How was your weekend?

Last week was Teacher Appreciation week and I felt quite appreciated by my students.  I hope if you are a teacher, you did as well.  

Here's my weekend update:

Friday:

 Beautiful weather, so.....I ran after school. I did 6 miles. I haven't run more than 4 miles outside in a while and I'm about 18 days away from my next half marathon and can honestly say I am no where near as ready as I was before.  I think it was helpful that Gary was running the half with me and therefore had to train too.  This one is just women, so he obviously doesn't feel the need to train, but it's nice to have him along on the longer runs, even if he is miles ahead of me. It's also peek tourist season here in good old DC and LOTS of field trips are gracing us with their presence. There were so many groups of kiddos on the mall and they were all in their matching bright colored t-shirts.  I've dodged worse on the mall, but teens often seem to feel entitled(maybe that's just me).

Can you tell that we ate a bunch of it?!

After I got home from my run, Gary and I went out to dinner on our favorite street.  We decided to go to Khan's Mongolian BBQ, one because we haven't been there in awhile and two because it has a great outdoor seating area, prime spot for people watching. I was feeling like I needed a salad, so I ordered the house Japanese salad with dressing, which turned out to be just greens that looked very "American" to me and tart soy sauce dressing, needless to say I was disappointed with that, but thankfully Gary also ordered endamame.   We both go the stir fry. I got beef and he got chicken. If you have never been to one of these places they are great. You pile as many "goodies" as you can into your bowl, veggies and noddles. Then you choice your sauces, your main and an accent.  I got the Teriyaki sauce for my main sauce and a spicy chili for an accent, I am SO glad that I tasted it first and only used a little because it basically burned my face off! 

Hot on the right, next time only one tiny laddle

Gary wasn't so lucky, he got the sweet and spicy for his main and something else spicy for his accent, but he got two huge cups, he wasn't as smart as I and tasted it first.

Mine with plenty of udon noodles!

Gary's with two rice balls and his looks red because his was super on fire....he couldn't even finish, I ate more than he did!

Then we headed to a favorite, RITA'S WATER ICE! They NEVER have strawberry and they did! I was super psyched.  Then enter disappointment.  I don't know if the kid was new, but I ordered the gelati, soft serve on the bottom (like maybe 1/4)  then water ice (3/4) than more soft serve on top. He gave me like 3/4 soft serve on the bottom and 1/4 water ice.  Now don't get me wrong, I   the vanilla soft serve, but this was less that satisfactory in my opinion. Funny thing is, walking home I got stopped by a girl who was like, "OOh what is that?" and approached my dessert, I of course told her and we both went on our way. We then passed several more female groups passing and commenting on my dessert and how good it looked!

Saturday:

Another beautiful day. Have you ever heard of the "Meetup"  it's a website that you can join groups that have similar interests as you and then you "meetup." I joined one for the Zooma half marathon in Annapolis, but because the runs are early Saturday morning and "far" away, I've never gone.  Saturday is pretty much my only day to sleep in.  However, since I feel that I am was not getting enough running done I RSVPed that I would come. I've never run with a group so I was little nervous.  Would I get left behind? Could I keep up? Would it be too hilly? Logical questions, I think.... Because of the warmer days they changed the time from 8:00 to 7:30- UGH! So I went to bed early Friday and got up at 6:00 on Saturday to eat and get dressed, then hopped in the car for the 30+ min drive.  It was very beautiful running along the Chesapeake Bay, all the houses that we passed were lovely and had amazing views.  I would have liked to have stopped and sat on their Adirondack chairs, or sit on their private "beaches."  I started with the lead group, but quickly found they were faster, so I adjusted my speed to my comfort.  I ended up by myself. I could see people in front and there were people behind, but it was just me and my music and the beauty of a quiet Saturday morning.  I will say that it was  a lot hillier than I had expected.  I have a feeling so will the half marathon.   

Saturday afternoon was kinda cool.  There are some great perks to living in Washington DC.  There is ALWAYS something going on.  This weekend happened to be the European Union Embassy Open House.  You could visit all the EU Embassies and see art work, get tours, get freebies and occasionally sample food and drink.  Some Embassies had ridiculously long lines, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the main ones really and the ones with all the freebies and food. It required a lot of walking up Massachusetts Ave and a lot of standing in line.  It was also a warm day, at least in my opinion. I went with my friend Maureen, as Gary was brewing with his friend John.  Apparently last weekend was the Non EU Embassy open house, which I totally missed, but would have been great to visit too.  The metro was SO packed, I've never seen it so bad.  I also don't ride very often for this reason.  We literally packed in like sardines. I was ready for people to start pushing us into the trains, you know, like they do in Japan?! I almost didn't make it off the train and had to push people in front of me to get off faster while shouting "get off" and "coming through."  I did NOT enjoy that aspect of the Saturday.  We visited, Portugal(had a tour, sampled food and drink), Estonia(had dancers and a video), Bulgaria (food and drink), Romania (dancers), Latvia(dancers and video) and The United Kingdom which was a HUGE compound. We got to tour the gardens and they had food and whiskey and lot of other things to see and do.  They were giving away these great reusable bags, but by the time we got there they had run out, totes bumming! 

United Kingdom- beautiful English Roses!

The rest of the night was uber relaxation.  Dinner, vegging and watching a movie.  Gary grilled up a tasty snack and I made roasted brussel sprouts(at Gary's request!!!) with bacon crumbles and freshly grated Parmesan cheese and some boiled potatoes.  

How was your weekend?

Did you go out to dinner?

Did you spend time outside?