A HOT week of running

September 26, 2017September 24, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 5 Comments

We had another HOT week in Cleveland, with temps in the 80s and even low 90s all week. It’s not the best running weather, but I was able to get out most mornings and runs before the heat really set in.

I don’t mind the heat – even though most people I know prefer fall for running, if I’m running in the morning, the warm-ish temps make it easy to figure out what to wear and just pop out of bed to run. In the winter and even some fall day, figuring out how to bundle up is half the battle!

Here’s how this week turned out:

Some of the highlights from this week:

I started off the week with a 10k race with Nicole. When Nicole lived downtown, we used to run together all the time. Now, we actually both live in the burbs, but this is the first time we’ve run together. We ended up running/walking in the heat, but it was my longest run since I had piriformis issues!

This is more of a lowlight I suppose, but I ended the week with some skinned ones. On Saturday, I ran with Mary to our niece’s crosscountry meet. On the way there, I took a pretty good fall, twisted my ankle and skinned my knees. I’m okay, but it was a bloody mess!

Some questions for you:

When was the last time you fell when running?
What is your favorite season for running?

Linking up with My No-Guilt Life, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and MCM Mama Runs!

Weekends in the Burbs

September 24, 2017September 24, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

For those of you following along, B and I are officially suburbanites. We traded in our downtown apartment for a house in the ‘burbs a month or so ago, and while we still have much to do to get it ready (including some more painting and 2 bathrooms to finish), it’s coming along.

I’m not going to lie – I miss our easy downtown apartment living. Being able to walk to the grocery store (and well, everywhere, including work) was amazing, and having 2 full working bathrooms were something I took advantage of. That being said, life in the ‘burbs isn’t that bad, especially when you have some fun AND relaxing weekends like the one we just had.

Friday night we had a parent meeting at daycare, so we didn’t get home until after 7. BUT, I was able to go running around the local lakes earlier in the day, which led to this beautiful view.

For dinner, we had Indian takeout, which was delicious.

AND this delicious ice cream.

Saturday morning started with a run with my sister-in-law Mary. We ran to our niece’s cross country meet and got to watch her run. I unfortunately took a fall during the run and bloodied up my knees … but my niece ran her 1.5 mi pretty well in the hot weather!

blurry bloody pic 🙂

Saturday afternoon we hung out for a bit with our friends Joey and Lulu and cleaned up / worked on the house for a little. Which of course included some snoozing.

For dinner, we had plans to invite friends Sarah and Bobby over for homemade pizza that B made. After pizza, we put FW to bed, and enjoyed hanging out on the front porch drinking beers. Having a porch and being able to sit outside is definitely a perk of our new house.

Sunday morning started with a walk to a local bakery for breakfast. It was another hot morning, but felt good to be outside and walking! I decided to take the day off of running since I hadn’t taken a day off in more than a week.

After our walk, we had lunch plans with Dave and Anson who wanted to see the new house. They brought us Aladdin’s, some of my favorite Lebanese food! Then, their daughter, Celia, and FW played for a bit.

That night, we had plans with B’s family to celebrate some birthdays. Not only had B had a birthday since we last got together, but out of all the people who were at dinner, 6 people had had birthdays since August!

And that was it for our weekend.

Some questions for you:

Did you spend some time outside this weekend?
Do you like Lebanese food?

I’m linking up with the weekly wraps!

Visiting Annapolis with a Toddler

September 21, 2017September 22, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, B, FW and I took our third vacation as a family of three. (The first was a weekend in Columbus when FW was 2 months old, the second was a trip to Atlanta/Cincy/Asheville when FW was 8 months old) After our time in New York seeing my family and friends, we hit the road for another car trip – this time, to Annapolis.

I had never been to the city before, and in our few days there, I really liked it. I would definitely visit again and recommend it if you are traveling with a baby/toddler. (Side note: Is FW really a toddler? It’s hard for me to believe, but at 14 months, he sure is close to being one if he isn’t already.)

Here are some ways to pass the time if you go:

Walk down Main Street and check out the water. View the boats, get a bite to eat, and take photos of the water. We did this each day we were there. With FW we watched the ducks in the water, “woofed” at the many dogs that were walking by, pointed at the many boats and read the historical markers along the way.

Tour the Naval Academy. Most of this tour was pretty toddler friendly – it was a lot of outdoors, walking (or strolling) around, and FW was able to walk or sit and be somewhat loud (he’s at the age where he likes babbling AND shrieking) while we got the scoop. The only parts that were difficult? The chapel and John Paul Jones tomb – both were not places that were built for running/shrieking babies.

