Three Things Thursday

Back home edition

1. today - dog pile

2. tomorrow - wings with the Dream Team

3. saturday - some serious retail therapy with the girls <3

a reintroduction

Hello blogosphere. I've missed you.

You may already be confused. Five words in and you're already confused (well there's a conjunction in there too, but we'll call it an even five and move on). But let me explain.

This is my first real blog in almost a month. Just one day shy of a whole month. 

You're confused again, you say.
But Andrea, you've posted all kinds of stuff in the past month.
Yes, reader, I know I have. But they haven't been "Andrea-like" posts.

They've been written by me, about my life, from my apartment. But they've been missing my voice - because my voice has been busy. Busy working full time and going to graduate school at night. Busy keeping up with tons of reading for my two classes, and juggling the demands of my new job (and someone else's job recently).

And if you know me, you know I am loud. My voice is loud, but not that loud. I couldn't strum up the energy to write "Andrea-like" blog posts and do all of that. I didn't even realize my blog was missing my voice, but now that I'm out of the first-semester-of-graduate-school haze I can see what my blog had been missing.

You think I'm crazy now, right?
You have no idea what "voice" I'm talking about? I'm not even sure how to explain it.

If you're a writer you may get it. It's that feeling you get when you're writing something that you're really pasionate about, or really interested in, or just really fired up about. For me it's like a floating above my body thing. As I sit here at my desk, typing on my laptop, somehow my fingers are actually able to keep up with my thoughts and the writing just happens. That's my voice.

(Still crazy? Yep, you're even convincing me now.)

If you know me outside the blogosphere you may get it. It's like when I'm on a really good rant about something. And I throw in an obscure reference to some movie or band or tv show, and someone throws an obscure reference right back at me, and I just go on babbling. There are hand gestures, and I'm pacing around, and a few profane remarks get tossed in for emphasis. That's my voice.

Or you may not get it at all. I may be the only know who truly knows what I mean.

I hope not, but if that's the case, whateve. I started this blog for me. I'm happy that I've got a small pack of followers, I'm happy to keep people updated with the small musing of my life. (Even though everyone doesn't read it regularly, and sometimes I feel like "great, even my friends don't find me relevant.")

But I'll continue to use my blog as a non-academic outlet for writing - somewhere to express myself where I'm not restricted to a certain topic, a number of words, or a time table.

I'm back, and happy to be here. But the clock is ticking, my next semester starts on January 10. One down, five to go...

Get Clean - that's an order!

I love tea. All types of tea. In general I don't discriminate against types of tea, hot or cold. So choosing a new box of tea is quite the project. There's like, I don't know, thousands of options at the average grocery store. I knew I was in the mood for something caffeine free, possibly herbal, but definitely new. So while perusing the tea aisle of Whole Foods last night, I was happy to stumble upon a wide variety of The Republic of Tea, including the Be Well Red Tea line. I fell in love with these teas years ago, I blame this girl. She had a sample pack of the Be Well teas years ago, and this one was my favorite. So I splurged and got a canister. I'm trying to ward off a cold this week and continue with my lifestyle makeover (which I'm failing at this week much in thanks to the Thanksgiving luncheon we had at work), tea is a good step to both.

"Herb Tea for Detoxing - Had too much of a good thing? Feeling out of balance, a bit heavy or puffy? Then it's time to get clean. This gentle naturally caffeine-free herbal detox blend helps the body help itself as it stimulates the liver*, one of our natural cleansing mechanisms." - from their website

Not sure how much I believe their claims (or any claims like this), but the tea is delicious. Highly recommend.

Three Things Thursday

Things I'm a little super insanely excited for. Ya know, no big deal or anything.

1. the fam. i miss feeling short.

2. the dream team. i miss these faces.

3. the bym. i miss everything about them.

A Green Monster Update

So I'm ten days into my "lifestyle makeover," and overall I'd say it's going pretty well (with the exception of the burger and fries I had for lunch yesterday, but it was important bonding/venting time with a coworker, and it was delicious, so I don't regret it).

Each weekday morning I've made a Green Monster, but I've made some slight variations since my original recipe.

Day 1 & 2:  Original Green Monster - delicious. The Magic Bullet does an awesome job blending the spinach and banana with the almond milk. I don't blend mine with ice (because the Bullet container is already too full) so I pour it over ice instead. It is MUCH better cold, so I've actually started putting it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before drinking it. I found it helps a lot, but if you blend it with ice you wouldn't need to worry about that.

