Yoga and wet dogs

This morning Tyler and I went to Lululemon's *free* Saturday morning yoga class at the La Jolla store.  Tyler had never done yoga before.  I have taken classes here and there, including a smattering of Bikram (or "yoga in hell", as I affectionally referred to it after my first experience,) but I am still very much a beginner due to general lack of coordination, flexibility, balance, and athletic ability.  I have to say after today's experience that what little flexibility I had before becoming a regular runner is now completely gone.

That being said, it was a lovely, relaxing, and very do-able hour-long class. And I did a bridge at the end, so that was cool.  Tyler loved it and says he wants to make it a habit to go on Saturday mornings, which I'm totally cool with.  Afterwards, we walked around downtown La Jolla for a little bit because it as a gorgeous morning.  We got smoothies at an organic juice bar, picked up some groceries
at TJ's, and then headed home to pick up Brinkley.

We met Tyler's sister Brianne and Finnick (her and her fiance Phil's incredibly handsome 5 month-old Australian Shepherd puppy) at the Coronado Dog Beach.  On a side note, Tyler puppy-sat for Finn all day yesterday while  I was at work, and when I got home from happy hour with some work ladies at around 7 pm, he was beyond frazzled.  Finn is a lot of dog, especially compared to our little Brink.  Anyway, Brianne's friend Michelle also showed up with her dog Brynn, and we had a grand ol' time running around the beach with the pups.  Brinkley is exhausted from all the excitement and is passed out next to me on the couch.

Finn and I last night, in a rare moment of peace 

My loves at the beach today.

Asiago-Parm Sweet Potato Fries

Another great thing about 3-day weekends?
Four day weeks!
Can't believe that tomorrow is Thursday already.

Tonight I made chicken burgers with Trader Joe's Chili Lime chicken patties and homemade sweet potato fries.

Asiago-Parm Sweet Potato Fries:
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- olive oil
- grated asiago cheese
- grated or canned parmesan cheese
- garlic, minced (the jarred kind is best)
- salt
- pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Cut sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch wedges
3. Place fries in large bowl, toss with olive oil, grated cheeses, garlic, salt and pepper to taste
4. Spray cookie sheet with non-stick spray, place fries on sheet in a single layer
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until crispy

I realize there are no measurements for the cheese or garlic, I just kind of scooped.

Hiking and High Heels

Happy President's Day Monday off to you (and to me!!!)

I have had a lovely weekend thus far.  Yes, it's drawing to an end, but I am trying to enjoy every minute of it.

Saturday after our jogging/Jamba Juicing, Tyler and I cleaned our apartment (dishes, laundry, scrubbed the whole bathroom, etc.) I love starting out the week with a clean apartment!  Then we just lazed around all afternoon, played some intense games of Mario Party on the Wii, and relaaaaaxed. 

Sunday I dragged Tyler on a HIKE (yes, you hear me right, a HIKE!).  We took Brinkley and hiked Cowles Mountain, which, at 1592 ft, is the highest point in San Diego.  It's about 1.5 miles each way, and pretty steep, so it's a nice little workout up the hill to some great views.  The first time I hiked it was in July when I had just moved to San Diego and it was considerably hotter.  This time there was enough breeze to keep us cool on the way up but was FREEZING once we got up there, so we didn't stay too long. 

Brinkley was such a little trooper the whole time.  I'm only holding her in the photos, she walked all the way up and down and probably would have RUN the whole way up and down if it were up to her.  She's a hiking dog! 

Saturday afternoon we spent at Marilyn's with her & Joe and a couple of other friends, drinking champagne and berry lemonade concoctions and play Kinect.  I really like the Kinect even if I feel a little self-conscious doing it -- I hate the screen capture feature where it shows the camera shots of you in awkward bowling positions and stuff. I'm awesome at bowling and TERRIBLE at boxing. The opposite of real life. ;) 

Today we went SHOPPING and I got to spend some $$ in myself (which I haven't done in awhile, unless you count groceries) and it was so FUN! I got two news tops, a cute red blazer, and a pair of Chinese Laundry heels from Marshalls. I really need to work on expanding my professional/work clothes wardrobe and I just love these shoes. 

Ta-daaaa!  

