ashleyd /

Greeting the Work Week

Welcome back from the Thanksgiving holidays! Hopefully you had a smooth transition into the work week today.

After a productive afternoon yesterday, I had this happy greeting as I left the apartment to greet the work week.

020 (640x478) While Bo worked yesterday I made some pretty amazing headway on my to do list by unpacking Christmas decorations, writing thank you notes, and folding laundry. 

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016 (640x478)017 (640x478)We ordered a simple sushi dinner in and fell asleep at 9pm!

This morning, I kicked off the week with a short 4 mile run on the treadmill which included a mile of pickups. My goal this week is to stick with my training plan even though I’ll be in Miami Tuesday through Friday night for business! After three straight days of running, my calves were screaming when I finished my run. I spent 10 minutes foam rolling and doing my hip stretches, as prescribed by my PT.

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Breakfast was simple and delicious, enjoyed from the comfort of home while I worked.  004 (640x478) (2) The combination of a small banana, bagel thin, and eggs kept me full until 1pm when I finally ate lunch in the office. After working from home this morning, I had to head uptown to the office to finish preparing for our Miami trip.

I’m still craving lots of fruits and vegetables after a few to many meat filled meals. Lunch did a great job answering that craving via an extra large salad complete with lettuce, tomato, feta, capers, green beans, onions, and Marzetti Simply Dressed dressing.

005 (640x478) (2) I capped off my day with an out of the ordinary second workout! My personal trainer, Lauren, was able to fit me into her Monday schedule which was perfect since I’m traveling Tuesday and Thursday, our normal days together. This week my workout plan/schedule is as follows:

Monday: Four mile run with pickups + strength training with personal trainer

Tuesday: rest day

Wednesday: four miles at goal pace

Thursday: cross train

Friday: cross train

Saturday: 6 mile run + strength training with personal trainer

Sunday: 3 mile recovery run

I may end up changing my schedule around a bit but I’m going to start with this and evaluate the schedule after I see the hotel’s location in Miami and the state of the hotel gym.

I hope you all have a great week and are recovering from the glory of a long weekend of lots of food, family, and laughter!

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Barbecue Three Ways

Yesterday my brother hosted my parents, Bo, and his sister for the big University of Georgia versus Georgia Tech football game. 011

My brother is still finding his way through owning his first home and has really done miracles with the 60s ranch home he bought in Savannah.

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I spent most of the time in the kitchen helping my brother with the food. He had quite the barbecue feast planned for us centered around the idea of barbecue three ways: baby back ribs, bratwurst, and a slow cooked Boston Butt! Bo and I rarely eat barbecue up in New York so it was a true treat to enjoy home cooked barbecue yesterday!

013 014Other than the kitchen and his comfortable living room sofas, the pool room was the next most important room yesterday! We spent a few hours playing pool as a group, enjoying the great space and some delicious beverages including our favorite Georgia beer, Sweetwater 420.

016 018My brother has a knack for finding amazing antiques. The mini bar he has in the pool room is an original piece from 1837! 

048The barbecue lunch and dinner were a mix of Thanksgiving leftovers, fresh sides, and mouth watering meat!

My brother put his new meat cleaver and cutting board to the test yesterday, during which time we both quickly learned that when chopping meat a heavy duty cutting board is a better fit. My favorite dish of the day were definitely the ribs, they were seasoned perfectly and the meat literally fell of the bone! Bo’s favorite was the barbecue butt, seasoned and slow cooked to a level of tenderness that was perfectly conducive to barbecue sandwiches when soaked in sweet Johnny Harris barbecue sauce.

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010  035After a late lunch and an easier than expected Georgia Dawg win, we headed out to the movie theatre for The Muppets Movie!

030 We all loved the movie even more than we expected! My parents were laughing the entire time while I was caught singing more than once! I highly recommend it for a fun evening out after a long day or a pick me up after a bad day. You can’t look at a Muppet and frown!

After the movie we enjoyed a few more rounds of pool and a fire in his huge fireplace, even though it was 60 degrees in Savannah!

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It is so nice to have a fun place to hang out in Savannah complete with a fire place, big screen tv, fire pit, and pool table. I can tell that we’ll be hanging out at my brother’s more and more each trip home!

Question: During the holidays. how does your family most enjoy spending time together? Board games? Pool? Movies?

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ashleyd /

Benefits of Absurdly Early Flights

I’m back from my unexpected long weekend hiatus! I didn’t plan to take a break from blogging while down in Savannah, but some how our family’s kept us going non-stop and then when I finally had time to post, we had internet issues or my computer was at the other house.

But, it’s 10am and I’m happy to report that we’re back in New York City!

We woke up at 4:00 in order to catch the 6am direct Savannah to New York City Delta flight which seemed like a crazy idea last night but was an amazing decision this morning.

We landed at LaGuardia right on time and were able to hop in a cab without any crazy lines!

This line was literally 4 people deep but will most likely be 400 people deep by noon and take an hour!

No crowds and short taxi lines are definitely a benefit of absurdly early flights on holiday weekends!

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The shorter than normal taxi line meant that we were home and on our way to Irving 71 for breakfast by 8:45.   

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The streets were empty as we walked the quarter mile to our favorite neighborhood coffee spot for a warm breakfast since our fridge and pantry are quite bare.

005Bo and I both ordered our breakfast to go as he had to go uptown to the office for a few hours and I wanted to get home and start doing the wash and catching up from our long weekend away.  008Their Greek yogurt, banana, and granola parfait with a small coffee was the perfect way to start the day!

010Now that I’ve downloaded Michael Buble’s new Christmas album, I’m going to spend the rest of the morning organizing, doing the wash, and decorating our home for Christmas before heading to Equinox for a much needed workout session later.

I’ll be back to catch you up on on all our Savannah adventures later but until then, have a wonderful Sunday!

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