It's been a while...Let's get reaquainted

Hi all my three followers and stragglers who come everyone once in a while to get those oh so precious updates from me, your friendly blogger. I really have not had much happening in the last month since I ran my first half marathon. I really think it gets you in this mindset of I can do this more often, and I want to do this more often, so I am. I signed up for a 5 miler in June and another Half in August. Great an August race is JUST THE BEST DAMN THING! 13 miles is hard enough by itself, but add in the scorching August head, lots of water for me. I might also add that I have added some new restrictions to my diet. Yay.



So because of this book, and some thinking to myself, I am no longer eat diary, eggs or caffeine, (and soon no meat) but I am not one to drink tons and tons of coffee anyways, just a cup now and then, and even then it would take me a while to drink that cup. Oh well, in 30 days we shall see how this is going to go. Apparently the book states that Cheese and Milk has this enzyme in it which is like Morphine so our bodies become addicted. Well in 30 days, we shall see. Also if you cut it, you will drop weight, which I could drop a good 20 or so pounds, again, we shall see, as of Tuesday I was at 207 so hopefully by the end of the summer 185? I think that is reasonable, as long as I keep up the running and the dieting, I think 185 will work great and be achievable. The other thing is running this fangled half marathon in about 2 hours...that may be a stretch but so far my long runs have been pretty good, my last 9 mile run was something like 1:27? so that would make at Half around 2:07 which would be AWESOME! I am aiming for under 2:30, but we shall see. Hope all is well out in cyber-land. By the way I highly recommend this book if you are looking to change the diet! There is one for girls too, called Skinny Bitch (can I say that on a blog...I think I have said worse)

half marathon and bloody nipples

Hi readers,
I thought I would recount my last few months of training for this freakin Half Marathon, which yes I set my mind to and completed. I must say I surprised how nice it was to run with a group of others who are not fast runners and who are doing this for other people not just themselves. While I always run by myself and the music coming out of my headphones into my head I always think about things and wish I had something I could write on or save these great ideas while I was running. The next run I will have some names on my shirt so people know I am not just doing this for myself, but also for some people who have passed away. My new found love of running/jogging and competing against myself has made me think more about training and going to the gym instead of just running. I think I will need to drag myself to the gym and use the membership I never use. I guess I need to do some weight training help out my muscles and stuff. I also need to find a cure for blisters and chafing. I must say one of the most unpleasant things in the world is chafing, bleeding nipples...OUCH! I mean yes I have had my nipples pierced a few times but this is a WHOLE NEW type of pain. I mean I didn't realize my nipples (only one actually) was bleeding when Jeremy said he saw one guy with blood streaming down the front of his shirt, so I looked and said "eeee, so THAT is what that pain was!" (seriously I say eeee, instead of EEEK) Now I need to wash that shirt. Also I signed up for the NYC half Marathon, may not be ready for a full marathon, but you never know, I could be next year, so my goal of running a marathon before I turn 30 is still on the back burner but there are still some marathons in Jan and Feb that I could run! We shall see!

running...over coming fears

I just want to start by saying since I started running again, and according to the NikePlus site (which records all my running activities,) I have run 105.52 miles, now for someone who is 200lbs, that I mean is a lot, maybe not some small skinny little thing, but i admit my frame is neither small nor thin. I would qualify in most long races as a "Clydesdale," seriously...that makes me feel great about my weight, you are equated to a giant horse that pulls beer trucks around, whatever. So my upcoming race is looming in my mind and I hate, hate, HATE treadmills, so I refuse to run on one...period, end of story! It has been raining weather crappy, and me in a foul mood, I don't want to run either, but I will finish, oh yes, I will finish. Here is today's time for my run...it is always in mile 7, 8 and beyond I slow down, I know there are services during those miles, so hopefully that will help.




So my second reason for posting is because well, I am admittedly not fond of heights. So when the opportunity to walk the Brooklyn Bridge rears its ugly head at me, I refuse. I did it once and was on the verge of panic needing an Adivan after. I'm telling you, wooden walk way, bikes, tourists, cars zooming under you...not fun at all! So today I did an appointment on the Brooklyn side of the bridge and said myself...SELF! do it...walk the bridge...and I did it gritting my teeth the whole way, trying not to look down, of course I did, and survived. That's all, my story, all written down so you don't have to write it!

HACKED!!!

