Ever Watched Man Vs. Wild?

The concept: Bear Grylls, seasoned adventurer extraordinaire, is dropped off in the middle of the wilderness somewhere in the world and must survive until he can make it back to civilization.

I loved the beginning of the show where Bear would tell you about being in the British Special Air Services and how he broke his back in three places while parachuting in Africa.

After a few seasons of Man vs. Wild there was a big controversy that Bear was being helped by his crew and so when he was showing you how to survive by say building a raft out of logs and floating down a white water river, he really had a life jacket on, and so was potentially encouraging people to place themselves in dangerous situations. So then Survivorman came out and was supposed to be more realistic. I tried to watch this new show, but what I discovered is I didn't care how fake Man vs. Wild was. I was only watching the show for British born cutie, Bear Grylls. I just loved the funny things he would say and that accent.

When I saw this commercial. I was, of course, delighted. I also find it quite hilarious.

What I Like About Who

My sister and I have been watching the new Doctor Who for our weekly get together and we finally finished the 5th season (all that is currently available in the US). Before starting, I'd heard from other people that the first Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, is their least favorite Doctor, but man it was hard sticking it out even with the warning.

Fortunately, the second season was a vast improvement over the first both in the new Doctor, David Tenant, and in the story. I actually became quite fond of David Tenant in the end.

What I liked most about the show was the emphasis on what amazing beings we humans are, and not just humanity as a whole, but how important we are as individuals. There were several episodes where a minor or supporting character, even though they think their life is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, is shown to be invaluable to the progression of the entire universe.

Example quote:
The Doctor: "Who's that?" (asking about a woman that has been cryogenically frozen)
Scrooge like character: "Nobody important."
The Doctor: "In 900 years of space and time travel, I've never met anyone who wasn't important."

I must say I quite liked that theme.

Yeah, I've Been Eating Out A Lot

But I've had really good reasons. I promise.

Mazza - Middle Eastern food to go with our Middle Eastern Sundance Film

This is my second time eating at this restaurant. I can't say I've had a lot of experience with Middle Eastern cuisines, but what I can say is that everything I've eaten here has been very tasty. I had the chicken and cauliflower dish and it was very good. There were also plenty of leftovers which I wasn't able to get to for two days, but they were almost as good the second time around. Which cannot be said for all restaurant foods.

Red Iguana - Mexican food to celebrate my birthday. Happy Birthday to me!

I've been here a few times, but it's one I'll always come back to. They have EXCELLENT food. This restaurant has won all kinds of awards. I usually order the Enchiladas Rancheras which has mushrooms. It's pretty rare to find a Mexican dish with mushrooms. This time I ordered the Entomatadas which is sour cream chicken enchiladas. The chicken was really good, but I didn't love the enchilada sauce.

Cafe Trio - Italian cuisine to celebrate AE becoming a Master. Congratulations!

This newer Salt Lake restaurant has been winning lots of awards. We called to make reservations, but they told us to call back about 20 minutes before we got there and they would put us on the list. When we did this, they told us it wasn't very busy so they didn't need to take our name. Then when we got there, we had to wait at least a half hour before we were seated. That was a little odd.

I ordered the three cheese ravioli with butternut squash sauce, sage, and asiago. My food had definitely cooled while it probably waited somewhere for the rest of the table's food to get finished, and I felt like the sauce was just a little too sweet, but after the first bite or two it started to grow on me. The dining area is actually pretty small (although they do have an outdoor seating area for warmer months) and so it was really loud. Other than these few glitches I quite liked the restaurant. I think everyone that was there that night liked their food.

Thai Village - Thai food to celebrate Suzanne's birthday

There is a new restaurant or at least a new location for this restaurant just about a block south of the library. So my work friends and I decided to celebrate a birthday and a visiting former co-worker by going out to lunch.

The prices were pretty decent and the food was tasty, but that's about all I can say. The waitress was terrible. She messed up almost everyone's order and then forgot one meal entirely, so everyone got their food while one person had to wait for hers. I ordered the Masaman Curry which is one of my favorites. It tasted good, but was supposed to have chicken, potatoes, carrots, and cashews. I only found about 2 carrots and one cashew.

Station 22 - Sandwiches. Umm...because I didn't want to eat the leftovers I brought for lunch.

New restaurant in the same building Angels of Philly was once located in just a few months back. Went with Ann-Marie to check this new restaurant out.

Here's what the Mayor has to say. "Station 22 specializes in business lunches and features craft sandwiches, fresh homemade soups and a salad bar. They conceived this cafe as a place where downtown business people could safely frequent and not sacrifice their health. Watch for the locally sourced bread, compostable dishware made from recycled sources, and featured local art"

I ordered the parmesan chicken sandwich. It was very tasty and the bread was indeed excellent. We also ordered the chili cheese fries to share which were pretty good as well. I was expecting more cold cut sandwich options, but wasn't exactly disappointed when they weren't there. This restaurant also offers a variety of soups and salads.

