One of the greatest parts about summer is the freshly grown vegetables. When I was younger, every summer I went to camp. And every summer one of my friends would bring some fresh tomatoes, snap peas, and green beans from her parents’ garden; and every summer I would look forward to those fresh home-grown vegetables.

As you may know from previous blog posts, my mom has blessed me with her “I am unable to grow or keep alive any plant” gene. She has also blessed me with her “I love home-grown tomato” gene. So how is a girl who cannot grow tomatoes supposed to eat home-grown tomatoes? I have great friends! Well, at least, I used to have great friends. When I lived in Pennsylvania, people would actually have vegetable gardens and bring me vegetables. Now I live in a city, and no one really has gardens…or a yard to start a garden. So, now I have to come up with a way to get my fresh tomatoes in the summertime.

I have come up with a solution. Have you seen the new As Seen on TV product called the Tomato Factory Planter? This Instant Tomato Factory is the perfect tomato plant grower for someone living in the city. Now, let’s not get crazy. I didn’t say that the Tomato Factory Planter is a miracle vegetable grower. The person who owns the Tomato Factory Planter still needs to make sure it gets water and sunlight…which is the part I am bad at. No matter how much love, water and sunlight I give, it never seems to be right, and I essentially kill the plant.

So, here is my proposal: To any of my family or friends out there, please buy the Tomato Factory Planter. If it’s the hard work and labor involved in “gardening” don’t even worry about that – there is no need to weed the instant Tomato Factory – just sunlight and water. So, you just buy the Tomato Factory Planter, grow beautiful tomatoes, and let me know when they are ready and I will come pick them up! Thanks so much for participating in my plan in advance!

We love our pets. We like to make sure they always have what they need and can get everywhere they need to go. Sometimes our pets need a little help. The new convertible pet step and ramp is the tool that can help our pets get to where they need to go with ease.

Maybe your pet needs the convertible pet steps to get up onto the bed. Maybe your older dog with limited mobility needs the help of the convertible pet ramp to get up onto the couch. The convertible pet step and ramp is great for small, medium size, and aging pets that simply cannot reach those high places they love to rest. The convertible pet step and ramp is also useful to helping your pet get into the car if you need to go for a ride.

Show your pet how much you love them. Make getting up onto the couch or your bed easier with the convertible pet step and ramp. The convertible pet step and ramp will work for your pet’s lifetime…steps for when he/she is small and young, and a ramp for when mobility is tougher.

Last week at work I was suckered into participating in a walking challenge. As much as I like to participate in work activities because it forces me to be social and talk to other people, “challenges” aren’t really for me – particularly challenges that are less than a challenge for me, and an extreme challenge for other people. And while the walking challenge is good for some people, it does not have the same effect on me.

The challenge: walk 50,000 steps a week. That means in 7 days I should be walking about 25 miles. This is normal. These 50,000 steps a week is what you are supposed to walk every week. The challenge is to make sure you are actually getting in those 50,000 steps per week, and we track this by using a pedometer. Why is this not a challenge for me? Because I live in the city, I walk just about everywhere, I always walk up and down escalators and steps, and I exercise at least 4 days a week if not 5 or 6 (never 7..Sundays are definitely for ice cream). For me, the challenge is 1) To remember to wear the pedometer (which reminds me, I forgot to put it on); and 2) To remember to enter my daily steps into the online tracker. I can definitely see how getting in 10,000 steps a day can be challenging for some people – it is absolutely not an easy task – please do not be mislead by the ease of this challenge for me. Some people do not have the luxury to walk as much as I do on a daily basis and driving is a must! However, since I joined the challenge, I found myself doing laps around my coffee table while I watched TV to make up some extra steps during the day. I started the challenge a day late too – so I had 10,000 extra steps to make up. Luckily, when mom and dad came to visit we walked around the city a bit and reaching over my daily 10,000 steps for the day was easy to accomplish.

So, what’s the motivation for anyone to join the walking challenge? Well, for me, I was asked to join a team, and I hesitated at first (because some people get really competitive) but sometimes I have a hard time saying no. The fact that I am doing it with a team motivates me to follow the rule (and enter my daily steps) so I do not let my team down. For other people, the motivation is healthy living (hooray for them!). And for others, it is the competitive nature to win. Every week if your team reaches the right amount of steps, you are entered into a drawing to win prizes. I do not care about the prizes, but it really is kind of cool to constantly look at my pedometer to see how many steps I have walked. You would be surprised how much you walk if you actually kept track! And by keeping track in itself is motivation to do more (ex: “I’ll stop walking laps around my coffee table once I get 200 more steps in”).
Walking is great exercise. You can do it alone or with someone. You can do it on a treadmill or do it outside…of course if you’re like me and don’t want to miss your favorite TV show, just walk around your coffee table for the full hour. It’s easy and relaxing, and it happens to be a great way to also just get outside and enjoy a few minutes of fresh air. You can even make it a family activity by going on a walk after family dinner at night.

