I know.  You have no idea what this is.

I used this recipe for tempeh chimichurri but substituted tofu.  My tofu looks really dense because I pressed it in a tofu press for like 24 hours.  (Side note: I have tried and tried to like tempeh and just don’t.  I give up.  It’s bitter.)

I kind of wanted to bathe in this chimichurri.  It was so good.  The tofu took a long time to marinate, but it was worth it because it was really flavorful.  Plus, if you didn’t feel like waiting, you could always use the chimichurri on other stuff.  It’s not really evident in the pictures, but I put it on top of the broccoli too.  So good.  Though if you don’t like cilantro (sorry Margaret), you probably aren’t going to feel the same way I do about this stuff.

What’s the last REALLY good thing you’ve made?

I managed to pry myself off the couch for long enough to make a decent dinner.  It helped that for some reason, Kroger had a huge amount of organic kale on sale.  This is not the norm at my Kroger, especially the organic part, but it made me happy.  I guess kale is trendy.

This was Ginger, Garlic and Chili Shrimp with Kale with Red Peppers and Olives.  I forgot to put the sugar into the oil, garlic and ginger for the shrimp dish and I wish I hadn’t because it was on the salty side because of my omission.  However, I used low-salt olives (which I would not normally recommend, but bought them on a whim) so the salty shrimp went well with the lower salted kale dish.  I mixed everything together and all was good.

And then there was dessert.

For the D week of Meatless Mondays from A-Z, the ingredient was dark chocolate.  To let you in on a secret, I actually much prefer milk chocolate to dark, but did buy some dark chocolate chips to bake with.

These were Flourless Chocolate Chip Chickpea Blondies with Sea Salt.  And now Jason knows the secret ingredient!  I put them in the fridge so I wouldn’t eat half the pan and then I realized that I like them even better cold.  Uh oh!

Neither Jason nor I are huge Avett Brothers fans so we didn’t know every song or anything, but they put on a really good show.  Except that it started raining.  A lot.  At first it was just sort of on and off and toward the end of their set, it started to really pour.  So we made the executive decision not to stay for the encore.  We missed hearing “I And Love And You” but we also missed out on traffic getting out of the lot, so I’d say it was a fair trade off.

You can’t really tell in that picture, but we’re soaking wet.  Made for a nice 45 minute drive home. Since the forecast showed rain all weekend, we were prepared for our Saturday concert, Party in the Park and brought rain ponchos.

Party in the Park is a festival in Centennial Olympic Park with a bunch of bands.  This year the headliners were Passion Pit.  Jason and I went last year when the Flaming Lips were headlining and had a really fun time.  So, we decided to get tickets again this year with our friends Joan and Sean.

The first thing we noticed that was different this year was that everyone was younger than us.  Like significantly so.  Like high school aged.  And the second thing was that apparently high school aged girls all wear high waisted booty shorts that look like they’re from 1992.  When did this become a thing?  Seriously.  I think my friend Joan summed it up best on Facebook.

There really was an inappropriate amount of butt cheek showing.  But what was the most shocking to me was these acid washed high waisted jean shorts.  They weren’t on just one or two girls; like every girl that was age 15-18 had them on.  What?  Or more appropriate, why?  Also, I did see several fanny packs.

The music was okay, but we mostly entertained ourselves by people watching.

It was more fun to chat with our friends during the day but as it got darker out, we got sort of bored so we ended up leaving before Passion Pit even came on and went and got burritos.  Burritos > high waisted booty shorts.

I realized, while on the MARTA going home, that my license was MIA.  Awesome.  Now some high schooler is probably using it as a fake ID and I have to figure out how to get a replacement.

At least we never ended up needing the rain ponchos.

So when Mizuno offered to send me some shoes to try out, I was all about it.  Atlanta friends, did you know that Mizuno is headquartered in Norcross?  I had no idea and I work in Norcross.

What’s cool about their site is that you can take a quick fit test and it’ll tell you which shoe is right for you.  There are like five questions, including one about how far you can bend your finger.  Apparently if you can bend it far back (which I can), it means it’s hyper-mobile which can cause pronation or ankle issues if your calves aren’t well developed.  Fortunately, though I have bendy fingers, I have pretty strong calves.

The fit test recommended the Mizuno Wave Inspire 9s.  Unfortunately, they were on back order until July, so they sent me a pair of Mizuno Wave Elixer 8s in the meantime.  Two pairs of shoes?!  Mizuno is awesome.

