… with my bike. I’ve mentioned before that I haven’t stepped foot on the treadmill since I’ve gotten my bike set up. My knees and mental health are loving the respite and I’m burning more than double the calories I was running (because I really wasn’t running far).

The old me would feel guilty, dirty and ashamed. “How could I cheat on my beloved running? Why would I want to? Running is the greatest thing out there!”

Fast forward to now. “Shut up old me! You are moving your body, burning calories and enjoying it! Running will wait on you and welcome you back with open arms, sore shins and a flare up of your turf toe. Relax, breathe, keep it up!”

Don’t worry running, I’ll be back. But you’ll have to share time with my new friend, cycling!

Yours truly, smiling even after a grueling ride.

So you know what…? I’m going to keep riding my bike. And hopefully keep loving it and burning TONS of calories. Now I’m on the search for a good beginner duathlon training plan to put into effect this summer. There are a ton of tri training plans out there that I could probably modify but if anyone out there has the lead on some duathlon training plans send it my way, please!

On a very much related note I really really really NEED to invest in some padded bike shorts. I have a lot of junk in the trunk but my behind is still getting super sore after about 8 miles. Not sure why I keep putting off buying them. Any biking clothing retailers out there want me to review your padded shorts?! E-mail me!

I’m 41/70 for this weeks mileage goal!

I am so anxious for spring to come so I can take this bike on the road! What are you most looking forward to about spring?

Friends of mine will attest that I love to play hostess, and I love using evite. In our years we’ve hosted an epic 80′s costume party, ugly christmas sweater soirees, highly competitive couples game nights, Harry Potter dork fests, OSU chili cook-offs and a whole host of other things. I just enjoy cooking, entertaining and spending time with family and friends.

So last night Mike and I had a wild party. OK, not wild. Actually, the opposite of wild. But totally fun nonetheless.

Snuggies & Schmucks! We invited a small group of friends over to have dinner and then watch Dinner for Schmucks. Our backup movie was The Town in case Schmucks sucked.

The first hour was chaos with Mr. Mizzles crawling + T&C twinners running rampant. It was a lot of fun to have the kiddos around albeit different than our parties in the past. Then we all had a yummy dinner. Everyone chipped in a different part of the meal and we had a delicious salad, lasagna, bread and cookie cake for dessert!

You know a party is a success when the cookie cake is almost crushed. (Don’t worry, Mike had the remaining piece for breakfast this morning!)

And surprisingly we watched the whole movie. Sure, it was pretty lame at parts but it kept getting some chuckles out of us. I would expect much more out of a movie that contains Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and Zach Galifianakis.

All in all we had a great time. A little different than our parties of years past where we would hold beer pong tournaments and wake up with earth shattering hangovers but just as much fun. I guess it’s all about the company you keep, and we’re lucky to have some great friends!

I made my cycling goal last week of 50 miles in 5 days! And yes, I had that delicious java chai latte as a reward yesterday! I also got a color and highlight done yesterday which was so beyond needed. I think I’ll set another cycling goal this week. 70 miles between now and end of day Friday. So, I better go get on the bike…

Oh, and another exciting note. My newest cousin Kyla was born just moments ago! (Yes, my family has some weird age gap stuff going on) Yay for baby Kyla!

Alright readers, I am SURE you have been looking forward to this post! You may remember I posted my January meal calendar. And a lot of you must have been interested, I think it was my most read entry to date! A lot of you also told me you’d like to do something similar. I swear it doesn’t take a whole lot of work.

Just download a word calendar here, sit down and start just filling it in with things you’d normally make for dinner and maybe a few new recipes too, mix in a few ‘take out’ days if that is something you do and presto! I am sure everyone uses a different grocery shopping system but I grocery shop twice a month so before I go I look at the calendar and make a list of everything I’ll need and then cross anything off that I already have in the pantry and ta-da! Sometimes we’ll have to do quick grocery stops if we need fresh produce but that’s about it.

So here it is!

Do you do any meal planning? Pre-cook meals? What are your time/stress saving tips?

Congrats Allison! You’ve won! Email me your mailing address at kimifowler@gmail.com and I’ll get a fresh pound of pirate’s brew out to you next week. Let me know if you want ground or whole beans. You are gonna love it, methinks!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Yesterday we headed out to Avon for a Hibachi dinner at Fujiyama to celebrate my father-in-laws birthday. Mike and I have both been to Hibachi before but neither my MIL or FIL had so we were very excited to take them out! I remember growing up on our family vacations in Myrtle Beach we’d always to to the Hibachi one night of the vacation week and it was always a lot of fun!

Well the good thing about going to Hibachi at 5:30 on a Wednesday is a wait of absolutely ZERO. We got seated right away and ordered up a feast. I went with the ninja combo (if just for getting to say ninja) with steak and chicken with white rice instead of fried rice. Everyone else got something similar and we anxiously awaited the arrival of our chef!

I’ve probably been to Hibachi no less than 10 times in my life and all the chefs put on pretty much the same show, right? Toss the egg or shrimp into peoples mouths, catch the egg in the pocket, build an onion and sake valcano… yada yada. But this chef did something I was not accustomed to. He took his squirt bottle of sake and aimed it at each table patron and viciously squited sake into your mouth until you said to stop! Is this normal? He did it twice even! I thought he was going to drown Mike and my FIL in sake!

After his little show we gorged ourselves on steak, chicken, shrimp, lobster, rice, veggies, yum-yum sauce… oh and this is after the soup and salad we had to start! It was DELISH. But a few short hours later I felt like a beached whale and hurriedly chugging water in a vain hope it wouldn’t totally kill my weigh in this morning. Ahh, well… it was worth it. My father-in-law only has a birthday once a year, right?

Don’t forget to enter my java giveaway, picking a winner tomorrow!