Vegas - Here we come

It looks like MTH and I will be heading to Vegas in early April. We haven't made any definite plans yet but we will soon. I'm hoping that MAK and EE will be able to meet us out there. That would such a great time. We could go to the spa and shopping while the boys go do whatever :)

We'll also have to figure out a good restaurant to check out. Plus, according to MAK, the drinks are stronger there so we'll have to enjoy some of those.

What's for dinner?

Looks like MTH will be cooking dinner tonight. Unfortunately, my back is still hurting. He went to the Caps game this afternoon while I laid on the couch and did some work. Now, he's going to run over to Whole Foods (yes, we're going again - it's less than 5 minutes from our house). He mentioned trying to make fish. That reminds me of the first time he cooked fish. He set a rug on fire but the fish turned out very good. There are no rugs in the vicinity of the stove any more so we should be ok.

How did I do that?

How is it that I can run 4 miles with no problem but I go to get a frying pan out of the cabinet and I strain my lower back so much that I can barely walk. I'm now sitting here with ice on it to numb the pain. It seems to be working so hopefully by tomorrow I'll be close to normal. MTH was good though - he massaged the area for me and got the bag of ice.

Running Outfits

I'll admit, part of the fun of running is buying the clothes. MTH on the other hand, was running in shoes with holes in them until a month ago. But, this outfit this morning definitely takes the cake. It was cold outside but he didn't want to wear his running pants because in his words, "they make my butt look fat". So, here's what he came up with instead.

Pictures from SF

As expected, I had a great time in SF. MTH wasn't able to make it due to work so it wasn't as much fun as it should have been. Plus, the DirecTV on the JetBlue flight there wasn't working. On Friday, MAK and I went shopping at Nordstrom's and spent way too much time and money in there (lots of fun though!). Here's a picture of the shoes that MAK made me buy.
That night we checked out a restaurant called The House. It's Asian inspired gourmet. I had a nice grilled salmon. We went out to the Savoy Tivoli, a great place to hang out, drink and talk. MAK was much more than buzzed. It was quite fun although at some points I thought I was going to fall over due to the jet lag.

Saturday was the highlight of the weekend as that's when we headed to Sonoma for wine tasting. MAK's boyfriend PT was so wonderful to drive us around. His friend DK joined us as well. I think that Sonoma is a much better place for tasting than Napa. There were much less people and the tasting fees are much lower. The first place we went was called Schug Winery. I bought a Pinot Noir there. MTH and I have already drunk that one. Then, we headed to Gloria Ferrer for champagnes. Our next stop was Gundlach Bundschu. There MAK decided to become a member of the wine club and she made friends with the guy pouring the wine. See the next picture - he kept mentioning that "bigger is always better - i.e. magnum bottles of wine versus regular ones".

For fun, the rest of us got our picture taken as well.


At that point, we were very hungry. So, we made our way to Sonoma where we picked up cheese from the Cheesemaker's Daughter and bread from a bakery. Then, we went to our last winery, Castle Vineyards. We were able to buy a bottle of wine and drink and eat right in the winery. That was very nice of them.

On Sunday, MAK and I went to dim sum. Definitely something everyone should do when they're in SF!

That night, we cooked dinner. We bought a little too much steak but otherwise, it was wonderful. My flight back on JetBlue was much better than my flight out. I had the window seat and the TV worked!!

Going to Bon Jovi

QY got tickets through work to the Bon Jovi concert at the MCI Center next Thursday. Her husband, LM, couldn't make it so she invited me! We'll be in the suite with free food and drinks while listening to Slippery When Wet and more. It should definitely be fun.

Waiting for MTH

MTH is out for dinner with work people. Phoebe and I are laying here in bed (I love wireless DSL and laptops!) hanging out. I just finished some work. ETK would be disappointed - I've been to Whole Foods 3 times this week now. I'm definitely a hippie yuppie. I even bought some organic chocolate (it's all they had). I did find a good, inexpensive wine there. It's a tempranillo - a red Spanish wine. Since I'm upstairs and the bottle's downstairs, I can't write the name here.

MTH should be home soon. He text messaged me earlier to say he was leaving. MTH's time is not quite the same as mine so I always add at least 30 minutes to what he tells me. I learned that after about 2 years or so of knowing him.

No real weekend plans yet - we may be meeting some friends for dinner on Saturday night but that's all that I know of so far.

Nothing Exciting

Just going through a week of work so nothing interesting or exciting to report. This weekend we don't have anything planned yet. I'm hoping very much that MTH will not have to work either day. I'm volunteering at the Corcoran's front desk on Saturday afternoon so that should be interesting. After that, I'll be fully validated to give tours at the art gallery.

