26.2

I made it! The Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon was Sunday, and aside from a few aches and pains and still being thirsty to this moment, I'm feeling great. 

Yes, there was beer at the finish.

Recap to follow soon!

Marathon chili + Body movin'

The Lakefront Marathon was today, and the weather was awesome. Congrats to all of the runners.

Last night, Ben and Beki's wedding was great!

It was wonderful to be a guest at their wedding reception, which was located inside a historic park building in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood. Beki was stunning in her lace wedding gown, and Ben looked sharp in his tux. It was really fun to dance with them and to celebrate the beginning of their married life.The decorations and place settings were elegant, and it was great to catch up with some of Zak's friends from his MIAD days.

I was having such a good time that I didn't get too many photos. Let me tell you though... we were all dancing like nobody was watching. The dance floor was burning up!

After the reception ended, we headed to a night club near our home and continued to dance into the wee hours. I woke up feeling very stiff, and my feet are achey from wearing 5 inch stilettos all night... oops. Worth it though!

Do you like to dance at weddings?

I was curious about just how much burning happened on the dance floor, so I did a quick number crunch on HealthStatus.com.

There were, um, many styles of dancing that were "interpreted" last night. Including the electric slide, cha cha slide, attempts at swing dancing, jitterbugging... um, ballet jumps, African, moonwalking, you name it. Can I say it again - I love dancing? Based on the HealthStatus categories, I estimate we did about 90 minutes of modern, 30 minutes of ballroom slow, and 45 of ballroom fast.

Drumroll please... the calculator estimates that I burned...

... 993 calories! Considering that I was indulging in a few glasses of wine, I am not sure what my net burn would be, but that's a substantial workout :-)

A quick recap of the eats before the wedding... oats with 1/2 chopped apple, walnuts and brown sugar.

This was so good that even Rufus wanted some. Go and make your own, cat!!

The other 1/2 of the apple with Port Wine spread and a few whole grain crackers.

This afternoon after the Marathon and being outdoors for 3+ hours, I was ready for a warm and healthy dish: chili. I experimented with using cubed sweet potato, it actually tasted pretty good!

This included chili beans, garbanzo beans, onion and tomato paste in addition to the cubed sweet potato.

On the side, I made cornbread (off the recipe on the canister). Turned out pretty bland. Next time I will try jazzing it up with fresh jalapeno pieces.

Any favorite cornbread recipes out there? Recommendations?

ROCKtober begins

It's officially October... and here in Milwaukee, the weather is acting like it.

That's one sad-looking forecast.

Despite the doom and gloom, October is one of my favorite months of the year! It gets especially crazy at work as we have more shows during this month than any other of the year.

We call it... ROCKtober!!!

(if I could embed a song to play once your eyeballs read the above... it'd probably be something by Metallica)

Last night at the Pabst Theater, we had Margaret Cho. I can't think of a single better way to spend an evening than to laugh your tuccus off at one of her shows. She did stand up, she sang, she did her impression of her Mom, and she rocked. GO SEE HER. Now. Serious!

Between tonight through Monday, we have oh - I don't know? - ten more shows. Great Big Sea, Kings Go Forth, Stephen Lynch, The Second City, David Cross, Jim Jeffries, Marc Cohn, Hope Sandoval, Gaslight Anthem, and then Colbie Caillat with Howie Day.

Are you a fan of any of these artists?

I love ROCKtober, but this month has always been especially challenging in the healthful eating and exercising, and getting enough sleep department. For example, I've eaten lunch at Subway for the past two days. All I can say is, at least I am eating lots of spinach that way. And at least it's a few blocks away so I've gotten some type of physical activity.

Despite all of the shows this weekend, things should be easy. For Zak and myself the focus will be on a very special couple - Ben and Beki. They are getting married and it will be awesome. Wedding weekend kicks off tomorrow with the rehearsal dinner. Not sure what they will be serving, but I'll be sure to photo-document it!

Back to this fall stuff and some food bloggin'. When the outdoors gets chilly, and the Laura gets busy, I like to go the semi-homemade route. Perfect example which was my Tuesday night meal = Progresso Lentil soup with homemade dumplings.

I actually like this soup a lot. It's not too bland, I can recognize most of the ingredients and it's often on sale.

