I hope everyone had safe and happy New Year’s celebrations!  A lot of people see the New Year’s holiday as a chance to get all dressed up and do something out of the ordinary – like a big party, fancy dinners, and major indulgences.  Well we did the same thing, but for us, something out of the ordinary is…being really lazy for once!

Thursday night we went out to dinner at a fun Spanish restaurant called Solé with Ernest and Christine, friends from work.  We were home in time to watch the ball drop and be in bed by 1am, which is really late for us!  Having officially quit drinking in December of 2008, this was our second sober New Year’s Eve, and believe me, there is no better feeling than starting out the New Year by waking up completely hangover free and feeling great!

First thing on the agenda was a bit of pampering – new year, new hair!  Not really though, because the color was just to freshen up what has faded out since the last time I had it professionally done.  Coloring your hair is so expensive, and since I am a college student again, I thought I would try a more budget-friendly approach than the salon.  I haven’t done an at-home hair dying kit in seriously like 15 years, so I was really nervous.  But I figured that they are only really risky if you are going lighter, so since I was going darker it should be no problem.  Before…

During… (and looking nervous!)

And after!  Like I said, not much different than before – just a bit freshened up!

For our New Year’s Day activity, Casey took a rare day off from work so that we could take advantage of one of our Christmas presents… (I spy a yellow dog!)

We decided to have DOCUMENTARY DAY!!  We are both big nerds and love documentaries, and there were quite a few we had wanted to see for a while.  We never ever lay around and watch movies during the day, so we figured we had earned some lazy time.

When we first started school, Casey got this awesome cord from the Apple store that lets you download movies and podcasts to your iPod and watch them on your TV!!  He uses it to watch podcasts of his classes (repeat, huge nerds), and we also rent movies on iTunes and save ourselves a trip to Blockbuster or the Redbox!  Seriously, one of our best recent purchases.  The rentals range from 99 cents to $3.99 and there is no waiting – you get them immediately and they last for 24 hours after you hit play!

We downloaded movie #1 and fought for our spots on the couch…sorry Casey!

Movie #1 was a story about an American hero…

Just kidding, kind of.  Our first download was Bigger, Stronger, Faster – a documentary about steroid use in America, specifically in sports.  We both thought it was really, really good, and would recommend it to others.  Good storyline and flow, and interesting facts that I didn’t know.  And yes, in case you couldn’t tell, Hulk Hogan used steroids – booooo.

Afterwards we stopped for a lunch break, and to download movie #2.  Lunch was a leftover Blynk sandwich (that I burned, whoops), leftover Christmas chili (on its last leg), and a few dips of Trader Joe’s hummus – yum!

We cleaned up our dishes and bundled back up on the couch for the next movie showing…

Huey wanted to watch E.T., so he tried to impersonate him.  But we had already planned to watch Running the Sahara – sorry Huey!

This documentary follows three ultra-marathoners who literally RUN the freaking Sahara desert.  Over 4,000 miles and 111 straight days of running – over 170 marathons back to back!  I don’t think you would enjoy this movie if you aren’t really into running, but for those who are, it’s a great watch.

I seriously never sit in one place for that long, so I started to get a little restless after movie #2…

We decided to take a workout break, and did some weight sets in the office/gym.  We brought our heavier weights in from the garage, so now we can do a better range of exercises. 

After we worked out, we took the dogs for a short  and cold three mile run.  By the time we got home, it was dinnertime!

I made baked tofu, roasted baby carrots, and the star of the plate – Bulgur with Ginger and Orange, from EatingWell.com.  This bulgur recipe was amaaaazing!  In case you hadn’t noticed, bulgur is quite possibly my favorite grain.  It is delicious both hot and cold, and can be prepared with such a huge variety of ingredients and flavors!  If you haven’t tried bulgur before, this is a great recipe to test it out.

While we ate, we watched our third movie of the day – Funny People with Adam Sandler.  Going into it, I wasn’t so sure I would like this one, but afterwards we both agreed that this was another really good movie!  Our New Year’s Day movie marathon was a big success – three for three!  Hopefully the rest of 2010 will be as much fun as the first day…