Tuesday evening

I made it to the gym tonight. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, burning 275 calories. I did interval training tonight, which is supposed to be a good way to burn more calories - yay!
I got a late start getting to the gym, getting there a few minutes before 7pm. After doing the half hour of cardio I did 15 minutes of weights. I did the leg press (2 sets of 15 reps, the first set at 100 lbs and the second set at 120 lbs). After that I did the tri-cept machine (ugh!) two sets, 15 reps each at 30 lbs. Then I did the hamstring weights, same deal - 2 sets of 15 reps each at 50 lbs. Even though I didn't think I had time to do the weights, I'm really glad I got them in for a more complete work out.

In an effort to use up the food I had made over the last couple of days, I had a bit of a smorgasbord all wrapped up into a [not so neat] wrap. Here it is:

I had a 1/4 of a cup of brown rice on the side of the wrap. Inside the sandwich was lettuce, a low fat string cheese (melted), the seasoned tofu (from last night), half a roma tomato, sliced cucumbers, carrots, and roasted red pepper hummus. It was quite good. I had an 8 ounce glass of 1% milk with dinner as well. Fat free and 1% milk is a great source of calcium and protein. I always find that I will be more satisfied after dinner when I have milk (including soy milk) along with what I am eating.

Ben and I had a fun time watching The Biggest Loser. As I've said before, I always do my best to get to the gym on Tuesday evenings so that when I'm watching Bob and the contestents working out for two hours, I don't feel bad about my workout levels and intensities. It's even better when I have a healthy dinner - then I can enjoy The Biggest Loser totally guilt free

An hour and a half after dinner I did want a snack. Instead of ice cream (the double churned, lower fat option is the ice cream we have in the house) I settled for Panda Puffs peanut butter cereal by Nature's Path... They are a really satisfying snack!




















OK, I am off to bed - it's 11pm already and after last night's lack of sleep, I need to do everything possible to get a few more Zzzs tonight!

I've survived Tuesday!

Well, my Tuesday work day almost didn't get started since I barely made it out of bed this morning, and almost ended running for the train this morning.... It was arriving right as I was walking up to the station! I was exhausted this morning, and I actually woke up at 3:45 in the morning and I am not sure if I went back to sleep before my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning. Ugh.

Anyhow, I made it and ended up having a pretty good day. I made all of my transit connections easily this morning and was at work by 8:15.

This morning's breakfast was a bowl of Heart Healthy Trader Joe's Blueberry Oatmeal and half of a banana mixed in with it. I was going to bring a tablespoon of almond butter to add into it, but couldn't find a container this morning! Here's what it ended up looking like -









I also got a refill with my Life is Good coffee mug at Au Bon Pain at South Station. I really needed the coffee this morning, so I was glad I remembered to pack my mug in my canvas lunch bag.


Today Ben had the day off from work in observance of Rosh Hashanah... He came to my office to take me out to lunch which was a great treat.

Ben arrived at noon today and we went out to see what we could find for a fun lunch together. I have to say, I had economics on my mind so I didn't want anything too expensive. I decided to show Ben the best New York style pizza around (at least in my office's neighborhood!). This place is called Sal's Pizza. It is amazing. Their slices are HUGE and so good. Today I had the tomato and roasted garlic slice of pizza for lunch. It was really great. Ben got a slice of BBQ chicken pizza. Here is what my lunch looked like:


This is what ONE piece of pizza looks like from Sal's! It's definitely two pieces of pizza - but I did eat both pieces! I ate my pizza at 12:30 this afternoon, the only good thing about having this much pizza is that it is now 6:20 PM and I haven't had anything else to eat yet this afternoon. I'm going to the gym soon, and then I'll make something light for dinner - not sure what yet, but I'll keep you posted.

OK, after consuming that huge lunch, I'm off to work out. More later!

Manic Monday... Part II - Evening Politics and Policy

Well, it seems that the country could be heading even more down the road to a financial crisis. Ugh, I’m completely shocked that the US House of Reps didn’t pass the Bailout Bill today! Is it just me? I’ve been watching news coverage and it seems like the average American might not want to bill to go through because they don’t want to “pay” for the mistakes made by Wall Street.

