I used to hate layovers...

but now I actually like them! I'm in Charlotte, NC relaxing before my flight to Tallahassee, FL. I ran this morning (3 miles, 23:20) and went to the office before leaving for my flight.

Random thought - It's funny how as you get older, the "golden rule" becomes more and more important, yet you hear about it less and less. What is so hard about that simple idea? Treat others as you would have done unto you? Is there anything really hard about that? Is there any real way to dispute it or its merit?

So I am going to get back on Thursday morning (11:00am), head to the office for a bit, and then head to RI for SKIING! I'm very excited!

Sabrina emailed me pics of Bora Bora - where we are going for our honeymoon - today, and it got me VERY excited to go on that vacation!!!

Gonna take care of a few facebook scrabble games....

Next topic - Giving up things for Lent.

A nice relaxing week......

is not in the stars for me this week. The good news is over the weekend, I finally finished the laundry room closet. When I moved in, this stupid closet door NEVER worked right. I finally took the old one off, and then the laundry room was "closet door"-less for the longest. Why is this that the smallest little projects get put off for so long, and then become monumental tasks? The last week has been full of the most annoying little projects - dead car battery replaced, aforementioned closet door, fixing appliances, windshield wipers, taxes being done, etc, but it DOES feel good to get all of these things out of the way.

On Friday I had a very interesting seminar all day in Delaware - and then at night, made ribs for the boys. I had this craving for ribs last week. So I bought them, and then made them on Friday. They turned out great!! Sabrina wanted me to blog about it - but I had been so busy with everything I didn't. Now that I know they turned out great, I will do the same recipe again and detail the process!

Sunday, I went to church. I wasn't going to go, but then I thought about my grandmother that morning for some reason, and decided to go. I had the gospel reading prepared, and it actually went really well! It was a long one - and I was very happy with how I did with the Armenian. Already, after just a few weeks, I am back into the swing of things as far as my reading - and well on my way to improving my vocab, and hopefully, eventually, I'll be able to pick up a newspaper and read/understand articles!

So after such a productive weekend, I was looking forward to a nice week of hard work in the office - and then leaving Thursday night for the ski trip. NO SUCH LUCK! I am leaving tomorrow for Tallahassee, FL, from which I will go to Dothan, AL for a deposition. But I am coming back on Thursday, and then leaving Thursday night. Meanwhile, writing about 5-10 different motions and somehow getting it all done.

On the exercise front, I was a bit lazy over the weekend after my 4 mile, 31:36 run on Thursday. But today I made myself go right after work (around 6:00 pm) and did a 4 miles 31:16 run! I am solidly under the 8:00 min/mile pace for 4 miles, but I still want to do it at least for two weeks or so before I increase to 5 miles. I will see how my body reacts to the fast 4 miles, and see if I can be consistent.

Off to Alabama!

Been a while!!!!!

Apologies - but I did not stop moving the last few days!

First, a workout update: Friday, ran 3 miles in 23:30, and today ran it in 23:20. Sat, Sun, Mon I did not get a chance to work out. I think I am going to start with 4 miles/run either tomorrow when I get back from Missouri (assuming it's a decent time) or Thursday. First goal is going to be 32:00 (8 mins/mile), which I don't think should be hard to do, given how I feel after the 3 mile runs.

Right now I am at the airport, awaiting a 1:45 flight to Missouri for a deposition. I'm going to Springfield, MO. Springfield's nickname is the "The Queen City of the Ozarks." It is also known as "The Cultural Center of the Ozarks, "The Gateway to the Ozarks," and "The Birthplace of Route 66," due to its connection with the designation of U.S. Route 66. In 2008, America's Promise Alliance ranked Springfield among its "100 Best Communities for Young People" for the third year in a row , which "includes cities and small towns located across the United States that are wonderful places for youth to live and grow up."

Enough of that. This weekend was great. Friday morning, Sabrina and I did our taxes together, and then I went and did some work in the office. I came home (it was so hard to concentrate while she was in the city!!) and then we worked out. Friday night, we went out for my cousin Julie's birthday. It was a good time - and finished off with a great trip to the diner. Nick, Jake, me, Amy, Gina, and Sabrina - and late night food. What could be better?

