Weekend Wrap Up!

Happy Monday!

Let's talk about the crazy weekend I had!

Let's just say, I had BIG PLANS for today, but nothing went the way I planned!

I got up and dropped Paul off at his doctor appointment. Then I headed to the gym and hopped on the arc trainer. I had a really good Big Brother podcast to listen to so time went by fast.

Then I went home to do some yard work. I had so much on my to do list. I started with trying to clear out the debris around our shed. I got mostly everything from the side of our shed but then ran out of yard waste cans to put it in!

I contacted someone on Craigslist to see if they could haul it away...

Then I was going to continue doing some outside work, but my brother called and I ended up driving him to run a couple errands. There went my plans for the afternoon! Although it wasn't a total waste. Not only did I help my brother out, but I scored some puzzles while we were at Community Aid!

I got home just in time to do some cleaning and cooking in preparation for my parents coming over. My dad was going to help Paul install our new storm door. I thought it would take an hour or two. It took more like 3 hours. I am so thankful our dad was able to help us because I don't think Paul and I could have done it.

RICKGYVER!

WE LOVE OUR NEW DOOR!!!!

It would be nice to be able to have our front door open but I think it would confuse the cats. Christmas would probably run straight into the storm door and knock himself out. Or he'd scratch it. Moral of the story is, we probably won't be able to enjoy having the front door open and the storm door shut!

Saturday was my 35th birthday! 35 sounds so much older than 34. Still, it's better than the alternative...

I got up super early to do 14 miles on the AT- over a mountain and back again. I ran 2 miles alone, then I met my friends Anne and Kristen to do the remaining miles. They were chugging along and keeping up was an effort. If I was by myself, I definitely would have putzed along more slowly.

My lower back ached sooooo bad the last two miles. It felt good to bend over. Luckily, stretching and foam rolling made it feel a ton better. I'm going to write more about this run tomorrow!

Post run grub!!!!!

After an extensive session of foam rolling, stretching, and puzzling, Paul and I headed out for some errands. First we hit up the Christmas Tree Shoppe for a wreath. We found one for the fall, but we still need one for spring/summer.

Happy Birthday to me!

Proof that I am 35... I bought myself 

a wreath for my b-day.

Then we went to Bob and Rachel's to check on their kitties- Gus an Pierre. They are baby boys!

Pierre is a black Jelly.

Gus and his chalice.

By now, we were STARVING. I was drunk with hunger and in severe shut down mode. The plan was to go out to eat at Tattered Flag Brewery in Middletown. Even though it was a brewery, it was more like a sit down restaurant. We had been there this winter and the food was divine. We were pretty excited to go back.

"Have you been here before?" the perky hostess asked.

"Yes," we said, and tried to head upstairs to the restaurant. We were HUNGRY.

"Well, we have changed our dining experience a bit and made it even better," the perky hostess told us. 

Honestly, I'm weary of anyone who calls going out to eat "a dining experience". I wasn't in the mood for an experience. I was in the mood to EAT.

The hostess then proceeded to describe how Tattered Flag changed the dining experience to more of a brewery type atmosphere. She explained that now you order food at the bar and that there were games set up, like Jenga and Cornhole.

"Let's go," I whispered to Paul.

He wanted to see upstairs, so we took a peak. Yeah, not our scene at all. I wanted to sit down and be waited on. DON'T THEY KNOW I RAN 14 MILES AND IT'S MY BIRTHDAY?

I was sad they didn't have the yummy menu they had before. It's a shame they changed it. But I get it, they want it to be a brewery, not a restaurant. I'm sure it's cheaper that way.

By now, I was so depleted. "Where can we go!?" I asked Paul desperately. He thought for a minute. "Gulliftys!" he snapped. "GOOD IDEA!!!" Off we went... back to the West Shore. About 20 minutes later, we pulled into the Gullifty's Parking lot and... it was CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

By now I was ready to just go to Wendy's and straight up suggested it. We could swing through the drive thru, go home, put on our pjs, and pig out while watching Seinfeld. but Paul had his mind set on going out. We drove 2 miles to the Garlic Poet. I had eaten there once before in their bar area and had a burger. I remember it being good but a bit on the fancy side...

It turns our that even though I liked Garlic Poet the first time I went, my second experience was not as good. I was too hungry to be amused by their antics...

First of all, The Garlic Poet is a themed restaurant, which is kind of cool, but also annoying. Everything on the menu is named after an author or literary character. But that can make things confusing because the name of what the food is is not straight forward at all. It's just hard to figure out what you want to eat. Kind of like it's written in a different language but it's not.

Also, the waitress practically read us a BOOK of specials before we could do anything. We were STARVING and we did not want to hear the "chef's snack" of the day.

It was just too fancy for us. A burger was $17 and the ketchup came in a fancy blue cup, which was annoying because I could barely dip my fries in it. Could I please just have a bottle of ketchup on the table?

And the ingredients... they were so hipster. The waitress went on and on about how one dish featured edible flowers the chef grew in his own garden. EDIBLE FLOWERS? NO THANK YOU.

The food was good, but too expensive, fancy, hipster... they were just trying WAY too hard.

But I did like this sign hanging beside our table...

 The burger bun was freaking branded. 

TRYING TO HARD.

Is that why it was $17!?

I was so tired, but I managed to get a lot of work done on my puzzle when I got home.

'Tis the life of a 35 year old...

It felt so good to sleep. That trail run really took it out of me. My body felt so much better on Sunday morning. Paul and I hit the gym to do some lifting. When I got home, a late birthday present came in the mail. Thanks, Paul!

Then I did a ton of yard work. I weeded and just did some general tidying up. I also found someone on Craigslist who will come get my yard waste this week. Woohoo!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, blogging, and puzzling!

Do you like restaurants that try to be fancy and hip?
Does your lower back ever hurt by the end of a long run?
Tell me something fun you did this weekend!