Maybe I am wrong, or maybe it’s my background in American History / Government coming back to haunt me. But it just freaks me out that we had a chance to fix the situation, and the GOP (and some Dems) let it slide by. It just seems so strange to me that the Republicans are all about lifting rules and regulations for how people on Wall Street and the average bank will operate – allowing predatory lending to take place, and then when all of the sh*t hits the fan, the Republicans want to just let everything fail and slide the country into another Great Depression!

Do they not realize what they are doing? Does the average American not realize how this credit crunch is going to affect them? Sure, I’m only 30 but I am officially afraid to look at my retirement statement right now… on Friday I was questioning if my money was safe in all three of the banks that I use… But on Friday afternoon I was resting assured that somehow our elected officials would solve the crisis by coming up with some sort of plan to save the financial world and our everyday society while they were at it. I sure hope that something happens soon, because I don’t know how much more the stock market or the average American can take – even if they don’t know it yet.

Monday - post work

So, after leaving work around 445 I got home at 515 or so....
For some reason, I was starving! Perhaps it was that I only had tomato soup and crackers for lunch (a slight lack of protein in that meal!)

Anyhow - I knew that if I was going to get to the gym I'd have to make myself a quick snack. Here's what I settled on:

Yeah, I know. The picture doesn't look too appetizing. But it was great - and it got me through my Monday gym workout. It was a wrap with fat free string cheese melted, half a roma tomato sliced up and some roasted red pepper hummus on top. I'm glad I had it around 5:30 this afternoon, because Ben and I didn't end up eating until 8:30 tonight.

So, like I said - I did manage to get to the gym today. I don't know about you, but I usually take it easy at the gym on Mondays. It's almost like rewarding myself for getting to the gym on the first day of the work week - because that is super hard for me to do.

I did a combo on the treadmill tonight by walking, jogging and running 2.2 miles in 28 minutes. Combined with my high energy walk this afternoon, that added up to nearly an hour of cardio. On days like that when I don't get quite as much of a work out in, I always remind myself that I take the stairs at work instead of using the elevator ☺

After the treadmill I did a really quick weight work out. I did 2 sets (15 reps each) on the calf rotary machine - it was a killer today for some reason! And then I did my arm weights (biceps) with 12 pounds each arm, 2 sets at 20 reps each. The weights went by quickly, and before I knew it I was done with my Monday gym workout and it was the best feeling ever!

I got home around 7:30 and started my tofu delight dinner! I've mentioned it before on the blog, and I can't take any credit for it because I saw it on http://eatliverun.com but it is my favorite tofu recipe and I make it every other week now, sometimes more often!

Tonight I also made broccoli and brown rice to go with the tofu. Even Ben ate it, and I'm not sure he would normally eat tofu for dinner.... bravo Ben!

Here is what my plate looked like before I started chowing on dinner...














Ok, well it's been sort of a long day. It's 10:30 PM and I'm going to head for bed to do some reading and hopefully fall asleep soon!
See you all tomorrow.

Manic Monday... Part I

So today started off pretty normally. I had to drive to work because I had a 9am meeting with my boss at work, and couldn’t take a chance on the subway running late like it often does on Monday mornings. I got to work by 8am which I was super pleased about because it meant I could leave by 4:30 in the afternoon…

I was super pleased to be at work an hour before my meeting! I got right down to work, and as I started entering my meta data for the day, I had my breakfast. Today I ate a Peanut Butter Cookie Luna Bar. They aren’t bad for you – 180 calories, 6g Fat, 10 g Protein and a lot of vitamins and minerals (especially a good source of calcium).


I got pretty hungry around 11am this morning – but was able to wait until Noon for lunch. I heated up some low sodium Trader Joe’s tomato soup. I was happily surprised by how good it was! The consistency of the soup was thick and hearty for a plain tomato soup, and thankfully the sodium content wasn’t bad. That is something everyone should look at when they are eating soup… it’s easy to think that you’re being healthy when you’re having soup for lunch. But read your container carefully! Progresso or other leading soups can have 30% (or more) of your daily sodium allowance for the day per serving – but keep in mind a serving is only half of a can! A lot of people will eat an entire can of soup for lunch and not realizing they are having 2 or 2.5 servings of the soup in one sitting. Ugh. It’s always a good idea to look for a low fat, low sodium soup.

Well, to spice up my soup I added a small palm full of the Trader Joe’s Lite Mexican cheese blend. It will add a little flavor (not to mention a little more calcium and protein) to your lunch. I had eight TJ’s whole wheat crackers as well.

