Winter is here.

The perks of working at a golf course? Awesome views, no matter the season. The downside of working at a golf course? I am currently the only person on the entire property, unless you count the Grounds crew, which I don't because I never see them. So, while I'm waiting for my new desk to arrive (which probably won't be today, unfortunately) and for the server to come back up (meaning I literally have nothing I can do until it does), I suppose I'll write a quick Thanksgiving post.

I was listening to the radio on my way to work this morning, as I do every morning (I love Elvis Duran!) and they went through their entire staff, with each person saying what they are thankful for. I think a lot of people forget to do this on Thanksgiving - I know I certainly do. Instead, Thanksgiving has become about eating way too much and shopping. So, here is what I am thankful for this year:

1. My family (generic and overplayed, I know) - I have one of the craziest and most disjointed families ever, but every one of them is perfect and I honestly wouldn't want it any other way. I have the world's brattiest and most beautiful sisters and 2 little brothers that are too cute for words and will become serious heartbreakers one day. I have a bevvy of parents and grandparents, and too many aunts, uncles, and cousins to count. I'm thankful for all of them and I can genuinely say that my life is better because of them. I've recently been able to reconnect with some family from years passed that I haven't talked to in a very long time and it feels so good, so here's hoping for a rekindled relationship!

2. My friends (obviously!) - I also have the best friends a girl can have. Even though they're all over and visiting them means driving 4-6 hours, it's worth it every time. These people are my family as well and I truly would do anything for them. Do you realize how crazy that is? To have so many good people in your life that you would do absolutely anything for because you love them that much?! That is absolutely something to be thankful for.

3. Mark - my fiancé. He is one of the best things that has ever happened to me and he is absolutely perfect for me, in every possible way. My life would not be the same without him and I never want to find out what that would be like...ever.

4. My life, in general. I truly believe that no matter how horrible you think your life might be and no matter how many crappy hands you've been dealt, there is always a silver lining and there is always something that you can be thankful for. I am thankful for my life every day. I have a roof over my head and a fridge full of food that I can cook. I'm surrounded by people whom I love and who love me and I get to sleep in a warm bed every night...so yes, I consider myself to be supremely lucky and I am incredibly thankful to be able to have these things.

Take a minute this year to remember the good things in your life and give thanks for them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is the life.

For those who haven't heard of this movie, watch the trailer here. Then do yourself a favor and go see it. We saw it this past weekend and it was simply amazing. It has the perfect combination of humor, drama, and romance and I'm pretty positive that mostly anyone will be able to appreciate this movie. I think this overall review from Rotten Tomatoes does a great job of portraying it...

"Beautifully filmed and unabashedly sincere, About Time finds director Richard Curtis at his most sentimental."

 It really is just so genuine and sincere - new favorite movie!


On an entirely different note, we tried a new place for dinner on Tuesday night, which was amazing. It's called Jasmine's Asian Fusion and it's on Ridge Road in Webster. Anyone who lives or has lived in this area knows that Webster is strange. It's completely out of the way and parts of it are weird and trashy, while others are super rich and gorgeous. The only reason we even know this restaurant even exists is because Mark works in Webster and has driven past it a few times.

 

 

A new thing that I've noticed I'm doing lately is ordering drinks almost every time we go out for dinner. I never used to do that and now, for some reason, I don't think twice about it. Con - Among several cons, our dinner bills are much higher, which sucks. Pro - I'm discovering a lot of really awesome drinks with flavor combinations that I would have never thought of.



Anyway, Tuesday night was no different and I got a Lychee-tini. I don't remember everything that was in it, other than lychee and they don't have cocktails listed on their website, so fail. You'll just have to take my word that it was good - not amazing, but good.
Dinner, on the other hand, was quite amazing. I ordered the Thai Style Coconut Red Curry with Chicken and pretty much died and went to gastronomic heaven.

As an aside, (I mentioned this in the first post I did) I've never been one of those people who loves to take pictures of their food and that probably shows in the pictures I have taken for this blog. I also forget that I should take a picture until after we've already started eating, so yeah...sorry about that. Anyway, the quality of the picture not withstanding, this dish was awesome for dinner and even better re-heated for lunch the following day.

Mark got the Stir Fried Spaghetti with Chili Paste Sauce and Chicken, which was equally as delicious as mine.

Again, he had already started eating before I remembered to take a picture, which resulted in this slightly gross looking picture. It really was delicious though, I promise!


