Holy Crap week 5!!

DAMMIT I so owe you all a post

sorry, but you'll understand!

I can't believe its week 5!  I'm not actually counting the week I got laid off, especially since I was in Mexico at the time!  The layoff happened the 21st of January, but I didn't get home until the 24th, so that is where I'm counting from, and now its Feb 24th!  One month plus!  Damn.

OK, so real quick, I just don't have the time or energy to do the full posts on what went down in the last few days, but I'll give you the best summary I can!

• Thursday:  Drove up to Portsmouth to work on my friend Steven's boat for the day.  I promised him I'd help.  I took a bunch of fun pictures, which will be posted very soon.  That night, had dinner at Dali, a Tapas restaurant in Somerville, with our friend Lisa.  Good stuff.  More on that later.
• Friday was pretty uneventful.  Cleaned, relaxed.  The BBB had a Doctors appt that morning, and sadly the cast cannot come off yet.  So she worked from home, I cleaned, and we watched TV.  Ten Tables of course that night, which was yummy.  I had the calamari salad, an amazing spicy lentil soup, and the steak.  yummers.
• Saturday is the beginning of the real reason I'm too damn tired to post right now!  I started a Yoga Teacher Training.  I don't know what the hell I'm thinking, but I love it.  Yes, the Yoga studio that i TRY to go to each week, but haven't since before the BBB broke the foot, the people I go to Mexico with, et al, do a Teacher training at the studio.  Its pretty damn intense, I'll tell you.  And I'm in the thick of it.  It started Saturday, and ends this coming Sunday.  And that's just the first week.  I have a few more weekend sessions and 2 more full 7 day sessions to go.  Good lord!!!!   And for anyone who's done Yoga and is familiar with Primary series, well, its the second most intense yoga practice in the states, and that is what I'm learning all about.  Its the basis for the style of yoga that happens at my studio.  So, I have to learn all the poses, the sanskrit names for the poses, the different modifications students need to do if pregnant or injured, and the different adjustments that teachers do for the students when in the poses!  its Nuts!!!!  So, more on that in a minute!  I still want to wrap up my other extra curriculars!!!!
• Saturday night I was too tired to do anything, so I think we just chilled out.  I don't remember.
• Sunday, after Yoga, was a PARTY!  and not just any party.  It was the TEN TABLES CAMBRIDGE pre-opening party!  And it was a blast.  Got there at 7, drank lots of wine, hung out with the staff and friends of the restaurant, ate lots of yummy passed snacks (cuz i dont feel like spelling ourderves correctly right now), and had a blast!  Left there at about 10, drove my buddy and his wife home, and came home.  Tried to watch the Oscars, but SOOOOOO BOOOORING!   Passed out on the chair.  woke up at 3 am, went to bed!  
• Monday, yoga at 830!!!  to 330!   The picked up the BBB and headed to Cambridge for the actual opening night of TEN TABLES CAMBRIDGE!!  You know it.  Yeah, I went to the party, buy I had to go and actually have dinner on the first night!  Yyyeah!  We were there about 3 hours, and had a great dinner!  Its a really nice restaurant.  I'll have to put up a link to the blog Mike made about making it all happen.  But, too lazy right now.
• Today, yoga again.  Was supposed to have acupuncture after, but the BBB was stuck in meetings, so we just headed home and cooked a bunch of stuff!  I made Farrow, sauteed onions, tempeh bacon, and peas, and roasted tomatoes. She made Mac and Chrees (not cheese, she's vegan), with peas.  I have a cat on my lap right now that isn't happy with my typing cuz I'm not petting him.  
• Heroes was only ok last night.
• Oh, I remember on Thursday maybe, or no, it must've been the weekend after the BBB went to bed, I watched the Incredible Hulk with Ed Norton.  Can't remember what day it was, but it was actually pretty good.  
• Also watched the Descent on Saturday night, which was a fun little scary movie about 6 women who go speelunking, and run into scary flesh eating man things underground.  Actually not bad!

