3-31-2011

We went back to Big Fun for their 20th Anniversary Party. This is Nicole eating cotton candy, Jen collecting our photobooth pictures, and above is Antoinette winning raffle prizes. This was very exciting. I also won raffle prizes which is amazing because I never win anything ever. I won a bunch of heart related things and Antoinette won fart related things. Prizes are even better when they rhyme. I had my own give away, and this is me leaving prizes for whoever is lucky enough to live in the random apartment I selected to win. I can't think of anything that rhymes with "half eaten cotton candy" though. We also went to a fancy theater for fancy drinks served extra fancy.

3-30-2011

It looks like I didn't have a picture for today, so I used one from Christmas, but really...no matter how bad the weather is someone always has it way worse.

I have gummy octopussesess.

3-29-2011

I'm pretty sure I've reached the next echelon of food nerd when Nicole gets me gifts like this...and I get beyond embarrassingly excited. These are actual bitty flakes of Tuber Magnatum Pico or white truffle. White truffles sell for over $200 an ounce. The whole truffle industry in general is really interesting and fun to read about on Wikipedia all night when you can't sleep.

We were going to save it all for a special cooking, but we got excited and Nicole poached pefect eggs to put on pasta with mushrooms. You only use a few drops at a time.

3-28-2011

Monday.

3-27-2011

In a lot of ways, Cleveland is ten years behind other cities. Recently, it seems they've just discovered food trucks (all seven of them). Since it was something to do and there was a ton of fake sunlight, we went to stand in Black Friday-esque lines to get over exposed food. Actually, the lines for the other trucks weren't so bad, but I picked Seti's Polish Boys for the Food Network nerd appeal. A large part where I go when traveling is guided by the Food Network, and I felt it necessary to eat the Cleveland thing that was on The Best Thing I Ever Ate. I never go to the area this truck parks at, so today I stood in line almost two hours for a hotdog at the slowest food truck in America. Now I don't know if it was because I waited for hours in the cold for it, or because whenever I eat meat now it tastes 200% better, but this deep fried hot dog with french fries and coleslaw covered in cheese and barbecue sauce was really pretty amazing. And while it's pretty much impossible to mess up chili cheese fries, the addition of a little jalapeno pepper is definitely a bonus. I'm not sure that I would stand in the cold for two hours up hill both ways to have another one, but it was pretty awesome this time.

Nicole doesn't like hot dogs at all (she didn't even try a bite of the two hour hotdog), she likes dresses and having fun. She also likes coffee shops. Then we went to the other Big Fun to ruin my back and neck and look at each other from funny angles.

After nearly asphyxiating and paralyzing myself simultaneously, we went to talk to friends and listen to Tony Preto DJ at Wizard Church.

3-26-2011

I'm wrapping up the non-photogenic thing that's been consuming all of my time, so "here's what I ate today" pictures are in full effect.

Every weekend Nicole and I go to breakfast at least once. We normally try and hold out for Sunday brunch, but recently I've been really into this divey little diner by our house.

No one wants to see pictures of me sitting in a chair at my desk for hours, so you can pretend I was doing something exciting all day.

Then it was night time and Nicole wanted appetizers and Cheeseburger Tour (this is what happens when I lock us in the house and starve the poor girl all day). This stop on the tour was at Heck's Cafe, which has a cool outside-in-a-garden kind of vibe. They also have bunnies on the floor and lions that watch you eat. By far though, the best thing about Heck's Cafe are the miniature ketchup bottles that they let you take home.

3-25-2011

This picture is of that split second when you think you've actually bested the claw machine and won something. The pause right before the claw's limp grip drops the stuffed fox you want so badly and laughs at you for taking all of your hard earned quarters again. Tonight we went to see a movie, but I made us late for the showing we wanted, so we got to kill an hour playing arcade games. Nicole focused on the bouncy ball related ones where you win prizes. I however played the double screen, six(!) controller X-Men button mashing game and felt like I was ten years old again (this game is only topped by the similar Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game). Speaking of feeling like a pre-teenaged boy again, the movie we went to see was Suckerpunch. I'm pretty much reliving puberty all over again tonight. Game Over.

