"These abs don't come for free"

Jillian Michaels is evil. E decided on Sunday that he wants to start running, so we got geared up in what we thought was a break in the otherwise relentless rain. By the time we got downstairs it was pouring again, so we gave up on that idea, but E convinced me to do The Shred, which I've had forever but hadn't worked up the courage to actually do yet. It. Was. Brutal. Absolutely brutal. I am not in the best shape (but I can run over 2 miles without stopping now!), and this program made me feel it. Someday I will recover and be able to do it again. Maybe.

In the meantime, though, I was left hobbling around Manhattan today, 2 days later, when E and I decided to go to the New York Historical Society. We're both on Spring Break this week, but bad, bad weather Friday-Monday kept us indoors, and I'm back to my internship tomorrow, so this was our big exciting day. We were going to go see the Tim Burton exhibit at the MOMA, but of course it's closed on Tuesdays, so we made a last minute decision to go the the NY Historical Society instead of trekking to Brooklyn for the NY Transit Museum and the Prospect Park Zoo. It was an interesting museum, and we topped that with a visit to Shake Shack, where I got a Chicago hot dog!

What is a Chicago hot dog? Wikipedia has this to say:

A Chicago-style hot dog is a steamed, boiled or grilled all-beef hot dog on a poppy seed bun, originating from the city of Chicago, Illinois. The hot dog is topped with mustard, onion, sweet pickle relish (often a dyed neon green variety called "Nuclear Relish"), adill pickle spear, tomato slices or wedges, pickled sport peppers, and celery salt.

I first learned about Chicago hot dogs from The Phantom Gourmet, a Boston cable show about local (and not-so-local) good eats. I have had one of these suckers on my mental plate since, and it did not disappoint. Spicy, tangy, and with the tomatoes to soothe the palate. I had a bite of E's burger, as well, which was a perfect fast-food-done-right slab of meat and veggies on a bun, and we got an order of amaaazing french fries as well. We also split a large root beer (and it was real root beer, not just A&W or something) and a chocolate shake that was amazing. I want to go back. Now.

We walked across Central Park to enjoy the perfect, sunny, 60-degree early spring weather, and saw about a million cute dogs wandering through the park. Every time I'm out and see happy pups bounding through life, I want a dog, and then I remember that I am not willing to climb up and down the stairs to my 4th floor walk-up to walk the dog in wind/rain/snow/heat/etc. Especially when my quads are BURNING TO HIGH HEAVEN due to ill-advised workout videos.

I hurt. I hurt a lot.