So, just a quick fill in on why I'm so tired from doing Yoga Teacher training

• The weekend sessions aren't bad, 1230 to 630.  Primary series class at about 2.  Crazy tiring and intense, that yoga.
• Weekday sessions are 830 to 330.  Actual yoga class is 945 to 1115.  
• Before hand is discussion or review of some poses.
• After class, we break down poses and how to adjust.
• Lunch
• after that, we partner up, guide our fellow trainees through the poses, and then they do the adjustments and we do the adjustments
• I did the actual practice on Saturday and Sunday, but yesterday just observed (which is encouraged), and today observed and did adjustments when I could.  Fun, but scary at first.
• When we were doing the partner sessions, I did my first successful headstand.  My back hurts a bit now, but my whole body is sore from Primary series, and I feel pretty damn badass about doing a headstand, cuz that shit ain't easy.

So, I guess that's it.  I'm gonna go watch some TV before putting away all the food I just cooked for lunches.  

I promise I'll post up pictures from Sunday soon enough.

TEN TABLES CAMBRIDGE IS OPEN!!! To all my friends across the river, get excited!  They're on Opentable too!  Go eat!  

I guess that is it!  I gotta shower and stuff too, cuz i smell!  

lates

Comments and Such

Just a quick FYI

Someone told me yesterday that you had to have a Gmail account to leave comments.  I just checked it, and you don't.  You can do anonymous, or even better, put whatever name you want and a url if you want.  so, please, leave comments.  Let me know who you are and if you are enjoying this silly exercise in excess!!!!

also, on the right, I've added a subscription link.  If you enjoy reading this, but get tired of checking it each day to see nothing new, put your email in there!  It will let you know when I post.  THEN come back here to read and comment (i don't think it emails you the whole post, but if it does, you won't show up on my counter and make my ego bigger with the increasing number of readers!!!!)

So, thats for you, dear readers, whomever you are!

My goodness! Week 4, day 3, and the rest of week 3 and 4

Woah, almost a whole week?!  What the hell happened??

So, Where did I leave off (sorry, Jacob, but this is going to have to be a bit of a catch up post!)?

Wednesday ended after picking up the BBB, went home, ate a tad, and went to Band Practice.

Have you not listened to Burnt Fur yet????   GO NOW!!!!!!!

Oh, wait, I already did Wednesday.  Whoops.

Thursday is not memorable in any way.  I'm sure I watched some television and ate some food, but I can't remember anything significant.  I may have vacuumed, but I don't think so.  Dishes, probably.  Oh well.

Friday the BBB worked from home, so I slept in until like noon.  Did some house cleaning I guess.  Oooh, and I think I did some Laundry.  

And then, of course, Ten Tables.  Had a lovely meal.  Calamari over lemon salad.  Portuguese Fish Stew.  Pasta with Lamb Ragout.  Stinky cheese.  YUM.  

THEN, I came home, and realized that we were going to my mothers the next day and hadn't cooked a damn thing!  We were going to make that Fritatta, but it wasn't very good.  Mom had already had the Sausage Potato thing, and we wanted to continue showcasing new Vegan foods that are good, so not that again.  It's supposed to be just lunch, and I knew Mom was making 2 soups, so............A-Ha!!!  CHICKPEA SALAD!!!!    

This is a great and easy thing to make.  It was passed on to us as Mock Tuna Salad (seaweed gives it that fishy taste), but I prefer it just as chickpea salad.  YUMMSY on sammiches.

Just 2 cans of chickpeas, pickles, celery, onions, lemon juice, and Mayo (veggenaise, cuz its just as good and way less nasty when you think about it).  Recipe is posted and linked above.  I recommend giving it a whirl!  

Made 2 batches of it at like midnight, cuz, well, why not!

Saturday is easy.  Woke up, picked up flowers for Mom and her cousin Bonnie who came to visit my mom for the weekend.  New Leaf Flores is the best florist, if I haven't mentioned them already.  Gotta plug my friends.

Then we stopped by Flour in the South End to pick up these yummy chocolate cherry sourdough loaves as Hallmark Day gifts (VDay is a myth.  its all Hallmark!!!) and some vegan chocolate cupcakes, which are YUM.  got 2 loaves of regular bread for the chickpea salad, and some dirty heart cookies for the band.

Drove down to Plymouth to the Mom's house.  Nice day.  Niece chloe (age 5) was there.  Sister came too.  Had some cheese, chickpea salad on bread, Split Pea Soup, and coincidentally, Portuguese Kale soup with Linguica.  All Yummers.  

