I Missed Tom Brokaw

Today was one of my days off. It was a lazy, yet not lazy day.

Breakfast

I got up and thought it would be a great idea to make some protein pancakes. I mixed up all the pancake shizz and poured half the batter into the skillet.

When I went to flip it, pretty much all of the pancake was stuck to the skillet. I eventually managed to flip the pancake, but it fell apart into pieces. Pancake flipping fail.

The second pancake turned out a bit more normal. I mixed the abby-normal pancake with some yogurt and called it a day.


After watching some What Not to Wear and the rest of a Private Practice episode, I went to the gym and ran for 3.25 miles on the treadmill. That's all pretty impressive until I tell you that I walked for 5 minutes between miles. But whatever.

I just wished I could start running without immediately getting a side stitch. Those things are a pain in the ass (or side).

After the gym I came back home and thought it would be a great idea to clean my room, because it was pretty effing messy. Now, it is no longer messy...for now.

Lunch

I was really stumped on what to have for lunch, so I just heated up some left over mandarin orange chicken and put it on some butter lettuce.


And the chicken was still so tender. It's like a miracle. Thank you TJ's.

Around 2:45 my uncle dropped off my cousin Maddie so the two of us could go to our 4:30 hot yoga class. The two of us chilled at the kitchen table, Maddie doing math homework and I watching even more Private Practive.

We headed out to hot yoga, but first we had to stop by my mom's office and drive her to the car dealership to pick up her newly maintained car.

Hot yoga seemed to go even faster today, which I like. I'm getting better at some of the poses, and I am so close to touching my toes. 5 classes down...15 more to go.

Dinner

After yoga I was starrrrrving, and I thought it was a perfect time to pick up some Matsu Teriyaki chicken. I slapped some of the chicken and rice and teriyaki sauce on some butter lettuce and called it awesome.


I scarfed it down, and watched some Jeopardy! (because I've turned into an old man) and even more Private Practice (because I love Addison Montgomery's wardrobe).

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So...apparently today at work (of which I was not at), we had our quarterly town hall meeting. And apparently Tom Brokaw decided to stop on by. You know, no big deal or anything.

And of course I was not there. Tom Brokaw sighting fail!

I had another celebrity sighting fail a couple of weeks ago. Rainn Wilson of The Office was also in our newsroom to do an interview, and OF COURSE it was on one of my day's off.

Seriously important NWCN people, can you at least book the celebrities for when I'm actually in the newsroom.

Although I did get to see Kathie Lee Gifford once. Though that was about as uncool as it sounds. And she was a plastered as you would think too.

An All-Around Bad Work Day

Today is my Friday, which always puts me in a good mood.

However, that good mood was totally quashed when, on the way to work, I managed to hit almost every red light between my house and Shoreline.

Then I got to work only to find that there were absolutely no parking spots. At all.

Well, that's a lie. There was one. But the asshole next to the open spot decided it would be a great idea to go in slanted, thus making the spot totally unparkable (unless you drove a Smart Car or something).

Total douche!

I did see one of my co-workers cars in the lot and remembered that she gets done at 10am. I waited for a little while, hoping she would come out, but then I realized that we were all having a staff meeting at 11am. She wasn't coming out any time soon.

This really annoyed me, and I ended up parking on the street. $1.50 and a lot of my patience later, I was finally at work. Sometimes parking can be a real pain in the ass.

But let's go back to more happier times:

Breakfast

I was feeling ambitious and made oatmeal on the stove top. Then I added Greek yogurt, raspberries, blackberries, and honey. Delicious and filling.

We had out brief staff meeting this morning. It was all about communication and stuff. We even got these little cards.

Then during our meeting with got some breaking news that Washington State football coach Paul Wulff was fired, so we had to scramble to put a quick news break together. It was a little stressful, but luckily we used all the new communication techniques we learned in our meeting to pull it off. Hooray cooperation!

Snack

Jonagold apple slices and some peanut butter. Yummy yummy!

Today was one of those demoralizing days at work. The kind of day where I thought I was writing good matieral, but then either my producer or the anchor goes on and changes everything. It's a really disappointing feeling, and I wish I didn't feel this disappointed on my Friday. It's days like today that make me feel like I'm not very good at my job.

