Hey Readers:

Yesterday was the annual staff cookout at my office. It is seriously one of the most fun days at work – and the entire staff looks forward to it all year long. But, of course, I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from the beginning.

Remember earlier on in the week when I made a pledge with my favorite intern?? Umm… I’m not supposed to buy coffee anymore. I’m sort of amending that – I am no longer buying coffee on a daily basis. 🙂 On Wednesday I got my coffee to go – from my Keurig coffee maker that is! Mark is the best – he had my breakfast waiting for me, perfectly timed and made just as I was getting ready to run out the door:

My to go coffee cup (thanks to my amazing friend, Jane – the most perfect birthday present ever!) and a piece of multi grain toast with Teddie peanut butter. This is my idea of a pretty perfect week – day breakfast. One day when I live closer to work, I hope to still get up super early in the morning and make stove top oats for breakfast (at least during the cooler weather) because it sticks to your ribs, it is so good and, well, I just love oats. They almost always hit the spot. But when you are commuting – toast and peanut butter is a fantastic way to start your way too long day.

This multi-grain bread that Mark gets for us is really fantastic

it is fresh, nutty and has a great flavor. I really love it. I think Mark thinks it is ok. 😉 He is not much of a ‘bread guy’ but he has it around for me, because he knows I love toast, and sandwiches! I think he is learning to love carbs, just for the record!

The Keurig is a really great solution to our coffee situation. Mark does not drink coffee on a daily basis, but on the weekends he definitely will have a cup. (I always ask myself how does one not start their day off with coffee!? It is beyond me – but it never ceases to impress me that Mark definitely starts his days off super early [around 5:30 or so] and does not have to drink coffee… amazing!) In the mornings I was making coffee out of my french press… but since I am always sort of running late, I could not make the boil the water or make the coffee fast enough (I guess). Hence, another wonderful birthday gift (this time from Mark’s mom and sister – who completely understand my need for coffee in the early morning hours!) – the Keurig. Along with a lot of amazing coffee pod choices. It will never take the place of my Cuisinart 12 cup coffee maker, but it is the most amazing solution to my time crunch in the morning.

Wednesday was also the last day of work for one of my closest friends who is going out on maternity leave. I paid a visit to her office around 10 o’clock yesterday, and we had a great chat. She also happened to bring in a coffee cake from Panera. Seriously. [yet another worst food blogger in the world moment, I did not have my camera – which was probably a good thing, I had two smallish pieces of this amazing cake!] I love coffee cake. I keep meaning to bake one. I just never get around to it. But I will – one day soon!

Moving on… to the cookout! The big hit this year was (get this) fried chicken. Holy yum! The chicken had just the slightest hint of honey on the fried up skin. Wow. It was slightly funny that there was fried chicken at the cookout because a couple of my friends and I had been discussing the beauty of real fried chicken. It is heavenly. I just needed a biscuit to go with my chicken – but I couldn’t find one. Here is what I ended up with:

The cheese burger was good, but obviously I could not finish it. Sliders would have been a perfect compliment to the chicken! 🙂 The pasta salad is always good – lots of fresh veggies cut up and mixed in with the pasta, along with some EVOO and pepper. Here I am enjoying lunch with a couple of my good friends:

Fun times! A few daring souls even went for a swim after lunch. I only told a couple of my friends that I actually had my swim suit in the trunk of my car… I did not want a lot of people to know this, because there was no way I was swimming at work. I do not ever see such an event happening. Ever.

Oh – there was dessert, too. Skinney Cow ice cream to the rescue!!

Along with a beautifully decorated macaroon. These things are classic!

After the fun cookout (and nearly over – heating in the 90+ degree weather) I went back to work. I did not have a ton of energy, but I accomplished many things on my to do list. I love crossing things off, it feels great! I had a good commute home, and somehow when I got to my house I was given a spurt of energy. I used such energy to clean my room. Remember the other day when I cleaned out my car and did laundry??? Well, the other step of such action is to put away the things that came out of the car and fold and put away said laundry. Neither of these things happened on Monday. Thankfully last night I was able to clean my room. I hope it will stay this way, at least until my next camping trip – which is August 15th.

The work bag I have been carrying around lately is super heavy. Meh.

What on earth is making this bag weigh 25 pounds?? (I’m guessing)

My MacBook Pro really doesn’t weigh that much. Neither do these shoes you see. My Girl with the Dragon Tattoo book is not hardcover. The bag itself is extremely light. I guess when you put all of these items together in one bag, the weight sort of adds up. I’m going to make a conscious effort to try and cut back. But how?? We shall see. I’ll get back to you.

As for a quick wrap up. After cleaning my room, I decided to go for a swim. My mom floated around while I swam laps for about 40 minutes. It felt pretty amazing to get some exercise in. The pool cooled my over heated body down pretty well, too. I loved it.

After the swim my mom and I ate dinner. We finished off the Pad Thai. When you think about the cost, it is rather amazing. $6.50 (plus the tip I left for my favorite folks @  Apsara Palace) we got four meals out of the pad thai. It was still wonderful on Wednesday night. What a wise take out decision. 🙂 It turns out to be a little over 1.60 a meal!

Ok, I’m off. Be back in a bit though!