Day 3 & 4: Original + a few good shakes of cinnamon - even better than the original. The cinnamon works great with the vanilla flavor of the almond milk. And it cuts down on the banana flavor, which I don't mind but I know some people don't like it. Another switch these days was swapping Vanilla Almond Breeze for Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze.

The flavor is exactly the same, but it's 50 less calories per serving. Only thing is, it's a little bit harder to find than the regular vanilla.

Day 5: I went to Whole Foods Thursday night to shop around for flax seeds. Leslie's blog suggests adding chia or flax seeds to the Green Monster for fiber and other nutrients; a coworker said she adds flax to her fruit smoothies and it gives it a slightly nutty flavor and keeps her fuller longer.  Whole Foods had two kinds, golden and brown, and not knowing the difference, I got a little of both. They were really cheap (like $1.99 per pound or something) so I think I spent less than a dollar for a reasonable amount of both. The seeds are whole, and I've read (and heard from Maggie) that you need to grind them up to really get the nutritional benefits. So Magic Bullet to the rescue, it turned them into powder in a matter of seconds.

I added two tablespoons of golden flax seeds to my Green Monster on Friday, and I wasn't too happy with the results. The powdered flax seeds seemed to absorb all the extra liquid in the smoothie, making it very thick and difficult to drink. I added a couple extra splashes of almond milk to thin it out. I didn't mind the taste, couldn't tell a huge difference. But even after adding more milk, the consistency was still very different. There were some small pieces of seeds mixed in, adding a bit of a crunch.

(Took the weekend off from GM's.)

Day 8 & 9: Over the weekend I went out looking for some type of protein powder to add to my GM's, in hopes of turning it into a complete breakfast and keep me full through the morning. After some brief internet research and some advice from my younger brother Ryan (he's recently gotten into health and fitness, hoping to go into firefighting after high school) I narrowed my choices down to two types of vanilla flavored whey protein. I ended up going with this one....

The other choice was a very intimidatingly large red container, I don't recall the brand. This one was clearly marketed to women, and it worked. Monday and Tuesday of this week I added a scoop of the powder to my GM's, and it turned out pretty well. It made the vanilla flavor a lot stronger than just the almond milk alone, but worked really well with the banana and cinnamon. Overall great success. It didn't consistency at all, so that was a plus.

Day 10: I added a scoop of protein powder and one tablespoon of golden flax seeds. The flax seeds still made it pretty thick, but a lot easier to drink than with two tablespoons.

So they're still a work in progress, but I really enjoy them each morning. They're delicious, very quick to make, and, unlike a bowl of cereal, I can multitask in the morning while drinking it (a serious bonus for me because, despite the fact that I'm waking up earlier now, I still find ways to be late walking out the door).

A big thanks to Leslie at And Her Little Dog Too for having such a fabulous blog and turning me onto the Green Monsters.

Veterans Day 10K

This morning I ran the Veterans Day 10K in Washington, D.C.'s West Potomac Park.

the Tidal Basin, 7:20 am, on my walk to the starting line

Washington Monument, 7:20 am, on my way to the starting line

It was a beautiful morning for a race and I'm really happy with how I did. I finished in 1:07:25, about 7 minutes under my goal time; but the most exciting thing - I ran the whole thing! I haven't even run an entire 5K without stopping to catch my breath, much less a 10K without stopping. Previous to this, the furthest I had run was 5 miles, but during the week I only run between 3 and 4 miles at a time. And during those I generally have to stop and catch my breath around the 2.5 miles mark. The difference today - a flat course. It made a huge difference in how I felt.

the start, 8:00 am, about 3,000 runners

Here's the breakdown:

Mile 1 - 10:59 I felt great. Took it slow to start because there were a lot of people and it was a little congested. When we hit the mile marker sign it felt like we had just started so I took that as a good sign.

Mile 2 - 10:57 I started to really warm up at this point so I took off my (Under Armor Base 2) long sleeved shirt and ran in my (Lucy) running tank top. I kept my gloves and ear cover/head band on the whole time though.

Mile 3 - 10:47 The course got really narrow at this point, so I feel like I spent a lot of time navigating around people or worrying about bumping shoulders. But I was still feeling good. When I hit the 3 mile sign it was officially the farthest I'd ever run without stopping. I was feeling really good.

Mile 4 - 10:36 I was starting to feel hungry at this point. I had a pre-race banana before I left my apartment, and a small cup of coffee while waiting around for the race to start (not even for the caffeine, but mainly just to be holding something warm), and it was clear my body had already burned all of that off. But there was nothing I could do at this point. My legs were starting to get a little tired, mainly in my quads.