At least I dressed cute in this What Not to Wear ensemble.


Lunch

Black bean patty on a Sandwich Thin, with lentils and Brussels Sprouts on the side. Apparently I really wanted some protein and fiber in my lunch today.

Workout

After work I made a quick pit stop to the gym so I could get in my mile for the day. Afterward, I went to my cousins' house to pick up my cousin Maddie so we could go to hot yoga together.

She is in a yoga PE class at the high school, but she had to miss a lot of the exercises because she strained some ligaments in her knee. Now to raise her B+ yoga grade (for shame, Maddie, for shame) she has to do five extra curricular hot yoga classes.

That's when the light bulb went off in my head. Maddie should totally go to hot yoga with me. So we went. And it was awesome. Something I definitely needed after my rough day at work.

I sweated like a mo fo...and I was so much happier for it.

Maddie and I stopped at Jamba Juice for some nice, cold, fruity smoothies.

After getting back home, I relaxed and watched a shit ton of TV. Anything to get my mind off the terrible day I had at work.

Cyber Monday

Did everyone just have a fantastic Cyber Monday? Anyone get caught online shopping while at work? I hope not.

Well, Cyber Monday - the biggest online shopping day of the year - was a total bust for me. That's probably because I really had to clue what I was looking for. I went on Amazon to see what kind of hot deals they had going on, and nothing spoke to me.

Then I just kind of gave up.

I just don't have the desire, nor the patience to scope out online shopping deals. If that means I have to pay full price for holiday shit, so be it.

After work I went to the gym and ran a little over a mile (for Runner's World Holiday Running Streak) before doing some Body Pump. I decided that I was tired of being doughy all over, so I added some weight to my bar bell.

And now my arms hurt...in a good way.

Dinner

Since I ran out of broccoli, I decided to bake up some Brussels Sprouts. I used cooking spray instead of olive oil to cut the calories. Except the Sprouts didn't bake as much with the spray as they do with the olive oil, so they were a little aldente.

I served the crunchy Sprouts with left over pizza and lentils with banana on top. Yeah, that's right, I like banana with my lentils.


Now for some more relaxing and watching some Daily Show, Colbert, and possibly more Private Practice.

Only one more day until my weekend!

I Love Napping

Well...the pizza didn't sit too well during my workout.

I ran my required mile for the day and then did a combo of running and walking for another two miles. I just felt weird while I was running, like I didn't have enough energy or something. Plus I could totally feel my pizza sloshing around in my belly.

Note to self: Pizza is not a good pre-workout food...like at all.

It wasn't my best run, but I got my Running Streak mile in so I guess that's what's important.

I came home and was feeling pretty burnt out. I took a quick shower, put on my pajamas, and went to bed to do some napping.

Three hours later I woke up. It was glorious. However, I was a bit cranky (as I always am after I wake up from a nap) and didn't feel like going out to eat with my parents.

Instead I stayed home and watched some more Private Practice while I iced my shins. I'm already on Season 3!

Last Night's Dinner

Nothing really sounded awesome for dinner, expect for some Trader Joe's Mandarin Orange Chicken. I baked it up and put it on top of some butter lettuce...because that makes it more healthy obviously!


My parents came home and we watched more Private Practice while my dad feel asleep on our leather Lay-Z Boy thing. I'd rather have him snoring than giving us a hard time about watching some trashy primetime soap.

I went to bed and watched Dexter until I fell asleep. Overall the episode was pretty okay, but I did not see that whole "Professor Gellar has been dead the entire time and Colin Hanks killed all those people" twist coming.

Sorry if you had no idea what I was talking about.

I woke up this morning with the full intention of wearing my purple "Bark for Sark" UW shirt to work so I could rub yet another Apple Cup loss in my Wazzu co-workers faces. But my dad thought that maybe the shirt was a little too in-your-face and that maybe I should tone it down.

I wanted to go with an "in your face" attitude because I knew that if Washington State had won, they'd be rubbing it everyone's faces. Then I realized that wearing such a loud shirt would be such a Coug thing to do. And I wanted to be above that.

So instead I wore a purple cardigan over a yellow striped shirt. A little more subtle, but still gets my message across.

