As some of you may be aware, I joined OC Yelp just over a year ago because I like to write reviews and I love try new places to eat.  Most of the time I review only restaraunts, but occasionally I will write or comment on various service establishments.

I really do pride myself on being absolutely fair, impartial, and balanced.  I take all things into account when crafting reviews: taste, quality, friendliness of staff, decor, and of course….overall cleanliness.  I won’t give a place 5 stars just because the food is outstanding.  If the floor or bathrooms look like crap, or the staff is negligent I score appropriately and explain why.

Well, it looks like my hard work paid off.

Last week I received a personal email from one of the staffers over there at Yelp who apparantly took notice of my writings and asked me if I would like to be nominated for the 2012 Yelp Elite Squad.  In my book, that’s a kind honor to be recognized for your work and efforts.  Of course I said “Yes” and had to fill out a simple questionaire which would then be submitted and reviewed by senior Yelper’s.

Today I received yet another official email congratulating me and my online profile here shows my new “Elite” badge of honor.  I’m very excited and hope to do Yelp well over this next year, and hopefully be recognized on a year to year basis.

Anyway, if your interested in Yelp, or already a member of Yelp and wanna be my friend there, please drop me a line again here.

My wife's message to Mercury

Painting my train models is something I enjoy.

Painting parts of my house, (i.e. floor to ceiling walls, or the ceiling itself), is not something I enjoy.  Especially if it comes about by necessity from unexpected repairs done to our house.  In this case, a recent slab leak under our kitchen floor forced my wife and I to re-route the hot water lines through two of our walls and the ceiling.  In events like this, you’d think that your homeowners insurance would cover repairs like this…that is, unless you have Mercury Insurance (which of course Murphy’s Law would indicate that we do (soon to be “did”)) in which they didn’t.  Bastards (another post for another day).

So about $2000 in repairs are coming out of our pockets.  Again, despite the fact I pay what seems to be a useless homeowners policy with Mercury.

Needless to say, our kitchen and dining room have both been in a state of disaray for more than a week now.  Our fridge stands in the middle of the kitchen while chairs, appliances, and other free standing items are either in hanging out in the garage or in various other rooms of the house.  We haven’t been able to use the kitchen for meals in over a week now. 

Another resulting side-effect is this fine sheen of drywall dust (ground white gypsum) finding itself onto just about every square inch of free surface area in the house, including the dog.  No matter how many times we vacuum, or try to dust, we keep finding the stuff all over the place.  That to me has been the most irritating by-product thus far of this whole escapade.  No matter how many times I wash my hands, or put on clean clothes, it’s only a matter of mere minutes before I have this chalky substance all over me again.

Repairs have finally been compelted this past Saturday and new drywall has been affixed to our walls and our kitchen ceiling has been patched.  The finishers came in to re-texture everything…and of course it had to rain that day as well, so the drying and curing time put us *supposedly* another day behind getting back to normal.

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Despite the fact that the finishers told us to wait two full days to dry, my wife (who often says I have no patience) just had to start priming the walls the following day.  I didn’t think too much harm could be done, so I agreed and we bought two gallons of Kilz 2, water-based latex primer.

Do you know how hard it is to paint white on white in low-light conditions and make sure you covered everything? Do you know what it’s like to paint an overhead ceiling with a roller while standing on a step ladder and moving said ladder every few minutes around misplaced furniture and other obstacles.  My shoulder and my eyes will tell you it sucks donkey balls.  It also doesn’t help one’s frame of mind one bit when your daughter is in the living room watching the LOGO network.   For three straight hours all I could hear when I was working was Ru Paul and other transgender ”fellas”(?)  (yet another discussion for another day) putting the ‘spark’ in sparkle and ‘fab’ in Fab-u-lous.  Oy.

Dining room wall, textured and ready to be primed

Now to get to the reason why I’m here today.

I don’t claim to be the best painter in the world, and like I said, I don’t like painting walls if I don’t have too.  I’m very upfront and…keyword….realistic about my lack of talents, but I’ve been around a paintbrush on many occassion and know about proper “prep” work. 

Kitchen area, textured, and ready to be primed.

