This weather has been amazing. I sincerely hope we do not get a freak snow storm. Its not even April and our lawn is already growing and super green. With the weather constantly gorgeous, our weight watchers recipes haven’t been all that exciting. We are still sticking to our program, but just keeping it simple so that we can grill outside.
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| It’s hard to be in a bad mood after work when its this amazing outside! |
Stay tuned this week as we should have some new onesie designs and new T-shirts!
Well, we had to start somewhere. We have big plans for our backyard this summer but right now it’s in awful shape. We have to change the pitch because the water currently rolls towards the house, and we are planning on fencing it in and covering it in old red brick.
Step #1: Remove the rusty yellow clothes line.
Simple enough right. Not exactly. I anticipated a concrete base buried in the dirt, but nothing like what we ended up pulling out. This baby was almost 3 feet long engulfed in a sloppy wet mush. It was awful. Nicole and I took turns digging around this massive pain in the ass, occasionally rocking it back and forth in hopes of loosening it. Eventually I ran out of patience and pulled down on the pole as hard as I could, and of course it bent. It seemed like it was going to be impossible for the two of us to remove this. So I thought to myself, “What would ‘Breaking Bad’s Heisenberg do?” That’s right, he would create a way to solve his problem using science! In my case, physics. I wedged some bricks under the bent pole and pulled down on the one end which lifted the massive concrete base. I had Nicole come over and stand on the end while I pulled it out of the hole using my legs so that I wouldn’t rupture my intestines. After about 2.5 hours, we got it out of the ground.
Next up is that gross shrub, although I’ll save that for next weekend as I am sure it will be equally as awful to remove.
Today is weigh-in day for week 3. I lost another 1.6 pounds. It’s a loss, but I would’ve liked to have lost at least 2. This brings my weight to 202.4. I’m so close to being under 200, I can taste it! Pretty soon when I walk down the street, women will get light headed and have irregular heart beats because my new look. Nicole is super lucky.
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| “Would you like to go for a bike ride back to my place for some Sangria?” |
What a great weekend we had. It’s amazing what warmer weather can do to your mood. Our winter has been super mild, but it has still been cold. Having a blast of warm weather over the weekend and for the upcoming days, is going to be great.
On Saturday we took Izzy to the park. We figured that a nice long walk for the dogs would tire them out, so we packed up the camera and the dogs, and headed to the park. The park is loaded with other dogs, all on leashes of course, but its a great place to let dogs interact and do some sniffing. Ric is used to this interaction as he gets it all the time but I wasn’t all that sure how much of this interaction Izzy gets. She ended up being fantastic, she loved being around the other dogs and was even pleasant around other men in the park (she’s usually “iffy” when it comes to being around males).
We have been getting the itch to work on the house, and although I need to drywall, it has still been too windy to bring drywall home on the car, so this weekend Nicole and I went to Home Depot and tackled other projects. The cabinets in the kitchen have no handles on them and can sometimes be difficult to open. We went and picked out some new handles which ended up looking awesome.
One other thing we had to change was the awful vanity in our bathroom. When we originally moved in, our bathroom was nonexistent. It was straight out of Alcatraz. We were able to get a great deal on a new kitchen and bathroom, but for the price, we would have to make a few sacrifices in the bathroom. The vanity he chose was clearly something that he caught a great deal on because it didn’t go well in there at all. It was gigantic and didn’t really match anything. It was nothing we were going to complain about, but we were going to have to add a new vanity to our list of things to get. This weekend we found one that looked great and like doubled the space in our bathroom.
Just a little reminder (cheap plug), St. Patrick’s day is quickly approaching! I’m far from Irish but recognize that the day is filled with people who are, and they are all drinking like there is no tomorrow, and wearing wacky clothing. This year we have given them an option! Super Sweet Shirts presents the “St. Patrick’s Day Madlib shirt”.
This is available in men’s and women’s sizes, both currently up in our Etsy store. These are not up on our main website because I am currently in the processes of remodeling the sight, so new items have only been listed on Etsy and our eBay store.
Two weeks into Weight Watchers and I’m down from about 211 pounds to 202.4! This plan has been pretty easy, I’m able to eat comfortably, even though I’ll always miss over eating! Giving up bourbon and beer during the week is tough. I love those two things. I love them. Nicole is having really good luck with it also and is losing weight too. Its nice wearing fit shirts and not looking like a sausage.