As for fantasy football, I refuse to give an update unless I'm doing well, which I'm not. Weeks 9 and 10 were a bust for me. Let's hope I'm able to gain some ground on Week 11! The Mr. McGibblets will make it to the playoffs!

The Revelry

 

“We are the champions of joy;
we are the fosterers of revelry.
Here, we uphold the sanctity of sustenance;
here, we delight in the art of serving our fellow human beings. “

 

 

Time for a restaurant review! This past Saturday, a new restaurant that I had never heard of was recommended to me, so when we came up short with dinner plans that night, we decided to try it out. The place is sort of awesome. You first walk in and the floor by the hostess station is clear, so you can see right down and into the wine cellar. It turns out there's also seating down there so on the way out, we saw people eating, which I guess is a little weird. Still cool though. The drinks are awesome - I ordered The Vega, which is vodka, fresh strawberry & blackberry puree, St. Germain and fresh-squeezed lemon juice...and it was amazing. It is easily one of the best drinks that I have ever had.

 

That's a mint leaf on top. So good!

 

The food, however, is a different story. Their menu is mainly comprised of upscale Southern food, which I think is a great idea in theory. In practice, it didn't turn out quite as I had expected. Granted, I got a burger which was probably a rookie mistake because who gets burgers when you're at a place like this...but in the same sense, if they can't pull off a burger, then what does that say? It wasn't horrible by any means, but it just wasn't really up to par. Mark's meal was a different story though and he quite enjoyed his quail and collard greens.

 

 

I did try a bite and wasn't crazy about his meal either. We did get dessert -  maple brown sugar bread pudding with homemade cinnamon ice cream for me and two scoops of their homemade toasted marshmallow ice cream for him. The ice cream was good, but the bread pudding? Not so much. It was cold...who eats bread pudding cold? So maybe I'm being picky, but if you pay a certain amount for dinner, you have expectations and those expectations just were not met at The Revelry. I would gladly try it again simply because the place itself is so cool and the drinks were awesome, and who knows, maybe the chef just had an off day? Who knows!

 

 

Fantasy football update: Week 9 didn't work out so well for me (as many had predicted) and Mark did win. That's okay though - The Mr. McGibblets will come out of week 10 with a victory (hopefully). And yes, that is another team name change, inspired by The League, as always.

 





Boston didn't end up happening this weekend, unfortunately. We missed a lot of great costumes at that Halloween party, not to mention all of the work that we put into ours and then didn't even end up wearing. Next year! I'm ashamed to say that we did dress up the cat and dog on Halloween night. The trick-or-treaters definitely enjoyed it, even if the animals didn't. And really, isn't this for the kids? Small sacrifice to pay for the happiness of children!

Princess Sophia was a cowboy (Mark insisted) and Kadee was a dinosaur. Halloween success!





Massachusetts....

 

Ylvis is at it again!

I was in dismay when I realized that Ylvis' first hit "The Fox" didn't reach as many people as I thought it had, or should, so I figured I would personally bring you their latest. Granted, it's not as genius as "what does the fox say?!", but you'll still find yourself singing parts of it. They also have this gem, just in case you really have nothing to do right now.

Speaking of music, I discovered an artist over the summer that I absolutely love and I've been sharing this information with random people over the past few months. One of the things that I love about them is that they are a husband and wife, writing their own lyrics and music, and just generally having fun. It doesn't hurt that she has an awesome voice. It's fun, feel-good type music and I just can't seem to get enough of it. Their name? Brandon and Leah. Fun fact - I dislike the whole Kardashian thing, a lot. As far as I can tell, they are a family of attention whores. That being said, I would be lying if I said that I haven't watched the occasional episode. How is this relevant to Brandon and Leah? Well, for those of you not well versed in the Kardashian family tree, Bruce Jenner has a few sons who aren't typically talked about on the show - Brandon and Brody Jenner are two of those sons. Is your mind blown? Mine was. Anyway, that is the Brandon of Brandon and Leah. The reason I even found out about these guys is because of one of those random times when I decided nothing better was on and watched the show. Brandon and Leah were on the show that time and I got curious, so I Googled them in typical stalker fashion and then discovered that they write music. Bam! The rest is history.

 

 

If you liked this song, then look them up. They have 5 or 6 more songs on iTunes and they're all pretty fantastic.

