Saturday, April 30th, 2011

It's the last day of April, and it's only 10 weeks until our wedding!

Today was the first relaxing Saturday that I've had in about 5 weeks... so nice!!  Last weekend we were running all over Iowa for our wedding shower, getting our marriage license in Mason City, meeting with our pastor from the Methodist church in Ames, and driving back to Palatine.  In all it was about 1,000 miles for the car.  So that was a fun & productive weekend, but not so relaxing.  Then I had to work the previous 3 Saturdays before that when my boss was on vacation.  It's so nice to have a little time!

To make it better, we've had some good weather... mid 70's, sunny in the AM and overcast this afternoon.  I decided to grill some pork chops and enjoy a cold one, which in my mind makes it officially summer :)

Wearing my new shirt that I bought in Ames last weekend.

Beer, meat, and fire.  AHHHH.

 

Just a sprinkle of basil...

Monday, April 18th, 2011

So this was the surprising view from our balcony this morning... SNOW???  Last Sunday, the 10th, the weather here was 85 degrees!  It was almost too hot, and our local Ben & Jerry's ice cream was packed with people. 

I blame a little of this on my boss... the last time he returned from vacation (he spent a week in Cancun), we had 22 inches of snow which turned out to be one of the biggest snowfalls in Chicago history.  Then just yesterday he returned from 2 weeks in India... and we have snow again!!

Monday, April 11th, 2011

I had a busy day at work today... nonstop from 9 until 8 tonight.  The last week has been longer days than usual now that my boss is on vacation to India for 2 weeks.  I'm starting at 8 tomorrow just to try and accommodate people.  That's all I will say about that.

This past weekend was a good one at least.  The weather here in Palatine was a balmy 85, and we were able to enjoy the outdoors for a while.  We had a nice walk, and got to enjoy some Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  It really hit the spot on a hot day.  It makes me glad that we're having ice cream instead of cake at the wedding. 

Saturday night we went out for a nice meal at Tuscany, a somewhat fancy Italian restaurant in Wheeling.  It was fun to get dressed up and go out on a nice date.  I ordered some pasta with sea scallops (they were the biggest scallops I'd ever seen), and Elizabeth had some kind of fancy ravioli with sauteed pears and sun dried tomatoes... I'm not sure how to describe it, but she says that it tasted like Christmas. 

I'm looking forward to see how the Bulls do in the playoffs.  It's fun now that they are finally considered a contender again for the first time since Jordan & company.  The radio stations around here are really eating it up anyways.  It's a little hard to tell if they will actually be the favorites to win it all, or if that's just the spin that the local media puts on the team.  Too bad that we never made it to a game this year, but at least I've seen Rose play a couple of games.  Let's go Bulls!!

Sunday, April 3rd, 2011

Here are some pics from my Man vs. Food challenge at Lucky's Sandwich Shop:

We met up with Timmy & Alana around 1:00 at Lucky's.

I tried to talk Timmy into joining me for the challenge, to which I received a quick "Are you crazy?"  response. 

Menu at Lucky's... for my challenge today I selected a Capicola, a Pastrami, and a Cajun Chicken sandwich.

Timmy & Alana enjoying their normal, human-sized order of 1 sandwich each.  I believe Timmy has a Pastrami with Corned Beef and Alana has a bacon & cheese.

My order!!

They have SO MANY FRIES!

Here is Elizabeth's order... Turkey without the slaw.

Diving into sandwich #1, the Capicola & Cheese.

Here I am working on the final sandwich... the Pastrami.

This was the last half of the Pastrami which proved to be too much for my appetite. 

This challenge was much harder than I thought it would have been, but in the end I feel that I gave it my best try... today food won, and rightly so.  I dove into my first sandwich and had it finished within 10 minutes.  I started with the Capicola, and in my mind it was by far the most delicious and enjoyable of the 3 sandwiches. I would say that the Capicola was the best sandwich that I've had here including previous times when I've enjoyed the Pastrami, the Corned Beef, and the Two Bagger (all on separate occasions of course).  However I may have been bias against the next 2 because of the monotonous flavor from POUNDS of french fries and thick bread.  

The Cajun Chicken sandwich consisted of a thinly pounded chicken breast which was flavored with a moderately spicy cajun rub... however the consistency of the chicken I found too chewey which did not help me at all.  Around the halfway point of this second sandwich, all I could taste for the rest of the challenge was french fries.  SO MANY FRENCH FRIES!  I finish the second sandwich with around 30 minutes to go...

By now my Pastrami has been sitting for a half-hour, and is now completely cold.  The meat itself is tasty, but I am still overwhelmed with bread and fries.  I start to hit the dreaded "wall" around the time I start in on the 3rd sandwich.  Basically now I am facing two challenges, one because my stomach is saying "enough already!" and because of the bland and non-stop flavor of french fries.  I swear the french fries were multiplying in my basket.  I manage to keep picking at the Pastrami, and I finish half of it before time expires. 

Defeated, I reluctantly stab a plastic fork in the remaining half of a monster stuffed sandwich.  You will not see me winning any competitive eating challenges any time soon, and I may abstain from french fries for the foreseeable future.  Food 1, Salton 0.

Friday, April 1st, 2011

So I had a REALLY long "half day" at work which really was a drain.  Luckily I was able to have a delicious sushi lunch that got my spirits back up!  Well, it wasn't technically lunch since it was so late when I got there that they were serving dinner.  That made it a little more expensive, but more rolls were available.  So YUMMY!

A sample of the Sushi Para all-you-can-eat dinner menu.

Round #1: Volcano roll (bottom right), crunch roll (top right), 2 crab, 2 salmon, 2 tuna.

Round #2: Rainbow roll, Christmas roll, 4 salmon, 2 eel.

 

Another view of round #2...

That was the biggest sushi lunch I've had yet!  So to summarize:

Round #1:

• Volcano Roll: (spicy yellowtail, spicy tuna & spicy salmon inside, tobiko & chili sauce on top)  8 pieces
• Crunch Roll:  (crabmeat, cucumber, tempura chips inside, massago & spicy mayo on top)  6 pieces
• 2 crab sushi
• 2 salmon sushi
• 2 tuna sushi

Round #2:

• Rainbow Roll: (crab, cucumber, avacado inside with assorted fish on top... i believe white fish, yellowtail, tuna, and salmon) 8 pieces
• Christmas Roll: (Tuna, avacado, tobiko) 6 pieces
• 4 salmon sushi
• 2 eel sushi

Why is it so fun to post pictures of sushi just to drool over them later?  LOL.  I had 40 pieces total!  I just think of it as good practice for Sunday's challenge :)