Shoe shopping is really hard for me because I have ridiculous, square-shaped feet.  My actual foot size is 6.5 DOUBLE WIDE so I usually buy size 8 in order for them to be wide enough, and then have a 1/4 inch gap in the back to rub my heels raw, but because the back on these is adjustable, they fit all over! It's a miracle!

We then ventured into Lululemon, which could turn into a very dangerous addiction.  I wanted, oh, everything in the store, but settled on a jacket (on sale!) and some cool pants (on price-reduction). 

"It's Happening Jodhpur"pant in Demin (actually a dark heathered gray)

"Define" jacket in Heathered Flash

I'm glad that Lululemon isn't too much closer to our apartment or I might go there too often! Tyler and I might go there on Saturday morning to check out their free yoga classes, though.  He's been saying he wants to try yoga and maybe I can pretend like I've never done it before (because I'm insanely inflexible). 

La Jolla Strip Club, Jogging, and Jamba Juice

Last night, Tyler and I went out to dinner, my treat, on my first paycheck from my new job. Since I got out of work early, we thought it'd be great to take advantage of Happy Hour, so we Yelped a couple places and decided on the La Jolla Strip Club -- a strip club themed martini lounge and grill-your-own-steak restaurant, minus the strippers.

Happy Hour-wise we got some martinis, all of which had awesome dirty names (mine was the "Pearl Necklace") and -- wait for it -- Lobster Truffle Mac n' Cheese.


We shared a 20 oz Porterhouse steak for our main course, which came with garlic bread and salad. It was a really thick steak and we had to put it back on the grill three times before I was convinced that it was done enough to eat.



This morning Tyler and I got up and went for a short 3 mile jog in Mission Bay Park. For Valentine's Day, I registered both of us for the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon, which isn't til September, but Tyler wants to start running outside. Mission Bay Park is one of my favorite places to jog.

Gorgeous, right? San Diego is a really beautiful place.


Then, we went to Jamba Juice. I'm obsessed with their Fit and Fruitful smoothies. Yes, they are around 10 PP for an "Original" size, but it's not too bad if it's a meal replacement, especially if I exercised too. They are pretty filling, as well. I heart Jamba Juice.

False.

Gah I love The Office. Today is going to be a good day. We have all-office meetings on Friday mornings, where we get breakfast, and we're out at 3 pm today due to the fact that it's a 3-day-weekend for us (President's Day!) and today is OUR (company) President's birthday. I'm so looking forward to a short day today and then a 3-day weekend. I don't really have any plans, except I want to go hiking, and I want to go to La Jolla to Marshall's and to visit Sprinkles!

Wish List and Weight Watchers

You know you're getting old when...

You get your first paycheck from your new job and you want to save most of it, but with the $$ you don't save, you want to go to Trader Joe's. Yes, a grocery store. And now you're excited for the weekend, when you get to go to said grocery store.


Other things on my WISH list right now include:

Nude heels. I own ONE pair of heels right now, and the strap on them is broken so they're not super wearable.


A new jacket for work that matches everything.



These pants from Lululemon. And also, to look like that in them!!!



On a serious note, I really do need to get better about losing weight again. I dropped about ten pounds before Christmas, and have kept it off, but since starting my new job I can't find a Weight Watchers meeting at a convenient time. I realize this is not a good excuse, but it's my excuse for now.

I thought I'd found one last night and I drove to it (in rush hour traffic) only to find that I had to pay $3 per half hour to park. I have to get there early since I leave work at 5 and the meeting is at 6, so I'd end up spending about $10 extra a WEEK just to go to this meeting. I think I am going to call WW and switch to online-only for awhile and see if I can stick to that. It's cheaper and in reality, the meetings don't teach me a lot of new information. I'm AWARE what I should be eating and shouldn't. At this point it's all about willpower. I need to just weigh myself consistently on Monday mornings, record it honestly, and keep on keepin.


XoXo

A Serenade

Tyler surprised me at work today (in the middle of a meeting, might I add), with a quartet of singers. They wore tuxedos with red vests, and sang two songs and gave me balloons and a card from Tyler. I work in an office that's about 95% women, so pretty soon our conference room of 6 was full of other women (and our IT guy) wanting to watch the performance.