 

 

 

Now, I'm really trying to not be ridiculous with this whole fantasy football thing, but I just can't help it! Quick update: I had fallen to 4th place due to a loss in week 7, but as of last night, I'm back to 2nd! However, week 9 means that my top 3 are all on bye week...it also means that I'm matched up with Mark, who will take great pleasure in my loss, so I have to win. We're going to Boston this weekend to celebrate Halloween with Daniel and Cristin, meaning that on Sunday, Mark and I will be stuck in a car together for 6 hours...while I'm checking the games and our scores. This should be interesting!

 

Also, I'm proud to say that I have not eaten at Chipotle once in the past 8 days. I am not proud to say that it has been a lot harder than it probably should be - it feels like it has been forever. You know what I'll be doing November 1st...

Another addiction...

I just went through my bank account and it turns out that I have another addiction...to Chipotle. Just since October 1st, I have eaten there a total of 8 times. EIGHT! I blame the crack-infused guacamole. Looking back, I realize that there have been signs:
a) On several different occasions, several different Chipotle employees have commented on how I'm always there - one guy has said to me "You're here again?! You're always here!" and another girl has said "I think I might just always be here when you come in" to which another guy responded "No, she's just always here". There have been several incidences of this type of remark...not even kidding.
b) I have running jokes with one of the managers. As in, he makes a reference to it every time I'm in, which is like, every other day at this point.
c) I think this is the real indicator - they have stopped notifying me that guacamole is $1.95 extra. They know that I know. They warn EVERYONE about this surcharge...except me.

So, the first step is realizing that I have a problem. Check. The next step is maybe not eating as much Chipotle? So for the rest of the month of October, I will not eat Chipotle once. I will be tempted and I may stop in for just guacamole (Mark recently dubbed it "crackamole"), but I will not have any Chipotle before November 1st. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking that it won't be a problem seeing as November 1st is only 10 days away...but considering the rate at which I frequent the place, it might be harder than it sounds.

 

 

On a completely different note, I would just like to briefly mention my brush with death this morning. As I was driving to work, I was attacked by a big, spindly, gross, white spider. It came out of nowhere, scampered down my door and hid under the "put the window down" button. So naturally, I almost crash and decide to pull over in order to find and evacuate this spider...so I pull over, cautiously look under the button thingie, and NOTHING! I have no idea where it went and I know that it didn't crawl out because I was watching the button the entire time, so then I thought maybe there's a hole underneath it and it went into the door. So I get back in the car and get to work, still watching the door. Once I get to work, I ask a colleague to go check things out and he confirms that the spider is not there...but also observes that there is no hole underneath that stupid button...so I have no idea where this freaking thing is. Maybe I imagined it? I feel like that would be the preferable option at this point because the only other option is that it's silently awaiting my return, so I guess there's that.

 

I wish I had something better for today, but Chipotle and spiders pretty much sum everything up. Today is definitely Monday!

 

 



Starvation...here I come.

By now, everyone has seen or at least heard of the documentary, Food Matters. I watched it a couple of years ago and like anyone else who has seen it, was seriously disgusted with the information. Call me naïve, but I couldn't believe that the food industry was that hell bent on sacrificing quality for the sake of money. Anyway, shortly before I had watched that documentary, I had already jumped on the whole Primal/Paleo bandwagon, before it was a bandwagon. For anyone who doesn't know, eating Paleo is essentially reverting back to what our ancestors, the cavemen, did. I've read into it a lot and completely agree with the thinking behind this way of eating, which is that our bodies haven't changed enough since the cavemen era in order to digest and process the crap that we're putting into it today. Eating Primal is pretty much the same thing, only less restrictive because it takes into account the world that we live in and what is actually feasible for the average person who wants to optimize their health. If anyone is interested in all of this information, go read Mark's Daily Apple. It contains a wealth of information and all of the scientific explanations for why some foods just aren't good for your system.

www.marksdailyapple.com

Now about a month ago, the lovely Cristin introduced me to Vani Hari's (aka the Food Babe) website. She has essentially dedicated her life to investigating questionable ingredients in food and passing along the information to anyone interested.

www.foodbabe.com

I'm so glad that I was introduced to her website, even though it has made food even more complicated in our household. Not only do I cut out all grains and most dairy, but now there is a whole list of ingredients that I need to watch out for. I read labels before, but not to this extent and even though this newfound knowledge has made food shopping a bit more time-consuming, I'm happy to know that what I am putting into my body is good. You should really check out the links if any of this interests you, but I'll give you a quick overview of the most common offenders.

