Weekend Review 1/8/12

I'm still working on the whole new date thing. I just typed 1/8/11 in the title. I'll probably get it down sometime in March. So, how was your weekend? Mine was rather mundane, yet wonderful all the while. Since we had a night out on the town Friday, we chose to lay low for the rest of the weekend. We're trying to save money for a big trip at the end of the year and DC is not exactly cheap. Of course, we still had to go grocery shopping and do laundry so money was spend either way. But still- it wasn't on beer.

Saturday

Sam had to work Saturday morning, so I spent my alone time with a few obsessions of mine, one old and one new.

Coffee and Vampire Diaries. I am OBSESSED with this show. I just finished the first season on Netflix...in three days. I blame Gretchen. She put the idea in my head via Twitter a few weeks ago. I figured I'd quickly fall prey to my vampire obsession, but I bit the bullet and pressed play anyway. And now I'm hooked. I'm probably going to have to be locked in a room full of vervain to break the addiction. Hahaaaaaaaaa.

If you watch the show, you got that. And if you don't, quit it with the judging.

I watched 4 episodes and then got around to meet Sam in Alexandria for lunch at Chipotle and a trip to the all mighty Trader Joe's. 

I love Chipotes (purposeful misspelling - endearing nickname). It's fast, it's delicious, and it can be ordered to be healthy. Especially now that they serve brown rice. I got a chicken bowl with brown rice, fajita veggies, salsa, guacamole, and corn. And a glass of water in my free cup meant for water only, which is unlike the woman next to us who asked for three free water cups and then unabashedly filled them with soda. I don't know why shit like that bothers me so much, but it really does. But whatever. That soda's doing nothing good for her, anyway. Moving on.

After lunch, we headed to Trader Joe's, the whole reason I was willing to travel an hour on Metro to meet Sam in Alexandria. There is a TJ's in DC, but it's tiny and cramped and annoying. The Alexandria TJ's is big and awesome and I want to live there. 

We loaded up on a great many things (it'd been a while), including some delicious tofu and edimame nuggets. Normally I wouldn't buy heat and eat products, but they were handing out samples and these things are freaking delicious. I even bought the sweet and spicy mustard they were serving with them. That good. Plus, they're pretty big and you can eat 5 for 200 calories. Not bad, not bad. 

When we got home and found places for all of our goods, we sneakered up and set out on a hike around the hood with the hounds. Got to enjoy this freakishly warm January weather while it lasts.

I bought her that sweatshirt for Christmas. It might appear that I'm forcing my Abe Lincoln obsession onto others, but really...yeah, okay, maybe I am. 

I'm always impressed with the Basilica. It's huge. So huge, in fact, that it's the largest Catholic church in North America and among the 10 largest churches in the world. I just learned that via Google. The <3 the internet.

Check out the size of that wreath! It's almost as tall as the door. And those aren't average sized doors, either. 

After our walk I had to immediately give Henry a bath because he suffered an unfortunate urinary encounter on our walk. Meaning Spencer peed on him.

Looks like he's smiling, but I assure you, he was not happy. After the bath I forced myself to get a workout in since Friday's was so brief. I did Bob Harper's Yoga for the Warrior. Hurts so good.

And then I made dinner. Or rather, I placed some tofu nuggets on a tray and stuck them in the oven. I couldn't stop thinking about them. We had to have them. And they were gooooooood. 

After dinner I watched more Vampire Diaries then ate some popcorn while watching more Vampire Diaries and then went to bed when my computer battery died making it impossible for me to watch more Vampire Diaries.

Sunday

Sunday morning I woke up naturally at 8am on the dot. And then I watched more Vampire Diaries. What? My computer died right before an episode ended. And that episode ended with a cliff hanger (as they all do), so I had to watch another. Eventually I peeled myself out of bed for food. Since I only have time to do such things on the weekend, I decided to experiment with breakfast. I browsed several recipes online, combined the ingredients I had, and came up with a batch of pumpkin oat pancakes.

They're not pretty, but they were pretty good (recipe tomorrow). Just ask these guys.

Let's just say we had help cleaning the plates. After breakfast we set out to market since we hadn't been there in weeks and this time we brought along some company.

Spencer is the only one of our three dogs that's nice enough to strangers and other dogs to take in crowded public places. Save for his issue with wanting to pee on everything, he was a perfect market companion. He even behaved when we stopped at Le Pain Quotidien for some lunch.

I got my beloved tuna tartine, while Sam and Spencer had the black bean hummus tartine. Just kidding, he didn't get any. But he wanted it. Just look at that lustful stare. 

The rest of Sunday was spent doing laundry, cleaning up around the house, watching more Vampire Diaries (mhmm) and eating homemade broccoli and cheeze soup. It didn't taste cheesy, but it was delicious and I'm excited to eat it tomorrow for lunch.

We ate it with bread that we picked up at Le Pain and apple cider purchased at the farmer's market for $9 a gallon. So much for saving money! Sheesh. But I had to have it since it's likely the last gallon I'll buy before next fall. My addictions always get the best of me. 

Speaking of addictions, I've got to close this up. It's getting late and I need to get in one more episode of Vampire Diaries. The last episode ended with Catherine entering the Gilbert house and I have to know what happens next before I go to bed. Yeah, I got it bad. Night!