My Morning Run

It's been a while since it has been this pleasant in the morning so I got up bright and early to get a morning run in. It was a beautiful crisp morning so I decided to change up my route and ended up running down on 9th Street toward the convention center.  That area has changed so much and as you can see there's lots of construction going on. These photos were taken around 9th and New York Avenue.

Then I headed down toward Chinatown and over to National Mall where I saw the wonderful sunrise near the monument.

just me and my shadow

Formal Evening Soiree

 

 

Hubby and I were invited to a formal wedding reception and though not necessarily black tie it was a formal event nonetheless.  This gave us an opportunity to dress up and have fun. Dh wore his new Kenneth Cole suit and gorgeous shoes while I wore an old BCBG dress that's been hanging the closet for quite some time.  It was time to make use of it.  My bff wore a BCBG green chiffon dress that was to die for. My necklace was Banana Republic.

Last Friday at Jazz in the Garden

Last Friday I decided to walk home after work since I didn't have my bike with me.  It was supposed to rain but ended up to be a very nice evening. I had forgotten that it was Jazz in the Garden Happy Hour so I wandered in, got a glass of a potent but delicious sangria, and sat and enjoyed the crooner style jazz  by myself. It was a rare occasion when I truly enjoyed being by myself.

Gypsy Kings Concert

Hello all. It's been a while and I'm in much need of catching up with my so called blog.

A few weeks ago a few friends and I ended up going to see the Gypsy Kings at the Wolf Trap Center for Performing Arts in Virginia. The outdoor venue is great because you can bring a picnic and a bottle of your favorite beverage and watch the show.  We preferred to to get seats just in case the weather didn't cooperate. Sorry for the bad quality photos as I didn't bring the nice camera with me.

Shopping Spree

This weekend went by fast. I was happy with a 2.2 lb. loss. I'm still working on losing 7 lbs. by September 10th so we'll see what happens.

With that loss, I decided to treat myself to some new clothes instead of treating myself to food or drink like I always. I got rid of old clothes that no longer fit or I just wasn't "feeling" anymore, ironed and cleaned house, then went to Macy's to get some much needed makeup, stopped off at the Gap to try on a pair of boyfriend jeans and ended up getting a pair of boyfriend jeans, green slim pants, 3 Gap tops, a Cole Haan bag and Ralph Lauren paisley top from TJ Maxx (see bag in my photo folder) . I think these items will carry me through the Winter as great layering items. Anyway, I think I did good.

Day 6 of 31 Days of Blogging - Quiet Evening

top: BR

pants: ATL

shoes: some store in NYC

Came home. Folded clothes. Made dinner. Sorted clothes. Made pile for Ebay. Made pile for Goodwill.  Relaxed and watched DVRs of What Not To Wear.  Hubby came home.  Watching recording of women's soccer on Olympics.  Time for bed. Good night!!

Day 5 of 31 days of blogging - Men's birthdays

My current dilemma:  hubby's birthday is coming up.  Finding a good birthday gift is so hard to find a what do you give for a man who doesn't want anything or whose tastes have changed throughout the years?  Clothes? A card?  

He's not really a football fan although he loves soccer and we haven't seen a DC United game in over 3 years.  The team are doing fairly well this season but once again his work schedule stands in the way of us going.

The good thing is that he is into bicycling which is great and healthy and all that..but the bad thing is that he works for a company that deals with bikes, so I can't really get him bike related items, can I? Maybe a cool t -shirt???  Tour de France is over so maybe a piece of memorabilia???

Then I thought "he likes to read" but I can't even buy him a book anymore because of his Nook. What fun is that to buy him a e-book and email it to him? Oh technology today irks me.

Finally, I remember that he used to like yoga and so I thought maybe I get him classes for yoga but his work schedule is so erratic these days that I'm not sure if he'd even go.  Ugh. This is frustrating but I still have a week left.

Hey maybe I could him get his this:

NAHHHHH!!!  He's not into legs anyway. Plus It will have to go in OUR living room and that ain't gonna happen. 

Day 4 of 31 Days of Blogging - Lazy Saturdays...NOT!!

I thought it would be a lazy Saturday but I ended up running errands and cleaning house.  

