Rolling out from scratch

The good news is that my feet haven't gotten too fat and my running shoes still fit. For the first time in many weeks I went for a trek on my dam trail. It was an hour-long walk punctuated with dots of jogging on the return. I don't think I'm all the way back to week-one-day-one stage of Couch-to-5K, but it certainly does feel a lot like I'm the too-heavy guy starting all over again.

Really, it's been a relief to see the weight creep back on again, because it's also a sign that I have an appetite again. When the duodenitis was at its worst -- a time I'll fondly remember as the Great Puke of 2010 -- food and I were in a period of estrangement.

I can't think of a better way to reconcile than a little fooling around in the kitchen. So this week I decided to experiment with homemade pizza, something I've been wanting to do since acquiring my beloved toaster oven with 12-inch-pie-pan-swallowing capacity. After adapting a dough recipe from the Food Network site, my first attempt emerged with a too-thick, doughy crust topped with a soggy mess of sauce. A couple nights later came beta version 2.0, where my goal was to thin out the dough and thicken the sauce.

After realizing that I didn't own a rolling pin, the improvisational center of my brain engaged and I ended up rolling this dough ball flat with a cold can of Coke Zero from the refrigerator. I won't be a competitive threat to Domino's but I can say that 22 minutes later, I was devouring a very-edible spinach-and-steak pizza. We must do this again sometime.

Today is the fifth anniversary of my first half marathon. Now those were the days -- 2006 was the last time the Houston Marathon event was under cap. People could actually walk into the expo on Saturday and register to run in the morning. Ain't that quaint? That was also back when I thought a finisher medal was the coolest trinket ever. (Today I still think they make really nifty Christmas tree ornaments.)

As I mentioned in my last post, I took the deferment option out of this year's Aramco half. But I plan to be out on the course on race day as a volunteer. So for those of you still running: Have a great race day and I apologize in advance if we inadvertently send you merging onto the Pierce Elevated.

By the Book

At a minimum, I need to drop 10 to 15 pounds -- again.

Two and a half years ago, my weight had bottomed out at a nearly magical 199, before stabilizing around 210 pounds.Today the scale at my office building told me I've reached the 225-pound mark. I can't ignore the reality of having gained back half of the weight I had lost since my epiphany moment on Thanksgiving '04.

So there it is: I've admitted there's a problem.

Now comes the hard part: doing something about it. I remember what lost the weight for me in the first place -- portion control and running regularly. I've slacked, and it's time to live by the book again. In addition to being more conscious of how much food I'm consuming, I'm going to take the extra step of abstaining from soda (including the diet stuff) during the workweek until further notice. This probably won't shave off too many calories, but at least it will be a tangible sign of a return to self-discipline.

My running is slowly coming back, helped along by the arrival of spring. (Winter blues in even our mild climate has convinced me that I should never be a Yankee again.) I had a nice four-miler along the Buffalo Bayou hike/bike trail last night. I spent much of that run thinking about the extra pounds are literally weighing my running down. The 30-minute 5K and 60-minute 10K were things I could just about take for granted; now they're dream runs once more. As I encountered a lot of cute bunnies along the trail on that Easter Monday, I was thankful that they seemed to be all out of Cadbury Creme Eggs or other fattening treats.

I find myself wishing that I was returning to Angie's Half Crazy this weekend, but this spring a 10K (and one somewhere around 1:15 at that) may have to be my distance benchmark.

Before taking off on my run, I briefly explored the new Kendall Neighborhood Library, which conveniently sits at the intersection of Eldridge Parkway and the aforementioned trail. I decided that after nearly a year-and-a-half of living in this Houston neighborhood, it was a good time to get myself an HPL library card. Oddities I found here:

• Half a dozen parking spaces have signs proclaiming that they are set aside for "fuel efficient vehicles." I'm OK with setting aside some spaces based on vehicle size, but in my opinion this is going too far.
• The circulation desk has a drive-up window -- fitting for America's driving capital.
• On the far wall of the teen section, there are two large TVs equipped with Nintendo Wii consoles. What are students studying these days, anyway?

For everything there is a season....

In the absence of a powerfully unifying narrative, this Friday brings the return of the rambling bullet-point blog post.