On the other hand, my wife claims to enjoy painting…..but (truth be told) she’s not really that great at it.  Let me clarify that in case she ever reads this.  I mean, I know her heart is the right place, and I’m glad she’s motivated to paint, but lets just say she likes to….uh….cut corners…. and speed the process in some areas, while taking her sweet time in others. 

Some of her time saving techniques I have witnessed and observed for myself:

• Failure to remove electrical face plates or air vents/returns even though they generally only use one or two screws to hold them on the wall.  To her, you can just paint right up to their eges.  Hell, why stop there?  You can just paint on them ensuring that dry paint will now adhere them to the wall so it almost impossible to get them off again if need be.  
• Taping off straight lines and edges, to her, are optional.  You can save a lot of time if you don’t tape things off…like fixtures, or where walls and baseboards meet.  Also looks like shit when done.  Oh, paint on the brass door handle…you don’t like that?
• Recommended drying and curing time by professionals, is just that….recommended.  If they say 2 days, my wife is happy to wait one.  If I say it’s raining outside and request that she  just finish the priming, where then I can come home, continue to tape off, and then we can resume the next day when it’s dry and sunny.  Sounds reasonable?  I think she waited all of a few hours, thus again, confirming she has no patience either.  But GOD forbid you critique or criticize any of this, or point out obvious mistakes and flaws.  If you do, then you’re an asshole who doesn’t appreciate all her hard work in cutting corners.
• Rinsing out expensive brushes after usage is considered “bush-league”.  To her, when you’re done with a brush, just go ahead and let the paint dry on it until it’s hard and un-usable for the next time you need it.  There’s a Lowe’s just down the street, so lets go ahead and spend extra money on replacing items we already have, but can’t use at the last minute.  Why buy $.99 paint tin liners, when you can just let let the paint dry in the $6 aluminum trough?
• While on the subject of home improvment stores, why plan out on what you need when you’re at home and the project is staring you in the face, when you can easily just keep dumping items in your cart whether you’re unsure if you need them or not?  In this case, I’m guaranteed to get mutiple size brushes, paint pans, and other impulsive tools of the trade…..most we’ll never use or ever need.

I’d gladly pay a professional to paint, but in this case, since we are already out $2K, and any bit we can do ourselves right now is fine by me.  So, despite not wanting to spend my free Sunday in an impromptu painting project, we did infact spend 7 hours priming the walls and ceiling and only got about 85% done.

Me, almost 4 hours in and taking a 'ceiling' break by sitting and painting the dining wall

As I pointed out earlier, at one point I watched my wife begin to prime precariously close to a faceplate.  I asked her, “Why don’t you take it off?”, in which her response was, “I can’t get it off.”  Well no kidding you can’t get it off if you don’t have a screwdriver in hand and “attempt” to remove it.  Instead of arguing, which I have learned after eight years of marriage gets me nowhere, I just went to the garage, got a screwdriver and…. (wait for it)….UNSCREWED the single screw in 10 seconds safely removing the already slightly painted on faceplate.  That shit drives me insane.

And after painting about 50% of the ceiling myself in just under two hours, my shoulder was aching.  My wife was nice enough to offer to take over for a while as I concentrate on the walls.  I handed her the roller and for the next 15 minutes I watched her paint all of…oh…2 square feet, and 1/2 of that was an area I had already painted.   She kept saying we needed to change the roller itself, but just minutes before it was working  just fine for me.  Are you kidding me?  F___ this.  At this rate the ceiling will be done by the middle of next week, so I just asked her to hand me back the roller (without changing it) and I just powered through it. 

While I returned to my overhead duties, I asked her to ‘cut in’ the primer about 1.5″ (to be safe) on the ceiling where the roller didn’t hit.   I then proceded to watch her do 5″ cut-ins instead, thus tripling the expected time.  It takes all of my power to bite my tongue and this is why we will both admit we don’t like painting when the other is in the room.  It’s not what either of us consider bonding time.

It’s been a while since I last updated my ‘State of the Bartender’ address, namely me.  I wish I could sit here and write about all the great BBQ plans I have, share a funny story with you (I have one in my mind), reveal a cocktail recipe, or something else along those lines, but I’ve been a bit…..depressed….lately.

A small series of unfortunate events, all obviously out of my control, have been plaguing me the past few weeks.

