Make Me Smile

I've been having a rough time at work lately. It's been a weird combination of stressful and boring that I'm having a hard time handling. Katie noticed I've been kind of bummed, so she set out to 'make me smile' on Wednesday.

She called me at work to ask if she could take me to dinner. Even though I usually meet up with the running group on Wednesday evenings, I was easily persuaded. We headed downtown to see if we could snag a table at one of our favorite restaurants, M's Pub.

They were able to squeeze us in, and I immediately ordered a glass of wine.

For dinner I ordered one of my favorites...the vegetarian lahvosh.

It is SO good! The lahvosh is like a crispy cracker, and I love all of the toppings that come on it. The roasted red pepper-cracked mustard aioli sets it over the top. Plus, it's huge!

Seriously, my stomach just started growling as I looked at the pictures again.

After dinner, we opted out of dessert at the restaurant, and instead walked over to The Old Market Candy Shop.

This place is so cute. They have all sorts of candy, taffy, chocolates, and fudge.

We ended up with a couple of truffles and some chocolate covered espresso beans. On the way home, we stopped to pick up a bottle of wine, which I had one glass of while we vegged out in front of the TV. A delicious dinner, chocolate, and wine? I'd say Kate did a great job of cheering me up!

Since I missed my Wednesday night group run, I was on my own on Thursday. I left my house around 7:45pm - trying to get the coolest temps without running in the dark. I logged 8 very hilly miles at a 10:00 min pace. Unfortunately, I forgot about a big concert/fireworks show that was happening the next night, so the park I was running in had all sorts of fences and barricades up. I guess it ended up making my route a little more "interesting". Although it wasn't sweltering out, I was still SUPER sweaty when I got home. I was happy to find some popsicles in my freezer!

I took Stella with me on my cool-down walk....and then I had another popsicle. And then I had some frozen yogurt. I guess there are some plusses to running in the heat!