• Last night I found myself contemplating an appearance at the Toughest 10K in Houston. I recognize what's happening: My last running event was the Run Wild 5K way back on July 4, which was more like "shuffle meekly" than "run wild." So two months later "the itch" is back. I consider that as a good sign. However, I do have some reservations about going crosstown early on a Saturday morning, especially for that type of course. I'll probably vacillate on this one all day. If I go, watch this blog for the nutty race report....
• I am glad to report that I'm back to running outside with regularity . . . and certainly enjoying it more with the subsidence of summer heat. I finally acknowledged this change the other night when I noticed that sweat had not permeated through my shirt until mile 3 of that run. During the summer, that shirt would have been damp by the end of my warmup.
• On many of my runs, I find myself pausing at the spot where Jerry the motorcyclist was killed five months ago. The hit-and-run driver is still at large. On the edge of a detention pond, the family has erected a small memorial, complete with night illumination from a pair of those solar-powered landscaping lights. (Anyone that can help resolve the case should call CrimeStoppers at 713-222-TIPS.)
  
• I find myself wanting to believe the hype on the soon-to-be-released Windows 7. The battery on my three-year-old laptop died earlier in the week. While sorely tempted to just replace the whole thing with one of the affordable netbooks that's out, instead I decided to extend its life by buying another battery. I didn't like the idea of disposing of a still-mostly-working unit to just replace it with another Windows XP machine. So that represents both a little less e-waste for the landfill for now and hope that Windows 7 will be a mature platform when I'm finally ready to move on.
• I've become pretty cynical about the entire tech certification industry, but my day job has decided that it would be super if we picked up our CCNAs. For any of my readers that have done the Cisco thing, if you have suggestions or pitfalls to avoid, feel free to comment.
  
• Public Service Announcement: A couple of weeks ago, I put a plate of heat-and-eat wings in the microwave oven. The package directions lited a cooking time for 6-8 minutes, but somehow in my carelessness, I read a "5" there instead. So while they came out hot, but not really hot enough. The resulting digestive distress made for a mighty unpleasant night. So when cooking meat -- make it well-done and right, take it to one-sixty Fahrenheit!
  
• So far the first year with the Quinalt strawberries has been really unimpressive. After delivering a handful of good fruit in May, these "everbearing" plants haven't done much but drop runners over the sides of their pots. I collected a couple of these runners to attempt to start new plants. I have hope that the established plants will deliver a better crop in their sophomore season. At least it's cool enough again to grow beans again on the patio.
  

With the impending arrival of the equinox next week, I really can feel the change in seasons. Summer's definitely gone and autumn is here, bringing with it football weekends, outdoor festivals and even the first mumblings of Merry Christmas merchandising. With the return of the the fall racing season, surely I'll be able to put running-related updates on this blog more than once a month, right?

Now if you'll pardon me, I'll be returning back to my new favorite time-waster, Professor Layton and The Diabolical Box. A true gentleman leaves no puzzle unsolved....

Does badly broken English lead the way to better Chinese fixings?

This is so "well done" that I believe it was intentional. But this was too entertaining to not share with my blog readers. Below is word-for-word menu text from A New Restaurant I Won't Even Name (ANRIWEN), which just opened in a nearby Houston neighborhood:

---

ANRIWEN is a traditional Chinese-style restaurant. ANRIWEN pays great attention to the general visitor's health. So, you can taste the legitimate Chinese-style here. ANRIWEN requests in food choice aspect very high. For example: The meats, the seafood, the vegetables and so on. ANRIWEN uses the superior quality to achieve the low fat and the high textile fiber and to increase food nutrition

ANRIWEN forget vegetarian diet! ANRIWEN uses the pure vegetables rapeseed oil regarding our food. Therefore, no matter you are the common visitor or the vegetarian, all can enjoy all delicacies food in ANRIWEN.

Good news! Our chef's have several years experience to provide the birthday party, the company party and so on. ANRIWEN provides different situation food and the drink. Above this new service, lets the general visitors have the different choices.

Remembered: Only ANRIWEN is able to provide you a legitimate Chinese-style good food. Eliminates this, you can eat your health by the most beneficial price! No matter the western-style food or the snack, we all welcome you the presence!Can provide the good food for you, which is our being honored. In this, ANRIWEN thanks you the support and the presence!

ANRIWEN wish all our customers have a health and prosperity year

---

Plotting the Winter Campaign

One month from now, registration opens for 2010 Marathon Sunday events in Houston. It may just be heat-induced delirium talking, but I'm giving significant thought to taking on the full marathon course for the second time. It's definitely not something for which I can "cram," so the time to get goal-oriented about this is now.

