Fun Weekend!

Ed and I had the first weekend in a while (and likely for a while longer) where we didn't have much on our agenda. With just a week until my marathon (eeks!), my running load was pretty low, and so was Ed's, due to his awesome race last weekend. Granted, I had about a million report cards to finish, which certainly didn't wasn't totally ideal, but 'tis the life of a teacher.

Our weather was cold and drizzly (and by cold, I mean snow on the mountains cold), which made it perfect for sleeping in. We spent the first part of our morning enjoying a lovely, warm batch of pancakes, and then headed out to the Los Gatos creek trail to cheer on our friends Jenny and Amy, who were running a marathon pretty near our home.

(running San Jose 1/2 with Amy and Jenny (and Bill) in October)

I totally missed the right map and mis-planned our viewing spot (by the time we realized it, we had already missed them). But, the new plan was even better. We saw them right before the turn around, which allowed us to see them twice, since we could also catch them on the way back.

It was also perfect since it left us very near the dirt trails, which we ran to after our cheering. Ed headed up the mountain (I declined since doing a very hilly workout was not what I needed one week out from my race), and I took the more moderate firetrail out and back for a slow 5 miler. We finished at almost exactly the same time :).

Our second fun weekend adventure was to celebrate a very special person turning 23.

My sister, Kortney!

(Kortney her first night after moving to the Bay Area)

We figured that this was probably the first time since I was in high school that we've celebrated her birthday on her birthday, so it was definitely a treat.

We went first out to Sushi 22 Train

, a very fun place than transforms from regular low key sushi bar to disco lights flaring, music pumping, dj spinning, sake bombing atmosphere. It is certainly fun and spirited and we timed it just about right, enjoying almost our entire meal with the more relaxed atmosphere and then enjoying the high energy for the last little bit.

Afterwards, we were in serious need of birthday dessert so we headed to the restaurants near the movie theater, Red Robin and Mimi's Cafe. Red Robin's was first, but the wait was crazy, so we headed to Mimi's.

We could sit right at the bar and immediately ordered two desserts, beignets and brownie a la mode.

Now, I'll say right out front that my expectations weren't high. And, on the surface, everything looked fine. However, as I watched Kortney take a bite out of the beignet,

the oddest expression crossed her face, a mix of confusion and slight distaste, the "custard" filling burst out of the beignet with the consistency of stringy cheese. We both started cracking up and I decided I needed to try it for myself.

It. was. horrible.

I'm not sure what went wrong, but it was a rubbery consistency and atrocious. That said, Ed still ate 2, because, well, it was still technically food.

The brownie a la mode was certainly fine, though we had to order extra ice cream, because, seriously, those brownies were mammoth (and the ice cream was itty bitty).

And I say brownies because there were two of them, each the size of a small piece of pie (imagine two brownies from the picture above, with ice cream about a quarter of the size). We made good work of the brownies (in part to get the taste of those beignets out of our mouths), and then hightailed it to the movies.

Our choice? "This Means War".

 

None of us had really heard of it before, but it had the plus of being both a chick flick and featuring CIA agents who blow stuff up. Sort of a win win for a mixed gender group. We all were pleasantly surprised, even Ed!

Sunday was Costco trip, followed by report cards, followed by report cards, followed by...well you get the idea.

All in all, a very productive work weekend, with just enough fun to make it a great one.