Biggest Loser Math

Next week is the finale and per usual, I wanted to take a look at who can win. This is a little bitter sweet to me because I DO NOT like the sisters at all. I never did. When they celebrated when Austin didn't have a good weigh-in, that cemented it for me. I really hope they go down in the finals. UGH! Let's mathematically see if it is possible!

Irene - Age 26 - Height 5'4" - The biggest loser on campus is in my mind, the front runner to win it all. I hope she gets voted back on and wins it. She started off at 255 lbs. She is already at 144. If it is an all girl final, 50% loss should be enough to win it. So 127.5 lbs or only another 17 lbs for her could give her title of biggest loser.

Jay - Age 53 - Height 5'11" - I also think Jay has a really good shot at winning it all if he makes it into the finals. My biggest question mark is his age. He weighted 400 lbs at the beginning. At 5'11", he could get easily down to 185 with his height and frame. When he left the ranch he was 242 lbs. Can we lose another 60 lbs before the finale? I am not so sure.

Olivia - Age 35 - Height 5'9" - Ugh, the sisters...So, she started the season at 261 lbs. She left campus at 149. At 5'9", how much more is she going to lose? really???? I think 50% loss is the target here. I am going to be shocked if she gets down to 135.

Hanna - Age 32 - Height 5'8" - She was my least favorite but I will give the sisters credit, they made it to the end. She started at 248 lbs. She is now at 146 lbs. Again, with her height, I have a hard time seeing her end up at 124. She will probably be in the high 130s at the finale.

If Jay makes the finale, it is in his hands if he wins it or not. I think the sisters actually have a better chance against Jay than Irene.

If Irene gets into the finale, I think she wins it. Now excuse me while I go vote for Irene.

A monther and daughter moment????

I can't take these two anywhere!

I heart Michael Pollan

This youtube is great. It may seem self explanatory but I bet no one ever thinks about it. He is breaking down how and why supermarkets are set up the way they are.

Nashville!!!

Well, Michelle's golden birthday is this weekend and taking a page out of my playbook, we are celebrating her birthday in Nashville. Not out of my playbook though is that fact that she will be running the Nashville half marathon on her birthday. CRAZY!!!!

I am excited to head down to Nashville. Anyone who knows me knows I love that city. It also helps that Barry lives there.

Well, Samantha before she turned 2 went on 10 round trip flights. Yes, 10 and they were all FREE!

Tomorrow will be her first flight and we printed out her first boarding pass. I really like that her first boarding pass is to Nashville! Seem silly I know but I like it.

What I don't like is paying for three flights...WTF! hahaha.

This weekend should be a great time and I am looking forward to spending time with friends and family.

Run Michelle Run and welcome to the 30s club!

Forks over Knives

I am glad this is becoming more and more mainstream way of thinking. Consider me fired up about this documentary. I also highly recommend The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollen if you want to read up on the biggest problem in our country. I warn you though that it is not an easy read.

The Girl and The Goat

Kate Cheeseman, a friend and fellow fan of Top Chef, had reservations at the Girl and The Goat for last Friday but could not use them. She sent an email out to a group of us asking if anyone wanted them and I jumped all over it.

The Girl and the Goat is a fairly new restaurant (summer of 2010) that was opened by Top Chef winner from season 4, Stephanie Izard. Honestly, I have heard nothing but good things from everyone who has been there. The reservation was for 4 people so the Ploths decided to go with us and I decided to keep a small running diary of the experience. The italics is exactly what I wrote on Friday night.

Thanks Cheeseman! - A little setup - 6 pm reservation started with a beer at Ploths' house before walking over to the restaurant.

Avery ellie's brown for my cuz! - dog pic on the front. Good tasting beer. Very smooth. - They had a really good beer selection. I was very surprised by the beer selection. This beer is from Boulder, CO and Colorado University has interest in my cousin, Autumn. Soooooo, I decided to order it.

Bridgeport kingpin- oregon oldest craft brewery...who knew? Double red ale - not hoppy... I like it. - The 2nd and last beer of the night for me was a double red ale. I took a gamble and I won! It was not hoppy. Me and hops do not mix! 1st round - Before we get started, here are a few pics.

Alcohol list - Beer list in the middle.


Place setting...


The specials...


Here is the menu. I am bummed this pic ended up blurry. The top is labeled v, f and m for vegetables, fish and meat.


Bread - fat and - liver butter is incredible!!! - I am not a bread guy but I loved this butter!!!
culture club - cheddar sour dough - ok but liver butter blows it away. - We got 2 breads...Yep.