The Elixers came a couple of days ago.

I was sort of surprised when I opened up the box to see that they were bright neon!

I’m digging this neon trend going on.  They matched my shirt.  It’s much more of a neon green than it looks in this picture.

From what I’ve read about them, the Elixers are basically the closest you can get to a minimalist shoe without actually being a minimalist shoe.  Now, I want to preface this by saying that I’ve never tried a true minimalist shoe before, so I have no idea how these compare.  That said, I could definitely tell that there wasn’t as much cushioning as my typical shoes (the ill-fitting Nikes or others that have fit better.)  They offered good support and they weren’t too wide (which is sometimes an issue for me), but I wasn’t quite sure about the feel when my foot struck the ground…errr treadmill.  I kind of missed the cushioning and the balls of my feet sort of hurt, you know, as if I was running without shoes.

It’ll be interesting to see if I grow to like the way these feel or if I decide that a semi-minimalist shoe is not for me.  It could go either way.

Have you ever tried a minimalist or close to minimalist shoe?

Disclaimer: Mizuno provided me these shoes free of charge.  All opinions are my own.

I swear I have a point here and am not dedicating an entire blog post to talking about the weather.  My point is that while it was unseasonably chilly for May, it was perfect running weather.

I’m an evening worker-outer.  It’s not so much that I’m not a morning person, because I tend to get up on the early side on the weekends (the early side being anywhere from 6:30-8:30), but I value my sleep during the week and less than 7.5 – 8 hours makes me cranky.  Because Jason wakes up around ten to go to work, it’s very hard for me to go to sleep before then and it ends up being disruptive to both of our schedules when I do.

So, I work out after work.  I guess you figured that from the long-winded paragraph above.  Though I don’t mind it at all, I’m definitely not itching to run the second the clock turns six.  If I’m itching to do anything, it’d be to sit on the couch.  Or eat.  Can you be itching to eat?  I’m pretty good at making myself exercise when I don’t want to though, whether that’s driving to the gym or driving home and immediately running outside.

Since the weather was nice, I went with the latter.  Only problem was, my headphones, which I usually leave in my car, were nowhere to be found.  I probably left them at work but I’m not sure.  I’m really picky about headphones.  I use the old-school over the ear type because I cannot find ear buds that don’t hurt my ears. I think I have really little ear holes or something.  While I could have borrowed a pair of Jason’s [hurting] ear buds, I just decided to run without music.

I know that running without music is the norm for some people.  I am not those people.  I have to have my music when I run and it has to be specific songs that I deem run worthy.  But today, I didn’t have any of that.  I ran three miles.  A mile and a half out and then a mile and a half back.  For the first mile, Raspberry Beret was in my head.  It was almost like I had an iPod on repeat with that song, but only the chorus.  Where it came from, I have no idea.  So, after my Prince jam was over, I mostly started thinking about work and also the weekend and the three miles without music went by relatively quickly, which was surprising.

Then I got home, took a dorky iPhone picture about my three miles and made a casserole.

The first order of business, before any festival-going, was to get lunch.  Jason suggested Mediterranean food and I looked for something on Yelp and came up with The Lazy Goat.  It was right on the river, near the festival.

We started out with the Harissa whipped hummus, which was served with veggies and warm pita.

It wasn’t bad, but I thought it was on the bland side and definitely didn’t taste of harissa, which is supposed to be spicy.  We decided to split two entrees – the Grilled Veggie Wrap and the Lazy Plate with chimmichurri shrimp.

Though they both sounded good, they just weren’t.  The veggie wrap wasn’t bad, but it was oily.  The shrimp was overcooked and charred and it just wasn’t a lot of food for the $15 price tag.  (The veggie wrap was a good deal though.)  The meal wasn’t bad, it was just one of those mediocre meals where you wish you’d gone elsewhere.

Disappointing meal aside, we had a fun time at the Artisphere.

We walked around looking at the different booths.  It wasn’t much different than the many art festivals we have here in Atlanta, but it was still fun to browse and I felt like they had different artists that I hadn’t seen before, though many were from Georgia.

In addition to art for sale, there were a lot of artists at work and interactive activities which were fun to see.

(I liked that one, as you can tell!  I don’t know what I would write on it.  Hmm.)

