2nd Thanksgiving!

I got back from Boston on Saturday night and headed up to the Lake for family Thanksgiving. It was a gorgeous day that started with a great breakfast followed by a run and then the feast preparation. Delicious!The post feast walk to the point offered some phenomenal views.

Touring Boston!

On Friday we skipped the Black Friday madness and instead meet up with my good friend, and Boston native, Sheila for a tour around this great city. We started in the Garden, headed over to the Commons, took in the Freedom Trail, perused Quincey Market and Haymarket, and ended up in the North End for an authentic Italian dinner.
The Celtics were in town so we headed to the Garden to see if there were seats, but only singles were available.
But...this turned out to be a good thing as our dinner will go down in infamy. Sheila has 4 favorites in the North End...she said the most authentic was Massimino's and she could not have been more correct. The host, Sal, took an interest in our group - a 40yr old, loud Italian - and made the evening more than memorable.
It included free glasses of wine for Melissa and later Matt, as well as free dessert for the table. Not only that, he also walked us to the famous Modern Bakery (with a stop at his mom's house who was thankfully not home). Quite a night!
On Saturday the road warriors headed out early while Mer and I slept in and enjoyed a lazy morning. Later we met up with Steven for an afternoon at the Museum of Fine Arts and a delicious lunch at Flour Bakery.
Now back to Lake Geneva for Sunday Thanksgiving with my family :-)

Thanksgiving in Boston

After a wonderful Thanksgiving Eve concert at the Vic with Beth, Maggie, Sarah and the very talented Joshua Radin, I headed to Bean Town. *Side note: Josh went to Northwestern and had gone to see shows at the Vic about 50 times and this was his first time playing there.

Johanna and Melissa had driven earlier in the week...I chose to fly....so they picked me up at 10 when I landed and we headed to Cambridge to Meredith's - a friend from Chicago who is finishing her first term in Harvard Business School.We cooked, we lounged, we watched the parade, the dog show (featuring great commentary by Melissa and me), and football, and hosted two of Meredith's Aussie friends. It was excellent, healthy and just the right amount of food. YUM!After some naps we headed to Cheers (super touristy we know) but it was closed...sigh. So off to Volare for translucent cocktails and a lot of insight into the male dating mind - ha!

GRIP

I have started volunteering (finally, have been wanting to for awhile, just hadn't gotten myself in gear) with GRIP Outreach for Youth. LOVE IT!The goal is life on life mentorship with high school students in Chicago. These kids do not have it easy - poor schools, most of the time hard family lives, etc. So, they are matched up with a mentor who quite simply does life with them.What this looks like is a 3hr SLAM session every Monday - which involves team competitions (there are 4 teams...I am on green - go Zing!), a message, competitions for points (winning team each month gets a pizza party), etc. There are consistently about 100 kids and about 70-80 mentors so we're always looking for more!While SLAM is super fun, the main goal is time "Outside the Walls" with the kids, in whatever shape that takes. I hit it off with one of the girls last night, so I am excited to see where this relationship goes!

Live Lean Finale!

I kind of felt like today was the last day of "the Biggest Loser" - not that we have ever done such a production of weigh ins/measurements...but after a month of working out really hard and eating right, Live Lean came to an end.My stats:
-7.5lbs //-9.5 total inches // -2.5” waist // -2.25” hips //-.75” chest // -.5” each bicep //-1.5” each thigh

I can do 7 more push-ups in a minute (and 6 more of those on my toes instead of knees) and 3 more sit-ups in a minute.

All that is fantastic, but I am more happy about how good I feel, learning to upgrade food choices, experiencing a cleanse, and being surrounded by such determined and motivating coaches and "teammates."

About half of us are signed up for BootCamp in December...so more early morning, butt-kicking workouts are in our future!

Cooking Club - Harvest

This past Sunday marked our third Cooking Club - first was Italian, then French, this time the theme was Harvest. Ashley did a great job decorating with real leaves.
For the event, Molly made wheat bread, I made a spinach/pear/cranberry salad, Crystal brought wine, Chi Chi made sweet potatoes (with a spicy kick - red pepper and smoked paprika), Ashley made pot roast, and Lynne made apple crisp. Delicious!
Oh...and my favorite - mulled cider!! :-)

LUMINATE Launch Party!!!!!!

My wonderfully talented and creative friend Lynne launched her company's website and video tonight...and boy did she do it in style - a black tie gala!! Almost a year ago Lynne broke away from the security of the corporate world to found LUMINATE - a marketing company dedicated to spreading the light of non-profits and ministries locally, nationally, and globally.
Lynne has put her heart...and most of her time...into launching LUMINATE and the results are spectacular. What better way to celebrate than with friends, colleagues, and clients!
Joel (guy with the glasses) helped Lynne create her video and he really deserves a huge round of applause...check back soon as I'll post the video as soon as I figure out how.
Lynne left no detail unattended to for the party - my flash didn't let me capture this moment correctly, but for the first ever viewing of the video she had glow sticks for everyone and we turned off the lights - extremely creative!
Please spread the word...spread the light...about Luminate - an amazing organization that will certainly exceed expectations every time!! LUMINATE Marketing!

