Tim’s Ramblings

K sent me an interesting article today after we were talking about how we like to travel but it’s hard to find 100% compatible travel mates.

http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/detail?articleId=10520

It’s interesting. It’s about traveler profile (no…not profiling like at the airport…) and it goes through different types of travelers. Like the ones that like to have everything totally planned out versus ones that just like to wing it. I’ve known both extremes and it was an interesting read to see how we are grouped :)

On the first page, there is also a link to a quiz called “Plog Travel Personality Quiz”. 15 questions and it tries to rank you into different traveler profiles.

I took it and it ended up as a “Venturer”. The total extreme traveler. Which is interesting since you will never hear me go “I wanna canoe down the Amazon by myself!” anytime soon. But it got close to what I THINK I am, a “Mid Venturer”. Someone that’s willing to go off the beaten path a bit and go see and experience stuff that’s unique or not covered much in guide books.

Though I will admit…every once in a while, I like to get the tourist experience spoon fed to me. Like what F and I did when we went to San Francisco and just hopped on 2 bus tours. They were great (^_^)

Anyway, it’s an interesting read and even if you don’t read the article, you should take the test. It’s interesting (oh….and Plog is an actual sociologist) and might give you a good insight into your travel preferences :)

I just saw on VH1 a commercial for Soy Joy!!

Cool!

It’s this energy bar made out of soy flour and fruit. It’s really really good and tasty. I get it all the time in Japan since it’s a pretty tasty and quick snack. It came out around the beginning of last year.

I don’t know why I’m excited about this. But it’s exciting. It means I can get something that I only thought was available in Japan here now!

Now…if only I can get those cold green tea in a bottle here in the US more easily…. (^_^)

http://www.soyjoy.com/

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Midland. The Midland (please don’t confuse with "Midwest") itself is the neutral zone between the North and South. But just because you have a Midland accent doesn’t mean you’re from there. Since it is considered a neutral, default, "non-regional" accent you could easily be from someplace without its own accent, like Florida, or a big city in the South like Dallas, Houston, or Atlanta.

Take this quiz now – it’s easy!

We’re going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Same Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different… Different

Yay for neutral! (^_^)

So this past Friday, I went over to the East Side to see my coworker’s new puppy. His wife competes in agility competitions with their Aussies and she just got a new one that was only 11 weeks old. Soooooooooooo cute.

She’s pretty much admitted that she’s reached crazy dog lady status as she now has 4 dogs. Granted, one of them, a boxer hybrid, is his. But still…4 dogs… And they’re building a 6000 sq. ft. training facility on their property too…sooooo yeah. Crazy dog lady.

But anyway, after playing with the puppy and their other dogs, 10 of us went to their favorite hole in the wall restaurant, Grovewood Tavern & Wine Bar. (http://www.grovewoodtavern.com/)

From the outside, it doesn’t look like much. Actually looks like any other dingy bar. And it’s not in the greatest part of town either. It’s not the hood by any means but, it’s also not where anyone other than locals would probably go to. But that’s the key… This is one of those well kept secrets that gets told to others by word of mouth.

We managed to get reservations for 10 at 7:30pm because she made the reservation on Tuesday. Any later and it probably wouldn’t have happened. The place was PACKED. And the kitchen was literally right at the enterance and it was the size of a typical small…really small…apartment kitchen. But the food coming out of it was amazing to see.

Once we got seated, we ordered wine and drinks and such and then the dinner started.

I have to tell you….you would NOT believe the food that was coming out of a place that gives you silverwear wrapped in a napkin and uses paper table cloths. This is truly a place that puts food above all else. It was worth the late dinner and the wait (service isn’t fast since…well…there’s only 2 people). Totally worth it.

I first got an appetize of pot stickers with portabello.

“With caramelized onions, sour cream and lardons (bacon crumbles), drizzled with a balsamic vinegar reduction. Portabello or Savory Beef.”

Oh man…it was so good….

Then my half order ceasar salad came. And it was…well…again, awesome.

” An entire heart of romaine, grill-kissed, then dressed with an aromatic Caesar dressing, fresh croutons, garlic chips, and parmesan to finish.”

The garlic chips? I swear it was the best part.

And then the main dish. I got the Red Curry-Crusted Salmon.