A good friend of my family passed away a few weeks back, someone who was pretty influential on my life for a better part of thirty years, and the funeral was this past weekend.  I’ve also been notified that one of my cousins has stage 4 cancer and has only a few weeks left…at best.

Additionally, while my cholesterol has reduced, apparantly it has not reduced enough according to my doctor and the new batch of medication he has put me on has some ‘unpleasant’ side effects….which have caused me some real and distinctive discomfort.

And lastly, my wife lost her job of eleven years, so of course our income has been reduced and her future uncertain.  She’s actually taking it better than I thought she would have, and she’s taking it better than I know I would have.  But all this bad news and haziness have allowed me to place a lot of personal stress on myself.  And one thing I don’t do well is stress.

It doesn’t help that these past two weeks, my diet (which I was doing so well with), kinda went out the window.  When I last updated my weight with you all, I had dropped about 25 pounds and was happy at a new weight of 211.  Needless to say, a few extra beers, a bit less exercise, and me scratching my head at the continual crap the universe seems to throw at my direction has allowed me to gain back a few pounds.  It’s not bad,…yet.  The other day I was feeling a bit sluggish, so a quick weigh-in confirmed my suspicion…I’m up about 4 lbs to about 215.  Well today I’ll be hitting the gym, especially after the large gut busting round of incredible Indian food I had today….but I need to get back to the water, the jello, the naked fish and steamed veggies again and much less carbs.

Anyway, just a quick update, and hopefully I shake this funk I’ve found myself mired the last few days into something more positive in the coming weeks.

- First and foremost, I’ve been hitting the gym again…like I used to some ten years ago.  It’s been surprisingly good to me, the fact that I’m feeling pumped up and good after a workout, and just 10 days into the new year, I’m already seeing some results (or is that just wishful thinking on my part?).  When I bought that digital scale on January 3rd I was weighing in at approx. 236 and some change.  As of yesterday morning (1/9), I weighed in at exactly 231 pounds.  So in the course of 7 days with me hitting the gym 5 of those days and riding the bike at least 20 minutes each time in addition to lifting weights, I dropped around 5 pounds.  Now some of that may be water weight, but that’s hard to determine as I’ve also been increasing my water intake and by hitting the weights harder than usual, I wonder how much lean muscle mass I used to have started to come back.  My body is a mixture of being sore and energetic at the same time.  The last few nights I’ve been sleeping better and feel a bit more awake during the day, but I’ve noted I’m a little stiff in my joints including my lower back….but damn….this may sound highly egotistical, but the look of being pumped up and full of endorphins while standing in front of the gym mirror makes me want to try even harder.  I’ve also began eating earlier dinners and keeping my portion sizes down all the while while eating healthier as well.  A second benefit of all this is that I think my wife is secretly resenting my success and thus driving her to work out again.  This past week she attempted jogging at least once, and also rode the bike and walked the treadmill at her woerk.

The one thing I can tell you that I’m jonesing is the whisky.  Friday night I had an extreme urge to pop open one of my bottles and have a stiff drink or two of Maker’s Mark or Jim Beam, but I didn’t..  I had to put the bottles in the liquor cabinet so their labels weren’t staring at me…mocking me….seducing me….with their oakey and carmel aromatics.

Last night I kinda cheated with the food though.  I had two turkery burgers (healthy), but I has some mayo and cheese on them as well (no other sides), but finished the evening with three chocolate chip cookies.  Tonight I’ll be havings teamed veggies and salmon and maybe some fat free/sugar free Jell-O for dessert.

- I listed some items up on eBay and Amazon to sell off and make room in my spare bedroom for my train set.  I always feel good about getting rid of excess stuff in the house, especially when I can make a few dollars, but I’m excited to go to a train show on 1/22 and I plan on buying a beginners book on ‘benchwork’ possibly tonight to push me even further into getting my ass in gear.

- Yesterday my friend Al and my wife and I went to a RV lot and looked at various class-C campers and looked at even renting a RV for an upcoming camping trip I’m trying to plan for all my friends sometime this late Spring or very early Summer.  I’ll detail that more in an upcoming installement.

- I still need to post some New Years Eve photos here, and got a great article and drink recipes for a stellar Bourbon I got for Christmas (and finished New Years Eve by the way).  I have a podcast episode to edit and post soon, and taking a renewed interested in some techy gadgets as well as really looking forward to the BBQ’ing season.  I’m already thinking about smoking some ribs or another brisket in the coming months.

