Archive for the ‘Review’ Category

My Waistline Loves RPM

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

I’ve been to RPM three times now. The first time was fantastic, the second just OK, and the third amazing. On Sunday my Ma, PartyDog and I went on a date to RPM for some tasty treats. Naturally, I have to share my crappy phone pics with you.

The manager was nice enough to bring over a free little starter for our table! I believe the dish was some sort of edamame paste with smoked salmon on top. It was good but not something I would order and pay for.

Then came out quite possibly one of my favorite things I’ve ever tasted. Each time I’ve gone to RPM, I’ve ordered the zucchini thing because it so addicting and good. I don’t know how they make these but they are so freakin good.

My Ma and I love salad so we got the Italian salad that has house-made salami that we fought over.

No meal is complete without some bread so we ordered the truffled garlic bread and ate that UP.

Next came the first new to me dish! We got the lobster ravioli. Pretty darn good if I say so myself.

We got another ravioli that seriously blew my mind. It was SO good I basically licked the the plate clean.  The ravioli were stuffed with house-made mozzarella with some sort of pork-ragu that I can honestly say was the best sauce I’ve ever had.

If you ever go to RPM you have to order the Mama DiPandi’s spaghetti because it’s their signature dish and the noodles are so so good.

And last but not least, we stuffed our faces with some crispy polenta.

We all felt uncomfortably full after this great meal but it was so worth it. GO THERE NOW.

That’s all the nonsense I have for now!

Tell me a good meal you’ve had lately!

Punk the Monk 5K!

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

Saturday morning I was woken up nice and early with this text message from Katie:

You guys know I don’t run outside in anything but perfect weather so the idea of running in freezing rain in 3 inches of snow was not appealing to me. Naturally, this was my response that I sent out to all my friends running it with me:

Translation for those of you who are not trained in reading my awful texting or typing (I am seriously the worst at both in case you can’t tell from that picture): there was no way I was going to run in the cold and snow in awful weather.  After whining about it for an hour, I got my butt ready, put on my rain boots (practical to wear to a race right?) and went to Lind’s to catch my ride.

And that’s when the fun began.

Meet Ian, Lind’s boyfriend, my running partner and new BFF:

Ian and I are a match made in running partners heaven-we both could care less about our time and are more concerned about making it to the finish line for the post-run beer. Also, neither of us were too keen on running 3.25 miles in straight up snow:

That’s right people, no path.  We were on our own, in the woods, running through snow. And it was amazing.

The first half of the race FLEW by. I was so surprised we were half-way done and even MORE surprised to see my beautiful friend Alyssa working the aid station! AKA: time for a picture break.

And one with my running partner who hadn’t yet yelled at me for being too excited or for constantly taking pictures.

Picture break over, back to the race.  At this point Ian and reevaluated our goals. We started out with the sole goal of not dying and we were doing much better than expected so we upped that goal.  Muddy Monk races are very dog friendly which means 40% of people bring their dogs to run.  I’m telling you this because our new goal was to beat as many dogs as possible.  Anytime a dog passed us, I would yell at Ian that we weren’t doing so well.  I mean, I’m not bitter or anything but these dogs totally saved up till the very end and smoked us at the finish line.

Whatever, I’ll get them at the next race…

At this point, we also passed Art (the Monk) who yelled out to everyone “Hey at least I beat Kelsey!” which was much appreciated considering we were already devastated enough about those 2 cheating dogs beating us.

Whatever Art, I let you beat me since it was almost your birthday and all…ugh.

We managed to finish the race without falling once (and beat 5 dogs)! If you know me and how often I fall, that is a miracle.  I found the Monk himself not far from the finish line and forced him to take a picture with me which I can assure, he was less than happy about.

We grabbed some beers, danced to some Third Eye Blind and took an obnoxious amount of pictures.

And threatened our new blogger friend Meghan into taking some pics with us too!

This race was seriously A BLAST and I can’t wait till the next one.  Sadly my doppelganger was not to be seen (I spent a lot of time searching in the race photos for him…), BUT I did manage to take another amazing race picture:

That could honestly be my favorite race picture of all time.  I think I love it so much because I just look so happy to be out there running.  Which is why I love Muddy Monk races so much-cheap registration fees, fun trails, good beer and friends all wrapped into one event.  Have you ever seen two happier people at the end of a freezing cold run in the snow?

Though that smile on Ian’s face was most likely due to the fact that he no longer was forced to be in my company, we were smiling the entire race because it was that fun.

So in conclusion, I’m glad I didn’t bail and I love Muddy Monk.

Thank you Muddy Monk for another awesome race! And thank you to my fabulous readers who came over to say hey! You guys are the best and totes made my day!

That’s all the nonsense I have for now!