Went for a drive with the sister for a bit, Mom's cousin showed up, BroInLaw came over, and we had a nice afternoon.  Wine, talking, eating, fun.  Sister n BroInLaw n Niece left, had Pizza with the ladies.  Drove home at like 1030 (crap), watched something, went to bed.

Sunday was a nice calm day.  Slept in.  Laundry.  Had a fire all day.  Did some computer stuff.  I figured out how to put a password on my wireless router all by myself, with the internet to help.  I'm impressed.  And posted another recipe to the Vegan blog.  Other than that, relaxed, watched TV.  Nice calm day.

Monday was the same.  BBB had a holiday.  Fire all day.  More Laundry.  Made smoothies (chocolate soy milk, peanut butter, bananas, vanilla protein powder, ice - YUM).

Then met up with my oldest friend in the world, Todd, who I met just after I was born (he's about 3 weeks older, our Moms are friends), and his wife.  The 4 of us went to Oleana, one of my favorite restaurants.  Its an Arabic Turkish restaurant, very much bent on the spices they use.  Fantastic very high end yummy food.  I had:

• 3C's Ale, a beer made special for them by Cisco brewery on Nantucket (containes cumin, coriander, and cardomom).  So yummy, and Cisco is one of my favorite brewers.
• appetizer of Seared Pork Belly (confit style), Prosciutto, Fried dates stuffed with cheese, and frizee.  YUM
• Entree was  Venison Shish Kebob with Carrot Kibbeh, Escarole, Dates, and Haloumi
• Dessert was Muscat!

Amazing meal, and got back early, cuz it was an early dinner.  Actually, we were there 4 hours!  Came home and watched the season finale of Dr. Who, which I've been getting in to lately.

Crap, I gotta go get the BBB in a minute!

Tuesday, which was yesterday.  What did I do.  Very little!  

Drove the BBB to work, visited the xoffice friends, and came home.  Cleaned a bit.  

Watched Heroes from last night while eating Ten Tables leftovers.  Then watched the newest Incredible Hulk with Ed Norton and Tim Roth.  WAAAAY Better than I expected.  Not amazing, but way better.  Applied for a job (not telling where), cleaned a bit, and picked up the BBB.

Acupuncture.  Then home.  Cooked Trader Joes frozen Arrabiata pasta with Vegan meatballs, made salad.  Watched House, America's Midol, the Negotiator.  BeD

OOh yeah, and i got my first unemployment check (why, since i signed up for Direct deposit, i don't know!)  YEAH!!!!

today.  drove BBB to work.  We've actually been ontime this week!  visited the friends.  came home.  dishes.  met the 3 xcolleagues for lunch at Fugakyu. Sushi Lunch.  Yumm. 

 Now this.  Now off to get the BBB, then band, then Lost.  then Bed.

Tomorrow I got visit my friend Stephen in Portsmouth NH and help him work on his boat.  then dinner with friends.

busy busy busy

Readers Poll #1

So, I'm taking a vote

Should I buy this shirt?

comment yes or no!

Hunting the 3 footer Yahbut..

This winter, I began to notice strange tracks in the snow around my house.

Tracks the like of which I've never seen, and is very rare in nature.

The creature who left these tracks appears to have only 3 feet. 

2 of these feet are small round hooves.  

But the most curious attribute of this creature is its 'middle' foot, which appear to have the same structure as a human snow boot.  

At first, I feared this creature to be the dreaded Manbearpig, 

but upon further research, that theory was thankfully debunked.

Here, for your knowledge and protection, are some

 examples of the Yahbut's tracks.

Now, my search for the mythical Yahbut must continue.  Should you spot similar tracks in your yard, beware.  Keep a watchful eye outside, especially at night.  Travel in groups.  Heaven

 knows what the dreaded Yahbut may do to any lone wanderers.  

  Keep a watchful eye, children, or you could be next!!!

Week 3, Deep Blue Nothing

So, what did we do so far this week, hmmmm???

Monday was already posted.  I don't remember if we cooked that night.  Oh wait, we did try to make this tofu Fritatta, but it didn't come out so hot.  Oh well.  I also sauteed some baby bok choy, and made some farrow, just so we have it.  And then, Heroes.

