Just in time. . .

. . . for my vacation . . . I hurt my back!

I tweeked my back last week while pulling on my sock. Nothing serious, just a little tender. I ran and it didn't bother me at all. It was feeling back to normal on Saturday, until I fed the cats. Seriously I reached to the counter corner to reach a food dish and pop, I hurt it again. I spent some time on the roller and that really helped loosen it up. I planned to go skiing with a couple friends and didn't think my back would stop me from skiing.

Got to the hill, picked up lift tickets, got my friend set up for a lesson and off we went. Holy cow, after 1 run down, well it didn't take the entire run down for me to realize that my back was in bad shape. I should have stopped, but I continued for 4 more runs, then I decided I needed a little break. My low back muscle was in spasms and I was in pain. I ran into my friend who was taking a lesson. She had decided she didn't like skiing, she wasn't able to come to a stop and wanted the lesson to be done. I told her I needed a break, and we would go have a beer and then go back out for a few runs down the bunny hill. By this time my back was really hurting, but as I said, we had a beer and then headed back out for a ride up the lift and a few runs down the bunny hill.

By the time I got home I was in a lot of pain. I would rank it 10 out of 10. I took Advil and a couple Tylenol PM's hoping that would alleviate some of the pain. I was not that lucky. After suffering through the night with no sleep, and actually falling down our stairs (I only fell from the 3rd step) because my leg went out under me and not being able to find any position that offered relief I went to urgent care at 8 and came home with Vicodin and muscle relaxers. Arrrrgggggg

That was Sunday morning. Today, Wednesday is the first day I haven't taken any Vicodin, but have taken two muscle relaxers. My left leg is tingly and somewhat numb below my knee, so something is still pinching. What a great vacation. My plan was to run daily and take some extra Pilates classes, but that isn't going to happen.

I am just hoping to get out of the house tomorrow for a walk! Until the tingling, numb feeling is gone, running isn't going to happen.

Recipes -

Last Friday I made chicken parmesan with a twist, HERE from Jenna's blog, Eat, Live, Run. I have never made chicken parmesan. I usually don't like breaded meat, but this was pretty good. What's the twist? Pepperoni on top!

Enjoy the moments!

 

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Done . . .

. . . with our current home remodeling project, but I know there are more to come! Does home remodeling ever end?

As of last Wednesday the woodwork project is done.  We replaced 10 interior doors, 5 bi-fold closet doors, wood trim around all the doors and new base molding through out the house. The door trim, base molding and three bedrooms and closets and master bath were painted.

Window molding with new window sill

Now we are in the process of returning "stuff" to the closets, taking this opportunity to eliminate.  Both of us have gone through our clothes and came up with 5 large bags of clothes to be taken to Goodwill. On the agenda for Saturday was to re-hang pictures and get the final "stuff" back in the rooms and closets. We took our clothes to Goodwill and stopped at Staples to buy a new file cabinet that will fit into the closet. This means that both the desk and file cabinet have been moved out of our bedroom, freeing up the bedroom, to be  . . . . a bedroom!
I would like to say that the upstairs is completely back to normal, it is - "almost", but there are still a few lasting piles of paper and odds and ends to pick up.  We also have the lower level to "put back"and windows to measure for new blinds.  Looks like another busy day at home. Looking out the window at 8 am, it looks like it will be a great day to do a little snow shoeing with Sophie. That will be a welcome break.

Running update:  
The lovely Rachel from Running in Real Life, HERE and I ran about 4.5 miles Tuesday evening after work. The temp was in the single digits and with the breeze it felt below zero, but that didn't stop us.  Other than that my runs have been 2 mile loops through the neighborhood.
As soon as I am done with this post, Sophie and I are out the door for a 4 mile run.

Recipe update - cooking my way through all the recipes on the blog Eat, Live, Run:
I am still not back into regular cooking mode, given the house renovation situation, but I have checked off 4  recipes since I last posted.  On Super bowl Sunday, I made shrimp enchiladas verde, HERE. We loved the taste and had enough for a couple of meals. Only problem is corn tortilla's tend to crumble a bit, but the taste is so much better than flour tortilla's that it is worthwhile to deal with the crumbling.

Last weekend I made shrimp fried rice, HERE. This was really good and easy to make. Again, I make fried rice quite a bit and love the simplicity of it, but this recipe turned out great. I loved the suggestion about scrambling the egg in the pan first and then removing it, to be added later. I usually add the eggs once the rice is added to the pan. I slide the rice and veggies to the side and cook the egg in the middle, but this method worked so much better.  Scramble just a little, leaving it rather gooey and then remove from the pan, then I added it at the end to re-warm up.

For Valentines Day, I made mediterranean baked salmon, HERE.  I have made this a couple of times before and really love the flavors. Between the feta cheese and sun dried tomatoes and pesto . . . what is not to love. This recipe is easy and actually I would think it would work great substituting chicken breast for the salmon. We paired it was a romaine salad and roasted asparagus for a simple Valentines Day meal.

Tonight I made spicy acorn squash bisque, HERE.  All I can say, is yummy! Todd was not real excited about squash soup, but in his words, 'it wasn't bad'. The curry spices it up and the texture is so creamy. With a slice of crunchy bread, it is a great and simple meal. I love squash and really enjoyed the bisque. I had the soup and bread for dinner, while Todd supplemented it with left-over salmon from last evening.

Enjoy the moments!