Will you start your own walking challenge? Are you part of a walking challenge? Do you track your steps even not part of a challenge?

I was lucky enough to get to see my mom yesterday for Mother’s Day. I know many “kids” cannot see their moms on Mother’s Day, and that’s sad to me. Fortunately, I live only 3 hours away from mom and dad, and while I was 100% willing to drive up for a few hour visit on Sunday, they decided to take a trip down to see me!

I love seeing my mom on Mother’s Day. She does so much for me; the least I can do is make sure she knows I love her at least one day a year. Sometimes, I think I take for granted that my mom is my AWESOME mom. I tell her I love her every day, but I feel like when you say “I love you” to mom on Mother’s Day it means so much more. Plus the cards! My mom loves cards, so I got her two (bonus points for the favorite daughter!). My dad and I took my mom out for brunch to a restaurant we all love. It was delicious as usual. We were so stuffed afterwards, and even though the boys finished their plates and the girls didn’t, the girls still had room for ice cream on the way back to my apartment and the boys took an ice cream pass (I could never pass up ice cream!).

When we got back to my apartment, we all nicely slumped into the couch and chairs. Let me explain my apartment to you. As I have mentioned before, I live in a studio. So, when I was buying furniture for the place I had limited options, and really had to think things through. I decided that I wanted a futon for a couch instead of a regular couch. This way, if I had a visitor they wouldn’t have to sleep on the couch and I could make an actual bed for them. Long story short, the only futon I could find that looked like a nice couch and not a futon that was actually comfortable to sit in daily was dark brown wood with a green cushion. The dark brown did not match the black furniture, and the green didn’t match…well…anything. I bought it anyway. It happens to be pretty comfortable, and it is extremely comfortable for what it is. My dad started the couch conversation by asking me if the couch matched the furniture enough for my liking now that it has been about a year. I said it is good enough. Then we were reminiscing about an OLD couch that we used to have. It was by far the most comfortable couch ever and we had to give it up. It was old and broken and ruined from being flooded out so much from living in the basement that always flooded. Before we got rid of it we discussed all of our options from a Furniture Fix, to buying new cushions, to furniture slipcovers, none of which would have been able to save the extremely old, broken and worn out couch. That being said, I have fallen asleep nicely, regularly on my green and brown, un-matching futon, so I guess it is okay.

Have a great Monday!

This weekend is Mother’s Day! This is a very bitter-sweet Mother’s Day for me. No, I am not a mother, you all know that, but I do have a Mother’s Day tradition that has been going on for more than 12 years, and for the first year we are changing everything up!

Let me explain. Growing up, on Mother’s Day my brother always went with my mom to the baseball game. So while the two of them did that, my dad and I needed something to pass the time before the family got together for Mother’s Day dinner. We found a fair; we loved the fair; we became friends with the regular vendors at the fair; and the fair on Mother’s Day became my day with dad. The fair is held at a museum. Last year the museum was being renovated, and since we didn’t check out the fair details until the night before, it wasn’t until a few hours before we should have been waking up to go that we found out it was canceled due to renovations. Fair enough, we happened to find another little antique-type fair/market in the area, and we enjoyed our time there. This year…we knew there was no fair. This year we aren’t even spending Mother’s Day in Pennsylvania. This year, my parents are coming down to visit me. I am so happy that I get to see them and spend Mother’s Day with my mom, but, to be perfectly honest, it feels funny to completely break tradition. But, we will have a great time, and I cannot wait to see them.

Also, every year at the fair my dad I found my mom her Mother’s Day gift. It’s Friday and I still haven’t gotten her anything because I feel lost as to what to do. I wonder how she would feel about getting two gifts next year from the fair like always. I could very easily pick up a beautiful personalized coffee mug that I know she will love, or any piece of jewelry from her new favorite boutique that is right around the corner from my apartment, but somehow nothing seems right not coming from the fair.

Anyway, I am super excited to see my family this weekend, and I know no matter what we do, or what I get for her, she is going to be a happy mom this year on Mother’s Day. If you’re a mom, happy mother’s day!
What are you doing for your mom?

How often do you spend time outside? How many days a week do you go to your kids’ soccer practice, baseball games and the grass is wet and you just want to sit in a chair? How frequently do you forget your chair? How often do you simply not want to lug your chair out of your car just to use it for an hour? Welcome the Pocket Chair™.

The new Pocket Chair™ is the solution to tailgating, gardening, camping, and basically any event you would need to carry a chair to sit outside to. The Pocket Chair™ is big enough to hold up to 250 pounds, but versatile enough that it can fold up and fit into the 7” carrying case and be placed in your pocket.

So now, instead of worrying about leaving space in the trunk or back seat for a few folding chairs to your next outdoor activity, load up the car with food and friends, and give everyone a Pocket Chair™ to put in their pockets to carry themselves.

