Spoiled

After looking at my surroundings and certain things in my past I've come (again) to the conclusion that I'm quite spoiled.  I'm not talking like a small child gets spoiled by multiple sets of grandparents (though I'll admit that I've had my fair share of that type of spoiling as well.  It happens when you're so bloody perfect like myself) but in a different way.  So, on my drive home tonight I tried to come up with some sort of theory as to how this happens to me.  It's a little rough and couple probably use some polish but here goes.

So in the normal scheme of things chicks see a hot guy and they're all like "I want to ravage him and have his babies."
But, being that I'm not quite your typical hot guy I think that a certain breed of woman looks at me and says: "oh, look at that belly, I want to cook for that guy.  I bet he'd really like my skills in the kitchen."

And thus (to use a quote that I hate) it is what it is.

I am currently very spoiled in the food department and it makes it quite hard to continue my weight loss road.  I've got a mother who is a great cook even though I tease her about a couple of mishaps in the kitchen that happened like 20 years ago.
I've got a lady in my life who is also a great cook.  Almost everything she has made I've loved and when we have a night in where she's going to cook I get excited about it.
And my lady's mom is also a great cook.  I don't remember the name of what I ate the last two days but dayam was it good.  Delicious.
And the great part about all of this is that none of the 3 really make the same things.  My momma makes things like Meatloaf and chicken and porkchops and whatever else but it's always good.
My lady makes Vegetable Soup (which I simply and absolutely love) and some really good rice based dishes.  Her mom cooks pretty much exclusively in Mexican cuisine and so far I haven't eaten anything that I haven't wanted to get fat eating more of.

Definitely NOT my mom's Meatloaf!

So, as I try to become increasingly skinny I've got 3 people cooking for me, spoiling me rotten and making things more difficult.  This is my big temptation at the moment and this is where I have to learn to exercise portion control.  I'll admit flat out that I have failed miserably this week with portion control.  But, one day at a time and one week at a time.  I'm still under 240 and I will not allow that to change.

The food spoiling thing is nothing new to me though.  I've been looking back over the last 10 years or so and see more of it.  This is not in reverse chronological order or anything but...

My last relationship (for all it's ups and downs and fights and whatnot) was also a great cook.  2nd favorite spaghetti sauce and oddly enough introduced me to an amazing meatless taco.  Her family also is full of great cooks as her brother makes AMAZING wings, salsa and some other stuff.  A grandfatherly figure makes great everything and even had a fish taco that I actually would eat more of if given the opportunity.

Going back further in the Way Back Machine is my college sweetie who might not have had the great talent that her family had (but in all fairness we lived on campus and really didn't have the opportunity to properly explore that side nor let her develop the talent).  However her mother and grandmother had a great flair for making damn delicious Italian food.  Her Nonnie made by far, hands down the best tasting spaghetti sauce that I will probably ever taste in my life time.  it was an old fashioned way of cooking it where you started on Monday, kept adding stuff to it during the week and slow cooking it and it was probably ready by the weekend.  Yes, the sauce actually took an entire week to cook but it was so worth it in the long run.  To this day I still get a craving for the sauce now and then.

Jumping ahead to more recent times, I have a great Blonde friend (with some details from a drunken adventure here)  Now I had known Melissa for quite a few years and she makes a most excellent drinking buddy but during one of her trips to Vegas I also discovered that not only does she have a love and thirst for Jaeger but she also can cook some mighty fine food.
I got to go over to her aunt and uncles place where she made some tasty tacos and an amazingly delicious dessert that she called something like heavenly fluffy cloud balls (listen, I can't remember the name of them but they were light and fluffy and lemon flavored and covered with powdered sugar and I wanted to eat like 300 of them).

And finally, to a mutual friend of mine and Melissa's and that is my favorite Red Head ever (not going to use her name because I didn't ask permission).  She was the manager of Hollywood Video when I ran the Game Crazy beside her.  This lady could cook.  In fact, I've got a lot of extra saliva right now just thinking about it.
I first discovered this talent of hers when she would bring some extra food that she prepared to work and let me have some.  Then one day she surprised me by making something just for me so that I could eat during the day.  This little something was a tri-tip steak sandwich which is one of the tastiest things I have ever put into my mouth.  She also brought along a broccoli salad with (I think) little dried cranberries in it, and even though I protested, when I finally ate it I thought it was the greatest salad I have ever day.
It's said that the best cook you'll ever have is your mom, so it's sacrilegious to say this but Red is by far the best cook I've ever tasted.
Er...
that makes it sound like I've tasted her.
Which - for the record - I have not.
Only her food.
Which is ALL amazing.
Every last bite.  Every recipe that I've encountered.
It's all great.

A life long of people who have all been willing to cook food for me and during the course of this life I've been blessed (spoiled) by being surrounded by people who are actually very very good at it.
Some people grow up and/or get into relationships with people who can't cook and I feel sorry for them. They are missing out on an important part of life, enjoying home cooked food.
Myself - I am currently surrounded by ladies who are great cooks and keep me fat and happy and I love them all for it.

So, from the bottom of my belly - Thank You!

