Phoenix (or, why my sister is the best)

I fell asleep last night in a wine/candy corn-induced coma after watching How to Train Your Dragon, cozily ensconced in my sister's bed with a teensy little dog curled up in my lap.

The refined sugar almost sent me into tachycardia, I almost peed myself during an attack of the giggles and the quote of the day is: "Trolls exist. They steal your socks!" I love coming to visit my baby sister!

Backing up...

Got up in Austin at 3:00 am yesterday morning (alarm set for 4:00, but mother-nature sent me an earlier call in the form of a raging thunderstorm...) and was on a flight to Phoenix by 6:00.

Sis picked me up. We went back to sleep for 3 hours.

She headed to work and I headed to the gym once I managed to get up. Had a great upper body/intervals workout and finished up with lunch at Chakra4 - a 100% Organic/ 100% Vegan Cafe I stumbled across on my walk to LA Fitness.

Chakra4 was amazing! It was the sweet little tea house with really cool energy and a menu chock-full of raw/vegan options. I opted out of the raw route as I needed some high-quality/bio-available protein after a heavy lift and nuts weren't going to cut it. Quinoa pilaf and hummus to the rescue!

Had a hummus and veggie "wrap" but substituted Tuscan Kale leaves for the tortilla. Anyplace that will give me kale instead of gluten is a win in my book! (Tirzah agrees.)

A little laundry. A little Law and Order. A debate on which theater to patronize... and we walked to:

1. PetSmart to look at discount Halloween Costumes for my niece.

2. Fry's/Redbox to procure How to Train Your Dragon.

3. Traders Joe's to get wine and frozen edamame (read: dinner)

4. Yogurtology to get Pumpkin Spice and Oatmeal Cookie fro-yo

5. Home to make edamame, drink wine and watch movie

(Sidebar: sugar and I have a love-hate relationship. dairy and I have a hate-hate relationship. I was up at 6 am, paying for the yogurt, wine and wine-induced candy corns with what still feels like a college-grade hangover. It was worth it. )

I love sister time!

Hiked Camelback this morning, then headed to True Foods for lunch! If I had unlimited resources and a few spare hours, I would use a giant "claw" (you know, like the arcade game) to uproot this restaurant from the Biltmore, helicopter it to Mountain View and plop it down .25 miles from my house... staff and all.

On my way to San Diego for the ACE Fitness Symposium now! Am staying with some truly generous friends of my dad while I'm here and am so grateful for their hospitality. Meetings tonight and my 12-hour day of volunteering tomorrow!