Monday, June 14, 2021

Weekly Eats: More of the Same

 

A weekly roundup: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  I tried a new dinner out on the fam, had more adventures running in the heat, and had a wonderful job interview that I am trying not to get too excited about but I am really excited about.

Breakfasts

This n'that.  

Lunches

After a few weeks of winging it for lunches, I finally made a thai curry with air fried tofu and Costco stir fry veggies last weekend.  The recipe is a hodge-podge of every Thai curry recipe out there. 

I alternated curry days with eggs over breakfast potatoes.  I guess I should start calling these lunch potatoes, since that's when I eat them these days.

Over the weekend I enjoyed some fine grocery store sushi.


Dinners

Last weekend Skinny Taste's Veggie Lasagna Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms caught my eye.  I knew that I would like it, but would the family go for it?  And if so how was I going to find time to cook it?

It looked like a good make ahead candidate, so I prepped and stuffed the shrooms on Sunday.  Then on Monday I snuck away from work to throw them in the oven and boiled up some pasta and voila dinner was on the table.

My verdict is that I loved this, but I didn't get either a "yay" or a "nay" from the fam.  Hey, that's what happens when you try new things.

Tuesday: leftover tacos from Sunday.

Wednesday: the kids had dinner with their mom, hubs was out on the town, and there were just enough taco fixings to set myself up.

Thursday: was the first day of summer break for the kids, and their "Friday" with us before going to their mom's for the weekend.  So we decided to have our standard "kids" Friday dinner.


Friday: hubs and I went out on the town to the Italian place.  Yeah, we didn't get takeout, we went to the actual restaurant.  He had chicken parm and I had eggplant parm.  It was very strange and very wonderful.

Saturday: out to the drive in hamburger place.

Sunday: steak night!  The zucchini were pretty small so I pan fried them instead of grilling them and I think I like them way better that way.  Flank steak and portabellos from the grill, and mashed potatoes.


Workouts

I rolled with the punches for a very hot week and got 29 of a planned 30 miles.  

Tuesday was the disaster day when it was by far hotter and more humid than it had ever been before.  I was so excited about my workout of mile repeats that nothing was going to keep me from doing it.  

  • Thing 1: Garmin fail.  On my fancy new Garmin you have to press the start button twice to start a workout and I was a mile in before I figured out that I was "off Garmin".  
  • Thing 2: I barely made it through the second mile of the warmup and had no energy left to put into the workout, so it ended up being a crawl.  I thought I would still get six miles total but had to call it at 5.  
  • Thing 3: my hydration pack finally chaffed me.   With the humidity I was sweating on a whole new level, and the pack was pressing into my sports bra at just the wrong place, leaving me with a raw spot on my back.  Oh well.

Saturday was a 10 miler and I had the usual question of can/should I try to run that far in the heat.  And sure enough I did, though I came pretty close to bailing in mile 9.  I'll say it again, lots of water, lots of salt stick tabs, and lots of breaks.  I was able to keep them at 1.25-1.5 miles instead of every mile, though by the end I took them much more frequently.

Watching

I finally sat the hubs down to watch what is IMO an underrated Hitchcock.  Well it's also a movie with some issues, but I do have a soft spot for it.  Marnie came out right after The Birds and it's about a serial white collar (lady) criminal.  Then she meets Sean Connery and everything gets upended.  The trailer is pretty dopey but it's the best YouTube has to offer.

Reading

Still nothing.  I have my next book picked out, I just haven't had time to get to it.

Werk

I had the best interview experience this week!!!!  This is with the company that originally didn't want to hire remotely but couldn't find anyone that they liked locally (in a very large major U.S. city I might add) so they came back to me.

The hiring manager and I clicked from the start but there was something more.  I caught sight of her wrist a few times and was blinded by a huge white watch...there was no way..."hey do we have the same Garmin?" I blurted out.

Yes, yes we do.  She's run NY and Boston and met her husband while training for Boston.  The interview got derailed for a good 10 minutes.