Does that Include Kids?

Last night could have went one of a million different ways.  It all started because I had the weekend off and Saturdays generally lead to mass boredom.  The problem exists that if I don't work on Saturday I generally do not have anything to do.
So, as the day wore on and my fantasy draft came to a crashing halt and because I do not have DirecTv currently there was no pre-season games on TV I decided to just go do something.
A few phone calls later and it appears as though I'm going it alone.

Decided to give Naked City Pizza a try since I have heard good things about it from multiple people. It's also been featured on Diners, Drives and Dumpsters or something which is always a good thing.  The one here in Vegas is inside of a bar called Moon Doggies (I think) and it's down on Arville and Desert Inn.

Going there ended up being quite the wise choice.
At first I was greeted with the typical bar scene, and this one was a bit on the narrow side with a Jukebox in the middle.  Constantly going to the Jukebox was quite an attractive piece of white trash with great legs and an ass that could kill.

Unfortunately the bar was dark and turning on my flash to get a better photo would have probably been considered rude, so the best I have is this.  The bartender was no slouch in the looks department either but alas I did not snap a photo of her because within 10 minutes of me getting to the ...... Oh, lets go back a step.

Upon arrival, other than noticing the leggy blonde with the nice ass, I made my way to the bar for a beer to relax to and enjoy the scenery, take everything in before deciding what to order.  I was just about to go for my standard drink when I noticed that they had Labatt Blue on tap.
Blue, for those of you who don't know, is a Canadian beer that is more widely available on the east coast and pretty much a rare find out here in Vegas.  Of course, being one of the only two beers I really drank in PA, it would have to be hard to find out here.  Normally I partook of the "light" variate but beggars cannot be choosers.  So the beer wench strolls over to me and I promptly order a Blue and of course tweet about it.
One of the friends in my Strat league retorts that he would have held out for a Yuengling. I'm pretty sure he was just rubbing my nose in the fact that Yuengling is awesome and great tasting and west of the Mississippi it's pretty much just a Myth.  Oh how I could go for a six pack or 3 :)

So, sitting down with my beer and observing everything about the blonde, life gets interrupted by a guy asking to find his way to the bathroom.  He gets pointed in the right direction and made fun of a little bit but off he goes.  Less than 10 minutes later one of the staff from the Pizza joint says that he is passed out on the floor and proceeds to enlist another person to help him up.  This drunk patron of the arts, it turns out, is with the blonde that keeps standing up for the express purpose of showing me her ass.
Two guys head back and get him, basically one guy on each arm picks him up and drags him back to the bar area.  They get the keys to the car from the blonde and drag him outside and leave them in her car.
Of course, he was just at the bathroom which means that his pants are not secured properly and as they are dragging him his pants are slowly coming off.  By the time they hit the door he magically turned into one of these new fangled cool black kids that wears their pants somewhere between their knees and the hole in their ass, except this guy didn't have the advantage of having underwear covering up everything else.
When they get back in they discover that this guy has a new, fresh beer that is untouched.  So, instead of letting it go to waste one of them decides it would be a great idea to just down the thing.
Within 30 seconds this guy is hunched over a garbage can and puking.
Once he is done with that, I'd say 2 minutes later, the drunk guy that they just dragged out to the car walks back into the bar, normal as anything.
Unfortunately at this point he pretty much starts dominating the attention of the blonde and is trying to get her to make out with him at the bar and blah blah blah.

Shortly there later a friend shows up so we can indulge in some pizza that I had ordered somewhere during the story I was telling above.
The pizza came out and it was average at best, my buddy didn't really like it.
I had not eaten but two salads in the last two days and average or exquisite I was hunger and devoured about half of it. Looking back now I think where the problem existed with the pizza is that the bread was a bit too thick and there really was not a whole lot of sauce on it at all.  The cheese and pepperoni were both good but there was just something lacking.
I could totally see myself devouring a lot of it if I were to drink at that fine establishment more often just because when drinking I heart bar food.  uh-huh.

The Labatt was exquisite though I wish they did have the light variety as I am trying to watch my waist, and by that I mean between the pizza and beers last night I indulged way too much and ruined a weeks worth of weight loss and work and promptly gained it all back.  Oh well, back to square one!

After pizza my buddy and I decided to go bowling.
I love bowling but I suck at it.  I haven't gone very often since moving to Vegas but this is something I want to rectify.  Other than my last game I'm ok with my scores, but that last game really was horrible.  I stopped hitting pins, I stopped picking up spares.  I pretty much just started sucking.  Maybe I needed more beer.

grrouch: 132, 144, 111 - 387 total for an average of 129
friend:  142, 126, 114 - 382 total for an average of 127.3333

So, even though I only won 1 of 3 games, I still won the average war!

Tonight the Steelers play and it should be on TV. I might end up watching with my good drinking Buddy Melissa (whom you should all remember from The Dead Liver Diaries)  somewhere that includes beer.  Her mother comes into town tomorrow or Tuesday and I think I've got a night of drinking with mother and daughter, but only time will tell.