Now, dumplings may seem challenging, but are super easy to make and relatively fast, granted you're not all impatient and hangry. I like to go even more semi-homemade and use Bisquick... you just follow the instructions on the box, wait until the soup is heated and then plop the 'plings right in there.

10 minutes uncovered, then 10 minutes covered, and you're golden.

Delicioso.

When Annie and I were wee lasses, our Mama used to make a heavely beef stew with dumplings. Now that we're both vegetarian, it's nice to know that they taste just as good without the little meat particles that would stick on them.

Also this weekend is the Lakefront Marathon - my pride and joy. This is my second year with volunteering in the marketing / PR area and I know this race will be our best yet! If you're in Milwaukee, please join me on Sunday at the Bradford Beach House, aka Mile 24 Club. I'll have free coffee, donuts and cowbells starting at 10:30AM!

That's about it for me - cheers!

Any big plans for the weekend?

Check out Heather's giveaway at Health, Happiness and Hope - you have until 7PM CDT tomorrow (Friday) to enter. Gooooo go go!

Also, check out Lindsey's giveaway at Sound Eats.

Bright and Sunny

Had a great evening at work last night - Pete Yorn was fantastic! I highly recommend that you check him out if he's around your town :-) He's got an album recorded with Scarlett Johannson that's coming out in September.

I just want to say THANK YOU!!! to all of the new people who checked out my blog last night! This blog received over 60 hits and that makes me very happy. I am so glad you stopped by and am glad to be joining this wonderful, supportive community of bloggers.

This morning I awoke early for an 8AM meeting. The tummy is feeling much better today! 

My meeting was with Leslie from the Lakefront Marathon. She suggested that we meet at Alterra Coffee on Milwaukee's Lakefront - what a great idea! It is a gorgeous, sunny morning and we met outside on the patio. Alterra Coffee Roasters is a great Milwaukee-based company, boasting fair-trade very strong coffee. I just love 'em.

After our meeting, I picked up an iced SPORTea and a reduced-fat raspberry scone. I am now enjoying these at my desk.

SPORTea is frickin' awesome. It tastes citrusy and sligtly tangy, with a smooth mellow "tea" like undertone. I prefer it iced as its very refreshing on a summer day like today. Here are some of the benefits of SPORTea from the product's website. Maybe some of you runners out there might like to try it as a mid-run or post-run recovery drink?

SPORTea® is a delicious, high performance beverage formulated for active people desiring a nutritious alternative to coffee, soda, alcohol, and sugary "athletic" drinks. SPORTea® is good news for dieters and health seekers as well.  When SPORTea® was first created by a well known Colorado herbist, he developed this unique beverage with 4 goals in mind: 1. It needed to fit their active, busy lifestyle by being easy to make and consume.

2. It needed to provided them with not only a good taste, but also a bit of a lift, a feeling ofsustained energy, whenever they need one.... not that typical energy burst/bust feeling! 3. It needed to offer a real honest-to-goodness healthy alternative to all the sugary, caffeine loaded, artificially sweetened, and carbonated beverage choices in the marketplace. 4. It needed to provide key everyday health and nutritional benefits as well. What makes SPORTea® so unique, is also as much about what it doesn't contain as it is about what it does contain. The formulators wanted people to have a beverage that was good for a person to drink all day long, much like water, and therefore it was important to them that SPORTea® have no negative attributes.Therefore SPORTea® does not give you:  1. The "surge-sink' let down syndrome so often associated with drinking regular caffeinated and sugary beverages. SPORTea® is a decaff equivalent and has NO sugar! It energizes via overall body performance efficiency improvement and not a riveting injection into the central nervous system. 2. The extra calories associated with juices, soda, or sugary sport drinks. SPORTea® has "0" calories! 3. The potentially negative aspects of consuming diet drinks with artificial sweeteners (see studies). SPORTea® contains nothing Artificial and is 100% natural! 4. The dry unsavory after-taste associated with so many different types of beverages (other than water). that really do not quench your thirst. SPORTea® has a clean and refreshing flavor with no after-taste and truly does quench your thirst! There you have it. I am off to work... I hope to post a little later, after lunch!  Have a great day :-)