And another book challenge...

Hm. Hurrah for Entertainment Weekly and their new classics book list!

Joanna at Lost in a Good Story has posted a challenge regarding the 100 new classics list. Bolded titles, I have already read. Italicized titles are ones I will plan to read during the challenge.

Look for reviews, coming soon!

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

The week so far...

This week has been going pretty well, but it's been hard to get back in the swing of things. Especially when I've been trying to develop some new habits.

1) Bring lunch to work - This has been quite easy, since I stocked up on Chef Boyardee, and I'm bringing it to work. Tomorrow will be the day I can go out, only because Jimmy John's is having $1 sandwiches to celebrate their grand opening!

2) Making dinner at home - Ok, so Monday doesn't count in all of these. However, I made french toast and ham for dinner on Tuesday night, and last night was fishsticks and fries. Yum! Tonight is going to be chicken and vegetables. I'm not a big fan of cooking, so this is going to be hard to stick to, but I think I'm doing pretty well.

3) Exercising in some way, shape, or form - Monday was the exercise bike. Tuesday, same thing. Wednesday, exercise bike. Today will be yoga. Tomorrow will be yoga and possibly strength workout. Saturday and Sunday will be strength workout. Woo hoo!!!!

4) Movie watching and library using - definitely doing well on these. I've been reading or watching a movie when on the exercise bike. I love multi-tasking!

This weekend I'm heading to Muskegon. I'm excited to see the dog, since it's been awhile. I miss her. Hopefully, I will also have a post about a new restaurant, Mia & Grace that just opened in Muskegon.

This should be easy enough...

Oh boy - a July Book Challenge!!!

The July Book Blowout!

So far, I have read...

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie - 1
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein -1
Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk -1

For a total of 3.

Back in Michigan!

We got back into Michigan on Sunday, stopped at Cabela's, because we're hardly ever down that way, got some stuff for other people, and then got back on the road. We started getting hungry, and we were near Ann Arbor, so of course I want to stop!

We went on campus to Mr. Spots. Of course, I got the cheeseburger with everything and an order of cheese fries!

Eric got the Philly Cheese Steak.

It's been so long since I have enjoyed Mr. Spots, but it was sooo good.

Sunday, the last day

I was planning on posting this yesterday, but I just got sidetracked with things I had to do. So, here we go.

On Sunday, we got up around 10:30am, check out at the hotel wasn't until noon - awesome! We ended up deciding to go to Westlake, OH, which is a suburb of Cleveland. Eric has spent a lot of time in that area for work, as there is a plant in Avon, right near there. We went to Crocker Park, which was pretty cool. We went to the Borders (of course!), walked around, and ate at Agave Tequileria. We both had the same thing - a beef taco, enchilada with red sauce, and beans and rice. It was alright for me - their salsa was very good though.

We walked around in the Crocker Park area for a bit. They had a cool chess area, and also a lifesize chess game. There were also these cute turtle statues.

Back up plan...

So, we goofed. We wanted to go to Michael Symon's restaurant, Lola Bistro, on Saturday night, and Eric even called there Friday night to get times, but we didn't make a reservation. So, by the time we tried early Saturday afternoon, it just didn't happen.

So, we had to settle for the Sunset Lounge. Yay for sushi!!!! After the large meat eating on Friday night, and standing/walking all day Saturday, it sounded pretty good. Plus, this place looked pretty cool.

Mind you, we went around 6:30pm, and there were THREE other people in the place. After a little digging, it seems that the Warehouse District, where it is located, seems to be a more late night place. That's ok - we didn't have to wait!

I ordered a drink, a Tom Collins, but it didn't seem to have enough sweet and sour mix in it. The decor was very nice, and BLUE. Our waiter was very nice, and even recommended a sushi roll that was the House Specialty, the Lil' Delicious. So, we ordered that, a Philadelphia roll, a Tiger Roll, a Double Dragon Roll, and Yellowtail.









From front to back - Yellowtail, Lil' Delicious (spicy tuna, avocado, lobster, tempura battered and covered with spicy mayo and sweet soy sauce), Philadelphia Roll (no salmon on top), Tiger Roll (smoked salmon, avocado, cream cheese, topped with fresh salmon), and Dragon Roll (eel, avocado, cream cheese, topped with eel and avocado).

We ate it all. The Lil' Delicious was fantastic - I never knew all those flavors would go that well together. All of the sushi was great.

After deciding against a dessert drink, we decided to walk up to E. 4th St. to the House of Blues. We had toyed with going to see D.L. Hughley at Pickwick and Frolic, which is also on E. 4th, but decided to forgo the 10:15pm show. So, we got some souvenirs and dessert at the House of Blues.

First - my warm apple tart. Second - Eric's ice cream cookie sandwich fudge thing.







We walked all the way back to the hotel, and pretty much crashed. It was a long day with lots of walking!!!

Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame

Next stop in Cleveland was the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame.

Unfortunately, you cannot take pictures of any of the exhibits. Some of the coolest things I got to see were the Beatles original jackets, along with the Help! Exhibit, with things from the movie and the making of the movie. We also saw some very cool clothing and guitars from Queen, The Who, Aerosmith, the cone bustier that Madonna wore on the Blond Ambition tour, the "Eliminator" car, famous from ZZ Top videos; a John Mayer guitar, items from Pink Floyd's The Wall, and I could go on and on...

However, we could take pictures in the lobby area. And I happened to find a couple of awesome things to take pictures of. Such as...

The "Gwen" and "Moby" neon signs used in the "Southside" video collaboration:

The Weezer "W":

And, one of many artist created guitars around town -

We did spend too much money in the gift shop, buying t-shirts for each of us, a t-shirt for one nephew, a sippy cup for the other nephew, a poster, bottle opener...I think that might have been it. But, it was a good time, and I definitely would like to go back someday soon!