Tuesday, well, dropped of the BBB, and came back home.  Actually accomplished a few things on the computer, such as figuring out how to take one of these blogs and incorporate it with an existing website, so the url isn't a blogger url.  Very Handy!

FOOD:  for all you interested cooks out there, I posted the first recipe on the Vegan Exchange blog!  Its a damn good and easy thing to cook, so give it a shot!  

I may post my soup recipe on there as well.

I also finally uploaded pictures off of my camera.  I should have some Mexico pics on my facebook soon.  I may play with the layout of this blog a bit as well.

I also ended up watching Hitman, an action movie based on a videogame, but it looked like fun.  Plus, Timothy Olyphant is the star, and I like his acting.  It was not a bad movie, for what it was.  Enjoyable, and had a really hot Russian woman!  

Tuesday night, after picking up the BBB (reminder, that means Beautiful Broken Bride), we decided we should stop at Myers & Chang, one of our favorite restaurants (Imagine amazing Asian Fusion cooking in Tapas small plate form, with really cool friendly staff in a casual fun place with excellent music, and there you go).   One of our all time favorite chefs, Alison Hearn, formerly of Ten Tables, has been the Exec. Chef at M&C since they opened, but she's going back to Ten Tables in the new Cambridge location, so, we wanted one more fun night with her at M&C (one of the best things about this place is the kitchen is behind the bar, so you can watch them cook everything.  The other nice thing is its around the corner from O2 Yoga, so after class when you're starving, you get some yummy food!  They also serve plenty of Vegan and Vegetarian food.  Hell, they even have a special where you can buy a gift certificate for 2 people to take a yoga class and then have dinner at M&C - yeah, that was an idea they had inspired by Me and the BBB).  We had a fantastic dinner, and glad we went because it was Alison's last night there!  She'll be missed, but we know where to find her!

Went home, watched some TV, including Fringe and America's Midol, then Bed.  Done.

Wednesday was interesting.  

Dropped off the BBB at work, and then went to Flour for a bottomless cup of coffee and yummy pastries.  I had some time to kill, you see, because I had lunch plans in the area.  At 1130 I met the CFO of my xEmployer for lunch at the Channel Cafe.  He's a real cool guy, and I never got to say goodbye, so it was nice.  Plus I had a great grilled dill havarti and mushroom sammich.  Quite yummy.

After that, picked up the BBB at 1230, and off to the dentist in Cohasset.  It had been over a year since my last visit, but NO Cavities!!  Yay.

Stopped at Whole Foods to pick up a few things, then back home!

THEN, Band practice, which was pretty damn awesome!

Then home, ate some M&C leftovers, and watched, oh yes, so bad its good, Deep Blue Sea.  You know the one with the smart killer sharks.  Yeah, well, it was on, and stupidly fun.

Then I watched Lost.  Love Lost, but this season, which has been good, but not mind blowing, all i can think is GET TO SOME ANSWERS!!   Its all just leading us somewhere, but I'm getting impatient!!!!!!

Wednesday, Done.

Today, dropped off BBB late, El Starbucko's, then reading to my little 3rd grade buddy for an hour.  Saw some friends at the office, then headed home.  Ate some of the ok fritatta, made some calls, and now i'm here.  

thank you

the end

Week 3, Day 1

Here we go again!!!!

and again, CRAP, now i have to remember the last 3 days.  I thought remembering would be easier when I stopped smoking the wacky stuff, but....well.......

So, Friday, Week 2.  What was to be done?  CLEANING!!!  

Yes, it was time!  The house really needed more work, and so there I went.  Vacuuming like a madman with my Dyson Pethair Vacuum, which is phenom!  Loves it.

I cleaned the living room, hall, stairs, and dining room, which is no small task, especially when you haven't vacuumed in quite a few weeks and you have 6 cats!  

I did manage to squeeze in watching Hells Kitchen from Thursday night, which was quite enjoyable.  OOh yeah, and I ended up finally watching Grindhouse: Planet Terror.  A silly little zombie movie from Robert Rodriguez, from the double feature he did with Quentin Tarantino (Death Proof, which I enjoyed!).  It was pretty good, damn funny, totally silly, but it has the guy from Six Feet Under, the assistant mortician (I think his name was Rico) as a total badass, and Rose McGowan with only one leg!  Nice.  Plus, the end scene is an arial shot of the Tulum Ruins, right down the road from where I go in Mexico, and where I was just a few weeks ago.