Apparently, Tyler knows one of these guys from school and when he told him about his Valentine's Day gig, Tyler thought it was perfect. Which, it totally was. I was probably more embarrassed than I've ever been, ever, BUT it was nice once. It was a great experience, to have ONCE. A memorable experience for ONE Valentine's Day. :)


I can't believe my face isn't BRIGHT RED in this photo.


Xoxo

Valentine's Day

My Valentine's Days in college. :)

How do you feel about Valentine's Day? For a holiday that's supposed to be all about love, it's a pretty devisive holiday.
I think it's just one of those things that people love to hate.

Tyler and I had our first official date on Valentine's Day last year, which puts a silly significance on it every year for us, but that's ok. I like it. Today, I'm bringing Star Wars valentines to my team at work and have a scavenger hunt planned for Tyler when he gets home. He has class tonight so we're not going out or anything, but that's ok. Brinkley and I will chill with some red wine and watch some awesome made-for-tv Valentine's Day movie, and that sounds perfect to me.


I think this Valentine's Day is special for all my friends in Washington because yesterday, Washington became the 7th state to legalize gay marriage. And THAT is something to celebrate! Congrats to Washington. I know that 7 is only the beginning.


XoXo!

Good day

Today, I had a *surprise* super great day. What I mean is that I was reluctant to leave my bed/my apartment this morning and feeling less than enthusiastic about it being Monday.

But today I just felt like a lot of things clicked. I am feeling like I'm just at a good place for me in my career right now. Finally.


Ok, maybe not THAT great.



Even if a couple days in the past few weeks have felt like this.



Oh and another reason to be happy that it's Monday?

Obviously.

Intro

Hello, I'm Bailey. And this is my latest attempt at a blog. In it I hope to record my hopes, dreams, recent cooking ventures, and lots and lots of pictures of my dog.

So first, here's a picture of my dog, Brinkley:



And this is my boyfriend, Tyler, and I at Disneyland this past Christmas season. He's pretty cute too.



It's Sunday night. I hate that "Doom's Day" feeling that Sunday afternoons and evenings seem to develop. You're relaxing, lounging, and trying to enjoy it, but in the back of your mind you are counting down towards the inevitable MONDAY that just keeps getting closer.

To be fair, my Mondays aren't too bad these days. I'm about a month into a really challenging, really GREAT, and sometimes totally overwhelming internship at a local PR firm. The firm is nationally ranked and has some amazing clients, so it's an excellent place to spend some time seeing what I'm good at and in what direction I'd like to go with my career in the next couple of years. Do I love it? It depends on the day. I do have to admit it's awesome having regular 8-5 hours and not feeling like I have to scour online job boards in my free time. I'm just trying to take it a day at a time right now, do my best, and hope everything works out for the best.

It's also really weird to have WEEKENDS again! I haven't had weekends off for about a year and a half, and even in college I worked Sunday shifts sometimes, so it's definitely been awhile. This weekend was exactly what I needed.

Bailey's Cooking Adventures Edition 1: ADVENTURES WITH CUPCAKE TINS!
Tyler's mom Kathy gave me a cupcake tin for Christmas and now that Sprinkles is finally out of my system, I decided to take it for a spin this week. On Saturday, I used the tin not once, but twice (!)




Spinach, Artichoke, and potato Mini Quiches










Strawberry puree-infused vanilla cupcakes dipped in chocolate with vanilla buttercream and a chocolate covered strawberry on top.


Also this weekend, I ran the Coronado Valentine's Day 10 k, which was really fun. My cousin Marilyn and I decide about last June or so that we were going to train together for a half marathon, so we signed up for the Tinkerbell Half in Disneyland. We trained and ran the 1/2 in 2:29 two Sundays ago (January 29th).



Marilyn and I right before the race! No, we didn't run in fairy wings.

Today was my first semi-long run since, and it went beautifully. It was a little drizzly out, which the Pacific Northwesterner in me loved, and we ran at 9:56 pace, which is much faster than we usually run. Ok, ever run. Anyway, we pushed through and finished the 6.2 miles in 1:01:58. AWESOME!




Well, that's all for now, blog-world. Ta ta and I hope your weekends were wonderful, too!