#vannaontherun
I’m heading out on a work road trip tomorrow (tough life, i know) driving up the western US coast from San Fran to Seattle. Follow my adventures via twitter @aimbrogno/@lululemonlive and through the lululemon blog!
Peace out BC.
Comment » View Post »life as of lately 05.13.12
I’ve started running – a lot. In fact I’ve signed up for a half-marathon (the SeaWheeze – obviously) so i’ll be continuing to run a lot until at least August 11. I’m up to 13K!
I got a new summer roomie :) which has been just the best.
I’ve fallen in love with this place.
it’s flip flop season again. yay.
and here’s a few more pics i love
…
introducing…bethany (my bike)
folks – please welcome Bethany (yes, i name all my inanimate possessions) to the world. I’m still getting used to being a city biker (the first time out I panicked and made a series of right hand turns until I got to where I was trying to go because I was too afraid to make a left) but i’m getting there! Until then – seawall rides will do :)
you ring my bell :)
VBL #42 Fish ‘N Chips at Go Fish
nom. nom. nom.
Vancouver is really starting to shine again – after a long, and yes, rainy winter – it seems to me we are just about in the clear (knock on wood). The weather has been amazing the past few days and I’ve taken every opportunity to enjoy it.
Yesterday, after a long but leisurely bike ride (on my new bike no less) heather, lori and I pedaled on over to Go Fish for a much awaited (and well deserved) lunch. Apparently, the rest of Vancouver had a similar idea because we waited in line on the harbor for a good 40 minutes before placing our order for fish n chips. Another 20 minutes passed before we could bring fork to mouth to experience the dish fish from this notable Vancouver hotspot.
3 words: worth. the. wait.
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VBL #32 sun run
Doing the Sun Run 10K is basically a right of passage to life on the west coast. Consider this one done and done. Whoop!
race bib.
the vancouver sun run – sun not included.
1:09:09
I placed 19,632 out of 48,904.
- special thanks to Becca for snapping this pic of my official time in the paper!
Next up, The SeaWheeze Half Marathon – don’t even ask me how that happened.
Anyone want to run it with me?
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the art of making pasta
My nonnas have always made making pasta (from scratch) seem like an art form, something not easily mastered and an activity to approach with caution. So much so that 2 generations (my aunt and I chatted about this) were plagued with this idea that making pasta is hard – and therefore should never be attempted
…And then i looked up how to make pasta. You ready for this? Here’s what you need: 3 eggs, flour and some salt (and olive oil if you’re wealthy).
Perhaps the degree of difficulty decreased with the development of technology and the mere accessibility-ness of modern day. I can appreciate how hard it would be to wrangle hens for their eggs, grind grain into flour and barter for salt but mix three of the most basic ingredients together – have a little faith in me!
So this morning I decided I was going to make pasta – start small, who me? hells no. Black Truffle Butternut Squash Ravioli. On top of that, this recipe didn’t even exist so I had to channel my inner Italian and guesstimate my way through the production.
eggs, flour, salt
dough
trying so very hard to roll it out thin
butternut squash – Parmesan – truffle oil
filling it up!
tucking them in :)
slice and dice
they had to look pretty!
and they did!
lunch is served… kinda.
Here’s what I found out. Making pasta isn’t hard. Making GOOD pasta is very hard. Don’t be fooled by the presentation, this was before I forced myself to eat at least three before tossing the rest in the trash – sad day. If I had a pasta machine, I have every bit of confidence that my concoction would have been edible – it had everything going for it. My weak little hands just couldn’t roll the dough out thin enough so saying each bite was a ‘mouthful’ is an understatement.
I’m not totally discouraged though, I’ll make the attempt again sometime soon but I think I’ll start with linguine.
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cinnamon buns and vanilla chai cupcakes
This past week I put my mix master to good use.
On Wednesday I baked these cute little vanilla chai cupcakes with buttercream frosting for Sara and Miro’s baby shower at the office (note: Sara and Miro are not having a baby together).
On Thursday night I decided to try my hand in cinnamon bun making. I wanted to surprise Tiff for her birthday with a morning treat that she could share with her new team at work (why cinnamon buns are socially acceptable to eat at breakfast I will never understand). They were actually easier than I thought they would be but took longer than I expected. Due to unforeseen rising times (i have a bad habit of not reading a recipe through before I start) Tiff came home mid project. She was a good sport though and despite the obvious smell of ooey-gooey cinnamon, she didn’t ask too many questions and camped out in her room for the rest of the night as to not totally ruin the surprise. 
The cinnamon buns were absolutely yum, if I do say so myself!
do what i want, not what i should.
food for thought courtesy of tiff:
what if you lived everyday just doing what you wanted to do and not what you ‘should’ do?
tiff and i are testing out the theory.
i left my heart in az
Don’t get me wrong I love Vancouver but whenever I visit Arizona I can’t help but wonder why I don’t live in a place that’s sunny 99.9% of the time (who knew places like that even existed?). Here’s a snapshot (literally) of my trip!
palm tree love
desert sun
sunset
hike. run. mojito. repeat
bike rides and golf
beer sampling at four peaks
blissed out spa day at the fairmount princess
poolside birthday girl
birthday dinner at my all-time fave resto – true food kitchen
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oscar nominated
Every year I tell myself I’m going to watch all the Oscar nominated best picture films before the academy awards. Every year i fall short. This year, with the enrollment of Tiff (my bestie, roomie, coworker and clone) we’re determined to make it happen. The only major setback I foresee is that i’d like to read “extremely loud and incredible close” before watching it and we’re getting down to the wire here! Luckily, i have a week long vacay coming up so hopefully I can make this happen!
