Monday, June 9, 2014

Birthday Fun, Continued

I did it - I ran 5.1 miles on Saturday to celebrate turning 51!  It was hot (75 degrees to start, 81 when we finished) and humid (94%), but I actually felt pretty good knocking those miles out.  The last time I ran this far was four months ago, when it was 40 degrees cooler:
If you click on the picture, you can see that my shirt is wet around the belly area - that's not sweat...I ran through some well-placed sprinklers about half a mile before I finished!
 5.1 for 51.  Boom!

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Later on in the afternoon I got to continue my birthday celebration with a trip to our "local" knitting store, located about 25 minutes south of town, with fellow runknitters Amy and Stephanie.  The store, WC Mercantile, has a sweet deal where you, along with up to three friends, can do a one-time shop during your birthday month and everyone receives a 20% discount, plus the birthday girl gets a certificate for a free dessert at Martha's Bloomers tea room.  Naturally, we had a great time pawing and squeezing all the yarn as we decided what to buy - I ended up choosing more yarn to make felted yarn bowls, Amy was all about the hat yarn (and has a new blog - A Bajillion Hats), while Stephanie picked some colors necessary for the felted bag she'll be knitting in Dr. Who scarf colors:
Quite a restrained haul, all things considered...

Afterward, we went to Martha's Bloomers - I've seen this place off of the highway whenever we've traveled to/from Houston, but this was my first time to stop there.  It was charming!  There was a nursery with lots of pretty plants, a nice shop filled with things for the home and garden, and the tea room.  We were seated, and brought  complimentary mini cups of their signature orange spice tea along with a sliced up scone - in our case, apple - to start with:
Pinkies out for the tea!

We all had various salads for lunch (the girls picked a soup and salad combo) - I couldn't decide, so I got the salad sampler and it was delicious:
Marinated grape tomatoes, dilled cucumbers, fresh fruit, spinach, pasta, and chicken salad.  Really tasty, but I didn't finish it all...dessert was coming!

When we ordered our meal, Amy mentioned that I was the birthday girl, and the waitress said "oh, you get a free cobbler" - score!  With the dessert certificate from the yarn shop, we had two desserts for the three of us.  Blackberry cobbler, served warm with vanilla ice cream, and a chocolate explosion chilled pie/mousse creation that was amazing.  Where are the pictures of said desserts?  Ha!  All restraint went out the window and we dove right in, becoming members of the clean plate club in no time.  Everything was so good, and it was a great way to finish up my week of chocolate birthday treats!

18 comments:

  1. Happy belated birthday. I think our birthdays are on the same day. It looks like you celebrated in a fabulous way, running, friends, shopping, and great food. That salad looks amazing!
    Great job on getting the 5.1 miles in!

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  2. Happy Birthday!!!! And how did I not know we almost have the same birthday?? I was too busy celebrating mine (with far less restraint than you!) to go online over the weekend, so sorry for the belated good wishes but sounds like you had a great time of it. Hope its a wonderful year!

    ---Crabby @ Cranky Fitness (too lazy to log in on right gmail account!)

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    1. There are several of us bloggers who have birthdays right around the beginning of June. :)

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  3. That was a fun day! I love tea rooms. I love the types of foods they sell and drinking out of beautiful cups. We used to have a bunch of them around here but they've all closed down for some reason.

    I had to laugh when you said "local" yarn store and how you Texans are willing to drive. Around here 25 minutes could put you in another state and for goodness sake, that's just too far!!

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    1. Another state?!! Now that's wild. Did you ever hear that Dixie Chicks song "Wide Open Spaces"? Pretty much how it is out here...at least it's usually a pretty view when you drive.

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  4. you make me excited for MY BIRTHDAY!!!
    I shall skip 4.5 miles!

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  5. I love how you celebrated your birthday! I love going to yarn shops to touch and feel all the yarn and imagine all the projects I can crochet and knit. I turn 50 this October you make turning 50 seem not to bad. I run 3 miles pretty regularly now maybe I will do 5 miles for my birthday...

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    1. Turning 50 was AWESOME! You'll love it. And heck yeah - plan on running 5.0 for your big day!!!

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  6. Now that was a pretty sweet birthday celebration! Running a longer distance than usual, a trip to a great yarn store with good friends, and topping it all off with a wonderful lunch. Now you know two good lunch spots for when you visit W.C.!

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  7. Congrats, Shelley on your birthday [sorry it's a belated greeting] along with your successful run. I'll be 60 in 10 months so I'd better get training NOW so I can run 6 miles. Yesterday I completed a 5K charity walk in 53 minutes so I'm on my way [ha ha].

    Cheers!
    Teresa

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  8. What a perfect way to end your birthday week! I am not much of a sweets person, but a cobbler is always insulin worthy!

    Here's to a great 51st year! :D

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  9. I just realized I never sent you pic of me in all the hats!! I'll do that soon! Glad you got your 5.1 in! ;)

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    1. Yeah, thanks for the reminder about doing that? LOL...it's a fun tradition to continue. :)

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  10. what a great thing to do.. running your age... I have to work up to that by my next birthday... so glad you had a great birthday.. here's to many more to come !

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  11. Hooray for extending the birthday even more! :D I love tea rooms. Even though I am a coffee lover, I do love the tea rooms and the tea service that comes with afternoon tea because you just feel special.

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  12. Yay for the extendo birthday!!!!!!!

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  13. Happy Birthday! Looks like an amazing day.

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  14. What a fun trip and how nice they had such a deal at the knitting store. That isn't pretty common here.

    I love tea rooms too, luckily we have a lot of those here in Holland although I never go too often.

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