Hi bloggies! I hope your Saturday is coming along swimmingly. What does that even mean? 🙂 As you may know, I started today off with a long run. My running partner could not make it, so I was running 8.5 miles solo. In 8 degree wind chills. When I woke up I was feeling really positive about the run, until I went to change from pajamas to running gear and was freezing! I had no idea how I was going to spend an hour and a half outside.
For the first mile of my run, I literally felt nothing. I was frozen, and I just moved as fast as I could. Eventually I warmed up, but I still felt great! I coasted through the entire run with a couple of short walking breaks. In the last 1/2 mile, my left knee started clicking and hurting quite a bit, so I walked and stretched some more before running to the very end. Overall I ran 9.5 minute miles for the whole thing, on average, with a very brutal headwind. Brrr. My wonderful husband did get up early and bundled up to ride his bike around me, and he met me at my halfway point to cheer me on for about 1/2 mile before riding on again. Love him!
Post-run, I had a new favorite smoothie, kale, spinach, soy milk, water, a banana, a cinnamon stick, and 1/2 up of non-alcoholic eggnog. YUM! Hubs also made me an egg and English muffin sammie with butter. Perfect recovery. I spent the day on the couch, then watching the Real Housewives of Orange County in bed. I always feel super guilty being lazy, but sometimes lazy days feel SO good.
We were invited to a few holiday parties tonight, but throughout the day with the cold and my exhaustion, it became clear that an early night would do me some good.
So, we decided to try a new place for dinner, Lord Hobo, which took over the B Side Lounge in Cambridge. Sometimes when I am running, all I want is a beer, and Lord Hobo has an incredible selection of draught and bottled beers in addition to an impressive wine and cocktail list.
I started with the St. Bernardus ABT (bel) 10% – dark creamy quad, a beer which, despite its dark color, offered a fruity finish that some great Belgian beers have. It also offered the richness of a dark beer; it was absolutely perfect.
To start, we shared the fried sweet neck oysters with vinegar cabbage and remoulade. They were fried and placed back in their shells with remoulade and pickled cabbage. Nom nom nom.
For dinner, I ordered the mussels and fries with pilsner cream and aioli and hubs got the lobster macaroni and cheese. With our close to zero temperatures, tonight was all about comfort food!
We loved everything! The mussels were cooked perfectly. Sometimes I find them too chewy, but these melted in my mouth and the sauce, well I wanted to tip the bowl and drink it! The fries were in abundance, with a flavorful aioli, crispy and fried to perfection. And the mac and cheese was chock full of tender, sweet lobster, al dente noodles, and rich, creamy cheese.
The atmosphere was comfortable and festive, and I could definitely try more of the food and beers on the menu. If you live in the area and are craving good pub food like I was, check it out!
Other developments today. . . I found out by accident that my wonderful husband has bought not one, but three 1980 bottles of wine to celebrate my birthday. More on that later, but holy exciting!!
Tonight I will be watching It’s a Wonderful Life, my favorite movie of all time, then getting to bed early. Tomorrow I will be walking dogs, having a family Christmas lunch, and then heading to Myers + Chang to celebrate my friend Adrienne’s birthday. I am very excited to see her!
Hope you all have a great night, and stay warm!