Of course none of my Coug co-workers noticed but whatever.

Breakfast

Waffle with almond butter, crushed raspberries and honey on top.


I felt satiated... but not completely. I feel that recently all I want to do is eat, eat, eat. There's way too much good food going around and it needs to be in my belly. This is no good.

Snack

I got some "Guacamole Hummus" at (where else?) Trader Joe's the other day because I was super intrigued. It's like my two favorite condiments rolled into one. There's no way it can be bad, right?

I had it with some Ry Crisps and it was pretty good. And a little spicy. You could definitely taste both guac and hummus essences. I approve.

Work was surprisingly low-key today. My regular 15/45 producer called in sick, so I didn't get to booth the segments today. Hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow so I can booth some more.

Lunch

Left over Mandarin Orange Chicken on some butter lettuce. And it was surprisingly delicious the day after.

Who would have thought that baked pre-cooked fried chick could be so tender? Trader Joe's apparently did. And the mandarin orange sauce makes a good salad dressing. I wonder if they sell that separately...

Looks like I need to hit up TJ's again. Good thing my mom found a $20 TJ's Gift Card in her wallet!

Apple Cup Awesomeness

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result.

The same could be said about every Washington State Cougar football fan I have ever encountered...members of my own extended family included.

Every year, they come in with the same crappy team and the same crappy coaching, yet their fans still believe that the team will go undefeated...or at least become bowl eligible. I don' understand how they can they cheer so relentlessly for a team that is just so awful. It's like, "Hello? Don't you know your team sucks?"

This point brings me to one of my favorite/most nerve-racking times of year: The Apple Cup. I may not have gone to the University of Washington, but my parents did and so I think of them as my team. And every year, on the last week of the college football season, the Huskies and the Cougs face off for state-wide bragging rights.

I'm usually cautiously optimistic this time of year. I'm pretty certain that the Huskies can beat Wazzu - but I also know that the Huskies have the potential to really stink the place up.

This year I've been more cautious than before, since about 85% of the people I work with went to Washington State. I didn't want to be super arrogant in the (more than) likely chance that Wazzu could pull off the win. I didn't want them to rub it in my face.

I was really excited about sitting on the couch and watching the game this year. I even microwaved a pizza to eat. But when it was time to turn on the game, we found out that our DirecTv package doesn't include Versus, the channel the game was being showed on. What the eff!!!

I was forced to keep track of the game on twitter, ESPN, and various live chats while I watching some Private Practice on Netflix (in case you haven't noticed Private Practice is the latest show to hit my docket).

In the end, it was probably for the best that I didn't watch the game on television. The Huskies ended up winning 38-21. Haha...wazzu! Thanks for always reminding my of just how crappy your football team can be. And good luck finding a new coach, since I'm pretty sure Paul Wulff is gonna get canned.

Now I can't wait to put on my "Bark for Sark" shirt underneath my black blazer tomorrow and very subtly rub yet another Apple Cup loss in the faces of my sad Coug co-workers.

Ha.

Awesome.

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Last Night's Dinner

Trader Joe's Vegetarian Pizza with a side of broc. Not too shabbs for microwaveable pizza.

Breakfast

I saw this oatmeal recipe in Women's Health Magazine that sounded absoultely delicious. It's called Strawberries and Creme, and it was very creme-y and very strawberry-y.

Just mix oatmeal (I used steel-cut) with 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt, 1 Tbsp of honey and a 1/4 cup of sliced strawberries. I also threw in about a half scoop of vanilla protein powder for that extra oomph.

Snack

Fruit medley! Pineapple, mango, papaya, raspberries and blackberries. Plus almonds. Fruity fruity fruit fruit.

Lunch

Left over TJ's pizza and broccoli. Hopefully it sits well while I'm working out.

Go Dawgs!

Back to the Grind

My three-day weekend is over. Sad face. It was nice and relaxing and I got to spend some quality time with my family.

But now it's back to work, albeit a four-day work week.

I got up bright and early at 2:30 (definitely early and definitely not bright) and went on my merry way to work. The 5am show went pretty good, aside from our anchor not showing up and our weather gal having to do the show. But other than that it was great!

