Nothing New

Song of the Day: “Cherry, Cherry” by Neil Diamond

So yeah, not much new is going on.  Hence why I haven’t posted anything in a while.  I don’t really have anything to write about, but I feel somewhat guilty about completely abandoning my goal of posting three times a week.  So I figure I will just write some nonsense to fill up space.

Classes ended last week, and all this week is crunch time.  I’ve spent almost the entire weekend studying, with the daily trip to the gym.  I’m still sticking strong with my exercise program, which is working well.  I have definitely noticed an improvement, albeit a small one.  Nevertheless I am happy with my progress and it is awesome that I have such a great motivator to get outside during this stressful week.  I know things have just gone to shit when I stop doing the things I love to do, like going to the gym and cooking.  I have stopped cooking for the most part, but I think that’s because I’ve ran out of vegetables and ingredients, and I’m too lazy to go out and get more.  I’ll have to do that sometime this week.  I have a whole lot of meat in my freezer that is just begging to be used, so I need some stuff to cook it with.

Elise sent me cookies last week.  We haven’t spoken since October, so it was very unexpected.  But like I’ve already written, I love cookies, so it was a pleasant surprise.  I’m not entirely sure what to think of her sending me them out of the blue; it is a bit confusing.  But I don’t think it matters all that much.  Maybe I’m just reading into it too much, and it was just a completely innocent, friendly gesture?  I don’t know.  Oh well, at least I get some delicious cookies out of it.

I don’t have anything else to write about, so here’s a picture of me.  Because honestly, who doesn’t enjoy seeing a picture of me?  I know I do.  And if you don’t, you’re just lying to yourself.  You know you do.

And now I’ve just finished the last cookie … damn it.

Snow!

Song of the Day: “I Want You to Want Me” by Cheap Trick

Yes, Philadelphia experienced it’s first day of snow for the season.  The temperature was just a bit below freezing during the day (it’s 28 degrees at the moment), so now much snow was sticking through mid day.  It was a beautiful day, the sun was not shinning bright but it was still pleasantly light out, and the snow was coming down in that slow lazy way that I love so much.  The city seemed almost muffled by the snow and the wind was not blowing too hard, a truly peaceful scene.

So what did I do?  I ran sprints.  I probably should have at least worn a hat, but being as stubborn as I am, I didn’t.  Nevertheless I think this just goes to show the dedication that I have towards this new exercise program I am doing.  It’s really exciting to be doing this; it seems like I am in a perpetual state of soreness which signifies that the program is working great for me.  At the moment my shoulders and neck are killing me.  It is a little more uncomfortable than I would prefer but at this point there’s not much I can do about it.

I think the main reason for this is that I performed Cleans for the first time two days ago.  I was really nervous about doing this as it is a very difficult technique to perfect, so much so that entire books have been written just on this exercise.  The clean is also on of the focal points for Olympic weight lifting.  Obviously I didn’t perform it perfectly, but I think I did pretty well.  I watched a couple videos before hand to give myself a good idea of how to do it, and I think that really payed off.  A classic mistake is to use your arms to lift the barbell from your thighs to your chest.  I noticed early on that my arms were not hurting at all, and therefore I was not really using them.  I quickly discovered that this exercise is a completely exhausting technique.  It requires explosive power in your shoulders to lift the barbell so your arms aren’t doing any work, and like I said my shoulders are killing me.

One of my favorite bands, The Drama Club, is coming to Philadelphia on the 15th.  They are a local band out of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania that my cousin turned me on to.  I’m really excited about the opportunity to go see them play, I’ve heard they are a phenomenal live band.  Other than that, not much else is new.  Today was the last day of class for me, hurray!  Unfortunately, that means I’m at the beginning of the end-of-semester crunch for my upcoming finals and submission of projects.  Not so much hurray there.

I Love Cookies

Song of the Day: “Push” by Matchbox 20

Cookies are like crack to me, I love them so much. I can easily hose an entire sleeve of cookies, no problem. Chocolate chip is definitely my favorite, there is no equal to a well made chocolate chip cookie. I do have a soft spot for shortbread cookies too; they are definitely a close second. I’d have to say that one of the best advantages to having little girls as relatives is that they sell girl scout cookies. Currently I have 10 boxes of girl scout cookies in my apartment and I could not be happier. I know cookies are bad for me and if I eat them too much I’ll get fat, but I don’t care they are so damned good.

