Angela introduced me to these tasties from Lucca Ravioli San Francisco. What is a popper? A small green pepper stuffed with prosciutto and some sort of hard cheese, soaked in olive oil.

I am so addicted.

technorati: Lucca, San Francisco, Poppers

Created 5 weeks, 2 days ago

If this is how the Ad-Council is spending PSA monies, I would like a refund please.

Check out this ad:



Seriously? If your are worried your teen is drinking martini's with olives, you have a totally different problem. Come on.

May I suggest some PSAs warning us about the dangers of the fast-food money changer with 'dirty' hands or the bum down the street that fouls up the street bench that you almost sat on once.




Created 6 weeks, 6 days ago

The Sunfeast Dream Cream cookies were good. Bourbon!


Created 11 weeks, 6 days ago

I decided to take out one of the bottles of beer that has been conditioning in the closet over the last week. A week before it is supposed to be done, I was taking a risk. As it turned out, it was a perfect bottle of beer. I never doubted it for a second (not).


I also completed the project by getting some help naming the beer (thanks Ashley) and it is now to be known as "Bitter Explosion 2008". As you might know, on day two the batch blew the lid off the fermenting bucket leading to a full night of washing clothes that had yeast, beer wort and hops all over. I will remember to take my clothes out of the closet at least until day 3 or 4 next time.

Because it fermented for a week with the hops, it also has a fair degree of bitterness to it. Just the right amount to get those salivary glands working.

Therefore I came up with a label and concept that embodied the event, printed them and Ashley stuck a few on. They are old 3 1/2 inch floppy disk labels. These are going to suck to wash off, but until I get some transparent semi-gloss peel off labels, they will have to work.


For everyone going on the ski trip next week, expect me to have a few of these in tow. If they survive the plane ride, they will definitely make you smile. I guarantee it.




technorati: homebrew, beer, Bitter Explosion

Created 11 weeks, 6 days ago

Over the long weekend, Ashley, Aaron and I went to San Francisco Brewcraft where we purchased a homebrew starter kit and enough accessories to run two simultanous recipies.

The first recipe we are working is a West Coast Brown Ale, which we started on Monday. As of this afternoon, the young beer is growing nicely in the primary fermenter.

I'll have another update in a few days when we move the West Coast Brown into the secondary fermenter, and start the European Ale recipe.






technorati: homebrew, beer, ale, brewcraft

Created 15 weeks, 4 days ago

Aaron made the 2 o'clock meeting today, bringing his first batch of homebrew Irish Red Ale that he had been cultivating for the past month and a half.

All of that time spent watching it ferment was well spent my friend. Well spent.



The beer had a mysterious nutty, fruity flavor, with a hoppy aftertaste. Foam was perfect, as was carbonation. I was totally blown away that it worked out so well for him. His success makes me excited to do a batch of my own.


technorati: homebrew, beer, Aaron Murray

Created 15 weeks, 5 days ago

I had started dieting 44 days ago in order to loose some weight before our Jamaica trip at the end of this week. The diet started the moment I bought the tickets for Ashley and I in September. I took stock in my current health and weight and I must admit that I was actually shocked to find that I had gained so much weight over the last year. I think it has something to do with my previous job being so ... lackluster ... and my motivation for staying healthy wasn't there. A true failing on my part.

I started by just making up a goal of 30 pounds in 44 days when I first drew up my weight loss plan. 30 pounds would put me at 187; which I historically consider an ideal weight for my body. I tend to be a little more muscle-built than the average person of my height and any lighter leaves me feeling weak. 30 pounds is about 120 sticks-of-butter in fat volume equivalence. Gah!

There would be 3 things that stood in the way of me reaching this goal:

1. 30 pounds in 44 days is most likely an unhealthy rapid weight loss
2. My birthday fell between these 44 days
3. Thanksgiving week with my family was also in this same stretch

Therefore I considered these obstacles and I moved my goal back to 25 pounds in 44 days. I figured I would easily gain 3 or 4 pounds over Thanksgiving week and about a pound or two over my birthday (from drinking; less if I puked it up ).

With my goal set, I sat down and figured out what it would take to reach it. 25 pounds in 44 days equates to loosing about 1/2 a pound a day, or something like 4 pounds every 7 days. Whew!

