When Butter Met Bread

It’s an outright shame that the combination of bread and butter (or butter-like spread) is considered “unhealthy.” I do love the combination so, so much I never considered the threat of going to jail and only being served bread and water as much of a threat when I was a child.

Through The Looking Glasses
There are five days a year that I yearn for a girlfriend/wife:

1. New Year’s Eve
2. Valentine’s Day
3. My birthday
4. Christmas
5. The day I have to make a decision about eyeglass frames

I would love to have the girl of my dreams present to help me pick out eyeglass frames. In past years I’ve had very generous female friends offer to help, but it’s just not the same as they have no real vested interest.

Blarg.

Yesterday I went and picked up my new glasses — making it the optometrist with little time to spare thanks to Atlanta’s shitty traffic/drivers. With my wide-set eyes and a high nose bridge my options are somewhat limited. I’ve gone back to a rectangular style (perhaps there will be a self-portrait tomorrow depending on my attitude upon arriving home tonight. I don’t know though, because my hair actually looks sooo much better in the morning…) like those I’ve had in the past.

ITP Flickr Pick
Hey look! A photo from the recent archive! I guess I should have taken a self-portrait with my new spectacles last night. But I didn’t.

This is my “artistic” take which looks like an accidentally taken iPhone photo using the Hipstamatic app.

RealiTV Update: Top Chef — Now With 100% Less Gorgeous Woman
Hmmm, that might have been a spoiler. Or perhaps not.

After a week off Top Chef has returned!

ITP-Reader Betsy came over to the house last night, two dogs in tow, and carrying a bag of food for our consumption. Betsy had made a Potato-Leek Soup straight from Top Cheftestant Tom Collichio’s cookbook and also brought over a loaf of bread, the makings of a spinach salad, and a previously-opened but still wonderful bottle of prosecco. I supplied a bottle of red wine that I purchased from the Candler Park Market on my way home from work/optometrist, and some “croutons” which I made from the final heel of a loaf of wheat bread I cranked out last week. Look at us being all Top Cheffy and shit! Oh, back to the show…

Seems as if old Tom Colicchio has been champing at the bit to get back to his cookbook days (and may wish for the hair he had back then too), so he played “substitute guest chef” and cranked out what appeared to be an awesome fish dish in 8:37. That was the mark for the all-star cheftestants to make, though they were not forced to copy TC’s dish. I like to see all-star cheftestants fail occasionally (there’s that misspelled word again!!!) and Dale (the lone remaining Dale) and Jaime supplied with much joy. In the end it was Mike I-Can’t-Believe-I-Ate-The-Whole-Thing who waddled out of the GE-Monogram-Fully-Swanson-Stock-Stocked Top Chef Kitchen to claim his immunity, cash prize, and new Toyota Prius.

Hey, who want’s to buy some “‘Top Chef’-Endorsed Quickfire Wine?” Blarg.

Now it’s time to do some chef chopping, though I’m hoping that it’s a figurative phrase this week as I’ve already seen too much actual bloodshed this season.

Cue Chinatown scenes, we’re doing some dim sum today!

Each cheftestant had to prepare at least one dim sum dish for the real McCoys, we are talking people who don’t speak English here. In New York? That’s fuckin’ unbelievable! What confused me was that three cheftestants also volunteered to help serve, so with his new-found immunity Mike I didn’t have to worry about having more chins than a Chinese phonebook for this Elimination (Speed) Challenge and played the role of Expeditor (nice graphics there, Bravo) and Casey — my pretty Casey — and Carla volunteered to be food runners. Dim(sum)-witted move ladies, this is Top Chef, not Top Server. Your asses should be in the kitchen cooking, and I don’t mean that in a demeaning way. In the end Casey’s abhorrent-looking chicken feet served over a leaden omelette caused her to get booted from the show. Blarg!

You dim sum, you lose some. (pun completely stolen from Bravo’s website)

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – not bad, still missing connections but hey, at least I have bread and butter
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – Since my departure from del.icio.us I’ve yet to import my bookmarks into Evernote. So, you may see a site or two I’ve chosen in the past. Garden Fork and its sister-podcast Garden Fork Radio provide me with hours of entertainment.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – Feb 1

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~3 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 6 flights

Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 6 (6)

Vegetarian Days – 0
Carnivorous Days – 5

Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

January Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run no fewer than 75 miles
– Prepare Sharpened Stone, LLC for 2011 so that I get no more penalties
– Lose two pounds
– Eat vegetarian at least one day a week
– A couple of goals which I will not divulge
– Eat lunch out no more than twice a week
– Limit myself to eating dinner out on laundry nights, meeting nights, and dates

2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
– Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two half-marathons
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]