Sbux, we needed this.  And we thank you.

Moving on… Happy Mardi Gras, everybody! Or Fat Tuesday, or Pancake Day, or whatever you want to call it. I celebrated accordingly this morning:

This morning’s breakfast feast was muy delicioso: The Roommie made scrambled eggs and topped ‘em with avocado and hot sauce, The Boyf fried up some maple bacon, and I made lemon blueberry oatmeal pancakes and drizzled them with syrup The Roommate brought back from Montreal this weekend. Oh, yes.

Instead of a pancake, The Boyfriend poured some of the batter into the waffle iron that someone wonderful (me) gave him for Christmas. Doesn’t that look pretty?

I went with a breakfast burrito of sorts: eggs on a toasted Joseph’s pita with cheddar cheese and tomatoes.

Two things about this photo: I love that skillet.  It was a gift from my wonderful aunt.  Also, could my stove BE any messier? Probably not.

The final product.

I’m shortly giving up on the job search for the day.  Especially since my most promising prospect is for a writer specializing in the ‘Young and the Restless.’ The soap opera, yes.

Walking the dog is much more appealing than banging my head against the computer screen.

Blueberry oatmeal with peanut butter, wheat germ, cranberries, and almond slivers. Plus green pomegranate tea.

Is it snowing where you are? I guess New York, Philadelphia, D.C. got slammed, but the flakes are only just starting to fall here in Albany. Apparently it’s going to last all day! I hope the morning and evening commutes aren’t pain! Stay warm and dry!

See the photo in the background? It was my Christmas present to The Roommate and two of our old roommates who came over for a little holiday party this weekend.

The four of us lived together in college and we’ve been close friends ever since.  I have so many wonderful, insane, funny, and important memories with these girls.  I think this photo of the four girls living it up in the car pretty much sums up our friendships.

Weekend recap coming soon: Christmas cookies, party fun, and Sid dressed as the Elf of Holiday Cheer.

For now, though, I’ve got a bit of a busy week ahead of me and need to get a start on that to-do list! I’m working on a few guest posts and I’ve got a couple of things to wrap up at work before the break.  This week it’s also my mother’s birthday and my little sister is home for break. And somewhere in there I need to find time to watch my holiday classics: It’s A Wonderful Life and Love Actually.  :)

Oh, well.  I actually like Monday mornings because I don’t have to go into work until 1:30.  Currently I’m making a little chili and preparing some posts for the week.

But let’s recap the weekend: two big things happened.  The first was, obviously, breakfast.  For simplicity’s sake I threw together a scrambled egg pita with some swiss and oregano.  Scrumptious, but not radical, I know.  But focus on the wrap there.  It’s a new one I picked up at the market last week.

I am not the biggest fan of wraps and pitas and all that.  They are usually better for you than bread, but sometimes they have a weird taste or they are too bread-y and overpower the ingredients.  I want my wrap to hug my sandwich, not suffocate it, thanks.  BUt Joseph’s hit the mark: soft and chewy and not dry at all.  And the combo of flax, oat bran, and whole wheat flour really appealed to me.

Try these out.  You won’t be disappointed. I haven’t tried other Joseph’s products but I expect good things.

The other Moment this weekend was this small little thing that I remembered I have to do.  I happened to look down at my desk calendar that has been buried under paperwork for a couple weeks and I saw a date that was circled.  And then I did something that the Boyfriend absolutely LOVES: I said “Uh-oh!” and then went silent and got lost in my own thoughts while he panicked about what was the matter.

There is nothing wrong; I just realized that I am running the Turkey Trot 5k on Thanksgiving and I’m working this dumb temp job until the night before.  Meaning I’m working 60 hour work weeks until Thanksgiving, 8:30am to 11pm most days.  Meaning I won’t have that much time to train and I haven’t been working out at all due to the flu.  But I think it will be fine.  This is at least a motivation for me to find some time to work out, which is really a great stress relief and usually the only Me Time I have.  Worst case scenario? It will literally be a trot for this turkey and I will be the last person to cross the line.

I’m officially “in training,” I guess.  I met my cousin/running buddy at the gym Saturday morning and we ran a mile and walked a mile.  Then Sunday I went out for a run by myself (lucky Albany’s weather has been warm and inspiring!).  It is really tricky to get work-outs in on days when I work from early in the morning to late at night and I don’t think I can be too hard on myself.  Wednesday I have a day off from one of my jobs, so hopefully I can score some gym time.

Speaking of running, I need to run off to work! Enjoy your Monday, Blog Land!

I chopped up a Red Delicious apple with my new favorite kitchen utensil: an apple corer! I love the ease of it and I feel like I’m in an infomercial every time I bust it out! I paired the apple with two globs of peanut butter: Trader Joe’s Chunky PB and the New York Maple Peanut Butter from Peanut Butter Principle. And the Roommate and I split a pot of Twining’s Prince of Wales Tea with milk.

The cleaning of my cluttered desk is on one of the items on my to-do list today.  Tomorrow I start a 3-week temp job from 5:30-10:30 every night (lame), so I really need to take today and prepare for that! Most days of the week I’ll be working straight from 8:30 in the morning until 10:30 at night so I’m making meals ahead and freezing them.  And I’m preparing a couple posts for the week until this weekend when I can blog in Real Time again. Applepalooza is still on and I’ve got a couple more recipes up my sleeve (and a thousand more apples waiting in the crisper.

I hope I can take a break from my to-do list to take Jacky to the dog park for the first time since his surgery.  He misses his friends! I also want to read some of my new book.  Yesterday my dad surprised me via mail with this:

My dad is a computer-saavy guy and since I am, well, neither, I enlisted his help.  He assures me that this book is very accessible.  I read a little last night (in bed!) and it kept my interest, so I think that’s a good sign.  I was an English major in college and to me “book” means novel, not textbook.  But this series is written in a friendly, engaging manner, so I think it’s going to teach me a lot! I’ve been wanting to delve further into HTML, but it is really like learning another language.  I want to take a web development class in the spring, too!

For you bloggers, do you find that you need to know HTML and CSS?

Breakfast was all about apple-y goodness for me: I had a mug of hot cider with a bowl of apple oatmeal.  Chop 3/4 of an apple (and schmear the last quarter with maple peanut butter and devour).

Pour 1/2 cup oats and 1/2 cup milk over apples and microwave.  Top with peanut butter, flax seeds, raisins, and loads of cinnamon.

Apples! Spread the joy.

The four of us (the lady roommates and their respective boyfriends) went over to Cafe Madison for a laid-back Halloween brunch.  I probably cannot say greater things about Cafe Madison.

It’s casual-chic inside, but the food is anything but casual.   We started off with something I haven’t had in a long time: coffee!

And of course we toasted Halloween with mimosas.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!