Contrary to the current trend in my life, a lot has happened in the past week. First off, I had a very successful cooking experiment. Well, I guess it wasn’t too much of an experiment because what I made is based off a tried and true formula, but nonetheless I just winged it with my ingredients and technique and it turned out great. I made a sausage ragu which I have transcribed to the best of my knowledge (I was drinking wine that night, so give me a break). The sausage I used was a smoky andouillie (sp?), which is why I used the cumin and crushed red pepper. I just love that smoky, slightly spicy flavor. If you are using a different type of sausage, adjust which spices you use accordingly.

In a small pot, heat 2 tbps of butter with 2 tbps of olive oil. Once heated, add 1/2 medium-size sweet onion, 2 carrots, and 1 green pepper (all diced). Add a couple dashes of cumin and crushed red pepper. With these spices don’t be afraid to be generous with the cumin, I just love that smokey flavor and it goes right along with the sausage. Be careful how much red pepper you use, it has a very strong, very spicy flavor that can overpower the other flavors. Cover and cook over low heat until vegetables are softened (about 10 to 15 minutes).

While the vegetables are cooking, take 1/2 lb of sausage (usually just two links) a sear the outside on a grill or in a saucepan for about 3 minutes, turning occasionally. Remove the sausage and slice them in half length-wise, then slice it cross-wise at about 1/4″ intervals. At this point the sausage will probably start to fall apart because there is no casing to hold it together, that’s okay, it will fall apart in the sauce anyway.

A few minutes before the vegetables are done, add the sausage. Once the sausage is cooked through, add 3 tbps of tomato paste and 1/2 cup of water. Stir until everything is mixed together, and let simmer for a few minutes uncovered until the sauce thickens. Once it is at the consistency you desire, throw over pasta and enjoy! Oh, and don’t forget to season with salt and pepper to taste (duh).

So that’s that. It was a very successful recipe that I definitely plan on revisiting with other types of sausages and spices to see what kind of flavor combinations I can get.

Thursday my friend Christian had an extra ticket to a band called Cold War Kids. At this point I’ll take any excuse to get out of my apartment and socialize, so I jumped at the offer. Their music turned out to be pretty enjoyable, and there was a bar inside to boot. So overall it was a successful endeavor. Friday was the second to last night of a play directed by one of Christian’s friends, so I went to that. The play is called “The Faculty Room”. It takes place in the faculty room (shocking, I know) of a backwater high school where the teachers are doing drugs and having sex with the students. It has huge religious undertones and social commentary on the failure of the public school systems. All in all a very enjoyable play. We ended the night by having a few beers with the director and creative director of the theatre company, which was interesting to say the least.

Yesterday I started a new exercise program provided to me by Taylor, my neighbor back home. He told me that this program is the most effective he’s ever done, so I figured I’d give it a try. Well it’s only been two days and I am already a believer. I spent a mere 45 minutes in the gym on Friday and I am still hurting from it. I did sprints today and at the end of it I thought I was going to die, it only lasted 25 minutes and it was that intense. This program has two parts: all-body weight training and high intensity aerobic exercises. The weight training is very short, but very intense. All of the exercises use multiple muscle groups and rely on your stabilizer muscles. This is the key to the program, because you are constantly using these muscles to keep your balance under a lot of weight, they are worked really hard. You end up working pretty much every muscle in your body and damn does it hurt afterwards.

The aerobic exercises simply intervals of low intensity and high intensity work. I chose to do sprints but you can really do any kind if you want. You sprint for a short period, then jog, then back to sprinting, then jog. The purpose is to train your metabolism to react quickly with explosive energy. Plus after doing 7 sprints for 30 seconds each (which, unfortunately for me, is the shortest sprint time) my legs were totally dead. A great workout for the lower body.

Sabres are up 8-0 right now, which is awesome. Tomorrow I will go to the gym, watch football, and (hopefully) finish one of my final projects. All in all, a great week.