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Monday, July 10, 2017

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!

20 comments:

  1. I am glad you had such an awesome trail run and birthday! We have that storm door on our back garage door except it has a doggie door at the bottom. It's too bad you can't actually use it :) LOL.

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    1. Okay, well I started teaching Christmas and Jelly about the storm door. We are gonna do two little lessons a day so they can be reminded it is there. I feel like if I just show them once, they will forget.

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  2. I remember getting a lower back ache during the Portland Marathon. I had never gotten a back ache before, and I've never gotten a back ache since. I wonder if it has something to do with elevation since that was basically the only time I've ever run anywhere that's not at sea level!

    I would not want to eat a flower grown in my own garden let alone in some random chef's garden, unless we're calling onions a flower. In which case load the flowers onto my burger :).

    Your storm door looks beautiful! If you really want to leave the door open you should. The cats will likely run into it once but then they will learn their lesson. Cecil ran into our french doors once when he saw a raccoon on the patio - but he never did it again. (Poor little baby) You could probably bring the cats up to the door and put their paws on it so that they see that it's hard. Maybe that would prevent them from running head first!

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    1. I am giving Christmas and Jelly 2 daily reminders a day that the storm door is there. I am hoping they will start to remember. The only problem I can foresee is if the neighbor cat, Burrito, would come up on the front stoop. If Christmas saw Burrito at eye level, face to face, there is no telling what would happen. Actually, I know what would happen. He would take his anger out on Jelly!

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  3. Happy belated birthday! I love the sign at the restaurant except for one big thing... Shel only has one L, not two! Grrrr. I also did lots of yard work this weekend, and have been wondering what we're going to do with all the yard waste. Never ever would have thought of getting someone else to haul it away! Thanks for the idea.

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    1. Omg it does! SEE THE RESTAURANT IS TRYING TOO HARD. If they were really into literature, they would know that, right!?

      Yes, hop on Craigslist, take a picture, and name a price. I had 4 people contact me within the hour! It's getting hauled away on Friday! One person offered to do it for $160... HELL NO. The guy coming is doing it for $80. I think that is fair, right!? I think it costs to actually dump stuff, so it's not like he gets all 80 bucks.

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  4. Megan - Happy birthday youngster! I am 47! so I think anyone in their 30's is a baby : )
    1. Love your new door - we have one like it in black.
    2. LOVE that Shel Silverstein quote - my younger son loves him and read him a lot when he was little. We are big fans of Shel's!
    3. not a big fan of hipster bar/restaurants - too fancy for me!
    4. yes, my back can ache after running for a longer time than normal.
    5. those kitties are adorable - the orange one looks exactly like the sweet cat that I grew up with - Cinnamon lived to be 18! We loved him.
    6. Your hair looks awesome
    Have a great day!! Kristen

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    1. I don't feel like a baby but THANK YOU, glad to be called one! :)

      I liked the black doors! What color is your front door? I like the Shel quote too. I kind of want to hang it in my classroom buuuuut.... I also want the students to follow my classroom rules hahaha. Maybe I could tell them, "live your life by that quote, but not in my room!"

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    2. Our front door is wooden (dark brown) with a beautiful stained glass window in it. We added it when we moved in - I love it. Makes me so happy when I look at it. We too can't keep the storm door open because our dog looks out at every one and barks and jumps up and tries to get out. and it always scares the bejesus out of me.

      Yes, that's a good idea to tell your kids!
      When I would read "The Giving Tree" to my son, I would always get choked up. Shel's words are so beautiful and quirky, just like my kid!

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    3. Since looking at storm doors, I started to take notice to people's doors and I love the stained glass ones. I'm sure it looks beautiful. Oh man The Giving Tree is a tear jerker!!!

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  5. That is a funny name for a restaurant, totally sounds "hipster" to me!
    We also have that same door. I leave it open all the time for Baylee, she loves to watch the neighborhood. I leave it open for me too, I like the light that shines in!

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    1. I am going to see if I can teach the cats so that we can have the door open. It would be nice to have the light shining in like that! I put the cats in the bedroom for piano lessons (too much in and out with kids, I'm afraid a cat will slip out) so I could definitely have it open then!

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  6. Happy 35th birthday! It sounds like you had a great weekend but I agree that the restaurant seemed really hipster. We have a place here that has branded burger buns and I feel like that's such overkill. Like seriously, we are eating in your restaurant- we know the name of it. I'm not a fan of fancy restaurants anyway and would rather go somewhere more inexpensive but we know the food is good quality. I don't mind expensive if it's a great experience but I like to always get what I pay for, you know?

    Edible flowers? No thanks.

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    1. Exactly, I am okay with the expense if you get what you pay for, and here we did NOT. We seriously should have hit up Wendys! You can never go wrong with a Jr Bacon Cheeseburger and a 6 piece spicy nugget!

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  7. Happy Birthday!!

    Wow !! you went trough so much to get your birthday lunch!

    That door looks so awesome!! You all did a great job with it!

    I think the Garlic Poet is overrated. I had a very greasy grilled cheese sandwich from there, but an excellent Apple sangria and bourbon bacon ice cream. If we go again, it would be only for appetizers and drinks, the food it not worth the price.

    My son had his "half" birthday, so I took him to chillis for lunch. He LOVES chillis! he kept trying to convince me that a half birthday required a gift! he is always trying to get toys!

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    1. I agree, food not worth the price at ALL. Mmmmm chilis! Good pick!!!

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  8. I laughed so hard at the part where you were so hungry and the waitress was going on and on about the specials! I totally know that kind of hunger.

    MEGAN! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! xoxoxox

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    1. Yeah, and we were NOT going to have any of the specials. The only thing in our price range were the $17 burgers lol. Oh and a glass of wine was $9!!!!!!!! That's a lot for around here.

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  9. We went to GP for our anniversary last year and I felt the same way. It was just TOO much! Except that the portions were actually not enough and it was pricey.

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    1. Yeah, our appetizer was $11 and there were only 9 little pieces of meat in it. That's over $1 per bite!

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