A picture from the NY Times taken at a gas station in Nashville.  A reason not to use Premium or have kids…

Oh my gosh…seriously…they’re back. It feels like just yesterday, as well as, a lifetime ago. I can still picture it. “The Right Stuff” video, Jordan running around a cemetary…I was in love, with bad hair and worse clothes (although they seem to be back in style in Brooklyn these days). Knew every song by heart, chose Joey as my fave, and had every BOP and Tiger Beat poster on my wall, along with big buttons with his picture. NKOTB was everywhere. My mom was even sweet enough to take us to the concert, where we yelled and sang and managed to come home with black t-shirts with fluorescent puff writing. It was my first concert, and I will never forget it. I had all of the VHS tapes, cassettes, trading cards and anything else considered cool. It was a great time to be a kid in love and better yet, to have 5 hot guys to choose from.

Now those memories come racing back as the announcement of the New Kids reunion surfaces. They’re men now, almost 15 years older. And I am almost 30. It’s a perfect time to reflect back on those years as I get ready to move into a new age bracket. It’s almost surreal. I find out about this and also have a dream about my best friend from that time period whom I just got in touch with for the first time in about as many years as it’s been since I’ve thought about New Kids on the Block. She was my sidekick, as we watched Jordan and the boys for the first time. Jordan was my first crush, but I switched as soon as I saw Joey sing “Please Don’t Go Girl.” I’ll never forget her room…her wall of fame outdid mine any day. Agghhh…those were the days.

Anyway…for those of you who can relate…check out their website and read up on all of the latest news on their up and coming album and tour. It’s worth the walk down memory lane.

Well…have to go watch some more videos on youtube.

I wasn’t too happy with the look of the most recent layout…so I’m in the process of finding something that fits me a little better.  The problem is…everytime I decide to do something like this, I end up spending hours and hours consuming more and more information.  Not bad.  Just wish I had more time to invest in everything that I want to know more about.  Don’t think this is the look I’m going for…but for now it is more appealing to me than the previous one.  So please excuse the ‘work in progress’.

What will you do to honor the Earth today and every day after?

Yes…we ate at Rooster’s 3 more times last week. And it satisfied just the same as the first. We did go on to try several other dishes and 3 more new cheeses - cana de cabra, mahon, and garrotxa. Our eating experience consisted of: a beautifully tender ribeye fillet, sea scallops, fried artichoke salad, the best onion rings, au gratin potatoes, lemon ricotta gnocchi, mushroom fregola, buttered butter beans, fingerling potatoes and the yummiest, creamiest pistachio gelato. I know it sounds like so much food, which it was, but thankfully the portions are really great and not enormous…just enough to share amongst the table. And I couldn’t leave without a bottle of the Rooster’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil…specially pressed in Italy for Chef Jim Noble. This is and has always been the best part of traveling with work.

I was in Charlotte, NC working (more on that later) all week and will be headed back on Monday.  But I really had to post about a couple of fabulous dinners that we enjoyed. First, because I was so impressed that this sort of unique restaurant exists in the South and secondly, because the food was really wonderful. Unfortunately, the South does get a bad rap when speaking of great culinary finds. Most of what is talked about in this area of the country pertains to “down-home” cookin’ and bbq.  Outside of that, you’re choices are somehow limited to your ‘run-of-the-mill’ chain restaurants.  But after pickin’ the brain of the Controller here, we managed to come up with more than one recommendation on where to find some of Charlotte’s finest food.

Rooster’s happened to be the first one we tried (after not being able to get near the original choice). But it made me wonder…if this was our back-up, then I am looking forward to trying the others.

Everything about the meal was exquisite.  The aesthetics and design of the physical space was unique, well thought-out, rustic and warm.  The humming of the young chefs working in the open kitchen added to the ambiance, but somehow didn’t invade on it.  The cuisine was a beautiful selection of Spanish, Italian and French influenced a la carte tapas type items.  We started with a lovely salami and selection of cheeses.  The cheeses were excellent…a smooth and creamy Goat Lady chevre, a parmesan-like sheep’s milk cheese - idiazabal, and a semi-hard and mild cow’s milk blue cheese - fourme d’ambert.  I chose the salmon as my protein, and we shared sides of pan-fried corn, sauteed swiss chard with pickled onions, and roasted asparagus.  All of it was amazing!  And in perfect portions, which allowed room for dessert.  The choices were all tempting, but the winner was a warm chocolate cake with peanut butter gelato and bruleed bananas.  Yes, it was absolutely as good as it sounds!! 