” 8 oz. salmon filet, seared, with herbed risotto and sautéed fresh vegetables, in a pool of lemongrass and ginger-scented yogurt.”

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Nice, tender, flaky, and cooked juuuuust right. The risotto was creamy and the vegetables went really well with the fish. And the portions were pretty big too and the presentation was awesome. I think every single person was satisifed with the meal.

This combined with 2 bottles of pinot grigio (shared with 3 people including myself) made it just an awesome dinner. I don’t get to go out much like this anymore because of my traveling so it was really nice to have this dinner with 9 other good friends.

So, after dinner…well…you just HAVE to get dessert :)

The popular dish there is the pistachio crème brûlée. It actually comes out totally green. The couple warned us that the color is weird. But when I saw it it reminded me of a lot of the maccha (green tea) desserts that are popular in Japan. I had a bite and it was amazing. Creamy with a hint of the nuts and not too sweet.

I, on the otherhand, have a weak spot for tiramisu. But most of the time when I get it, you can’t taste the liqueur and the coffee tastes like…well…Sanka or something. But Grovewood managed to finish off strong. The tiramisu was light, fluffy, and amazing. The coffee was real! And the bitterness of the coffee and the liqueur really helped offset the sweetness. If I was on Iron Chef (the Japanese version) I may have described it as “the light fluffyness truly reminds me of the soft snow capped Mt. Fuji! ” (…the giggles are added in case I was a female judge…) (^_^)

All in all it was really really good. The whole dinner took 2.5 hours and it was worth it. Man. Goes to show that you can’t judge a restaurant by location or even the way the place looks from the outside. Don’s Lighthouse can learn a thing or two from this place on how to do things RIGHT.

I would LOOOOVE to go back. It’s a bit of a drive for me but it’s worth it. For anyone of you living in Cleveland, I highly recommend it. It was awesome :)

Yes…there were people wearing self made T-shirts today to celebrate National High Five Day (NH5D for short).

They were making it days in advance.

Most just had “I (hand print) NH5D” on the chest. But one person went the extra mile…

Behold, the NH5D t-shirt.

Too bad she can really only wear it once a year (^_^)

(oh..and yes…that is a Lush catalogue you see in the back…I just ordered another 2 bars of Sea Vegetable Soap since the first one is gone and I just opened up my second from the previous order….it’s addicting I tell you…addicting)

…yes…apparently today is National High 5 Day. Tell your friends. Give them a high five!!

I have no idea if this is nationally recognized or not (though it won’t surprise me)…but we have people at work wearing NH5D t-shirts and high fiving each other…

Save me…

*ahem*

Anyway, enjoy the day! And high five a friend!

(^_^)

To commemorate the event, here is an e-mail I got from one of the crazy people at work…

–

the following was taken from http://www.sendahighfive.com/different-high-five-styles.php
I can’t stand the excitement. I especially love the Dap which I knew that was the name for it cuz Q always used to say give me some Dap. Love it. And even more I Got Guns! For real, that is awesome!

The Standard five – A high five that has a straightforward motion with your hand raised just above your shoulder.

Up-top – A high five taking place above the head.

Down-low – This five takes place below the waist.

Gotcha – You initiate a high five and right before contact, take it back and smooth your hair back as to say, “Gotcha, no five this ime”.

Side five – Standard high five that takes place off your side or has a side motion.

The Snap – Side five followed by a snap of the fingers and sometimes a head tilt.

Too Cool – High five combination Where you purposely miss up-top but hit down-low.

The Skin – This five does not involve a slap but a slide.

The Miss – A high five that has every intention of being one of the above styles but ends in a total miss, and you leave the exchange feeling awkward & uncool.

Hey Slick – Any five followed by a point.

I Got Guns – Any five followed by one-handed or two-handed gun, sometimes a sound effect accompanies this move.

Hey Bro – Typically a side-five where there is a wiggling of the fingers in place of the slap.

Behind the back – Taking any style and getting it done behind the back

Give me Ten – A high five done with 2 hands.

Sucka – You put your hand out to signal a five and once the move is complete you quickly remove your hand and leave the other person to five the air.

The hang – This happens when you intiate a high five and the other person either ignores you or doesn’t notice you with your hand in that air ultimately leaving you hanging.

Frat Five – Any high five style followed by a chest bump.

Slap & Back – A side five where you hit the palm of your hand then the back of your hand.