Mile 5 - 10:30 I was really having to push it here. My lungs were keeping up fine, but my legs were tired. I mean really tired. This was now officially the farthest I'd even gone for a race, or any type of run really. I kept telling myself that it would only be worse if I stopped to walk. If I stopped to walk it would take longer to get to the finish and starting up running again would make my legs feel like cement blocks. So I kept running.

Mile 6 - 10:24 My fastest mile today. Still really, really tired. But I kept telling myself that I'd be disappointed if I stopped now. That's I'd regret it later. So I kept running.

Home stretch. Just .2 to go. There were people along the sides of the course by now cheering us on so that helped a lot. I was really, really tired but I sprinted (or what I was calling a sprint at that point) the last 10 seconds to the finish line.

Overall I was really proud of how my lungs were able to keep up. I never felt out of breath. Again, what a difference a flat course makes. And I was really happy that I didn't feel tired until the 5 mile mark. That last 1.2 miles was really tough, but I powered through it.

my 7th race bib, #1603

there's me post race - happy runner!

I've yet to pick my next challenge or race, but for now, I feel great.

A Lifestyle Makover : Week 1 Recap

So I'll be the first one to admit that I had some pretty lofty goals in Sunday night's post. I was even further reminded of how mildly crazy it all sounded when I called one of my best friends (I'd link to her blog except she doesn't have one. cough cough Ange cough cough get a blog cough cough) and in her own special way,  she called me crazy and told me I was over reacting. But crazy or not, I was going to try and stick with my goals for the week.

Here's how it went:

Monday: Woke up 35 minutes earlier than usual, made my first Green Monster smoothie, and even had time to blog about it, all while making it out the door on time and not feeling like a hot mess. Didn't watch any TV after class, went to bed early.

Tuesday: Woke up 25 minutes earlier than usual (10 minutes later than the first day, but hey, I didn't claim to have this routine perfected in one day. Made a Green Monster and was out the door on time. Went for a 4 mile run after work and made it to bed early.

Wednesday: Woke up 95 minutes earlier than usual (so, a full hour earlier than Monday morning) with no alarm clock. I had to be to a doctor appointment at 6:30 am, so I didn't have time to run (and it was still too dark out), it was too early to get ready, and I knew falling back asleep would be a bad idea. So I'll admit to watching 22 min of Family Guy on hulu while I ate my cereal. Went to bed early that night.

Thursday: Woke up 25 minutes earlier than usual, made a Green Monster, and was a non-hot mess walking out the door on time. Long day, very stressful, so by the time I got home from class I was exhausted in every sense of the word. A glass of wine and 45 minutes of Glee on hulu were the cure before going to bed.

Friday: Woke up 45 minutes earlier than usual, and went for a 3 mile run before work. It felt great, and I was on a bit of a runner's high through the first hour of work (it was swiftly squashed by some not so good news about a coworkers health). Did not go to bed early, the opposite actually, but the concert was totally worth it.

Saturday: Slept in a bit. I didn't eat great today, but not totally terrible. Off day for running because I have my 10K in the morning. I watched DVR-ed Grey's from Thursday and about 15 min on nonsense television while eating lunch.

Overall I'm pretty happy with Week 1. I was in bed a lot earlier than usual, and got one pre-work run in. Next week I'm shooting for two pre-work runs. Baby steps.  As far as TV goes, I don't feel I missed out on anything. I DVR-ed Grey's and the first episode of Conan, the only things I really wanted to see this week. I did watch a little TV via hulu, but I'd say it was a much better TV:Non-TV ratio than last week.

You may be asking, "why the hell is this girl over sharing this crap on her blog?" Well, jerk, I need some sort of public accountability for my goals. And I like writing. So shove it.

(That may have been a bit hostel.  Sorry. I'm sure you're really a nice person.)

Anybody else start their goals? How'd your week go?

e(period)p(period)i(period)c(period)

77. See Say Anything in concert
82. See Motion City Soundtrack in concert again

Yep, cross 'em off the list. It feels great to get a few more things crossed off my list (I haven't had any new ones since starting grad school), but last night's concert was beyond epic (hence the dramatic title).

I got there in time to see three of the four bands playing starting with Saves the Day. I think I've seen them before, maybe at Warped Tour or something. But clearly, since I can't even remember if I've seen then, they're not super important to me. Actually I only know one of their songs, which they played last (meaning it's their most popular song, so apparently they haven't come up with anything good since my Warped Tour days when I - may or may not have - saw them). But I do like that song a lot, so I'm glad I got to hear it. Reminds me of my pretending-to-be-punk-rock high school days.

