Everyone is Out to Get Me!

Blogosphere - we have a big problem. We were in denial of said problem but we believe... (and I can't believe I'm sharing this)... that we have a roach problem.
Ack! Gross gross gross gross gross.

For the last month or so, we've noticed some little bugs crawling on our kitchen counters. I thought they were just ants. The Mr thought otherwise but we both agreed, they were definitely NOT roaches. Theresa housesat/dogsat for us and inquired about our roach infestation. I guffawed at her implication of us having roaches. I've seen roaches. These were not roaches.


Oh my fucking god, it's a roach! The Mr trapped it in a glass the other day and did a search. We believe it's a german cockroach. I think they're attacking us because they've mistaken our last name as being jewish (like my entire family did when I sent out wedding invitations).

HELP!

Onto other news... today, I almost ate a piece of chicken. I actually squealed at my desk at work, "oh my god - I think I'm eating chicken!" and promptly spit it out in my trashcan much to the horror of the nice contractor who is helping to develop something for my project.

The Mr and I ate at a fab Indian restaurant on Friday with some friends (Kristin and Jackson... fresh from their honeymoon and Ian and Katie). We love this place. I ordered too much and had my leftovers wrapped. I wasn't paying attention to what was wrapped, especially since The Mr never takes leftovers (he's a weird one), so I scooped all the fixins into 1 tupperware bowl for lunch today. I thought I was dining on spinach & paneer, cauliflower and potatoes and basmati rice. Little did I know that I had also thrown in The Mr's chicken dish. It was in the same colored sauce as my cauliflower! Strangely - chunks of chicken in a pink-orangey sauce resemble chunks of potatoes.

As I took a bite of my lunch, I realized that I wasn't eating a potato.

I almost died today, guys. Okay, not really but it's been so long since I've eaten any meat - I think I would have gotten sick. Or super poopy.

I think the Indians are out to get me too.

Over Snacking and Under Motivated

I have no idea what's been happening to me lately but I can't stop snacking. I'm eating so much during the day that I constantly feel like I'm going to burst or vomit. This isn't good.

I know some people snack when they're bored and I think that has a lot to do with it. I also haven't been sleeping well and I think I've been snacking to keep me awake. Ugh. I hate this! I just ate a half package of Sour Patch Kids Watermelons (the greatest candy on Earth), a Berger cookie (a delicious and very very bad for you treat) as well as a bajillion other things. And don't even get me started on the smorgesbord of crap I ate last night at dinner!

I left the restaurant feeling like Violet on Willy Wonka.


What's worse is that I have lost a lot of the motivation I've had for the last few YEARS to work out. I definitely still force myself to go but I have no energy. Yesterday was the first time in my fitness life (which has only been about 7 years) that I've quit a gym class before it was over. I felt like such a failure! I know it's lame to beat myself up over a gym class but quitting along with this energy zap and my constant eating has only justified me feeling like complete and utter crap.

Where has my energy gone? Why have I been eating so crappily lately? Why can't I stop snacking?

And don't say that I'm pregnant. Blogosphere - I don't want to have to hurt anyone. I'm not preggers unless I'm one of the women that belong on that Discovery Health special, "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant". And I'm not joking - there was really a special on Discovery Health titled that and it featured women who gave birth not knowing they were even pregnant. One woman actually thought she had to poop and gave birth to her son in a toilet. I'm not even kidding! Look it up! I didn't know if I should have been horrified or amused. I was just in shock.

Help me get my motivation back. Help me get back on track with my normal healthy diet. Help me!

Any tips on you can offer me, blogosphere?

I think Sunday will be the first night I try to cook a decent dinner. Maybe that's all I need to get back on track. I need to make the effort to prepare food again.

This weekend is going to be jam packed with lots of stuff. We're seeing "Wanted" tonight with Kristin and Jackson. I've got Dragonboat practice at the butt crack of dawn tomorrow (and yeah - this zap in energy is so not going to help me make this team) and we're second shooting with Maria & Drew. Afterwards we'll be celebrating Courtney's big 3-0. I've got to fit a nap in there somewhere. I also have to fit in getting a new bra. My washing machine ate my bra. I didn't know it was that hungry. But I digress… Sunday is someone's bridal shower but she isn't supposed to know about it. She totally does. Want to know why? Her MOH didn't indicate that the shower was a surprise on anyone's invitation. Nice, huh?

I hope I get to sleep soundly somewhere in this jam packed weekend. What's everyone else up to?

Road Tasted - Philadelphia Style

I have decided that Philadelphia may be one of the greatest cities to eat in as a vegetarian... which seems totally strange considering they're known for cheese steaks. But seriously - I have never been in a situation where just about every restaurant I step in offers a wide selection of vegetarian stuff.

Heaven.

So - the weather was doo doo but the food was magnificent. I think I'll end up blogging about Philly and the anniversary all week so I'll try to just focus on one thing each post. Today its all about the food.

Ryan had sent me a link to a vegan restaurant called Horizons on 7th Street near Old City (where we were staying). It looked fancy schmancy and I somehow managed to talk The Mr into eating here on our first night. The food was f'n amazing. We pigged out and got a bottle of wine, starters, entrees and dessert. Somehow the idea of it being vegan made me think it was healthy. Either way - it was delicious. Even The Mr agreed.

