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Moving On Up
Mark and I are slowly moving from here…
to here…
Yes, we’re moving from the 2nd floor of our house to the 3rd floor. Seems like an easy move, right? Well not so much. Because we don’t need to pack things into a car, it’s sort of been a moving free for all. And because our current apartment has 2 bedrooms, a living room, a dining room and multiple large storage areas and our new apartment, well … does not, we have a lot of weeding through of our belongings to do! But we will be saving oodles of money on rent, so it’s worth it.
Luckily I have a cooking project to keep me sane.
My Spiced Pear Butter is currently thickening. I will be patient. I will be patient. I will be …
Let the Games Begin
Well thank you so very much! We feel very loved, and we love you too! To answer a few questions:
- We don’t know when it will be yet, but we are not really in a rush.
- We are 99% sure it will be in R.I. or nearby Mass.
- No, I will not stop reading Baby Sitters Club books now. (okay no one asked that)
- No, I am not going to start a separate wedding blog, but I will document everything here.
- Yes, I will accept all of your bridal/wedding advice.
Like I said, I never thought about how Mark might propose, but I have given a great deal of thought to weddings. I’ve planned quite a few in my mind over the past 10 years. I’ve wanted apple green brides maids dresses, black and then yellow. I’ve wanted everything from daises to hydrangeas. The point is that I’ve had lots of ideas over the years, but they’ve always changed and right now I am starting from scratch. All of my ideas were always in theory and now it’s for real so anything is possible!
Alright so now we are getting ready for our road trip to North Carolina! This is part fun vacation and part research for a potential move. It’s going to be a loooooong trip.
And we are armed with water and a bag of Larabars.
If you have any suggestions for places we should try to stop at during our travels let us know! Right now the plan is drive home up the coast on Thursday stopping at a few places and maybe staying over somewhere fun. As you can see, the end of the trip is not really planned and might end up like “Where on the East Coast are Mark and Heather.”
It’s going to be an adventure!
He Says: Who the hell am I?
I was tempted to let the pictures in this post speak for themselves and completely omit words but eventually decided against it since you may want to know what’s in each dish. This stuff was created by Latino Mundo on Glenwood Avenue in Bloomfield NJ and destroyed by my mouth and stomach.
Latino Mundo offers authentic, cafeteria style Costa Rican food, meaning you eat what they make for the day – and I like that about it. It’s a nice change of pace compared to the sometimes overwhelming array of what other restaurants offer. It’s pretty typical for me to walk into a place and become paralyzed by the number of choices. It’s also humbling to eat what others are eating and not have the option to say, “No, that’s not for me.”
Cus, really, who the hell am I?
Food on!
Roasted chicken, white rice, red beans.
Breaded chicken cutlet, yellow rice, red beans.
Chicken, yellow rice, black beans and a plantain gigante.
Ground beef, yellow rice, red beans and another big, sweet plantain.
Beef steak, white rice, black beans, plantain and yuca.
Roasted chicken, white rice, red beans (again).
So good roasted chicken, white rice, black beans, sweet plantain and Snapple Orangeade.
A huge helping of liver, white rice, pinto beans. First time I’ve ever had liver.
Pulled pork, yellow rice, red beans.
Monday’s lunch: ground beef, white rice, pinto beans.
He Says: Still Truckin’
It’s 12:38 in the AM and I’m still kicking around. Since leaving work I went for a walk with Heather to see a parcel of land I’m considering purchasing, installed and tested EyeTV 3 on OS X and recorded tonight’s Lost, played roller hockey for 3 hours, edited a YouTube video about Battlefield Bad Company 2, setup video sharing on my Xbox 360 so we can watch Lost tomorrow night on the a big screen and eaten a bunch of food along the way. I still have to do a status report for an 8 AM meeting tomorrow. Then, if it’s not yet 2:30, I’ll play some video games. If 3 o’clock rolls around and my kill to death ratio is under 1.0, I’ll hit the hay. Here’s a chronicle of the day starting at lunch.
Some crazy noodles. It was terrible; the chicken was fatty, the noodles starchy, and the sauce salty.
The nerve of these people charging 6.50 for this load of crap. Never again. I’m pretty sure “Yan Can Cook” is a registered trademark of Martin Yan.
Luckily, I had this caffeinated dish water to sooth the salty stupor. I put it in a glass with ice and all the guys made fun of me. Then I ran circles around them for the rest of the day, powered by Yellow 5. Did I mention I am extremely substance sensitive?
So that was lunch, no snacks or Nerds today. Just a desperate ride home to go to the bank to pay my car loan. Oh right, I went to the bank too. I don’t have a picture of that you creeper.
My pre-walk Colby cheese sandwich. The cheese is gone, I ate a quarter pound in 2 days. It was damn good too. Ain’t nothing like mild Colby.
Then Heather and I took a walk to see a house. Along the way she was acting all paranoid and was saying that the “ants are plotting against her”. I didn’t understand why she kept stopping every 5 feet an pantomiming throwing dice either. Good thing she didn’t step into any large sinkholes while walking with her iPhone in front of her face the whole time. Tweet tweet!
I kid because I love.
Then I mentally prepared for hockey with some video editing and tortilla and salsa. I took the Sobe Lifewater to the hockey for hydration purposes. And I like it.
My dead English teachers must be plotting a haunting. Maybe if I move apartments soon I can throw them off track.
Game face on the way to hockey.