3-24-2011

I've been busy doing non-photogenic stuff after work, so I'm going to tell you something funny about my cat Sienna. She likes doesn't mind getting tossed for fun. When she was a kitten she really really liked it, now that she's bigger she...lets us do it for pictures.

3-23-2011

Fancy food with friends was honestly more fun than it looks like in that picture. It was also fun being back in the neighborhood that all my friends moved out of a few years ago. This house has a porthole. I want a porthole in my house.

I almost forgot about this smoking car that I saw earlier. Is it bad that I like seeing stuff like this?

3-22-2011

Remember the dog toy designs that Nicole has been working on since April of last year? One of my coworkers was nice enough to bring me this ad she found in a magazine. This is Nicole's reaction to seeing her toys for real for the first time.

P.s. have you ever been hit on by a creepy fortune cookie before?

3-21-2011

I'm accustomed to eating like an eight year old, and I'm definitely accustomed to eating too much grilled cheese, but I think it's somewhat cruel that Panera makes me publicly order off of the kids menu.

3-20-2011

Today is the first day of spring on the calender, and it's really starting to feel like it. We saw a den of snakes coming out of hibernation. They were garter snakes that liked to stick their tongues out.

Friday I posted about how the Yellow-spotted Salamanders (and Yellow-spotted Finger Nails) are starting to come out of hibernation to lay their eggs (that Google research is now making me think are actually Wood Frog eggs). Tonight we found tons of eggs (whoever they belong to) and tons of salamanders to catch. We saw Swimming salamanders, a swimming frog, this sitting frog, and that sitting frog. We caught everything, but the highlight was this giant Monster Quest sized salamander.

3-19-2011

So during yesterday's Swamp Thing adventure, I turned a pair of snow of boots into fish tanks. As I'm definitely planning to go back to visit the salamanders as much as possible this year, we braved the People of Walmart to get huge rubber boots. On the way, we were ambushed by a a group of Girl Scouts. Dessert Week is an excellent excuse for conceding and buying cookies. The real thing I was looking forward to all day was the Supermoon, the closest/fullest the moon has been to the earth in eighteen years. I thought that this was the Supermoon, but it wasn't full. So I waited around (ate cookies) all day, waiting for it. Finally I saw my first Supermoon. It was this super. Also super was Dessert Week which is now coming to an end. To conclude this epic journey of carbs and calories from various places, I thought that I would make Nicole something really special in the oven. This may be the very height of fine dining.

SUPERMOON!!!

3-18-2011

I know I post too much about food, specifically eating grilled cheese from Melt, but today they had something really fun. Look at this mysterious bucket. It's part of the Russian Roulette Frankenstein Melt where you pick four random cards and they take those ingredients to make your sandwich. The ingredients that I got were really good together, but the server was telling us about people getting weird stuff perogi, corned beef, turkey, and peanut butter sandwiches.

After work, we went searching in a swamp. Every year, as soon as the weather starts to warm up, it triggers the salamanders (this red phase one has a black tail) to wake up and make babies. Our area has special Yellow-spotted Salamanders that we've been going to see every spring for the last three years. Get ready for picture overload, because I think they look awesome and get really excited whenever I see one. Nicole thinks their little faces look like they're smiling. I think this frog looks suspicious of me for taking his picture. Plus the salamanders tend to crawl very slowly so they kind of pose for portraits. They even do group shots like this. This is a Red-backed Salamander. I think it looks like he's wearing glitter. Glitter all over its body. I was very excited about another sure sign of spring last night. Spring peepers and various other types of frogs with different patterns. This is a Wood Frog. Here's a frog swimming over a salamander. This might be one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken. Here's a picture with a blade of grass for scale. It's hard to belive such a tiny thing can make such loud noises with its little bubble neck.

