Piroshkys, Donuts, and Bike Moves

Whew! That was quite the fun-filled weekend.

I was teaching in Seattle this week and got to visit the girls (Di and Laura) who have just moved up there. So on Friday after class I got to see their new house, and we had a blast catching up, drinking wine, and of course, eating. Laura is such a good cook. I don't know how she does it, but she keeps it super simple, and everything comes out fantastic. I try to keep it simple, and it comes out bland and boring. That's why I add garlic and red pepper flakes to everything- your mouth is on such fire that you don't notice that there is not a whole lot of "seasoning" beyond that.

Anyway, the next morning we met at Pike Place Market which is totally fun. I don't care if the locals scoff that it's too touristy (which it is), there is just so much good food crammed into a relatively small area. I ate my way through the market starting with coffee at the original Starbucks, stopping to toss a few bills into a busker's guitar case (they were a little bluegrassy band with washboard and hounddogs who let me scratch their bellies - the dogs, not the buskers), next moving on to Piroshky Piroshky for a beef and onion pastery (don't even want to guess how many points), then to the fish guys for my first taste of smoked salmon (pretty good, except tasted too bacony- I know for some, this is just not possible), then met up with the girls, and followed them to the tiny donut stand where they fry the little donuts in front of you and toss them into a bag with cinnamon or powdered sugar. I have a history with these devil donuts. I wish I'd never heard about them, but what can you do? (If you're trying to figure out how many points I've so far consumed, I think somewhere north of 50 would be a safe bet- but the day's not over yet)

For the drive home (as if I hadn't eaten enough), I picked up a loaf of bread from the French bakery and then bought some cheese from the cheesery (?)- a cheddar gruyere creation - as well as some big fat black grapes. Oh, almost forgot- I also bought some mini lemon pasteries from the French bakery place. Crap, they were good.

But the weekend was not all about eating- there was a tiny bit of exercise. Yesterday B and I participated in another bike move- this time helping move one of the guys who was on the bike camping trip. There were about eighteen people who showed up, and I made some new friends, had lots of laughs, hard lemonade, and pizza. Ugh. Anyway, on the way to the bike move, two kittens ran out from their yard to greet us (apparently not frightened by bikes), and proceeded to jump into B's trailer and play! Check out the pics below...

They were so precious, and I was tempted to take them home...(Also, notice how slim B looks!)

Here's about half the group at the intersection of a very busy boulevard waiting for the light to change. Surprisingly, no drivers honked at us, but we did get a lot of people grinning and rolling down their windows asking what was going on. I think everyone was so nice cause it was a Sunday and after church...


That's me looking very cold next to the bike with the crazy yellow floaties.

This was the guy we were moving and he hauled that giant chest of drawers on his bike. (The rest of that sign is "...Engine" and notice the "Diesel" crossed out)

Now, I'm dealing with a cold this week, so I haven't run but once the whole week, so I wasn't exactly surprised to see that I gained two pounds this week. But I'm okay with that, because for the next few weeks, I'll go back to trying to stay within my points limits, get back on my running schedule, and will probably lose a few more pounds before Thanksgiving, which I will promptly regain and lose again before Xmas. As long as the overall trend line is heading down, a few little bumps don't really worry me.

Today I'm planning to crock pot a Chicken Chili Verde stew and bake low-fat corn muffins (I'll post recipes if they turn out) to accompany my first Spanish lesson using this new software I got. I am considering going on a bike tour of the Iberian peninsula next year with some folks, and since I already have a background in Spanish (plus a sister in law who is Columbian), I thought I'd work on becoming fluent in Spanish. And then after that, Swahili!

Jambo friends!