I woke up Saturday feeling NOT so hot (guess my hangover tolerance is not what it used to be). Sabrina and I went to a WONDERFUL restaurant - Le Croix. It's a restaurant in Rittenhouse Square in Center City. Great food, great atmosphere, and great people. Sabrina and I had a chance to walk around a little bit in the city, sit down and talk about our wedding. As Sabrina would say "A fun time was had by all."

But after lunch, I began to crash...the body began to fall apart, as if to say, "Who do you think you are, drinking, partying and dancing until 3:00 am, and then waking up at 9am!" So, back to the condo, for a nice 3 hour nap! Saturday night, we made reservations at Franco's Trattoria (I had made the reservations) for Valentine's Day. We went to eat at 9:oopm. We had a wonderful time, although the food was blah. Sabrina rated it a 4/10 - tough critic! But the food did come out really cold. Even though the people were nice - the waiter clearly had been instructed to say that EVERYTHING was made in house - even the limoncello, and it was all total bs. We had fun with each other - laughing and joking - but I wouldn't go back there again. I was disappointed mostly b/c the place was close, and I was looking forward to finding a restaurant close to us that we love. The search goes on....One funny (but a little sad for them) part of the night was the couple next to us at another table - who were sitting in what might have been the most uncomfortable silence I have ever witnessed. I felt this huge sense of relief when they left...weird, but funny.

Sunday, we were good church go-ers and did the church thing in the morning. We then came home, and did a bunch of stuff around the house until it was time to take Sabrina to her flight. We went to home depot before the airport, and designed the first closet....it was sad to let Sabrina go, but I'm keeping busy at the house!

Monday was ALL CONDO REPAIRS....I didn't even have a chance to work out. I painted the laundry room closet, and went to home depot to buy the hardware for the shelves. Ah the memories came flooding back of past home depot trips - but I learned one thing - PLANNING makes things so much easier. I managed to squeeze in a car wash as well. The first closet is done, with the next two closets already painted and waiting to be equipped with shelves, etc.

Today I raced down to the treadmill, stopped by the office, and now am off to Missouri....

And now, having blasted through the next four days, I have to apologize - I feel like the blog entry was a mere recitation of my last four days. I promise to try and change that!

Today's run...

was great. I haven't run for the last 3 days b/c I have been working so hard on the closets. Well today, I had to, b/c I was getting restless. I busted out 3 miles in 23:38, so I so far have kept my promise to myself to make the runs under 8:00 miles. I think I should be bumping up to 4 miles/run next week - with the first goal to be 32:00 (8 min/mile).

Then of course, I picked up Sabrina from the airport - tomorrow is tax day, which oddly enough, is one of my favorite times of year.

Off to get some sleep.......take it easy, breezy......

BUSY LITTLE BEE....

In the words of Commodus, I have been a busy little bee....I have really made a concerted effort to use my time wisely and tackle some of these numerous, big, yet totally realistic projects. I always preach to Sabrina that we can do anything as long as we break it up into manageable pieces. So that was kind of my own little speech to myself as I started to tackle some of these wish list things that I have been putting off for so long...

Pictures:
I'll start with the one thing I haven't started - scanning all of my pictures. I haven't started scanning all of the old pics. However, I have dug them out of the closet (which was fun and dusty), and I have the scanner that I am going to use (thanks, Dad). And while I may not have started scanning old pics, I have organized the pics that I did have in digital format and started "tagging" them - a feature of IPhoto 2009 which allows you to organize pics by people. It's amazing and the facial detection technology actually works (it's a little scary to be honest)!!!!

Music

One thing I have been extremely successful at has been importing all of my old CD's into Itunes - I have converted almost 200 CD's into mp3's in the last two days! I should be half done all of my old CD's by next week - which is great. That means I can take my old CD's and put them very far in the back of my closet and only have them in dire emergencies. Now of course, all of this new organization and archiving means one thing - I immediately need to get a new external hard drive for backing up - any suggestions on good ones? I'm thinking of just going to newegg.com because I have always had good success there with getting good products at a low price...