I went down to the lunch room to heat up my soup and eat my lunch in 15 minutes…. I know, horrible to rush when you’re eating food! But I wanted to make sure that I had time to go for a nice walk during lunch. After eating, I went back to my desk and worked a bit longer. At 12:45 I went outside for my walk, which lasted a half an hour. It’s great to get exercise during your work day!


After I got back from my walk, I enjoyed an amazing oatmeal chocolate chip cookie from one of my colleagues (no one knows who it was!) who thoughtfully brought in cookies to share by our coffee maker by the lunchroom. ☺ So nice to have a special treat on a Monday!

Even though it was a busy day, I was still able to leave at 4:45 and get ready for the gym.

Sunday Night (and a movie!)

Sunday night:
Ben and I had a great time at our movie on Sunday afternoon. I think we would both highly recommend Ghost Town to our friends…. But you must know, we love Ricky Jervais, so we are definitely a little partial to anything with him in it! It was a great mix of comedy and a touching story. I really enjoyed it – what a great Sunday afternoon.

Ahh, for food – while we were there we enjoyed some great popcorn, which was being popped as it was scooped into our bag. I love freshly made popcorn. It’s the best!

Even though we didn’t even come close to eating all of this popcorn (for once – usually I totally demolish this stuff!) I wasn’t really hungry for a big dinner – perhaps thanks to my veggie wrap with the veggie burger I had for lunch.

So, as I was trying to make up my mind for a while on dinner – I settled for a bit of a weird meal… but I actually have been known to have really strange dinners on Sunday night. I’m not sure why, but it’s sort of turning into a tradition. Here’s what I ended up having:

Trader Joe’s Heart Healthy Whole Grain Blueberry Oatmeal – this stuff is amazing. It has flax seed ground right into the oatmeal which makes it even better for you. The nutritional info is pretty good: 160 calories, 2.5g fat (0 saturated fat, 0 trans fat, 1.5 polyunsaturated, 0.5 monounsaturated) 0 Cholesterol (one of the great things about oatmeal, of course) 90 mg Sodium, 350 mg Potassium; Total Carbs – 30 grams; 6g Dietary Fiber, 10g Sugar (not too bad) and 4 grams of protein. Since it was dinner time I added a table spoon of Whole Foods Almond Butter to boost protein. Along with the oatmeal I had Clestial Seasoning’s Blueberry Tea. It was all quite good.

I spent the rest of the night catching up on my September and October issues of Real Simple and at 10pm I tuned into the first episode of Brothers & Sisters. It’s a pretty good show! Usually I end up Tivo-ing it so that I can get a good night sleep on Sunday night, but since our Tivo is on the fritz, I decided to watch the show at it’s allotted time and not take my chances with technology.

Sunday, Sunday

Happy Sunday, everyone.
Well, sorry this is a bit delayed. Ben & I have been super busy today cleaning our house - after Ben cleaned a lot yesterday, and after three hours of cleaning today - we're in pretty good shape! Soon we'll be off to the movies - we're going to check out Ghost Town. Ben & I have been looking forward to seeing this one because we're both huge fans of Ricky Gervais. I'll let you know how it is.

My food today was pretty basic. This morning I could not decide what I wanted for breakfast. So for a while I just settled with a nice cup of coffee while watching George Stephanopoulos and Tom Brokaw on Meet The Press.

Later Ben saved my morning by making me an egg and a piece of 12 whole grain toast. Yum!

For lunch today I had the same as yesterday - an amazing veggie wrap. The only difference today was that I added 3/4 of a Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burger. It made the wrap just a little more substantial, so that after two hours I'm still full! Oh right, the glass of skim milk I had probably helped a lot too with the protein content. The ingredients for the veggie wrap were the same as yesterday - one roma tomato, shaved carrots, seven small slices of cucumbers, two pieces of green lettuce, a table spoon of roasted red pepper hummus and a sprinkling of low-fat Mexican blend cheese (all from Trader Joe's!)

So, instead of boring everyone with the same picture from yesterday's lunch - I figured I would show you what Ben made for lunch! He used one roma tomato, one piece of green lettuce, two pieces of the focaccia bread from Friday and a tablespoon of roasted red pepper hummus for his sandwich. It looked great!

