Saturday: Run, Farmer's Market, Party and Burger UP

This morning, we started our run at 6:30, which I love.  6:30 AM is such a nice time.  I was able to get up around 6:00 AM, and have some oatmeal and brew tea and feel quite well-rested, not a bit like the haggard life I lead when I was training for Boston and waking up at the mean and nasty time of 5:20 AM.  It was nice.

Now, I go back and forth on my training, as it is rather nice to have some easy run mornings, where you don't have to feel guilty for not drilling out the miles at an Olympic pace.  So, I guess my workouts are uninspired without a race looming on the horizon, but it is kind of nice not to have a race looming on the horizon. I ran ten miles, had great swim conversation with Marshall and overall, felt pretty nice about my whole morning.  It was a joy!!

At home, we packed up and headed to the Franklin Farmer's Market so that I could research and assess the local produce situation.  Since I watched Food, Inc, I have been consumed with the origins of my food.  It is pretty certain that the only way to do it right is to buy a cow and a chicken that we treat as members of our family.  They can sleep in bed with us and I will braid their hair and stroke their feathers, until such a time as we murder them for their delicious and well-kept foodstuffs.

In terms of produce, I think I probably need to brings 1000 large pots into a homemade greenhouse.  We should plant each type of vegetable in its own pot, and just feed them caviar and champagne.  Anyway, my preliminary research went pretty well, and we are definitely going to visit some organic farms, and I am reading up on in-season vegetables.  This won't be solved overnight.

After the farmers market, Ivan and I hung out at home until I became completely sure that he was not going to take a nap, and I was about to have the privilege of taking an un-napped child to a children's birthday party.  Un-napped Ivan generally translates into a combination of irritable and manic, and today he did not disappoint.

Never have I seen a child run wind sprints for 2 solid hours while demanding his dog and saying "NO" just to say no.  It was a nice afternoon, but I honestly spent an inordinate amount of time tearing around the playground attempting to keep tabs on my child.  We sang happy birthday to Maya before speeding away to the swings, the slides and a couple of laps around the parking lot.

After the party, we decided to hit Burger Up for dinner.  I was wildly impressed.  Part of the reason we made a Burger Up decision for dinner was that we had seen that Burger Up used one of the farmer's market beef sellers exclusively.  The fries were fabulous, the burgers were amazing and I had a beet salad with a black bean quinoa burger that rocked my world.  Had Ivan been less manic and irritable, we might have stayed for dessert, but as it was, we had no choice but to depart sans dessert.

Burger Up is quite popular.  The wait was at 30 minutes when we arrived at 5:00ish.  Tonight, our service was not great.  Our order took half an hour to arrive and THEN the credit card machine broke and that put a real kink in getting our checks.  My husband mentioned on the way out the door that we could never bring Ivan to Burger Up again.  BUT, we pretty much say that anytime we take Ivan anywhere.  He just isn't at a good age for sit down dinners, and we learn the hard way EVERY WEEKEND.