This weekend was pretty low-key, in large part to some bad weather most of the weekend! I’m about ready for summer, so it was kind of a bummer to have icky weather so often.
First, on Friday, I hosted my annual Cinco de Mayo party (yes, a week late, due to lots of other fiestas last weekend). Unfortunately, the scheduling turned out to really not be in my favor. I originally planned to host the belated celebration on Saturday, but after realizing most people couldn’t attend, I changed it to Friday. Evite automatically sends out a reminder a few days before the event, and when it sent the reminder, it somehow reset the date to Saturday! As a result, I was frantically sending emails on Friday afternoon telling people the party was, in fact, Friday, and lost a bunch of people who were planning for Saturday. Oof 🙁
I made the best of it though – and had a really nice time with a small group of friends! I served this healthy Mexican turkey and quinoa casserole as the main dish, supplemented with tons of chips, salsa, and a fresh batch of the tropical guacamole that had gotten such rave reviews the week before.
I made some simple sauteed corn and zucchini as a side dish, and also attempted this white spinach queso dip – but that unfortunately was a failure as well, as the cheeses never quite came together. Grr! Fortunately, my friend Cathryn is a queso connoisseur, and she helped me fix the queso with the help of some Swiss cheese – not typical Mexican fare, but at least it was the right consistency for melting.
For dessert, though, I stuck with my Cinco de Mayo classics, and they didn’t let me down – these creamy margarita popsicles were a hit, as was this Pinterest-y but super easy guacamole cake. (Pro tip: don’t bother with the frosting and the Oreo cookies; the plain chocolate cake looks good enough. I add cinnamon to the batter for a little Mexican kick.) This year, rather than using vanilla ice cream, I used mint chocolate chip, and that was delicious!
I cleaned up the house pretty well after the party, but in the morning, I got up early and really scoured everything till it was sparkling. It felt really great for the rest of the day to feel like everything was in order and shiny, whereas for the last week or two, I had been leaving a bunch of random things on the kitchen island. Funny what a difference it makes to keep things picked up!
It was raining already, as expected, so a neighborhood run was out (yes, I’m a wuss). Instead, I headed down to Aurora, to meet up with friends at the Stanley Marketplace for an indoor bootcamp led by Jordan Metzl. But it wasn’t just indoors – it was in the former Stapleton Airport hangar! How cool, my fitness and travel & transportation worlds colliding.
The workout felt pretty easy throughout – we did three exercises for one minute each, then did a slow jog around the perimeter of the room a few times. Not going to say I didn’t get tired doing burpees or pushups for a minute, but overall, it didn’t feel very intense. But after we finished, I looked down at my Fitbit and was pleasantly surprised to see that I had burned 370 calories! I was working harder than I thought…
…which made it that much easier for me to tuck into brunch with my friends after. We headed over to Rosenberg’s Bagels (also in Stanley Marketplace), and I loved the kitschy New York deli decor. While I usually go for a regular everything bagel, I took a chance on the egg everything bagel, and it was pretty good; I just wished it had been toasted more. But the smoked salmon on it – yum! I so rarely eat bagels and lox, but it’s one of my favorite breakfasts. The girls and I stayed for nearly two hours gabbing, and it was a really lovely way to spend the morning.
But after a few stops for errands on the way home, I then went into isolation mode, and didn’t see anyone else for the rest of the day. Since the rain had temporarily stopped, I dragged myself out for a quick 3 mile run around the neighborhood. I wasn’t paying attention to pace as I ran, but when I got back home, Strava let me know that I had run a 7:48 average pace – my fastest ever on the hilly (400 feet of elevation gain) neighborhood miles! I couldn’t believe I had run that fast at altitude after a night of margaritas and a morning of bootcamp, and was really proud.
With that running victory under my belt, I took a quick shower, and then settled in for a night of reading. I started The Jewel on Thursday night, and I couldn’t wait to get back to it! Between Saturday night and Sunday morning, I ended up reading every book in the series and really enjoying them – kind of a cross between The Selection, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Hunger Games. I think part of why I haven’t been reading as much lately is that I’ve been trying to get through non-fiction, and I’m a little too stressed with other things than want to read anything but fiction – so I’m giving in and reading more of that, even if it’s not quite as thought-provoking or impressive 😉 I’ll get back to it eventually!
Outside of reading, I spent most of the day doing chores, though I did sneak in a quick run as well. I’m proud of how much I’m running outside rather than just hitting the treadmill! It helps that I’ve found a few quick neighborhood routes that are only 30 minutes or so – that doesn’t feel daunting at all, and it feels really lazy to skip it when it’s so short.
I wrapped up my weekend with a night out in Old Town Louisville – starting with a Belgian beer at Twelve Degrees (my favorite brewery in Colorado), another beer at the brand new taproom for Crystal Springs just down Main Street, and ending the night at Coabana, the new Cuban restaurant that just opened. I wasn’t terribly impressed with the food at Coabana, but the cocktails were delicious, and their space is pretty awesome – looking forward to going back there for outdoor cocktails on the patio this summer!
So… hopefully it will be summer soon? I’m out of town this upcoming weekend for Ragnar Chicago, but when I get back, it will be Memorial Day weekend – the official start to the season. I can’t wait!