My day started out at Weight Watchers where I went for me weekly weigh in which was not very good at +3 lbs.  What the frack????  I'll blame it on our dinner out at Giovianni's last night. Darned good italian.

 

(Okay, we just got back from the beach on Sunday and didn't have time to get groceries and we went out to eat 3x this week. Plus add the beer consumption, well that catches up with you.)  

As you may know, I have decided to focus on making my goal weight of 125 lbs. and have started an exercise routine of working out 5-6x a week for the next 31 days in August.  So far so good. Mon: HIIT class, Tues: ran 5 miles, Wed: Ran 3 miles, Thu: HIIT class and 30 min run, Fri: Body Pump, and today: cleaning and/or running. 

Of course good eating habits will have to come in to play to see a weight loss. To hold myself accountable I will tell you my weight: 134.2 lbs. Yikes!!!!!   How the heck am I going to lose 9 lbs. in 5 weeks???  I'm not.  However, no matter what the weight loss it will be a success no matter what.

I was supposed to go to ballet class and ended up going to the grocery store  since we were completely out of food. Purchased the usual necessities of fruits and veggies, milk and yogurts, some proteins, etc.  You know the drill.  Then it was back home to eat a small lunch of egg salad sandwich and tomato soup which was quite good, then got into a much needed cleaning, dusting and sweeping of the living room area.

Cleaning really tires me out so now I am currently relaxing, having a mango pineapple smoothie, listening to the Church's "Under the Milky Way" on the internet radio, and blogging.  Okay, now I'm getting lazy.  :)

Have a great Saturday.

Day 3 - Flashback Fridays

I've decided to give Flashback Fridays another go. I was going through an 80s phase in music so all I did was post 80s style music. But now Flashback Fridays are so much more than just music. It entails fashion and styles of all eras.

Just the other day I saw a preview of the upcoming movie "The Great Gatsby" and reminded me of 20's fashion that I so love, including music of that era.  Here's a link to the trailer.  Enjoy.

August 2 - Return of my commuter bike

denim jacket: Zara

dress: H&M

shoes: DSW

sunglasses: Betsy Johnson

Some of you may know I was in a small bicycle accident about 5 weeks ago. Luckily, the accident was minor even though I had a trip to the emergency room with a slight dislocated shoulder.  The shoulder is fine now and the bike was scraped  up a bit with a dented back wheel. The bike, my first commuter bike (aptly known as  "the Black Beast" because of her heavy steel frame), is finally home as of last night. 

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about riding again but I took her out to work this morning and you know what, I felt fine.  It felt good to be out there and I'm glad my fear of riding is over. 


I'm adding one more thing to my list of to-do items in August:

1. READ UP TO 4 BOOKS - THIS WAS ADDED TODAY - currently re-reading  "The Great Gatsby"

August Postings - Day 1

hubby with niece - July 29, 2012

I vow to post in my blog for at least one month just to see if I can do it and that starts today, August 1st.

Lots happening in my life right now: busy with work and travel although not so much in terms of taking photographs but that's going to change.Since work will be quite slow this month (August 1 through September 10),  here are a list of a few things on my agenda in no particular order:

1. Make my goal weight about 5-10lbs. to go.
2. Work out 5-6x a week: incorporate weight training, yoga, and ballet for a toned,chiseled look.
3. Update my blog everyday if possible.
4. Post photographs of my daily life.
5. Prime and paint small bookcases for second bedroom.
6. Organize 2nd bedroom.
7. Purge old clothing: sell on Ebay or send to Goodwill.
8. Go see live music at the many venues in town.
9. Have a girl's night in (or maybe out).
10. Train for the NYC Century bike tour on September 9th - plan on doing 55 miles.
11. Discover and eat at a new restaurant.
12. Must check out the many art museums. 
13. "Window" shop for Fall items. 
14. Discover new music.
15. Hem/alter pants and sew up button holes.
16. Sign up for photo classes.
17. Sign up for a sewing class.
18. Sign up for a 10k or 10-mile race
19. Shop my closet so no buying clothes if I can help it and Fall will be here fast.
20. Clean house in general: dust, dry clean drapes, etc.
21. Start commuting to work if I ever get my bike back from the shop.

That's it for now. If I remember anything else, I'll add it to the long list.