After cleaning the swamp off of me, we went to the Arcade downtown to The Chocolate Bar. Dessert Week is winding down, but we had to find chocolate mousse before Nicole's birthday could really be considered complete. There was also more creme brulee.

3-17-2011

So when we're not loudly talking on our phones in the library, or inviting our relatives over to do our laundry on the weekends, even Asian people do Irish stuff on St. Patrick's Day. My participation in the event came by way of eating a giant pile of corned beef. My job just so happens to be down the street from one of the best corned beef places with the coolest cashiers in the area. Their counter looked like this the entire time we were there, and that's just the restaurant orders. Between the dine in and the deli side, I wonder how many cows they sold today. I think there's at least one cow's worth right here.

After work, Nicole and I went out to pick up the last of her birthday presents (above), and celebrate another night of Dessert Week. The dessert of tonight is raspberry creme brulee and martinis. I think martinis are about as socially opposite as you can possibly get from green beer. Nicole thinks they deserve the pinkie out salute and that creme brulee is just good.

So the present that Nicole got is a Nespresso Pixie espresso maker. She went to the store to buy some other version, but was surprised with this brand new model that they just released today. Fancy colors are a big deal. It was a birthday miracle. It uses these little capsules with confusing names to make coffee. Nicole also got this Aeroccino automatic milk frother. These machines combine to make magical lattes that we hope will work like methadone to ween Nicole off of her Starbucks addiction.

3-16-2011

When Nicole gets excited, she likes to knock over trees with her bare hands. I do my best not to encourage this behaviour since I like trees, but clearly she's pretty excited about tonight's dessert. We went out for Thai food with my parents. My father was very happy to show me what he's been doing with his fancy new iPad 2. Steve Jobs would be so proud. This is Black Sticky Rice Pudding and it's one of Nicole's favorite things (this is just what the internet calls it. The menu had a more authentic sounding name, but I can't remember what it was). Fortune cookies were a bonus dessert that Nicole is also very fond of. Then we had dinner with Snake Snake, but I won't post any other pictures because he's fond of eating gross stuff.

3-15-2011

Are you sick of Bearcubapalooza 2011 yet? Because we aren't. It's only Tuesday and we're still going all out. Today, "going all out" means buying tons of dresses. Like all of the dresses. For real. Then we ate all of the dessert. Because it's Dessert Week. Tonight's stop is Presti's Italian Pastry in Little Italy for cannoli. It looks kind of funny pluralized without an s, but "cannoli" means more than just one. I told you we ate all the dessert.

3-14-2011

Although Bearcub Birthday Extravaganza requires a week long celebration, the actual calendar date is today. So tonight we got all fancy for fancy food from Fahrenheit. These fried mushrooms with truffle oil were my favorite. Continuing Dessert Week, here are mascarpone filled eclairs. I know I post too many pictures of food, but get ready for even more because this week is just getting started.

3-13-2011

Today is day two of Bearcub Birthday Party All the Time Week. Today Nicole's family drove us to Pickle Bill's so Nicole could eat crab legs. Four buckets of crab legs. I ate "fameous" fried pickles. Nicole's mom just got eaten. We also drank champagne and made new friends. I kind of wish these people were my friends. Even though she already had the restaurant cake (above), Nicole also had a birthday cupcake at home. This brings up two points. First, the candles are indeed correct. Nicole is actually only turning one year old. Second, all this over indulgent dessert eating is actually part of a preordained event we're having called "Dessert Week." Yesterday it was the cotton candy, today cake(s), and every day for the rest of the week we'll be eating various other desserts. Why you hating?

After nap time, we went to see Tony Preto look pretty and play music. Blurry birthday shots and dance party all night. Why you still hating?

