Sunday Morning in Chicago - 9:40am Central Time

I'm in Chicago right now for Girls' Weekend. Everyone else is asleep. I have no idea where the towels are so I can't even take a shower. I was supposed to go to yoga at 9am but when I got up at 8:30, it was raining. I've tried looking for the towels and am now thinking of using a dish towel as all I need to do is dry off - I'm not washing my hair since I washed it yesterday. So, if I'm able to figure that out, my next thing to figure out will be how to go get coffee and then get back into the apartment since I don't have a key. I'll keep you updated.

More Cheesy Stories

Here's some more interesting cheese tidbits.

Did you know:

Gorgonzola, one of the world's most famous blue cheeses, is reputedly the oldest cheese name in history, dating back to 879 AD. Gorgonzola is named for the Italian town near Milan where the cheese was first made and sold. Normally the mold is more green than blue. In fact, the London Stock Exchange is nicknamed "Gorgonzola Hall" due to the greenish marble used in its interior.

The word yogurt derives from the Turkish word meaning "dense" or "thick".

Maybe I'll write more later or maybe you'll have to wait until the next cheese tasting.

All info in this post and the previous one can be attributed to the cheese tasting class at Cheesetique.

Ancient and Historical Cheeses

I went to another cheese tasting tonight. This time the theme was ancient and historical cheeses. It was very interesting. Jill, the cheese store owner and class instructor, talked about the history of old cheeses. The oldest cheese still in production is feta. The original feta cheeses were made with sheep's milk but if you buy your feta at the regular grocery store, chances are that it's made with cow's milk. Well, I'm here to tell you that it's worth the extra money to buy the sheep's milk version. It doesn't just taste like salt like the cow's milk version. The origin of mozzarella is also quite interesting. It was not created in Italy as you may have thought but was actually invented by the Egyptians. They used the water buffalo for doing a lot of hard labor but they also collected their milk. From that, they made the first mozzarella. The story is that when Mark Anthony went to Egypt, he and Cleopatra ate a lot of mozzarella (thus causing their passion for one another - side note: the Egyptian wealthy started eating mozzarella as an aphrodisiac after this event. Mark Anthony then loved the cheese so much that he sent water buffalo back to Caesar along with the recipe for the cheese. That's how it made its way to Italy.

Also, if you like Brie and have only eaten it in the States then you haven't eaten real Brie it turns out. That is because the real Brie is made of unpasteurized milk that is less than 60 days old. In the US, it is illegal to sell such cheeses. Therefore the Bries that we have here are all pasteurized. The same is true of Camembert. So, it seems that the next time I'm in France, I must try a Camembert!

There were many other interesting stories that maybe I'll write later.

Yoga

This week has been interesting for yoga. On Thursday, I was going to my normal ashtanga class that's held in my work gym. But, it seems that the teacher is on vacation for 2 weeks. So, there was a plyometrics class instead. Unless you're MTH, you're probably asking "What is plyometrics?" as I was. Well, it's this workout that involves a lot of jumping. Here's the definition from Wikipedia:

Plyometrics is a type of exercise that uses explosive movements to develop muscular power. It may be used, for example, to improve the effectiveness of a boxer's punch, or to quicken the vertical jumping ability of a volleyball player.

It was very hard while doing it and then on Friday and Saturday, I was very sore!! It was hard to sit down and then get back up.

My next try at yoga was this morning. The interesting part is that MTH went with me. It was an open class which means that the instructor works on what the class wants. So, there wasn't a "flow" like there is in ashtanga but I did learn some new moves. I really enjoyed it and I think that MTH did as well.

Bocce Ball

MTH is a huge fan of this game. I don't remember the first time he played but it was at a party somewhere. After that he was hooked. He happened to mention it to his parents. They decided to then send him a set of bocce balls for his birthday. In between them giving him this present and him telling his parents he wanted them, he bought himself a set. So, we had two sets then. Every time we have a cookout, MTH brings out the bocce balls. Half the people stay down in the yard for most of the cookout playing. It seems that they have a lot of fun. I don't usually join in since someone has to cook the food.

At our last cookout, MTH decided he wanted to try out a new game. He bought croquet. It turns out he doesn't like the game very much. So, they ended up playing bocce ball most of the time. Here's a picture in motion of MTH playing.

Look at them bowl

Here's MTH and me bowling in Denver the night before we drove to Aspen.

MMH

MTH

Look at that form! We should be on the pro circuit.

Here's the picture for ETK

Original Starbuck's in Pike Place Market

The line was too long inside so I can't say that I've had a coffee from the original.