Motion City was next, a co-headliner of the tour, and played about 50 minute set. They just came out with a new album, which I'll admit I didn't buy yet, so they played quite a few songs from that. I've been a MCS fan since their first album, I am the movie, and it's by far my favorite of their four albums so I was happy that they still include their classics in their set list. I got to hear my favorite song, and quite a few others that I love too.

But more than anything, I was happy to have Justin back at the microphone. Earlier in the week he announced that was sick and had lost his voice. They were going to continue to tour and have members from the other 3 bands fill in on lead vocals. When my sister told me this I was seriously distraught a little upset, but figured I'd at least get to see the other bands play normal sets.  I was thrilled to find out (via Twitter) that Justin's voice was back and he performed the Philly show the night before so there was a good chance he's be fully recovered for Baltimore. I wouldn't say he was fully recovered (I've seen MCS a handful of times before) because he was not singing as loudly as normally, but still rockin it nonetheless.

And I have a new punk-rock crush - MCS bassist Matt Taylor. He was adorable at the concert last night. Never really noticed him before (at shows or in their press photos), but he's really good looking. (In the above photo he's second from the left.) <3

Say Anything took the stage around 10:30ish, and it was pretty clear that they are who the crowd was most excited to see (myself included. sorry MCS, but I'd never seen Say Anything in concert before and they've been my favorite band since I discovered them in 2008.)

I am seriously in love. I knew this before the concert, but it's worse now. I'm in love with Say Anything frontman Max Bemis. Not in a homewrecker sort of a way (he married Sherri Dupree a few years ago, aren't their wedding photos adorable?), but in a semi-obssessed non-stalker fan sort of way. I'm not even sure I can accurately describe his stage presence, but it's part punk rock, part hip hop, part some other crazy factor that I can't put my finger on. But regardless of how I describe it, it made the show. Every song they played was like a more perfect live version of the songs from their albums, and Max rocked the crowd. Even the songs I don't like on their albums, I liked in the concert last night. They played all of my top SA songs, and I didn't think I had a favorite SA song until - BAM - they played Belt. They closed he main part of the show with this song (they came back and did a three song encore), and it was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Imagine you're rocking out in your car to your favorite song, like seriously rocking out (I often do this, so don't judge me), and then multiply how great that is by a million. That's how great Belt was. That degree of awesomeness varied throughout the songs, but like I said - in love, great show.

To back track a bit, the concert was at the Sonar in Baltimore, which (as I found out) is in kind of a sketchy part of Baltimore. The venue was (for anyone from Milwaukee) very Rave-esque. It was a small show, probably about 1,000-2,000 people all crammed into a very small space. For MCS I ws about half way back from the stage (about 30 feet), but for SA I got as close as I could (eventually about 10 feet from the stage). It was exactly what I needed after a long, stressful week at work - a night of loud music with a few thousand sweaty music lovers who aren't afraid to scream the lyrics at the top of their lungs. I gladly joined in, and I'm paying for it today. My throat is killing me, I've got a headache, and my left ear feels like I've got cotton shoved into it. But it was totally worth the hearing loss, 2 1/2 hours in the car, and close to 100 miles of driving.

<3 love

More 101 list items to get crossed off in the future, but this will definitely be a memorable one.

Three Things Thursday

I've needed this all week to keep my days going according to plan.

a variety of hot beverages to go (mostly coffee)

This is the only thing getting me through the week.

Motion City Soundtrack

Say Anything

And I'm strangely excited for this on Sunday.

the course

Here's to Thursday. Thank god it's over.

My First Green Monster

Well, as you can see, morning one was a great success. Last night I read a book for a while, went to bed early, and was easily able to get up earlier today. I got out of bed at 6:40, instead of my normal 7:15, and I'm enjoying all the extra time. I could properly dry my hair, and I had enough time to experiment with a morning Green Monster, recipe courtesy of Leslie's lovely blog that I'm in love with.

Gather.

(I cut the recipe in half, not knowing if I'd really like it.) 

1/2 cup Almond Breeze (the grocery store didn't have regulr flavor, so I had to get Vanilla, but it actually turned out great, so I suggest that flavor)
1/2 of a banana
2 cups (or 2 handfulls) of baby spinach
(Her recipe calls for ice, too, but my Magic Bullet doesn't really blend ice that well so I left it out)

Blend together...