Book Review: The Hiding Place

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

Have you ever read a book that starts weird, gets really good for a few pages and then somehow ends and you’re not sure what even happened?  Meet that book:

I was really excited to read this book.  When I picked it up at a used book store and read the back cover I was immediately drawn in.  The fact that it was a national bestseller and award finalist  upped my excitement level that much more.  Once you read the description you’ll see why this book sparked my interest:

“Set in a Maltese immigrant community in Cardiff, Wales, and peopled with sharp-edged, luminously drawn characters, The Hiding Place is the story of Frankie Gauci, his wife, Mary, and their six daughters. With her “unusual gift for letting her characters’ interior lives come forth” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), Azzopardi chronicles Frankie’s unforgivable betrayal: gambling away his family’s livelihood and eventually the family itself. The Gaucis’ story is seen through the eyes of Dolores, the youngest daughter and the embodiment of bad luck in her father’s estimation, condemned to bear the mark of a family that is rapidly singeing at the edges. Dolores presents an unsparing portrayal of the fear and hopelessness of childhood amid grim poverty and neglect, of children growing up without safety nets and on sunken foundations. Sustained by a tightrope tension and a stark, youthful wisdom, The Hiding Place conjures the coarse sensuality of life among the docks, the smoky cafes and bars, the crumbling homes and gambling rooms of Tiger Bay. “Astonishing and iridescent” (The Times, London).

Sounds good right? I really love novels about family drama so I figured I would love this.  The book started pretty slow and with six different sisters, a mom, dad and all the dad’s gangster friends I pretty much had no idea who was who the entire book. Pair that with the fact that it was told from the point of view of super young (think 4 or 5) daughter it was hard to understand what was going on.  When I finally did get a grip on the story it started to get really good-for a few chapters.

I can honestly say I don’t know what this book was about and I don’t really know what happened.  When I finished it, I couldn’t summarize in my head the story or point of it all. What I do remember is constantly having to flip back pages and reread to see if I could remotely figure out what was going on.  This book took be 2 weeks to finish-which for me, is a long time. It was a super slow read and when I finally finished it I just felt so…unsatisfied.

I went onto Amazon to read the reviews and it seemed that readers either LOVED the book or didn’t understand a word of it.  I can see how people would love the story though-it’s well written and you can tell someone extremely talented and intelligent wrote it, but I honestly think I can’t even review the book because I feel  like I didn’t even read it…

Another bummer of a book!

That’s all the nonsense I have for now!

What are you currently reading??

I’m Totes a Professional Boxer Now

Thursday, February 21st, 2013

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday but you are about to see just why there was no post…

I need to tell you about my latest Living Social deal I bought:

{The best part about buying these deals is that when you buy as many as I do, you typically get vouchers (aka I paid a lot less than $64.00 for this deal). }

I’ve been interested in taking boxing classes for a while now. I’ve always heard it’s an amazing workout that gets you strong FAST. Which is what I’m all about people-BEING STRONG. I mean look at all these muscles:

As you can see, I’m all about muscles which is why I bought this deal….. Now, I’ve taken a lot of different fitness classes but i can honestly say I’ve never been nervous to take a class before. I’m fit and in shape so I figure I can at least get through the workout-this one however I wasn’t so sure about.

I’ve taken three classes now- Boxing, Kick-Boxing and Boxing 101 and have felt absolutely exhausted after each one.  During the class while I’m punching the bags and “accidentally” punching my friend who’s taking these classes with me, I felt like I had enough energy to take over the world. You’re punching, you’re kicking, you’re feeling straight up baddass (sorry mom) and the fact that your arms are shaking and feeling like jello doesn’t cross your mind once.  It’s awesome.

When you get home however, or wake up the next morning, that’s a completely different story.  The mere thought of typing up a blog post Tuesday night post-boxing class seemed like the end of the world to me (hence the no post).  I mean when you’re considering staying on the bus at 8:45 at night to avoid getting off and walking the block to your apartment, you know you’ve had an amazing workout.

The best part is the people that work at LA Boxing are so incredibly nice and accommodating. Sure it smells like a sweaty old jock strap and it’s crazy busy, but that’s part of the whole boxing experience   I really love it and will be super sad when my deal of unlimited classes expires (it’s way to $$$$ for me to continue up with it) but I definitely recommend giving it a try! The first class is free so there’s nothing to lose. I would also recommend going with a friend-boxing is sorta intimidating and the people that workout there are hardcore so having a friend to go with has definitely made it more comfortable and WAY more fun. Be warned people-these classes are NO joke, you get wrapped and wear gloves and everything…basically what I’m trying to say is I’m ready to fight Mike Tyson now.

So give it a try, and then let’s fight. And hug and makeup.

That’s all the nonsense I have for now!

Have you ever tried boxing??