Two of a Kind

Who knew that MTH and Phoebe have so much in common!!

What have I been doing?

This past weekend was full. On Friday night, I went straight from work to an engagement party. It was a great time. I hadn't seen the bride to be in a while. We used to work together but she's moved on to another company. Her husband to be still works at my company and we actually have worked together a lot lately. MTH wasn't able to make the party due to work. Although he had to work a lot last week, he has still kept up with his working out. I'm very impressed! On Saturday, I got up to go for a run and then headed to the Corcoran to get ready for my 2:30 tour on Sunday. The exhibitions keep changing so even if you have your tour together from a month ago, you have to change it. I "stole" the theme of my tour from fellow docent, Tee. The exhibit is of modern and contemporary art from the Corcoran's permanent collection. As you might imagine, this type of art is harder to give a tour on in some ways. It can be abstract and hard to understand. On the other hand, you can do visual analysis on the textures and colors and materials of the piece and actually get a lot more out of it than you might expect. That's definitely one of the things that I've learned through this experience. After finishing up getting ready for the tour, I headed home and then MTH and I headed to NJ for a surprise birthday party. Due to leaving a little later than we should have and massive traffic, we were not a part of the surprise! We had a good time. I played my first game of tippy cup ever. We also played the cards drinking game that is named after the part of the anatomy that you sit on. It's the one where you get different titles like President, Vice President and so on. (I know, I could just come and say the name but decided that my blog is rated G :) Well, it was funny because we played with some early 20 somethings who it seems have changed the rules. I won't go into details but they basically have made the game easier. You may ask, wasn't it already an easy game? And the answer is yes but as they say "kids these days".

We ended up going to bed after 1am. We then had to get up and leave around 7:45am because MTH's Fantasy Football draft was at 11am. Since I had to give my tour at 2:30, we couldn't stay in NJ for his draft and then leave. Once we got home, I had to finish getting the tour together and then go give it. It turned out really nicely. I hope that I get to give the same tour again before the exhibition changes again! Then, the weekend turned mundane. I had to go the grocery store and then I had to work.

So, at the end of it, I felt like I didn't really have a weekend. I'm already ready for the next one!!

I think it will definitely be more low key. Plus, we're going to take Phoebe to the vet!

Forgetful

Not sure what's going on but this week I'm having issues with remembering things. I realized around 11am today that I hadn't made my rental car reservation. I emailed the guy downstairs in order to have a car waiting for me at the end of the day. We have so many people that drive to Richmond, the rental car place is onsite. He then sent me a confirmation number around 2pm. He leaves for the day at 6pm. I remembered at 5pm that I needed to make sure I go downstairs to get the keys but then I promptly forgot until I started to leave the office at 7pm. I was so mad at myself. I now have to drive my car down and put miles on it. That's not really what makes me mad though. How could I forget what I need to do so easily. I was so into getting the last few things done for the day, I guess.

At least I didn't forget to give my tour at the Corcoran yesterday!

Rosy and Grey is Back

MTH has decided to start up his blog again. It had been so long since he updated it that he forgot his user name and password. So, the blog is actually a new one with a different address but you can click on the link on the right and it will take you to the new one. I'll have him put a link on that one that will link back to the old one.

Seattle and Aspen

I've been off working on the other side of the country and then vacationing in Aspen. It was quite a nice week. The weather in Seattle was awesome. Barely any rain - almost all blue skies and sunshine. I bought flowers at the Pike Place Market the first day for my hotel room and they were beautiful the entire time. I also took a picture of the original Starbuck's just for ETK. I'll upload it eventually. Aspen was nice, as usual. Since I had already been on the West Coast for 6 days, I didn't really have to adjust to the new time. That part was nice but it seems that the high altitude still made me tired. We went to the top of Aspen mountain for the first time. It's quite a view although there were clouds so it wasn't as good as on a clear day. We played disc golf which turned out to be much harder than I expected. We also played horse shoes. It was interesting that they had all of these games up there.

As I said, I'll post some pictures later.

MTH is committed

MTH has signed up for the Lake Placid Ironman Triathlon that will take place next July. We bought him a road bike yesterday. We still need to get the biking clothes and the wetsuit. I'm sure there are many other things that he'll need. For now, he has to get used to riding this bike. It doesn't have real pedals. Instead it has clips on the bike and he wears special shoes that clip in. The story goes that the first few (or maybe many) times he tries to start riding, he'll fall over. Here's more info. It's very light. It's made out of both aluminum and carbon composite. Based on our research, it seems that we got a fairly good deal out of it. Oh well, it still wasn't cheap :)

I'm sure you'll be hearing more about this Triathlon training in the year to come. MTH is already doing well. He ran 4 miles today in 90 degree weather!

