Category Archives: shopping

Friday shopping

Dreary, dreary, dreary day!  Our snow last night changed into rain this morning.  Now everything is a mushy, slushy mess.  I cannot remember a January that was so like March in terms of rain.  Less shoveling, though, so that is good.

I wanted a nice comforting breakfast today, so I made up some protein waffles with warm apple topping.

After working for the morning, it was back to the eye doc today for a checkup on the old peepers!

I am about 95% back to normal and can start tapering down the steroid drops and be done in about a week.  We may never figure out what could be causing the allergic reaction, but for now it is trial and error.  I have been okay wearing my contacts, so it doesn’t appear to be an issue with that at least.  Plus, my eyes are more red when I wake up. Pixie does not sleep in our bedroom due to John’s allergies, so that probably rules her out.  Time to play detective.  This whole episode has set me back a lot.  The lab work alone was over $600, although I think I have a discounted pay on that for self-pay (I hope, if I read the bill correctly).  Crazy.  Guess I will be working a few Saturdays to catch that up.  So, hair loss, dry skin, weight gain are all symptoms of perimenopause.  Hooray…

I came home for lunch.  Leftover Saag Paneer.  I need to try to make this at home.

We are trying to eat up as much stuff in the fridge as we can before vacation! Work went by pretty quickly today.  I took a break to make the lattes today. That meant a secret Friday ingredient!  :mrgreen:

Plus a couple pieces of chocolate.

Both of us had mishmash dinners tonight to use up leftovers.  Mine was cooked beef that I mixed with some taco seasoning and topped with a little sour cream.

After dinner, I went out shopping looking for some capri length pants for Florida.  I normally don’t buy capris unless they are for short people.  Otherwise they just look like highwaters.  🙄  Then, there is just the annoyance of shopping for something and getting frustrated finding the right fit.  Ugh.  I did not enjoy shopping so much tonight, but I did find a pair of capris for shorties!  Thank goodness for JCPenney and their petite department -although I am feeling anything but petite in any form right now.  Plus I got a top for $8 and another pair of comfy relaxing pants to wear.

Now is snack time and watching the rest of this season of Downton Abbey!  John is enjoying it as well, so now we have a show to watch together.

TJ’s Road Trip!

Saturday was supposed to the the road trip to Trader Joe’s, but snow came and we decided to postpone until Sunday.  Good decision because Sunday was nice and sunny, even it if was cold.

Also, upon request, here is a shot of me with my glasses.  I actually like how I look with my glasses, I just don’t like wearing them because I don’t see peripherally as well with them on, plus the whole exercising thing.  I can’t just leave them off because I don’t see well enough without them.

My eyes are mostly white again. Just a touch red in the corner of the left eye still, but that was the worst part anyway. Yay!  Plus I am liking the new hair cut.  Quite easy to style.  I only use my fingers when drying and no brush at all!

Enough of that, though.  It was road trip time!  TJs is about 2.5 hours away.  We are slated for one to open in Albany this spring, so that is only an hour away, but we wanted to have some fun and take a trip.

Me and sis:

We did lots of singing to this:

My niece ignored our singing and read her book:

I am so, so happy she is a reader!  Especially with the work I am doing as a literacy volunteer.  I told Logan it was such a great thing that she loved reading.

Crossing state lines for a pitstop:

Then we got to TJs.  They don’t allow pictures in the store, silly peeps.  The one  thing I like about Trader Joe’s is the price on things.  Particularly for chocolates, nut butters,  and frozen foods. I’ll get to the loot later.

After shopping, we were hungry for lunch.  We did shop hungry, oops!  We went across the street to the mall and went to Brio;

It looked really swanky inside, but the prices were very reasonable.

 

I ate off the brunch menu with crepes stuffed with ricotta and fresh fruit sprinkled with granola.  This had a bit of shredded basil in it, which was a really interesting flavor with the fruit.

Delicious!!  I love crepes.  I would definitely come here again… if it wasn’t 2.5 hours away!

Mother and daughter:

We poked around the mall a bit, more in Rainforest Cafe so Logan could look at all the stuff there, including the big aquarium.

Rainforest Cafe is just too much for me, though. Have any of you eaten there? It’s pretty gimmicky.

We headed on out after that.  More singing and, of course, a coffee stop!

That was good fuel to get home by!  I did miss the whole early football game, which sounded like a good game.  How I wish the Ravens had won!  Stupid Patriots…

Anyway, this is my haul:

1.5 pounds of blueberries for $6.  Yay!  I’ll be eating those all week before vacation. I had brought along a cooler for some frozen stuff.  I got a couple Indian entrees:

Miscellaneous snack things:

Sesame honey cashews are the bomb!!  I picked up a bag for my mom and one for us!  Lots of dark chocolate things for John.

Coffee beans, granola, almond butter (great price!), red curry sauce, green chiles.

Lots of good stuff.  Had to stock up!  It was definitely a fun day 😀

Trimming the tree!

