BUT…I think I have a good reason (see pictures below). I’ve been in Cincinnati all weekend meeting and falling in love with my niece, Caitlin!

Lovin’ this length of my hair. What do you think? I wasn’t loving it when I first cut it (8 inches donated! Wootwoot) but I think it us at a nice length now. LOL. OK enough about that. I’m having a yummy snacky. Do you like these cliff zbars? I do!

Help!  I might eat my arm!  It seems as if my run from yesterday is catching up to me, as I simply CANNOT stop snacking!  I am sure my new find of multi-grain Pringles is not helping my cause, nor is the enormo spread of goodies in the teacher’s room for conferences!  Here are some of the snacks I have indulged in…

YUMYUM!  (Source- Google Images…camera ate picture!)

I seriously pounded about a half a can of these babies...and yes, they are DAMN GOOD!

And finally for a healthy snacky…

(Source- Google Images)

Now that I have eaten my weight in junk, do tell…what is YOUR favorite snack attack?!?!?

Love that title, no!??!  It describes the past day of my life as well as my new cereal that I tried today…YUM!

Kashi Honey Sunshine!

So yesterday, look what made an appearance…My monsterous sunroof!  the Volvo XC60 has a HUGE rocking sunroof!  You better believe I opened that baby up yesterday!

"It's a beautiful day...don't let it slip away!"

It was PERFECT weather for a trot by the river!  I pulled my car over on Kelly Drive on the way home from work and set a personal goal.  I said to myself, “Self, if you run a sub-hour 6 miler, you need to sign up for Broad Street.”  Well, SELF did it! I came in at 55:05.  My splits were (somewhat) as follows…

Mile 1- 8:50

Mile 2- 9:03

MIle 3- 9:20

Mile 4- 9:19

Mile 5- 9:03

Mile 6- 10:10

OY!  ‘Twas a great run but my “seat area” (glutes, hip flexors, etc.)was really hurting from my Yoga class the previous day and started acting up on that last mile, forcing me to stop and walk for a MOMENT 🙂  SO….what a kicker- when I went to officially commit to the Broad Street Run, I saw that as of yesterday registration was closed!  All 30,000 spots were taken!  BUMMER!  I will see what I can do about this situation.  Anyway, I was proud… that sub-hour 6 miler was not for nothing!  After, I headed home to hose off shower because I was headed out to dinner with Eamon to celebrate his birthday!  We went to Eulogy Belgian Tavern in Old City, Philadelphia.

This place is definitely noteworthy for its ridonk beer selection that is both extensive and impressive!  I had a feeling this place would be good, given the fact that Eamon himself is Begian and he picked this place!   I got a YUMMY Cherry Lambic!  I have tried Peach before but the alchohol content was higher in the cherry and I was ready for a fun night so I gave it a spin!  IT was delish!

While we waited for our food (and company- Eamon’s Dad and friends ended up joining us! wootwoot!), I gave Eamon his birthday present…SLICK Tiffany Cuff Links with his initials on them!  I think he LOVED them!  Who doesn’t ❤ Tiffany?!?!?

Anyway, I ordered the burger by reccommendation and it was sooo good but soooo big!  I was only able to eat about a quarter of that baby (phone ate the pic) but luckily I had some lovely manly men to help me out!

So, I would DEFINITELY return to Eulogy for some more brewskies at a later date. It was a great time!  And…HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EAMON!

hmmm...I seem to have a lot of "Eamon drinking beer" pics! LOL

PS: Ladies-he is SINGLE!!!!

So this week has been an apparent learning process in the Downes household as to what items can and cannot be placed inthe microwave.  Exhibit A:  STYROFOAM

A good close-up of the damage 😉

Oh, Silly Husband…even I knew Styrofoam could not go in the microwave!  (Although last night I almost blew up the microwave by leaving the plastic top on the rice I was making, subsequently causing a large POPPING explosion…somehow missed a picture of it!)

Anyway, I forgot to post this picture of me picking up my race packet (for this past Sunday’s 5K) at CitySports on Walnut Street Saturday afternoon…

FUN!

And now, for today’s dose of Oscar cuteness…

The 5k can be described in one word…AWESOME!  I loved it!  I such a good time racing for Colon Cancer and I truly did “push for the tush”… (the special phrase I made up for my shirt- I plan to make a new one with a silly cliche for each race I run- love it!)

Front of shirt (says "Push for)The back (says "the tush)

The ambiance, energy and scenery were amazing!

The race started right at the Art museum (just to the left actually at the Spring Garden bridge)The crowds, the excitement!