OK, well we're off to an afternoon movie!
See ya!

Saturday - gym, lunch, etc.

By 2pm on Saturday I was on the treadmill. I did a typical 1.25 mile warm up of walking and jogging. Then I went upstairs and did some weight lifting. I did the leg press, a triceps exercise, the hamstring weight machine, along with the hip and inner thigh fun stuff. Then I did the bicep lifting with ten pound weights, 2 sets of 15 reps each, and two sets of the calf rotator (15 reps each at 70 lbs). Then I biked for a mile and a half (in 7 minutes) and finished up on the elliptical machine where I did twenty minutes to cool down. It was a semi-productive afternoon at the gym. I think I was feeling a bit out of it because I had to take a benadryl for some sort of allergic reaction I had this morning. So I didn't have my usual energy when it came to the cardio workout this morning.

However, I did have enough energy to go to Trader Joe's on my way home from the gym - thank goodness! Our local TJ's was having a very good produce day, and I stocked up on lots of veggies! I got great deals on roma tomatoes, a cucumber, carrots and lettuce. I took all of my goodies home and made the most amazing veggie wrap:
On the wrap I had some low fat Mexican blend cheese, lettuce, roasted red pepper humus, one roma tomato, carrots and cucumbers. Along with a glass of soy milk and a little piece of dark chocolate, I had a great lunch - a wonderful reward for getting to the gym on this rainy Saturday afternoon.
After lunch I watched Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country, which is Ben's favorite Star Trek movie. Up until a month ago, I had never seen a Star Trek movie. I love Star Wars (the original three, that is - can't say the same for the ones that came out a couple of years ago) but I had never thought of Star Trek. I can say that I'm still a major fan of Star Wars, and after watching a few of the Star Trek movies, the last one was pretty good.

Well, it's 9pm and I'm just having dinner - last night's leftovers of whole wheat pasta, turkey meatballs, roma tomato sauce and a little piece of Igg's bread. Yum!

Saturday

Wow - I am so excited about this weekend! Ben and I were planning to head up to New Hampshire to go hiking and camping.... however the weather allowed us to stay home and relax for the first weekend in months! We've had a busy summer and beginning of fall, so I am actually sort of thrilled to be home and relax.

I'm so glad to report that I made it to the gym three days during the week... Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday was a successful shopping trip to the Natick Collection, where Becky found a cute suit at J. Crew.

Yesterday it was raining cats & dogs when I got home, and after walking and taking the bus and train to get to and from work, there was no way I was going outside again. Ben saved the day by going out for a bottle of Mark West (one of our favorite pinot noir wines) and making dinner. It was a great night for comfort food as the storm continued outside.

Ben made a great whole wheat pasta, roma tomato sauce and turkey meat balls. He had also surprised me by going to Whole Foods and picking up an amazing focaccia bread. We enjoyed dinner while watching the Presidential Debate between Obama and McCain....

Anyhow, today we're enjoying a day at home. It's raining yet again, perhaps due to the Tropical Storm Kyle.

I'm going to sign off for now so that I can get ready to head to the gym before the storm gets really bad. I love my Saturday and Sunday gym work outs because I'm not exhausted from a long day of commuting and working... I can spend a lot more time at the gym, and usually have a lot more energy to accomplish everything I set out to do. Today I'll be doing some cardio (running and biking perhaps?) and some weights. If you're trying to lose weight - you need to remember that weight training is absolutely essential to your workout. If you build up mussle mass, you will burn more calories when you are "resting" because muscle mass burns more calories than fat.

To better explain my point, see this brief explanation from the website: http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk

1) Build Muscle

Increase the amount of muscle in your body. For every extra pound of muscle you put on, your body uses around 50 extra calories a day. In a recent study, researchers found that regular weight training boosts basal metabolic rate by about 15%. This is because muscle is ‘metabolically active’ and burns more calories than other body tissue even when you’re not moving.

Training with weights just 3 times a week for around 20 minutes is enough to build muscle. Not only will you be burning more calories, you’ll look better – whatever your weight.

There is my inspiration for getting to the gym this afternoon! I'm totally excited about the dinner I'll be making for myself later, too.... I'm taking Jenna's recipe again for Baked Tofu... if you haven't seen the recipe yet, check out Jenna's blog: http://eatliverun.com/

And here is a link to the baked tofu recipe: http://eatliverun.com/?p=2901

Catch you later - I'm off to exercise.

