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!

Bitter, Party of One

Most mornings I make my first cup of coffee at home and drink it on my way to work. Within 30 minutes of getting to the office, I'm ready for cup number two, so I head down to DiBruno's for the most delicious iced coffee I know of. I get at least one cup a day, sometimes a second one mid-afternoon, so the baristas know me and get my large iced coffee ready while I'm in line, so it's sitting there for me when I get up to the register.

I've lamented before the fact that DiBruno's hasn't jumped onto the bucket-o-beverage bandwagon with most American chains. The largest size they offer is a (very reasonable) sixteen ounces. Some days, that's plenty. Most days, I suck it down instantly and wish I had four more waiting for me. I could get an extra-large 20 (or 30 or 40 or whatever) ounce iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, but...it's just gross. It's weak, kind of flavorless and sort of reminds me of dishwater.

Well, this morning, I didn't make my coffee at home. I figured I'd head straight to DiBruno's instead. And much to my disappointment, they were out of large cold cups...so I was stuck with twelve measly ounces.

Let's say it didn't last long. And that I'm glad Starbucks is on the bucket-o-beverage bandwagon.


DiBruno's may as well have given me a shot of coffee.

It's no secret that work has been pretty stressful for me recently. Lots of hours, but also a huge sense of urgency where everything has to be done NOWNOWNOWNOWNOW - which does great things to my blood pressure, I'm sure. I've been trying to force myself to the gym, even if it's only for a half hour or so just to get a good sweat, because it really does help.

Yesterday, all I wanted was to run. Work and related obligations had kept me out of the gym for three days, so I was starting to get a little stir-crazy. But naturally, my knee was bugging me for most of the day.

And I just start to get bitter. I see people on the treadmill and I get consumed with jealousy, and let me tell you, it ain't pretty. "OH, it must be NICE to be able to RUN WITHOUT KNEE PAIN. You're not so great. I could do that too if my knees didn't hurt." I even get bitter towards people who DON'T have knee pain but choose not to run, like they're somehow obligated to engage in that particular high-impact activity just because their patellas are in the right place all the time.

Most of the time, that bitterness subsides once I get moving doing whatever it is I end up doing instead of running - whether it's yoga or hill intervals on the bike or just lots of [relatively] heavy lifting. I recognize that it's not rational, but I just can't help it sometimes.

Lucky for me, last night my knees actually behaved just fine while I was running. I ran about 1.2 miles in ten minutes, increasing my speed from 6.5 to 7.0 to 7.5 as I went. I probably could have gone farther, but given the pain I'd been having earlier in the day, I didn't want to push my luck. And happily for me, that was all I needed - it was enough to get me started on sweating, enough to get my heartrate up, and enough of a start that I didn't have any trouble keeping my heartrate up when I moved over to the bike for another 20 minutes. I wrapped it up with P90X chest, shoulders & triceps (I don't really care for this workout - too many weird moves), and returned home a much happier Chrissey.

I love endorphins. I also love that it's Friday. Plans for the weekend?

Dusting it Off

...the Keurig, that is.



It's been a hot, HOT summer. Lots and lots of iced coffee. For the past three months or so, the LAST thing I wanted was hot coffee.

But now the humidity's dropping, the temperature's falling (at least in the mornings), and, of course, advertising is in full swing, making my yearn for all things fall. Including my secret weapon:



couple of shakes of pumpkin pie spice in the bottom of my cup, and I have an instant ticket to fall. The only problem is that the spice doesn't dissolve - which means a wet, soggy pile at the bottom of my cup. That has a tendency to slide down and kind of plop on my lips when I, um, hold the cup vertical to drain as much as possible out of it when it's empty. (Classy.)

If I made coffee by the pot, I'd put the spice directly into the grounds, but alas, I am the only coffee drinker in the house, and I don't want to waste so much (delicious) coffee. So, Keurig pods it is.

Another decidedly UN-fall, but delicious breakfast:



Fage 0, banana, peach, granola. I haven't had granola in about six months - it was one of my staples that got tossed when PhillyGuy and I started following the P90X nutrition plan back in March. When you're limiting yourself to a serving or so of carbs a day, you don't want to blow it on 1/3 of a cup of granola, you know? At least, I didn't.

But who am I kidding? I started replacing that daily sweet potato with a daily bagel anyway. Pretty sure this is better.

PhillyGuy and I ended our long weekend with a great dinner on Monday night. We headed out to Whole Foods to pick up some fresh fish to grill.



Big ol' halibut filet. Look at that pretty skin!

PhillyGuy grilled it simply, with salt, pepper, lime juice and paprika. I did my usual roasted veggies with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Locatelli and rosemary.





While everything was cooking, I may or may not have had a little appetizer of Stacy's pita chips with Bobbi's honey chipotle white bean hummus. (In case you were wondering, SO FREAKING GOOD.)





All finished:





I love grilling.

Quick Blogging Break

GAH.

Last night, I had a swanky wine pairing event to attend for the firm. Sometimes, being in this business ain't so bad, right?

Six glasses of wine (a rose, a white, three reds and a sparkling dessert wine) plus six courses (THREE of them were red meat -- lamb chop, veal, and strip steak...be still my beating heart) plus a drive home starting at 11pm -- all of that equals one sleepy PhillyGirl today.

I figured I'd have a better chance of actually being bright and cheery if I dressed the part, so I threw on a new skirt I picked up at the J.Crew outlet over my stay-cation.



Problem: in my closet, I saw the print as black and navy. Once I got to work under the super-flattering flourescent office lights? Clearly two shades of navy. So my black handback and black sunglasses just make it look like I got dressed in the dark. Which I apparently sort of did.

My first cup of iced coffee was completely unhelpful, so by 9:15 I found myself in line at Starbucks waiting to re-up.



That isn't what woke me up, though. What really snapped me into reality was getting a couple of totally frivolous "emergency" motions tossed into my lap. That I now need to spend my weekend responding to. (I just typed out a long rant about what I think constitutes an "emergency" (hint: this isn't it), but thought better and deleted it. I don't know why, but this particular case really gets under my skin. It's definitely up there with the top three contributing factors to the ulcer I'm sure I have. Costco on a weekend, produce section at Wegman's on a weekend, and this case.)

It's Friday! And PhillyGuy and I are going to grill pork chops for dinner...preferably eat them outside on our balcony. I didn't mention it on here (um, okay, I actually didn't mention much of ANYTHING on here since I haven't posted all week), but he was away for the week. My bookend pups kept me company, but it's nice to have him back.



My plans for the weekend (besides responding to these stupid motions) involve a pedicure, plenty of weights and hopefully a long run -- assuming my hip cooperates. How about you?