It was already a balmy 60 degrees when I left the house yesterday morning – love! I think my ideal temps would be from 50-70 degrees, no humidity. That’s not too much to ask of Chicago, is it?! I made a mason jar parfait for my train breakfast – one container Chobani (2), strawberries, bananas, a little drizzle of sugar free pancake syrup and 1/2 tablespoon chia seeds (1).
I am loving our new work space. What I am not loving is that the stuff my bosses don’t want in their offices has somehow piled up at my desk, and I am not a happy camper about that. I still have four boxes of stuff I need to unpack, but now have no where to put it. Hopefully I’ll have some down time today to find a spot to put their stuff. My boss had a lunch meeting, but he was the only one getting food. Normally hospitality takes care of food, but I told the woman who normally orders food not to worry about it (she’s still getting situated too, with new food options around our new office, etc.). Hannah’s Bretzel is right around the corner, so I picked a sandwich up for my boss, and got a fruit bowl and a small container of almonds (4) for myself.
Note to self: buy fresh mint and put it on all your fresh fruit. It was so good!! I could eat a giant container of that fruit.
My sister has been off the last two days, so I’ve gotten my walking shoes on. Yesterday I walked to Millenium Park and Maggie Daley Park – such a pretty walk. By the time I got back to my desk, I was already at 10,000 steps! Right now I am in two fit bit challenges for the week, and it does push me to get more steps in every day.
When I got home, the kadults found out that their house closing is being pushed back a week. This is a sellers market, and the appraisal wasn’t going to get finished in time. I know they are so anxious to move out, but this is just a small bump in the road. Hannah is so cute, she went to Aldi yesterday and bought all the staples for her new kitchen – seasonings, flour, sugar, etc. They both keep asking “what else do you think we need?” I told them they should just wait to move in and then decided what’s necessary, instead of buying something you may not use (a crock pot!).
And you know I have so much kitchen stuff, I told Hannah she could take anything she wanted. Well, except the deep fryer. She can’t have that. Or my cast iron skillets. She can’t have that either. Kidding! I plan on giving her a couple of my cast iron skillets, but I am serious about keeping the deep fryer.
They suggested we go out to eat, and even though I had stuff to make burgers at home, we went to our local restaurant and sat outside and had wonderful conversation. As I sat there listening to them talk, I looked over at Hannah and thought “where did my little girl go?” It seemed just like yesterday she was in 5th grade, with hair down to her butt and the tallest girl in the class (fast forward to freshman year of high school and she was one of the shortest!)
I am so very proud of them. They asked if I would miss them and I will of course, but a parents job is to give your kids wings to let them fly, not keep a leash on them to keep them with you. The circle of life!
I love this place (Cary Ale House) because they have such interesting beers on tap. That beer is a NW Pale Ale from Deschutes Brewery out of Oregon. So good! That pour is worth every bit of the 6 smart points it cost me.
That burger is their signature Pub Burger. It’s a 7 ounce angus beef burger, and I will always love a place that will cook a burger medium rare for me. This burger is perfection – soft bun, good bun to patty ratio, perfectly seasoned – I just asked for it without the icky red onions. That would have ruined it.
I immediately cut it in half, and asked for a take out box. I put the fries in the box with the second half of the burger and ate 1/2 of this burger. It was delicious, and my guess is that half is 10 smart points.
Because dinner was 16 points, I went over by 2 points for the day, no big. I still have 15 weekly points left for the week, and tomorrow is my WI day, so it’s all good.
Speaking of WI, I think my WW meeting is even closer to this new office – I’ll have to check that out. Hopefully if my sister isn’t tooswamped today, she can go walking with me, athough I think we have rainy weather in the forecast coming up for the next several days – I think the next time I’ll see the sun is next Wednesday!
Question of the Day: How do you like your burger? I know a lot of people who like them well done – just curious!
Make it a great day!
Medium rare every time!
I like my burgers med rare.
I’ll eat a hamburger whatever way it falls on my plate ?
Moving offices sounds like a nightmare. I don’t know how you do that commute back-and-forth every day. Sounds exhausting.
Your house is going to be super quiet and super huge when the kadults and their cute dogs move out. Time to look at apartments in the city!
Ha – you and me both – if it falls on my plate, I’ll eat it!
Ah, it would be nice to live in the city, I just couldn’t afford it. My mortgage is only $397 a month for my acre lot and 1400 sq. house – I don’t think I could rent a room for that money in the city!
I actually like both lives though – I tell people that I am a City Mouse and a Country Mouse! (do you remember that book? it used to be one of Hannah’s favorite!)
The french fry question was not from Emily,
Gah – sorry Zen! Not sure why that is happening?! 🙁
I like my burgers cooked not rare. A question for you. How do you reheat the leftover french fries.
