I Ate a Cauliflower

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hi guys. Happy Thursday! Some things from the last couple of days…

Dog Park with the puppies..wanted to get a few more trips in with my babies before Reggie goes into surgery tomorrow. He broke a tooth and it having it removed and needs to go under. Layla is going to love having the house to herself for a whole day!

BV yoga on Tuesday and Traditional on Wednesday. I also squeezed in a full-body strength workout and 10 minutes of cardio at the gym in the early afternoon. Feelin’ good you guys!!!

I bought a head of cauliflower on Tuesday. CAULIFLOWER IS THE ONE VEGGIE I DESPISE. And yet…I wandered into the store and bought one for the first time ever. I chopped it up, tossed it in EVOO/S&P/Garlic Salt, baked for 20 and broiled for 10 and bam, it was delicious. I ate most of it, but Tyler liked it as well (odd enough, he doesn’t like cauliflower either!)

A few weeks ago when we were in Edmonton, we stopped to have lunch at Local after an afternoon of shopping. We chose the restaurant because it looked like it had a cool vibe and the menu sounded pretty good. Plus, the patio was really nice. I ordered what was called the West Coast Chopped Salad and Tyler got a burger. My meal was super underwhelming, so Tyler was nice enough to let me take a bunch of bites from his yummy burger. I tweeted about the disappointing meal and was quickly contacted by the restaurant regarding my experience. After a couple of back and forth chats, they offered to send me a gift card!

The good news is that there is another location here in Calgary, so we will be able to take advantage of their generosity pretty soon (I’m totally ordering the burger next time)

Hmmmmm……what else……..

549 days after saying goodbye to my last job in MA, I FINALLY SNAGGED A JOB AS A PERMANENT RESIDENT IN CANADA. So excited. I start on Monday, so that’s why I must leave you now and hit the mall for a new wardrobe!!!!!!!!

Music Memory Association

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Yesterday morning I woke up and wanted to bake a cake. So bake a cake I did. I pretty much perfected my moms wacky cake. And by ‘perfected’ I mean that I actually waited for it to cool before icing it. I have never had that kind of patience before. And it paid off. So tasty.

And I ate a big dumb piece of that cake, so of course I had to take the dogs out somewhere so that I can burn at least one bite off. And I guess they needed the exercise too.

We headed to Edworthy Park because it was close and gave us what each of us wanted: water to ‘hippo’ in for Layla, bushes and trails for Reggie to sniff and pee on, and a steep hill for me to break a sweat. Happy group all around.

I watched Vegucated. Have you seen it? It’s a documentary about a vegan women who chooses 3 different people in NYC to live a vegan lifestyle for 6 weeks and see how it affects their health and whether they’ll continue the lifestyle. Also, it showed lots of raw footage from slaughter houses which totally grossed me out. I mean, I was already aware of how yuck it was, but the images are just…..well, yikes. Tyler caught part of it and suggested we go vegetarian at least once a week. Ha! We shall see. PS: I like bacon.

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I FINALLY got a strength workout in. It has been almost two weeks since I did a legit strength workout, and I could almost immediately feel it. Heading to a yoga class afterwards really helped. Anyhoo, I opted for the workout at the bottom of this post. I chose to do each circuit 2x through. Layla joined in for most of it.

In case you were wondering, I am a master at the camel pose (haha rhymes with camel toes!) Ok, not a master, but it was one of the few moves I hated and could never do without wanting to pass out, and now I really get into it.

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I came across this post on Job Applications. I am on THE EXACT SAME PAGE as this gal. Like take anything you’re frustrated in and raise it to the Nth power. Points include:

long application processes
the internet is a black hole
i have lots of education but never the EXACT stuff that’s desired
Full time v part time
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know
Social media
I’m so much more than a piece of paper!
No Canadian experience- you have no idea how much of a factor that is, although no one will admit it

If you’e still reading (fingers crossed at least a half dozen of you will make it this far) I thought I’d close out this post with something *i think* might be fun. You know when certain songs or smells or words or whatever consistently remind you of something else? Well, I decided to put my iTunes on shuffle and listen the first 10 songs that come up and explain what I think of whenever I hear each of those songs. Get it? Here goes:

1. Rude Boy- Rihanna. I always think of the route I take when I do an outdoor run in my hometown (Glens Falls, NY) I would run from my parents house to the high school and back and I think I did it a few too many times when I first added this song to my playlist because I think I heard it almost every time I got to this one intersection and would have to run in place.

2. Genie in a Bottle- Christina Aquilera. I can ALWAYS picture the outfit she wore in this video. It prompted me to buy a pair or baggy orange pants, too. Believe me, I didn’t look anything even CLOSE to her.

3. Lose Yourself- Eminem. Oak Square YMCA Tuesday night Kix class and having Sarah freak out because it was her favorite. (Sorry only about 6 of you will get this. And probably laugh. Hi Sarah! Now you know I’m thinking of you!) And I picture Mekhi Phifer.

4. Paradise- Coldplay. Makes me want to be in the crowd of one of their concerts and wave glowsticks.

5. Just Dance- Lady Gaga. First time I heard this song I was at me then-favorite bar, McFaddens (in Boston. And I just read that it closed! So sad, that was my favorite place when I was 21) and was wearing a gaudy purple top and only knew the words ‘just dance’ and jumped throughout the entire song. Then the bartender gave me and my friend shots.

6. Kung Fu Fighting- Carl Douglas. Class talent show back in elementary school. The grade above mine did a routine to this song and I can picture it like it was yesterday. Plus, I want to kick someone when I hear it. Not out of anger. Just out of awesome kung fu-ness.