We tried it ourselves

If you'll recall, in my post about Rustico, I talked about this awesome grilled Romaine salad. MTH and I decided to see if we could do it too. Well, we can. Here's the recipe:

"Fake" Caesar Dressing
(It's fake because it doesn't have raw egg or real anchovies in it - instead it has Worcestershire for the anchovies and parmesan and garlic for the egg - it was still a little runny but tasted great - recipe found on www.recipezaar.com)

1 finely chopped clove garlic
1 juice of lemon
1 teaspoon hot sauce (Tabasco)
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
salt
coarse black pepper
4 servings
Mix everything in blender. I added more mustard than it called for to get more that flavor. You can flavor it however you want. Or even use a different dressing.

Grilled Romaine Hearts
2 Romaine hearts
olive oil
fresh ground pepper
Wash the Romaine hearts. Cut in half lengthwise. Brush or pour lightly with olive oil on both sides. Pepper with the fresh pepper. Grill on high heat for 1 minute on each side. Enjoy with aged goat cheese and Caesar salad.

For the entree, we had mustard marinated pork tenderloin. You mix together dijon mustard, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper in a mini-food processor. Once it's like a paste, spread it on the tenderloin and allow to marinade for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Then, sear the meat on each side for about 3 minutes (the searing didn't work as well as I had hoped but the meat was still very good - we may need to let our grill heat up more). After searing, turn it down to medium high heat, cover and cook for 12 minutes (internal temperature at 145 degrees - an instant thermometer is a great tool to have). I'm thinking you could make this in the oven by broiling it first to "sear" and then turning down the oven to finish roasting. Or you could sear it on the stovetop in an ovenproof pan and then put it in the oven to finish it. The meat was tender. And, the great thing about pork tenderloin is that it's relatively inexpensive compared to other meats of its quality.

Let me know if you try out the recipe or recipes and what you think of them!

Rustico

MTH and I went to a restaurant called Rustico last night. We have been there before The beer list would be impressive to most as it's about 5 pages long (not quite as extensive as Brickskellar but it's much closer to our house). Although it's walkable, due to the high temperatures yesterday, we took a bus. Of course, that included walking a half mile to the metro to catch the bus. The bus ride itself was only about 4 minutes. They don't reservations so you just put your name in when you get there. We had about a 20-30 minute wait. While we waited, we had a beer. I tried one called Allagash Tripel. It's a Belgian style beer from Portland, Maine. MTH had some type of IPA (I don't remember the particular name). Once we were seated, he had another type of beer but I don't remember it either. He had yesterday off because his office is moving to a new building. So, he spent the day playing golf but for some reason didn't have lunch. So, he was especially hungry. We started with a Bavarian Board. As the name implies, it was an assortment of German sausages, sauerkrat, cheese, rye bread and mustard. It was actually quite good. For dinner, I had a grilled Romaine salad. That was the best salad I've ever had. It's exactly what you're thinking - the Romaine salad is grilled so that it's slightly wilted and has a smoky flavor. The menu said that the dressing is a Caesar dressing. It was a little different than most Caesar dressings that I've had. There was a noticeable mustard flavor and no noticeable anchovy flavor. The ingredient that brought it all together was an aged goat cheese that was grated over the salad. Aged goat cheese is different from the normal fresh goat cheese you usually get in a salad. It looks more like parmesan but has that distinctive goat cheese flavor. Overall, it was an outstanding meal. I'm now going to try to make that salad at home. I think that MTH even liked it! He had the mushroom and goat cheese pizza like last time. Since I didn't eat any, we have a nice amount of leftovers for lunch today.

The Book I'm Reading

Yes, I'm still reading that book, Against the Gods: The Story of Risk. The reason is because I haven't actually looked at it in about a month. There's been no time. But, I still really would recommend this book to others. The story is interesting about how statistics and probability were created/discovered. I will one day soon finish it and there will be a new book to the right. I leave for Seattle in a few weeks so maybe I'll finish it on that trip.