So for all the readers out there, if you happen to know me and my bad grammar you know it is some what bad, BUT if I were to send out kind of an S.O.S. message from a old email address I would probably a) let people know I was going on some kind of trip (such as Africa, news like that travels fast) b) post something of the sort with updates on facebook c) I would capitalize my freakin I's. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE! I have never work on AIDS/Malaria research of any sort...and probably never will...well I won't say never. I would also put the name of the hotel in the email. Because if I was at the "city library" I doubt I would have all day to wait for emails and then return emails. So far the culprit has not emailed me back, my email went something like, "You don't know ho you are messing with jackass, none of my friends and family are dumb enough to send you money, the police have been notified..." really the police will do nothing...but oh well empty threats but my friends and family have been notified. Here is the letter...jackass.

Hello Dear,
I know this message will come to you as a surprise since i did not inform you of my trip to Africa for an International Seminar on "The devastating effect of poverty,H.I.V/Aids,Malaria on sub-saharan Africa" This is an extended programme taking palce in three major English Speaking west African countries of Ghana,nigeria,and The Gambia.I thought i could use this time out to see what Africa looks like.Hey its been a horrible experience.
It's been a very sad and difficult moment for me out here as iam stranded as a result of the loss
my little bag containing my money and some important travelling documents. I actually forgot it in a taxi i boarded from the airport in Lagos back to my hotel.Efforts to retrieve the bag has been unsuccessful.The problem now is that iam so distressed iam unable to pay up my hotel bills.This has been so embarrassing as the hotel staff threaten to seize my luggage and handing me over to the Hotel management.
I have never been this embarrassed in my whole life as iam so stranded that i find it difficult to feed since i do not know where to go for help.
This place is kinda hell!!.Please help me with some money ,i will pay back to you as soon as iam back.I need $800 to pay up the hotel bills and at least $500 to sort out other minor problems.I will want you to send me a total of $1,300 which i shall pay back to you immediately i arrive home safely.
Please try and understand how urgent i need your help.I am sending you this e-mail from the city Library because i do not have access to a telephone here. I will appreciate what so ever you can afford to send me for now and I promise to pay back your money as soon as am back home.
You can send the money through Western union money transfer or MoneyGram to the Hotel manager whose details i shall send to you as soon as i hear from you.
Iam counting on your urgent assistance.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks,
andy



Every I write better then this, and those of you who have corrected any of my writing know that. Also I capitalize I's and correctly space between sentences. Also all the spelling mistakes I would pick up on spell check...jackass.

when I grow up?

Today folks I thought I would take a trip down memory lane, mostly because the books I have been reading of late have been "easy" reads for me and well I finished them in a day or so. The other thing is I have been thinking about how I am almost completely different then I was when I was a weird-o pre-teen/teenager and how the education that kids get now is almost different then when I was a kid...kind of academic sounding huh?

I started to write this big rant about how I hated school mostly English, writing, Science and Math, which leaves me with Social Studies, Music, Gym, and those electives we had to take, but then I erased it all. I just was thinking how when I am FORCED to read something, I don't want to, and it is uninteresting and blah blah blah, but when I am generally interested in something and it flows and kind of follows my thinking pattern. I like it. Just as an example in the last few months these are the books I have read:

Salt
Cod
Schyuler's Monster
Various Issues of National Geographic
The New Yorker

On the outside people would say huh pretty non-fictionish selection of reading material and I would say yes, it is. I would also say that they are interesting reads. I picked up Salt on a recommendation from my newest Brother-in-Law Ansgar, he is intellectual and well read, MBA from MIT, sailor, cool, and German. Plus I hadn't read anything in awhile, I picked it up and read maybe 100 pages the first day and after that I almost missed stops on the subway because I was so into it. I mean yes, honestly it is about what the title is: Salt...but come on do you know all about salt??? Well Cod is written by the same author, so I thought I would give it a go...finished it in 2 days, and again, it is about just what you think...the fish. So the third on the list is about a father and his quest to be a good father and his daughter who he is discovering can not talk. His struggle with becoming a father of a "word-less" child and so on. I finished it in one day albiet I did have two flights today and I just stayed up for 3 hours finishing it and I have been following his blog, but it was a good read. When I read with fervor I just feel like I am my father's son. I remember growing up and he would spend hours upon houses devouring the latest John Grisham novel or Stephan King book. He would also read them in like a day. I enjoy read when I am interested, when it's forced, it sucks...nuff said, but just to beat a dead horse here is my list of the novels I can remember being forced to read...and hating every word I did or didn't finish:

Moby Dick
William Shakespeare...honestly nothing stuck out to me
Chaucer...hearing my 12th grade english teacher recite them in Old English...
Frankenstein...apparently I didn't "get it"
I am the cheese
Clan Of the Cave Bear
really anything I had to read in High School...sorry I didn't enjoy reading them, I have tried again and again, but to just sit down and read one of those books...makes me want to sleep...