This is what it looks like after about 45 seconds. Give it a few good shakes while it's mixing to make sure no spinach sticks to the sides

Ta da!

It was a huge success. Not only did my Magic Bullet blend it together wonderfully, but it was delicious as well. Way better tasting than I expected it to be. Normally when you add banana to a smoothie, it only tastes like banana, but this didn't. I think that was in large part to the vanilla almond milk, instead of the normal stuff. I don't know the caloric difference between the vanilla and regular flavor, so maybe there's a reason Leslie uses the regular stuff. But either way, I was very happy with how this turned out.

It was thick, like a smoothie, kind of frothy, and a wonderful green color (it may be a turn off to some people, but I thought the color was awesome). The whole process (from gathering ingredients to consumption) was less than 5 minutes, something I can definitely fit into my morning schedule even if I don't continue with this whole getting up early thing. If I run out of time to drink them at home, I'll need to get some sort of to-go container because I don't imagine it would be easy to drink out of a to-go coffee mug.

Very happy with my first Green Monster experience. We'll see how well it fills me up, but I'm bringing a yogurt to eat at work just in case I get hungry. Tomorrow I'll use the full recipe, and I'm going to look into adding chia seeds or flax seeds like Leslie does in her daily recipes. I don't know much about them, but if you do, leave a comment below!

A Lifestyle Makover

So I'll start by saying I hate winter. I hate that it's 6:15 pm and it might as well be midnight for how dark it is. My mind is auto programmed to think "oh, it's dark. day's over, no need to be productive anymore." That's not really conducive to my lifestyle right now (ya know, the whole 9 to 5 job thing plus graduate school at night) so I'm going to try and make some changes. We'll call this my lifestyle makeover.

Phase One - My Unplugged Project

Cable television is like crack. You don't need it. It's expensive. But once you get a taste of it, you find yourself doing things you never imagined before (like watching Real Housewives marathons, or DVR-ing Oprah), and BAM, you're addicted to television.

In my last apartment, I didn't have cable and I survived just fine. But now I needed to get it in order to get internet and I wish I never had it. So now I'm going to attempt to undo the damage done in the past three months.

I don't know who the hell has a tv like this anymore, but I thought it was cute. Reminded me of TV from Brave Little Toaster (one of my top 10 favorite movies).

I'm not going to watch TV this week. I never have time for it before work anyway, but after work it's such a time suck. There are so many other things I need to be doing with my time, but I always find myself glued to some ridiculous show for hours. Instead, I'm going to try and do things, like well I don't know, actually get my homework done ahead of time and read all of my assignments for school or get to bed at a decent time.

(Disclaimer: I am still DVR-ing Grey's. That's a 5 year habit no one can break ever make me break. But I won't watch it til this weekend, thus keeping with the week's unplugged theme.)

I am also going to try and limit my post work computer time. I spend about 7 hours a day at work staring at my computer screen, so I probably don't need to be spending another 2-3 at home on my own. I'm not giving up blogging or anything ridiculous like that (how could I after I made such an adorable blog design this weekend!), but just cutting down on my internet nonsense a bit (which at this point is almost at par with my television nonsense, cause seriously, do I need to be stalking running clothes online. no. absolutely not.)

Phase Two - A Sleeping Shift

To go along with unplugging for the week, I'm also going to try and get to be earlier and (really, really) try to get out of bed earlier in the morning. Right now I'm up with enough time to shower and get ready and run out the door. I'd love a little more time in the morning. Idealy, I'd like to run in the morning since it's dark by the time I get home from work now. But I think that may be a stretch, especially for the first week, but it's my overall goal in this sleeping shift.

I'm not running on the beach, but looks like a lovely spot for a jog doesn't it?

Phase Three - A serious diet transition

I ate like shit this past week. Seriously, it was terrible. And I can feel the difference.

I don't eat terribly to begin with, but silly little things like a Halloween work party and candy all around the office are horrible temptations for me. If I'm making such serious changes to my workout routine (by increasing my mileage and doing some strength training in the near future), I should have a diet to match. (When I say "diet" I don't mean some crazy list of foods to follow or counting calories, but I mean "diet" in the sense of what I eat in general.)