3-12-2011

Baby Lily called today to tell Nicole that it was time to open her present and begin Bearcub Birthday Celebration Week 2011. Her rabbit teeth mean she was satisfied with Nicole's reaction to her gift. Our cats were also very satisfied with the gift (if you include the packaging). Mushroom announced to the neighborhood that she had cotton candy and they don't while Sienna was in and out. This is a way better gift than what I got for Nicole. Who doesn't want a machine that turns these pink rocks into candy? Cooking candy for breakfast. Another pinkies out food. I thought we should probably go to a diner to have real breakfast before continuing our cotton candy mission. See, the machine not only runs on pink rocks, but can turn pretty much any kind of hard candy into cotton candy. That's where this place comes in. What are we doing here? Filling baskets of course. I can't even explain how many aisles of full of candy this store has. It's like the Costo or Ikea of candy. They have bulk candy that you buy by how many pounds you want to add to your gut. They have so much candy that Nicole had to call people to even know what to do with it all. Remember that empty basket? This picture doesn't really show how full it got. It got so heavy that I think Nicole only quit shopping because her arm got too tired to hold it anymore. This is what rootbeer candy that I smashed with a wrench looks like. This is what rootbeer cotton candy floating in the atmosphere looks like. Mushroom likes it, but not as much as Sienna. Neither of them like cotton candy as much as Nicole likes her new birthday shoes. Then we did dinner and art show stuff that I didn't take pictures of. Nicole had me drink the horse because she liked how the bottle looked. I like how this looked.

3-11-2011

After a number of word of mouth recommendations to come here, we took Cheeseburger Tour to Burgers-N-Beer. After hearing so many people rave about their burgers, we were curious to know why they were so special. First, they come on garlic bread, and though it looks like a normal burger patty, they're actually stuffed with stuff like cheese or peppers. I think the pinkie out is Nicole's gesture of approval. I also learned that onion rings with honey mustard are worth clogging arteries for.

3-10-2011

Do you remember my co-worker's head from 4-12-10? Well that head came to work today looking like this. Do you remember that knife I got last weekend? I think you know where this is going. "Look! It's working!" "Maybe we should try something sharper." Now I'm not quite sure when or how it happened exactly...but this is pretty clear proof that I'm not old enough to be allowed to own sharp objects. Sorry, Jared. "All better now!"

I can't get away from things that look like bloody crime scenes today. I spent my night making a mess in an empty diner.

3-9-2011

So I've posted before about going to see bands just for the nostalgia factor. Seeing Mineral play a show would be the absolute ultimate for this, but I doubt that this will ever happen. The second best band to me would probably be The Get Up Kids. They just released a new album, so I was really on the fence about going at all. I didn't want to go see one of my favorite bands ever just to have my memory of them ruined by...we'll I'll try and explain better as we go. So after researching the setlists of their most recent shows online, I was satisfied that they would play enough of their "classics" for me to impulsively throw down on ticket money. Long story short, the show was really fun. Lots of hand claps and sing alongs which can only be expected from a crowd full of people who have spent the last fourteen years in love with some of the catchiest and most fun teenage angst ridden songs ever written. The only bummer were the new songs. I feel really bad saying that though so let me try and clarify. To the crowd (including me), The Get Up Kids are totally reminiscent of formative years and teenage experiences. I mean, all the lyrics are about formative years and teenage experiences. So it's fun to take a step back in time and fondly recollect those feelings and memories. To the band, I think the situation is significantly different. The band didn't lock themselves away in a high school year book, they grew up just like everyone else...probably more than everyone else really with all the touring and public attention as the "big deal band" of an entire musical genre. So after a long hiatus doing real life stuff, I feel really bad that they would slave away trying to write, record, release and tour on music that I'm sure is much more relevant to the current state of what they're about, just to have drunk dudes that wish they were still in high school yelling "play your old shit!" in the middle of a song (I swear that wasn't me...though I might have been thinking it too). I'm sure the last thing the band really wants to do is play the same ten songs they've been playing for the past fourteen years over and over again. A few times in the show I wondered if they were kind of just over it. I don't really know why I'm getting all introspective writing all this nonsense about the career arc of a band, so here are the pictures from the show. Needless to say, I still love TGUK.