The West Wing, President Bartlett and Obama

Ok everyone, I really did mean to post this link earlier this week. If anyone out there loved The West Wing as much as I did, check out this link to one of Maureen Dowd's Op ed pieces this week. It's great.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21dowd-sorkin.html?ex=1379822400&en=94fb84cf08d27b33&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Bread & Chocolate Bakery

I love my neighborhood in Newton. I can walk to almost anything - two grocery stores (thankfully one is a Whole Foods!), a pharmacy, two coffee shops, a great independently owned bookstore and so much more.

My favorite part of our area in Newton is an amazing bakery, Bread & Chocolate. A couple of my favorite things from the bakery are their famous donut muffins. I'm not really sure what they do to make this amazing item, but it is lovely!

If you're in the area of Newtonville, MA they are located at 108 Madison Ave. It is well worth a drive out of your way to pay a visit to Eunice and Steve. If they are out of donut muffins (it's been known to happen, especially on weekends because everyone in town stops by to pick one up!) there is so much else to try. Some of my other favorites are the Lemon Blueberry scone, the Applesauce Muffin (a very healthy option!) or if it's later in they day, try any of their amazing cupcakes! For the record, Ben's favorite weekend treat from B&C is the pecan sticky bun.

If you're looking for a lunch option, they make amazing sandwiches and they always have a great soup option.... and you can finish up your experience with a delishous cookie (they're all devine).

Ben and I feel so lucky to have Bread & Chocolate in our neighborhood!

Tuesday - another day at the gym!

Yay - today is my second day in a row at the gym! I did forty minutes of cardio and twenty minutes of weights. I love working out on Tuesdays, because after the gym I can go home and watch the Biggest Loser and know that I worked out, too! I would love to have Bob as a trainer, that's for sure.

The Turkey Chili was even better tonight, it was a great dinner.

I am hoping tomorrow morning I'll be able to wake up at my normal time to get my day started. Today I was definitely exhausted when my alarm went off at 6:15 this morning, and didn't end up getting out of bed until 8! I got to work by 9:15 which is an hour later than I normally get into the office... which meant I had to work an hour later to put in my 8.5 hours. Thankfully the only thing I had to accomplish after work was the gym and a quick stop at Trader Joe's to get other things I needed for the week.

Lately I have been eating Trader Joe's Oatmeal in the morning. The stuff is fantastic because there is NO ADDED SUGAR and a lot of fiber (make sure to get the plain instant oatmeal if you're looking for it!) To spice it up a little bit I've been adding cinnamon and pumpkin spices (which are also sugar free) and I've been cutting up half a banana to add a bit more to make a satisfying breakfast. It keeps me going until lunch time.

Tomorrow will be my day off from the gym. It's good to have a day off in the middle of the week so you don't get burned out from constant work outs. Instead of the gym, tomorrow night I'll be hitting up The Natick Collection with my friend Becky. She is in need of a new outfit or two, so that should be fun. I will do my best to not by clothes or make up (my favorites are Bobbi Brown and Laura Mericer).... I hope I will be successful.

Daisy has been an amazing cat these days. She has mellowed out quite a bit, now that she is a whopping five months old. Last night as I was watching a bit of a movie she actually fell asleep on my lap, which was adorable.

I can't believe it's 9:51 PM already.... I'm going to get back to the Biggest Loser to see who gets voted off this week.

More later!

Productive Monday

Well, for once I got everything accomplished on a Monday that I had set out to do. Work was a super productive day, which is always a good thing. The more exciting part of my day is that after work I went to the gym for 45 minutes, then went to the market and then went home and made Turkey Chili for dinner! (*Thanks to my friend Katherine for the recipe*) After all of that we also did one load of laundry. I love doing laundry during the week and keeping up with everything around the house. That way when the weekend comes you're not faced with having to do a ton of laundry and house cleaning - you can actually use the weekend to relax and do fun things!

Of course Ben and I didn't start eating until 8:45 last night, but still - I got it all done and the best part is that we have dinner already set for tonight and maybe tomorrow.