So I drew up some exercise and food rules:

Food:
#1. Only low carb, low sugar, low fat foods (veggies only!?)
#2. Reduce my portions of everything, to the max
#3. Find meals that I could look forward to every single day and repeat weekly

Exercise:
#1. Go to the gym six days a week for at least 60 minutes of exercise
#2. Do at least 60 minutes of cardio every single day
#3. Work towards 60 minutes of jogging
#3. Incorporate some weight training after the 60 minutes of cardio

Limiting my food options and portions I was able to cut my daily caloric intake to an average of about 1600 calories. I found some meals that I could repeat every day for breakfast and lunch. A surprise to me was that I found myself getting really creative with dinners when it was my turn to cook food. A favorite of mine is veggie fajitas, another is baked tilapia with sauteed brussel sprouts.

At the gym, according to the cardio machines, I was burning about 600 calories in 60 minutes on the treadmill for the first 20 days. Over the last 20 days I was able to up it to about 750 calories in 60 minutes. My average gym session is now about 2 hours, with the second hour involving machine weight-training and in during last few minutes, another cardio workout on the orbital machines. I usually stop the orbitals at 220 calories burned (enough for 2 lite beers if I felt like it). Including my weight lifting, I estimated I burned about 1100-1200 calories over the 2 hours at the gym.

Looking back today, to measure my weight loss, I calculated my resting caloric burn to be about 2100 calories and, combining this with my workout, I was burning about 3200 calories a day.

If I only took in 1600 calories a day from food, this was a deficit of 1600 calories a day I was having to pull out of my bodies energy stores to make up for.

1600 calories times 44 days is about 70400 calories. If a pound of fat is contains 3500 calories than I should have lost somewhere around 20.1 pounds over the 44 days. Leaving me only 5 pounds shy of my arbitrary goal of 25 pounds.

I'm happy to say that today, just 3 days before leaving for Jamaica, that is exactly where I am at. I have lost the 20 pounds and I still have 3 days to go!

I figure that I probably lost a good amount of fat but actually built some muscle back since I have been weight-training. I know I need to loose about 10 more pounds to reach that ideal 187, but I am really excited and surprised to see that my calculations, and dedication to them, have worked out.

The only drawbacks are the constant sore muscles and the cravings that I have to fight with constantly. I must admit that I have less of them as of late, but in the beginning they were killer cravings. Bad brain!

Here's to keeping off the weight while on vacation and me reaching my weight loss goal before the end of the year. Salut!




technorati: weight loss, weight, diet

Created 23 weeks, 5 days ago

A Thatsa bowl is the codename for a 32-cup burping-bowl from Tupperware that is a necessary tool in making the poppyseed Kolaches that I love so dearly.



It's the smaller one in the above photo. The red bowl with the flour in it.





Created 23 weeks, 6 days ago

Today marks 21 days of dieting.

Week 1 archived results
(lost 6 pounds)

Week 2 archived results
(lost 5 pounds)


Week 3 calorie intake and results

---

Wed (31st)
1156

Thu (1st)
2615

Fri (2nd)
2020

Sat (3rd)
670

Sun (4th)
1085

Mon (5th)
1400

Tue (6th)
1265


It was my birthday on Friday, and on Thursday my company threw a holiday party at the Exploratorium so I had two back to back indulgent days. I was able to ride the calorie rush and had a really good energy day on Saturday with just 600 calories.

I lost only 3 pounds this week, for a total of 14 pounds lost over 21 days. I know my body fat index dropped by about 3% points over the week though, which hopefully means my fat weight was replaced by muscle weight gain.

My cardio and weight lifting continues however I would like to incorporate some swimming over the next week. I found a new gym that has a pool but it is expensive. There is a public pool north and south of me but they cost about 5 dollars a day to swim.

technorati: weight loss, dieting, diet, exercise



Created 26 weeks, 4 days ago

Calorie intake over the last 7 days:

Wed (17th)
1085

Thu (18th)
1268

Fri (19th)
1448

Sat (20th)
1795

Sun (21st)
1940

Mon (22nd)
2061

Tue (23th)
1104

Aside from the increase in calories over the weekend, the only other tweak I need to make is that those high calorie days have all contained over 70% of my calories in the dinner meal (parties I have had to go to). If I can have a larger snack just before I workout in the afternoon I might be able to cut short my dinner binging.

Total weight lost this week: 6 pounds





Created 28 weeks, 5 days ago

Ehh...