- My step-daughter is planning on moving out soon, which I think is a good idea and I’m not going to stand in her way.  She really needs to get out into the world and experience how tough things really are and get a dose of ‘reality’ and learn the value of money and hard work.  If she moves out, I need to get my wife to “buyin” that she is on at least a 6 month moritorium before she can come back if things get too tough.  Our house is not going to be a safe-haven or flop-house because things didn’t work out teh way she thinks they will….especially because we are trying very hard to give her advice, guide her, make her think of certain things and all we get back in return is attitude and the “I know this already, old-man” look I get.

Earlier this week, we had incredibly warm weather.  It was actually 90 degrees in certain parts of the county.  However, there’s a cooling trend right now and we started getting rain by Thursday late evening.  It’s supposed to rain for the next five days straight, so for sure I will not be putting up any lights on the house this year.  Besides, my wife still has all her Halloween stuff up inside (yes, on Dec. 18th, it’s still Halloween in my house).

Speaking of rain, I feel really sorry for my little buddy, that is my mini Schnauzer.  He’s very fickle about having to go to the bathroom and doesn’t like to go outside when it’s raining.  I don’t blame him and I can’t fault him.  When was the last time you wanted to take a dump hunched over with someone spraying you with a water hose from above.  So the bad news about this is that he is holding it which cannot be healthy and comfortable.  I know he’s holding it because he keeps farting and smelling his own gas and it’s getting worse and worse as the day goes on.  My wife and I have even taken turns donning an umbrella and standing out in the backyard with him in hopes that he’ll go either way when there’s a slight break in the downpour.

I recall last year the same thing happened and in his sleep, when he was super relaxed and dreaming about chasing rabbits and birds, a small tootsie roll emerged from his behind for us to find.  Of course I wasn’t mad, I mean how can I be mad for something he did in his sleep because he hates the rain?  I’m just thankful his crap is small and I don’t have a great dane or mastiff instead! 

I also feel bad that he can’t be walked.  Must be hard, even for a small dog to be stuck inside the house for a few days, your human parents not really willing to brave the elements and take you for a walk.  Well, I may try it today…a small walk just inside our culdesac, just enough to stretch his legs and maybe get something out of him.

Okay, so back to Christmas week.  Yesterday was my big work party at the car dealership (see previous posting on this), and I did end up calling in sick.  But I don’t feel as bad as I could have because I was legitimately not feeling well.  I woke up with such a headache I wanted to vomit myself.  A hot shower, some aspirin, and laying in bed helped, but I didn’t start felling better until mid-afternoon.  I’m also glad I didn’t have to drive in the rain or get stuck in traffic.  My buddy had to pick his parents up from the airport yesterday and made mention that in 2 hours he has only made it a total of 23 miles.

There is no baking in my house this year either.  In the past I’ve made holiday breads….not this year.  Way too lazy.

I will wrap a few presents today, albeit they are only stocking stuffers.  Nothing exciting.  This year we also really held back on the gift giving.  It was a mutual decision with my family and we all discussed it ahead of time.  Yeah, it bothers me a bit….we’ve always had very nice gift giving, but needless to say with this economy the last two years, I think we all feel the sting in our wallets this year.  But I cannot not give nothing, so hence I’m doing some stocking stuffers.  I requested that my step-daughter (whose 19 and works part time) may want to think about buying my mother, (her step-grandmother) a small gift this year.  Her step-grandmother has done a lot for her and is always picking her up small things throughout he year and I want to teach my daughter the idea of ‘reciprocation’.  I tried to put it delicately and said spend no more than $20.  I actually got the “are you kidding me look?”.  She did actually say “Let me put some thought in it.” (translation: I don’t want to think about this now old man whose not my father and make a commitment on spending money on anyone).  I could tell that me asking her didn’t seem to go over very well at first attempt and that’s bothersome to me.  The thought of her actually spending money on someone else who is not her is very, very tough.  Man, she has a got a long road ahead of her in life.

