An interesting past few days. Thursday afternoon I flew up to DC on business. The first order of business was dinner at TenPenh with a co-worker. We each had a salad for starter, then two starters for dinner. I had the lamb pot stickers and the tuna tempura rolls. The lamb pot stickers were delish. The tuna tempura rolls were really briefly flash fried so the insides were only warm, and may I say, perfectly, exquisitely done. I was truly impressed with the delicious pretentiousness. For dessert we had cinnamon dusted doughnuts with chocolate sauce to dip them in.

Friday morning I walked, oh, well, Google Pedometer puts it at 1.5 miles but since they are always wrong I’ll estimate it was about 1.75 miles to the building where my session was taking place. So refreshing and wonderful to be in a city where you can walk to get places again! I miss that almost more than I miss living near a large body of water. When my session got out in the afternoon I wandered over to 9th Street and did a little shopping. It was 85 degrees and I was uncomfortable in my suit so I went back to the hotel and changed into something cooler. After that I had lunch, checked out, and headed to the airport. I reached home just in time to turn around and go to beer club at the James Joyce. By that time I was completely spastic with fatigue given that I’d been up since about 5:30 am. I had a pretty good BLT with tater tots for dinner. They make a crispy tot at the James Joyce, I must say. I almost made a fool of myself after my second glass of wine since I was so out of it, which was kind of funny, although there was a new guy sitting next to me who probably thought my tongue in cheek comments about how I hate all people and especially children were in bad taste. Heh.

Saturday morning the landscaper/tree guy I called last week showed up to give us an estimate. He seems fair and reliable so we are going ahead with some tree work, most notably the tree that still sits on our roof from the tornado. Hopefully in a couple of weeks our front and back yards will be in a more presentable state. That evening, not wanting to, you know, get dressed or make an effort, we went to cheese dip where I had the empanadas for the first time, a new menu item. They were crispy and tasty, but not filling. It’s a good thing I filled up on cheese dip so it didn’t matter.

Sunday morning Dice drove me over to Atlantic Station and then watched while I ran the Sprint for Cancer 10K race. Yay for cancer! I ran this same race last year and did very poorly time-wise. This time I came in a full two minutes faster, but I also came in a full one minute slower than my last 10K. Not terrible but not great, either. Here I am afterwards, 620 calories lighter:

It was a great race, perrrrrrrrfect weather and a good experience. I’ve noticed lately that during races I don’t hit my stride until about mile 4 or so. It’s no secret that I’m a distance runner and not a sprinter, because I have tons of endurance but my short little legs can’t get me there very fast. So it’s possible I’ll focus on races that are 10K or longer from now on.

After the race (and after I went home and showered) we met up with the Canadians and Sandra for brunch at Babette’s Cafe, one of the premier French places in town. We’d never been there before so weren’t sure what to expect. The interior (it’s situated in a renovated house) is quaint and comfortable in the style of a French country cottage with whiny wood floors and beautiful lace curtains. The brunch menu, while not extensive, has something of everything and for a very reasonable price. For instance, Dice had the fried oyster sandwich, and I had a sausage and potato omelette, and both choices were about $8-9 or so. With coffee, that’s brunch for $20 for the both of us. That’s not bad! After brunch we all went over to look at the Canadians’ new house they are buying, which just happens to be conveniently placed directly across the street from us, heh. While we were there K&M showed up, and they took us all to look at the house they are currently renovating elsewhere in the EAV. So it was a fun mini-tour of homes. Then we all went our separate ways until mid-afternoon when we all met up at the UJoint for drinks and snacks to enjoy the beautiful weather on their patio. It was warm enough and sunny, but a pretty consistent chilly wind kept it just a little too cool for t-shirts. Dice and I went home, hung with the other half of the Handitards for a little while, then got pizza from Grant Central and went to bed early.

In health news, I’m having a very bad spate of insomnia the past few days. Thursday night in DC I had a very comfortable bed with four delightfully squishy pillows and I woke up every hour or 45 minutes or so all night until I gave up and started reading my book at 5:30 am. Saturday night before the 10K I did not fall asleep until after 4:00 am, and then I got up at 6:30 am. So I managed that whole day on less than two hours of sleep. Last night I was up from about 2:30-4:00 am reading in the living room. It’s not fun in any way at all, but I am almost done with my book now. In other health news, I stupidly forgot to pack running shorts when I went to DC, and the whole reason why I picked the hotel I did was because I knew it had a fitness center. I even negotiated for a late checkout on purpose so that I could work out before heading to the airport. Damnation! I even considered running in my jeans, but they are pretty tight and then I would have to wear my suit on the plane. So that means I took Thursday and Friday off from running. I did get out Saturday for a quick run but it wasn’t anything spectacular.

And now here we are at Monday again!  I’ll go running with my neighborhood group this evening, which should be excellent since it’s in the 70s again today (and should be all week, as a matter of fact).  Yay for spring!