My mother in-law has a beautiful Azalea bush at their home. An idea of how much “warmer” it is this year, two years ago when I took photos of this in bloom it was Mother’s Day. This year it is mid-to-end of April.

I took this photo around 6pm with the sun setting behind the hill and backlighting the flowers. I shot it with the Canon 50mm 1.8/f lense which I love for it’s wonderful depth of field.

My 2002 Honda CR-V rolled over 170,000 miles two weeks ago. I’m happy to say it’s still running very smoothly and the engine is still pretty quiet. I’m still glad I made the switch to Honda back in 1998 and haven’t looked back. There will still be another SAAB in my future, but I doubt there will be a time when we don’t own a Honda.

Onto the next 30,000 miles.

In my efforts to lose weight and get my health back, I opted for an impromptu hike nearby last weekend. We’ve tried to hike at Black Rock twice before but our timing wasn’t the best (frigid winds in the winter). I came armed with my map found at the CT DEP‘s site. We headed up the blue trail on the western side of the park.

As usual with CT, it starts off gradual for about 50 feet and then up! This is a deceiving “short” hike. The funniest part was on the way back down we passed several people in their 20-30′s who said, “good grief I feel old”. I’m guessing too many of us sit behind our desks and computers too much. Then there was one guy who was pretty lean and limber and was doing the loop, up and over the mountain and back down, he passed us 3 times. Pretty damn impressive.

I’ve kept up with eating vegan and exercising minimally 3 times a week. My total weight loss is 12 lbs so far. My short term goal is another 8 lbs. The next goal is 45 lbs from that point. The final goal is another 25 from there. I’m sure there will be plateaus and I’m preparing already to mix things up.

Those who know me, know that I love New Hampshire. This is an awesome parody. Having spent almost every summer vacation for many years in Franconia Notch, I knew quite a few of the jokes. New Hampshire tourism should pick this up and run with it.

If you missed Google UK’s great invention, for April Fool’s Day, here it is. Part of me would love this and the other part might get seriously annoyed by my cat’s letting me know what’s really on their minds all the time.

I tried to make myself a wrap on Monday but it was less than stellar. I managed to get through half of it, but then put the rest back in the container.

My wrap consisted of:

• Tomato Basil Tortilla Wrap
• Sabra Hummus (as a spread)
• Alfalfa Sprouts
• Roasted Red Pepper
• 1/2 Avacado
• Lemon Juice (added when I went to eat it

It seemed to be lacking flavor, I tried to add lemon juice to make it a bit tastier but I think I should have actually used more roasted red peppers.

Today’s wrap was quite a bit tastier. This is what it consisted of.

• Tomato Basil Tortilla Wrap
• Sabra Hummus (as a spread)
• Alfalfa Sprouts
• Roasted Red Pepper
• 1/2 Avacado
• Couscous with Pine Nuts
• Cannellini Beans

I’m thinking of trying some seasoned tofu in my next round of experiments along with getting better at actually wrapping up wraps.

A big issue for me going vegetarian or vegan, is I do not love beans. Granted I like Tofu, even though too much of that doesn’t really like me. Great, the story of my life. So I’m wondering about some alternative protein sources. My sister in law pointed me toward cannellini beans which I like a lot more than kidney beans. But outside of those I’m not sure. I do eat tofu on occasion, had some Tofu Pups the other night and I like Boca Burgers. But what else is out there?

Tonight’s dinner was quite yummy as I’ve rediscovered couscous.

I got The Kind Diet for Christmas, along with Chef Keith Snow’s book Harvest Eating. I’ve flirted, as Alicia would say, with vegetarianism for probably 11 years. I’ve never stuck to it. My own laziness and lack of commitment is what usually has me faltering. The Kind Diet is a step further with going vegan. I grew up in a family that loved their milk, cheese and eggs. I stopped drinking cow’s milk about 8 years ago. I’ll have it in a hot chocolate or coffee, but that it. Cheese on the other hand is my Achilles’s heal. I love it! But I also know it doesn’t always love me and my sinuses always clog up after having too much cheese.

My schedule is still a bit crazy to get into cooking big meals. This past weekend I decided to simplify, choose only meals that could be quick, not even heated and still fall under the vegan and healthy guidelines.

I made home guacamole for the first time. It was awesome! I’ve been eating oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. I cooked up crispy orange tofu from the Kind Diet cookbook. Tonight I made couscous, which I haven’t had in a very long time. I also attempted to make a wrap for lunch. I used a tomato tortilla, hummus, roasted red peppers, avocado and sprouts. It was…ok…I need to figure out something to first add more flavor, but also make the avocado a bit smaller. I used chunks and I wasn’t really loving it.

I’ve also gotten into the habit of impromptu exercising. My Mom called me up on Saturday and gave me a 20 minute notice if I wanted to go for a walk. I was in the middle of working on some projects, but I decided, this nice weather doesn’t come along that often and I need to get out from behind the desk. So off I went for a good walk. Tonight, I was waiting for Craig to be free but he got busy with a few different things. I watched as the sun went down more and more, and said, screw it, I need to take advantage of this weather. So I took myself out and went for a walk. 45 minutes later and my heart pumping I feel much better.

I’ve always made the excuse of not enough time, energy and being too busy as to why I didn’t just get out and exercise. It’s fun… you only live once right? and I’m sick of not being able to take off my rings and not being as flexible several years ago. I’m only 31, not 61.