Closets

The closet project has been moving along. It's been messy - and I've been trying to do it at a good clip and done pretty well! One closet is completely done (meaning, gutted, spackled, and painted. Two haven't been touched, and two will be completely done by the end of tonight. I think having three closets ready to be redesigned is a pretty good feat. It's just labor - not a whole lot of finesse involved in this one. Scraping, banging with hammer, spackling, sanding, washing the dust out of my eyes - that sort of thing. I am using old white paint, which is good. It's amazing how inefficient closets are - but Sabrina seems to be having fun imagining what we can do with them after they are renovated. It's a project I had to get started at some point. So that's moving along quite nicely.

Food: Just the usual - trying to keep the refrigerator stocked. I'm doing pretty well. I have a few items I need to pick up for Sabrina for Friday - but this week has been a pizza and salad week so far, with some sandwiches in there. I'm not sure what I am going to have for dinner tonight - but I can pretty much guarantee that it will NOT contain any pizza or pasta. I'm over it for right now. Perhaps a steak and mashed potatos. I have to go for a run and then I'll decide.t

Language lessons: This has actually been a great source of fun for me! I figured out how to activate the Armenian font on my computer, so I have used that to type out Gospel readings and translate them into English. My Armenian typing has improved already a lot - and of course, I hope to expand my vocabulary. Last week, I read the Gospel in church, and it was a LONG one. This week's is a little shorter, and I am probably going to be the one doing it.

So things are going pretty well....I feel like I am in control of things (the OCD side of me is definitely coming out a bit) and organized. Friday is tax day with Sabrina and I look forward to spending some quality time!!

Back to work!

What a weekend....my legs are tired! 23:14 yesterday and 23:44 today. Yesterday had a family event at my dad's and today had the church parish assembly. Then went to dad's, helped with his new mac, and now in bed!!

Bed bed bed bed.....(watching Big Love on the way to dreamland)

Cooking - OLD SCHOOL!!

So, I knew that I wanted something healthy to pick at over the weekend while I work in the house, and also to take for lunch next week...and for some reason, lentils came to mind. So I thought of something my grandmother used to make - and Sabrina had JUST made this on her blog...

http://rhodeygirltests.com/2008/10/14/bsi-entry-umjaddarah-or-mujadarah/

So I stole her recipe! I listened to ever word (YES, I cooked the onions enough), and now my place smells like the old country - sauteed onions and cumin in the air - and I LOVE it. Now just letting everything boil up, finish cooking, and then I'm going to put it away and eat it the rest of the week. I LOVE old school food and cooking. Sure, pizza and all that stuff is fun to make, but the old school foods are the stuff that life is made of!!

I know it's cheesy....but TGIF.

So the week is FINALLY over - although I will admit, in some ways it went by pretty fast. Just today went really slowly. But I did the important things I needed to do at work, and got through the day.

Then I came home and resisted ALL temptation to have something to eat! I went RIGHT to the gym and had an awesome run. 3 miles - 23:04. My best time in quite a while. I think I am going to spend at least the weekend consistently running under 24:00 for 3 miles. This run actually was not that hard, even though it was really fast. It's really amazing how you can push yourself, and make a great time, and realize that you could have done that all along. At some point soon, I am going to start making my "daily" runs 4 miles. Any advice on when would be a good time to go to 4 miles? It's not that the distance is a big deal - b/c anything up to 10 miles is fine with me. But I'm trying to maintain the under 8 minute/mile speed - and I want to keep that as I go to the higher distances.

I came back from the gym and had a great dinner. Whole wheat ravioli (purchased by Sabrina), with some crushed tomatoes (I DETEST store bought sauce, so I usually just use plain crushed tomatoes, and if I feel like it, throw in some spices or some extras. Not today - just a little olive oil and garlic powder. I topped the ravioli, threw on some mozzarella, heated it up, and ATE!

Now, I am watching the news, and embarking on a project I have put off for a long time - CLOSETS. I have 5 closets in my place (my place is 2BR, 2Bath). All of these closets are designed as inefficiently as possible. I'm pretty good at this level of carpentry, and can definitely hold my own - but I'm just not sure what Sabrina is envisioning. Soooo, my plan is to tear down 4/5 closets (the 5th one is far away and in the second bedroom, and I figure I can do that one another time). This week/weekend's goal is to remove everything from the closets (items, shelves, hardware, etc.), strip down the walls, smooth them down, and paint them plain white. Then, when Sabrina arrives on Thursday, we can design them. We're both thinking simple shelving, and hanging hardware of course. But nothing pre-fab or terribly expensive. Basic, good old clean closets. I'm thinking Lowes/Home Depot. Any recommendations?

