Well, my prediction for the long holiday weekend came true.  Dice and I did very little other than relax, forget about everything and eat a lot of junk food.  Although I beat myself up a little because I also didn’t run or workout very much, it was a nice, relaxing weekend which I sorely needed.  Friday morning I went running in the morning and then went to Flying Biscuit with the Canadians and T&R.  I had the hummus and feta wrap, which sounds kind of boring but was actually phenomenal.  I was worried the hummus and feta would be too mushy together, but there were plenty of veggies and onions in there to crunch it up, and the flavors went really well together.  I was in heaven.  Plus the biscuit was heavenly, but then again I’m a whore for biscuits. When I was in high school I took a cooking class.  The teacher basically read out recipes to us and then let us cook them, so there wasn’t much in the way of learning, but the one thing I took away from that class was a great recipe for buttermilk biscuits.  On cool weekend mornings I’d get up and make a batch and eat them with tons of butter.  And then immediately go back to bed due to food coma.  Good times.

Anyway, M&K have gone off on a long vacation, so we’re helping to watch the wee doggies.  So the rest of the commune had a wee party at M&K’s house on Friday night. We ordered Chinese and ate it family style, shot some pool and watched all four dogs try to kill each other play together.  Some of us were getting up early for various reasons on Saturday so we cleared out soon after 9:00.  Old and boring!  Saturday morning I got up early intending to run but I went down to feed the wee doggies and got caught up in my book and ended up staying for over an hour.  And I didn’t really want to go, anyway.  I spent the rest of the day either reading or watching TV.  In the evening Dice and I took a DVD down to M&K’s and hung out with the doggies.  Sunday morning we had an extra early F1 race so we were out the door before 7:00 am.  It was the Monte Carlo race, which is the big race of the Formula 1 season.  There are usually big stars who go to that race but there weren’t so many this time, which was slightly disappointing.  Then we knocked out our weekly grocery shopping on the way home.  Sunday afternoon I went running, and then afterwards we went to the Brick Store for dinner.  We didn’t order anything new or different so I’ll spare you the redundant details.

Monday I spent almost the entire day over at M&K’s.  I had all four doggie shifts that day, so I spent most of the morning there.  Then I went again around noon, then when I walked back home Dice was all ready to go back to M&K’s to watch Slumdog Millionaire on their big TV. So I turned around and went back again.  Then home again after that, then back down again at 5 to feed to doggies dinner.  Then we went to the Glenwood for an early dinner.  We thought it would be crowded since it was a holiday, but it was almost empty.  We haven’t been there in a while so I really enjoyed the burger I had.  After we got home I went back down to put the doggies in their crates for the night.  So I would guess that I spent 75% of my day there instead of home.

And that’s about it.  Except for the fact that I didn’t run very much, it was a perfect weekend.  I’m committed to running every single day this week, no matter how far it is.  My runs have been horrible lately because I never push myself, which means that my ability goes down and I struggle running the shortest distances.  I can’t run 4 miles without stopping at least once anymore.  It’s frustrating and annoying. Thus: re-committing.

Speaking of routine, as I did at the end of yesterday’s post, it’s about to get a lot more routine-y around here.  What with all the eating out we did during the past month and then the sudden trip to Boston, our monthly budget is sadly depleted.  This means no eating out, shopping, or pretty much anything fun until June.  I have to say, I’m kind of pleased about this, since I’ve been bewailing my lack of discipline for weeks now.  I wish that I’d had the strength to stop without any outside impetus, but at this point I’ll take what I can get.  Hopefully the new regime will curb my taste for going out to eat every single night.  I’m also hoping to get into cooking a little but.  Just cooking something little every other evening would introduce the habit into my routine.  And I know from past experience that just changing one little thing can lead to changing another little thing, which in turn leads to bigger results.  When I first decided to start eating healthier four years ago, my first decision was to cut out pasta.  At the time I was eating a big bowl of tortellini with butter and salt every night.  I cut that one thing out and lost almost 10 pounds.  Once I got used to that, I started introducing more raw vegetables to my diet.  Just a salad with my dinner.  Which ultimately lead to me now eating 6-8 servings of fruits and vegetables every day.  So hopefully if I introduce minor cooking into my routine, it will stick.  Just a little something every other night or so.  I know how to cook, and I enjoy it sometimes, it’s just difficult when you don’t get home from work until 8:00 pm.

It’s almost Memorial Weekend. I have no plans, mostly because of the aforementioned dearth of funds. However, the one thing I could use more than anything else is a quiet and relaxing weekend at home. So Dice and I are going to rest, relax, forget about funerals and head colds, and probably eat a bunch of junk food. Sounds great, right? No, you’re not invited over.

I took a night off from the debauchery last night to attend my neighborhood association meeting.  While I don’t do a whole heckuva lot for my community other than 1. being an active member of the anti-graffiti team; and 2. generally being a law-abiding citizen, I do feel that I contribute just by attending the meetings and voting on the things that come up.  You’re only eligible to vote if you attend on a semi-regular basis, which is good considering the way in which some people would vote if all they had to do was show up once.  Last month there was quite an important project to vote on and fortunately the people who showed up just to skew the vote one way or another were ineligible.  At any rate, it’s a civic duty and a privilege of our community to be able to influence one’s neighborhood, and I take that seriously.  Thus, it’s not too much of a hardship to put other things on hold for two hours a month.

Plus I needed one night off from going out to eat.  Just ONE night, though.  When I got home from my meeting, however, I had to fend off Dice’s rock-solid argument of “C’MON!” when I rejected his proposal to go to the Glenwood.  But it was 9:30 and all I wanted to do was eat my sugar-free chocolate pudding cup, watch Without a Trace (yes, we still watch that) and go to bed with my book.  Which is exactly what I did.