It had been threatening to rain all morning and as soon as we felt the first few drops, we ran for cover.  Cover just happened to be a wine tasting tent.  Convenient, no?

Though I have no idea if it’s considered a good wine or not, I liked that Bonterra Saugivnon Blanc and oddly enough, also really liked the Seven Daughters Moscato.   (I say “oddly enough” because I’m not normally a fan of sweet wines, but this one tasted like cream soda!)

This was the cheese and accoutrements plate if you were wondering.

The rain let up pretty quickly and we enjoyed the festival a little more.

We also explored some of the shops on Main Street and I got a pretty necklace.  It was a really nice day.  Greenville is a cute little city.  It’s too small for me to want to live there, but it’s really nice for a day trip.

Kristen from The Concrete Runner tagged me with the Liebster Award.  The Liebster award is is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers by another blogger who sees them as a blogger who is “up-and-coming.”  (Thanks, Kristen!)

So, this is how it works, I’m supposed to:

1. List 11 random facts about myself
2. Answer the 11 questions that Kristen wrote for me
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers 
4. Create 11 questions for the bloggers I’ve nominated
5. Display the Liebster badge

So, I’ve done these random things about me posts before and I tend to always give the same random facts (my hair was straight until I hit puberty, I played rugby in college etc), so instead, I thought I’d go with 11 random pictures that I have on my phone.

1.  An airboat tour in Florida
2.  Clouds outside of my office
3.  Dave Matthews Band
4.  The Flaming Lips
5.  With Murphy at a local park last summer 
6.  Jason
7.  Froyo
8.  Sleepy puppy
9.  Licky puppy
10.  Sunset at Six Feet Under
11.  A nice sign in a bathroom

Here are Kristen’s questions:

1.  What do you want to be when you “grow up”?

I’m still trying to figure that one out.  Professional napper probably doesn’t pay the bills, does it?

2.  What is your favorite sport to play or watch?

Despite the whole running thing, I’m not a very athletic person and I’m not good at most sports.  Really that means that I’m not good at throwing a ball.  I’m not really into watching sports either, though I enjoy going to a baseball game sometimes.

3.  If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I would like to travel the world first before I make that decision.  Though I’ve been to a lot of places, I don’t feel like I’ve been somewhere (yet) that I feel like I could totally pick up and move there.

4.  What is your favorite pair of shoes?

Probably my teva flip flops.  They are so comfortable.

5.  What bones have you broken and how did you break them?

None!  Unless you count when I was in 7th grade and had a stress fracture in my foot and had to wear a cast.  I don’t really know what caused that, actually.

6.  What is your favorite book or movie of all time?

The Art of Racing in the Rain is up there for the books.  Up for the movie.  Did I mention that I like dogs?

7.  Are you introverted or extroverted?

I’m kind of both.  I’m shy, but I like being around other people and don’t like being alone.  I can definitely be very quiet if I don’t know anyone and I’m not particularly good at small talk.

8.  Besides blogging, what other hobbies do you have?

Well, it’s mostly stuff that I blog about – running, working out, cooking healthy food, photography, reading, napping.

9.  Do you have any hidden talents?

I have very good navigational skillz.  I know how to get anywhere.

10.  How far do you live from your childhood home?

About 600 miles.  I live in Atlanta, GA and grew up in Rockville, MD.

11.  What’s your favorite dessert?

See picture number 7.

And…. I’m too lazy to do the rest.  Do I get my award taken away for not following the rules?  Tell me if you’re an introvert or an extrovert (or an introverted extrovert like me).

And on Monday, when I wanted to make the cabbage recipe that I found, I felt like I had to make the fish instead or it would go bad.  So I did.  And you saw it.  But for some dumb reason, I made four servings.  Note to self: don’t make four servings of something that doesn’t keep that well, especially when it’s something that your husband doesn’t like.  Long story short, I’ve been eating leftover salmon for the past couple of days and missed the Meatless Monday link up.

BUT… I finally made what I intended to make.  Meatless Wednesdays will have to do.

I decided to make Pad Thai Salad with my cabbage.  My photo is not nearly as pretty as the original recipe and I left out a bunch of things because I forgot to buy them (bean sprouts, cashews and chili peppers, to be exact), but it still tasted good.  I added a tiny bit of stevia to the dressing (the dressing that I used peanut butter and coconut milk instead of almond butter and almond milk but same difference, right?).

