My Motivation... I'm scared.

Picture this.  Three years ago you were at your peak fitness level of your life.  You were lean and strong and most importantly you felt great about yourself.  Over the next three years you quit everything.  You eat what you want.  You know what has happened.  So you join a gym as a New Years resolution.  Yes, it's lame, everybody does it... but why not give it a try.  So you join a gym near your house in hopes that the shear vicinity will encourage you to be more active.   You download the Couch to 5K podcast and play it when you're on the treadmill.  4 weeks into it you get bored.  You take a break.  You start your own couch to whatever program when your ipod stops working.  You get bored.  You take a break... a long break.  You join an online fitness magazine program for encouragement.  You get motivated and start working out again.  You start a little weight lifting.  You run some but never very far and never for longer than 30 minutes but you feel like you could work yourself up to a longer run.  You take a 2 week break after getting one of those dang summer allergy/ colds...

Okay, let's bring it to semi-present time.  I'm wanting to get motivated to work out again but lack the.... well, motivation.  It's a Monday evening.  I've worked all day.  I'm tired.  I get home and grab the newly found game boy for a quick game of Tetris.  That's right.  Retro style.  I get a blackberry message from Beck the baker.  :)  I love getting bbm's from Beck.  They usually lighten my day.  And who doesn't love hearing from their awesome friends?  Her message simply says, "Hey-- do you want to run a half with me on Dec 5?"

I get butterflies in my tummy instantly and I respond, "Where? And I would LOVE to!"

WHAT THE HELL.  Did I just say I'd "love" to run 13 miles?  When on earth have I ever run that far?  I'll tell you where.  NOWHERE.  ummmm....

Fran, "Define 'half' please."

Beck,"Half marathon...13.1"

Fran, "Oh my...How do you train for that business?  Because I've sat on my ass for the last three weeks. Is that a good start?"

And with that we started planning our overtake of the Dallas White Rock Marathon.  What's that?  Did you ask what our goal is?  Oh, okay... it's to run the entire thing.  Truthfully, just thinking about it makes me go half numb, half serious butterflies in the tummy.

Fran, what were  you thinking????!  Well here are the thoughts that quickly went through my head when she asked me that simple question.

•  "Half marathon?"
• "Run with Beck?"
• "MOTIVATION!!!"
• "Awesome.  Okay!"

And that's it really.  I was looking for a lil' old motivation and it presented itself right in front of me.  

I'm scared.

"They are like shoes!"

It's Sunday afternoon.  A lazy summer day.  Me and my love are lounging in the living room, listening to the radio.  The dogs are... well... they don't call these the "dog days of summer" for nothing!  Shane says, "look, they're like shoes!"  I look over to where the dogs are.  They are laying like a pair of shoes in a shoe box.

I slowly get up out of the chair and tippy toe to the dining room to grab the G7.  I'm well aware that Belle is deathly afraid of cameras.  I'm not sure why, I just know that I have to be super sneaky if I want her in the pic.  So I grab the camera, hide it behind my back, tippy toe back to the living room and ... SNAP!

I get the shot.  And not a split second later, Belle jumps up and runs to her bed.
I've said it before and I'll say it again.  WEIRDO.  She's pretty though.  :)

Well hello, Mr. Sandwich!

Today I asked Shane what he was going to have for lunch.  He said he didn't know but that he wanted something light because it's so hot outside and he didn't want to crash mid-afternoon.  Made sense to me.  So I left the office and thought I'd head to our go-to sandwich shop to get two 3-cheese and avocado subs, one 6 inch and one 12 inch.  I thought it would be a nice lunch for such a hot day.  There was a problem though.  When I turned into the sandwich shop's parking lot it was completely packed.  I had left for lunch late and arrived after 12:20.  My mistake.  My bad.  I just rolled through the parking lot and exited immediately, heading to the house, thinking there HAD to be 'something' in the fridge.  Don't we still have some turkey meat and cheese?

Why yes, yes we did.  It was only enough meat for the boy, but I didn't mind.  I put together this scrumptious sandwich of sliced avocados, roma tomatoes, muenster cheese, a lil' mayo and honey oat bread.  Slice it in half (the only way to eat a sandwich), add a side of the sweetest watermelon....

I was kinda glad the sandwich shop was too packed for my business.

