Aida's

What a wonderful way to cap a great day. Happy Birthday shout out to H-woman, by the way!
Good day work wise, getting stuff done and not stressing about it. And it's hump day, so only two more work days till the weekend.
Did hill training at lunch, since we had dinner plans this evening. Goal today was 7 hills, so off to Centre Street I went. One km to get there, which is a perfect way to warm up, then I tackled the hill. Thought I would be lucky to get 3 hills done, as my quads and calves were screaming at me, but then somehow everything settled down, and I managed to push out all 7. You start at the bottom of the bridge (hill), and run at a steady pace until you reach the first Lion, at which point the guns are fired and you try to hit tempo pace till the 2nd lion, at the top of the bridge. Quick breather, and then turn around and tempo back to the 1st lion (letting gravity do all the work at this point) and then return to the bottom, where you wait till your heart rate returns to normal. Repeat 7 times (this week!)... I have to say, I am quite surprised with how quickly I am recovering in between each lap, with my heart rate at high 160's-low 170's at the top of the hill, and 130 and lower by the time I'm back at the bottom. Finally, after the last hill, I returned to work, slowly, using the 1 km back as a cool down, even walking a few times to try and slow everything down. Ended up running 6km even, and averaging a pace of 8:04/km, which rocks for hills. Bring on the Big Run (a half that takes you through a park that is "affectionately" referred to as Blood & Guts)!
Came home, fed the kitties, had a light snack of melba toast and then off to Aida's to meet up with H-woman and her peeps. The food is soooooooooo good there. It is a small restaurant (maybe holds 30-40 people) and is Lebanese/Mediterranean. We started off sharing two platters, one vegetarian and one meat, which had pita, hummus, baba ganoush, meat stuffed filo, cheese stuffed filo, red pepper dip, grape rolls, falafels, cucumber yogurt dip, tabulli salad, etc. Then our meals came! Every time I go there I have the falafel, which is dang good, but tonight I thought I'd try something different, and settled on the seafood couscous. A nice small mound of couscous (maybe a cup) sprinkled with fennel seed sat along side a mix of prawns, squid, zucchinis, peppers, eggplant in a tomato broth, and a roasted potato. Verdict?? Yummy!!!! And very light, really. I didn't feel totally bloated and 'Christmas dinner stuffed'. Of course, then I had to have baklava, which was to die for! Now I'm full and sleepy. Good thing I walked to the restaurant, so I could have the walk home to get things settled. And it's a gorgeous night out there, still +4C at 10pm. Remember, this is Calgary, in Canada, in March!
Even managed to get a proposition on the way home...first one in a long time. Granted, it was from a crack dealer waiting by his phone booth, and not one I'm likely to take him up on any time soon (hell actually would have to freeze over, truth be told), but nice to know that guys do notice me! There are days I feel very invisible to the opposite sex!!
All right...I'm off to floss and hit the sack. I am officially knackered!
Later,