Huh...


Now, if someone will brew some Eye of the Beholder Ale or Underdark Stout, I will flip a wig.

technorati: beer, DnD, Bard's Tale

Created 71 weeks, 1 day ago

A slice of conversation between John and Lee:

John:

did u get a xmas card from me?
im hoping i got your address right.

Lee:

You sent a scout card!
Dammit!
We fell for it.


John:

perfect. just perfect.
expect the reinforcements soon.

Lee:

I should have known from the:

    Dear You Guys,
    
        Happy Holidays!
    
    Your Friends from The West.


John:

This reminds me of Empire Strikes Back and the probe and the tontons.

Lee:

tawn tawns....
    
I think.

Can't remember the spelling.

But they're all gooey and warm inside.


John:

That would make a great cake - "Tauntaun Suprise"

Lee:
    
Nice.

John:

or...even better:

it would be an Italian dinner dish.

cut it open and it is filled with some spaghetti.

Lee:

Yeah.
     
Macaroni.

John:

a pastry filled with noodles and sauce.

Lee:

And the joke is that few people will understand why it's called Tauntaun Surprise.
    
"Mmm, this is good!", they will say.
     
And they won't get why there's a Luke - Star Wars action figure hidden in it.


John:

awesome


Lee:
     
I think if you posted that idea on some Star Wars geek forum, you'd be instantly thrust into some Grand Pubaa status.


John:

eventually Tauntaun Suprise will loose its connection from the movies though...
    
Yet, years from now people will still enjoy it much like we enjoy Shepherds Pie today.

Lee:

And there will be trivia question in Trivial Pursuit... and peoples' minds will be blown when they learn the origin of this traditional american dish.

Lee:

"I always wondered, but never thought there was a real connection..."

and, "Wow! My grandmother used to make Tawntawn Surprise all the time!"

Lee: 

The Luke action figure will be swapped out for a hidden carrot stick for practical purposes and the origin will, of course, be forgotten.

John:

Im sure other vegetables will work too.

Lee:

Right... the carrot stick will be sort of a midwest modification.

In the east, it will be an asparagus.



technorati: tauntaun, star wars, food

Created 72 weeks, 3 days ago

Yea, I have a thing for Schmitt Söhne 2005 Qualitatswein Riesling. We have gone through at least 100 bottles of this stuff in the last 12 months. It is the only wine that someone will drink. Thankfully it is very good. It goes with everything (Chinese food especially) and is very thirst quenching. There is nothing more satisfying after a good long run than to come in and quench my thirst with half a bottle of Riesling.


So, believe me now when I say that something is mysteriously funky with the bottles we have purchased lately. First off, the cork is definitely more wet than usual. I rarely had a cork snap off in the bottle when using my puller, however lately at least 50% of them have snapped. Not just snapped, but disintegrated near the bottom of the cork, closest to the wine. And lastly, the taste is all wrong. I don't want to say it tastes bad, but certainly it doesn't taste like it should.

As I am not anywhere near an expert in wine so I cannot say with any authority that either of these things are related. However as a wine fool, I will say they are related.

Is anyone else drinking this wine? Can you verify that not all bottles of this wine are starting to go bad? If not, can you go buy a bottle and confirm that it is just the Bay Area having a problem with a batch. Thanks!




technorati: wine, Riesling, Schmitt Söhne

Created 75 weeks, 2 days ago

I finally gave Chevys Fresh Mex restaurant a chance and I am somewhat remorseful that I waited so long to go there. With all the mom-and-pop Mexican food restaurants in the Bay Area turning out so awful, I was pretty certain that a large franchise would do it even worse. Turns out I was way wrong.


We were at the Stonestown Galleria last week and on the way out we peeped an advertisement for margaritas at the Chevys in the mall. After a day of shopping, that was exactly what we needed.

The margaritas were from an actual margarita machine. The flour tortillas are pretty close to perfect (Alamo cafe tortillas being the best of course). And best yet, the Fajitas were mouth-watering, brought sizzling and served with "sauteed San Antonio veggies."

Finally! I think anyone who has lived with access to authentic Tex Mex will fully appreciate having access to decent fajitas and margaritas outside of Texas. Give it a shot. Let me know what yall think, I recommend Chevys.

technorati: Tex Mex, Mexican food, Chevys

Created 75 weeks, 6 days ago