The next morning, we wanted to check out Reading Terminal Market for breakfast but it was about 1.5 away from the hotel. That isn't too too far away but when you're starving, it seems damn near impossible to get there. The hotel we stayed in had a restaurant inside that was boasting an award winning Sunday brunch. How can you pass up brunch? I f'n love brunch.

We ate at Azalea in the hotel. The spread was impressive and the food was good but I didn't eat very much. The cost? $50 a person. Had I known that we were going to drop $100 on fucking brunch, I would have eaten my weight in food instead of the 2 plates of fruit and an omelet. Seriously. I even passed up mimosas because of all the stupid walking we were going to do. Yarg!

That night, we ate dinner at an afghan restaurant called Ariana a few blocks from the hotel. It was okay. When I mentioned dessert, The Mr brought up the episode of Road Tasted we watched last month that featured an old fashioned ice cream place. So I spent the majority of dinner looking up that stupid episode on my phone while the other patrons looked at me in horror as though I was the worst date on the face of the planet. I wanted to yell, "It's okay - we're just celebrating our anniversary!"

After a very painful search through the Food Network's website, we found the episode and the ice cream place. The Franklin Fountain. Holy shit - this place is amazing. I never thought I'd buy into the whole "old timey" bullshit but everything is homemade! And the place was so charming... I couldn't resist. I fell in love and will honestly drive 2 hours back to get some damn ice cream. Fuck the cheese steaks - give me homemade ice cream!

Once we successfully tried out one place from the episode, we decided to do the Road Tasted tour of Philly. The next day we checked out Campo's for cheese steaks... well, this was more for The Mr. He originally located the best Philly cheese steak place and mapped it out but when the day came, it was cold and rainy... and it was 2 miles away whereas Campo's was just a few blocks away. Laziness prevailed! But The Mr was satisfied and I was impressed with their vegetarian selections.

Last - I really wanted to check out the place that offered Vegan desserts. So I mapped out Gianna's Grille and was stoked that it was so close. And then we realized that the Deen boys are lazy too since they didn't seem to leave that 10 block radius of places. Aaanywho - we sampled the chocolate peanut butter bomb cupcake and I almost creamed my pants. Okay, not really but it was good.

We did do a quick walk through of the Reading Terminal Market on Sunday afternoon but unfortunately got there about 10 minutes before it closed. Maybe next time because seriously - I was in food heaven.

I would have posted pictures of the food we had eaten but The Mr wouldn't let me take pictures. Apparently it was embarrassing or something...

Next up? What the hell we did in Philly.

My First Restaurant Review

I finally got around to posting a restaurant review on the site that Ryan invited me to join since I eat out a lot.

This past weekend, The Mr and I went out to eat with some friends at The Helmand in Mt. Vernon.

Check out my review:
Eat Charm City

I don't know how to write about food. I just know if its good or not. I'm more a person to write about the experience. It was really tough to take out all of my commentary and make it about food and service.

Eat Charm City

Sorry for my lack of posts. After overcoming my plague of 2008, I've been swamped with school work. To quote The Mr, "ew - I don't like all this work you're doing this semester."

I'm having a hard time consolidating my slideshow presentation. My partner and I are supposed to present for 40 minutes on an article that is 62 pages long! Even so - most of the articles being presented by the class are roughly 10-16 pages in length and include experiments, results, blah blah blah, not fun stuff.

Our article? Its just full of definitions of theories. No tests. No results. So I don't know how to consolidate this. We decided to split the article in half so I've been working on the first 30 pages (so not exactly half but that's how the sections worked out). I'm already at like 45 slides! At this rate, I'll be presenting for an hour. How did I go from not wanting to speak to taking up the entire damn class? Oy vey. The headaches.

Anywho - Ryan has kindly asked me to contribute to a new blog of his called Eat Charm City. Its supposed to be a blog that contains reviews of Baltimore area restaurants but he also wants to include a section on cookbooks.

My first gripe with cookbooks is Rachael Ray Express Lane Meals. Its filled with LIES! I'll save that for the other blog though.

If you live in the Baltimore area and want to dish about a crappy restaurant, or a good one (but bad reviews are way more fun), then let me know. Or... if there is a restaurant you'd like to know about, let me know. I've eaten at a lot of different places. And if I haven't, I know people who have.

That's all for now... back to my stupid presentation.

Grazing...

Ack - I can't stop grazing on food!

Does anyone have this problem? I work in an environment that resembles most of corporate America - cube farms! Being on my ass for 8 hours a day really takes a toll on me (and hopefully explains why I'm diligent about working out).

I have a serious snacking problem. I know its out of boredom. I'm sitting here... staring at a computer screen, listening to my iPod and I just want to snack. I've tried the water thing, the gum thing, the take a quick walk thing but sometimes the urge to snack is overwhelming.

If I think about something food related (ooh, I have a bag of york peppermint patties in my desk), then I obsess over it. I'm not even hungry but I HAVE to eat whatever I'm obsessing over.

Perhaps the solution would be that I should empty my desk of the cookies, chocolate and pretzel sticks...? Nah. What if we're trapped at work and I have to eat something? That's why I keep that bottle of water in my car. You just never know.

How to you curb your cravings?