I’m dealing with some internal issues this week, which is my only excuse for neglecting y’all up until now.  I don’t know, a combination of my uncle dying and my own feelings about eating out every night has been taking its toll on me.  On the one hand, I feel badly complaining because 1. I am alive; and 2. my biggest problem is that I get to go out to eat every night.  But on the other hand, I’m sincerely unhappy, which has to count for something.  We’re all works in progress, I guess.

I had a very nice weekend, though. Friday night Dice and I went to Brick Store where I had a tasty, although not very crispy (disappointingly) grilled corned beef sandwich.  Saturday I went for a good 5 mile run and then spent all morning nagging Dice to do yard work while he dragged his feet.  Then I went shopping at Target for some much needed fitness clothes (STANKY) and went to Solstice Cafe where I had a glass of wine and read my book for an hour.  Which was very pleasant.  Saturday night we went to Holy Taco with the Canadians.  I had the pork chimichanga, which was one of the best chimichangas I’ve ever had, stuffed with tender pork and cheese and then deep fried.  We shared churros and sopapillas for dessert, of which the sopapillas were better.  Sunday morning we got up early and headed to Hudson Grille for the Formula 1 race from Barcelona.  I had an omelet that was bordering on bad, but still mostly edible.  Dice had a grilled bagel and fruit, and he was disappointed, but he’s a foreigner who doesn’t understand how bagels are supposed to be so I take his opinion with a grain of salt.  On the way home we went to four (4) separate grocery stores! Started at Whole Foods for produce, then stopped at Publix for various other things, then stopped at Sevananda where we didn’t find the recycled napkins we were looking for, then stopped at ERD Kroger where we instead bought crappy bleached napkins.  Later that evening we went to M&K’s for dinner.  First we had a tour of the properties they’re working on (spectacular) and then we had a lovely dinner on their deck.

Monday morning Dice and I had the day off so we slept in.  Then I went on an epic, 5 hour, 9.2 mile urban hike with the female half of the Canadians.  The weather was PERFECT for a long walk, so we walked through Cabbagetown, over to Inman Park where we had a delightful lunch at Parish. I had the veggie muffaletta with cheese which was fantastic, I definitely recommend it.  You can get it pressed or unpressed; I had it unpressed and thought it was perfect. Then we walked over to L5P, then through Candler Park neighborhood and Candler Park itself, then through Kirkwood, then up Memorial over to Reynoldstown where we stopped at Park Grounds to let Jack frolic with the other dogs while we enjoyed some rehydration.  Then finally crossed back over 20 to Glenwood.  By the time we got home it was mid- to late afternoon and I was so tired I didn’t have even the energy to take a shower immediately. Dice and I spent the rest of the day resting and watching TV, didn’t even go out to eat for once!  It was such a nice interlude, and really helped me gear up for the coming week and weekend.

Yesterday was back to work and our regular routine.  After lifting weights I got stuck chatting with a friend at the gym and ran out of time for the treadmill, so after we went home I went on a really maginificent run around the neighborhood.  The weather was just fabulous, upper 70s, which is my ideal temperature for running.  Then Dice and I went to Midway for dinner and to unofficially play trivia.  Unofficially, because we didn’t show up until almost 9:00 pm and it was halfway over.  The questions they ask are consistently difficult and require discussion, educated guesses and luck.  This is the kind of trivia I like, it’s boring when you always either know or absolutely don’t know the answers.  I had the veggie samosas and tater tots.  The samosas were disappointing, frankly, although I’m not sure why I expected authentic samosas.  They were enormous and really heavily deep-fried.  Even too deep fried for me, which is saying something, so I just ate the centers and left the crust.  The tots were good, though, not as crispy as usual but crispy enough and salty.  If we’d been playing the trivia we would have done decently well.  Maybe someday we’ll make it there on time.  It starts at 8:00 which makes that entirely possible, versus the old trivia we used to go to that started at 7:30 and required us to skip the gym entirely.  We probably won’t make it next week but I’ll push for the week after!