Carrageenan - typically found in almond milk/coconut milk "drinks" (not actual coconut milk, but the kind that you find in a carton), as well as most dairy - it seems harmless enough as it is derived from seaweed, but here is a description of how it interacts with our bodies, as found on Prevention.com - "Although derived from a natural source, carrageenan appears to be particularly destructive to the digestive system, triggering an immune response similar to that your body has when invaded by pathogens like Salmonella."
If you want to read the full article concerning carrageenan, here's the link.

Cellulose - typically found in pre-packaged grated/shredded cheeses, Aunt Jemima's pancake syrup, salad dressings, and so much more! - so what is cellulose? It is wood pulp. As in, trees. That seems pretty natural, right? It is, technically, but it is also completely indigestible for humans. Why would you put something into your body that it cannot and will not digest? There's way more information out there concerning cellulose, so just Google it! Here's a link to get you started.

Natural flavoring - found in almost any pre-packaged food - this could very well be castoreum...which is beaver butt. More precisely, it is extracted from a beaver's anal gland. Who knew that beavers tasted like raspberry, or peach, or any other flavor that's trying to be incorporated? Why not use say, raspberries, instead? When companies aren't using beavers to flavor our food, they are processing other "natural" things (for lack of a better word), which really isn't any better. Read up on it here!

All of those examples are barely scratching the surface. I recently threw out all of the tea I had because of what was in it and replaced it with tea that I had done more research on. Who wants a nice hot cup of pesticides? If you're drinking any of the more common tea brands, like Celestial Seasonings, Lipton, Bigelow, Twinings, or Teavana, then that's what you're getting. That only covers part of it too...some of these teas, among others, have natural flavoring as one of their ingredients on top of it. Foodbabe covers it all here.

So now on to starvation. Any food that is "easy" is bad, meaning that every meal and snack requires more preparation than I'm willing to do. I love food, but now that I know what's in some of my favorite foods, I can't help but feel frustrated and even a little betrayed by the food industry. I guess our best interests really aren't of concern to them, considering the US has a whole list of ingredients which they allow consumers such as you and I to feed to ourselves and our families, while other countries have banned these same ingredients. Lucky us.

I knew I should move back to Switzerland!

Like I said earlier, the information that I'm posting here doesn't even begin to cover everything. It's simply meant to act as a catalyst for people who are interested in this and would like to treat their bodies well. Do some research! The information you'll find is positively mind-blowing.

On another note, I have fallen from my 2nd place standing in my fantasy football league. The Hillbilly Fillies beat me this week...and I blame Peyton Manning...and Indianapolis defense...and Joique Bell (although I suppose I shouldn't have expected too much from him to begin with). Let's hope the Kegel the Elves (yes, I've changed my team name again) can win week 7!

The League

The League is quite possibly one of the funniest shows that I watch. Mark and I were first introduced to it a while ago by the great Daniel & Cristin who claimed that it was such a great show and that we had to watch the first few episodes...so we did and they were right. For anyone who doesn't know about this gem, watch the clips below to get an idea of exactly how genius this semi-scripted comedy is (that's right, semi-scripted...which makes it even funnier since part of the dialogue is just pure improvisation).

This one gets pretty graphic...FYI.

 

 

And then there's this...

 

 

...and this...

 

 

...and finally, this.

 

 

 

Okay so as much as I like this show, this post wasn't intended to solely promote the genius of The League. Instead, I would like to address a very real problem that it showcases - addiction to fantasy football.

 

And now, I have a confession to make. I, too, am addicted to fantasy football. It started 6 weeks ago and I foresee this addiction persisting for as long as I keep beating everyone in my league. Because yes, the girl who only watched the occasional football game in years past, and who only knew the names of football players who were attractive, and who insisted upon wanting to draft Justin Tuck for her fantasy football team, is second in her league. What. Turns out, I'm a quick learner and I've gone from wanting to draft Justin Tuck (who by the way, I did end up drafting by drafting NYG defense, which was a colossal mistake) to knowing not to take the trade that Mark sweetly proposed (Darren Sproles for Darren McFadden...when McFadden was injured!). What a guy.

 

I'm proud of how far I've come. I absolutely cannot wait until next year's draft.

 

 

I would like to end this with a "thank you" to The League. If it weren't for your cunning wit, I may have never chosen to pursue this latest hobby of mine. Also, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have the necessary inspiration for my team names. What started out as the Dirty Pirate Hookers (thank you Anchorman) has become Password is Taco and is currently The Double EntAndres. It's really too bad that RuxinLooksLikeAMiddleAgedLesbian exceeds the character limit.