I like steak tartare, so I guess I prefer it more on the rare side 😀
I reheat fries usually in my cast iron skillet if the deep fryer isn’t on the counter – but otherwise I reheat them in the deep fryer at 375 degrees for a couple minutes 😛
That burger looks amazing! I am biting the bullet today and going to WW after work. Its been years since I was on the plan, but it worked for me last time. Biggest thing will be tracking everything, and weekends are always the hardest for me.
That’s awesome! Yep, you have to plan your splurges so that it evens out throughout the day. And I’ve realized that I can’t eat pizza, burgers, and buffalo wings every day 😛 Let me know if you have any questions!
There is apparently a problem as I too saw someone else’s name and email attached to my comment before I changed, Charlie to the rescue : )))
I know – I need my brother not to travel so much for work to work on my blog – priorities! 😀
I’m with Jan I like my burgers with veggies not meat in them lol. My son and daughter-in-law are moving from Milwaukee to Grand Rapids in June so I understand those parents emotions. While I miss my sweet little boy, I also cherish the friendship and protective arm of my adult son. Life is a serious of stages and it seems that the best plan is to embrace the part you are in and choose happiness and making new memories!
So now my car will be going through your neighborhood more frequently plus both are nests are extra empty. Hope we can plan a get together soon.
Well, I guess the only bonus of your son moving to GR is that you’ll have to drive through Chicago to get there. Definitely not a day trip!
I am purposely not doing anything this weekend, the following weekend I am working a special event at the Chopping Block, but after that I should be wide open – would love to get together again!
Ummmmm……that was supposed to be MY COMMENT above…..I don’t know how Amanda got it instead. How her name, email and website got on, I don’t know.
So I will just repeat….Gosh those fries look good, were they crunchy….that’s the way I like fries. As for burgers, either hot or cold, but slightly pink is fine. Not a beer drinker, so I can pass on that.
Gosh, this was strange, I felt like I was some alien bubble or something. Seeing my comment under Amanda’s name. That’s never happened before…..
Gah, not sure how that happened Louise – it’s happened to a few other people too. I thought it was weird that she commented twice! I need to figure out what’s happening behind the scenes on my blog – so weird!
Gosh those fries look good, were they crunchy…that’s the way I like fries. As for burgers, either hot or cold, slightly pink is fine. Not a beer drinker, so I can pass on that.
Super crunchy! And they are delicious pan fried with eggs and spinach – like hashbrowns in an omelette. 😀
I eat most of my meats, burgers included, medium well. I do not like bloody anything. Ugh.
I had a neighbor over for a BBQ and I made steaks. He asked if I could cook it more, so I put it on the grill. At that point, it was pretty much charred all over. We were sitting outside eating, when he stood up, went into my house and I could hear the microwave going. Huh. He came back out – cut into the beef – which was now dark grey and declared it the best steak he ever ate. 🙂
As a mama with a kiddo graduating high school in a few weeks, your quote about Hannah resonated with me too. Thanks for that!
Her childhoold seemed to go by in the blink of an eye!
I like mine medium and no cheese. Only regular mustard, raw onion and sliced dill pickles.
Best,
Bonnie
Interesting, no cheese?! I am with you on the mustard and sliced dill pickles, but you can keep the red onion 😀 Hope you are enjoying our nice weather! Boo to all the rain coming up though 🙁
That burger looks yummy! I bought Black Bean Burgers from the freezer section. If I like the taste I will try to recreate them myself. Have you ever had them. It seems like every single restaurant now has some sort of vegie burger. They can be really tasty! I also bought the Mahi burgers at Trader Joe’s, they are delicious! Your new office looks amazing!
I actually really liked the black bean burger they used to have at TGFriday’s, but they all went out of business around me. I actually need to go to the farmers market this summer and stock up on the veggie burgers I sold at the farmers market last year – those were some of the best I ever had 😀
I’m with Helen on this one. I usually order well done but have been attempting to try some stuff medium well. Something about the texture and sometimes the smell of the “under cooked” beef just turns my tummy. I would be very frustrated having all the extra stuff piled at my desk. I would most likely toss it and wind up in trouble. I knew you wouldn’t give up the deep fryer. 🙂 I am really excited for Hannah and Jacob so proud too. It is a great accomplishment and I can’t wait to see her organizing skills at work in her own home.
Kym, you would laugh at how packed she is already – right now they have just a mattress and a t.v. in their room, nearly everything else is packed! Well, except for the laundry – there’s always laundry in the basement 😛
My boss did that same thing to me when he took over his father’s office. Every single thing he didn’t want came to me and it was a mess! I hope you can find a place for everything so it’s not in your way.
I need medium well on a burger, or most any beef for that matter – if it’s too bloody it grosses me out!
I know I will find some space to dump this stuff in the interim – I’ll have to take a picture and text it to you tomorrow 😛
medium burgers for me! && i’ll be in Chicago in July! We should get dinner!
WHAT?!!! OMG, yes, yes and yes!! You are looking amazeballs by the way!