Labor Intensive

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What a super weekend! Happy Labor Day (or, if you're reading this on Tuesday morning, Happy 4-Day Work Week)!

I originally wanted to plan a little getaway to Carmel or Tiburon this weekend because B has been so stressed with teaching his AP Physics class, but I waited until the last minute and couldn't find anything under $500!  Needless to say, we settled for staying home instead.

After our Shui Tea taste-test on Sunday morning, we packed up our things and headed to Peet's for a grading session and the first official Pumpkin Spice latte of the season (I say official because I had an Awake Tea latte at Starbucks with a pump of Pumpkin Spice while I got my nails done with Mom on Saturday, but I don't think that counts)!

This "spend several hours grading at Peet's" thing is a pretty regular occurrence here at Casa Ellis. We got some weird stares this weekend when we walked in carrying 36 spiral notebooks and 130 essays that needed to be graded. The barista asked if we were students doing homework!

Today B did more grading at home while I hit the outlets in search of khaki pants and nice jeans for work and new running shoes for, you know, running. Success on all three counts!

I am a little embarrassed to admit that I've been running in my current sneaks since December of 2009. Since I've never done a lot of running, I have never paid much attention to how often I replace my running shoes. You are supposed to replace running shoes every 300-400 miles. I have run ~250 miles since I started half-marathon training in May, and that doesn't count the running I did before May, which was probably about 10 miles a week.

You can do the math, I'm allergic to numbers. A lot of my running is outdoors and on rough terrain (gravel, trails, etc) too, both of which are harder on shoes.

I'm thinking that perhaps my broken-down Asics might be partly to blame for my achy knee. I'll take the new sneaks for a spin tomorrow morning before work. They are super light trail runners and I'm hoping I notice a difference!

Thank you, DSW, for having quality running shoes on clearance!

Tonight I made the least labor intensive dinner I could think of: calzones AKA oversized hot pockets! :) I grabbed two rounds of dough and leftover filling from the freezer and went to town.

My prettiest calzones to date!

While I rolled out dough, B cut up two heirloom tomatoes from our CSA and picked basil from our windowbox garden to make a yummy Caprese salad.

The tomatoes look a mess but were delicious! Super ripe and flavorful - I love fresh, local produce!

Right now B is doing dishes while I contemplate writing a quiz or catching up on True Blood. I'll let you guess what I end up doing...