A New Car

We are now a 2 car family again. MTH's office is moving to Chevy Chase so our nice little commute together is no longer viable. He'll go northeast to Maryland and I'll go northwest to McLean. So, buying a car was not as bad as I thought it would be. MTH really wanted us to get a used Audi A4 or BMW 3 Series. I wanted the Acura TSX. I've wanted that car since it came out. So, on Friday, we went to the Audi dealership near our house. We took a 2005 A4 out for a spin. It was fine except for the stench of cigarette smoke. That one was definitely out. We looked at another one and it seemed like a possibility. Then, on Saturday morning, we were the first people at the pre-owned BMW warehouse in Pentagon City. We took one of their only manual transmission 3 Series' out. It was a 2 door and had not been kept very clean inside. I wasn't too impressed. Then, we head to the Acura dealership. We take a new 2006 TSX out for a drive. I love it. It's got a navigation system that talks to you. My phone has bluetooth and so does the car. So, now I can call people by talking to my car. Just like Knight Rider!! Of course, I still have to drive the car myself. The color is Glacier Blue. We finished buying the car by 4pm on Saturday. Not bad. That night, I went to the soccer game with MTH. All for love. I'm not really a big fan of soccer but the one good thing is that you know almost exactly when the game will end. Each half is 45 minutes. The halftime is 15 minutes. There's usually a few minutes of stoppage time added at the end but no more than 3-4 minutes. Plus, soccer's not nearly as popular as football or baseball so the crowds when you leave are not enormous. On Sunday, we went to Bistrot du Coin just north of Dupont Circle in the District. We hadn't been there since November! I love that place. They have the best country pate in the US (in my opinion). I also love their spaetzle. They were still decorated for their Bastille Day celebration.

MTH and I are still trying to figure out our fall vacation. We're trying to decide between England, France or Ireland or some combination. We also would like to go to Iceland over Labor Day weekend but since we haven't made any plans yet, I think that one's probably out now.

Almost Paradise

Here's how I started each day when I walked out the door!

The wedding was on the second day I was there. Here's the view to the right of my seat.


Since MTH couldn't be with us, we figured the next best thing to a real lobster dinner was a picture of the tail and his placecard.


There were iguanas everywhere. So, of course, we took a lot of pictures. I picked this one for the hibiscus in the background - an iguana's favorite food.

An Update

I've been away for a while. I know that I promised an update about our cheese tasting. All in good time. I'll give an update of other events. Nothing interesting that following week or weekend except that I had gotten tickets to the Orioles versus Nats baseball game in Baltimore. According to the weather, it was supposed to rain so we decided not to drive to Balto. That was Saturday. Sunday was an ok day. Not much going on. Then, that night, it started raining and it wouldn't stop. MTH and I were watching TV when the dryer buzzer started buzzing but didn't stop when it should. We ran down to the basement to find out what was wrong. But, we didn't make it down the stairs before we saw the problem - water. Our basement had flooded. We figured out later the drain had gotten clogged and thus backed up. Once the rain stopped, the pump got the water out there in no time at all. Then, Monday was spent cleaning and driving to the dump. We felt pretty good and lucky since we had not "brown" water down there. Well, Monday night came and it started raining again. Guess what? It flooded again! So, we spent Tuesday cleaning again. This time, we built a debris catcher just in case it rained Tuesday night. Of course, now that we were prepared, it didn't rain. I'm not really complaining.

As you may remember, we were supposed to leave for St. Thomas on Friday. MTH decided that he was worried about mold. There's a few pieces of dry wall down there. He pulled it out while I was lazing around on the beach. Yes, I went without him. Only because it was my friend's wedding and other friends were going to be there. Otherwise, we would have just postponed the trip. The trip was great (although would have been more fun with MTH there). We went snorkeling, swimming, drinking, dancing. Plus, I flew business class back. The upgrade wasn't that expensive so I decided to take it. These are old planes so they can't really charge too much.

I got back late on Monday, 7/3. MTH's parents' were in town so we met them for breakfast the next morning. Then, later that day, we had a few people over - just a laid back 4th of July. When they first got there, it was over 90 degrees outside. Then, it decided to start raining. So, we ended up staying inside for most of the time. Then, we headed out for the fireworks. We watched the fireworks that are on the Mall from an overpass near our house. Much easier to get home afterwards!

Then, it was only a 3 day work week. Should be easy, right? Well, it seems that everything was compressed into those 3 days. I worked more than normal but nothing too bad.

The weekend was great. I'll post a more in depth update of that later. It was MTH's birthday this past weekend and we celebrated it with a cookout on Saturday. I even went to a movie with him on Sunday night!!

Noah's Ark

It seemed last weekend that we needed Noah's Ark after all the rain that came to Northern VA. I'll give a much longer update in the next few days. Today's the 4th of July and we're having people over to celebrate Independence Day. I'll also give an update on my trip to St. Thomas. I had a great time. Unfortunately, MTH did not make but with good reason. He held down the fort here and cleaned up the basement. He's a wonderful husband.