My goal for the week: to get to the gym on a regular basis. I don't know about you, but for me summer is the time that I tend to slack off on my "regular" work outs. Who wants to go to the gym when it's super nice summer weather?! I probably went to the gym about once a week during the summer. Of course I took really nice walks during lunch, played tennis with Ben after work and did a fair amount of bike riding.... taking the subway to work also helps. Have you ever realized how much extra walking you do when you take public transportation? It is a great thing!

So, yesterday on top of taking the subway to work and getting those extra steps in, I also took a 25 minute walk at lunchtime, and then went to the gym. At Boston Sports Club I did the elliptical machine for 30 minutes and lifted weights for ten minutes. Of course, I could have done more cardio and more weights, but for a Monday I figured that was good enough. I'll be going back tonight and hopefully I'll be able to get a longer work out in. At least tonight I won't have to go to the store and won't have to worry about making dinner for myself.

I hope everyone is having a productive start to their weeks, too. I'll have more updates to come later today!

Cheers!

Larabar

Hi Everyone:

Today I tried my first LaraBar and I wanted to tell everyone about it. It is an amazing "energy" bar which is totally natural. The one I had today was Banana Bread. . . and there were only three ingredients which I find amazing! They were: almonds, dates and unsweetened bananas! Another thing I love about these bars is that they are sodium free, which is so rare these days. Anyhow, you can get them at Whole Foods, so check them out.

The other big news of the day is that I finally got a hair cut! I'm so pleased. I went to Michaels Salon @ 310 Harvard Street right in Coolidge Corner. Erin cut my hair and I would highly recommend her to anyone who is looking for a good and nice stylist to cut their hair! She was really sweet, and it was an enjoyable experience. Another important thing - she listened to my ideas, told me what she thought and I got the hair cut I both needed and wanted.

Oh, one more thing.... due to my new obsession with Eat, LIve, Run (thanks Jenna!) I discovered the Greek yoghurt chobani now comes in Vanilla! Yay - I am still developing a taste for the plain (I have to admit, I never liked the traditional plain yoghurt either!) so the vanilla goes a long way for me. It is still fat free, still only has 13 grams of carbs (amazing!) and 16 grams of protein - it's like the perfect food. Check it out at Whole Foods. The chobani also comes in blueberry, and possibly another flavor that I can't remember.

Ok, closing for now. Going to get back to my reading!

It's been way too long...

I am well over due for a new blog post, although I am sure that no one has noticed. A few house keeping notes. I have a new favorite blog that I love reading - Eat Live Run - and I highly recommend it to my friends that love food and exercise!! It's the absolute perfect mix, so check it out!

So, it is the middle of September, and we've had a few days that feel like fall already - which I am oh so pleased about. After spending the weekend on the Vineyard, and being soaked for a good deal of it (it rained all three days we were there) I have fallen in love with a new tea! Cinnamon tea is my new favorite. I had it at my favorite place in Edgartown, The Newes and now that I'm back on the mainland, I'm having a hard time finding a comparable tea! Tonight I took a trip to Whole Foods with my good friend Jenn, and had to settle for an Apple Cinnamon tea, and it simply doesn't compare to what I had on the Vineyard. So, the search continues. I'm definitely sipping my new tea while I type, and it's not bad, just not exactly what I'm looking for.

When it comes to tea - has anyone else ever been to the Celestial Seasonings headquarters / factory in Boulder, Colorado? Ben and I went this past December when we were out in Colorado over our Christmas break. The tour was so much fun, I loved it. The best part is when they take you into the room where the store all of the peppermint! I could have stayed in that room for a long time, just breathing in deeply. It was so cleansing! Well, if anyone is out in the Denver area - go to Celestial Seasonings for a tour - you won't be let down!

This past weekend on the Vineyard Ben and I did a lot of biking. It was sort of fun. A lot better once I bought a new bike seat for my Cannondale. If anyone else has a Cannondale F7 out there or is thinking about buying one, let me tell you - it's a great bike - but you need to buy another seat before you go on a decent ride. The seat the bike comes with is horrible! The pedals are a little small, but other than that - it's a great bike.


Well, I think that's enough for tonight. What a random blog posting!! But I'll feel good just to get something up there.

Hope you're all well. I'm signing off to get back to my reading - I'm reading one of Doris Kearns Goodwin's classics - No Ordinary Time. If you are a fan of political history, WWII, FDR, or just want to read a great book pick it up - it's well worth your time!