All in all, a flavorful light meal.  I bet this would be good with some tofu or even some shrimp.  Though I suppose shrimp would defeat the whole Meatless Monday…errr… Wednesday thing.

We went to Raging Burrito in Decatur.  Since it was Sunday, it was more laid back than it would have been had Cinco been on Sabado.  We went back and forth deciding on whether or not to get chips and guacamole but when our server said they were having a guacamole special, our minds were quickly made up.

While the guac was good, I wouldn’t say it’s the best.  It’s too creamy.  I like when guacamole has big pieces of avocado in it.  That didn’t stop me from shoveling it my face though.  And it’s not Cinco de Mayo without a margarita.

Honestly, I don’t really like margaritas, but I felt like it was right to order one, so I did.  I had the Skinny Margarita which was made with agave and lime juice instead of sour mix.  I don’t know that it really has less calories, but I don’t like the taste of sour mix so it worked for me.

For my meal, I had the two taco plate with one Fajita Veggie Taco with mushrooms and one Tofu Taco.

They were both good, but I liked the fajita veggie one more.  That margarita really did me in though and I was sort of a waste of space for the rest of the day.  This is why I don’t drink during the day.  Lesson never learned.  Really all that happened was that I fell asleep on the couch for a while.  Honestly, that probably would have happened regardless, but I felt lazy and unmotivated the rest of the day.

So we watched a movie – Celeste & Jesse Forever.  While I thought it was good (I love Rashida Jones), I also thought it was extremely depressing and sobbed through the entire thing.

And now here it is Seis de Mayo and it’s still freaking cold out.  See how I’m wearing a sweatshirt?!  Can I remind you that I live in Georgia?  HOTlanta?

Murphy is clearly over my incessant instagram picture taking.

Since my food yesterday was on the heavy side, I went with something lighter for dinner tonight.

Cooking salmon at home is always sort of hit or miss for me, but this Roast Salmon with Whole Grain Mustard Crust was a hit. Salmon and brussels sprouts definitely cancels out chips and margaritas, right?

• Painted master bedroom and installed new baseboards
• Removed wallpaper from hallway, skim coated walls and painted.  Installed new baseboards
• Painted master bathroom; installed row of accent tile
• Painted foyer
• Hired someone to paint kitchen and living room
• Filled in pass through in kitchen
• Put in new kitchen cabinets
• Put in new front and side door and also bedroom door

I think that’s it, though I could be forgetting something.  So yeah, we’ve done a lot, but there’s still a lot more to be done.  Our master plan is to get our house really nice, enjoy it for a couple more years and then sell it and move back into town.  We’re thinking this might take around five years to actually do, but that’s okay.

Our last project was the doors (which we hired someone to do; I had nightmares of us trying to do it ourselves, having problems and having no front door!) which was a couple of months ago.  We often will take a break for while and then decide what to tackle next.

Jason has been wanting to re-do our deck since we moved in.  Honestly, it never really bothered me, but it was old and instead of railings there were benches, which weren’t up to code.  I can’t seem to find a picture of the old deck (my husband does not seem to share in my “take a before picture of everything” rule.)  But here’s what it looks like now.  Yikes!

We’re going to hire someone to lay out the base and then we are going to do the boards ourselves.  As you can see, it’s only half destroyed.  Jason wanted to finish yesterday but the weather was not cooperating.

At first, we thought we’d take advantage of the wet ground and since we’d get muddy anyway, we were going to plant some flowers in the front yard.  We drove to Home Depot and realized that not only was it raining pretty hard, but it was COLD out.  So the flowers got nixed.  Instead, Jason installed an outlet in our attic (which totally freaks me out when he does electrical stuff!) and I thought about paint swatches for our sunroom.

Ignore the mess and the bad photo quality; it’s still really rainy and dark out.

This room leads out to the deck and we don’t exactly know what to do with it.  This furniture is sort of extra stuff that we had and you can’t see it, but this room also houses dog food, recycling bins and random other crap.  We still haven’t figured out what exactly we’re supposed to put in it, furniture-wise, but one thing that I want to do is change the color of the walls.

Our yard has a lot of trees and unfortunately, we don’t get much natural light at all because of it.  The sunroom is one of the few rooms in the house that does get some light so I’m not sure why it’s painted this deep red color.  It definitely needs to be lightened up a lot!

Do you like doing home improvement projects?  And what sort of furniture should we put in the sunroom?