This transitions needs to start from the beginning of my day, my breakfast needs to be more filling and more nutricious so I don't feel the need to snack by 10:00. (Assuming I can follow through with Phase Two,) I am going to give these a try this week. I am in love with Leslie's blog, and I trust her reviews of the Green Monster drink. I like spinach, I like bananas, and I don't see any reason to not like almond milk, so here's to hoping I like them all mixed together. The only potential problem is that I don't have a blender or juicer, but I do have a Magic Bullet so I'm hoping that it will do the job. I'll be blogging about this later in the week, so stay tuned to see how successful I am.

I'll probably blog about one or all of these things throughout the week to report on my successes and/or failures. Fingers crossed, I'm going to give it a serious try.

35th annual Rockville 10K/5K

So today was my first cold weather race, and I'd say I was semi-prepared. I wore my running gloves, Under Armor headband/ear cover thing, leggings, and my Asics long sleeved jacket. I was fine during the race (actually a little hot towards the end), but when I wasn't running I was freezing. It was pretty windy, but the sun was shinning so that definitely helped.

the race t-shirt

It was the 35th annual Rockville 10K/5K (I ran the 5K), and overall I'd say it was a good race. Well organized, plenty of runners for both races, and lots of free food after.  There was a lot of time to kill before the race, and even more after because we waited around for the awards and door prizes. Oh yeah, the "we" was my friend Matt and I. He had been talking about doing a race with me for a while now, and we finally found a weekend that worked for both of us. This life long soccer player just started "training" last week, and he smoked me in the 5K. Well he would have if he wasn't such a nice guy for wanting to run the race with me. But eventually he kicked it into gear and finished about 2 minutes ahead of me. Great first race, Matt!

Next week is my first 10K and I'm really nervous. I felt great after the race today, but I don't know about adding another 3.1 miles on. I'll be happy if I can finish it in under 75 minutes, which would be about 12 minute miles; I know I run faster than that, but I'm planning on having to walk a little bit.

But back to today, I'm happy with my time. I finished in 32:51. It's about 20 seconds faster than my last 5K, so I'm still improving. I've got quite a few races under my belt now. Makes me happy to walk into my kitchen and see this...

my "trophy case"

Stars and Stripes Honor Flight

I had a chance to meet up with my Aunt Eileen today while she was in town as an escort for the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight; a program where WWII veterans have a chance to be flown to DC for the day to see the various memorials, including the WWII memorial (where I met up with the tours today). It's an amazing program, my grandfather participated a few years ago and had an amazing time. Each veteran has an escort for the day, a volunteer with the program to assist them with getting around (many of them are in wheelchairs or walkers) or anything else they need.

Some of the veterans in front of the WWII memorial (not sure who those three girls are, but they walked around with the group for most of the day)

The program does one flight a month, with about 400 veterans on each trip. I can't even imagine the logistics of something like that, but it such a great program.

It was an overwhelming expereince, lots of people, lots of the veterans were emotional when they got to the monument.

Rave and Scathe - Red Hook Lobster

So I stumbled upon a food truck mecca today on my way home from the monuments today. There must have been some type of event going on outside the American History Museum, because there were three food trucks parked out front. I've been following the Red Hook Lobster Truck on Twitter hoping to catch them coming into Old Town so my coworker and I could grab lunch. When I got up to the window, I got to chatting with the very nice Lobster guy; he said they're working on getting their VA food permit, so fingers crossed.

They've got a pretty good sized menu or stuff, all lobster related, but I knew what I was getting before even walking up to the truck.

Rave: The Lobster Roll. The picture does not do the taste justice. It was f***in delicious. I love seafood, but I don't often get a chance to have delicious, fresh seafood. This lobster roll was both. The lobster was served on a toasted, buttered roll, but I barely noticed it because the lobster was so great. There were huge chunks of lobster meat, lightly seasoned with Old Bay.

Scathe: It was a little more than I normally spend on lunch, but hey, it was lobster, and it was delicious.

The Cupcake Adventures : Part Six

So I've been stalking following Curbside Cupcakes on Twitter for a while now. They are a cupcake food truck (food trucks are huge in DC) but they never come into Alexandria, so I'm happy I got a chance to head into DC on the weekend.

Pinky 1 (Pinky 2 was elsewhere in DC)

It was starting to look like rain when I got my cupcake, so they bagged it up for me to go and I put it in my purse hoping it'd make it safely back to VA.

Only a little squished from the metro ride home.

I was very tasty. Reminded me a lot of Bittersweet's coconut cupcake, very dense moist cake with a ton of coconut in it. The frosting was good, normal buttercream with a dusting of coconut on top.

If you live or work in DC, check 'em out on Twitter. They've very good with updating their status, and normally make 3 or 4 stops throughout the day.