The Dap – An evolution of the high five that involves the initial contact and the mutates into a half shake with two closed fists.

The Quiet High Five – This High Five occurs when both parties are very excited, yet need to be quiet.

The Pound – Mid-height high five followed by a rapping together of the fists.

The Long-Range – When you’re too far from high-fiving, nod head knowingly or point (in ‘I Got Guns’ style).

These are the final set of the whole “courtesy to non-smokers” signs from this particular trip. Some pretty funny ones after the cut!

Continue Reading »

First weekend back in the US in a while. It was nice.

Friday night was a wedding reception. Went really well and I had a good time. Got to see friends I don’t get to see often and ended up leaving a bit past 12. There was ONE incident where a completely drunk jackass decided to make racial jokes by doing the stereotypical “ching chong chow” crap. But…eh…whatever. He wasn’t really helping his cause any when he started to hit on the groom’s brother’s wife too…. Nice… Classy even…

Yesterday I hit up the West Side Market and got food and said hi to everyone :) Don’t really know the names of any of the vendors but I see them every weekend when I’m in town and it’s been a few years now so I FEEL like I know them. At least in a more familiar level than just another face in the crowd. It’s nice. And the food is always great.

Later that night it was my sister’s birthday so we went to Don’s Lighthouse with her BF and another couple from work. The dinner itself was nice and we ended up staying until past 10. The restaurant is nice actually and the food was good. But it just seemed…half baked. Let me explain…

The dishes are nice and the atmosphere is nice. It’s pretty pricey with some dishes coming up to the $50 mark. My Alaskan king crab was, I think, close to $40. So when it gets to that point, I expect certain things. For example, I ordered wine. White wine actually. So it came nice and chilled. But they didn’t bring either one of those insulating chillled bottle holders OR a container of ice. Nothing. Instead it just sat at the table slooowing coming up to room temperature. I mean…come on. I’ve been to cheaper more casual places that did it right…

Then I got the crab legs so they gave me the nice butter over the candle and the plate for the shells but I realized they never gave me a finger bowl or lemon or anything to help get the smell off my fingers… Again…if I was at Joe’s Crab Shack…ok…fine. But come on…this isn’t too much to ask for at an “over $50/person” place is it?

Ah well. Ultimately it didn’t really ruin anything. I had a good time. The food was good. As was the dessert (orange strawberry cheese cake!) and she liked the digital camera she got for her present so all was well.

Today was my typical “do nothing” day. Actually I DID do something (and am continuing to do so). I am watching as many of the shows I’ve recorded on my DVR over the 3 weeks I was gone so I can free up some space. Plane Earth is awesome (now if that’s not HD porn I don’t know what is), and I don’t even know how many episodes of CSI, CSI:NY, and Without a Trace along with Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters (some were reruns so those got skipped) I’ve watched so far. Still have House to go through and a few others from the Travel Channel :)

I needed this. This entire past week was a battle with jet lag every day. I’m hoping next week will be better. Tonight I’m going to have some of the food I got from the West Side Market and veg out even more. Should do laundry actually but…yeah…I’ll do it tomorrow or Tuesday. That sounds good.

(^_^)

It’s April 14th (sister’s birthday and ‘s too!) and it’s snowing.

Not just snowing. Snowing hard enough to make me think about brushing off my car. Oh, and it’s windy too so it’s blowing as well.

I mean…come on. Living in Buffalo this wasn’t this rare really but still….

Bah…

(-_-)

So I get home from a nice wedding reception, check some e-mail, write some responses, and then decide that, even though it’s about 12:55am, maybe watch a bit-o-TV before going to bed.

I walk over to the couch, pick up the remote, and turn on my TV and all of a sudden I get full wide screen high definition 42″ naked heaving breasts.

Thank you Cinemax….

I must have turned the TV off sometime last night when it was on Cinemax HD.

I have to say, most of you might be thinking I’d go “ooooh yeah” (or if I were Quagmire – “Giggidy giggidy”…sorry..had to toss that in there) but in actuality I kinda panicked a bit. I mean, I live alone. I was the only person in the apartment. No one can look in. And the volume wasn’t all that loud. But being suddenly greeted by moaning and breasts on a big screen TV? There was a moment of “woah crap!”.

No point to this. I just thought it was kinda funny.