V-
roasted cauliflower - 6th thing to arrive. Really like the jalapeno with it. This is what everyone says to try. Pine nuts good! - Everyone I talked to said try this and it was very good.

Sp gratin- 7th and final is this. Looks like onion rings. Super thin, deep fried sweet potatoe. Yes! Sweet pot casserole underneath with crispy sweet potatoe slices...wow. Blue cheese too, sweet flavor...word pun! - The strange part was we got our veggies last. It was clearly a mistake by someone but it did not matter. The sweet potato gratin was sooo good. Great way to end the meal.

F- escargot ravioli - 3rd out. Like that plates come out 1 at a time - These plates are meant to be shared but instead of 3 or 4 plates coming out and overwhelming you, they came out one at a time (except for dessert). I really like this. The most we ever had was two plates at the table.

Grilled baby octopus - 1st dish out. Really good. Good flavor. Let's be honest. My pallet isn't very good. - Nothing to add.

M - goat pork veal sugo- 2nd - noodle type lasagne with 3 meats. Good as usual. The spice kick is great. - This was my 2nd favorite thing we had.

Roasted pork shank - 5th out- little strange that we didn't get veggies. This looks great. The meat fell off the leg. The sweet sauerkraut with it was really to my liking. - It is always a good sign when you don't need a knife to cut the meat.

2- smoked goat empinadas - 4th out- mmm deep fried spicy yummness! I like! Best dish so far - I would go back for these. We ordered two plates of these since one plate only had two pieces on it. It was a GREAT decision by us.

2nd rd-dessert-



Choc cake and things- The actual dessert was bittersweet chocolate, shiitake gelato, toffee creme fraiche. I really liked it. It was my favorite dessert by far.

Rhubarb-n-lemon - This came in a glass jar. You need to get the spoon down to get a good bite. It was good. Nothing here was bad.

Goat cheese(juliana) - Ploth and I decided to get some goat cheese as well. Why not?

Sidenote: tim burton esque phot is the only art in the place. Creepy. Very creepy. - The only art in the building on our side atleast is a giant pic that looks like a came out of a Tim burton movie (ie Edward Scissor hands). It creeped me out.

In the end, I was glad that we were able to take the reservations (thank you mom and dad for watching Samantha). Dinner was about 2 hours long and I was shocked at how busy the place was even at 6 pm.

I wish I could tell you we went home after dinner but instead we went to the ploths for a chocolate martini, karaoke and Euchre. Good times by all!

Goodbye Edge!

I grew up watching wrestling. I am not talking about amateur wrestling (which I also like) but professional wrestling. The Road Warriors were my favorite as was Hulk Hogan. I could go on and on about how much wrestling has influenced me (good or bad...). As I got older, as expected, I did not watch as much. Although I will give credit where credit is due, Stone Cold and the Rock took the WWE to places I never thought it would go when it comes to popularity. When the Rock retired from wrestling 7 years ago, I did too. Life gets busy and I walked away from it. I always kept an eye on it but I do not watch it religiously like I used to.

As I said earlier, the Road Warriors were my all-time favorite. I love tag team matches. I love the teamwork in those matches and having multiple things going on. Something I remember from the early 2000s were the matches of the Hardys vs Edge and Christian. These two teams pushed each other so much that things got dangerous and crazy. I am talking matches with people falling from 15 foot ladders, falling into the concrete outside the ring, dropping 20-30 feet onto just mats. These matches will always be legendary. These two teams always and I mean always had good to great matches.

Wrestling is scripted but there no way to stop yourself from getting hurt and this brings me to Edge. After talking to doctors, he is retiring abruptly from WWE because of his spinal condition (he has the same problem as Stone Cold). He had a metal plate put into his neck in 2003 and things are worse now. No kidding...those ladder matches were insane!

I have the honor of meeting him in an airport once and he was a nice, down to earth person. Edge was a superstar, one of the very best, always had good matches. Hell, last Wrestlemania, his match was one of the best.

Edge was a different wrestler. WWE is a scary business and doesn't get enough scrutiny for what they put these wrestlers through. These guys travel 300 days a year and end up addicted to pain killers and alcohol. I do not know Edge personally but he seems like a very level headed individual. I mean he has a reputation of being a guy who saved his money over the years and he also listened to his doctors . Sound like a wrestler to you? Nope - me neither.

Edge is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. Goodbye Edge. Enjoy retirement! Below is tribute I found on youtube.