Weekend Snapshots

It’s Feelin’ Like Fall

(…except for the heat.)

This weekend left me with that rare sensation of true relaxation. Life has posed lots of ups and downs lately, so to be able to let go of the stress for a short while is quite the achievement, I’d say.

Here’s a little photo recap (of course, it’s mostly food).

Me and Rico in 2008

GOODBYE, RICO SUAVE

This past Tuesday, I had to put my 15-year-old furry friend to rest. He’d been fighting a mystery illness for the past five years or so, to the point where I’d begun to distrust all veterinarians because they could never pinpoint what was wrong. Test after test never came back abnormal.

Rico started to drool earlier this year, around May, and I thought it was the beginning of gingivitis. When it rapidly progressed, I took him to the vet expecting the worst to be tooth extraction. After sedating him and inspecting his mouth, we found loads of painful cancerous lesions. All of a sudden, the numerous unhelpful vet visits made sense: Cancer.

Rico in 2011

I had to make the gut-wrenching decision to put him down. I didn’t want to watch him go through more pain, to watch him stop eating, to see him wither away. He’d had 15 loving years with me, and it was time to let him go. It was incredibly hard, and the only that makes me feel better is hearing from others who’ve been through the same thing.

WRAPPING UP THE WEEK

After a long, hard, sad week, Nick and I needed to get out of the house and unwind. We ended up going to the homecoming football game at the high school he teaches at, and then we went to our favorite neighborhood bar, The Spot, for some greasy grub. What cures the blues better than alcohol and fried foods? At least temporarily.

We split an order of their fried pickles and a cheeseburger, and then went home and promptly passed out by 11pm. We’re the oldest people ever.

Photo cred: Mike Smith; City of Westminster

A 7-MILE RUN

Saturday morning we headed out to the High Line Canal in Englewood for a change of scenery. I’ve been slowly adding long runs back into my routine, but didn’t want to do multiple laps in Wash Park again. The man introduced me to this route, and it is a new favorite!

The trees are at the peak of their change, and the mountain views were healing. We ran 3.5 miles out and then back in the oddly sweltering October heat.

COWBOY BREAKFAST

After returning home and showering, the man made “Cowboy Breakfast,” a genius concoction of fried potatoes (multiple kinds), onions, green peppers, green chiles, eggs, and some leftover mozzarella cheese that we made at The Goat Cheese Lady Farm!

Here it is, deconstructed. We placed it on warm tortillas and topped it with some avocado and Cholula, for good measure.

The run took a lot out of me, partly because of the temperature, partly because I’m getting back into long-run shape, and most likely due to my mental/emotional exhaustion. For the remainder of the day, I rested until dusk, when Nick and I were feeling Halloween-y and went on a “spooky” walk through the Wash Park neighborhood to look at all the decorated houses. Then we came home and watched Hocus Pocus! #WinningOctober

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL

The next morning, we got up early to walk 4 miles into town to support our friends Liz and Jordan, who ran the Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. (On our way, we saw the above sign, which made me laugh. Also… there’s an upside pony wearing a wig. You’re welcome.)

We cheered them on at miles 6 and 12, and then joined then for brunch at Prohibition. We split the bacon, egg, & cheese sandwich and the spicy shrimp eggs Benedict before walking another 4 miles home in the heat! We took a small detour to Marczyk Fine Foods and Trader Joe’s to grab a few ingredients for later.

HOMEMADE BREADS

Once again, after our trek I was incredibly beat. I decided to be super lazy for the rest of the day, and Nick did what he loves: made two loaves of gorgeous Tartine-style bread!

At Marczyk, we snagged two pie pumpkins, which Nick roasted during the day. Then we pureed the meat of the pumpkin to make pumpkin bread! We tweaked Smitten Kitchen’s recipe only slightly (subbing Greek yogurt for the vegetable oil, adding chocolate chips, etc.) and it came out delicious!

I had my first taste of it this morning for “second breakfast” (along with my second cup of coffee), and it is insanely tasty.

THAT’S ALL, FOLKS

Hope you all had a great weekend!

This post is a part of the Weekend Snapshots link-up with HerHeartlandSoul.