The next night we were treated to another lovely dinner at Noble’s Restaurant, owned by the same chef as Rooster’s.  Again, the atmosphere was rustic and warm, but made to feel more like an Italian villa.  The service was top-notch.  The food was impeccable - fresh and high quality.  A small taste of tuna tartare was brought out before we received our appetizer.  Having never eaten anything tartare, I was a little apprehensive, but it was delicate, rich and quite tasty.  Our appetizer was made to order, consisting of a large scallop, shrimp and crab cake.  My entree of Braised Beef Shortribs with candied beets, carrots and brussel sprouts was excellent; however, very rich.  The meat simply melted, and the vegetables were pure bliss.  And for me to say that, says alot.  It is yet another affirmation of how much of a difference there is when eating fresh, local ingredients.  And somehow, we managed to find room for the much-talked about coconut cake, with creme anglaise and chantilly, accompanied by a french press of beautiful Sumatra coffee.  I was officially and utterly full! 

Headed back to Charlotte this week…and hoping we can fit in one more dinner at Rooster’s (since I’m assuming our bill at Noble’s was more than enough damage for one trip!).

Push-ups that is. This is the one exercise that not only I have lived by, but the one that each and every one of my clients HAD to do EVERY single time they trained with me. No exaggeration. Most of them hated it…whined, moaned, groaned and complained…but in the end, they still had to do it. I was able to measure their strength gains by this exercise alone.

One of my favorite client success stories revolved around push ups. She came to me and could hardly hold herself up in the plank position. So, starting there, we worked on her upper body strength and in a couple of months…she was doing her push-ups. She complained all the way through but was really, really proud of herself. Not only had she gotten stronger, but she was starting to see muscles in her arms! This was always the best part of personal training…

Anyway, the reason I’m writing about this is because I came across an article in the NY Times that first made me laugh, but secondly, supported my thoughts on how important push-ups are for EVERYONE…young and old. So, if you’re not a believer or even if you are…give it a read…and then get to doing your push-ups! Next up…pull-ups.

Picture credit.

Here are a few pictures from a couple of weekends ago…when I went up to Keystone Mountain with some friends to go snow tubing. It was alot of fun, but not the best idea to drink a beer before going down…thanks Jeff!! Unfortunately, it wasn’t too clear because a snow storm was moving in…so we weren’t able to see the surrounding mountains. But it was nice to be up there when the snow started falling!

For those of you who may not know what snow tubing is all about…well, you get in an inner tube, and a guy is standing at the top and asks if you want to spin or not. Then he proceeds to either spin you around until your head flies off or gives you a push so you go flying down the hill. We even did one run where the 3 of us held on to each other’s tubes and went down together. I think we may have been the only adults there not accompanying kids, but it was really alot of fun!!

Tubing Hill

Lining up to go down…


View from Gondola

View at the top of the Gondola
Snow Storm Coming In…

Here in Denver, the mayor is encouraging everyone to participate in Earth Hour 2008.  On Saturday, March 29, a global campaign calls on citizens worldwide to turn off their lights for 1 hour, between 8 - 9 pm.  Such a small action can have an enormous impact on our planet.  I’m in…hope you can do the same.

Keeping with the theme of last March…when we dedicated the entire month to ways to live green…I thought I would take a moment to look back and see where we stand a year later.  Although I didn’t finish the Green List (which I just thought was becoming a little too tedious), I have continued to change many things in my daily life.  Not only have I made changes, but I have become increasingly more and more aware of every little thing I do and consume. 

• I try and stay away from any unnecessary paper and plastic.  Avoiding (as much as possible) ’to go’ coffee cups, shopping bags of any sort, non-recyclable items, too much packaging, water bottles, receipts.
• Rethinking the way I consume.  Buying as much locally produced food and choosing less packaged items and/or bulk products.
• Taking time to read labels and find out exactly what is in every item.  Avoiding harsh chemicals and ingredients, instead choosing eco-friendly soaps, cleaners, and health and beauty products. This also includes staying away from additives and preservatives (words you can’t pronounce) in food, choosing less, minimally or non-processed items.
• Taking recycling, reducing, reusing to the extreme.  We recycle more than we throw away.  Buy and use less junk/stuff.  Reuse any paper cups, water bottles, plastic bread bags.  Stopped buying paper towels, ziplocs and ‘virgin’ paper products.  No more toilet paper in plastic wrapping, buying only individual rolls wrapped in paper.
• No more buying bread…only making my own.
• Unplugging all appliances that are not in use.
• CFL bulbs have become the norm not the exception. Latest News on CFLS.

Interesting Links:
MSN
Yahoo!
Lent Goes Green