Texas Lou

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!

Back around Easter, Ben’s mom decided to buy some chicks.  As a 4th grade teacher, she had hatched many eggs in her classroom over the years and then brought the chicks home to raise as pets.  These are the first set of chickens that she has raised in a long time and we have all been eager for them to start laying eggs.

There are 3 roosters, Big Red (the alpha male), Roger, and Adam (he was originally Ms. Pretty until we discovered he was a male).  The 3 hens are named Briana, Evi II (aka Evi 2 or Evi Too named after our cat Eva who we call Evi), and Henna.

Sunday, when we were visiting Ben’s mom, we discovered that one or more of the hens had laid their first eggs.  We found four eggs spread out in various spots between their hen house where they sleep and the fenced-in area where they eat and roost underneath an old Concord grape vine.  Unfortunately, before we were able to get to the fourth egg, the chickens all pecked it and devoured it.  That seemed like strange behavior to me, but I’m sure it’s not the first time it has happened in the history of the world.

Two of the first eggs laid by the Davidson chickens. We assume they came from different hens since they are different colors.

The chickens gathered together possibly hoping for us to give them food.

It’s been really cool watching them grow and mature over the past few months.  I remember how exciting it was the first couple of times we heard Big Red crow!  And I learned that roosters will crow at any time of the day, not just in the mornings.  I’m looking forward to lots of eggs from these beautiful birds!

A couple of roosters posing for the camera.

Looking for food

Underneath the grape vine

Beautiful Rhode Island Reds!

Big Red and his beautiful iridescent green tail feathers!

Roaming the garden

Almost every night, our cat Eva brings one of her toy mice to bed when she comes to join us.  Like a child needing their stuffed animal to fall asleep, Eva needs one of her mice before she can settle in for the night.  Ben and I will often wake up in the morning to find a mouse or two (and sometimes a q-tip) in the bed with us.

Last night, after Eva jumped into bed with her stuffed mouse that is pretty unrecognizable at this point, a scary thought struck me.  When we eventually have a house, where our cats may from time to time go outside, what if Eva finds a real mouse and brings that to bed?  I mentioned this to Ben and he replied that he’d heard of cats doing this before.  All I know is if I wake up with a real mouse in bed with me, dead or alive, I’m going to freak out!

A couple of years ago, I started posting about the number of blogs I was subscribed too.  This was when I first started blogging myself and was discovering the wonderful world of blogging and Google Reader which suggests new blogs that you may be interested in based on the blogs you are already subscribed too.

Over the years, I have continued to update the number of blogs I am subscribed to which has become astronomical.  I am now subscribed to 759 blogs!

Here’s proof!

While I’m definitely not able to keep up with reading all of these blogs regularly, I certainly never run out of things to read and I have the ability to read them anywhere I have an internet connection: home, work, my cell phone, my kindle fire.  My blog topics range from weddings and cooking to professional development (programming) and companies and organizations that I want to keep up with.  I even have most of them organized within categories which helps when I’m in the mood to read about a specific topic.  I recommend checking out Google Reader if you haven’t already.  It’s definitely one of my favorite things on the interwebz!

Friday afternoon, I met up with my friend/sister-in-law Sarah and my friend Amy to hang out at Fridays After 5.  Sarah and Amy were downtown looking for some last minute items for Amy’s wedding which is in less than two weeks!  I’m so excited for Amy and Joel’s wedding…it’s going to be a blast!

After meeting up with the girls, we stopped by Baggby’s Gourmet Sandwiches and then headed over to the Nook to join Sarah’s parents, Craig and Robin, for some drinks.

The girls and I downtown at Friday’s After Five.

After drinks at the Nook, we headed to the pavilion to watch Mingo Fishtrap play.  I’d never heard of them, but Sarah’s parents were raving about their music.  Plus they are from Austin, so any band from Texas deserves a listen from me.  I really enjoyed their music and they were great at playing several different styles and genres.

Mingo Fishtrap performing at the Charlottesville Pavilion

They even brought their own sign!

Amy and Sarah downtown

After taking the picture above, Sarah and Amy both asked if it was going on the blog.  Well here it is girls!

Ben and I were supposed to get dinner with our friends Cheryl and Dan who sadly moved to Tennessee on Saturday, but their movers came too late and they weren’t finished packing until well after dinner time.  We will miss them, but are planning on a visit soon!

After Fridays After 5, Ben and I randomly headed out to Sarah and Ian’s new house for a fun night with friends.  All in all, it was a perfect start to the weekend!  I hope everyone’s Friday was as fun as mine!

A few months ago, my mother-in-law was doing some shopping at Tuesday Morning and found something really unusual (well unusual for Virginia).  She alerted me of the 40 pound concrete stone in the shape of Texas and I knew I HAD to buy it.  Besides, I am probably the only person in Charlottesville Virginia who has an affinity obsession for items in the shape of the great state of Texas.

I made a quick trip to Tuesday Morning which always has awesome deals and got this Texas shaped stone at a steal for $8.  And as I was buying it, the clerk remarked, “Good, I’m glad someone’s finally buying this.  I’m tired of looking at it on the shelf!”  Well like they say, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure!

Since we don’t have a yard currently, my in-laws are storing it for me in their yard until we have a house and yard where I can proudly display it!