Category Archives: weekends

Spa Day!

What a great weekend!  First off, on Friday night, John and I had gone out to dinner.  I had a Living Social deal for 50% off at Mouzon House, which is a farm to table restaurant in Saratoga.

My dining companion:

The menu is creole inspired for about half of it (yay!), so we were all over that.  John and I split an order of crawfish beignets.

A little spicy on the inside and topped with a remoulade.  They were light and fluffy and very tasty.

My course was a half portion of shrimp and grits.  Probably not a great picture, but the dish was delicious! It had a dark sauce, which was like a creole barbecue sauce on top of cheesy grits.

This doesn’t look as good as it tasted.  It was so good! Plus, there were collard greens on the side that had the most wonderful smoky flavor and I ate every bite. Me eating greens, how about that!

Since we got half portions for our dinners, we decided on dessert.  This was a warm flourless chocolate cake topped with local Battenkill vanilla ice cream.

The portion was a little small for splitting, but the ice cream was the best part!

A very good dinner.  I would definitely go there again.  I love that they support so many local farms, too.

After that, we went to see David Russell in concert.  He is a classical guitarist and he was amazing.  Just amazing!  Tickets were only $7 through the university, which is a fantastic deal to see someone of this caliber.

Sunday was spa day.  My sister’s birthday is this week, so my mother and I took her to the Crystal Spa for some girl time.

Posh inside:

with stained glass:

And a crystal chandelier.

I like sparkly things.

The three of us did a dry sauna before hand scented with rosemary and a few other aromas.

Photo from Crystal Spa

 I was drenched after a couple minutes.  My sister and mom get dewy – I get drippy.   :mrgreen:

After the sauna, my sister and I headed off for private mineral baths and my mother went for a facial.  My room was called the Star Room.  They must have know I am a superstar!  Saratoga Springs is known for the mineral springs and is called Spa City.  This spa has its own mineral spring to draw from, and the water is full of lots and lots of dissolved minerals, which is why it is dark.

The lights are lowered and soothing music is piped in while you relax and float in the warm bath for about 1/2 an hour.

I was worried I was going to drop my camera in LOL!

This is very, very relaxing and felt so good on my muscles.  I work them hard and it was good to treat them.  After the half hour is up, then you are asked to dry off and lay on the table (covered with a towel).  You are given a warm sheet to relax under.

Then the attendant gives you a cooling cucumber facial massage, which feels so refreshing, but all I could think was that I wanted to eat the cucumbers!  Then she laid 2 slices across my eyes with a cool washcloth and then you are left alone to relax until you are ready to dress.

As tempted as I was, I did not eat them.  (ewwww).  The mineral bath only costs $25.  Quite the bargain, I think!  I was all warm and relaxed after that.

Happy early birthday to my sister!

Afterwards, we went out for coffee and pastries.

I was really hungry by this time!  We each got a pastry and them cut them into 3 pieces, so we each got to try a brownie, a blondie and a muffin.  That’s the way to do it.  I forgot to take a picture of those, but I ate all 3 pieces.

What a nice way to spend the afternoon, too!  I do feel a little sleepy now, but definitely refreshed and relaxed.

Such a fun, fun weekend!

Rainy days are good for puzzles and pizza.

Rainy and cool weekend.  This is the spring that we skipped over!  It was a nice weekend with a lot of little projects and a lot of relaxing.

I hope the comment feed is settling down?

I had a very good strength workout on Saturday.  Increasing a couple weights and reps.  Then, John and I went out to lunch and shopping on Saturday.  We stopped at Chipotle.  I had the salad with barbacoa, salsa, cheese and sour cream.

This is really good.  You don’t even need dressing.  This is one of my treat meals for the week.

We did some mall shopping (empty handed) and then to Lowe’s. We got an estimate on resurfacing our driveway the other day  and it was $1800.  That was waaaay more than I was expecting.  So, we are looking into doing crack repair and resealing ourselves rather than having them tear up the whole driveway and replacing it.  If we can get another 7 years out of the driveway, that would be nice.  I really want to put laminate in our downstairs this year, so we couldn’t do both if we had someone else do the driveway.  And as I said to my mother, I don’t think we could possibly make the driveway look worse than it already does (remember these words, everyone).

I did buy a new bird feeder to put outside my ‘working’ window.  Hopefully the cardinals will come to this one since it has a platform.

And, you can see why we need to redo the driveway this year.  😳

Rainy days, puzzles, and kitties.