After the show I went down to our SLG (sad little gym) in the building to do some treadmill stuff for my Runner's World Holiday Streak. This was all at 5:40 in the morning mind you. Running that early is something that I never do. But, you know. Whatever. It went fine.

I tried not to be super smelly when I came back up to work. At least the run warmed me up enough that I didn't need to wrap myself in a snuggie like a homeless person.

Breakfast

I toasted up a bagel thin and slathered on some peanut butter and topped with bananas. There were some strawberries left over from some kind of Thanksgiving celebration at work, so I had some of those too.

Nom nom breakfast.

There was more writing to be done for the 11am show. A little house fire here, a little DUI patrols there. All in a morning's work.

Snack

Creme Brulee almonds. Yeah sugar!


Lunch

I kept going back and forth whether I wanted to eat my packed lunch at work or wait and then go have lunch with my mom, but my stomach won out. I was too damn hungry to wait until noon to eat.

I had a butter lettuce salad with some left over Thanksgiving turkey (yum yum) and some tropical fruit that I got at Trader Joe's last night. So good!

The Brussels Sprouts were good too.

After work I came home and my mom and I went for some pedicures. Pedicures that were very much needed.

Then after running some errands we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some supplies to tonight's Apple Cup. And the best thing happened to me: I found some Black Arkansas apples. They're a special species of apple that may or may not be grown in Arkansas. I'm guessing not. I used to get them all the time at Maddy's Market in Calabasas when I lived down there. They're not as good as Rome apples, but they're still pretty damn good.

So 4:30pm rolls around and my parents and I are down and ready to watch the Apple Cup. The internetz says the game in on Versus, so we search for the channel. We find it...only to find out that Versus is not a part of our DirecTv subscription. Awesome! It's not like I've been waiting all year to watch this game.

So now I have to rely on twitter to tell me how the game is going. I'm going to be a nervous wreck. The Huskies need to beat Washington State or I will literally not hear the end of it until next year. I work with way to many Cougs. Fingers crossed!

Runner's World Holiday Running Streak

I'm going to be trying really hard this holiday season to stay healthy and stay in shape. This might be difficult since winter time can be a really un-motivating time of year. The weather is cold and shitty, there's a ton of food, and lots of quality time with the family. It can really put "working out" super low on the priority list.

But I think I have found something that will help me stay motivated through the next few weeks. Holla!

Runner's World Magazine is doing their Holiday Running Streak, where from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, you run at least one mile (hopefully more) every day. I feel like this is something I can totally do. I mean, it takes at least 10 minutes to run a mile. I'm sure I can find that in my (not-so) busy schedule.

I think that writing this out will at least help me stay accountable. It's all out on the Internetz and every thing, so I better do it.

Yesterday I ran 3 miles on the treadmill. Today I ran a little over 2 miles on the treadmill at 5:40am (yeah, I know) in the little gym that we have downstairs in our building.

I guess the word for it would be "quaint", but it did the trick. I watched a little Private Practice on my iPhone, which made the whole thing go by quickly.

Two days down, only I don't know more to go.

Thanksgiving Through Pictures

Happy Thanksgiving all!

I know I haven't blogged in a few days, but I've been busy spending some quality time with my family. Also, I just didn't feel like blogging.

But I'm back now, and ready to throw some awesome Thanksgiving pictures your way (basically because I don't want to write about it). Most of the pictures feature my cousin Maddie, who made it her mission to photo-bomb every picture taken that day.

Enjoy!

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My Thanksgiving started out with a drive up to my co-worker's apartment so I could feed her cat while she was out of town. I was a little nervous because 1) I don't like cats, 2) I didn't want to clean the cat's litter box, 3) I was afraid it would run out the door and I would spend my Thanksgiving looking for her cat, 4) I was also afraid that it would attack me and rub it's kitty anus in my face (hey, it could happen!).

Luckily the feeding went pretty quick and dirty, and the cat was pretty much afraid of me and hid under a chair.

It was probably plotting its next chance to attack and poop on me.

After feeding the cat, I went to the gym for some Turkey Day Body Pump. The class was pretty packed, which is nice. You can feed off the energy of the other people in the class.

