Two Whoops! & a trip to "Brazil"

This past week I had a couple of first "Whoops".
Whoops #1
On Monday night I went to the Adult Ballet class I had signed up for in an effort to stay in shape.  Now the first few classes it was pretty obvious that it had been about 5 months since my last class, but i was definitely keeping up - just really out of breath with a couple of lead legs.  I am determined to get back to were I was just last June.  Anyway I arrive on Monday and am the only student. Not a problem-i get to talk with the teacher more and we breeze through the class she has planned.  I had told her i needed to work on stretches so after a nice long stretch at the barre we drop down for our sit-ups.  Before we do the standard crunch she likes to do this scissor exercise with the legs.  Sit on your elbow with your legs extended in front at about a 30 degree angle.  You beat your legs twice (5th position) then open them wide and quickly pull the legs back together.  Last week when we did this i def felt soar in my inner left thigh-note to self; stronger thighs-So I remember this as i begin the exercise this week. However I go "beat beat open SNAP!" OUCH!!!! I roll over in pain the poor teacher looking scared and i can not move my leg-ooo it hurts so much.  I have pulled my 1st muscle.  30 years-27 of them dancing and I've never pulled a muscle.  So I attempted to roll myself off the ground while the teacher looked for ice.  We tried to continue with class, but after realizing i couldn't turn out my leg, I told her good night and headed home-doing my best driving with a clutch.


Whoops #2
Now my second whoops of the week had to do with cooking.  My aunt Annette had given me a very yummy sounding crock pot recipe; Chicken with Dried Fruit.  After the success of the pot roast I was a true believer in the miracles of the crock pot; so I woke up a bit early on Tuesday (leg still soar) and went to work preparing the dinner for the crock pot-I juiced and grated one orange and mixed in all the sauces, coated my frozen solid chicken thighs and set the the pot to Low.  Now this may be were my first mistake came in.   It said cook for 8 hours.  Well I leave for work at 8 and return home at 6, which of course is 10 hours.  But i figured it would just be extra moist, fall off the bone chicken.  Not exactly.  I walked in around 6 and the house did not have that yummy citrus smell i had been expecting.  I looked into the pot and to my dismay it was black.  Doe!  The dried apricots were a lovely shade of dark chocolate, my onions non existent and the sauce....there was sauce?  So Adam & I inspected and found that the chicken for the most part was fine-so we scrapped off all the bad parts, popped in an Uncle Ben's 90 sec rice pack (I LOVE those!) and sat down to some very Caribbean chicken ;)  Actually the chicken was pretty good-just a few dry spots.  But I've learned that no matter the recipe-if you're going to be cooking anything 2 hrs longer than the recipe add more liquid!

Brazil!
No, we did not take an impromptu trip to Brazil mid week, but it was our good friend Ben's birthday and his vegitarian girlfriend was out of town so he was having a birthday dinner at a Brazilian Steak House in Pinallas Park.  Neither of us had been to one so we loaded up after work and headed over the bay.  Ben had told us this was a "hole in the wall" so when we were the first to arrive we walked into a typical strip mall resturant; vinyle table clothes and chairs, silk flowers, a salad bar, a beverage 'fridge in the dinning room and large posters of famous places in brizill lined the walls.  But we didn't notice the surroundings because our sences were over took with the strong fragrent smell of meat.  now i'm not a big meat eater (Adam is) but the smell was equivenlt to that of a rose garden.  It was so good!  After all of the guests arrived (we were the only 12 patrons in the place and the waitstaff was so sweet)  we began recieving the 1st of 8 courses of meat; beef, chicken, pork, veal, with bacon, with garlic.....oh it was sooooo good.  And the best part; it was only $15 a person-and that included the salad/sides bar.  So the next time someone comes for a visit we will hope in the car and make a trip over to Pinellas Park to our new favoriet "hole in the wall" Terra Mar.