I’ll also go shopping at the grocery store today.  I have a menu to prepare for eight people for Christmas eve.  Thank goodness, my aunt helped me out by sending me a check to buy the champagne she likes, and my mom also helped out with grocery certificates.  I’m making an Italian themed dinner this year which will include a soup course, main course, and dessert.  I’m either making pumpkin bisque or roasted cauliflower soup and homemade Parmesan croutons.  Main dish will most likely be oven roasted chicken cannelloni with a bechamel sauce but the last few days I’m now thinking veal scallopini.  Appetizer will be sausage stuffed mushrooms.  Desert will be vanilla gellato topped off with an espresso and hazelnut drizzle served with biscotti.  Anyway, that’s the plan, although it may change on the fly when I’m in the store.

Well, I certainly have.  It all started just over a week ago when on a Sunday I wanted to make a unique crafted pizza for the family.  Our pizza stone had cracked in half about a week earlier after a good seven years of seasoned use.  Monica and I had purchased a replacement stone for around $19 the day before and were looking forward to breaking it in.  By the way, if you’ve never used a pizza stone before, I highly recommend it.  It makes the crust very crispy as opposed to just laying it out on a cookie sheet or tin foil soaking up steam.

Anyway, I had gone out and bought garlic herb-ed dough that I rolled out by hand and let it rest.  I added my toppings as follows:  Alfredo sauce, turkey meatballs, artichoke hearts, prosciutto, both mozzarella and goat cheese, and fresh basil.  Placed my pizza lovingly on my new stone and waited 20 minutes for mouth watering perfection.  Alas, 20 minutes later my wife exclaimed it wasn’t cooked yet, the cheese barely melted!  We waited another 10 minutes and checked again,…it wasn’t much better.  I noted the temperature was set to 350, but the oven didn’t feel that hot.  After waiting almost an hour, I took the pizza out and noted that the crust was still doughy!!

Placing a separate temperature guage within, the oven barely registered 150 degrees.  Great, just great.  Pizza ruined and stove isn’t preheating correctly.  We tried again on Monday, and it didn’t heat up at all.  After placing a few calls, it seems that the EOC may need to be replaced and that was going to cost anywhere between $175-$200, and who knows how long that would last.  It didn’t take long to figure out our stove at least 9 years old, possibly older.  See, we moved into our house almost seven years ago and my wife ’thinks’ she overheard the former owners claiming the stove was at least two years old back then.  I’m not exactly sure how long gas ranges are supposed to last, but I do know the current one amounted to a whopping $450, meaning it was on the lower end of the spectrum as far as oven investments go.

After an initial discussion with my wife, we decided it was probably time to invest in a new stove.  Little did I know how expensive they could actually be.  It doesn’t help matters that we had decided some time back to go with the stainless steel aesthetic, so that usually increases any appliance purchase by 15-20%.

We looked at various models and brands including Frigidaire, Whirlpool, Maytag, LG taking into consideration two things: it had to be convection and within our budget.  After making a trip to Lowe’s to look at floor models, we realized that about $800-900 was right about where we wanted to be as far as features go.  I made inquiries at Howard’s, Pacific Sales, Best Buy, Home Depot and in the end we found that Renwes still had the best price.  They also include free delivery, removal of the old stove, free installation, and 12 month zero percent financing….a much needed blessing….as it’s never a good time to just drop that kind of money.

We ended up with a Frigidaire stainless steel convection oven with five burners (as pictured).  Now this is where my wife and I tend to change roles in our marriage.  I’m the one who usually does all the research on large ticket items….such as our refrigerator, washer and dryer, and dish washer.  I buy things that while they may not be top of the line with all the bells and whistles, I do buy the appliances that are built to last and that we will get the most use out of.  And since I do a lot of cooking myself, a stove is very important to me.  I like the fact this has 5 burners and the center insert can also be a griddle if need be.

So right after I put the down payment on it, wouldn’t you know that night I had a dream about it?  I mean, who the hell dreams of a stove?  I wasn’t dreaming about actual cooking mind you, it was about spending the money.  I get so stressed out at times, and the timing on this wasn’t planned.  We have a wedding to go to which means I have to rent a tuxedo, I’m throwing a bachelor party, my car tags and insurance are due yet again and on top of the regular mortgage and car payments, I now have to worry about monthly stove payments for the next twelve months.  To say I’m a bit stressed out is an understatement.  I have no idea how Monica and I swing all this and until my car is paid off (14 more months) we can’t really be doing any frivolous spending.  I’ll tell you one thing….I’m already tired of brown bagging my lunches and buying ‘used’ books to read.  I can’t even tell you the last time we went on a ‘real’ vacation.  The last weekend getaway we had was a discounted 3 day sleep-over in Palm Springs about 2 years ago.  Our current vacations or days off require we stay at home to fix various odds and ends.