It's for Humanity People!

Ann-Marie and I have attended the annual Food and Care Coalition fundraiser event, Bowls for Humanity, for a couple of years now.

It's quite a fun thing to do. Every March, The Food and Care Coalition gets local potters to donate bowls they have made. Then for the event you get to choose one and get it filled with yummy soup. This year I had Tomato Basil and Ann-Marie chose Beef Stew. It's quite fun looking through all the bowls and selecting which one is your favorite. Bowls are usually between $5-25. Which I think is a great deal for your very own one-of-a-kind work of art...AND it's all for a great cause.

Why I'm not a Children's Librarian

So this week is the Fairy Tea Party at the library. If you're not familiar with the Fairy Tea it's basically where little girls and their mothers dress up as fairies or in Sunday dress, eat a light catered meal, promenade in their fairy finery, and basically revel in the explosion of glitter and tulle.

The Children's librarians love this event. They spend hours making their costumes, putting their makeup on, and talking to all the little girls.


So yesterday I had a meeting in the board room which is over on the Children's side of the library. As I was walking over, I passed several fairy dolls and other fairy decor including life size fairy mannequins that rotate on pedestals and a small fairy perched on a swing inside an elaborate bird cage.

As I was passing all of this, I was laughing to myself that I found all the fairies more creepy than charming. When AE walked into the meeting, she immediately commented on the probability of having nightmares about creepy fairies.

Then Ann-Marie walked in and she mentioned that the fairy in the cage was really disturbing. We started to laugh because just about everyone that came to the meeting mentioned the creep factor of the fairies. As we were laughing CL (who is in charge of the whole event came in). Needless to say that she heartily disagreed with our assessment of the fairies. She did however, tell us that the fairy in the birdcage need not frighten anyone because she was of course trapped in her cage!

I did concede that the fairies are dark and capricious in all the adult and teen books. So maybe my point of view is a little skewed from this, but there's just something about little fairy figures with their pointy faces that creeps out a lot of adult librarians and is somehow entirely lost on the Children's librarians.

I Got Me Some Cookin' Skills

A month or so ago I tried out a new recipe. I am kind of an improvisational cook so I rarely follow a recipe exactly, but that day I did. The dish didn't turn out very well. It was really salty. As I was adding all that salt in, I thought it was a lot, but usually recipes don't have enough salt. So I figured it couldn't be that bad. Boy, was I wrong.

This got me thinking that I would really like to improve my cooking skills. I did a little searching online and discovered that UVU's Continuing Education program offers an Italian Cooking class. Well, since I love Italian and I have failed miserably in the past to make a good Alfredo sauce, I figured this would be perfect.

The classes were offered once a week through the month of February. The classes were fun and I learned a lot, but not quite as much as I was hoping to. Here are some of the things I did learn.

1. There is nothing more important than having a sharp knife to cut with. I bought a new knife after the first class and it made a WORLD of difference. Our teacher also taught us all about how to keep them sharp.
2. Alfredo sauce is the incorrect name. It is actually just called a white sauce. Alfredo is a specific sauce made in a restaurant in Italy called Alfredo's.
3. The best skill I picked up is a fast and less messy way to mince garlic. It involves salt to grind the garlic to a pulp.
4. There are indeed different qualities of chocolate and it starts with the type of cacao tree the beans come from.
5. Risotto made with chicken stock can taste like a creamier version of Rice-a-roni, but with A LOT more work involved.

Do All Cops Have Bad Taste in TV?

Being a city employee, I often exercise in the basement of the city center building where they have an employees only gym. On the plus side, it's a free gym, but ohhhhh the negative side...

Whenever I go, there are typically a few other employees exercising. More often than not these "other employees" are cops. I have discovered that cops and I don't really see eye to eye on what we like to watch on TV. If it's just on some sports show I can handle that, but that's the best it gets. Try watching the golf channel (yes, an entire channel devoted to golf). Even worse is watching Bambi get shot on a show about hunting, or political pundit talk shows like Bill O'Reilly, bleargh...

Last week, we hit a new low, however.

Spike TV apparently has this show call 1000 Ways to Die. It is HORRIBLE!!! From what I could tell (since I was mostly busy trying to look away) it gruesomely re-enacts stories of the strangest ways people have died. Every time it got to the part where the person would die, one of the copper guys would walk over and stand in front of the TV and laugh.

Did I mention it was horrible?!?