Farmers Market McFatty

I love going to the farmers market on a Saturday morning. My goal is to stock up on organic fruits and veggies, farm fresh eggs, and grass fed meats. This morning the rain stopped just in time so I grabbed my reusable bag for a quick trip to Carmel. The cloudy skies did not detour anyone else either since the parking garage was a madhouse. Since I was running a little low on patience and energy my first stop was at the Lions Club tent for a breakfast brat with egg and cheese. I topped it with homemade salsa from the Salsa Queen. Yummy! The next purchase was made at Nicole-Taylor's for some homemade pasta and marinara sauce for tomorrow night's dinner. For some unknown reason I quickly needed another energy boost so I bought a bag of roasted almonds at The Amazing Potato Chip Company. Who am I kidding? The almonds might have been roasted but then coated with sugar, cinnamon, and maple syrup. Again, yum. On my second lap around, I completed Sunday's dinner menu with a chunk of focaccia bread from Scholars Inn which weighed in at about two pounds. On lap three I looked seriously at a table of tomatoes but the line was about three people deep so I decided against the wait. I did wait, however, for the cookies at Circle City Sweets (lemon/ginger and chocolate chip) and a cup of ice tea at Kei Teas. On my way out, I made a point to take the stairs up three flights to my car...burning as many calories as one "roasted" almond. As you can tell I am not a focused farmers market shopper. I didn't leave the market with one item that was from the garden or had fewer carbs than a box of Lucky Charms! I felt good supporting local businesses (spent about $30) but my purchases were not exactly what I had in mind. I will certainly try to do a better job next week. Maybe I will only get one cookie. :)

Broadripple or Bust

Last week I set a goal to do more fun things around the city and made a mental checklist of places I wanted to visit. I have already marked two places off the list! On Monday, Forest Park/Potters Bridge in Noblesville then yesterday visiting the Indianapolis Museum of Art/100 Acre Park. The newsworthy part of going to the IMA is that we biked there! Yes, all the way from Westfield. Our good friend John Brooks joined me and Joey on what started as a "hey, let's bike to Broadripple, have lunch, bike back." Of course I expanded that trip at least an additional 10 miles that left everyone exhausted and useless for the rest of the day (except me, I worked in the yard). The first half of our trip was going along as planned. Biked to Broadripple on the Monon and ate at Boogie Burger (not the best decision making for a day full of physical activity). This is where I throw the big fat wrench in the original plan. We then followed the Canal Path to the 100 Acre Park connected to the IMA, circled around some trails, and up past the IMA. Since we were there, I took the boys on a scenic trip down frat row on Butler's campus then back on the Monon at 52nd. By this time I think they were getting a little sick of me and the double cheeseburgers they had consumed were getting pretty angry too. In total we biked 36 miles! I'm sure that is the last time the boys will invite me to ride bikes since their goal for the day was only to get the cheeseburgers. I'm still proud of all of us for surviving the journey (even though I about killed all of us several times by causing at least one bike pile up due to rubbernecking a cyclist bite it going the opposite direction, having another cyclist scream "dumbass" at me because I came inches from hitting him head on, and getting a 4' tree branch stuck in my tire spoke). The only real tragedy of the day is my camera took a nose dive onto the concrete during my attempt to "bunny hop" a curb. I'm not sure I can hang with the boys on their athleticism as much as they can't hang with me on my stamina. Anyone want to join me on my next bike ride?.....yeah, that's what I figured.

Hot summer night

I started the day saying to myself "This is it. Today is the day I will amp up my workouts and cut back on calories." I woke up early. Completed the Insanity plyometrics cardio circuit video (which is, of course, insane). Had a healthy breakfast and headed to work. I made it to about, umm, 11am before I was eating chocolate stashed in the breakroom fridge. Today's mission failed. After a long day at work it was nice to come home to Joey's home cooking (turkey meatloaf and mac n'cheese). Then we went for an impromptu ride in the Jeep to check out the new speakers. Played Foster the People channel on Pandora...it rocked! Today's Jeep ride was a lot better than the one this spring when I wrapped myself up like a mummy to avoid the frigid wind. We jetted off to Target to buy crap we don't need. The result of all trips to Target. A pint of Ben and Jerry's and two stolen spoons from the concession area made the warm ride home so fun! I needed that. I will start my diet plan another day.

By the way, we did not make a dent in the pint. Just wanted to make it extremely clear that we did not eat the entire pint!

Monday night adventure

Over the weekend I read Indianapolis Monthly's City Guide 2011. I couldn't believe all of the things to do and places to see right here close to home. Frankly, I was disappointed that I have lived here for almost 20 years and have missed out on some fun stuff. I now pledge to make a point to explore our local parks and museums. So tonight Joey and I went on an adventure and starting exploring. We rode our bikes on the trails at Forest Park and Potters Bridge in Noblesville. Super fun! Especially the Potters Bridge paths. We were flying along the curvy path that led us down to the White River and discovered a dirt trail to ride another day. Forest Park is a great park too. I want to go back and tour the trains at the Transportation Museum. Nerdy, I know. Then we headed up to Cicero to catch a glimpse of Morse Reservoir and had dinner at Toucan Annies downtown. Good Mexican food being served by white women. Strange in this part of the world. It was simple but really good food. I'm glad I didn't waste any time sitting inside tonight...it was a great night.

I'm finally doing it

I've always wanted to write in a journal. Maybe Oprah was right about journaling your deepest thoughts leading to some sort of self improvement. We'll see. I don't have very high expectations. Over the weekend though I started thinking of all the things I wanted to do this summer. Since this last winter seemed to suck the life out of me I am extremely eager to make the most out of every day above 70 degrees. What better way to keep track of my adventures than to blog about it? I do a lot of fun stuff and I have an opinion about everything. So, I've decided...this is happening. I've started a blog.