After an insane week – I came home to multiple presents yesterday!  So many, in fact, that I forgot to open a few! 

I was obviously drawn to the biggest package first (that’s what she said), and tore into it like a kid at Christmas.  CHECK OUT WHAT WAS IN SIDE!A totally awesome gift from the folks at Quaker!  3 full boxes of their new Simple Harvest Chewy Granola Bars line, a fabulous pair of slippers and an AMAZING all natural robe!

Not only were they kind enough to send me one of these fab packages, but they offered to send the exact same “All Natural Gift Bag”  to one of my fabulous readers!  To be “entered” in the contest:

1. Answer this question, by leaving a comment below – What is my dog’s name (actual name, not insanely odd nicknames I dream up) – and is my dog a boy or a girl? Both need to be included to be a valid entry!
2. Have a blog?  Link back to this post, and you’ll get an extra entry!

I’ll use the random number generator to the pick the winner!  Make sure you have your entry in by Monday at 6pm EST!!!!! I’ll announce the winner first thing Tuesday morning!

That’s all I’ve got for ya – after this week, I’m just totally wiped out – the thought of actually writing up more of a post makes my head hurt!  Not that I don’t love ya’ll! 

I have to run 8 miles tomorrow for my long run, after running a total of 0 miles so far this week, so that should be fun.  (sense any sarcasm?)

HAVE A GREAT FRIDAY NIGHT!!!!

Hi lovelies!   Long time no blog!

How are things??  Things are flying by over here for me – we are 2 days down, 2 to go with our meetings, and I’ve been getting totally spoiled with some AMAZING food – so I’ll just get to it for ya!

Monday night – we went to Wine Bar in Rocky River (this is where I was supposed to go for my birthday dinner with my friend Steph but I had to cancel because I was sick – boo!)I LOVE THIS PLACE!  And for the type of restaurant it is – the menu is really reasonably priced.   We started off with a bottle of red, and a bottle of white (Billy Joel, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant anyone?  C’mon – gimme some Billy lovin’!)  I also got to try a small pour (see the cute little glass on the left!) of Malbec which I’ve heard a lot about but had never tried!   I was a fan! 

We split the “Wino fries” as an appetizer – they are soooo good, and they have malt vinegar in an easy to pour bottle!I have been absolutely craving calamari lately – so when I saw it on there menu, served with 3 different homemade specialty sauces – well – I couldn’t pass it up.This was PHENOMENAL!  The dips totally made the dish. The one in the back was roasted red pepper, then ancho chili lime,  and then up front was sweet chili garlic.  All 3 were absolutely phenomenal – although….I TOTALLY STANK of garlic until about 5pm the next day – it took 24 hours to wear off that’s how strong this stuff was!

Breakfast yesterday – the usual…Follow up with some Dave’s Cosmic Subs for lunch:If you have a Dave’s by you, and you haven’t tried it – GO DO IT NOW! I love this place – I feel like I could eat a whole deli tray myself some days!! 

For dinner yesterday – we got to head to downtown C-town, and try out XO Steakhouse (fancy fancy place – this is where a bunch of the Cavs like to eat!)Started with some Sauv Blanc like always! (and proceeded to have 3 more!)  We had a special menu to choose from – so for my “starter” I picked the Caesar salad:and for my meal I went with the Bell & Evan chicken – it had a smoked mozzarella sauce, prosciutto – and I can’t remember what else……but this dish knocked my socks off!  (LOL – I couldn’t resist saying something silly!)  I honestly wanted to devour the whole thing – and it was perfectly salty for my taste!

And of course - here’s a few shots of my and all my wonderful work friends enjoying ourselves!! and a blurry one of me and Kris!So why is the title Pricey Barf you may ask yourself?  Oh, allow me to explain.

After going non-stop all day yesterday – I got home after midnight, plopped down on the couch, and decided I was going to eat my leftover chicken from the restaurant.  Long story short – there was a huge chicken bone – Lando got it (because I’ve raised her to be a heathen), and swallowed the whole.huge.thing.in.one.gulp. (That’s what she said – would be funny here, if this weren’t a story about my dog almost dying).

I freaked.

She threw up a teeny tiny bit right there, and then started yelping out in pain (while trying to keep throwing up), and freaking out too.  So I called the emergency vet number – and they said to bring her in.    By 1:30am -we were finally back home.

