Renaissance Fair!!! Part One

This is my forth time going to the Renaissance fair in upstate-ish NY and this was the best time yet.  I stayed up almost all night Saturday finishing my costume.  Totally worth it, I loved it and I wasn’t hot.  So now some pictures from the day.

My friend Joey and I were at the bow and arrow stand (it must be said that we were pretty drunk at this point) and decided that we needed a picture of us pretending to shoot each other.  Unfortunately we were shut down by the drippy stand guy.  His costume was even super drippy.

 

What I wish happened to that drippy stand guy…

Then of course we had to try out the ax throwing.

At one point there was a random parade through the streets of the fair.  There were lots of people trying to show off, you could tell, and then one girl walked by and it was so obvious she did not want to be there.  So instead of giving the people who wanted attention my attention I took a pictures of her.

No wonder she looked upset.  I mean people had wings and parrots and stilts.  She was stuck banging on a piece of metal with a hammer.  That has to suck.

More to come soon…

Renaissance Food

Yesterday we went to the Renaissance fair, which was awesome.  I’ll post pictures and talk more about it soon.  For now I want to talk about the most important part of the fair, the food!!!  I think I did pretty well not going crazy with the food.  Although what I did have was pretty crazy in of itself.

Of course for lunch I had to have a turkey leg and mead.  This picture is a pretty fair representation of it.  Although I didn’t actually have mead with lunch because that stand was OUT!!!  We ended up running all over the fair looking for mead.  Which I don’t actually like that much, it’s far too sweet.  But really, it’s not a renaissance fair without mead.

The rest of the day went ok.  All I had was lots and lots of beer.  Which ended up being about 3 beers.  Again, it’s not actually a renaissance fair if you’re not completely drunk, especially when throwing axes, arrows, and camels are involved.

For supper I wanted to go to a restaurant we passed by on the way there called Hog Heaven.  I was so excited.  In my mind it looked like this:

Turns out I was exactly right.  And it was delicious. 

The only splurgy type thing I ate was funnel cake, but after walking around for 6 hours in the heat I think I deserved it.

My New Bike!!!

Mitch and I went on an adventure today to find a new bike for me.  I’ve been using his but it’s waaay to big.  So we went to the bike shop on Monster Hill, but they only had mountain bikes.  Then we decided to go to another bike store that I saw on google maps.  I KNEW it was on Central Park West and 80 something street so we decided to walk.

We got to 80th street and hadn’t seen it.  Then Mitch suggested that we go one block west and try to find a starbucks to use the internet.  We turned down the street and there it was!!!!  We magically found it. 

However, once we got help  we ran into another problem.  The store was just evil.  The sales guy kept trying to get me to like ugly boy bikes and said that they didn’t really make girl bikes anymore since girls no longer rode in dresses or skirts.  He said this to me as I stood there WEARING a dress.  So yeah, I kind of want to ride in skirts and dresses. 

I couldn’t take the evil and Mitch was nice enough to tell the guy what I wanted without me actually being there.  He ended up finding an awesome girly bike that I can ride with a skirt.  I’m so excited, we’re going to pick it up on Sunday.  I just hope that evil vampire/devil/bike salesman doesn’t get a commission.

Frustration

I was planning on weighing myself and posting it on here a few days ago.  However, when I took my weight, even though I was eating better than I ever have been I had gained a ton of weight.  So much that it made me depressed and unmotivated.  I spent the rest of the day doing nothing and feeling miserable.

Then I realized that I shouldn’t let a number get to me like that.  And until I’m more confident in myself and my eating and exercising gets more routine I’m forgoing the scale.  I’m giving myself a month of not weighing myself.  I do plan to be meticulous about writing down everything I eat to make sure I’m not accidentally eating a ton of sneaky calories. 

Bike Ride Number 2

I adventured out for another bike ride, this time deciding to completely avoid Central Park and take the streets to the Hudson River bike path.  Unfortunately this still meant that I had to face the Monster Hill that I couldn’t make it up last time.  However this time I made it!!!  With energy to spare!!!!

I then meandered along the Hudson River bike path which was super pretty.  I also found a lunch stand that served frozen drinks.  So I rewarded myself with a yummy mango daiquiri.  I ended up riding for 6 miles which is awesome for me, and ended up in the garment district where I proceeded to shop for two hours.  I needed lots of fabric for my renaissance costume.  After this I was too tired to ride my bike back the 70+ blocks but luckily I have the most amazing husband in the world and he met me and rode my bike home from work.

Delicious Cucumber Salad

I just made this insanely delicious cucumber salad. Usually I hate cucumbers and this salad actually makes them taste good.
It consists of:
1 cucumber peeled and sliced
1 roasted red pepper sliced
1/2 can of artichoke hearts
1 can of baby corn sliced (the baby corn, not the can)
2 tablespoons of sweet relish (most important part)
Then you just mix them all together and enjoy! It's even better if you let it sit in the fridge for awhile before eating.
The best part is it's only 114 calories per serving! You can eat it all day!

Bicycling in NYC for the first time

It was so incredibly difficult. I'm crazy out of shape right now, due in part to my chronic illness and recent surgery but also because I hate hate hate working out in any capacity. So yesterday I decided I was going to get my husband's bike in working order and go for a leisurely bike ride today. Woke up, had the bike ready to go, and started out for what I thought would be an enjoyable activity.
I was wrong.
First I had an epic struggle trying to get the bike out of the front door, with several people staring me down as I did it. Finally got it out and onto the street I headed into Central Park in the entrance across from my apartment. It was great for the first minute or so. Then there was a hill.
Ok, great, I thought. I'll just push myself for a little while and get up the hill. I'll feel super accomplished and can enjoy the rest of my ride. But the hill NEVER ENDED! It wasn't even steep, it just went on forever. I saw a smaller path off to the side with a bike symbol on it that seemed to go slightly downhill and sped towards it.
The enjoyment of going downhill on that path erased the anger caused by the previous hill so I decided to take the bike path to the Hudson River path since there were signs for it right in front of me. Unfortunately I ran into another stupid hill.

The hill as some people see it.

The hill as normal people see it.
Couldn't do it. Just turned around. Road north on Central Park West onto Central Park North and got off in front of my apartment.
I literally could barely walk because I was shaking so much and felt nauseous. So I stripped off all of my clothes and laid down on my bed in front of the air conditioner. So so so nice.
Every time I decide to try exercising it becomes a huge production and I become overly dramatic. I am proud that I actually went out there and tried, even if I didn't go far at all.

Also, my computer is broken so posting will be sporadic.