A highlight of the tour? The noon formation. All of the students (or midshipmen as they are called) line up and do roll call at noon before lunch and the band plays some music as well. FW and I enjoyed this part very much!

Take a walking tour. While this tour was a great way to get an understanding of the history of the area, it wasn’t FW’s favorite. In full disclosure, I wouldn’t necessarily call this a toddler-friendly activity, especially if you have a toddler who likes to walk, talk, run and touch every single thing. The constraints of the walking tour (walking when the guide was walking, not touching the historical exhibits, etc.) were a little too much for FW. The tour was also 2+ hours, something that most toddlers may have a hard time following.

Going out to eat. And by out I mean OUTSIDE. We lucked out with the weather while we were in town and got to enjoy a few meals outdoors. I find patios much more FW-friendly (we can get up, walk, be loud, etc.) and Annapolis had quite a few of those. My favorite restaurant while we were there was The Iron Rooster- we actually ended up going there twice – once for brunch and once for lunch – and they even had a kids menu and crayons for FW to color with.

Get ice cream. I made it a goal to get ice cream nightly, and FW enjoyed sharing cones and cups with us. He enjoyed my peanut butter ice cream and B’s chocolate.

Find a playground. Let’s face it – most of the activities we did weren’t made for FW. They were baby-friendly activities, but they weren’t necessarily things he would enjoy doing. So, we made sure that we did find some ways for him to have fun and one of the things we did was find a playground. The playground at the Annapolis Elementary School was perfect! It had kiddie swings, little slides and plenty of area for him to play and run around. We went there before dinner one night and he got so tired out he slept for the first part of our meal, which as any parent knows, is great!

Some questions for you:

Have you been on a vacation with a toddler recently? What activities do you recommend?
Have you been to Annapolis?

Tuesdays on the Run: From Fall to Summer Again?

September 19, 2017September 19, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

Does it feel like summer again where you are? We had a few days in Cleveland that felt a little cool and then all of a sudden it turned into summer again. Seriously, it feels like summer here again and even though it’s not the best for running, I don’t mind it! It makes me forget that winter is on its way.

Check out our upcoming forecast:

In for a few warm days it seems!

Anyway, here is how my runs looked last week – I got in quite a few miles!

The main highlight? ALL of my runs were outdoors. And who can complain with views like this:

Yup, I’m on my way of meeting my monthly goals of running outside and getting in a race. Hopefully I can handle the heat, though!

What do you prefer – running in the summer or winter?
How cold is too cold for you to run outside? What about too warm?

Linking up with My No-Guilt Life, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and MCM Mama Runs!

4 Weekends In One

September 17, 2017September 17, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

Phew – WHAT a weekend. It was one of those weekends that flew by and was jam packed. I feel like we did enough stuff that it felt somewhat like four or five weekends in one. Here’s a summary of my weekend – in emojis:

🍦🍕🍷🍂👨‍🌾👰🏃‍♀️👯🎨🍻🥒🍝

Did you get any of that?

Here – see for yourself.

Friday evening started with a nice walk around downtown, followed by an ice cream date. B, FW and I grabbed ice cream after daycare with Dave, Anson and their adorable daughter Celia. The only pics are from the walk and of the ice cream.

Oh, and FW definitely on a sugar high while getting a ride on Dad.

We ended the night with some pizza and wine on the porch. The weather has been GORGEOUS lately (warm!) and it was nice to sit outside and decompress after the week.

Saturday morning started with a walk to the local nature center to check out some of the paths and exhibits, before picking up a packet for the race I was running Sunday morning. My friend Nicole had encouraged me to sign up for a 10k, even though I hadn’t been running that far. \

Walking around the nature outside!

We then walked over to the local farmers market and picked up some produce and meat for the week.

Saturday night, B and I were off to a wedding! My friend/former coworker Ali was getting married on a beautiful farmstead south of us. It was a beautiful night for the ceremony and celebration.

They look so happy 🙂

Me and another coworker were invited … check out the gorgeous scenery!

Sunday morning came a little too early for me. I had agreed to sign up for a 10K and ran it with my friend Nicole. It was my longest run in months – since my piriformis issues – but felt good! It was steamy out, so we took our time, chatted, and stopped for plenty of water.