Last night was the first weight watchers dinner that I failed at making. The recipe listed was for chicken marsala. Everything was going great until the final step. I was to “pour marsala mixture into the pan” with the sauteed mushrooms. As soon as I did this, it looked like I blew an alien’s brain up. It turned into a disgusting, coagulated, purple sloppy mess. It looked like something from a 90’s Nickelodeon game show. So we had to toss that mess and just have chicken and veggies.
We have been babysitting my parents dog all week. She is an amazing dog, but a total diva. She doesn’t go outside when it rains. I have to push her into the yard. She also needs me to season her healthy dog food with a few morsels of my dogs food or she wont eat. She is super ridiculous, but we love her and it’s nice having a big dog around.
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| Izzy (right) really likes Ric (left), but she hates being away from my parents. This looks like a wedding picture from a fixed marriage. |
Last Monday, Nicole and I started Weight Watchers. We figured that if we started it now, by the time we get married in a few months, we will look awesome. We have tried all sorts of diets before this one, and they are all really bad. Calorie counting sucks and it doesn’t work well. My mom has lost a ridiculous amount of weight in the time she’s been on it, so we decided to do it. In 6 days I had lost about 5 pounds. I am allowed 43 points a day and sometimes its hard to even eat that much. In addition to that I get 49 cheater points which are points that you get for the week to splurge. I save those for beer on the weekend. So far its super comfortable to do and sort of fun because it forces me to cook food. There are hundreds of recipes for lunch, breakfast, dinner, and appetizers. I figure why not blog some healthy recipes that I really love.
Last week we made a bunch of things, the thing I liked the most was the Turkey Reuben. This is a great, filling sandwich and it’s only 5 points! The recipe is as follows:
Weight Watchers Turkey Reuben
Low calorie or light Rye Bread
2oz of 98% fat free turkey
Low fat Swiss cheese (we used the fat free)
Dijon mustard
Sauerkraut
Fire up a skillet or pan and spray it with some PAM spray. While the pan is heating up, build your sandwich. Once the sandwich is built and put together, place it on the pan until both sides are a golden brown.
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| Build the sandwich. |
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| Spray your pan or skillet with PAM. |
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| Brown both sides of the sandwich and melt the cheese. |
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| Look at these babies. |
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| 2oz of turkey seems like a horribly small amount, but its really not. |
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| The sandwich is 5 points, and the addition of the chips below make this lunch 8 points. |
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| This brand of chips is awesome. 20 chips are 3 points. |
Lets be honest. Those of us who can navigate the internet and have a love for music have found “alternative” ways to “acquire” music. Our mass storage devices are loaded with gigabytes, maybe even terabytes, of music. I was never a slave to iTunes. I could not wrap my finger around the concept of paying for music files. At least when you used to pay for albums, weather it be cd or vinyl, you got something for what you paid for. Something you could read, display, and collect. I just couldn’t do it. I used to even have a problem buying cd’s. Back when cd burners were the rage, I remember stores in the mall selling albums on CD for up to $20.00, regular price. Why on earth would anybody pay for something that they can whip up in seconds on their home computers. Both sides were to blame for the death of the CD industry, but I’m not blogging this to talk about the death of the record store. You see, I may not pay for cds, or an mp3/mp4, but there is one thing I will pay for…convenience.
Even when I “acquired” music online using other methods, you still had to load up the mp3 player, or iPod, or have your folders organized so that accessing your collection via cloud on your phone would be easy. There was lots of effort involved. An then (at least for me) I’d be bored of what I had loaded up within days. Not anymore. A few weeks back I decided to try “Spotify”.
On Spotify’s website, you can download their software, which looks similar to iTunes. After free signup, you get 20 hours a month for free, a trial similar to Pandora. The difference? You don’t have to sit around hoping that Spotify will learn what you want to hear. You simply enter the artist, song, or album you want to listen to and listen. Its like having all the music you can think of at your fingertips.
It’s not like “Grooveshark” where you have to sort through nonsense to get what you want. Its that simple and it rules. At first I was like, “20 hours should be plenty”. It totally wasn’t. I listen to music during my work week all day, so I was out of minutes pretty quick. So for $4.95 a month, you can have unlimited access to Spotify on your computer. Worth every penny. For $9.95 you get unlimited access to Spotify on your computer, plus access to the Spotify phone app which allows you unlimited streaming away from your computer. Unless you are in an area that has no cell coverage, you no longer need to load up an Mp3 player. I love this service and am proud to be legit. Highly recommend trying this out.