So, I have to admit that I was really nervous pre-race.  I waited in the porta-potty line and chatted up some nice girls who tried to calm my nerves.  It was so nice to have Husband, Oscar and my Mom there! Here we are pre-race…

So once the race began, I TURNED.IT.ON.  Unfortunately what would NOT turn on was my Garmin!  I was totally out of batteries and therefore (maybe not in a bad wawy though), I completely out-paced myself!  Totall PR!  Wootwoot!  Once I crossed the halfway point (half of 5 k is 1.6 miles) my time was only 12:00!    I have to admit I did gas out at the end a bit, but I finished strong with an offical time of 26:02.  I am very proud!  Look from lin-mark.com…

177   119 Jessica Downes           PHILADELPH PA                           F  29   26:02  8:24   26:09  25/190  F20-29   55/532

Crossing the finish line!From the back thanks, Husband!

I really left it all out on the road!  I know I may not have had the fastest time or whatever, but I AM PROUD!  My first race=success! 

Now for more fun…We all walked up to the main area with the tents and grabbed some loot…actually, Husband did the loot grabbing because shortly after discovering this wonderfulness, I saw LP from Pampered With Paige!  I knew Lisa would be running this 5K and I even made her a cool shirt but I didn’t really think I’d run into her-there were a lot of people.  Anyway, there she was, a girl by by heart…at the Luna bar table!  YUM!  She was just as cute and sweet as I thought she would be!  And she kicked butt running- third place!  Wootwoot!  You go girl!

LOL!

Look at all the LOOT Husband stole got me!

YUMYUM!

All and all it was a GREAT time!  I’m so glad I ran this and that it was my first race!  I look forward to more in the future!

PS:  Isn’t this a funny picture?  Husband thought so!

So first off thank you SO much for all of your well-wishes for Oscar!  He is actually doing much better.  Turns out he threw his back out…yeah-just like humans!  I did not know dogs could throw their back out!  Anyway thank you agian for the support-you all are so sweet.  With some more anti-inflamatories and rest, he will be fine!

Moving on to other doggie news, we had a birthday party on Friday night for Luxy, Stephie’s dog.  She was turning one, so there was a lil’ get together with food and yummies!  We had a great time!  I made sugar cookies with dog biscuits as well as a cake for the event!  There were other yumyums that were NOT caught on camera becuase I was too busy eating them socializing.  🙂

Gotta love Funfetti!

Anyway, it was a great time!  Thanks again for all of your lovely comments!

My poor baby has me SOOO worried!  Yesterday when I went to dinner for my sister’s birthday I left him alone in the house for a few hours (totally normal).  When I got back he was downstairs (totally abnormal) and not on his chair in the window!  I immediately knew something was wrong.  When I went down to greet him he was screaming in pain.  It was terrible. I couldn’t even figure out where it was coming from. My heart was beating a mile a minute.  It was so scary.  He finally calmed down and allowed me to “examine him.”  It seems he badly injured his back left leg/hip.  He has an issue with floating knee caps but it never gets this bad.  I am really worried.  We are taking him to the animal hospital later today.  Wish us luck. I’m nervous.  Poor Oskie.

I hope I see that dopey smile again soon...

Last night we went to a delish BYO Thai restaurant in Manayunk called Chabaa.  We celebrated sissy Sara’s birthday.  The meal, ambiance and decor were all wonderful!  I was even dressed for the occassion in my St. Patty’s Day green!

ooopsie green dress covered by black jacket- it was chilly! You get the point!

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical as I do not usually go for Thai food, but when I walked in and saw the impressive “award wall” I decided to keep and open mind!

I started my meal with a Chabaa house salad that had sooo many different veggies and even some tofu with a yummy thai peanut spicy dressing.  It was soooo good! 

The fresh veggies included lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, raddish, broccoli, mini corn on the cob and a fresh treat of pineapple!  Delish! 

While we waited for our main course, I gave Sara her birthday present.  We got her a really pretty charm bracelet with a shamrock charm (She’s an honorary Irish Jew born on St. Patty’s day!).  She loved the blue bag it!

For my main course I got the king crab meat fried rice.  It was UNREAL.  The crab was soooo juicy, tender and sweet!  I was only able to dig in a bit as the salad had me quite full!  No worries- these leftovers will be a hit!

PS: Im going "pad thai" next time...this was good but I tasted sissys pad thai and it was EXCELLENT!

Love my sissy!

Anyway, we ended the night with a lovely embarrassing family display of the happy birthday song cake, which I was too full to even look at!

All in all a wonderful evening!  Happy birthday again, Sara!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SARA!  See you later for a lovely dinner at Chaaba in Manayunk- don’t worry bloggies- I’ll be back later with a recap…keep those mouths watering!