The next day I had the full panel of talking to a bunch of different people in the company.  All of the them were great but the Director of HR was the icing on the cake.  Yes friends, another Garmin was on display.

Obviously I don't want to read too much into this or get my hopes up too much but...oh guys, all of my boxes were checked.  It's the perfect job with a nice mix of things I do well plus some room to expand into new things, awesome people, and the company is doing something Very Good in the world and making good money doing it.  Fingers crossed!!!

No news from the other company that's in play, and no worries since they're the #2 candidate now.  I mean it's a perfectly good job and I would take it to get out of my current situation but good golly gosh almighty I hope that the dream job comes through.  There's nothing else in my hopper right now.

Back at the zoo I had the most asinine conversation with HR at my current job this week.  Everyone is on vacation this week so that adds another week of employment to my tally.  Yawn.






14 comments:

  1. I know it's still early days but my prediction is that you've got the job. Hey, you can't have two interviews with Garmins-cladded HR people and then not get the job!
    It sounds perfect: you'll be able to excel with your niche expertise, learn new stuff and work with great people. Do you know if your future line manager is also a runner?
    Nice too that the company is earning good money doing something meaningful.
    I'm crossing all my fingers for you that this will work out. I guess you will know by the end of the week. So exciting!!!

    Oh, and thank you for using the word "asinine". I wasn't familiar with it. Very useful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes the manager is my Garmin twin! Asinine is a nice two-dollar word. I had a friend in high school who said it a lot because it kinda sounds like a swear word.

      Delete
  2. One of my co-workers was out last Thursday and Friday (mini vacay for him) and practically all *ELL broke loose. I got to work, Thursday morning, with 10 emails waiting for me (that had arrived after hours) from sales reps wanting to get their stuff back by "end of day Friday or Monday morning at the latest" (when they're usually granted a 5-business-day grace period). Yeah. UGH! I think the matching Garmins is a good sign...fingers crossed!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kim! I swear sometimes people hold things until they know a bunch of people are on vacay and then just drop a ton of "urgent" work on everyone who's left.

      Delete
  3. I'm glad you had such an exciting interview! The Garmins sound like the icing on the cake indeed! I pray it all works out!

    The heat has been something else last week. As a beginner, not acclimated to running, let alone running in the heat, it was tough. I made it to the trails though, over the weekend and run in the shade. But I'm so impressed by people that can do 10 miles in the heat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! It's been cooler so far this week and it's been so nice. Shade definitely helps!

      Delete
  4. I hope it all works out with the dream job!

    The heat was something else last week. Congrats on your 1O mile run in such conditions! As a beginner I am not a fan of the heat lol. But I did a couple miles of run-walking on trails though and that felt soo good!

    Ps: I seem to have trouble posting comments...my previous comment vanished. Maybe this one passes lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So sorry...I know it's a bit awkward with the moderation and having to have a google account. I only do that b/c the blog is my hobby and if someone left something malicious it might be awhile before I saw it. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave the comments!

      Delete
  5. Okay, all my fingers are crossed for your dream job! It sounds like an incredible situation.
    Nice job on the ten miler! Think how easy these runs will be when the weather cools down. I'm assuming you got the chafing situation fixed- remember KT tape is a good solution if you have an area that just won't stop chafing.
    I'm about to make a "hodge podge" curry recipe very similar to yours for dinner! Except I don't have an air fryer so my tofu won't be as good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah thanks for the tip on the KT tape! It's been a lot cooler this week so I've been running without my vest. If it doesn't heal up by this weekend I'll be taping up.

      Delete
  6. GL with that job. I hope you get. I mean the Garmin connection...

    30 miles is a lot. Good for you in getting close.

    I'm losing my mojo for running miles and miles.... Skipped my long run again last weekend. It's hard when you are not training for anything.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Darlene! The only reason I'm hitting these numbers is bc my coach thinks I can. 11 miles this weekend!

      Delete
  7. OMG, so cool you were "bonding" over the Garmins LOL Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks San! I'm really hoping to get this one.

      Delete