Sunday afternoon included a trip to the west side for our monthly Ladies Craft Beer Society! This month we were at Cuoghi’s house to make pickles. Unfortunately, since FW hadn’t had a nap yet, he was very clingy and didn’t want to be put down. Which made making the pickles a little difficult – thankfully Cuoghi and Marissa and other ladies stepped in to help and I went home with some dill pickles, pickled cauliflower AND pickled onions. I can’t wait to try them all!

Sunday night, B’s parents were out of town, so we had our own Sunday dinner at our house. B made sauce from the tomatoes we had bought at the Farmers Market (so completely from scratch!) and made some “fried” eggplant. It was such a good meal. (And yes, I chose the spaghetti emoji because I know what the eggplant emoji means ….)

So that was it! A delicious, fun, busy weekend. Here’s to a good week!

Questions for you:

Have you ever made sauce from tomatoes?
Have you ever made pickles?

I’m linking up with the weekly wraps.

Annapolis Eats: Fish+Ice Cream

September 13, 2017September 13, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

Happy Wednesday! I’m back again for What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW). It’s been a while since I’ve shared some of my eats, and since I just got back from a trip to Annapolis, I thought it’d be fun to share some of the food we ate in Annapolis.

Before I show you some of the pictures, I’ll share with you my goals going into the trip:

Taste the local beer.
Eat plenty of local fish. Especially crab and oysters.
Eat ice cream. Every day if possible.

Spoiler alert – I got to do ALL of the above! Successful vacation in my opinion. Here’s some of the goodness:

Ice cream.

Oysters.

Fish boil.

More ice cream.

More oysters.

GIANT crab cake.

Breakfast hash with CRAB.

Crab soup. Not pictured, sadly. But here’s a picture of one of the few non-crab or ice cream dishes I had- french toast!

Some questions for you:

Have you been to Annapolis?
What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Do you like crab?

Vacation Running

September 11, 2017September 9, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 9 Comments

I have to admit that I slacked somewhat with my running last week. While I got in plenty of steps most days, I didn’t get in my usual 5+ workouts during the week. But I have no regrets – I was on vacation! And, when I’m on vacation with B and FW, it’s sometimes hard to fit in a run. After all, unless where somewhere that is easy to run with a stroller, one of us has to watch FW and it takes away from our family vacation time (which gives me big mom guilt). So, considering all of that, I’m pretty pleased with last week’s runs.

Some of the highlights:

ALL of the runs were done outdoors! And since I was on vacation, it was so nice to be running during daylight hours on more than 4-5 hours of sleep.

This was my view for some of those runs – greenery and a farm in upstate NY.

And beautiful water for two of my runs, which were done in Annapolis.

A post-running selfie in the hotel room. Representing CLE (in Annapolis) in my CLE marathon shirt!

some stroller miles with FW (2.84 to be exact, on Saturday):

Some questions for you:

Do you run on vacation?
What’s your ideal scenery for running? Water? Farmland? Forest/trees? Mountains? City?

Double the linkup love today! I’m linking up with the weekly wraps. AND … linking up with My No-Guilt Life, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and MCM Mama Runs!

A Few Days in Albany (Alternative Title: Things to Do in Upstate NY with a Baby)

September 10, 2017September 8, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 1 Comment

Note: I apologize in advance for more typos than usual on this post and others recently – I’m typing this with 9 fingers (see the BONUS at the bottom of this post for more details)

B and I just got back from seeing my parents. While we used to go out to Albany several times of year, our trips back to NY have gotten fewer and fewer now that we have FW. My parents have spent much more time coming to visit us in Cleveland. That’s why when B suggested we take some time off around Labor Day and take a trip, I was excited about the prospect of using part of that time to see my parents.

Trips to NY are a little different now that we have FW, but we still were able to have some fun and found a few baby-friendly activities to keep us busy.

FW loves visiting Nonna and Grandpa because Nonna makes delicious cookies 🙂

Some of the highlights:

Seeing my brother. He was in town from Berlin and I’m so glad I got to see him, even if just for a day. T he last time he saw FW, he was only 6 months old!

Going to a Farmers Market. Saturdays in Upstate NY mean farmers markets – we went to the one in Colonie, but Troy also has a great one.

Checking out the New York State Museum. It was rainy one day we were in town so we spent some time indoors at the museum. The museum is a great place to take your kids – it’s free (just a suggested donation), full of plenty of kids running around, has some really cool exhibits, and even has a toddler-focused hands-on room (that we didn’t get to check out).

the infamous long house inside the museum

are they on a train in the city? Yup – but inside the museum!

Also, the museum has a large indoor free carousel! It was FW’s first time on the ride and he LOVED it.