A little bit of pain for Lando, and $157 later for me – that was the most expensive damn dog barf I’ve ever seen.

She fools you into thinking she’s cute, doesn’t she?Don’t be fooled.

Off to meetings – see ya again in a few days – HOPE YOU ARE ALL HAVING A GREAT WEEK!!!

Happy Monday!!!   Hope you al lhad a fantastic weekend!

Ours was crazy busy – but wonderful!  We went to visit our friends in PA – and we’ve (Mike and I being the authority that makes up “we”) decided that Pennyslvania is part of Canada, not the US.  They have all these silly laws, and beer you can only buy at special beer stores, and highway signs with weird fonts… the list could go on forever! 

Friday night I did my long run (6 miles) and it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible either.  I made a really fantastic looking dinner…but my camera died (and I was charging the battery for the weekend – so I’ve got nothing for ya!

Saturday morning we woke up super early and packed up the car and hit the road!  I brought some fantastic spicy oats along for the ride.  Mike said they smelled great because of the hot sauce, but that was the only good thing about them.  Silly boys! At about 11 – I took over driving – and that’s where any food that was eaten in the car stopped being pictured!  The oatmeal did a great job of holding me over though – and I didn’t eat anything else until we got to Cheryl & Johnny’s (I did drink a ton of coffee and diet pop).  As soon as the hugging and greetings were done, we broke into some munchies while we sat outside enjoying the beautiful weather.   LOOK WHAT PENNSYLVANIA, CANADA SELLS:Sour Cream and ONION Baked Lays! They do exist!   Kristin has been hunting for these EVERYWHERE (they used to be sold only in the mini bags at Subway) and could never find them in the large bags!  Lando was in heaven – she had two doggie friends to play with!   Here’s Maddie, Dawkin, and of course, Lando:We headed out to dinner at a place right by there house, called Gio’s Italian Grill – check out their drink menu – it was made of cork!I thought that was just too cool!  I went with a French Martini -  vodka, chambord, and pineapple juice!Absolute Heaven! I drank this thing so quickly!

They had so many great things to choose from on the menu, I seriously had trouble making my decision – but I ended up getting the  Mediterraneo pizza:Artichokes, olive, pine nuts, fresh tomatoes, roasted garlic, EVOO and roasted red pepper!   Here’s what came:This was perfect!  While it would have been JUST FINE if there were cheese on it, I’m really glad there wasn’t.  All the toppings added so much flavor, and it was nice to save some calories there!

More drinks of course:After dinner we stopped to let the pups out – and headed to their “local” bar – Macungie Pub!  I totally forgot – but there’s not smoking band in PA – so it was weird to walk into a bar and have it be all smokey…that definitely one of the nice things in Cleveland – you don’t wake up stinking like the bar!   Here’s most of the nights drinks:

The boys had Blue Moon pitchers all night…Look how cool the pitchers were at this bar!  That’s totally one of those “WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT” ideas!

We headed home early – to end up playing RockBand until 3am in the morning (well – the girls called it a night at 3am – the boys stayed up until 6:30!!!!)

Here’s our favorite PA people around:and me and the boys doing a shot at home:It was seriously a fantastic time, and we were sad to leave!  I wish it wasn’t a 7 hour drive – why couldn’t it just be like 3 hours?!

Lando was sad to leave her friends too!The ride home was uneventful – but I do need to comment on 1 thing.  Wawa.  We don’t have those in Cleveland (or in Ohio as far as I know) – but I grabbed their pre-made “buffalo chicken wrap” when we stopped for my meal, since I have up fast food for Lent….and it was FRICKIN AMAZING!  It was huge, and only 330 calories, and seriously delicious.  It will now be an mandatory stop on all future road trips!

After some Sunday afternoon running around and errands – I made some sweet tater fries and a kiwi for dinner, and hit the sack early!This morning I woke up (and was immediately devestated) to find out we were out of Morning Star sausage, which then ruled out spicy oats for breakfast.  So instead I made 2 egg whites, 1 full egg, chicken, onion, and banana pepper combo.  This was good – but didn’t fill me up at all.  My stomach was GROWLING by 10am, which never happens with oatmeal!

I’m off to run some errands on my lunch break – because our annual work meeting begins today – which means I’m busy 24/7 – until Friday!  If you don’t hear from me until then – HAVE A GREAT WEEK!