Bass
Keys
Guitar
Chucks

Jim Suptic
two
three
four
five
six

Robert Pope
two
three
four

Ryan Pope
two (note the Steve Zissou looking creeper in the background. That's their keyboard player. I think they're embarassed of him because they made him play the whole show in a dark corner in the back).

Matthew Pryor
two
three
four got me spotted

3-8-2011

After yesterday's Blue Screen adventure, it's only fitting that I would wake up to another colorful message.

This is not a donut. It is a Pączki. Every year, people observe a hallowed day of gluttony called Fat Tuesday. This is the kind of religious behaviour that I can get into. In addition to the international celebration of Mardi Gras, there's also a much more localized Midwest tradition of Pączki Day, introduced to the region by Polish immigrants. You can read all about this on Wikipedia (which is where I'm getting my information from anyway), but all I'm saying is that there's a Fancy Donut religion and I'm way into participating.

3-7-2011

Childhood Jon looks over my work computer as it Blue Screen of Dies. Happy Monday!

P.s. I'm uploading more cat pictures because I think they're funny.

3-6-2011

I woke up this morning and saw something strange on my car. Upon further investigation, the flock of turkey vultures that live in my back yard came back from their seasonal vacation too soon, and got snowed and freezing rained on their backs all last night. The big birds were shivering cold and having a hard time flying (without crashing into cars).

Here are some more since it seems like they're flying again now.

3-5-2011

I took way too many pictures today, so I'm going to try and keep this as concise as possible. We woke up way too early on a weekend to get in a car and drive to the tropical paradise of Erie Pennsylvania. First stop was a place called Big Woodie's with digital signage advertising throwing stars, pepper spray, stun guns, and swords in the window. They weren't lying about anything. Especially the swords. It was a bit like being a kid in a candy store...but it was literally a candy store too. I almost bought this knife from this gentleman. Knives are made for cutting things, but luckily Antoinette was already considering bleeding a lot today. Considering this. This is what a tattoo shop looks like in a power outage. The power came back on and stayed on for Joel to draw flowers with his flower machine and Antoinette to bleed some more. Maybe she took a nap. I wandered around with a camera (imagine that). I found tubes and Ben. Woody went to the spa to get his legs shaved, and Victor colored. Yesterday I said Cheeseburger Tour was canceled this weekend, but that was only partially true. This is the Erie Co-Op's cafe, the home of my favorite lentil and nut veggie burger ever anywhere. Ladies eat with their pinkies out. I think this face means Nicole likes it, even if it's not made out of animal. Knives Out the gang. We stayed until night time then it was back in the car with shanks and Shamrock Shakes. The End.

3-4-2011

Unfortunately Cheeseburger Tour is canceled this weekend. We'll be doing other stuff so it just wont be possible. To make up for the lack of ritualistically eating a copious amount of meat this weekend, we're eating a copious amount of meat tonight! I think that short of Brazilian barbecue, which is the absolute ultimate in carnivorous decadence, Korean barbecue comes in as a close second. So of course, that's where we're going. Beyond the giant pile of meat that you grill yourself and cut with scissors, I'm really into all the little pickled dishes that they give you on the side. And the garlic. So much garlic. I guess there's a whole technique to how you're supposed to combine the ingredients into a little lettuce wrap/ball/bite. I'm bad at all of that. I just make this then shove it in the gaping hole in my face. I suggest everyone does this as much as possible. I don't know why there aren't more Korean barbecue restaurants all over the place around here. I really think someone should just rename all of those hard to pronounce dishes and make a truck load of money selling this stuff to all the white people in the suburbs. On the topic of renaming things, my blog should really be called I Eat Every Day.