Getting Specific

Happy Thursday (that's really a Friday)! Hopefully you are lucky enough to have tomorrow off so that you can enjoy a long weekend. I know I'll be more than ready for a couple days off of work after working eight hours tonight. Though I can't complain about having the afternoon and evening shift, especially on the Thursday before the Fourth of July, because it is so incredibly quiet around here. I plan on blogging, reading, and maybe watching a movie while painting my nails. Not too bad for being at work!

Asti

Let's start off this post with yet another item that has been crossed off of the list - Asti Trattoria. Dylan finished his test at the exact time I got off work, so we decided to grab a quick lunch before he left town for YoungLife camp. Asti is right in the Hyde Park neighborhood, so it was extremely easy to get to. And on top of that, there was approximately one other person in the restaurant when we were there, allowing us to be seated and tended to immediately.

Our waitress was extremely personable, and I really liked the feel of this restaurant. It was quiet (which was obviously contributed to by the lack of restaurant patrons), and had a very welcoming feel to it. We were well taken care of while we were here, and I found this to be a stellar lunch spot. Dylan and I don't typically get to go to lunch together because of our overlapping schedules, so this was a nice change of pace.

We started out with the Asti fries, seasoned with garlic and parsley, and they certainly didn't last very long. They were thin and crisp, which made it very easy to keep popping them into my mouth.

For my entree, I ordered the Grilled Salmon Salad. Dylan was disappointed in me for this, because I tend to gravitate toward salmon whenever we go out to eat, but one, I really like it, and two, if I ate a bowl of pasta in the middle of the day, that would be the end of my day. Plus, I just wanted something that was both healthy and refreshing, and this salad satisfied both of those requirements.

I was even too full for gelato at Dolce Vita, which was really too bad because they had a chocolate sorbet flavor. If you read this blog with any regularity, you know I'm a sucker for anything chocolate. I guess this means I'll have to go back!

Workout + Breakfast

I hung around at home for a little bit, watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with two of my roommates, before dragging my tired self up to the gym for a 5:45pm cycling class. For once, it wasn't that my body was tired, it was more that I was just worn out, and felt as though I could have gone to sleep for the night right then and there. I knew I would regain some energy if I got a little exercise, so I did just that. I started out with a little incline treadmill walking, and then worked hard for 50 minutes in spin class.

The instructor last night was the same instructor I had on Saturday, so I knew this would be a good class. We did the same pyramid interval exercise, but we did it backwards this time. Meaning, we started out with four minutes of work, had one minute of rest, did three minutes of work, and so on. In my opinion, this pyramid interval was a little bit tougher than the one on Saturday:

• Seated flat
• Standing climb
• Jumps (10 seconds sprint, 10 seconds rest)
• Standing to seated sprint (15 seconds --> 20 seconds --> 25 seconds)

And we finished the pyramid interval with a 30-second sprint that left my legs feeling like jelly. I'd call that a successful class!

Today my workout happened bright and early in the morning, but this it was of the water variety. I forget how much I love early morning swims, probably because I don't get to do them enough. I love watching the sun come up over the water, and it was the perfect way to start this Thursday.

I was more than hungry by this point, so I headed home to fix myself my usual egg whites and spinach.

I decided to brave the heat and go for a walk at Town Lake, but the sun absolutely drained me, and I downed every ounce of water in my CamelBak once I got back to my car.

After both a swim and a sweaty walk at Town Lake, I was more than ready for a shower and a snack. I ate half of a Honeycrisp apple before dropping a friend off at her house in Westlake and then running a few errands.

Not long after I returned home, I headed over to SRD for work, which is where I will be for many, many hours. As I said earlier, though, I can't complain too much.

Austin Murals

As you guys may have noticed when I posted about my Summer 2014 To-Do List, one of the items on this list was "Austin Murals." That isn't very specific, and obviously it is not very plausible to visit every single mural in Austin, so I made a list of the ones that I want to see most. Granted, I have seen almost every mural on this list, and I've even taken pictures of a few of them, but I am starting over with the goal of taking pictures of every single one in these next three weeks. It seems like a lot, but many of them are located near one another, so it really shouldn't be too difficult.

And on that note, I'm off to do a little bit of reading. Catch y'all later!