A Perfect Summer Night

Last night was an awesome night.  I headed home after work to meet my dad at the tennis court complex by the lake.  It was an absolutely beautiful night – no clouds in the sky, a perfect 75 degrees.

My dad is the whole reason I started playing tennis as a young toddler to begin with.  Growing up, I knew it was always summer break when dad would have Wimbledon on every t.v. throughout the household so if I was doing chores, I could watch the match as I moved around.  It’s one of those sports I will always be grateful I got into at a very young age.  Tennis, like snowboarding to me, is a life-long sport that I will be able to play until I am old and gray living in Hilton Head Island.

We got to the courts with about 30 minutes to spare before the next round of play began.  If you’re not familiar with how to “reserve” public tennis courts, let me give you a crash course.

Play begins every hour on the hour.

If you want to reserve a court, place your racquet on the court-specific peg board.  If your reserving it for an ‘odd hour’, ie: 7:00 p.m., place it on the left.  Even hour, ie: 8:00 p.m., the right.

If for some reason the people you are waiting for on court 4 get off at 6:40 p.m., don’t you dare remove your racquet and go to that court.  Wait until 7:00 p.m., so you secure the full hour of play.

I hope that was helpful 😉

Dad and I got to play a whole hour between 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. which was the perfect time before the sun went down.

After tennis, we headed over to the local pub Wilde to grab a couple beers and grilled salmon sandwiches on their patio.

It was a perfect summer night.

Well folks, I’m off to Lolla Land starting tomorrow aka Lollapalooza! Being the type of person I am, I have already mapped out the bands I want to swing by and already packed my backpack.

Bailey is interested to know what’s in my Lolla backpack, so I’ll share with the class:

1. Cash money – I opted out of the ‘Cashless’ wrist band option because that feels dangerous to me.  I’m on a money diet, so I want to know how much I’m spending!
2. ID, credit card, medical insurance card – My mother taught me to never go anywhere without it
3. Sunscreen & chapstick – FYI you’re not allowed to bring spray-on sunscreen into the venue
4. A poncho – This is just for Friday… 40% chance of rain, so who knows what will happen
5. Portable phone charger – CLUTCH
6. Refillable water bottle – I have like 10 of these, so if it doesn’t make it home with me I won’t cry about it
7. Ziploc bag – If it rains, I’ll put my phone/charger in it
8. Sunglasses – Obvi.
9. Granola Bar – pretty sure this isn’t allowed, but I need snacks!
10. Mini deodorant – no body likes to stand next to stinky people.

… and obviously my 3 day pass will be on my wrist.

See you next week!

Quick and Easy Balsamic Salmon

I have exciting news!!!!

 

… That I can’t quite share yet.  Mwahaha.

But let me just say my dinner last night was the bomb.com.  Balsamic Glazed Salmon with a Zesty Broccoli Salad.

The Salmon was so fresh and delicious – wild caught, of course.  WIN!  I used Brittany’s recipe and boy was it so so quick and easy.  You gotta try it!

Happy Hump Day, peeps!

How To Make My Favorite Baked Salmon

Since Brian and I went to the Cubs game after work on Tuesday, I didn’t have time to fit in my 4 mile run that was scheduled on my Half Marathon Training Plan.  It ended up being for the best because yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day to run outside.  It was the first time I have run outside in only a T-shirt and shorts since October!  I completed a really simple down and back along the lakeshore path… 2 miles south and 2 miles back north and it went by super quick because there were SO many people out on the path – Brian thinks it’s annoying, but I think it’s awesome.

When I got home I stretched for a little while then got right to dinner.

Enter my favorite easy Salmon recipe:

Lemon Garlic Salmon

Ingredients:

• 1 lb salmon filet
• 1 tsp. garlic lemon pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 lemon – half sliced
• Tbs. butter – sliced
• Tbs. minced garlic
• Olive Oil Spray

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
2. Lightly spray a baking dish with olive oil and place filet skin side down in dish
3. Sprinkle garlic lemon pepper, salt and minced garlic on top of filet
4. Top with butter slices, juice from half the lemon and the lemon slices
5. Once your oven is preheated, bake the salmon for 12 minutes until flaky with a fork
6. Enjoy!

We served this salmon with some asparagus and a side of tri-colored quinoa.

YUMM!

After all the clean up was done I had to go get ready for my soccer game that was at 9:30 p.m.  Sigh.  Maybe I’m just turning into an old geezer but there 9:30 p.m. games are really killing my sleep schedule.

What’s your favorite way to cook salmon?

Running Motivation

Hello Hello!

We are officially 12 days away from the Half-Marathon. Ahhhhh.  I stumbled across an article yesterday that detailed  what runners should be doing/thinking leading up tho their big event.

I found it extremely interesting especially because it emphasizes how much of a mental game it is.  I’ve been searching the web (mainly pinterest) for motivational pictures, words and saying and plan on printing them all out and hanging them somewhere to get me pumped up for the race.  Here are some of my favorites:

The article can be found here, and is a seriously good read for any of you who have a little time off on your lunch break.

Yesterday I perused through the pages while eating this delicious bad boy…

That’s right, I hit up the BOA salad bar because there were absolutely no groceries left in our fridge.  This salad contained mixed greens, shredded carrots, radishes, egg, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, bell peppers, a little tabbouleh, roasted beets and a sprinkle of blue cheese.  All topped with a simple oil and vinegar dressing. SO good.

After work I had a few errands to run.  First up, taking Bailey to the vet to get her yearly shots 😦 We went to a new Vet Clinic that is super close to us called McKillip Animal Hospital and were thrilled with how friendly they were to us and especially how well they took care of Bailey! Bailey did such a good job, she’s always scared of getting weighed just like all the other dogs in the room.  Why is that? She has put on a whopping 8 lbs since we rescued her from PAWS which is awesome because she was way too skinny.

McKillip is a walk-in clinic, so no appointment was necessary but we were in and out of there in 20 minutes. It was awesome! Bailey was thrilled it didn’t take long either…

“Get me outta here!” 🙂

After the vet, Brian and I parted ways and I went to Trader Joe’s to stock up for the week.  Trader Joes is always crazy busy on Mondays… And they were out of lemons! My favorite!

I got a bunch of other great goodies though, including what I had planned for dinner! Fresh wild caught salmon and vegetable kabobs.

I threw together a quick marinade that consisted of balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.

My parents got me an indoor grill top for my birthday so it was a perfect reason to bust that out!

Everything was so fresh and delicious which as you know is my favorite kind of meal 🙂

Brian and I have been talking a lot about signing up for a race to do together.  One that he is interested in is the Spartan Race up in Milwaukee which looks really awesome.  I did some research on it last night and found that registration is like $120! Even with the discount codes I stumbled across.  The race in Milwaukee is considered a “sprint” obstacle meaning the course is only just over 3 miles.  I feel like for that distance… is it worth the money?  Thoughts?  Have you ever ran an obstacle race?  How much did it cost?