It’s not an easy task to undertake planning a ‘crazy’ and memorable event when you’re married yourself, have never met most of the invitees to understand their likes, dislikes, and personalities.  Also, getting the actual list of names from the groom himself was an exercise in pulling teeth.  See, I asked Brian close to three months ago to send me a list of names of those he’d like to include, and reminded him every other week or so for the next two months.  I finally received a list about 2 weeks ago and have sent out an appropriate invitation via eVite, (the digital norm these days) and am anxiously awaiting replies.

There were a few caveats to the initial brainstorming, some that didn’t go over to well with some of the guys, but in all honesty a moral relief and un-burden to myself: NO STRIPPERS.  Like I said, I’m not 19 years old anymore, or 25 and the thought of bringing any ‘exotic dancers’ into my home for a few hours or going to some sleazy, over-priced gentleman’s club just doesn’t sit well with me anymore, so I’m glad Brian made it clear up front he wanted no part of that.  I did get a few ribbing’s from some of the guys, but I figure that’s what the Internet is for these days….you want a few jollies?  Go watch some stuff for free in the privacy of your own Kleenex filled office.

We were then going to rent a party bus and head down to Stone Brewery near Carlsbad, CA, take the tour, eat some gourmet food and taste various brews.  But even though the thought of having a designated chauffeur was nice, the cost of renting a bus for 8 hours, paying for gourmet food and craft beers, and not having a list of initial invitees made the idea a little hard to put into action.

We thought about doing a bar crawl in Newport Beach or surrounding cities, but again, the idea of some of us possibly getting lost in transit, separated, sitting in traffic, or a few of us cheerfully volunteering to be designated drivers for the rest seemed to be a bit more complicated than anyone was willing to admit.

In the end, Brian, Steve, and I hashed out our ”un-bachelor” party over lunch about two weeks back.  We settled on going out to Cook’s Corner for the afternoon, enjoying a few pitchers of beer under the sun at a watering hole close to my home.  At approx 6pm, we will all come back to my house (only a few short miles away), relax and continue the festivities in the privacy of my backyard.  There we will have a BBQ, a fire, and plenty of beverages.  I have extra room if anyone needs to crash, no waitresses to tip, no worrying about lines, traffic, driving, spending crazy money, etc.

I know Brian’s fiance voiced some initial concerns over Brian having a party to begin with and even floated the idea of having a ‘joint’ bachelor-bachelorette party.  Uh, “NO”…we aren’t that progressive.  That’s one thing I don’t get (and sorry Shea if you read this), but it’s my understanding that she had her own ‘get together’ planned out but was somewhat troubled when Brian announced that the guys were having a gathering.  Whaaa..??  I don’t care if they call it a ‘bridal shower’, ‘gathering’, ‘luncheon’, or whatever….it’s basically a female ‘bachelorette party’.  What ever games and gossip they do there amongst themselves is their issue and has nothing to do with the guys.  Seems a bit like a double standard in my book.  We laid it right out on the table…we’re going to Cook’s Corner, then a BBQ at my house.  How is that any different Mr. Cochrane?  Case closed, move to dismiss.

Anyway, I digress. 

I was able to contact Cismontane Brewery in RSM and get a 1/4 keg of their IPA for my home gathering.  Food-wise, we’ll have beer brats with grilled garlic seasoned onions and roasted poblano peppers on french rolls, black and blue potato salad (meaning it contains blue cheese and bacon), chips, dip, salsa, two different styles of buffalo wings, and most likely some carne asada as well.  There will be a little whisky to be had, a fire in my backyard fireplace, music from my stereo, but most importantly a gathering of some great guys.

Out of the 12-15 or so that are attending, both Brian and I know a handful dating back to our elementary and junior high school days.  A couple of them we haven’t seen in close to twenty years if not longer, so there will be plenty of catching up for a few of us, and plenty of pictures to be taken along with many new memories and hopefully re-connections to be made.

