Saturday Lunch Round Up

I figured I should type this up, since many people commented on my status re: Chilled Watermelon Soup on Facebook.

Continuing in Cleveland today, Eric and I went to the Tower City Center. We stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe and got t-shirts and a shot glass (yup, we're nerds like that). Then we went to the Ritz Carlton (talk about feeling slightly out of place!) to visit the restaurant, Muse.

We arrived just as lunch was beginning at 11:30am. I was excited to try this place, considering what I've read it about it was pretty good. Plus, it's not every day I get to eat at the Ritz!

I chose the Crab BLT Palette, which comes with soup, a half sandwich, a side, and a small dessert. The sandwich was on Chive Aioli Rosemary Foccacia, and in addition to crab, had applewood smoked bacon, alfalfa sprouts, avocado, and balsamic marinated tomatoes. I loved how these flavors went together, and it was a great sandwich. However, the highlight for me was the soup du jour, Chilled Watermelon.



Now, the waiter was nice enough to bring the garnish out on the side. It was a sriracha chantilly cream, which he described as a "whipped cream with chili sauce". Of course, I tried it, and it worked perfectly with the watermelon soup. There were even chunks of watermelon in the soup.

Oh yes, he even brought me a mini-bottle of ketchup for my fries - brand new! I apologize for the bluriness of the picture.

Eric tried the White Asparagus soup, and thought it was delicious. He also had the "Hot Ham and Cheese" Panini. He said it was ok. It also came with root chips, that he liked.

But dessert - ah, sweetness. A tiny cheesecake with whipped cream, fresh raspberries, and a cocoa shaving topping. Just enough to cure a sweet tooth.

Friday Night...

Coming to you live from Cleveland, OH!!!

Eric has been spending some time down here for work recently, and we decided to take a weekend trip, with the main reason being to go to the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. Our secondary goal is to eat good food. We've been quite successful so far.

Once we got here yesterday, and checked into the hotel, we decided to go to dinner at Brasa Grill. Now, I've heard about these Brazilian steakhouses, where you just get tons of meat. So, we were naturally curious, and I was really excited to eat lots of meat. Our waiter brought us some things to go with the meat, including fried bananas, french fries and polenta, white rice, and a red wine vinegarette.

When we got there, we got right in. It was about 8:30pm, and it was busy, but not super packed. We had a great waiter, who explained to us how things worked, and we drank Evian water. Going up to the salad bar, there were so many good things - green bean salad, fresh asparagus, lots of different salads, bacon wrapped cod, oysters, cocktail shrimp...it was incredible. However, I tried not to eat much of that, since I knew the meat was coming.

We started out with chicken legs and pork sausage. The chicken legs were really tasty and tender, and had a great seasoning. Eric really liked the pork sausage. We then received salmon with some type of sauce (sorry, I'm not a huge foodie, so I can't just taste these things). It was ok.

Then the meat really started coming fast and furious. We continued with BACON wrapped turkey and BACON wrapped filet mignon. I loved the bacon wrapped filet. Not so big on the turkey though. Then on to beef ribs, which were tender and good.

Then, my favorite - filet mignon with parmasean. This was to die for. Cooked so it was still red inside, but the flavor was amazing.

To continue on - flank steak, prime rib, lamb, lamb chop (which was really good), smoked ham, and top sirloin (also fantastic). To top it all off, we downed a shot of almond liquer to settle the stomach - and it worked!!! And it was very tasty.

Then we walked back to the hotel. At least I can take some solace in the fact I burned a few calories...

Yoga & Sushi

I went to yoga class for the first time in a couple weeks tonight. My instructor was out of town last week, and I missed the week before because of work.

This Thursday night class that I have started going to was a little harder than ones I've taken previously. I worked up more of a sweat, and I think I was just a little out of practice. I have to say, it was definitely something I needed to go to. I'm really beginning to like the practice, and I'm also starting to learn more about the spiritual side of it.

We did this fantastic pose tonight - Pigeon Pose. I love it. It provided such a good stretch, and I also did the laying down aspect. Ahhhh.

And what yoga class in the evening would be complete without sushi? I popped over to the sushi bar at AI Fusion. I enjoyed some edamame, spicy tuna roll and a Crazy Dragon roll. YUM!!!!

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good!

Life hiatus or I don't think one Hot Pocket is enough for dinner

While I'm digesting my Hot Pocket, I figured I'd write a blog. I'm still determining whether I should have more food for dinner.

During the last week of June, I kept telling my co-workers that my goal was to take most of July off. I think I'm doing well with that. The first week, I worked two days. This week, I worked three days. Next week, I'll be in for four days. Prior to that, it had been quite a long time since I took more than one day off.

In the meantime, I've been really lazy about doing any scrapbooking or jewelry stuff. No more! I fixed a necklace last night, and made a pair of earrings to go with it. Tonight I hope to get around to some scrapbooking. It's also been awhile since I've been to a yoga class, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow night. I attempted to do a short practice the other night, but I like class.

On the other hand, I've been doing fairly well in watching movies and reading. Which means if I've been doing well at watching movies, I've usually been riding the exercise bike (yay!).

I'm almost thinking to do everything I want to do, I might have to start scheduling myself for some things. I already schedule my yoga class, but unfortunately, life got in the way that last week of June. But I hate to be stuck to doing something...sigh, what a dilemma!

In the meantime, I'm going to have another Hot Pocket, get on the bike and watch "So You Think You Can Dance!"

Book list I stole from Sean's blog...

"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."


1) Bold: Books I have read.


2) Italics: Books I intend to read.


3) Underline: Books I love.


4) Red Text: Books I have no intention of ever reading or was forced to read at school and hated.


5) Reprint this list in your own blog.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6.The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman - I've read The Golden Compass
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12.Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare - Let me explain - I've read MacBeth, Hamlet and some others. Whether I will read the WHOLE Complete works remains to be seen.
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye -JDSalinger

19. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen

36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47. Far From The Maddening Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding

69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74. Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses - James Joyce

76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince – Antoine de St. Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Well - This list has showed me that I have read 27 out of these 100 listed. I also learned of some new books to add to my "to be read" list. Um, like I needed any more.

Playlist or Why We Clearly Don't Have the Same Taste in Music!

I've been meaning to do this for a few days, but have been sidetracked. Since I got my iPod back, I've been enjoying such songs as:

1) "Oh Sherrie" by Steve Perry
2) "Volcano Girls" by Veruca Salt
3) "Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams
4) "Say it to Me Now" by Glen Hansard
5) "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" by Cake
6) "Delilah" by The Dresden Dolls
7) "No Air" by Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown
8) "Innocent" by Our Lady Peace
9) "Rock DJ" by Robbie Williams
10) "Napoleon" by Ani DiFranco
11) "I Am...I Said" by Neil Diamond
12) "Pork & Beans" by Weezer

This is just a small sampling out of the 3396 songs on my iPod. But, I love having it back!!!!

Things that make you go "hmmm"

Normally, news doesn't really rattle me all that much. Then, this story came out today. My heart goes out to the VanderStelt family. Troy and his brother Trent went to my high school, but I didn't know them.

Later in the afternoon, I started thinking about people that act on their rage in unhealthy ways. I realized that every day, me and my co-workers deal with these types of people, and it sort of freaked me out. You never really think that anything like this would happen at work, but how in the world can you prevent it?