The first real holiday weekend!  Well, I only had Saturday off, but who’s counting? :mrgreen:

On Saturday, my mother and I went to the Shirt Factory, which is a giant old building where they used to make shirts, oddly enough.  It now houses artists and their studios, along with a few other businesses.  It is really neat that such a small community really supports their local artists/craftspeople.  Each year, they host an open house and then also have other artists come and you can do holiday shopping!  It is 2 building with 4 floors and really hard to get through all in one day.

Pottery:

The tea shop, where I picked up some gingerbread tea and cinnamon plum tea.  Yum!

Zumba classes are held here

There was a new tenant of karate studio, and the owner was posing with his dragon he got in from China.  That was fun.

There was a person using a loom and selling knitted shawls.

A really big quilting store (thought of you Debby)

More pottery and some sculptures.

Plus a bazillion jewelers.  Such a neat place and I have a wish to someday have a soap shop in there.  It would fit in there so well.

Mom and I went for an uber late lunch/early dinner at Rock Hill.  This is a cinnamon raising bread ham and cheese sandwich with honey mustard grilled up.

It was delicious and it wasn’t turkey!  Yay!  There was a maple biscotti on the side which somehow didn’t get pictured, but I ate it 😀

We spent the evening in watching the African Queen.  Have you seen this movie? You should (Bogie’s only Oscar).

On Sunday, went to Panera and they have 2 holiday bagels now.  The gingerbread and the cranberry walnut.  Oh, which to choose now?? I went cranberry today.

Then I set to work today while John hung up the outside Christmas lights.

After work ran out, I made a BBQ turkey salad for lunch from the neverending turkey stash.

And it was time to decorate the tree!

While I would love a real tree again, there definitely are some advantages to having an artificial:  No watering, no drying out/fire hazard, you can put the tree up whenever, and the cat stays out of it.  So, I guess John’s allergies have some benefits.

Now I am biting my nails because I need the Colts to win tonight for me to win the football picks this weekend.  I do not want to lose 4 weeks in a row!

Question:  Does your area support local artists?

Will be productive for soup!

You know how yesterday I was saying how I didn’t get anything done? Today was a whole nuther ballgame!  I was raining when I got up (Hello Ida remnants), so I had to wait a bit until my gym opened up at 8am.  I had a Zone bar for a preworkout snackie.  Then off to the gym and hit the treadmill for 5 miles.  It felt good to really break a sweat.  You know you are on the treadmill a long time when you see people come in, watch them work out and then they leave, all while you are doing the same thing 😛

I arrived home ready to devour my arm and commenced to cooking some Banana, cashew butter, and apple butter oats.

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These were fantastic!  John was laughing at me because I kept saying “yum” while I was eating them.  Extra hunger = extra good taste.

Off to shop, passed by Great Escape on our way.

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Hit the outlet malls – serious sales going on today.

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And found a coffee mug that’s just right for me!

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We were hungry at this point and headed to Samantha’s where one of the soups of the day was Squash and apple bisque!  I just had to have a bowl with some fresh made wheat bread.

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Soooooo good.  It was a soupy kind of day.  Then it was off to the mall for more shopping.  We actually got a nice start on the Christmas stuff that we are buying.  We will make other things for people as well.

Took a break for this!

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I had a skim latte. John got an eggnog latte.   I am trying to wait until Thanksgiving before I have one, but I had a couple sips of his.  Eggnog is like crack to me.  I could bathe in its creamy goodness 😯

More productivity with grocery shopping and then a stop at the smokehouse to stock up on meat.  We got chicken breast, ground beef, turkey breast, boneless pork chops, and bacon. There are some great benefits to shopping locally if you can.  Boneless chicken breasts at $2.09 per pound!  I love that we can support local farmers and the local processor all in one fell swoop.

All of this happened by 4 pm!  We were on a roll.

Obviously had some fresh meat for dinner – chicken with a slice of bacon and laughing cow!  Yum!!!  It’s amazing how just 1 slice of bacon can add so much flavor.

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And a mondo amount of broccoli!

I am going to relax tonight with the hubby and watch movies.  One of those rainy nights just perfect for that!

Have a great night!

8-miler and a day of shopping

It was supposed to pour rain today, so we didn’t think we would be biking and I decided to go for a run.  I left a note for John to meet me at the track as I would be running longer (he usually does 3 miles).  My plan was to go 6 miles.

Pre run fuel – mini whole wheat bagel:

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I took an opened bottle of POM juice with me as well and a bottle of water.  Jogged for 3 miles, had water and a little juice, then started on the 2nd set of 3 miles.  I finished 6 and John hadn’t arrived, so I drank the rest of the POM juice at started to go home when John arrived at the track ready to run!  I thought, what the heck and told him I would go for another 2 miles.  We didn’t run together, because at this point I was going pretty slow LOL!  Finshed up a total of 8 miles!  I was so sweaty, as it is still pretty humid around here.

Had a wonderful breakfast in front of the fan:

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Banana oats with PB2 cooked in topped with chocolate chips and a sprinkle of coconut.  This is one of my favorite combos.

I won a $100 Dicks GC at Miz Fit’s site and it arrived by FedEx.

