Round Up August

What books and/or magazines did I read this month? 

• magazines: fitness, fitness RX,
• No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog by Margaret Mason. I have read this, but plan to reread it in September as it had a LOT of information for blog content!
• PiYo training manual - details below

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

Lie to Me: Season Two - We missed this the first time around so we've been catching up on series 2 (watched series 1 last month). I love psychology so I am really enjoying this series!

True Blood - LOVE IT! I cannot believe it's ending soon. They are doing another series though, hurrah for season 4!!!

Alice in Wonderland - I enjoyed this movie. It's not the traditional Alice story but a great film in it's own standing. Good effects and well played parts. I really liked the costumes too :)
28 Days Later -This started off with a conversation about the sequel (28 weeks later) and Bob and I got into a conversation about the first movie and Bob not seeing it, so we watched it. He hadn't seen it apparently so we now have the sequel to watch together soon.

What special days did I celebrate and how?

Bobs birthday! My husband hit the big 40 this year and although he said he didn't want a gift and wanted it low key (I honored that request) I did splash out with a major gift this year. Bob is notoriously hard to buy gifts for. I mean, what do you get the guy with everything? So rather than things, I instead bought him an experience! He's going on the ultimate racing adventure, riding a Corvette race car around a race track for a whole day. They'll kit him out in the gear and he'll spend the day in his favorite car speeding around  a track. Ultimate 'guy' day! Unfortunately I couldn't get him booked in till October due to work and other vacation time, but I'll be sure to post and update on that in October! Pics to come!

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

Plantar fasciitis in my left foot still. However I have found the underlying cause - sprint training! It seems the faster I run the more it aggravates my PF so during the last 3 weeks of August I did NO sprint training, and my feet have been a LOT happier!

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

Rachels Party. Rachel is Bob's boss and we have an annual pool party at her house (which is awesome). We all take food, there is alcohol and we pretty much stay till late chatting and shooting the breeze with co-workers. Good chance to meet the significant others too!

Jons Game night. One of Bob's work colleagues and friend Jon held a game night. it was touted as just an informal gathering where we could all play board games, have fun and get to know each other better. In all there were 5 couples and we met some new people which is always fun. We took Cranium which we'd never played before and Wow GOOD GAME! Really good if you have couples playing too ;)

If you're never played Cranium before I definitely recommend it. Our game lasted AGES but wow what fun! It's like a multitude of games all mashed into one :) We got the Cranium Wow Adult Game, though none of use was quite sure what made it 'adult'.  It was a tight race to the end between the Cannuk hatted team Lexi, and the Mohican Geek of team Bob (us).

As you can see the player pieces are much more interesting in the WOW edition, definitely worth it for these alone! Eventually though team Bob won out as the Cranium team winners!

After Cranium we played Apples to Apples, which was also new to us, but REALLY fun! This is a really good game to get to know people and how your friends minds work!!!

Another event this month was the PR event for Bobs game launch which I already blogged about, and lots of other dinners out to places we've been to before like Indian restaurants and Souplantation.

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

I made my own Channa Masala this month. Wasn't completely happy with how it turned out, but still working on perfecting the recipe. We both love Indian food so this is definitely something I'll be working on!

Went to Vegan Plate which is a Thai Vegan restaurant. I', not really that big on Thai food anyways but the food was ok. I keep trying Thai in the hopes I'll find something I really like. I do like their 'chicken' satay but the main courses were kinda blah. If you're in Studio City anytime check it out! After Vegan Plate we decided to treat ourselves to vegan icecream at Kind Kreme, for raw vegan desserts! Again I have to say I wasn't that impressed really. Sampled a few of their icecream style desserts: Mint choc chip - tried this cos it's always a favorite of mine and just didn't get the choc or mint flavor I was expecting, if you like subtle flavor then this one is great; Strawberry/Honey - wow! Should be honey with hint of strawberry, guess I learned the lesson with this one that honey and cold desserts really don't mix well, not a fan; In the end I settled on choc/fudge which was just ok. Overall again not impressed. I'd have preferred the Cherry Choc Chip Soy Dessert from Trader Joes! If you haven't tried this go to a Trader Joes NOW and get some = DELICIOUS!

The following two recipes were from the Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook we bought recently from Amazon. I've been trying to make a point of making some of the recipes so this month we tried the Walnut Mushroom Pate and Herby Scallop potatoes. The Pate was awesome, really enjoyed it. More of a dip than thick like a pate but good all the same! Definitely make this again!! The herby potatoes were a bust :( Too much garlic (and we love garlic). I think if I made these again I'd adjust the herbs and mix them together instead of layering like the book suggested.

New at Trader Joes this month are TJ  own brand Veggie patties. If you are vegetarian I say try them but we weren't impressed at all. Kinda mushed up veggies and pretty tasteless. I actually wonder if Trader Joes got any feedback on these cos they were pretty terrible. Think we'll stick to Gardenburgers for veggie patties.

Another new restaurant we tried was Veggie Life, a Vietnamese restaurant in south El Monte. First time trying Vietnamese and I think I'd definitely try it again. We ordered 3 dishes of food and got LOTS of food, so beware if you do go, you get a LOT of food for your money! Also quite possibly the best Egg Rolls I have ever tasted!!! You can see our main dishes below.

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Bobs birthday gift! Cost a pretty penny - but he's worth it!

What were this month’s disappointments?

Can't think of any - YAY!

What were my accomplishments this month?

PiYo training! PiYo is a mix of Pilates and Yoga and as I don't teach either of those class formats I figured PiYo would be a good start. I love the format as it's progressive and can be gentle and yoga like, core intensive with pilates but also strength building. It also has the ability to add in plyometrics too which is interesting in the mind/body environment! Training course passed btw :) And I got myself a couple of cool PiYo shirts, one is straight out the 80's with the scoop neck and baggy style but so nice for working out in! 80's fashions making a comeback again!!!

Anything else noteworthy to record?       

We took a tree out of the front garden! It was just a little thing when we moved into the house back in 2002 but that sucker kept growing! It was eeking out into the driveway so had to be cut back and we just figured, why not cut the sucker down? So we did! Bob wielded the chainsaw whilst I manned the ropes to ease the cut parts in the right direction.

Other than that the only other acheivement in August I can think of is that I ran for 11 continuous miles! Almost at my 1/2 marathon mileage! Speaking of which that is in just 5 weeks!!! Yikes!!!