It's Christmastime Bitches

I LOVE decorating for Christmas.

And every year, I insist on doing it the weekend after Thanksgiving. It puts me in a good mood. Most years, I also insist that we watch "Love Actually" while we're decorating, but this year I was feeling the Muppets.



Our tree is nothing special - a prelit special from Target a few years ago - but it's easy.



This year, I added lights in the kitchen, on my new(ish) shelves.



I'm pretty sure at least half of our ornaments are dog-themed.



Even though the dogs are really not impressed by the tribute.





...at all.



(She spent half the evening wigging out about the tree, the lights, the boxes of ornaments, etc., and then, when she had exhausted herself, laid on the floor looking depressed.)

Later in the week, I crockpotted a London broil from my cow share. Since London broil is a fairly lean cut of beef, I figured it would do well with a low-and-slow cooking time, but I was having a tough time trying to come up with just what to braise it in. After my initial google search turned up a disturbing number of "recipes" including ingredients like canned cream-of-something soup and packets of ranch dressing mix (or italian dressing mix or brown gravy mix), I just decided to wing it. I chose not to brown the meat first, covered it with salt, pepper and granulated garlic, and put it on top of a layer of sliced onions in the crockpot. I added a couple cups of beef broth, topped it with mushrooms, and called it good.



Hours later, it looked promising. My house smelled amazing and the meat fell apart to the touch. I paired it with some kale sauteed with a slice of bacon and eagerly dug in.

Meh. The flavors were delicious, but because the meat is so lean, it was kind of dry and stringy despite all the broth and juices. I think it either needs to be browned first OR to be cooked in something a little fattier. Or just not crockpotted at all. Le sigh.

Like I said last week, work has been insane. I went two solid weeks without my usual evening crossfit sessions, and it's been taking its toll on my sanity. Even though my foot is STILL not 100%, I'm getting back into it this week, slowly but surely:

- Tuesday: strict muscle up skill work. Practicing false grip hang; did about a billion false grip ring pull ups, starting with a light band and working up to two mini bands. Tried one mini band and just hung there like a fish, so there's that. Metcon: AMRAP, 3 rounds of 1 minute ring rows, 1 minute push ups, 1 minute double-unders. It's freaking hard to do double unders after two minutes of ring rows and push ups. 120 reps total (tried for the last 15 seconds to get JUST ONE MORE double under and couldn't).

- Thursday: hero WOD. "Nutts."



Things I cannot do with my bum foot: box jumps and weighted running (non-weighted running, too, for that matter). While I probably COULD have done the required wall balls and double-unders, my wise and logical coach advised me not to tempt fate with more jumping. As scaled for my foot: 10 push ups, 15 deadlifts at 165lbs, 25 russian kettlebell swings at 1.5 pood (24kg/52lbs), 50 pull ups (light+mini bands), 100 goblet squats with a 1pood (16kg/35lbs) kettlebell, row 1k. Fuck rowing. By the official 25 minute cap, I had rowed something like 450 meters, maybe less. To complete, 27:32. Worst part mentally was the goblet squats. Getting to 80 reps of something only to realize you still have 20 more? GAAAAAAH.

Tonight we're front squatting and I can't wait. This strength cycle has been really fun (lots of pulling and lots of fun squatting variations - front squats, overhead squats) and I'm so unhappy that I've had to miss so much of it. On the other hand, DTE tells me on I'm on track to bill over 2200 hours this year, so, you know, there's that.

(I read recently that trying to make partner at a law firm is like winning a pie eating contest where the prize is more pie.)

Happy Friday!

Upstate NY 1, PhillyGirl 0

PhillyGuy and I spent the weekend in his hometown up in upstate New York.

Road trippin' puppies. This is how Sophie likes to ride:

Checking everything out.

Some of PhillyGuy's friends from high school were tying the knot - high school sweethearts who have been dating FOR.E.VER. The wedding was outside at a beautiful location next to the river...in the direct sunlight. I know I was quite toasty - I felt so bad for all the guys in their suits & ties, and I just can't fathom how hot the bride must have been in her gorgeous -- but HEAVY! -- gown.