 

 

 

Sweet sweet victory will be mine once I unseat Daniel from the #1 spot. Also, Mark needs to learn how to spell T'Variusness correctly. Key and Peele would be heartbroken.

I'll do it...starting Monday.

I can't tell you how many times I've uttered those words. They have been said in regard to eating healthier, working out, cooking more often, brushing the dog's teeth, and even starting this blog. I have started many a blog and subsequently abandoned many a blog. I can't even tell you how many one post blogs I have out there in cyberspace, but I have decided to not let this blog join their ranks.
So why am I trying to do this, yet again, after so many failed attempts?

Because I want to.

It's not that my life is terribly exciting or anything, but I find that when I have new experiences, I typically like to share them with friends, family, and anyone who I think might find them interesting. People end up asking if I'm getting paid to promote a new restaurant, movie, or store because I talk about it so much. I've learned a lot about myself in the past year or so and one of the things that I've learned is that I'm a passionate person and that my passion can be applied to anything and everything. If I've just tried a new restaurant and love it, you'll hear about it. Same goes for that new movie that had a crazy twist ending, or anything else really.

So that's the gist of this blog. Just like the title says really - life as I see it. Except in French because, well, you know.

Now to begin, I tried a couple of new restaurants this weekend and simply HAVE to talk about them, as I am wont to do.

Anyone living in the Rochester, NY area just has to try Atlas-Eats in Irondequoit. Anyone living in the Rochester area is now completely discrediting anything that I say in their mind because they know that the Irondequoit area is sketchy as hell, but hold on. The building itself is sort of eh and maybe lock your doors on the way there, but once you're there, it's amazing. This place just opened in July of this year and is a small family-run restaurant, as in the father is also the chef (and quite the chef at that). Their regular menu doesn't have much on it at all, but it seems that their thing are their dinner series. Every Friday and Saturday night, they have a dinner series, which is essentially a prix fixe five-course dinner. Now typically, the words "prix fixe" and "five-course" also result in quite the bill at the end, but not at Atlas-Eats. They only charge $30 per person and let me tell you, it is 100% worth it. We went this past Friday night for their 6:00 PM seating and enjoyed their New England menu, which consisted of baked & stuffed clams, Maine potato salad, lobster bisque, maple glazed chicken & Boston baked beans, and Indian pudding with a coffee milk cabinet (they informed us that the coffee cabinet is the official drink of Rhode Island - it's essentially a coffee milk shake). Literally every piece of food that I tasted was amazing and Mark and I both decided that we would keep tabs on their menus and go again another night to try something else. I suggest you do the same! I'm a little bummed that I didn't think to take any pictures, but trust me, it all looked as delicious as it tasted!

http://www.atlas-eats.com/p/welcome.html


Saturday was spent with great friends that we are lucky enough to have as neighbors as well. After a hard day of pottery painting (which sounds lame, but anyone who has actually done this knows that it's actually quite awesome), we had dinner at a pizza place which they both raved about. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't like pizza. I'll eat it if there's nothing else, but I don't typically enjoy it. Well, Napa Wood Fired Pizzeria proved me wrong. They have two locations - one in Rochester on Clinton and the other is in Fairport. We went to the one in Rochester and the experience was awesome from the moment we walked in. The place itself has a cool atmosphere and it smells amazing. After much deliberation over pizza vs. pasta, I decided to just go ahead with the pizza and I definitely did not regret it! I got the Parma, which has house made garlic oil, prosciutto, artichokes, figs, goat cheese, and their Napa cheese blend. It sounds weird, but tastes oh so good! I tasted everyone else's pizza as well and they were all delicious. The crusts are thin and the flavors are amazing. Our pizzas even tasted great re-heated in the oven for lunch on Sunday. I did remember to take a picture of my pizza and then realized that I don't exactly relish in becoming one of those people who takes pictures of their food, but for the sake of the blog, I'll suck it up!

http://www.napawoodfired.com/



I would also like to take this time to remind everyone that Candy Corn M&Ms are back! Mark and I have already had our allotted bag for the year, and by Mark and I, I mean mostly I. I've only ever been able to find them at Wal-Mart - go get your bag now! On a side note, I think I understand now when people ask whether or not I'm receiving compensation for the promotion of certain things. I assure you, I'm not. They're just that good.