Coffee Craze

I was really excited this morning when I logged into Twitter and saw that I've converted both Stephanie and Cassie to DiBruno's iced coffee.



Seriously though! It's the best iced coffee in this part of Center City. If you disagree, I'd love to hear it - especially if you know of a place where the iced coffee is just as good, but comes in anything larger than a 16 ounce size.

Breakfast this morning (in addition to my delicious iced coffee) was yet another yogurt-berries-granola conglomeration.



Still not quite in season, but we're getting closer. This round was much better than the craptacular raspberries I bought a couple of weeks ago - they were on sale at Target, I think, or maybe Wegmans, two for $5. One package was completely underripe, terrible almost-crunchy texture and zero flavor, and the other was very overripe - mushy and completely mold-covered by the next day. Sad face.

My dog is not right. Exhibit A:



Not only has she taken the cushion out of the dog bed, but she is facing the (completely blank) wall. Not watching TV, not paying attention to her humans, just staring at the wall. Until I called her name.



This only lasted a split second, and then I guess she realized that she was sitting on an uncushioned dog bed with no source of entertainment, because she immediately ran away.

On tap for today: lots of relatively uninteresting (read: blessedly not complicated) work, followed by a much-needed sweat session. I usually take Mondays as a rest day, which is always amazing at the time, but it leaves me feeling a little stir-crazy by this time Tuesday morning. I'm hoping PhillyGuy can make it to the gym with me tonight - he's been super busy at work and we haven't been able to work out together in months, save one or two sessions here and there. I miss my gym buddy!

Magic Drawer

I'm having a particularly "meh" day at work today. See, I'm working on something that's not in any way, shape or form challenging. It's also not in any way, shape or form interesting. I have something else on my list that will be far more engaging, but I just HAVE to get this other, far more boring thing done first.

So what do I do? Take a break. A break to take blackberry pictures of the inside of my middle desk drawer and share them with you.



Isn't she gorgeous, folks?

This is also a peek into my average (and by "average," I actually mean "completely representative because I eat the same exact thing every single day until I get so sick of it I can't even look at it") daily eats.

Missing from this picture (because I was eating the last one as I got the inspiration to do a little smartphone photography) is approximately half a pound of baby carrots. Believe it or not, I eat these as much for stress relief as I do for taste. I cannot tell you how good it feels to just CRUNCH into one of those suckers. Sort of like, I don't know, punching a wall, or something. Very satisfying. I get so into the CRUNCH that I usually eat about 2/3 of the bag before I remember that I also have almond butter to dip them in! So, that tiny tupperware of AB -- I usually fill it about 1/3 of the way -- tends to last two days.

There on top we have a chocolate Clif Builders' Bar. In reality, I FAR prefer regular ol' Clif Bars. However, in reality, I am making a concerted effort to eat a lower-carb, higher-protein diet, because, in reality, for me, carbs = maintenance, and, in reality, I still do not fit in the percentage of my wardrobe that I'd like to fit in.

As far as high-protein bars go, the Builders' Bars are my favorite so far. Most other high-protein bars take the form of either this:



(AHHHHHHHH) or this:



(the size of a brick, the texture of clay, and "only" 437 calories)

Don't get me wrong, they're still not the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. But when it's 4:30pm, my stomach's starting to growel and I need to work out after I get home in a couple hours? They're perfect. And (for the most part) don't pretend to be a candy bar.

Inside the other tupperware? My daily dose of berries. I strongly prefer that they be room temperature rather than refrigerated, so they also live in my desk drawer.



I don't know what I'm going to do when berries are all out of season again. They're not TOO pricey at Costco during the winter, but they're nowhere near as good. And no other fruit comes close to being so perfect with plain yogurt.

Honorable mentions go to my collection of random extra napkins (they came in incredibly handy when I knocked over a cup of coffee a few weeks ago), the packet of Starbucks Via (soooo nice to be able to get iced coffee without leaving the office) and the extra hairbands (um, duh).

Hmm. Well, this has been a great diversion. Maybe my work will suddenly seem more fascinating when I get back to it! Happy almost-to-the-weekend!