Sitting at a light. My dashboard is pretty cool. People always say that and “wow, this is surprisingly spacious” when they get in my car. In fact, I bet you right now, next time we’re going out and you get in, you won’t be able to stifle yourself from saying it. How much money ya got onya?
Returned from hockey, post shower. I shower immediately upon entering my home. Remember that if you ever come to my house sweaty and dirty. Don’t go sitting on my couches and rubbing your ass on my soft fleece blankets. Strip down, get in the shower, and then we can talk about the vacuum cleaners. Heather made Snobby Joes, as I’m sure you’re already aware. The taste is great, it’s only the second time she’s made them and they’re near perfect. I didn’t use the hot sauce to get a feel for their true, naked flavor, but kept it at the ready in case of flavor emergency. What can I say, I like zing?
That controller stopped working, I don’t know why. It’s not the system or the controller ports either. Come to think of it, why would Microsoft engineer their own proprietary physical configuration of the USB protocol for the original Xbox only the move to standard USB on the 360? At first they said, “power”, but that’s obvious bullshit since there’s 2 motors in a standard wired Xbox 360 controller and that thing pulls enough juice to run a Nerf missile launcher. Now that’s a conspiracy worth unraveling one day. I like the ambiance of candles but I couldn’t find the little orange lighter I keep around the house.
After eating this very hearty meal I finished editing while drinking a Vitamin Water. It’s the one that tastes like suntan lotion. I like it way more on ice in a tall glass. Think back to lunch if you need a visual.
Now I’m sipping the rest of that Silver Bullet you see next to the RedHot sauce and posting this shizz.
Time to upload to YouTube and do up that status report. Catch you tomorrow when the donuts arrive.
He Says: Brooklyn in the House
Tap That is a beer drinkers’ show that I think you’ll enjoy, especially if you enjoy beer. See if you can spot Hangry Heather running around in the background during the interview. In this episode we visit The Diamond in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Have a happy and safe holiday.
He Says: Promax Double Fudge Brownie
The packaging for Promax bars features the text “Great Tasting Energy Bar” and that about sums it up. When it comes to bars in the collective “protein” or “energy” categories I’ve come full circle and tasted pretty much all of them.
Power, Clif, Detour, Luna, Lara, Kardea, Honest and MetRx and Glo – I’ve eaten (and enjoyed) them all. Some bars are great and some are passable. The Double Fudge Brownie flavor of Promax are great and satisfy all of my energy bar needs, which you may be familiar with by now.
It’s hard to quantify what makes a bar great rather than just good, but in the case of Promax Double Fudge Brownie I can offer a few simple statements that say what I mean.
- It tastes like chocolate fudge brownie. Not chocolate with a side of iron or metal, just chocolate fudge brownie.
- It has a pleasing consistency reminiscent of fudge brownies, not of soft brick or gooey chocolate sauce.
It leaves me satisfied with the feeling that I’ve eaten something not only worthy of my time and effort, but also nutritional expectations. While they won’t leave you giant, green and ready to HULK SMASH! things, you won’t be looking to eat another one immediately and that – for a hungry man of intense lifestyle such as myself – is the most important thing.
A box of Promax Double Fudge Brownies was furnished courtesy of Promax for this review, however I also purchased a Promax Cookies and Creme Bar after I ate the whole box over the course of 2 weeks. Another Promax Fudge Brownie Bar was purchased after that when I began to miss the double fudge brownie flavor prior to writing this review.
He Says: We’ve Come A Long Way Baby
EAS recently sent over a complimentary set of EAS Myoplex Strength Formula bars for Heather and I to sample. Cookies N’ Creme and Chocolate Mint represent my most favorite and most hated flavors of ice cream respectively but I did not let that sway my appraisal of these bars. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by both flavors and even prefer the Chocolate Mint ever so slightly.
Although I’m not a big… oh, how can I say this accurately, exerciser, I have historically been a fan of engineered nutrition. As you might have already observed, I lead a very intense lifestyle and many times don’t get appropriate nutrition through natural means like regular meals and my most covetous object of desire – sleep. For me, as on-the-go, hunger satisfying solutions, “bars” are effective.
Don’t let my nearly universal endorsement of bars lead you to believe that all are good though. My criteria for differentiating a good bar from a bad one are:
- Satisfaction – After eating this bar will I reach for another bar within an hour? If the answer is No, this bar is satisfying.
- Taste – Does it feel like I just opened a roll of nickels in my mouth or licked a Coloforms playset? If No, this bar tastes good.
- Nutrition – Does it have enough good stuff to balance out the bad? If Yes, I’ll eat it.
The Myoplex Strength Formula bars definitely satisfy. Take a look at this naked Cookies N’ Creme bar next to my iPhone (in USB dock)! The consistency is thick but not overly chewy and the size and weight are balanced well.
The title of this post is a homage not just to this bar but to all nutrition bars that taste good. The taste, or more specifically, the flavor of bars has come a long way over the years and these EAS bars represent the next evolution.
The Cookies N’ Creme is smooth and buttery. It masks the usual metallic or Flinstones’ Kids aftertaste you expect and might even give you the impression you’re eating dessert.
The Chocolate Mint achieves the same effect by being, rich but cool with a generous layer of white mint within. It almost makes me rethink the place Chocolate Chip Mint ice cream holds in my current ranking system.
Don’t look at my messy desk. Concentrate on the smooth, silky finish of Cookies N’ Creme.
If you’re interested in sampling a free EAS product yourself head on over and request one.
