Greenville, South Carolina

I am so ashamed of my lack of posting due to being a little busy and some travel. I am currently visiting the beautiful state of South Carolina for some business-related travel with my husband. In this post I will dive into the fascinating aspects of Greenville with my TOP 5 REASONS GREENVILLE IS GREAT!

#1: Weather!
Greenville has weather fit for someone who enjoys warm climates and doesn't mind when it gets a little hot. That would most definitely include ME! Winters in Greenville are very short with average temperatures usually only reaching 40 degrees. Summers average around 80 degrees or higher and can be rather humid. Not such a great place for my hair, but I'd take that over 20 degrees below freezing any day! This long period of warm weather provides a lot of time to spend outside doing many activities.

#2: The Central Hub of the Southeast!
What I really like about Greenville is how central it is to many of the resources the Southeast has to offer. Being only an hour from Atlanta, you have so many things available as far as travel and entertainment go. As ATL has one of the largest airports in the U.S., you are living right next to an airport that can take you ANYWHERE!
Greenville is also only 3 hours from the coast with cities like Charleston,SC, Savannah, GA, and Hilton Head! These beautiful ocean cities are awesome vacation spots and they are a short car ride away!
Greenville is also about a one hour drive from beautiful mountain regions such as Asheville, NC. Greenville also has some mountain areas. This provides for scenic hiking, biking and other site seeing excursions that can be done on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

#3: The People!
Greenville is unique and is often thought to be uncharacteristic of the rest of the state of South Carolina. Although I love the Carolinas in general, I can see why others appreciate some aspects of Greenville that make it stand out amoung the rest of its surrounding area. Greenville has a 60% population of transplanted residents. That means that only 40% of the people living in Greenville are actually from Greenville! This aspect alone makes Greenville more diverse than your average SC city or town. With large corporations such as Michelin and BMW, there are a lot of French and German residents who came here for work. There are also a large amount of Americans who moved here simply because they love the area and all the city has to offer. Besides being diverse, I have personally noticed how friendly the people of Greenville are. You will get a friendly welcome from almost everyone you meet.

#4: The Residential Options!
Greenville has more apartments than any area I have ever been to. It's actually kind of bizarre how many apartments there are considering we aren't in Chicago or anything. The positive to this odd characteristic of the city is that the rental realestate market is so competative that you'll be sure to find a lovely apartment to live in for an awesome price!
If apartments aren't your thing, suburban Greenville has some of the most beautiful neighborhoods, many of which have been built within the last 10-15 years; providing endless modern living options. Beautiful brick homes and pristinely kept townhouse and apartment properties really make this city shine. I should also mention the amazing mountain views!

#5: The Food!
As you can imagine, Southern comfort food is better than anything! Greenville has the perfect combination of dining options. Because it is a larger urban area, you are going to find all sorts of higher end French, Italian, Epicurean, Japanese or other unique cuisine. While at the same time, you can find a great down-home shack that makes the best barbeque or friend chicken EVER! I must warn you to be careful! I've only been here 3 days and I already have a detox planned for when I get home. I guess if you lived down here you could practice better moderation...vacations are always a bit indulgent!

Well those are my top 5 reasons to love Greenville! I'm a little sad to be heading back to Illinois tomorrow, because it is freezing cold and snowy there, but I really want to see my precious maltese Bernie!! Happy Monday!

xoxo

Alex

The Most Delicious Vinaigrette

Last night for dinner I made a delicious spring salad and wanted to share the homemade vinaigrette dressing I used on it.

As far as the salad went, I used an organic spring mix that you can buy for a good price at Walmart in their produce section. For the price, you get enough greens for 6 to 8 large salads. It's a good deal!
The Vinaigrette tastes great with thinly sliced red onion and fresh cut apple. In my salad I also added grilled chicken, honey roasted pecans, and hard-boiled eggs. You can find the pecans in the salad section of your grocery store.

The Vinaigrette is so easy to make and tastes better than anything you can buy from the store! The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup oil (I used extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup sugar (I used Splenda)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp poppyseed

Directions:

Add all the ingredients into an airtight container. {I used a pyrex bowl, but you could also use a mason jar or anything else you can shake that won't leak. They sell bottles for making dressing and I'm planning on buying one from a kitchen store for the next time I make this.} Shake the mixture until the sugar and oil no longer separate or settle to the bottom.

I would shake it well right before dressing your salad.

I absolutely love vinaigrette dressings and I think this is my new favorite. When you substitute the sugar, it's not bad for your waistline either!

Enjoy!

Alex

Inauguration

The first Presidential Inauguration was held on April 30, 1789 for President George Washington.

Since 1933, the official Inauguration day has been January 20 at noon. This year, I am guessing the Inauguration ceremony was postponed because the 20th of January fell on a Sunday, but President Obama was sworn in during a private ceremony at noon yesterday.

Second Inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt. Photo credit: wikipedia.



Fun Facts on Inauguration

-George Washington is noted for giving the shortest inaugural speech, consisting of only 135 words.
-Ronald Reagan's Inauguration took place inside due to the coldest weather in Inauguration history. It was only seven degrees at noon.
-In 1949, Harry S. Truman became the first President to have his inauguration televised.
-Back in a time when news was carried by messengers on horses, there needed to be a great length of time between Election Day and inauguration day so that all the votes could be tallied and reported. To allow this time, inauguration day used to be March 4.
-John Wilkes Booth attended Lincoln's inauguration.
-Top hats were for decades mainstays of presidential inaugurations, petering out with Lyndon Johnson, who did not wear one.