Tomorrow night I have some family stuff going on (I had planned to go to DC to visit the boys, but that's going to have to happen another weekend) - but in the morning, I am going to head to the car show with the boys. Definitely looking forward to that....off to now rip apart the closets!

Tonight's dinner....

So my legs were a little sore today and I am exhausted for some reason, so I decided to take a break from working out and go tomorrow morning to the gym....And tonight, I decided to treat myself to some....

Pizza (with some green peppers)!! It's been a while since I made pizza dough, so I figured why not! It literally takes me ten minutes to make a fresh dough (then letting it rise for an hour), and the recipe is so easy. Before I even make the dough, I preheat the oven to 550 degrees F, and let it stay like that to let it get as hot as possible...

For the dough, it takes one packet of yeast dissolved in 1.5 cups of lukewarm water, 3.5 cups flour (approximate), two teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon sugar (I put a TINY bit more today) and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. This dough felt GREAT - very light. Better than any of them have felt in a while. It's really important to dissolve the yeast in warm water, but not too hot (it'll kill the yeast - thanks Aunt Maria!)...


So then I grilled up some diced green peppers...

...then cover it with cheese and some fresh basil, and that's it! This should take care of lunch tomorrow too! I love fresh mozzarella so much more than shredded, so I chopped up some of the small mozzarella balls that Sabrina had bought and I am going to top the pizza with that...After about 15 minutes in the oven - dinner was served! It was very good - and not to mention very healthy!!

So now off to take care of a bunch of things before my 9:30 phone date with Sabrina!

Weird...

So as I said, I am trying to spend some time on foreign languages...and yesterday, I dug up my Gospel, and three of my Armenian dictionaries/language books...I searched for this week's gospel reading on the calendar, and when I found it, went to the gospel to open it up...and the bookmark ribbon of the gospel was ALREADY at the VERY PAGE I was looking for.

Success...

I actually woke up early this morning and got to work on time! The best way to get through these funks where I can't wake up is just to suck it up and force myself out of bed. So that's what I did!! I got up, put on the room heater to warm up my place to a normal temperature, and made myself a bagel egg white sandwich. Then got to work around 8:30, which I know isn't early, but is better than the 9-10am arrivals that have characterized 2009 so far!

So I have started my "Armenian lessons" with myself. My priest growing up told me to always use the Gospels as a tool to learn Armenian...for a few reasons...1) It's "clean" Armenian and grammatically correct 2) You have a ready transation and 3) you're learning the stories of the Bible and are guaranteed something new every week. So I started last night - and I figured out how to enable the Armenian font on my Mac - which is SO awesome. So here's how I am doing it (typing it out in Armenian, and doing the English translation underneath). It's not easy, but it's going to be lots of fun and I am sure get easier and easier as I consistently do it.

Ցաջորդ օրը, ժողովուրդը որ ծովուն այն կողմը մնացած էր,
The next day the people that on the sea that side were standing
տեսաւ որ այնտեղ ուրիշ նաւակ չկայ, բացի այն մէկէն, որուն մէջ
saw that there were no other boats except for one that inside
մտած էին Ցիսուսի աշակերտները, եւ որ Յիսուս իր ....
had entered Jesus’ disciples and that Jesus....

Okay back to work so I don't have to stay here late!

Great run!

23:26 - 3 miles. Felt very good - now going to relax and go to bed!

Dinner!

Okay, so I decided that I had to make a good dinner tonight for some reason, but didn't know what to make. I have a bunch of little things that I needed to use, and I already did the meatball thing to death a few weeks ago....so I stole an idea from Sabrina and did eggplant roll ups...

I sliced up an eggplant really thin, salted it, and let it sweat. Then I baked it while I started the stuffing (375 degrees). The stuffing: basil, artichokes, mozzarella, and pepperoncini chopped...of course, adding some oregano/salt/garlic powder...I also chopped up some ground chicken very fine and mixed it all together...



And finally, took out the eggplant and did the "rolling" and "stuffing"...