As a motivational prop, I recently ordered a custom Subway Cash Card with one of my 2008 photos on the front. I'm hoping it will simultaneously serve as a reminder of where I want to return and reinforce the eat-sensibly habit that helped get me there in the first place.

Either way, job number one should be to relieve my nagging achilles tendinitis issue permanently. When it first made it's rude appearance, we were in the midst of the busy spring running calendar. While I'd respond by backing off the mileage, I never gave myself permission to take any sort of real extended break from running. And it never really went away. Well, since that awful Heights Fun Run a couple of weeks ago, I have logged exactly zero miles. I also want to revisit my shoe selection.

Job number two would be choosing a training plan. In 2008 I worked up to race day on a Runner's World "SmartCoach" plan, but I want to explore other options.

One might think that having experience would be on my side would be a confidence booster. Ironically, knowing exactly what I'm getting myself into is making me nervous. We'll see if I'm really nutty enough to click "Submit" on that Active.com page again!

Even Eden had a serpent....

Whose idea was it to live next to a gazillion acres of parkland again? Oh, yeah -- that was mine!

I was crouched down, tending to the bean plants on my patio when I heard a faint hissing. Looking down, I saw a tan-colored snake just inches away from my leg. I reacted by springing up and back, and then quickly ducking back inside the patio door.


Once I reassured myself that I was out of danger, I grabbed my camera and took the photos above. As I prodded my unexpected guest off the patio with a broomstick, a funky odor filled the air. I thought a sewer line had backed up somewhere, but after a little online research, I found that this was the "calling card" of the water diamond back snake. It releases a stink when it feels threatened. While this critter wasn't poisonous -- this area's venomous snakes are the copperhead, the cottonmouth and the coral -- it did do a good job of startling me!

Just earlier in the month, I came home to find a migrating colony of bees swarming around the same patio. Yup, living closer to nature has been interesting!

Otherwise, the patio garden itself is chugging along with production. The swiss chard is producing its first broad leaves, which I used as the foundation for a salad. Atop the chard and baby spinach, I piled on apple slices, strawberries, and raisins:

And green bean production is in full swing. Here's the season's first harvest, sauteed in olive oil and garlic before being paired with a cajun blackened salmon filet:

The only crop that hasn't made it to my plate yet is the roma tomatoes. They have some small, green fruits on the vine, though. So far they seem to be requiring a lot of effort to tend and water, so I'm interested to productive they turn out to be.

Berry fresh

With the transition from spring into summer, the apartment garden is definitely looking productive. My previous worries about what might grow on my half-day-sun patio have melted away as the mercury is hitting the upper 80s on a consistent basis. It seems so obvious now, but all the plants were simply waiting for warm weather to truly thrive.

I picked my first two fruits from the Quinalt strawberry plants. They were luscious, tender and had a really nice fragrance. The roma tomatoes are developing small green fruits of their own. Down on the pavement, the Contender bush beans have sprouted their first pods and the Swiss chard is finally starting to resemble some real eating greens. I look forward to sampling these in the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, to celebrate the first "harvest," I had a little ice cream. I took some scoops of Breyers vanilla and topped them with sliced almonds, banana, and the just-picked berries. After drizzling a little maple syrup over the top, it was perfect!

A tax idea that just tastes flat

Some voices are now calling for "obesity taxes" beginning with levies on sweetened sodas (link to NEJM article by way of SciGuy). This, quite frankly, is insane, considering that our government has basically been using our tax dollars for years to subsidize the cheap corn that turns into the fattening high fructose corn syrup in those same sodas.

Of course, we've had lots of previous practice with this, having progressively escalated sales taxes on cigarettes while quietly continuing to subsidize tobacco farmers.

The image of a dog chasing its tail comes to mind.

Is that cinnamon in my polvoron?

I do like my polveron, but I had never considered them really as a holiday-season treat -- until I found this recipe for a Spanish version that adds cinnamon to the dough.

Yum!

Tour de Donut

For most of this past weekend I was pretty occupied with moving, but I am pleased to report that I did make the time to ride in the 5th Annual Tour de Donut, a cycling event that benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

There were two rides offered in this event this past Sunday. The serious cyclists would take a 55-mile loop route starting and ending at Katy Mills Mall. The other option was the shorter 28-mile donut challenge, which would offer two stops well-stocked with donuts. Each donut consumed in this challenge would earn a five-minute deduction from the rider's time.