One thing I always wanted living in this city was a little Jazz bar. A place to go and get a cocktail while listening to live Jazz. Its not a common thing here in Buffalo like it is in other cities. I remember visiting Chicago one year and spending an evening at “Andy’s Jazz Club and Restaurant” eating dinner, listening to the finest local Jazz musicians, and wishing we had a place like this in Buffalo. Although “Canvas@1206” is far from the famous “Andy’s”, it is still a breath of fresh air and another nice option for nightlife here in this city.
We had gone on a Friday night, about two weeks back (I’m late posting this) around 7pm and it was pretty easy to get a table. The bar and restaurant atmosphere is retro/old-school, but not in a way that gives off any impression that it’s trying too hard. Everything is just right. From the gold speckled bar, to the capiz chandelier lights, and jazz artist wall of fame, its an atmosphere I found myself comfortable in.
After a Manhattan, we sat down for some dinner with our friends, Molly and Patrick. The menu was interesting but I immediately noticed more of a “Lunch” menu than dinner. There were not many standard entrees but more a plethora of sandwiches. One thing that looked awesome though, was the giant crab cake. Molly and Patrick ordered that for an appetizer, and Nicole and I ordered the Bacon Swiss dip with chips.
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| The Bacon Swiss dip was one of the more delicious things I’ve eaten in a while. The chips were not standard tortilla chips, but a type of chip that I’ve never had before, more of an air-crisp. |
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| The giant crab cake was pretty tasty as well, but I was glad we got the dip. |
For the main course, Pat and I ordered the Fish fry. I rarely get out to a place on Friday nights to take advantage of any fish fry options so now I had the importunity to. We had the option to add goat cheese mashed potatoes as a side, so i jumped on that also. Nicole ordered the pork chop with the goat mash and a vegetable. Molly had ordered the broiled fish with Cajun seasoning. My fish fry was pretty good. I couldn’t find anything wrong with it. It was cooked perfectly, the breading looked as if it were fried in clean/fresh oil, and it was decent sized. It could have used some more seasonings though. That was the opinion of everyone at the table. Nicole’s pork chop and vegetables tasted like a “pork chop and vegetables”. There wasn’t much flavor. The goat cheese mash just tasted like plain mash potatoes. Everything was cooked to perfection, it was just bland.
Would I go back to Canvas@1206? Most definitely. The quality of the food was very good and everything was cooked nicely. The bar was fun to sit at and a great place to stop in and grab a drink. The crowd consisted of people from all age groups. I’d love to go back when there is music playing on the stage. This is a great addition to the city.
The past two weeks have been pretty crazy with work and lots of birthday’s, plus the insanity of trying to get our house in “ok” condition for guests, mid remodel. Ive been tearing apart the foyer, rewiring everything and getting ready to drywall it, so it’s been a constant battle against the dust from the plaster.
My parents spent the weekend here for my mother’s birthday. It’s always fun when they come down because we do so many cool things. My stepfather and I have a love for beer so every time he comes down we try to plan a stop somewhere for a tasty brew. A bar in my neighborhood had a Dogfish Head Tap takeover this weekend so we were able to get down there for lunch and have a pint. We caught the Sabres game on Friday night at the arena and watched the Sabres beat Boston for the second time in a row. On Saturday night we went to one of the better restaurants in Buffalo, “Prospero”. Nicole and I had eaten here last year and we were both in agreement that this was perhaps one of the best restaurants in the city. It was amazing Italian food. My stepfather wanted to bring us out to dinner to celebrate my mom’s birthday, so I could not think of a better place. I was able to get reservations three weeks in advance but even with this much of an advance, we could only get in at 8pm. On Saturday, we got a call from the restaurant reminding us that they had a prefixed menu on Saturdays. I totally didn’t know anything about this and it was not on their website. Sightly annoyed I had to inform my mom that we were not going to get Italian. Don’t get me wrong, the specials on the menu were still good, but it was sort of a bummer that we wanted Italian food and we were told the day of the dinner that we couldn’t get it. Its not like I would have been able to get reservations anywhere else with that short of notice.
I took an afternoon nap Saturday, while Nicole and my Mom put back some wine and called “Prospero”. I’m not sure exactly what they talked about, but the place was going to make my mom a pasta dish, just for her! The restaurant is a class act, I highly recommend trying to get reservations there if you can.
Now that everything has slowed down, I should be able to get more posts up. I have some things I want to talk about this week, including a new Jazz Bar in Buffalo that we went to and my review of “Spotify”, a new service that I am in love with. That’s right, what has two thumbs and is legitimately paying for music? This guy.
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| Center ice Friday Night, my mom’s xmas present for Henry. |
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| Sunday afternoon Mikkeller IPA’s at the Monk. That’s right, one of those IPA’s is Nicole’s :). |
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