Anyways, so I cleaned cleaned cleaned, put this new RugStayFriggenPut tape on the bottom of one of the rugs, and just did a number on the mess.  House looks much better!

Picked up the BBB at about 630, and off to Ten Tables, as usual.  Yet another fantastic dinner!  Now, I've become about 92% vegetarian, but not on Fridays, which are Ten Tables night!  There was a new sausage on the menu I hadn't tried, so I wanted that.  I had the steak last week, so Sean recommended I go with the Pork Chop, and since that's 2 dishes of swine, he said 'Hell, lets do Porkapalooza!'  So, I had Pork Rillet for my first, the Sausage over yummy creamy mustardy lentils, and finally, the excellent Pork Chop with 2 potato gratin and spicy broccolini!  Yummers.  And some nice stinky cheese for dessert!  Another fantastic meal.

Saturday was a nice calm day, didn't have to leave the house.  Had a nice roaring fire in the fireplace all day, did some laundry, a little cleaning, made smoothies (banana, soymilk, peanut butter, ice, and protein powder), ate leftovers, didn't really watch TV, just hung out.  

Saturday night we met our friend Heather, who manages and teaches at O2 Yoga, for dinner, since we hadn't seen her in a while.  We met for a nice early dinner at Tremont 647.  They have a 5 course dinner for $45 bucks, which ain't bad.  BBB did Vegan, I did vegetarian, and Heather did a bit of fish.  A good meal.  I probably would've been still hungry, but I also order the yummy cheesy tater tots and the momo's, which do have meat, but oh well.  Very yums!

When we got home, we watched Wanted, that movie about assassins with Angelina Jolie.  I actually thought it was pretty bad ass, though it did have some dumb stuff (The Loom of Destiny?  Lame).  I need to read the Graphic Novel, because that is apparently much better.

Sunday was another quiet day.  Laundry, leftovers, and lots of television.  I did watch the movie Vantage Point, which was ok.  Fun to watch, but way too overblown, the rewind thing was too repetitive, and the ending was unlikely based on the rest of the movie (like that bad guy would swerve, after all those other people he killed?  Please.)

OOOh, yeah, the BBB made me put on the grammy's for a little while.  I HATE THE GRAMMYS!  NO RELEVANCE TO REAL MUSIC!!!  But, as I posted to my facebook status, its nice to watch that stuff every once in a while, just to BE REMINDED THAT I'M RIGHT!  So much Crap.  I am sorry I missed M.I.A.  but that was not my favorite track from her anyways.

So, today.  

dropped the BBB off, and headed to Cambridge to check out the New TEN TABLES CAMBRIDGE!  Its looking fantastic in there.  Not opening for another 2 weeks I guess, but they'll be ready.  Hung out with Mike C the Sous Chef, who gave me the tour and we just hung out and chatted.  Co-Owners Krista Kranyak and David Punch, chef extraordinaire showed up, and I hung with them for a bit.  KK headed out, and there was a million things for them to do, so I didn't want to be in the way (though I was there about 3 hours).  Dave had to pick up his broken car, and Mike was gonna drive him, but I wanted to help, so I gave him a lift to Medford.  We were both starving on the way, so we stopped at Dave's Fresh Pasta in Davis Square, which I miss terribly.  Dave's Fresh Pasta is amazing, has great sammichs, cheeze, ravioli, and lots of fancy foods, and free samples (I love the basket of hot peppers by the register - just take one and warm your belly!).  We both had Muffalata sammiches, which rocked.  Then I drove him the rest of the way and dropped him off.

Back to home, stopped at CVS to pick something up, Blanchards for beer (6pack of Blue Moon spring seasonal, which is eh, and a 6 of Harpoon Celtic, which used to be called Hibernian - i like that name better), and a losing scratch ticket.  HOME

Got some unemployment stuff in the mail, so signed up for the web stuff and direct deposit, called a potential band photographer, and here i am.  Not much accomplished, but I'm still having fun

Now, its off to pick up the BBB.  Dinner will probably be leftover soup RECIPE COMING SOON, but who knows.  And Heroes is on tonight!  YEYYYEAAAHHH!!!!

lates