Slightly More Exciting

Well today managed to be slightly more exciting.

I started the day with my usual run but managed to change up the route slightly. I came home and immediately did my NourishMoveLove workout. I hadn’t planned to do it, but it was just a ten minute one. It was deadly! I’ll be lucky to be able to lift my arms tomorrow!

I picked my friend Em up and we headed to a gluten free bakery I had heard about on Instagram. She’s a pretty awesome friend that she’s up for going to a bakery that has nothing else around it. It was awesome!!! I had seen the Gluten Free Epicurean had a gluten free, dairy free jelly donut and wanted to try it. I don’t even like donuts but my running buddy talks about them all the time and lately I’ve been craving one. I went a little crazy, but had to eat the raspberry ice cream sandwich immediately as it wouldn’t have made it the hour drive home. These are the two items I have eaten so far:

I had an appointment for a test this afternoon and got through it so my treat was the jelly filled donut. It was the best donut I’ve ever had!!

I spent some time knitting today on my Rock It Tee. This one seems to be taking forever! I needed to accomplish something so I made a dishcloth for my dad. He said he wanted a larger cloth than I had made before, so I got busy. I love that this one used up three of my cotton leftovers. I got the idea for the diagonal split from watching The Yarn Hoarder podcast. The cotton thread is very thin so I held a white, and cream together. One side has yellow with those two and the other half has green with it.

I got some rolling and yoga done today as well so I have another all star day:)

Well I’m going back to knitting on the tee.

Have fun!

AJ

Good Things

Why does there have to be balance in life, can’t it all just be awesome?

Running:

Well… I did it! I got up this morning ( though I didn’t want to), laced up my running shoes and walked over to the Coquitlam Crunch. I was giving myself a pep talk the whole way there- ” it doesn’t matter how far you get, it’s a starting point, you’re lucky you can run at all, just do your best,” etc. I gave myself no chance to chicken out and started as soon as I got to the gate. I ran the entire first section which is all uphill, ran to the stairs in the second section, did 437 stairs at a steady pace, ran to the end of the second section. On the third, fourth and fifth sections I ran parts and walked parts. It took me 25:24 minutes to get to the top. Yesterday when I walked the crunch it took me 31 minutes so I suppose I was better. There is a lot of room for improvement, but at least I’m now over the mental hurdle of the first attempt. I’m thinking that I will try to run it every Saturday morning. Now that I have a time, I can work on lowering it! Lol for being not into competitive sports, I’m sure competitive with myself!

I also got my inlet walk in and a workout. I know I need to work out daily as I noticed on my run up the crunch this morning that my legs didn’t feel very strong😞Definitely need to work on that!

Back to School:

I gave in and went to the teacher store downtown Vancouver today. Collins Educational has everything a person could possibly imagine! It cost me $60 to get out of there, and that didn’t include the paper I had to buy for the school! I keep telling myself that I won’t spend any more money on my classroom, and yet I do at the first opportunity. Collins is an interesting place because while the three women are very helpful, none of them seem to enjoy their job:(

Eating:

My mom came to the teacher store with me and on the way we stopped at The Gluten Free Epicurean. 

http://www.glutenfreeepicurean.ca

This is a totally gluten free cafe and bakery. It has a large selection of baked goods along with smoothie and frozen and packaged items you can take home.

My mom and I got the vegan cinnamon bun, a strawberry galette and a pot of English Breakfast tea.  We demolished everything. The galette had a crisp, flakey pastry that had sugar crystals on it. The filling was sweet without being too sweet. The cinnamon bun was moist and doughy.  My mom even liked both items and said they didn’t taste gluten free or dairy free! That is a big compliment coming from her! I noticed on the way out that they even have gluten free waffle cones!  I baked the frozen cinnamon buns I brought home ( it got too hot in my car for them) and they turned out fabulous too! This cafe is definitely worth a visit and I will be stopping by to try other goodies for sure!

I didn’t eat again until this evening when my parents and I went for dinner at the Brew Street Pub in Port Moody. I had been there before and had been very impressed, but unfortunately this visit was not as successful. You now seat yourself so my parents and I found a spot on the patio with a few other patrons. We waited more than fifteen minutes and then had to flag down a waitress. We were sure to order both our drinks and food at the same time. It still took another fifteen minutes for our drinks to come out. The food came quickly after that. I had the tuna tataki and it was okay, though the tuna was not very flavourful:(. The sangria was also not very flavourful and had canned peaches in it:( We had to ask to have our table wiped off as it was filthy dirty and when we looked around we noticed the patio as a whole had a lot of garbage on it and was mainly being used for storage it seemed. I hate to say it, but I don’t think I’ll be back.

Shopping:

Had a chance to go shopping with my mom today. It’s a nice treat to have a brutally honest opinion to go shopping with! I definitely know if something flatters me from the back as well the front with my mom around. I found a cute jean jacket to replace the one I shrunk out of, a blouse for work, and a couple of pairs of pyjamas:) All in all, a good shopping trip. I even convinced my mom to buy a new pair of shoes!

Knitting:

i am enjoying knitting this afghan pattern. It comes from a Leisure Arts book I bought years ago and is about the eighth afghan I have completed. This book has definitely paid for itself! I am getting a little concerned though as I’m only on my second pattern repeat and I am already on my third ball of wool😳

Well I suppose all these good things today had to be tempered by something not so good:( I thought that my parents were going to the Oliver Wine Festival and then coming home for a month or so before heading south for the winter, but they informed me today that when they leave for the wine festival they’ll be gone until Spring. This is great for them and I’m glad they’re enjoying their retirement, I just was expecting them to not be leaving before November 11th! I just need to wrap my head around this. I suppose it’s just because I don’t have my own family that I really notice their absence when they’re gone. It almost makes me want to go back to online dating so I’m not alone so much!

All of these great things happened to me today- vanquished a running fear, a craving satisfied, successful shopping, peaceful knitting and great company and allmy mind focuses on is the one element not to my liking that I can’t change! Grrrrr!

Well that’s enough complaining for one night.

Have fun!

AJ