Well, I'm off to work for the day.

Update on running: due to work this week, I haven't been able to fit it in. I've got to do something about that. My plan is to run after work tonight. Then, tomorrow and Sunday as well. Next week, I will not let work get in the way (hopefully!). If I could make myself get up in the mornings to go for a run, I wouldn't have this problem.

Steelers are going to the Super Bowl

If only I had my Steelers pj's like when I was little (I'm sure Mom can remember how old I was). I didn't really understand football back then but I liked sitting with Pop while he watched the football. He would yell when the referee's made the wrong call but since those were winning years for the Steelers, it always ended great.

Let's hope for some of that old fun at the Super Bowl in 2 weeks.

Yes, I'm bored since MTH is not here. That's why I have 3 posts in 1 day.

More Good Leftovers (and still no MTH)

MTH is still not here. That means he's been at work for 11 hours on a Sunday! He called me at 4:15 to say he was leaving in 30 minutes. I guess that didn't work out.

But, in his absence, I did make another great meal from our leftovers last night. I didn't finish all of my steak. As I mentioned, we had some bread, asparagus and cheese. So, I made an open faced steak sandwich. I sauteed shallots, sliced steak and asparagus. Then, I put that on bread and with slices of cheese on top and placed it under the broiler until the cheese melted. What a great lunch!

At least I ran this morning!!! I get my first training email for the Cherry Blossom run tomorrow. I'm looking forward to having a goal again. I'm not very good at running if I don't have a goal.

My Favorite Past Times

I've decided that my favorite past times are gourmet cooking and eating.

MTH and I went on our date on Friday night. We went to this wonderful restaurant called Restaurant Eve. There are 2 parts to the restaurant: the tasting room (prix fixe starting at $85/person!!) and the bistro (more normal restaurant feel and price). We started with cocktails. I had one called Eve's Temptation. It was a sour apple martini made with real apples! It was the best cocktail I've ever had. MTH also had a cocktail but it was made with whisky and much too strong for me. Then, we moved on to appetizers. I ordered salt cod fritters (reminded me of Barcelona) and MTH had the bacon, egg and cheese salad. The cod fritters, of course, were good since they're fried! MTH's salad was very interesting. It was a lettuce salad with bacon, cheese and poached eggs on top. For the entrees, I ordered the Muscovy duck breast with boudin noir and foie gras. MTH ordered the "Irish Stew". It was lamb chops with roasted root vegetables in a very thick sauce. And, if you can imagine, we were able to finish with a cheese plate. Our dinner was accompanied by a nice bottle of wine from Spain. So, not on purpose, we had things that reminded us of our honeymoon :)

Then, yesterday evening, we decided to check out the new Whole Foods that finally opened in our neighborhood. Yes, I know, ETK thinks it's for hippie yuppies but MTH and I like going there. Plus, it's the only grocery stores in our neighborhood besides Giant and Safeway (yuck!). We picked up some potatoes for roasting, a bunch of asparagus for steaming, a nice New York strip for grilling, some fresh baked bread and Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam cheese (had it in SF last weekend and had to have MTH try it too). I also got some strawberries to marinate in balsamic vinegar (those are just for me since MTH doesn't like strawberries!). The dinner was great. There were some leftovers so I had the idea this morning to make a scrambled egg with potatoes, asparagus, shallots, olives and the Mt. Tam's cheese. That was an awesome breakfast! I wish that MTH could have tried it as well. Unfortunately, he headed to work this morning at 6:50am. He's still there and just sent me an email saying it's going to be a long day!

He and I are supposed to watch the Steelers game together but it may just be me :( I'm looking forward to the day when MTH is not as busy at work. It's been crazy lately.

Capitals Won!!

Not that I'm a big hockey fan but tonight MTH and I went to a Capitals game at the MCI Center on work. They have a suite and I had gotten tickets. It was fun to hang out with people from my team and drink beer and eat tasty food that's bad for you. And, then, due to the new hockey rules, there can be no tie! Therefore, we got to watch sudden death and then a shoot out.

This weekend should be fun. MTH and I are trying to decide what we should do. Hopefully we're going on a "date" tomorrow night to Restaurant Eve. He took me there for my birthday a year ago. I believe it was our most expensive meal ever but it's a wonderful restaurant. For tomorrow night, we'll eat in the bistro instead of the tasting room. Then, on Saturday, I'm volunteering at the Corcoran in the morning. In the afternoon, we may head to Baltimore or Annapolis for a night on the town. Who knows? We'll probably end up staying here since we're both tired and laundry needs to be done.

