Texas Lou

Translation: Oh My Gosh Thank God It’s Friday YAY!

I’m so excited today and here’s why!

• It’s Friday and the beginning of the weekend…DUH!
• We are going to the Top of the Hops Beer Festival tomorrow where we will get to sample many awesome beers and spend time with lots of friends!  We went last year and it was a blast!
• I feel like I am doing so much better at work.  I’m feeling more comfortable with my job, tasks, and asking my coworkers questions plus I am meeting new people and getting involved!
• The weather has been wonderful and it is supposed to stay that way through the weekend.
• I was really good this week at keeping up with my healthy eating and exercising (ran over 11 miles!).  I’m trying to remind myself constantly that this is important to keep me positive and help me mentally and emotionally in addition to keeping my body healthy.
• Lastly, I found out that I MAY be able to spend a weekend in October with my brother, sister, and dad in New York AND go to a TEXANS game (special thanks to my awesome boss for giving me the time off)!  It’s not definite yet, but we’re working on it!

I hope everyone has a FABULOUS weekend!

We are getting dangerously close to the end of summer, and although I LOVE fall and all of the beautiful colors and changing leaves and cool and crisp air it brings with it, I dread the shorter days and decrease in sunlight.  The fall colors are something that I never really saw growing up in Houston that I’ve really come to apreciate here in Virginia.  However, the shorter days where it gets dark around 5 PM is also something  that I never saw growing up that I really can’t stand.  It brings on a serious case of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD 🙁 ).

With these last few days of summer and late evenings still filled with dwindling sunlight, I’m trying to soak up as much of it as I can get before the time change.  The Meade Park Farmers Market that takes place every Wednesday afternoon from 3 PM until 7 in Charlottesville is about to come to a close for the season next week so I suggested to Ben that we go for a run to the market after work.  After a beautiful 2.75 mile run to the market in perfect temperatures, we arrived at the market where we bumped into some friends, got to sample some delicious and nutritious bread from the Great Harvest Bread Company, and ended up buying some fresh and local green beans and swiss chard.  We than ran the 2.75 miles back home along the Rivanna River where I cooked barbecue chicken (with authentic Texas Rudy’s barbecue sauce – thanks to Cheryl and Dan), asparagus, and garlic parmesan sauteed zuccini.  After dinner, Ben and I watched 21 Jump Street, the movie and laughed our butts off!  I highly recommend it especially if you’re looking for a good laugh.

It was a great day, made even better by the fact that rather than going and sitting in front of a computer all day, I got to spend the work day volunteering with my company for the Thomas Jefferson Area United Way Day of Caring.  We organized closets, separated donated childrens’ clothing, and made goody bags for young families in the area at the Child, Youth, & Family Services in Charlottesville.  It was wonderful to learn about the organization, help out my community, meet lots of new people, and give my time and effort to such a great cause.  And you should have seen the amazing lunch they provided us!!!

I’d have to say it was definitely a summer day to remember!

A couple of weeks ago, September 8th to be exact (I know I am really late posting about this), we attended the wedding of my friends Amy and Joel in Crozet, Virginia.

The wedding was outdoors at the beautiful home of Joel’s mother.  About an hour before the ceremony was to begin, a thunderstorm rolled through the area which gave the bride and groom and their bridal party a scare, but thanks to awesome bridesmaids, groomsmen, and ushers, everything got put back together just in time.  I think the storm was a blessing in disguise because it brought in some cooler air which made for a perfect night that wasn’t too hot.

The wedding was beautiful and the bride was gorgeous.  You could see all of the hard work that Amy and Joel put into planning the event with every little detail and personal touch of the ceremony and reception!  We had a great time dining and dancing with friends and celebrating the beginning of Mr. and Mrs. Harrigan’s new life as a married couple!

Check out a few of the lovely pictures from the evening below!

The lovely couple just after the ceremony!

Ben and I enjoying the evening

Sarah, me, and Cris…lovely ladies in blue!

My sister-in-law and I!

The Davidsons!

Lovely cake with the most adorable cake toppers made by the bride’s sister!

I also want to give a shout out to my sister-in-law/best friend/sister, Sarah, and my brother in law, Ian.  Today is their two year wedding anniversary and I still remember their beautiful wedding like it was yesterday!  Here’s to countless more years of happiness and love for both Sarah and Ian and the newlyweds, Amy and Joel!

I found this neat red feather outside today and thought I’d share.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday!

I just wanted to share a lovely picture, courtesy of a friend, of my husband, the love of my life, and I at a wedding this past weekend (more on the amazing wedding coming later)!

Ben and I

I love him and I love us!

Bloody Mary from Beer Run

Doesn’t this look like a work of art?  One of my favorite drinks to enjoy on a Sunday or with any breakfast, brunch, or lunch meal is the delicious Bloody Mary!  I personally like mine with worcestershire sauce, olive juice, horseradish, lime juice, and LOTS of hot sauce!  Sunday, Ben and I had no breakfast food in the house so I thought it was a great excuse to go to Beer Run, one of my favorite local places for food and beer for brunch.

