St Arnold’s Brewery and Spaghetti Warehouse

As a work reward trip we went to the Spaghetti Warehouse for lunch and a tour of the St. Arnold’s Brewery.  We left work about 11:30 and headed downtown for lunch.   I hadn’t been to the Spaghetti Warehouse in 15+ years so this outing was a treat!

 

 I ordered Shrimp and Crab Bowtie Pasta (super yummy) with a side salad and tons of bread.

Then it was time to drive to the St. Arnold’s Brewery!!!  They host tours Mon-Sat check their website for times.

Behind the Brewery was an old park with a swing set!  Who acted like a kid and swung on them? This girl!

We waited on the front steps for everyone to get there and saw this Tie-Dye Rolls Royce that was parked inside the building. 

The entrance to the brewery had Willy Wonka doors!  Mysterious and exciting things happen behind those doors.

St. Arnold-Saint of Breweries

You pay $7 and you get a pint class with the St. Arnold’s logo on it and 4 chips that are redeemable for free beer!  I didn’t drink any beer so I gave my chips away to my co-workers (but kept my glass).  They also had rootbeer and water, so I helped myself to that.

There were a ton of tables were you can sit and drink you beer, they also had the St. Arnold’s logo on them.

 

On the tour they started upstairs with an explanation of the process of making beer.  I got a little bored with all of the technical stuff so me and my A.D.D. self wandered off and didn’t pay much attention.  I remember them saying something about it was a craft beer brewery and there were three criteria for being one.  1.  Independently owned.  2.  Manufactor under 6 million barrels of beer per year  3.  Cannot add any additives (like corn).

This is where they do something with the beer and move it between three tanks.

Here are a few of my favorites:

St.  Elvis

St. Dude

St. Michael Jackson

They said that the average beer fermented for 10 days to 2 weeks, but the pumpkin beer (Pumkinator) fermented for 2 months!

I really liked the St. Arnold’s Brewery!  I had a lot of fun and the staff was wonderful and answered all of our questions.  It would be a great place to host an event for your company. 



Downstairs they had these big steel tubs that held more beer while it was being fermented.  The State of TX requires that they all be labeled with a name or serial number so the owner named each fermenter after his family, friends, and random people he liked.  

Delicious Rewards

A few months ago Lean Cuisine started hosting a Delicious Rewards points program where you use the code on the inside of the box and you get 20 points.  After a while you accumulate many points and you can order something from the brochure.

Finally I accumulated enough points to get something from the catalog!  A free lunch tote!!!!  The writing says “Keep Life Delicious’ over and over again.

 

I <3 free stuff!  Thank you Lean Cuisine for giving away free stuff on food I already eat!

Susan G. Komen 5K

October 1^st was the Susan G. Komen Houston 5K for breast cancer.  This is my 2^nd year of doing this race and it’s one of my favorites.  Last year I walked the race with some of my friends, but this year I ran it and beat my best 5K time. 

I didn’t get to take any pictures though.  Sorry!  Usually I am a picture freak, but today I just wasn’t feeling it.

My work offered to take the donation ($50) out of two paychecks in October so I signed up through them.  We got our entry fee and a tech shirt for participating plus our t-shirt from the walk.  2 shirts + entry fee + fastest time yet= Happy race!!!

I met some people from work by the big library downtown and we took a group picture.  While there I met some great people from other regions of Houston and made new friends!  My new Ashley and I decided to run the race together.  She originally did the non competitive race, but I told her that if we stuck together we could do the competitive one and she could use my timing chip if we cross the finish line together.  I didn’t want to run ‘competitively’ I just wanted my actual chip time…I knew I would not have beaten the 20 minute people!  One day I will though!

We headed to the start line and got there a few minutes before the start of the race.  So many people were there and we couldn’t get to the front of the line so we had to go with the non competitive group.  It didn’t really matter though with my timing chip no matter when we started or finished, it would still capture my time.