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Yay!  We decided to go to the Saratoga mall because the Dick’s is bigger there.  Isn’t it funny how when you have the money to spend, you can’t find anything to buy?  There is no hurry to buy anything.  I was looking at some workout clothes, and possibly some bike shorts, or a jacket.  Dick’s doesn’t sell road bikes, or I would have put it towards that.  Thinking maybe for next summer to have both my hybrid bike and a road bike.

Stopped at the food court for lunch.  There was a special at one of the chinese places for 2 entrees and 2 side dishes.  Of course, this was meant for one person!  But John and I decided to split it and each choose a side and entree:

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My choice was chicken with broccoli, and a side of steamed broccoli.  Pile on the veggies!  Chicken with broccoli is actually a good choice to get for chinese food.  They steam the dish instead of wok cooking it here.  I had a couple bites of John’s rice.   I knew that I was going to be getting a treat later, so decided on a veggies side dish.  It’s all about choices!

More shopping ensued (I love that John goes with).  Made a stop at TJMaxx and they had some great sales on workout clothes!  I got a long sleeve, hot pink technical top and black workout pants for $18!  I loves me a bargain.  I’ll have to take a picture of them.

After we got shopped out, stopped at The Fortunate Cup (which you may remember from last Saturday) and I got a skim latte:

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Plus a cranberry orange cookie.

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It was delicious! After my run, I think it’s a good treat 😀

This place has a wonderful build-out.  You know it’s kind of sad when a coffeehouse has a better bathroom than you do at home.

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Watched some of Tour of Ireland on tv.  Isn’t this a cool logo?

The biker shamrock!  Love it!

Low on food, so it was omelet time for dinner.  I forgot how fluffy omelets are in the GT Express.  This is 2 eggs with some feta cheese.  I decided on no veggies since I had so many for lunch.

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Went grocery shopping tonight and stocked up.  I have to say I am pretty beat right now.  Pixie is beat, too – and she wanted to show all of you her giant feet!

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After all that, it didn’t even rain today.

I am so tired I can’t even think of a question. LOL!  Have a great night!

Pretzels at the mall.

Well – after my 2.5 hours of shoveling yesterday, I woke up a bit sore. My lower back and forearms were sore. Not any of the rest of me (thank you strength training!!)

Did my Christmas shopping today with my mom (Hi Mom!!).
Had a good time, and it really wasn’t that crowded. We even got a parking spot pretty close to the front, which shocked me. Lots of great deals to be had – I love the deals. This is way late for me to be shopping, normally I am done by this point and don’t venture out to shopping areas, but wanted to get out and have fun with my mom instead of making her lift weights 😀

Lunch was an Auntie Anne’s pretzel. I haven’t had one in probably 2 years or more. I got the raisin pretzel with a side of glaze. I had in mind that the pretzels were around 350 calories, but I was mistaken. Original or sesame pretzel, yes. The raisin one is over 500! Ooooops! It was good, though. No wonder it filled me up. Deceptive little bugger. Good thing we walked around a lot and I did some exercise when I got up this morning.

New clothes

Well, the Good Will shop got bumped up to today, since we needed to get our supplies earlier than expected! John dropped me off at Good Will while he picked up our stuff.

Shopping was a bit frustrating. Pants are a real problem. I can’t find pants that don’t gap a lot at the waist. I can use a belt, but sometimes the gap is so much that the fabric gets all bunched up with a belt. Anyway, I got a pair of size 12 shorts, and then 2 pairs of pants. One a size 10!! These went on a bit tight, but they are 10 petite, so the length was perfect. I should be fitting in those nicely in a few pounds (or another 6 5Ks LOL!). I also put on a pair of size 8. I could not believe it! Those were pretty snug, but I bought them anyway, since I will be in those in the fall when it is cooler. Couple pairs of incentive pants! I also bought a shirt. All this for less than $18!! And the shorts were brand new. Pretty cool.

Bowflex workout today:
Arms:
Seated Shoulder Press: 3 sets, 10 reps each at 30 pounds
French Press: 3 sets, 10 reps each at 25 pounds
Lying triceps extension: 3 sets, 10 reps each at 30 pounds
Standing Bicep curls: 3 sets, 10 reps each at 30 pounds

Chest/abs:
Bench Press: 3 sets, 10 reps each at 45 pounds
Ab Crunch: 3 sets, 10 reps each at 35 pounds

New clothes!

I was down in Albany today having lunch with my sister. So I stopped at Goodwill on the way home. The pants I bought in January are getting loose on me already! Good thing they were only $4 a pair!
I hadn’t been to this particular Goodwill before. They do the stupidest thing. All the clothes are arranged by color instead of size!!
So all the jeans are just in rows, men’s and women’s together – for whatever reason. You need to go through each pair to see the size. Took forever. Same thing with shirts – again, done by color. Weird.
Anyhoo – I got 2 pairs of jeans, comfortably fitting into a 14!! Plus 2 tops (size medium) and a belt. All for $21 including tax. That makes me a happy camper!
Won’t go there too often, as it is a bit of a drive.