No, it’s not gonna be a night of high stakes hijinx, but should be a really good time for all in attendance.

Doesn’t sound like that big of a deal?  Well, it is if you’re actually Craig “Meathead” Goldwyn, author of the famous BBQ blog and recipe site, amazingribs.com.

He did mention some side effects:  1) He lost five pounds, 2) And experienced some intestinal distress towards the end.  Not sure if that is because he obviously increased his overall fiber intake, his body was adjusting to a new diet, or something else entirely.

The closest I ever gave up anything for that long was alcohol once many years ago.  A friend bet me I couldn’t last a month without a sip of booze.  I actually made it about 29 days, and then I was a party and I think I had a wine cooler or something just as horrid.  I suppose I could have gotten away with it if I really wanted to, but a bet is a bet, and I was honest, and I came clean.  She treated me anyway to a nice dinner of Pick Up Stix anyway for my efforts (we were young and broke at the time).

I was thinking about “Meathead’s” meatless month and I wondered if I could do the same.  I probably could, although it may be slightly harder than I may think it is.  I’m not really positive how much meat I eat a week.  I do have quite a few sandwiches during the week, BBQ a lot in the summer, and make other dinner time meals during that usually has a meat component.

I did wish I ate more fish though, so I ‘may’ be able to get persevere anyway.  I suppose if my doctor told me to give up red meat, I eventually could.  My doctor told me to cut back on my cholesterol at one point and I can honestly tell you I cut my buffalo wing consumption by 80% and my shrimp/lobster/crab consumption by 95%, (I still have the occasional shrimp, but not like I used too).  Cheese is the hardest I find.  I do eat more 2%, low-fat, and even some non-fat cheese on occasion, but I can’t stomach the ‘vegi’ or ‘soy’ cheese.  It’s horrid.

Anyway, it’s an interesting article and you can read it here.

I still not so secretly wish that they would ditch the tropical settings they’ve done for so many seasons and go with some new surroundings.  I’d personally like to see something in the mountains and higher altitudes such as the Rocky Mountains or something like Yosemite, or maybe even a colder place like the Alaskan tundra or way up in northern Canada where contestants may have to deal with the cold and maybe even snow and grassy plains than the typical tropical beaches and rain.

Onto Big Brother, episodes 13 & 14:

During the eviction ceremony we learn that Kristen in fact has a boyfriend back home.  *Gasp*  The boyfriend is shown watching BB at home, and he’s not to happy that Kristen and Hayden are making out.  He comments that if she comes home, their relationship is most likely over.

Kristen is infact voted out.  Julie Chen then questions Kristen about her boyfriend back home, and Kristen just says “I may need time for myself” and won’t go into any further details.

The new HoH competition finds Kathy being out first thus becoming the only ‘have not’ of the week.  Brendon falls out early on to a disappointed Rachel.  Britney ends up throwing the competition herself as she feels that she is safe enough and doesn’t want to be in a position where she has to decide people’s fate.  Sounds a little chicken-shit to me, but I kinda understand her thinking on this.  She’s pretty confident that everyone else is gunning for Rachel and Brandon, and she’s pretty much correct by most accounts.  Anyway, it ends up coming down to Matt and Ragan and Ragan finally slips up and Matt is the new HoH (2nd time).

The last two episodes sees Kathy trying to melt back under the radar, and while still considered a ‘floater’ by some, she’s managed to stay low and out of trouble thus far.

Ragan

The Brigade is ecstatic that Matt has won and they are all pretty sure it is time to get rid of Brendon or Rachel.  Rachel senses this and really tries to pitch an alliance of some type, any type, to save her and Brendon.  However, when she approaches Matt (while he and Ragan are talking) she of course makes some dumb-ass comment that sets Ragan off.  Ragan is a little perturbed by these series of events and before you know it, he and Rachel are now arguing as Matt just sits back and watches it unfold.  Soon enough, the rest of the houseguests are made aware of the current argument.  Brandon then walks in out of left field, not knowing how it all started, and opens his big mouth to Ragan trying to defend Rachel, but really only succeeds in making him looking very stupid.  This isn’t lost on anyone and I think Brendon figures this out a bit too late; the damage is done, and he’s trying to save face but just can’t recover at this point.