Monday is the day I start officially training for the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run. I'll keep you posted. Hopefully, someone's interested!

I'm ready for bed but I'm waiting on MTH to help me get the cat litter out so that I can finish cleaning out Phoebe's litter box (definitely the worst part about having a cat!).

Pictures and info about SF forthcoming. I forgot my camera so I'm waiting on MAK's beau to upload them.

I'm back

SF was great. Will be updating here soon. I'm in Richmond on Tuesday and Wednesday so it may be Wednesday before I update again.

In case you're wondering...

where I am. As I mentioned before, I'm in Richmond for 3 days this week and then go straight to SF on Thursday. Therefore, I won't have access to my computer again until next Monday evening. Thus, there's a good chance I won't update again until then. I'll be back though with pictures from the trip!!

Cheese and Chocolate Tasting

The chocolate and cheese tasting were awesome. Yes, chocolate and cheese actually do go together. First, we learned about how chocolate is harvested and processed. It flourishes in climates 15 degrees away from the equator each way. But, it's almost entirely processed in Europe.

We tasted unsweetened, bittersweet, dark, milk and white. The white chocolate is made from cocoa butter which does come from the chocolate bean.

Then, we tasted cheeses that pair well with sweet tastes. Some of my favorites were: Chaource, Montbriac, Belletoile (triple creme brie), Purple Haze, the very familiar Gruyere, Honey Goat and the very good but weird sounding Chocolate Goat.

The tasting took place at Cheesetique in Del Ray.

The chocolate is from a cute little shop in Old Town called Kingsbury Chocolate.

Found in the good ol' Baxley Newsbanner

It's intresting how people can use statistics to their advantage. I guess he's trying to say that I would feel safer in Iraq than in DC???

Maybe we should pull out of Washington, DC

If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 1,000. The firearm death rate in Washington, D. C. is 80.6 per 100,000.

That means that you are about 25 percent more likely to be shot and killed standing around carping in our nation's capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are as an American soldier fighting for world peace in a combat zone in Iraq.

We should immediately pull out of Washington, D. C.

Edward Thebo of the Savannah Morning News

Sudoku

Who out there is familiar with Sudoku? I think I'm becoming addicted to it. I look forward to doing the Post's puzzle each evening (as long as it's not a 5 star one - those are still unsolvable for me and thus, no fun). I also love the website www.websudoku.com. For those of you unfamiliar with Sudoku, check out this great explanation of Sudoku.

Super Size Me

MTH and I watched that movie called "Super Size Me" last night. Well, what an impetus to start eating healthier! Not that we frequent fast food joints but we had fallen down on eating in. Life's been too hectic lately. The problem with eating healthy is that it takes planning and time. With Christmas and work, December was shot. I barely had time to go running. But, now we're turning over a new leaf and will be MAKING time for these things. MTH had his first bowl of oatmeal for breakfast this morning. He didn't really like it too much. He liked it a little better when he added some pecans to it (gives it some texture). I'm making some granola today so that he can either eat that by itself or on the oatmeal (yes, I know, oatmeal on oatmeal but it's what he wanted).

I am also making a slow cooker meal as we speak: Chicken and Sweet Potato Stew. It's from a magazine called Eating Well. It's a gift subscription from Mark's mom (I guess she already knew we needed to eat better :). The stew is for tomorrow night and leftovers will be frozen. That's the great thing - if I can take the time up front, there's usually saved time on the back end. Tonight we'll have Turkey Meatloaf Muffins and Broccoli. We'll also be able to freeze any leftovers.

MTH won't have to eat pizza on Tuesday's anymore.

Well, here's to hoping we can keep our resolve going with the fact that next week I'll be in Richmond for 3 days and then in SF for 3 days and then back in Richmond for 2 days.

Camera Phones

It seems that I can use my camera phone and have real time pictures for my blog entries. Here's one as a test.

SM drinking coffee

The quality is definitely not as good as the digital camera but it still gives something visual to go along with the text.

Old Computer Equipment

Today I was trying to clean up our little office/guest room. What do you do with all the old computer equipment you don't want anymore. The old laptop can't be given away since it has account information on it. Also, you don't want to throw any of that stuff in the trash since it has toxic chemicals in them. Anyway, the printer and scanner still work. We have an Apple Computer so these things aren't compatible anymore.

It seems that all we do everyday is generate tons of trash.

Any thoughts on how to get rid of the equipment would be great.