Girls on the Run!

This morning...very early this morning especially after NTB last night....some of my Live Lean ladies and I volunteered at Girls on the Run which is a non-profit organization that organizes 10wk training sessions for 3rd-5th graders which culminates in a big 5K race. What an amazing sunrise!
Eve, Jen, Chica, Jessica and I volunteered as parking lot attendants. Admit it, you're jealous of our hot vests and flags!
It was so fun to see all the girls starting the race - so excited!
Love this organization's purpose - getting young girls active and involved in sports!

Better with Time

Last night was the third time this year I went to see NeedtoBreathe and even though they have been amazing each time, they're getting even better as time goes by. This was another visit to House of Blues. HOB is an amazing place to watch a concert and apparently to play one too as the guys kept saying how this was their favorite performance to date.
It was Johanna and Jennifer's first time - I'm pretty sure they'll go back!
These guys are such great performers - from rocking out on the guitars, to the amazing drumming, to some acoustic songs - here's Bear taking a break from the guitar to play some keyboard.
Bo got super excited for the second encore (The Outsiders) and started up on the piano.
Seriously, go see them! (Em and Andrea, I saw they're in Denver Dec 3rd!)

Cleansed!

The "infamous" cleanse is complete and I feel great! The "rules" of the cleanse were no caffeine, alcohol, glueten, salt, soy, oil (except for flax), and dairy. Plus we drank a shake of a powder packed with nutrients that helped clean us out. We were warned of adverse reactions at first with the shakes. The only side effect I noticed was the first day I was very lightheaded after I had the shake...but after that all was "good" (it tasted awful, really chalky, but drinkable).
Now, if we choose to, we're introducing the items above back into our diets and seeing how we feel. It is a good way to see we we have mild allergies to certain foods (especially dairy or gluten). I had a small cup of coffee after working out this morning and all went well...will try some gluten later.
However, I will try to keep all these foods in moderation because I feel less bloated and have a lot more energy with the primarily raw diet (this is an "I told you so" moment for Paulo who gave me the Thrive Diet book awhile ago which talks about how eating a raw diet takes a lot of stress of of your body because the foods come with their own enzymes to aid in digestion and absorption).
When the nutritionist spoke with us before the Cleanse, she advised that many people do a Cleanse at the change of each season and I think that is a great idea that I will try and stick with moving forward!

Will Run for Chocolate!

Kelly, Maggie, Jen and I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K this morning. It was a chilly morning, but sunny and little wind so a great day to run along the Lake.
The race started in South Grant Park and headed south around Lake Shore Drive and then back up on the Lake Shore path so we were enjoying great city views all the way back!
* note, picture from a previous bike ride...no shots on the course! *
The post race party was sponsored by Ghiradelli - dark chocolate fondue with pretzels, pound cake, rice krispy treats, apples, and bananas for dipping...plus hot chocolate to drink...I'm on the tail end of my cleanse and was surprisingly able to refrain from the chocolate and stick to apples and bananas.Afterwards the Kloak's treated us to a delicious brunch at the 33 Club in Old Town - great end to a great morning! Congrats Runners!

Good Luck Leslie!!!

This weekend Leslie and her mom Allen are participating in the 3 Day Walk! So I wanted to dedicate this post to wishing her luck and also celebrating my rock star friend Cara who is currently battling breast cancer (and winning I may add!).

Lots of love and luck to you all!!

(Cara is the one in the white polo and blue shorts)

Homecoming!

Okay...it wasn't my homecoming, it was Maryland's, but my long weekend in DC felt like a homecoming since I haven't been back much since I left for Copenhagen.

First up was lunch with Katie and Susan at Cafe Asia - delicious! Then back to the office to say hi to the few people I still know there.
Then I met up with Aaron at his office for a good - albeit picture-less - time of catching up. From there Katie and I were off to the District to meet Carla for drinks. We had planned on Founding Farmers...but didn't plan on how packed it was, so a good second was the bar at the Ritz.
Then it was off to Kara's for a great dinner with Kara, Chris, and Annabelle (who definitely missed me a lot while I have been gone!!).

Saturday morning Kara and I headed over to Megan's to meet Piper and visit with the adorable Ashley...as well as enjoy a magnificent breakfast!
Then we were off to College Park for the Wake/MD game. Tailgating was by far the best part of the game.
The Deacs getting destroyed by the Terps.
Then another picture-less time...a fantastic dinner at Spices with Jenny and breakfast at Whitlow's with Erin.

Then off to the 'burbs to see Amie, Alex, Sophie, Ava, Sam, Stephanie, Matt and James.
It had definitely been way too long...be back soon!!