7. Steve McQueen- Sheryl Crow. The summer I moved to NY I would ride my bike to the high school track then run the track while the boys football team was practicing. Like, every day. (Hi, are any of you from high school reading this? Are laughing about it? Cause I can’t believe I would do that.) I listened to Sheryl Crow ON MY DISCMAN. THAT I HAD TO CARRY IN A DRAWSTRING BACKPACK. #firstworldproblems

8. What’s Your Fantasy- Ludacris. HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA ok, this is ridiculous. I remember being on the middle school track team and one of the girls on my team would sing it verbatim. Odd song for a pre-teen to know. And now I just laugh. And also know the WHOLE song by heart (singing aloud to it RIGHT NOW)

9. Harder to Breathe- Maroon 5. Held a party at my house while my parents were gone the summer I graduated high school. String christmas lights in the basement (you know the kind that have all those different flashing options) and someone brought the Maroon 5 CD over and it played on repeat the whole night. Also, I was fascinated that the beat of this song went oh so well with the particular flash setting for the christmas lights.

10. How Bizarre- OMC. Driving from NY to MA when I was little. And going to Salem, MA and seeing a liquor store named ‘The Bunghole’

So there you have it for odd memory associations! I’d love to hear some of yours!!

**If you haven’t already, go like my Facebook page! When I hit 200 likes, I’ll be hosting a giveaway!!**

Weekend Wrap Up

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Breakfast was enjoyed on the patio.

(This plate is only enjoyed on the weekends. Otherwise my cholesterol would be stupid)

We ventured over to Nose Hill Park to stretch our legs and exhaust the puppies. It worked. The sun was super hot and we guessed we did about 3ish miles from the various paths we chose.

I was pretty uncertain what I wanted to do for my workout for the day, up until the very last minute. I signed up for a 6pm Traditional Hot Yoga class, but was VERY reluctant to go since the instructor for this particular class really isn’t my favorite at all. In the end, I was glad I went because my body felt goooooooooood (Even though I rolled my eyes a few times throughout).

While I was gone, Tyler refilled the toiler paper holders, emptied the dishwasher, and went to the grocery store. Crazy, I know.

When I got back, I threw together a pasta salad for dinner. A lot of our meals lately have been super easy to make. Here are some:

From top to bottom, L-R:

Turkey Taco Salad
Buffalo Marinara Bacon and Shredded Chicken
All beef hot dogs topped with DIRT DOG SAUCE and Southwest Salad
Tukey Meatballs over No Yolk Pasta and sauteed zucchini and asparagus
Chicken Fajita pressed wraps
Pasta Salad
Jalepeno Burgers and Taber Corn
Turkey chopped salad from Subway
Grilled Sausages and slaw
Homemade pizza

Last night, we finally got caught up with Breaking Bad. I’m kind of sad to be caught up (even though this last season just started) and now I have no idea what series to Netflix next! Maybe Californication…

Soooooooo, the last week or so I have been doing Hot Yoga. It’s annoying to keep typing, so I imagine it’s annoying to keep reading about. ANYWAYS, I have pretty much only been taking those classes each day with some days having an additional cardio workout at the gym. I’m finally ready to combine yoga with sore of my own strength training workouts- even though some of the BV classes are pretty strength-intense. When I got in bed last night, I just had the urge to do either supersets or pyramids or tabatas…so that’ll probably happen a bunch this week.

end rant. wake up.

What’s a super easy meal you like to make?

Latest favorite workout?

I Like Saturdays

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I like Saturdays. REALLY like Saturdays. Yeah, I know, every day is like a Saturday for me, but the REAL Saturday is the best. Everyone else is happy because it’s the start of the weekend! And good weather on a Saturday is even better.

This week, my Saturday was super. My friend Mackenzie picked me up at 8:30 and we headed out to Canmore.

Since we wanted a relatively easy and quick hike (so we could get back to Calgary in the early afternoon) we opted to do the Grassi Lakes Trail. The parking lot is just past the Nordic Center and had a few picnic tables and restrooms. Lots of trees and a beautiful path!

This hike is very easy. There were lots of families with young children and some older people, too. (Mom, Dad…ya hear that? YOU can do this hike!) On the ‘more difficult’ path, there was just a bit of a climb up some stone stairs, but most of that portion was accompanies by a handrail. You can opt out of the more difficult part, but you won’t get to see the beautiful waterfall!

At the top of the trail, there are the Grassi Lakes. They’re pretty small, but again REALLY beautiful. The path surrounding both lakes was scattered with benches, which would make a great lunch spot. If you go further up into the rocks, platforms were built for rock climbers to do their thing. The pictures don’t really capture the enormity of these mountains.

We went back down on the easy trail just to see how different it was. There was lots of grown up talk (about documentaries and terrorism and other global things) and we stopped for coffee at Good Earth down in town before making it back to Calgary.

After Mackenzie dropped me off at home, Tyler and I went out to run some errands. One of which turned out to be a pleasant surprise when Tyler got me a new pair of sneaks!!! (Seriously ranked up high on the gift list. Besides Lululemon, jewelry and kitchen appliances)

We rounded out the evening with some watermelon margaritas and weiners- topped with Dirt Dog sauce, the best stuff on earth.

Like I said, I like Saturdays.

Friday Events

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Not much to report on this end.

But, it’s Friday!!!

So that’s exciting.

Yesterday the dogs and I headed to the park for a little fun in the sun.

This morning I woke up sore as a muthah. Last’s nights yoga class had a lot of newbies and a few of them were talking throughout class. Talk about ruining the vibe. Very hard to throw my leg up behind my head when there’s giggling going on, ya know.