Meanwhile Pandora’s Box is once again let loose on the house and Matt decides to open it, taking the newly revealed ‘diamond veto’ for himself, and thus also introducing a new saboteur into the mix.  America has chosen to elect Ragan as the new saboteur and he must last 2 weeks.  If he does, he collects $20K.  He does a fantastic job of not arising suspicion when the other house guests learn there is a new saboteur.  The houseguests also learn that former contestants and showmancer’s Jordan and Jeff will be dropping by for a visit.

BB12 Kristen

Yeah, I know…it’s been a while since I made any Big Brother updates, but I have some spare time today and I think I have enough to make some observations and comments on the continuing shenanigans going on in the house.

In the last 2 weeks both Andrew and Monet were evicted.  Personally no big loss to me that Monet was let go, as she was just annoyingly two-faced and had selective memory of some of her antics.  Monet’s eviction was a personal blow to Britney, as the two of theme were the two cackling hens and gossiping bitties in the house, with much of their ire directed towards Rachel.  However, they never said it to Rachel’s face and were thus reduced to gossiping and mocking Rachel behind closed doors.

Britney has bounced back somewhat and is fully admitting to playing the part of being interested in whatever Rachel has to say now to the point of being vomit inducing-ly sweet to Rachel. 

Speaking of Britney, it’s still my belief that Kathy and Britney are mother and daughter, but so far, if it is indeed fact, Big Brother himself is doing a great job of not leading us on to this point.

Ragan is doing a brilliant job of flying under the radar.  He has a good one-liner per episode, but he’s allowing everyone else to play the game without him and so far, it’s a strategy that seems to be working for him against all conventional wisdom.

On the other hand, last week, Andrew was used as a pawn by Matt (third weeks HoH) in order to try and possibly backdoor either Rachel or Brendon.  I didn’t understand his logic then and neither did his fellow Brigade members, and it ultimately backfired.  When Brendon won the Veto competition against all odds and to the Brigade’s dismay, Andrew began to lose it.  Kathy, the other nominee for eviction last week, laid low and kept to herself allowing Andrew to self-destruct.  So, in a blaze of glory, Andrew made a very dramatic last ditch speech which more or less sealed his fate, (although he pretty much figured he was out anyway).  In his speech, he called out Hayden and Kristen’s ‘hidden’ showmance and alliance in which both vehemently denied (BTW: they are in a showmance), and was subsequently voted out.

Next up in episode 10, after Andrew is booted out we have the next HoH competition.  Much to the chagrin to the Brigade and defying the odds, Rachel becomes the HoH for the 2^ndtime in 4 weeks.  The competition seemed very personal between Kristen and Rachel, and when Rachel pulled out the win, it got heated quickly.  Thanks to Rachel’s barbing, she and Kristen had a very vocal debate in front of everyone else.  Within the span of just a few minutes, Kristen went from being a non-threat to public enemy number one in Rachel’s eyes.  Rachel also called Hayden and Kristen on their showmance, which they still denied, but the rest of the house guests aren’t really buying it. 

Behind closed doors, the remaining members of The Brigade (Enzo, Matt, & Lane) tell Hayden he needs to buck up and if it comes down to an either/or situation, that Hayden needs to boot Kristen, feelings or not.

When the HoH room is revealed for the week, everyone attends (begrudgingly and putting on fake interest and congratulatory statements) except Kristen.  This is noted by Rachel.

Hayden tries to do some damage control with Rachel, but Rachel doesn’t buy it.  Hayden then tries to tell Kristen that she should also try some damage control.  Earlier, Rachel tried to extend an olive branch to Kristen, but Kristen rejected Rachel’s attempts at an apology.  Of course this irks Rachel even moreso and is more determined than ever to evict Kristen.  When Kristen ‘finally’ comes around in her attempt of damage control, Rachel is only listening for show, but her mind is made up, Kristen has got to go.

Brendon is starting to get very nervous about the way Rachel is going through the house on her cocky power trip and is hinting to her that she needs to back down a bit, lest they become a target once again after this week is done.

Kathy has insecure fears that she is going to be put up again this week due to her friendly associations with Kristen, but in the end, during the nomination ceremony, its Hayden and Kristen that are now nominated for eviction.