My Favorite Speaker of the Day

Myrlie Evers-Williams

At today's Inauguration Day ceremony, I was pleasantly surprised to see Myrlie Evers-Williams approach the front of the stage. Myrlie is the widow of historical civil rights activist Medgar Evers. Evers was shot and killed at his home in Mississippi in 1963 by a white supremacist. Since her husband's death, Myrlie has served as Chairwoman for the NAACP, written books, and served in honorary roles in educational institutions. In 1999 she wrote her autobiography entitled "Watch Me Fly: What I Learned on the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant to Be."
Today, I guess Myrlie's "speech" was actually a prayer. I mistook the prayer for a speech because she was clearly speaking to the crowd...not God...but I guess that is the point at ceremonies such as these.


Question of the Day: What the heck was James Taylor wearing???


I hope everyone was able to experience a bit of Inauguration Day!

xoxo

Alex

Body Builders and Car Washes

Ah well it's been a few days since my last post, but fear not! Nothing very notable has happened since then!

Workouts

Tuesday: Rest Day
Wednesday: Ran 2 Miles (19:50), 30 minutes on elliptical.
Thursday: Ran 2 Miles (19:46), 20 minutes on bike.


I haven't gone to the gym yet today but I am planning on possibly doing some strength training...we'll see.

I have realized that doing the bike at the gym just doesn't do it for me. Some people are just crazy about it, but it just doesn't burn enough calories per hour for me! After running, when I want to get some good calorie burning in I've found the best things to do are the Stair Master or walking on the treadmill around 4 mph on a 15% incline...THAT is gonna burn some fat!

I'll admit...I am one of those ladies who is PARANOID about weight lifting. I feel like every time I do the slightest form of weight training I start getting BIG!

I DON'T want to look like this!

But I feel like doing a few weight exercises will prevent a little bit of this...

So I've heard that doing lots of fast reps of light weight can get you toned and stay small... I will try that today and let you know how it goes!


Besides going to the gym everyday, I did visit one of my other favorite places this week! The carwash! This past summer, my husband and I visited the Dominican Republic and while touring the inland villages, our tour guide told us that car washes in the Dominican are the center of social activity. You go to the car wash with your whole family and spend the whole day there! Every car wash has a restaurant and live music and while your car gets detailed you party it up! I think that sounds super fun but also really random considering our car washes here...So I went to the car wash lookin for a good time!

and...

It wasn't super exciting! But I personally am SO annoyed when my car gets so disgustingly dirty from the snow and salt and nastiness in the winter so I will give the carwash another chance when I go back soon to keep my whip sparkling clean!


One more thing!! I made a tasty HEALTHY chocolate bar for a movie night I hosted last night! And they actually were really good and they aren't too bad for you!!
Here's the link for the recipe!! My only tip is SPRAY THE DISH WITH NON-STICK SPRAY! The directions didn't say to, but you should (:



XOXO

Alex

Not So Jersey Shore Kind of Day

01/07/2013

Workout: Ran 2 miles on TM
5 minute cool down


This morning I didn't give myself enough time to put in a good workout due to poor scheduling on my part (not waking up early enough) and I hoped that possibly Jack (my husband) and I would take an evening trip down to the gym BUT it's looking like that will be a trip to go get some much needed ice cream!I will make it up tomorrow I promise!

This week I'm trying to run 3 miles every morning with some extra strength training added on to the end. I am also hoping to sign up for the Indy 500 Mini Marathon this week and that will boost my morale! I am trying to find a good 10K to do between now and the half. Something around the half-way point of training.

To tell you a little bit about my gym...well the demographic is mostly retired people. There's a whole lot of this going on...

and not enough of this...

...or something like that...it looks pretty serious.

So anyway, my friends and I headed back to our shore house to shower after our workout.

Oh wait...I'm not being filmed for the reality tv phenomena Jersey Shore?

Right...well I headed home to my actual housemate

Introducing Bernie the dog! She is our pride and joy. Our 1.5 year old 5 pound Maltese that we love more than life!

Okay to wrap things up, my day really didn't consist of much! Other than a little housework and taking Bernie to visit her biggest fan, my grandma, We came home to prepare dinner for Jack!
On the menu tonight is chicken I marinated all day in Italian Dressing, cheesy broccoli, and good 'ol Uncle Ben's brown rice! Last week I bought a George Foreman grill to try and be healthy and I thought it would make cooking for two a little easier. Tonight's chicken literally took about 5 minutes so I'm liking it!

Okay that's all for today folks. I'll try and make tomorrow a much more exciting post!

xoxo

Alex

Dashing Diva Blogs

Hello Blog World!

My name is Alex. My husband calls me a diva and I like to run (dash). I want to use this blog to share helpful information with others regarding health and fitness, food and nutrition, clothing and accessories, and home decor.
Stick with me as a slowly develop my blog to being as fabulous as I would like it to be and I hope you enjoy the many new discoveries I will share in blogs to come!

xoxo
Alex