - note all manner of wigs and a man in a dress way behind me.


And these young ladies were running in dresses, but they walked through their beer breaks. Yes, people were running with drinks in hand. Dean saw a group running with Fireball shots...which was probably necessary to stay hydrated, as there was not a single water station until you crossed the finish line!


Okay, now next weekend is the Azalea Trail Run 10K, and I will attempt to do this while on call, so we'll let you know how that goes. Now to segue to something my sister told me about - Birchbox. For $10 a month, you get 5 samples of beauty products in a beautiful box worthy or re-gifting.


Ooh, this month I got 6 things! They were dry shampoo, regular shampoo, conditioner, 2 eyeshadows, facial cleanser, and a facial mask. Last month I got samples of lotion, foaming face wash, lipstick, hair serum, and something else I forgot. Love this little club, and it makes for great travel-size toiletries. Thanks, Sister!


Another thing I discovered is that there's a lady in Publix who cooks a new dinner every week, and you can taste it, then buy all the ingredients right there next to her booth, and get a free recipe card - who knew?! So I made a delicious cranberry-walnut salad with lemon vinaigrette dressing....


and pork tenderloin with dill yogurt sauce - shoot, I forgot to get a shot of that, it made it look a lot yummier.


So what have you been doing lately? Cooking anything new? Exercising? And yes, I wrote this post instead of going running like I should have...dangit! .

Charleston Visit and the Gulf Coast 10K

So for my Mom's and sister's birthday presents, I set up a trip to Charleston, SC. Now we did a trip to New York a few years ago, and I whipped them all over that town with very little down time, so this trip we decided it would be relaxing with no real plans other than a couple of dinner reservations. We were off to a great start by getting some dinner and drinks in the Atlanta airport during our almost 2-hour layover...except that dinner never came and we had to walk out and get on this plane with no food.


Luckily, when we got to our hotel, they had a restaurant on the rooftop that was still open...and empty...with excellent music playing...you see where this is going, don't you?



Sadly, my peeps just sat at the table waiting for waitstaff to stumble upon us, but none did! Totally got away with it!


And it was a blessing in disguise that we missed dinner in the airport, because take a look at this: delicious burger with truffle parmesan fries - yum.


We found out the next day that The Watch was a hip, new restaurant that just opened - how lucky can ya' get? So I highly recommend The Restoration on King (which is actually on another street), because the rooms are more like condos with separate bedrooms and full kitchens...


although the main attraction are these crazy private balconies - huge!


You also get a complimentary basket of breakfast every morning! They have a menu to choose from, and some of the food came in these precious glass jars - fabulous.


So we did some sightseeing by the water...


and some historic cemeteries with pretty flowers...


and some pretty fountains...


and historic College of Charleston...


and the Joseph Manigault House.


But mainly we ate great food. This was at Cru Café...delicious and in a tiny old house.


And this was at Callie's Hot Little Biscuit for lunch one day - homemade pimiento cheese in a biscuit - yum.


And this was Eli's Table, which was our best meal, and also it was Ladies' Night so we got a glass of champagne and a rose after dinner. It was an awesome trip, and so much more relaxing and fun than that New York trip!


Oh yes, and I even fit in a little run around College of Charleston wearing my super-tight running shorts...


because the Charleston trip was closely followed by a 10K race!

I finished in 1 hr, 14 minutes, which isn't terrible considering that involved crossing a huge bridge twice! Robbie, I started to text you to come out and say hey that morning, and I think I ran by your water aerobics building, possibly, but we started at 7 AM so you may have been asleep. (No idea why they made the finisher medals with a Crimson Tide theme on one side, but it's a bottle opener, so I'll take it.)

And yes, you can see from Lulu's FB page that I wore the handmade fancy pants, which garnered 3 "I love your tights!" and 1 "Where did you buy your leggings?" That was from the overall female runner herself, who looked at me like I was an absolute freak when I said I made them. She was enamored by the contrasting legs, so I definitely have to make more.

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Alright, that'll suffice for now. Hope YOU'VE been enjoying life, too!