Although the ones I did enjoy:

1984
Animal Farm
The Time Machine
Walden
The Client
Jurassic Park
The Sphere
Andromeda Strain
lots of historical books I found for 5 dollars or less
and others.

Point being... don't like to be forced to read books...but I still like to read, so why force kids to read certain books? Go ahead cut me down...but do you find relevance in Moby Dick in your life or was it time you could have spent reading a different book you were more into?

Bunchgasm...Bloodymarys and Meat-Cupcakes

So a while ago Orion and I had this idea to one day make a Meatcake. The only draw back of said meatcake was that it was A LOT of meat and didn't make some economic sense and blah blah blah. I mean the idea had been brewing for a few years now. So finally Orion's birthday comes, I call him up and say, okay what are you going to make or get for your birthday brunch? He rambled off a bunch of ideas and Meatcake was one. After the call I called him back and said...NO Meatcake...MEAT CUPCAKES!!! I have a cake decorating set, then everyone can have one or so, less waste...etc. So Orion came over and we did preparations for the Meatcakes, they also included making bloodymarys, since I have been craving one and haven't had a good one in a while. So what you will get next is the steps of the "Day Before" brunch preparations...ending in a Brunchgasm!

BLOODYMARY

1. First off I gathered all the ingredients, you can see the picture as to the ingredients I use, but I must say Absolut Peppar delicious, some say Absolut Citron, but no...Peppar...delish!


2.Alright you all know, ice goes into the pitcher first...keep it cold people!


3. I use V8, and this time I happen to buy Low Sodium, gotta watch that sodium intake right? I also like using Spicy V8, it gives it something different and some more veggies!


4.Horseradish, key ingredient, I just eye ball it, but seriously, I think I have used to many commas here, yah think?


5. Frank's Hot sauce, just a little, but I like mine a little on the spicy side, I didn't add a lot, eye ball it!


6. The worcestershire sauce, adds that something special, yum!


5. *no picture* add Vodka Absolut Peppar, delicious, gives the little kick of spicy and you know, you need vodka for these. I think between two pitchers I used 3/4 of a bottle of vodka. they were good!

6. Add a celery stalk and enjoy!



Alrighty, so we were enjoying the Bloodymarys when we made these Meat cupcakes, BUT we did buy all the ingredients FIRST, and then we enjoyed the drinks. I had also made a list so we didn't go off and just start adding ingredients into the shopping cart, I suggest that because if I didn't have the list I am sure Orion's pressure of adding ridiculous ingredients.

So here is the recipe for a Brunchgasm...Meat Cupcakes!

Meat Cup Cakes:
3lbs Turkey
2 eggs
Bacon
Onion Soup mix
chopped celery
Dash of Worcershire Sauce
Gorganzola Cheese
Bread crumbs (I used GF ones)

"Frosting"
Instant Mashed Potatoes (we used garlic and butter flavored)
Butter
Milk
Water
(optional) Food Coloring...come on you need to decorate

Other kitchen tools I used:
frosting bag and tip
cupcake paper
cupcake tins
cookie sheet

Other prep notes:
Preheat the oven for 425
put the cupcake pans on the cookie sheet...the grease will get all over the place.
Cool the potatoes and cake before frosting, just like a cake. Alright here are the instructions.
MEAT CUPCAKES:

1. Again, gather the ingredients first, there is tomato sauce, but my meatloaf was to wet, so I chopped up some Gluten-Free Bread and made breadcrumbs...









2. Chop the celery, you need your veggies don't you? of course you get some vitamins here.











3. Next add the meat, just put it in there, use your hands, go ahead get in there...hmm meat.











4. Add the eggs, I used the 2, probably could have used one, but whatever, helps keep things together!






5. Here is a trick my mommy always did, I am sure it's nothing special and I am sure it's one of those "everyone knows about" things, but I loved my mommy's meatloaf as a kid, so I use her ingredients...Onion Soup Mix...there is spices, and dried onions, and MSG...I know...horrible.










6. Worcestershire Sauce, it adds that special something no?









7. MIX IT UP, with clean hands (of course) mix up the meat and get everything all together, its a party in the bowl and everyone is invited.