I was not feeding off the energy of one girl, however, who was wearing a Washington State football jersey to class. Talk about barf. And she was standing right next to me. I probably got her Coug cooties on me. Bleh.

The class was pretty challenging. It mixed different sets from different releases, which made it more entertaining. It was so nice to get some sweat on before I bathed myself in cranberry mold.

After getting home and showering, my parents, grandma and I loaded up and headed to my cousins' house for our Thanksgiving feast.

I told my aunt that I would help her cook this year, so I did. Luckily my cousins Emily and Maddie wanted to help too. Cousin bonding in the kitchen!


Cousins doing a quick photo shoot in the piano room (aka the room with the piano in it). We look so good. And the familial resemblance is uncanny, right?


Cousin Maddie planking on Emily and me.


Tebowing cousins.

All is well when you're chopping bacon! Bacon on bacon on bacon.

Maddie peeling potatoes. Thank goodness she did it because I didn't feel like it.

Emily and I tag-teaming Grandma's green bean recipe.

After we three-somed on green beans, the three of us thought it would be an awesome idea that just us three would make next year's Thanksgiving feast. We said this in front of witnesses, and there's no way they're going to forget our promise. It sounded like such a great idea at the time. An idea which we may come to regret down the road. Oh well, I'm sure it will turn out great.

Turkey!!!

That my dad so expertly carved.

On to the stuffing...aka the best part of the meal duh!

Down Maddie.

I wanted to get in on the whole planking thing. I look so thin from this angle.

Gravy...the other best part of the meal!

Thug lyfe.

Hey everyone...come see how good we look!

On the couch post-dinner. I'm bloated times infinity and Emily looks all tryptophan-ed out. Good times.

Thanksgiving can be a particularly stressful time for someone who is trying to eat healthy, like myself. I told myself going into Thanksgiving dinner that I was going to eat everything, but in small portions. That way I'm still staying light while also indulging on everything there is to eat.

I was doing pretty well until I got into the gravy and it was all down hill from there. I ate a TON of food on Thursday. And I was weirdly okay with it. My stomach, however, was not okay with it. Talk about bloated to the max.

Regardless, Thanksgiving is like the one day a year where you get to pig out, so I did. The trick is to not let the one day ruin the rest of your healthy eating for the rest of the holidays. And that's what I'm going to try to focus on.

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I know this is a little late, but I just want to say that I am so incredibly thankful for all the wonderful people and things happening in my life. I have the most amazing parents that support me and put up with all my shinanigans.

I'm thankful for my generous grandmother and her paying for my expensive (some might say over-priced) education so I don't have to worry about student loans. I don't know what I'd would have done without her help.

I'm also thankful for my awesome job in the city that I love. It's only part-time (for now), but I'm learning a lot and really liking all the people that I work with. Everything is just really great.

I'm thankful for a lot of other things, but the list would go on and on. I don't need to tell you how thankful I am. All that's important is that I know what I'm thankful for.

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Also, enjoy this little treasure my mom and I found at Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday. You're welcome.

My Big Opportunity

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

This blog post is going to seem a little disjointed, but go with me here. Instead of going chronologically, starting with what I did after work yesterday morning, I'm just going to start talking about my work day today. Here it goes.

I had an awesome day at work, and not only because it was my second to last day before my three day-weekend.

I came in and helped run the teleprompter and write some stories for the 15/45 news breaks. Then, my producer asked if I wanted to have an entire 15/45 breaks for myself - meaning I picked the stories, wrote the stories, and then booth the segment...without any help.

I was definitely up for the challenge, so after I wrote my stories for the 2pm show, I started working on my news break, which was going to air at 1:15pm.

I found my three stories: King County prosecutors will not pursue the death penalty against a Seattle doctor who's accused of killing his boyfriend and toddler (yeah, crazy), a missing hunter down in Oregon (I've found that missing people usually make good 15/45 material), and the Oregon Dental Association was having their free dental clinics at the Oregon convention center.

I wrote the stories, source the video for the editors to edit, and requested my various maps and graphics. Then it was time to booth. My producer said that she wasn't even going to be in the booth with me. She trusted that I would do a good job.