We both had the El Guapo Breakfast Burrito:

El Guapo Breakfast Burrito
Scrambled local eggs, organic black beans, pepper jack cheese, sauteed red bell peppers wrapped in a flour tortilla. Served with spicy house-made Pico de Gallo and Texas Frites. 9.95

They were served with a slice of watermelon and honey dew.  Brunch was delicious, the company was great, and we snagged the last outdoor table so we could enjoy the first beautiful fall-like day of the season with our meal!  It was the perfect start to our Sunday!

Today’s lunch was a giant bag of carrots.

Why, you may ask, would a person eat a giant bag of carrots for lunch?  Well, for one thing, it’s healthy.  But really, I ate them because I desperately need to go to the store and this was one of the few acceptable lunch items I had in the house.

So as I was enjoying eating my giant bag of carrots for lunch, a thought struck me.  Could I turn orange from eating too many carrots?  I know I’ve heard this before but wasn’t sure if it is a fact or an old wive’s tale.  So  I decided to turn to my trusty old friend that knows the answer to every question, Google!

And of course, this questions is a commonly asked one (I’m not the only one)!  I found this article which confirmed that yes indeed, you can turn orange from eating too many carrots.  Just to make sure I wasn’t being fooled by the many false facts on the interwebz, I turned to Wikipedia to make sure the information I had found was correct.

Wikipedia also confirmed that there is a harmless condition called Carotenosis that includes the symptom of turning orange (see baby’s nose in screen shot above) and is the result of eating too many carrots (or any other naturally orange food like pumpkins).

So folks, consider that your interesting science lesson for the day and try not to eat too many carrots unless you are working on your Halloween costume!

Sorry, I’ve been lacking inspiration for blog post topics the past couple of days. For the first time, I think I am finally starting to feel comfortable in my new job (think is the keyword here since I could revert back to freaked out noob any second). I am starting to meet more people too. I participated in the work bake sale last week for the Women’s 4 Miler, donated blood to Virginia Blood Services for the company sponsored blood drive, and I got chosen to be a Crutchfield volunteer in the United Way Jefferson Area Day of Caring in a couple of weeks.  They say the more you put into things, the more you get out in return so that’s my plan!

Happy Friday and hope everyone has a great weekend!

On Saturday morning, I ran the Charlottesville Women’s Four Miler for the 5th year in a row.  The race takes place every year on Labor Day weekend, and the money raised goes to support the University of Virginia Cancer Center Breast Care Program which helps  to fund breast cancer research and support local women fighting the disease.

I was really excited about my performance this year.  Despite it raining during the entire race, I beat my record for the course and crossed the finish line in just under 45 minutes.  In addition, I ran the first mile at 9 minutes and 19 seconds which is a HUGE record for me (I usually run between an 11 and 12 minute mile)!  Below are my results from the past 5 years and they definitely show what an improvement I’ve made!

2012 Results

2011 Results

2010 Results

2009 Results

2008 Results

To get ready for the race, the past couple of years, my friends Sarah and Wendy and I have made shirts to wear on race day.  This year, mine said:

T-shirt…$4

Race Registration…$45

E Racing Cancer…Priceless

Sarah and Wendy’s shirts quoted lyrics from the Young MC song “Bust A Move” (get it…bust as in boobies…haha!).

Me, Sarah, and Wendy before the race sporting our creative T’s!

Ben even came out to support us and I want to say a special thank you to him for holding all of our bags and waiting for us in the rain.

Ben and I before the race

Sarah and I waiting for Wendy to arrive with our race bibs.

Ben and I…check out all the pink in the background!

One of the best things about this race is all of the support it gets from the local community.  People come out rain or shine to volunteer and cheer on the runners and everyone gets all decked out in pink.  We even saw a man with three kids who all had their hair dyed pink (including the father’s beard) and were wearing pink shirts in support of their wife/mom running the race!  It’s the number 1 most popular race in Charlottesville and race registration has closed out in under 12 hours the past couple of years.  I was really lucky to get a spot this year since race registration was on my wedding day.  Lucky for me, my pal Wendy signed me up!  I love this race and I plan on running it every year as long as I’m able.  And one day, if I have daughters, I hope to have them run it with me!

I started this blog 3 years ago on August 31, 2009 with my very first post!  Since then, I’ve published 123 blog posts!

It’s funny how much can change in 3 years!  Since I started this blog, I got a new residence (moved in with Ben), got a husband, got a new car, got a new job, met alot of new and amazing people, seen alot of new and different places, and experienced some awesome adventures!  I’m hoping the next three years will bring even more wonderful surprises and I hope to document them all here on the blog.

Thanks to everyone who reads this and follows along with my life!  Happy blogoversary to TexasLou.com!

Cheers!

Celebrate!

***Update*** I just read one of the blogs that I follow, Kath Eats Real Food, and Kath, a fellow Cville resident, is celebrating her blog’s 5th anniversary today!  So excited to share my blog’s anniversary with such an amazing blog/blogger!