War Horse
The Artist
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Descendants
The Tree of Life
The Help
Hugo
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
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29 day sweaty pursuit
Okay. I realize the last time I tried this I failed. To be fair I had a serious influx of visitors during November and, to avoid sounding like a totally lazy bum, I did continue to workout but my updates were even less consistent than my exercise regime. This time around it’s different for three reasons:
- I called it something different and slightly updated the look of my tracker as a way to convince myself that this time will be different
- I’m participating in a company wide sweat challenge. Not only does that speak to my competitive spirit but I’m on a team that’s counting on me to pull my weight
- It’s one less day to worry about :)
I hereby present to you my 29-day february sweaty pursuit!
UPDATE 27 FEB 2012: gosh I suck at this!
1 Comment » View Post »VBL #3 seawall bike ride
On a particularly lovely ‘it’s-february-but-it-feels-like-may-and-this-is-why-i-love-vancouver’ morning, Tiff and I rented beach cruisers and finally knocked this bad boy off my list. The 9km leisurely bike ride around Stanley Park had me romanticizing about what a cute life i could lead if i had my very own (robins egg blue with a wicker basket, of course) beach cruiser. Three days later and I’m still thinking about it so i know it’s serious. The fact that I have a birthday coming up isn’t lost on me either. Just sayin’ …hint hint.
how cute am i?
my wheels! tiff’s was the same (obviously)
a belated happy ho-lu-day
twenty-eleven brought me these goofs and the best job.
twenty-twelve, i’m ready!
VBL #51 seattle
Big ole shopping trip in Seattle. For a pretty accurate summary of the weekend read ‘tweetless in seattle‘. The things that aren’t covered there are covered here, including: trying to use a payphone, checking out the first ever sbux and of course the famous pike place fish market.
VBL #53 ice skating at robson square
don’t mess with the ice princess.
ps. i’m blue ba ba dee ba dadaah. ya know?
tweetless in seattle
space needle, seattle, 09 12 2011
This weekend, Tiff and I visited our dear friend Dave for a weekend full of holiday partying, shopping, bowling (don’t ask) and some good old fashion Seattle fun. Shortly after crossing the border I turned my phone off in order to avoid those pesky roaming charges. In doing this, I was also turning off my ability to tweet. Not able to come to terms with this, I decided to start a note called “tweets to tweet later” which eventually developed it’s own nickname “The TTTL”
Here’s the list of thing i would have said if i hadn’t been tweetless in seattle:
1. @tifffanyandco has horseradish induced brain damage
2. Ahh, Macy’s at Christmas! … God were so Canadian
3. I’m about 2 seconds away from going to guest services and asking them to make an announcement for Tiffany to come pick up her child (me)
4. @tifffanyandco, we are going to need to establish some kind of bird call. #comebacktome
5. you can publicly weigh yourself for free in Macy’s. #nothanksillpass
6. And here I thought the bathroom in Macy’s would be the one place tiff and I couldn’t get separated. #wrong
7. I have officially spent more time shopping for a Tiffany than for shopping for stuff #comebacktome
8. I’m actually looking for a cocktail shell…
9. Naiive to think that the cost of a payphone phone call hasn’t gone up from 25 cents.
10. It just took me a solid 15 minutes just to place a call on a payphone.
11. 2 mins til crossing the boarder: shit! I can’t believe I didn’t make a sleepless in Seattle joke!
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VBL #36 sushi at the eatery
If you like sushi and you plan on visiting me in vancouver, insist i take you here. The sushi is incredible (somehow super authentic yet extremely americanized), serving about a bazillion different rolls – everything from spicy tuna to a miss. piggy roll (which may have bacon in it).
VBL #48 world’s best cream puff
I coudn’t help but think that with a name like “Beard Papa’s” the cream puffs better be damn good (which is essentially how it made the list). Lucky for me, Jess was as intrigued as I was by their ‘world’s best’ claim. Consider this one checked off. I haven’t tried enough cream puffs to qualify them as ‘worlds best’ but they were pretty good!
VBL #21 Hike the Chief
Hiking the Chief was probably one of the coolest things I have ever done. The view from the top was unreal.
shannon falls at the bottom of the trail
here we go!
ladder up
and chains!
im on the edge of glory.
tried to face time my dad from here, but i guess you need to be on wifi #lame.
summit.
VBL #5 climb the grouse grind
Took on this adventure with some new and old friends. The 5 of us braved nature’s staircase and though it was tough, i didn’t complain, not once. The view from the top was well worth it.
-personal time: 1:40(ish)-
movin’ on up!
left our mark in the snow at the top!
view from the top
the climbing crew!