I actually enjoy vegetables. I like vegetables raw and cooked. Some vegetables I like more than others, but I generally enjoy most vegetables. The other night, I discovered another vegetable that I love: brussel sprouts.

I know what you’re thinking, “Brussel sprouts are not good”. Until just 2 days ago, I thought the same thing. I am not one of those people who says I do not like something without having tasted it first (except for Lo Mein…when I was little I was told it was worms and I have never tried it). I have eaten brussel sprouts before, and I hated them. But more and more, I have been reading different blogs, and these bloggers love brussel sprouts. So, I figured I might as well just give it a try. A lot of time it’s how the food is cooked that makes you love it or hate it, so maybe it was how the brussel sprouts that I ate before were not cooked right. No matter what, I know I love vegetables, so what’s the harm in giving it a try? I did it as simple as possible: cut off the ends; cut them in half; lightly coat them in olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic; and roast them in the oven. I was scared to take them out. I was scared they would taste just as terrible as I remembered. But, I took them out of the oven, picked one up, and ate it. Truth be told, I ate ALL of them before the rest of my dinner was finished cooking. They were delicious!

So, what could have gone better? I took the whole night to cook a great meal and enjoy it slowly without having to rush out the door to do anything else. While I was cooking my spaghetti squash for dinner, and snacking on my unbelievable brussel sprouts, I sautéed some more vegetables and watched TV. Everything was going okay until I needed to take the squash out of the oven, I guess I got so excited to finish cooking that I burnt the top of my wrist on the top oven rack. I guess it would have helped if I had an oven shelf guard to protect me from this. But I was so excited over my brussel sprouts I simply didn’t care.

I promised you all a blender update – so here it is. I had a smoothie success yesterday. After my alarm clock went off at 5:15 a.m., I got dressed and hit the gym for an hour. When I got back to my apartment it was either going to be a breakfast success or fail as I attempted to use my new blender to make a breakfast smoothie. I had a breakfast success! Not only that, it seriously helped me through my day.

I heard that you can sneak in extra vegetables into your day by adding spinach to your smoothie because you can’t taste it. I didn’t really believe this, but so many online sources said otherwise, so I figured I might as well give it a try. Well, it worked! I added in a handful of spinach into my blender along with the other smoothie ingredients, and I had spinach for breakfast and I would never have known it if I didn’t tell myself to put the spinach in! I also decided to make my smoothie sweet. I have a sweet tooth, and one of my friends says that when she adds some chocolate chips into her morning oatmeal it satisfies her chocolate craving (more or less) throughout the day. So, I made my smoothie with chocolate protein powder, a little cocoa, a frozen ripe banana, skim milk, ice cubes, and of course the miracle spinach. My smoothie kept me full until lunchtime and I didn’t want anything sweet during the day.
I also keep going back and forth between going to the gym in the morning and loving it and hating it and therefore not going before work. Yesterday was one of those mornings when I was motivated to get to the gym early (maybe it was because I was so excited for my smoothie). I rode the bike, which is one of my favorite things to do during my morning workouts because I can squeeze in some good reading while I exercise on the bike. I have been struggling to get through the 4th Harry Potter book, and riding the bike in the morning gives me a good excuse to open up the book and read.

So, all before I even started actually “working” yesterday I had already gone to the gym, read a book, watched the news, made a smoothie, and checked my email and some of my favorite blogs…with time to spare before having to leave for work. Hope you’re having a great day too! Try something new, it might surprise you.

Yesterday I took a walk. I woke up, I got dressed, I got brunch with some friends, and I decided to walk. The temperature outside was cool-not cold or hot-the metro was running at its regular sporadic weekend schedule, and luckily I didn’t have to wait longer than 10 minutes for any of my trains because I didn’t have a book with me to keep me entertained. My friend offered to pick me up so I didn’t have to walk to meet him, and I decided to walk instead of ride.

I am not sure why I decided to walk. I walk all the time. The distance from the metro to my friend’s apartment is not super close…he calls it a “moderate” walk; I call it a long walk. It takes me about 5 minutes to walk to my metro stop from my apartment. In reality it takes about 15 minutes to walk to the metro from his. Not only did I decide to walk, I decided to walk slow and just enjoy the time outside. While the temperature was cool, the sky was overcast. There was nothing really pretty about being outside, but the idea of just walking was appealing. On my walk I caught up on my correspondence. I called my grandmother and my college roommate who I wanted to make plans with.

When I eventually got to my destination, my friend had a very uneventful afternoon planned for us, which is just what the doctor orders on an overcast, cool Sunday afternoon. He grabbed our beer glasses and we finished our mini beer tasting that we hadn’t completed the night before. We are on a mission to find the best summer beer, and so far the best summer beer is the beer he brewed himself. We’ll keep trying, but it looks like our summer beer collection is going to be a collection of different beers instead of one perfect summer drink.

Did you do anything just for yourself this weekend? What’s your favorite summer beer? We could use some suggestions.