One of these things doesn’t go along so well with the other 2.

I’s helping, right?

I have not put a puzzle together in the 3 years Pixie has been living in the house. Our other cat, Chloe, was blind at the end of her life and I could do puzzles and such without her bothering them.  Not so with Pixie. I am having to reassemble pieces that she decided didn’t go together.

Another good indoor weekend project: I had gotten the 5-minute Artisan Pizza book out of the library, so we made some dough up for pizza this weekend!

Just simple pizza.  Sauce, cheese and some cooked chicken.

I didn’t know this was going to rise so much in the oven and be such a thick crust!

It was really good, though.  Yum.

Off to do some more puzzlin’!

Question: Do you do puzzles?

Friday fun and guest post request!

Weekend!  Put your hands together everybody!  I so wanted to sleep in the morning and go to the gym a little bit later, but the garbage truck woke me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep.  I got up about 15 minutes later than usual.  The gym was pretty quiet today, as usual on Fridays.

  • 10-minute warmup on the stationary bike
  • Chinups: 1 set of 3, 2 sets of 2
  • Barbell squats:  3 sets of 8 at 85 pounds
  • Seated lat rows:  3 sets of 15 at 45 pounds
  • 1-legged dumbbell deadlifts:  3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs
  • Prone Cuban snatch:  3 sets of 15 with 8# DBs
  • Reverse crunches:  3 sets of 15
  • Pushups:  3 sets of 15

This was extra tiring for some reason.  I don’t know why, but I struggled through the weights today.  Then I hopped on the treadmill for 30 minutes with a walk/run combo.  Listened to the Dirty Dozen Brass Band today.  I love them!  You know they are based in New Orleans?  John and I have a dream to own a 2nd place there.  It will take a lot to make that happen, though. Better start playing the lottery :mrgreen:

Breakfast was custard cream of wheat!  I mashed up 1/2 a banana and added it to the pot with the water, brought to a boil and added the cream of wheat.  Then I whipped in the egg whites.  Thickened up right nicely!

Topped with chocolate sauce 😯  and peanut butter.  Deeelicious.

Headed over to my rental property to check on the status before the open house and broker open coming up.  My tenant is actually very neat clutter-wise (which is great), but things were just dirty.  Splatters on the walls and grime on things.  I did paint touch ups and told him what needed to happen for open houses, showings, and stuff.  It is extremely hard for me to not tell him how to live until the house sells, you know?  I have no control over whether he wipes off the stove or cleans the mirrors in the bathroom.  I hope it sells fast.  It’s actually a very cute house, a little small, but it has a huge yard and we put in granite counter tops.

I was pretty hungry for lunch when I got back, and grabbed something really quick:  shredded wheat topped with strawberries.  I almost never eat just a bowl of cereal, but it was fast!

Back out for more errands, including a new pair of shoes!  I need walking shoes as mine are all worn out.  I had a gift certificate to Dick’s.  I tried on so many shoes, and actually ended up with another pair of Saucony shoes (on sale!!).

They are running shoes, but so comfy that I am just going to walk in them.  I have to go with what make my feet feel happy, and if they want to be in the running shoes, then so be it. When I slipped my feet into these, I just knew they were the right pair.

Jody – just for you.

Pixie chillaxing on the dishwasher because it’s warm (it’s a portable one).  She wants you all to notice her big feet.

Needed to use up the last of the venison for dinner, so I made a BBQ venison quesedilla with laughing cow, chopped venison and BBQ sauce on a smart carb wrap.

Paired with pan sauteed brussels and the last kiwi.  We need to be very judicious with our shopping this week so we don’t have a lot of fresh produce left before our trip.

I am looking for a few guest posts to use if I can’t get online as much during our trip at the end of the month.  Is anyone interested?  Please shoot me an email at javaqueen01 (at) yahoo dot com.  Sorry for the late request!

Question: Are you brand loyal with shoes?

The Weekend!

Saturday was a 100% on plan day. Today, a little struggle. I am only going to be at around 1500 calories for the day, but definitely was hungry.
I really wanted a Dunkin Donuts gingerbread donut, but instead opted for an eggnog latte made at home. Using light eggnog mixed with 1% milk. So – instead of a 300 calorie donut, I had 140 calorie addition to my latte. An okay choice, but not great. I also ate a few soy crisps before lunch.

Expecting a winter storm tonight – gearing up for snow shoveling tomorrow! At least that is good exercise.