Apr 28 2013
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Friends and Family

Day 216: Outdoor Cooking, Book Club

It’s finally beautiful in Chicago which means it is time to cook outdoors. Sunday for “book club” friends hosted everyone, grilled veggie, turkey and cow burgers, and showed off the newly decorated nursery. They even made a chocolate bourbon cake with strawberry frosting and a strawberry glaze!

All this to make up for the fact that book club is totally defunct. No one is reading the books. No one has any time. People are traveling and working and having children and expanding their businesses and going outside. And that is just fine, although I have enjoyed reading books that I might not otherwise have found. I may take on the rest of the reading list alone or maybe I’ll finally finish Game of Thrones…

Regardless of book club destruction, I had a lovely evening of grilled meats, summer salads and friends.

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Apr 27 2013
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Fitness, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Solitary Fun

Day 215: Walk Progress

Elphie and I walked alone today and went 2.31 miles! It took us 41 minutes, 19 seconds with a minutes per mile average of 17 minutes, 51 seconds. Again, I know all of this because of Map My Walk, which I mentioned last week in my first post about walk training.

MMW uses GPS to track my walk as I go and saves all of my data from every walk I’ve recorded. I can look back through the history to see if I’m improving my mile time, if I’m habitually taking the same route, or if I am actually walking as much as I think I am. I can even specify between dog walk (at times more erratic with pauses) and regular walk (better pace control, no pauses). MMW keeps me honest and motivates me to do better.

I was pretty proud of the 2.31 miles today. My knees aren’t to keen on it now but that is something I’m continuing to work on. I just love the feeling of getting stronger for the Arthritis Walk!

As always, if you want to join my team or donate, click here

Apr 26 2013
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Chicago Specific Fun, Food/Drink Fun, Fun for Couples, Nightlife

Day 214: Farmhouse Tavern

The hubs and I had an impromptu date night tonight. At work, one of my apprentices mentioned the restaurant she works at, Farmhouse Tavern, and recommended I try it. “Why not tonight?” I thought.

We made a reservation and went to dinner knowing only that they serve farm to table food. What we found was excellently prepared American and Southern influenced dishes accompanied by local craft beers (on tap!) and excellent service. The staff (unfortunately we couldn’t sit in my apprentice’s section) knew so much about the food, what beers to pair it with and were all around cool people. It was great to have such a good experience in a place more akin to a chill bar than a fancy restaurant. Farmhouse Tavern definitely makes the rotation.

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Apr 25 2013
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Around the House/DIY, Fitness, Friends and Family, Online Fun, Rheumatoid Arthritis

Day 213: T Shirts are Fun

Today I designed and ordered the T-shirts for Team Year of Fun for the Chicago Arthritis Walk!

At first, I was disheartened by the lack of mint colored shirts or fonts on all of the design-your-own T-shirt websites. When I finally found one that had a minty font, the shirts ended up being really expensive. Then my fellow walker (leader of Team Psoriatic Arth-Fight-This in New York) told me about ooshirts, a really affordable site.

I compromised a little on my color plan but ended having a lot of fun designing and ordering shirts for my team. I can’t wait for them to arrive!

Oh, and I ordered extras in case more people want to join the team…

Apr 24 2013
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Around the House/DIY, Chicago Specific Fun, Fitness, Food/Drink Fun, Friends and Family, Fun at Work, Fun for Couples, Games, Guilty Pleasures, Holiday Fun, Nightlife, Online Fun, Outdoor Fun, Pamper/Beautify, Reader Suggested Fun, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Solitary Fun, Theatre Fun, Travel Fun

Day 212: The Oldest Post

This is the oldest post I never wrote. Day 212. April 24. APRIL TWENTY FOURTH?! It was a Wednesday. According to my calendar, I had my regular Wednesday work meetings. Nothing else.

Well I hope Barbara Streisand had a happy birthday!

 

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