And finally, I topped with crushed tomatoes, cheese, and threw it in the oven to bake!! Let's hope it's good!
FINAL PRODUCT:

And it's actually pretty good!

There's something about 2009....

that I really like....I don't know what it is, but this year I feel like I have a new energy injected into me - some kind of motivating force that is bringing me back to some of my old (and good) habits. I guess you could call it a mood of self improvement - but I don't feel like at any point I became a bad person. I guess that the whole law school, young associate experience kills your inner spirit in a way, or does severe damage to it, where you forget that part of yourself that had creative energy....lucky for me, that part of me never really died - but just got ignored for a little bit ;)

So, I decided to put some time aside every day for some things that are important to me. I'm a big believer in doing things a little bit at a time, and letting that time add up...Exercising is a perfect example - doing a little bit each day, and maintaining that adds up to great strides in fitness. Now, I am turning to other things - languages. At one point, I was VERY strong in Armenian (still strong), Russian and French. My Russian and French have fallen off severely, but I feel like I have enough of a base where I can get them back rather easily. So I think I am going to spend about 30 mins each day on ONE language - whether that be Russian, Armenian, or French. 30 mins each day should be doable (if I am efficient).

I REALLY need to start getting up earlier. The last month has been TERRIBLE. I have been waking up after 8 and getting to work between 9 and 10. As good as I have been in working out, and getting stuff done, I really can be doing SO much more each day if I get up earlier. I should also be going to bed earlier to make that better. I mean, how impt is late night tv? (Although, last night, watching Dave Letterman blast Rod Blagojevich was pretty entertaining - at one point reaching the level of just sad.

Anyone else go through phases where you just CANNOT wake up early? How to combat it? Eating differently? Excercise?

BED!!

Had a great run today (3 miles, 23:45), but need to go to bed......it's SNOWING so who knows what I am gonna wake up to!

Exhausted but inspired!!

Well, it was predictably a long and tiring weekend. But it was more inspiring than I even expected. I arrived early enough on Friday to take care of a few errands in Rhode Island, and then picked up the Archbishop from the airport and bring him to the hotel. We went to Sabrina's father's art gallery and then out to dinner. What an experience - hilarious. Great stories, lots in common, and even a few unexpected guests (chief of staff for a US Senator ended up walking in and sat down with us for a few drinks!)

Saturday, Sabrina prepared lunch for us - and as usual, it was delicious. We had a great time and she even took the opportunity to show off some of her newly learned Armenian language skillz!! Then we had our meeting. I was a little unsure of how the meeting would go - we were asking the leaders of the parish to meet with us so we could introduce them to the Diocesan Legate and his activities. It's always a little tough to ask people with very busy lives/careers/families to take time out of their personal schedules to come meet with you at church on Saturday. I try to be very considerate of that and make sure that we have a concrete plan of what we are going to cover and talk about so that they don't leave there feeling like they wasted their time. Now this is only the second visit we have done, and both times, I feel like the people who attended left feeling informed, and had a firm grasp of what we were trying to do - encourage and help them to become part of their greater community. To make the Armenian people and church a living breathing part of the rest of society. It's easy to sit around and talk to each other about issues, but it's more important, as a people and as a church, to share with others...I think the people left with a purpose - and that's generally a huge first step in accomplishing things.

Saturday night we had dinner, went to bed, and had church the next morning....Sabrina joined me in church, which was nice, and then went and did her own thing while we went to lunch...after church we had lunch and then I was expecting to leave. But after Sabrina had been so understanding of my hectic schedule all weekend, I couldn't just leave! So we hung out at her place, and I saw the beginning of the Super Bowl. But I had to get home Sunday b/c my car was being inspected today so I left....

One great thing about driving on Super Bowl Sunday (as long you are sober, since DWI Crackdowns are EVERYWHERE) is that there is NO traffic. I made it to my Dad's house (where I stayed last night) in under 4 hours. UNHEARD OF and my best time ever! Averaged about 70 miles/hour. Big accomplishment! haha

Anyway, today was definitely a tiring day at work. But the car passed inspection and had the oil changed (always a good feeling since last time I had it inspected it required $1500 worth of work). Now gonna pick up the car, get my stuff and come back to the big city!

And of course, run!! (Which I did not do Saturday or Sunday)