Which I did! The segment went off without a hitch, expect the part where I wrote "with parole" instead of "without parole." Oops. I was pretty pissed that I missed that, and we decided to just re-tape the segment with the extra word. Oh well, at least I got more practice in the booth.

I was super exhilarating and super awesome that I got this opportunity. My producer said that I did a good job at my story selection, which is always good to hear. I hope that I get to do more of it in the future.

So that was my work day. Now on to my food and workouts and whatnot.

My workout yesterday was a three-mile run on the treadmill. I did the two miles first, then walked briskly for five minutes before running the final mile. It felt awesome. I love running now.

Last Night's Dinner

We made Sloppy Joes (or Jose Sucio as we call them) to eat while watching the MLS Cup Final. The Galaxy won. That's about all I want to say about that.


Breakfast

I was a little tight on time, so I made a waffle with almond butter and crushed raspberries.


Snack

Cheese and grapes. Yep, yummy yummy yummy.

Lunch

I had a butter lettuce salad topped with turkey, brown rice and dried cherries...just because. There was a side of broccoli because I love fiber so damn much!


I had Body Pump this afternoon, but before class I ran two quick miles on the treadmill. I love that I can run two miles like it's no big deal.

Dinner

I couldn't decide whether to eat up some chicken-less BBQ chicken or the whole wheat gnocchi from Trader Joe's. After careful deliberation, I went with the gnocchi...and it was delicious! I added some broccoli and Brussels sprouts on the side.


I mixed it with a little bit of pesto (not too much) and it ended up tasting way better than the gnocchi I had in Pisa, Italy. I gotta be honest, I was not impressed with Italian food while I was over there. Case in point, I made better gnocchi than they did.

Now for some Dancing with the Stars: The Finals and some relaxing. I had my last work day tomorrow before Thanksgiving and my grandma comes in tomorrow as well! Hot damn!

Tacoma Dome or Bust

Yesterday afternoon I finally got to see my old high school play a state playoff football game this year. It was the state quarterfinals, and the mighty Woodinville Falcons were playing Union High out of Vancouver.

Woodinville was favored, obviously, since they're ranked like number one in the state. Apparently as their state playoffs team bonding, the entire team dyed their hair blonde. The color worked out better for some.

For a high school game, it was pretty exciting. Woodinville pretty much dominated, although they only won the game 21-9.

It was kind of funny because every time they would carry the ball, I would be so afraid that they would fumble it. I think I'm just so used to watching my football teams fumble the ball (ahem Huskies, ahem Seahawks) that I was certain these little high school kids would drop the ball every time they had it. But sure enough they did not. They must have had sticky stuff on their gloves.

Now Woodinville plays the evil Skyline next weekend at the Tacoma Dome, which is pretty exciting. I watched our football team play at the state semis and finals at the T-Dome back during my junior aka the last time our football team was good. It's a great atomsphere and makes all the little high school pukes feel all important. Hopefully the Falcons can go all the way.

Last Night's Dinner

For dinner we had this chicken lettuce wrap recipe from Women's Health. It was a team effort to make dinner. My mom started and when she started to not feel well, my dad and I finished up.

The recipe called for like 3 cups of diced ginger root, which I found really odd. I can tell you that the lettuce wrap was quite gingery.

We spent the rest of the night watching the Oregon Ducks lose to USC, which was effing awesome. I hate the Ducks with a fiery passion. I took great pleasure in their demise. No national championship for you, assholes! Couldn't have happened to a nice fan base.

My 3:30am alarm seemed to come quicker than usual, which was not awesome. But I managed. When I got to work I wrote my stories for the 6am show. Then my producer asked if I wanted to booth the show...well, the last three blocks. I think I replied with, "um...YES PLEASE!"

The show went pretty smoothly. We were a little heavy coming out of weather, so I dropped on of the stories in the C block. I felt the powerrrrrrr!

Breakfast

Since I finished up a jar of peanut butter, I thought this would be a great time to make some Oats in a Jar, of Carrots 'N Cake fame. Click this link to see how to make OIAJ. It's fairly simple.

I mixed in sliced banana, some vanilla protein powder and a few butterscotch chips. Delicious, delicious, delicious. It kept me nice and full for a few hours.

Snack

Apple. A Jonagold if you want to get techincal with it.