I almost hit publish and then looked at my title realizing that I forgot one last take away from being at the bar.
Between the drunk being dragged out of the place and ordering my pizza another patron of the fine arts entered the establishment and walked up to one of the servers and asked.
"I noticed the sign outside says you must be over 21 to enter, does that include kids?"
The bartender had to explain that being a bar, children were not allowed in or they would be subject to large fines.  This is why they have the rule of "21 or older."
To which the gentleman just stood there, unblinking and restated his question.  "Yeah, but does that include kids?"

Oh, to live a day in his mind with that dead gerbil.

Food, Dew and Games

Ahhh, food.  The forgotten pleasure.
I just ate a real meal for the first time in over 2 days and while that may not be impressive to some of you, it was torture to me.
I even made sure to overeat just so I could enjoy it more :)

However, it has been over 48 hours since i have had any caffeine and that is really a huge accomplishment. I know it doesn't seem like much to some of you but I have trouble doing without my Mt Dew for a long period of time.
Consider this - my typical day consists of me waking up and moving a foot or so to the cooler in my bedroom and bringing out the 1st Dew of the day.  This is normal. I start every day of my life with a can of Mt Dew (it's a can because I cut down from the bottles to drink less).  I'm a dew-a-holic.

Right now in my cooler I have about 14 cold cans waiting for me.  I also have two loose cans outside the cooler waiting for their chance to enter.  I also have two 12 packs and a 20 pack on deck for when the cooler magically becomes empty.  I seriously love the Dew.  So, for me to have gone over 48 hours at this point is pretty damned impressive.

Now, I have been looking at it and there are two ways that I can go with this.
I can take a step back and look at all the positive changes I have made in my life - going to the gym, eating healthier, no fast food, multiple small meals instead of fewer big meals, drinking lost of water - and decide that this is my perfect opportunity to cut back on my caffeine intake since I have basically flushed it all out of my system over the last two days.

Or, i can say f'it and wake up to the refreshing taste of heaven tomorrow morning and forget that these two days have happened.
I can tell you, no matter what I choose I am really looking forward to hitting the gym again on Monday after taking too many days off because of this whole Tooth Situation.

Other than eating and thinking about Mt Dew - the rest of my day has been spent playing Video Games.

Today I beat Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 and I put about 4 hours into Gears of War 3.

Matt and I got to chapter 3 before I had to take a break for pain meds and the whole eating thing I spoke of earlier.

Star Wars was definitely a fun game and one that I'll go through again and play on a harder difficulty.  I will probably play the 1st one first, then run through the 2nd again to get the full story in a row.

Gears of War 3 is shaping up to be a pretty good campaign as well.  I really love the way that they gave you the information for the 1st chapter in two pieces.

First you play as your standard COG's Marcus and Dom and go through and eventually beat a big baddy with a little help from your friends.

However, after that battle is over you jump to the "friends" perspective and you have Cole and Baird. You play their story up to the point where you helped out with the 1st big baddy and then the story converges.

I am enjoying it a lot and might put in another session tonight if Matt is up for it (living in PA he is ahead of me by 3 hours and our gaming times are off now and then) or we will pick it up again around noon tomorrow and blast through another couple of chapters - hopefully finishing it up tomorrow or at the very latest on Monday.

Then in a week or so we will hopefully start the Insane run with 4 player co-op.  It would be nice to get another game over with this weekend as well since I didn't play (and thus didn't beat) anything in January which puts me behind the pace that I want to keep up.

Sushi

Yesterday I took a friend to a local Sushi joint and tried it for the first time.
Myself, I ordered the Filet that came with soup, a salad and some rice
I didn't bother trying the soup, but the salad had a nice dressing on it.
The Filet was cooked quite well and had a great flavor to it. Also, there was a lot more than I was actually expecting to receive.
I made sure that I had all of my food ready and handy for when I finally tried the sushi - which had like shrimp and carp on it or something.

Overall, including the "dipping sauce of unrecognizable colors" it was OK.
I ate my "piece" in two portions - 1st the top portion which had trout attached to it and then the bottom portion which was mostly Sea Monkeys or something.

The piece with the flounder I didn't really find satisfying at all. I don't particularly like fish and it had a semi-fishy taste.
The bottom half with the shrimp and something crunchy (Wheaties?) was not too bad. If I am ever to try it again I might see if I can get it without the salmon and just the shrimp and Wheaties.

I am now off of work and have a 3 day weekend in front of me before I have to head back and help with inventory.  However, I guess I cannot bitch about my life because I just learned (earlier today) from Tony BigCharles's blog that because I make more than $30,000 i am, in fact, rich.   So, really with my financial disposition I would feel it beneath me to complain about money.  I should probably start investing to help with future passive income and I'm thinking Mt Dew stock.
I have not checked my bank accounts within the last few days (which I'm pretty sure are just overflowing with money) but I should do that today because I'm quite interested in getting a session or two of poker in this weekend.

What are everyone else's plans this weekend?
It's a great Football Weekend as it's Wild Card time.  My team practically has a bye which means that next week we'll be traveling most likely to New England (if I had my druthers) to beat them for the 2nd time this year.