8. Twas a little wet, so I added the breadcrumbs, it was like 3 slices of GF bread which makes great bread crumbs since its crumbly to start with. I think it was like 1/2 cup or so...eye ball it until the mixture is a little more dry.











9. The meat mixture...delish!











10. Line those cupcake tins with the bacon, sounds gross, but trust me in the end you WILL be happy...it's drool worthly!











11. Spoon the mixture into the bacon cups, you know they look a little like big meatballs wrapped in bacon, add as much or as little as you want, I make mine like cupcakes, duh.











12. IMPORTANT STEP!!! Make a little hole in each meat cake...and add the key ingredient here (this is a-la Rachel Ray) a little (or big) piece of Gorgonzola Cheese, it adds something YUM!











13. Put em in the oven, remember we preheated the oven for about 425, you gotta put them on a baking sheet, less mess, trust me. Bake them for about 20-25 min, check the internal temp with a meat thermometer (or you can just tell)











14. Transfer to a plate to let them cool, put them in the little cupcake papers, refrigerate to cool.










15. While the meat is cooking, make the mashed potatoes...the directions are on the box. You do need it a little more "frosting" texture, that's why I used the instant mashers.








16. You need to now put all the mashers into the pastry bags. Here I painted some of the potatoes different colors. Orion wanted Green, Blue and Pink.









17. This is the colors we chose...really pink is hard to make...and ours came out this gross color.









18. I put green down on the meat first, then we decorated with the other colors.









19. I started with that fabulous pink I made...it was horrible. I put blue on top of this...








20. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ENJOY!!!!












So this was a great day, I mean fantastic meat, great bloodymarys, good company. Over all it was a great day. Today we ate the meat cupcakes, cheetos, various flavors of pringles and nuts. I must say, delicious day overall, good thing Orion had a birthday!

living tourists hosting tourists, the best

So to explain the title, I sometimes still feel like a tourist in NYC, even though I pay the stupid taxes to the state and city, and stimulate the NYC economy and have for the past two years (yah that worked out great for me at Tax time 2007...3 months and I was paying income tax.) I really have only lived here what live 18 months or so? Anyway we live in the Bronx which unto itself is a whole different world the Manhattan. Each borough is its own world though. This could be a little retrospective of my last 18 months, maybe not, but sort of. I love the way I write but it's not as appreciated as I would like it to be but whatever. So here we go. I have lived here for the last 18 months and am in my second job in the city. The first one was good, and I met a lot of really interesting people, and learned a lot new things. I also got to explore parts of Brooklyn even my cousin who has lived in the city for a while hasn't even explored. So I got to work in Midwood? East Flatbush? Who knows, no one I even worked with really knew. It was even in a part of Brooklyn that had some lettered streets (but no Ave Q...honestly, O, P, R, S...etc...no Q) I guess Ave Q belongs on Broadway...Har Har Har. Alrighty so I goto go explore those parts of Brooklyn, but now with my new job I get to explore even more...most Jersey, but still I get to see lots of area I probably wouldn't normally want to see, and meet people I would not have met before.
Alright so I like the area, its great and as you may have noticed in the past posts I have stated my feelings about NYC and living here. I like the area, I like the fact that I have almost everything at my fingertips, but you know, even though I have some of my favorite people I see on a weekly basis, it is still a very lonely city. I know people will disagree with that statement and I suppose some will say I haven't lived here long enough to judge it, but oh well. I think a big part of it is that I am from such a close knit community and coming into a city that is established with established close knits groups, it's hard...this is how the immigrants feel huh? Except they have each other and find each other and make groups, enough of that...that is a whole other post. So I guess I should get to the point of the blog. The point I am making was the fact you live in the city and I have friends who don't and want to come visit (I now know how my friends felt when I visited,) but you know I like entertaining and I like seeing people I haven't seen in a while. It's nice to play tour guide. In fact when I play tour guide I get to see sites I haven't yet seen. For example, Beth and Crazy Susan (lovingly called of course) came down for a few days to the big ole apple and we explored the Finacial District, Greenwich Village, and the UWS. These are neighboorhood...I honestly probably wouldn't really go to, but I did and they were cool. I mean we had drink in the financial district, brunch in Greenwich Village, got Tattooed, went to an outdoor market, had breakfast in the UWS. It was a VERY fun weekend. I am glad I get to play tour guide for my friends. I am also glad I get a break from playing tour guide this weekend. A well deserved weekend of no plans before traveling for work, stayed tuned a blog about Minneapolis, my first attempt at a half marathon, and the joys of house hunting are in the works.