Lunch

Leftover chicken rice mixture from last night's lettuce wraps over a bed of butter lettuce. I needed some brown rice to help fuel me for my sweat session at the gym.

So glad this weekend is over. Only two more work days until my Thanksgiving three-day weekend!!!

Sexiest Man Alive

It's official. Christmas time is here and it's not even Thanksgiving yet.

How do I know this?

Because the easy-listening station started playing their wall-to-wall Christmas music yesterday at 3pm. Normally they wait until after Thanksgiving to start their Christmas music extravaganza, but not this year I guess. The bird gets no respect.

So yesterday's gym session was pretty awesome. I ran three miles, which is probably the farthest I've ever run at one time. I was so into my run (and watching the Twilight cast on Ellen) that I almost forget to go to my Body Pump class on 4:30.

Body Pump was pretty standard. Squats and lunges were pretty brutal. The shoulder set nearly killed me. It's so nice to get in a good workout.

Last Night's Dinner

I was planning on having some of my chicken-less BBQ pulled chicken (yep, "chicken-less" chicken), but my dad wanted to go out to eat. We went to our favorite Thai place and I ordered some more Pad Thai, that way I can make another Pad Thai salad for lunch. More on that later.

Breakfast

Pancakes!!! Protein pancakes!!! With bananas!!! And syrup!!! Yum!!!

Snack

I saw a big carton of "Creme Brulee Almonds" at the store and I thought, "I like almonds, I like creme brulee...so why not?"

They tasted pretty much like creme brulee... and all of it's sugary goodness. These might not be the best snack.

Lunch

Pad Thai noodles over Butter Lettuce. Yeah leftovers.


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It's that time of year again. The time of year when People Magazine devotes an entire issue to the sexiest men in Hollywood (because that's where all the sexy men are).

This year's title of "Sexiest Man Alive" went to Bradley Cooper, which I can get behind. Personally I thought Ryan Gosling was going to take the cake, you know, since he's hot as hell and has been everywhere lately.

But Bradley hasn't had a bad year either...unless you remember that whole dating Renee Zellweger thing. That was just so wrong.

People's sexy man pick seems a little sentimental for me. I've known about Bradley Cooper since before he was "Bradley Cooper," back when he was Will Tippen, Jennifer Garner's nosey reporter friend on Alias. He hadn't reached his "sexy" potential yet.

Now I feel like I've watched him grow, in a way, from little annoying Will Tippen to the stud-man on the A-Team (which I never saw so I have no idea what his name was). My boy is all grown-up. Sniffle sniffle.

After skimming the approximately 20 pages dedicated to Bradley Cooper (I mean really? Did we need that many?), I looked through the rest of the photos of hot men. There were a lot of the usual suspects: Brad Pitt, David Beckham (bleh), Ryan Reynolds, Patrick Dempsey, blah, blah, blah. Been there, done that for the last five years. I didn't see Johnny Depp in the issue, which is fine by me because I don't think he's that hot anyway.

There were some guys in there that I was happy to see. Namely, Alex O'Loughlin from Hawaii Five-O. Dude is smokin'. Plus he's from Australia, so yeah. The more shirtless the better.


I'm glad Patrick Wilson made the issue.


The man can act, sing AND dance. Hawt. I miss more men were awesome dancers.



How about a shout-out to Ty Burrell. He may not be "sexy" in my book, but he continuously busts my gut as Phil Dunphy on Modern Family. He is such a doofus...and I love it!

I love looking at the "Sexy At Every Age" part because I like seeing how old the hot men are.

And I like seeing who they put in for the sexy man at my age (22). Apparently this year it's Cam Newton. I guess that's fine, if you into the whole "Auburn gave me money to play college football and I steal laptops kind of thing."

Also, since when was Liam Neeson 59-years-old? He doesn't look a day over 45!

Adam Levine (whom I've been in love with for the better part of a decade) is 32, and that makes me sad. Normally I'm all about going after the older men, but I have to put boundaries somewhere. 32 is pushing it, my friend. He's still hot though.

The only snub I can think of at the moment is the guy who played Ren McCormick in the new Footloose. Other than that, job well done, People. Job well done.