Ridiculously fun? They had a caricature artist at the reception. I insisted that PhillyGuy and I get ours done. The finished product:

Um, meet my husband, Rick Moranis. You may know him from such films as "Ghostbusters" and "Little Shop of Horrors."

This morning, I laced up my shoes and headed out for a five mile run. The temperature was in the low to mid-70s, which is definitely the coolest it's been in a while. I was feeling pretty good...for the first quarter mile or so. After that, a combination of the hills, the humidity and my general dehydration started to kick in, and I was struggling. HARD.

My usual route at PhillyGuy's parents' house is a loop that's just over four miles and super easy. Run up his street, hang a right, follow that road around in a big loop down main street and past a golf course, hang another right and generally cruise in home. Even though there's a LOT more incline in his town than what I'm used to here in Philly, it's not so bad - there's basically one climb from about mile 1.5 to 2.5, and then I end with a good .6 mile downhill that cruises into a flat stretch for the last quarter mile to his house. I headed out to do that route, plus a jag down his grandparents' street and back up for an extra mile.

And then...blech. That extra mile. The first half mile was either downhill or flat, but turning around and heading back left me struggling up a LONG hill. It was rough -- I was bargaining with myself the entire way back up just to keep from stopping to walk. At the top of the hill, around 2.16 miles, I had to stop and stretch and catch my breath. I had serious cottonmouth and the humidity left me feeling like I was swimming. The idea of continuing on my route -- another half mile or so of straight uphill -- was just unbearable.

So, I swallowed my pride and turned around to run back. Altogether I covered 3.25 miles in about 32 minutes, and struggled the.whole.freakin.time. Splits:

Mile 1: 9:39

Mile 2: 9:59

Mile 3: 10:07

.25 nub: 2:17

It feels good to be home - I'm chilling on the couch watching Kourtney & Khloe while Cosmo naps next to me. How was your weekend?

"You keep using...

that word...I do not think it means what you think it means."

What word is that? Oh, just all the variations of "ZOMG REALLY BUSY" I've been throwing around about work for the past eight months or so. I'm beginning to realize that it's not that I've been "really busy" this year. It's that, for the first two years, I was sort of slow. And that this is not really "busy" so much as it is "what it's like working at a big firm."

I mean, not for everyone. Some people bill a whole heck of a lot more hours than I do. And others have the seriously unfortunate fate of being stuck on massive non-billable projects, like "here spend 40 hours this morning writing this article for me, oh and also make sure you bill at least 160 regular hours too."

Anyway. I've been surviving -- and mostly without issue! But this week has worn me down. Mostly because it's been filled with dealing with shenanigans. Shenanigans from clients, shenanigans from opposing counsel, you name it. It's gotten to the point where, whenever my phone rings, I look at it and yell "OH MY GOD NOW WHAT??" (before I pick it up, of course).

I've also developed a Pavlovian response to the sound of a certain partner coming down the hall towards my office. When I hear that familiar throat-clearing, I immediately fill with a sense of annoyance and dread.

The point of writing this out is twofold. One, to explain why I can sometimes be a pretty flaky blogger. (Not like I haven't explained that before.) And two, to marvel at the fact that, despite all of this "insanity" (or "normal life" -- I'll make the official call in about 6 months), I've managed to stay on track with P90X, both with the workouts and the nutrition.

Pretty sure my diet has done a complete 180. I eat lots of fruit, plain yogurt, veggies and chicken. And it's making a difference. I sustained my initial 5-lb loss and we'll see, on Monday, whether I'm down any more. I certainly feel a difference, and I definitely saw it in my arms and shoulders when I was at the gym last night, doing shoulders/biceps/triceps. I can't believe we're almost through our third week, and I'm sort of looking forward to the first set of progress pictures we'll take in another 10 days.

In the meantime, though -- I'm really, REALLY looking forward to yoga tonight. But mostly, right now, I just want to take a nap. I think I'll settle for some coffee instead, and cross my fingers that I'm done with shenanigans for this week.