The race was great!  I didn’t stop at all, and Ashley kept me motivated to finish.  Sometimes she wanted to stop, but I kept telling her to keep going. I didn’t want to slow anyone down.  We finished at 35:32…my fastest time yet!  At the finish line they were handing out water, bananas, and apples…I got all three!  I needed a bag to put it all in so we headed to the free stuff area.

We got in a long line and made our way to the tents.  JCPenny’s and Jockey were handing out free aloe cool t-shirts, a backpack/grocery bag, and a free pair of panties!  I remember them handing out panties last year and they are my favorite pair so I made sure to beeline it to that tent.  Score!

Bank of America had a tent that had a wheel that you spin to win either sunglasses, a wrist sweat band, a headband, or a pompom.  I wanted the wrist sweat band and that’s what I got!!!!  I wish I would have gotten two, but I will take the free one!

Afterwards we were going to go out to lunch, but my mom called and wanted to go shopping so I said goodbye to my new friend Ashley and headed over there.

Chances are someone you know will be stricken with breast cancer, please help by donating to the cause and also make sure to do a self breast exam regularly.  To donate to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure for breast cancer research go to www.Komen-Houston.org

See ya at next years race!

New PDR

Did you know I am running a 1/2 Marathon in December?  Yep, I am!  Check it out!  On Saturday I completed my long run for my ½ marathon training program that I am using.  Distance? 8.69 miles!  That is a new personal distance record for me.  I haven’t been more than 6.2 miles total in one go (See the Toughest 10K Recap for details), and even with that race I did not run the entire time (about 5 miles out of the 6.2).  These 8 miles seemed daunting, but I knew if I put my mind to it, it could happen!

(source)

Before I left the house I hit up some almond butter on a piece of bread, and also an apple.  Yummy breakfast!  I got to the park about 10:30 am (my plan was to be there around 6:30 or 7 am-I need sleep!) and did some light stretches before hitting the trail.

Miles 1-3-I ran three laps on the trail (3 miles) and around mile 2.5 I stopped to use the restroom and fill up my water bottle.

Mile 4-I decided to walk this lap to give myself a break.  I finished this lap and ate some Sports Beans (watermelon) to give me more some more fuel for my next 4 miles.

Mile 5-Hit the open road! It had started to lightly drizzle as I was jogging out of the park so I was a mixture of sweaty/rain on when I got to the road and I am sure the passer-byers thought I was crazy.  I headed in the general direction of the main part of Friendswood, and decided to jog down a little road that I thought was a neighborhood, but it turns out it’s a loop that leads to a nature center by a creek.  About this time the Sports Beans kicked in.

Mile 6-Nature center trail and back up to the loop.  Ran over a mini bridge into a large neighborhood.  At this point I had no idea where I was and it started to rain.  Hard.  It felt good!  The rain was cold and I was tired. 

Mile 7-Figured out where I was!  I was by my favorite coffee shop and really wanted to stop and get a pumpkin iced latte and a pumpkin muffin but I was strong and didn’t get one (I actually didn’t have any money with me and I can’t bring myself to eat anything for a while after I run anyway).

Mile 8-Almost done!  I ran down 518 to 2351 and set my sites on the last leg of my journey.  I kept my mantra of “I am strong” and “I will be a ½ marathoner.”  I also kept chanting, “just over the bridge,” and I can see the park (where my car was parked). 

Finally back at the park I stretched my legs for a bit before getting in my car.  Ouch, my knees were hurting so bad.  I got into my car and drove to the convenience store to get two 5 lbs of ice and a Gatorade. 

I went home, plugged the tub and added cold water to fill just enough to reach past my hips.  I added the ice to the tub and stuck a foot in.

HOLY COW!  IT WAS FREEZING!  Grr, one more foot….not any better.  Bent down, added my knees to the cold water and yelped a small scream.  Then I decided to just go for it and sat down.  IT. WAS. SO. COLD.  I stayed in for about 10-12 minutes and got out.

Ice baths are supposed to help with the recovery process for your joints and muscles.  The rest of the day my knees were really hurting so I decided to stay in for the night and not go anywhere.  The next day my legs were 100% back to normal, but I have a feeling that without my freakin’ freezin’ ice bath I would not have been able to recover so quickly.