We met up with Jane and Alisa and her boyfriend at the museum, and then we had them over for dinner. They also hadn’t seen FW since he was 6 months old.

Going apple and blueberry picking at Indian Ladder Farms. I LOVE apple picking and have fond memories of going every summer I as growing up. It was great to go with FW, who was old enough to help pick the apples, put them in the bag and even taste them. We also got to pick some blueberries and after our picking, we enjoyed the local cider and beers at a picnic table with some apple donuts and apple fritters.

❤ my momma

the only time i’ve seen him enjoy blueberries – while picking them!

william tell …

family photo!

Stopping by a local playground. One of the days was gorgeous out, so my parents and I took out FW and had some fun running around in the grass and enjoying the rides.

Visiting West Point. Okay, West Point isn’t in Albany, but it’s not too far away, so the day we left Albany, we headed to West Point. We got in some beautiful sights (they sit above the Hudson River and have some great views) and an informal tour of campus with one of our friends who is a professor there.

BONUS: spending some time in Urgent Care. Ha! Okay, so this isn’t necessarily a “highlight” but I can’t share this post without mentioning this story about my Saturday night. My dad was cutting some vegetables for dinner when the knife slipped and he cut his pinky. It was pretty bad, but not bad enough to need stitches, so he elevated it and bandaged it up and I took up the cutting. I decided to take the opportunity to show him (and my mom and brother who were also in the kitchen) how to properly cut vegetables and the right type of knife to use (the knife he/I was using wasn’t the right kind). Of course, as I got to the last piece of eggplant, the knife slipped and I ALSO cut my pinky. I looked down and knew that this was no ordinary cut – the tip of my pinky was hanging off and bleeding pretty bad. I looked over at my brother and mom and said, “I need stitches.” So, my mom and brother took me to the local urgent care while B stayed home with FW and my dad resumed preparing dinner. Three stitches later, my pinky is in better shape now and I’ll be getting the stitches removed in a week or so.

Some questions for you:

When was the last time you went to Urgent Care? What was it for?
Have you ever cut yourself so that you needed stitches?
Do you like picking apples/berries/etc?

Tuesdays on the Run: Starting off September Injury Free

September 5, 2017September 5, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

Happy September!! I’m excited to share that I’m starting off the month (semi-) injury free. Well – I’m at least running-injury free (not completely injury free if you count a minor incident this past weekend that led to 3 stitches in my finger). My piriformis seems to be healing, and while I’m still pretty slow, I’m back to running a few miles most days a week.

This week included 20+ miles, which looked like this:

Some highlights from the week:

I also ran outside a few mornings which was DARK!

Another highlight of the week? Running 3ish miles with my brother who was in town visiting from Germany. He lives in Berlin, but I got to see him for 24 hours or so, and we managed to get in a short run together on what was the most beautiful Saturday morning.

And since it’s the beginning of a new month, here are some goals for September:

To run outside at least 3x per week
To run at least one race
To do some runs with other people

Here’s to a good running month! Some questions for you:

How do you see when you run in the dark?
When was the last time you ran a 5k?

Linking up with My No-Guilt Life, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and MCM Mama Runs!

What We’ve Been Up To Lately

September 4, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / Leave a comment

If my life were a sitcom, the past week would’ve been the flashback episode.

You know, the episode that is pretty much a montage of scenes from other episodes? That’s what this week has felt like. This past week we packed up boxes, bags and a UHaul and moved from our downtown apartment to the suburbs. We have been living downtown for more than 6 years and to say we were sad to leave is an understatement.

This week, scenes from years ago have been swirling through my head. B and I moving downtown right after we got married. Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day footsteps above the parade on our patio. My first day walking to work (instead of driving). Running to the start of many 5ks, 10ks, half marathons. Walking down from our apartment to join in the celebration in the streets after the Cavs winning (and being 9++ months pregnant doing so). B converting the office into a nursery and building a changing table into the wall due to lack of space. B and I bringing FW home for the first time. Taking FW out for walks to the Flats and lakefront when he was just days old. Playing in the splash park downtown once he could walk.

I could go on and on on the many memories … but instead, here is a glimpse of what our lives have looked like the past few weeks as we have moved, started to unpack and continue to renovate the house.

Here’s the state of our third floor. This is after I spent 2 days unpacking stuff 🙂

Here’s our bathroom … B is updating it – it’s coming along! He put in a new ceiling and lighting, took out the vanity and is going to paint once the ceiling is done.