I'll Take Two Satisfaction Tacos Please

We live in a place that offers an amazing choice of authentic (really) mexican food restaurants.  Needless to say I've grown a healthy appetite for some Mexican food.  If I'm not careful I might find myself eating cheese and onion enchiladas and fish tacos every day of my LIFE.  I love them so much.  So.  Much.  When we're bored with cooking and I'm craving some fish tacos... okay this happens quite regularly... I find myself at El Rio Verde.

It may be a little hole in the wall, but by golly if it's not completely packed if you go at key eating times.  You know, the lunch and the dinner.  This is why I eat dinner at 5:30 at El Rio Verde.  To beat the crowd.

I've had the wet burrito that made them famous.  Do people still say "it's the bomb!"??  Well if they did, I might say that about the wet burrito.  Pretty amazing stuff.  And given the fact that it's bigger than my face, I'm not ashamed to say I've managed to put a whole one down all by myself.  It's THAT GOOD.  It wasn't soon after that occurrence that I realized it wasn't necessary to eat burritos that are larger than my forearm.

I've had friends who used to order fish tacos when I lived in Louisiana.  I thought they were crazy.  Why order a taco if it doesn't have meat?  Well I know why.  Because it can be the most amazing thing you've ever put in your mouth.  And they are not all the same.

These are El Rio Verde's fish tacos.  They are the simplest fish tacos I've come across that don't incorporate seasoning that catches my mouth on fire.  They are rather pleasant fish tacos.  Can food be pleasant?  They are $2.50 each.  I don't even look at the menu anymore.  They are simply breaded white fish, fried to perfection and covered with cabbage and guacamole sauce, served with green salsa.  That green salsa may be my favorite part.  I dip every single bite into that green salsa.  And the cabbage?  Well it adds just enough sweet to the guacamole sauce and salsa combo.

I took this picture when I was on my blogging hiatus.  But I did just eat this meal not 2 and a half hours ago.  I think they ran out of the guacamole sauce, but the  substituted real guac tasted just as good and the green salsa....  ahhhhhhhh.  Satisfaction.

no drive-thru daiquiri's in sight...

Oh, dear, dear blog... I know I have neglected you.  Since April.  I haven't been as serious with you as I promised I would.  Life got a hold of me.  Let me correct that, the job got a hold of me.  In April.  And I haven't been able to shake it.  It got a hold of me in April.  I was so busy.  It's my busiest time of the year.  I've taken lots of pictures with the intent on putting up a new post.  I have.  Then... (this is where you rethink ever knowing me because of my infinite "wisdom")

Then I sit at my 'puter and can't remember which buttons to push to open photoshop.  I forget how to upload pictures from my card.  I've received lessons on how to work the mac from the man, but when I come home from working on a pc, my brain.  It is dead.

So today, I come home after having the life sucked out of me.  I let the dogs outside.  I sit down on the nearest chair in the kitchen.  Lean my head against the wall.  This is what I see:

Apparently that picture had the same kind of day I did.

I'm In Love....

Le Creuset Cherry Dinnerware Collections - Le Creuset - Brands - Sur La Table

I must have these dishes. Must. I love them. That is all.

Pride comes in weird packages...

Today I went with my co-worker, Amy, to make some tough decisions... pick out table linens for an upcoming fundraising luncheon.  I love that kind of stuff, she hates it... a perfect match!

So Amy is driving us back to the office (not sure if you want to call it "driving" or terrorizing others on the road?  I was scared.) and I look up after covering my face in horror and I see this:

At first I couldn't really comprehend what it was.  A really bad paint job?  A weird glair from the sun?  

Nope.  Look closer.  It's an old Honda Civic transformed into a New Orleans Aints, woops I mean SAINTS shrine!  (Sorry about that slip, for so many years...)

Anyway:

Can you make it out yet?  Yep, that back window is devoted to the lovely Drew Brees.  In fact a portion of the side of the car is too... right next to the ginormous fleur de lis.  Did you know the Saints won the Super Bowl?  Well this guy does!  And he lives to let you know.  I'm thinking it is the result of some sort of bet?  How much you wanna bet that's what it is?  ;)

For a brief moment I thought I was in Louisiana again.  This is totally something a crazy cajun would do.    Or a crazy redneck... you pick.  It made me laugh.  It made me proud.  Is it weird that something so crazy can give you a strong sense of pride?  

Then I read this :http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/oil_reaches_louisiana_shores.html on my blackberry and almost cried. 

 What the hell, man?