Happy 5th of July! Yesterday I notched probably my most active Independence Day ever, as evidenced by the impressive 6,847 NikeFuel I earned on my Nike+ FuelBand. Jeff and I kicked off the 75-degree day with a walk with Lindsay, Daniel and Cooper to the always-bustling Lovejoy Bakers in the Pearl District. True, we ate more calories than we burned with our Lovejoy Deluxe breakfast sandwiches, oozing with fried egg, blue cheese, bacon, tarragon and frisee on ciabatta, and our cream-cheesy, powdered sugar-dusted butterhorn pastry. But at least the 2.2-mile roundtrip stroll offset a bite or two.

Jeff and I took separate runs around the neighborhood, and I followed mine with a sweaty, 10-minute “Bikini Butt” workout from my latest obsession, DailyBurn. I got a free two-month subscription to the online fitness site (and iPad/iPhone app) through KLUTCHclub, a monthly delivery of fun health and wellness snacks and products. I’ve been trying to integrate DailyBurn workouts into my exercise regimen (or lack thereof). For instance, I might pop on a 15-minute yoga program on my iPad to help me stretch out after a run. It’s pretty convenient for folks like me who like exercise DVDs but want more variety. I also need to look more into the Nike Training Club app, but that works a little differently.

Our friends Jessica and Sean hosted a 4th of July backyard barbecue blowout that evening, and the mild weather convinced Jeff and me to ride our bikes to Sean’s house. Portland has bike lanes galore and we rarely take advantage of them, so we saddled up for the four-mile ride over the river and northeast to the Woodlawn neighborhood. We felt like true Portlanders bike-riding to a party, even though every other cyclist blew by us as we chugged along the bike lanes. Sean had a perfect backyard and a gorgeous spread of garden-fresh salads, Chicago beer brats (Sean’s a Midwestern at heart), and peachy, boozy punch. We busted out a few sparklers and small fireworks before Jeff and I headed back over the river before dark. While we sailed along Vancouver Street we had a little scare when Jeff got spooked, braked too quickly and launched over his handlebars onto the concrete. Thank God he stood up with just minor scrapes, a ripped shirt and a little embarrassment. (Important lesson to always wear a helmet!) We settled in back home and fell asleep while most of the other local residents viewed fireworks downtown.

Now our weekend takes an unconventional turn: We have the World Domination Summit tonight through Sunday. Yeah, it totally sounds crazy, but the event promises TED talks-ish presenters, workshops, parties and other activities to deliver a dose of inspiration. I’m SO lucky Jeff is so easygoing with my spontaneous ticket-buying because he could be pretty annoyed that I committed us to this event months ago without running it by him. He’s giving me a little bit of a hard time but I know we’ll have a lot of fun. 🙂

By the way, congrats to my cousin Bobby and his new wife Nicole who just got married yesterday in New Jersey. Wish we could’ve been there to celebrate with all our fun Jersey (and East Coast) cousins!