Y'all already know which box I checked on my entry form, right??

About fifteen minutes after the clock started, I crossed the start mats with the back of the pack. The route was slightly altered this year, with riders being sent out of the mall parking lot and over to the Interstate-10 feeder road. I think this change gave the riders more pavement to work with and reduced early bottlenecking.

It was a beautiful morning with cool, sunny skies and some breeze as we turned off the highway onto the two lane blacktop that cut south into the Katy prarie. This section of Fort Bend County is making the transition from rural to suburban, with horse ranches and feed stores alternating with newly-sprouted master-planned communities.

I'm far from being a serious cyclist. My only "training" was taking my Schwinn Suburban out of the garage for a ten-mile ride the previous weekend to make sure it was still working. One of the ride marshals pulled alongside me and grinned. "You're doing pretty good on that mountain bike." I suppose I was.

Just like last year, I did a lot of passing in the early portion of the ride. Among the parade of wheels, I saw more than one tandem bike, a couple of rollerbladers, and a pair of young ladies sporting pairs of short-shorts and brightly-colored over-the-knee long-stockings.

At mile 11, I made it to Fulshear (pop. 718), the site of the first donut stop. I pulled off the road into the gravel-covered parking lot in front of an attorney's office. The cyclist behind me lost control on the gravel and skidded sideways to the ground. He gave me a good startle, but he was okay. So it was time to hit the donut line.

"Start me with three," I told the volunteer. She plucked three glazed Shipley's donuts from one of countless boxes and placed them in my hand. I turned my back on another volunteer, and she made three hash marks on my race bib. (Last year, I showed up with my race bib on the front of my shirt, runner-style like a noob.)

Down went the donuts: 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . yummy! Back in line, I asked for three more and got three more hash marks.

4 . . . 5 . . . 6 . . .

With the sixth donut, I could sense that my stomach was starting to question what I was up to. I was already one donut shy of my count from last year, but I decided that I had eaten enough for now and re-mounted my bike. I felt really loaded down, like the donuts were five pounds each or something. It wasn't until three miles out of Fulshear that I was pedaling normally again.

After that first stop, the 55-mile route split away and the line of riders around me had definitely thinned out. I certainly was far from the only one out there on a cheap bike. I waved the "sign of the horns" at a guy with the dulcet tones of Kiss rising from his handlebar speakers. I exchanged greetings with a couple of riders sporting Aramco Houston Half Marathon shirts.

Turning north, we passed the halfway point of the route entering Waller County. We proceeded on to the bustling city of Brookshire, Texas (pop. 3450), where the second route stop at mile 18 waited for us at a quick-lube shop. I accepted three more glazed from the donut tent and took them down -- slowly. By the ninth I had "hit the wall" in gluttony terms and had to take a seat on the curb. Another guy and I marveled at a third gentleman standing in the grass puffing away.

"A cigarette!?" we asked incredulously.

"Hahahahaha," replied the smoker. "Yeah, and I've had ten dounuts too."

I wouldn't even think of emulating his example, but I admit that I was impressed. I did want to reach double-digits in the donut count today, so I staggered to my feet, and asked a volunteer for one final sugar-coated ring of fried dough. It felt like a long, long time, but I earned that tenth hash mark on my bib number and re-mounted for the return leg to Katy.

I never really felt normal for the rest of the ride. Really feeling loaded down, I was fighting a headwind and was barely eking out 12 mph. As I entered the mall parking lot, I noticed my Garmin had ticked off 29.3 miles for this year's revised route. As the race clock ticked to 3:01, I rolled across the finish mat, feeling accomplished. Last year my chip time of 2:07 and seven donuts was good enough to put me in the top 15% overall. This year's official results are still being tabulated, but I'm pretty sure going for more donuts this year possibly cost me more time than I got back in credit!

Beer there. Drank that. Got the T-shirt.

The first thing I suppose I should admit is that I'm not really that much of a "big beer guy." Most years I could count the number of beers I've drank on one hand, and have fingers to spare.

Despite that, I decided to start collecting punches on my Beer Hunter journey in July, Along the way I saw a a bunch of movies and managed to order every kind of draft beer listed on the menu at both Houston-area Alamo Drafthouse locations.

Three months and 28 pints later, my server Karrie awarded me an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema T-Shirt and Beer Hunter mug tonight for my "efforts."

The final pint -- of the Drafthouse's own house Amber -- was consumed during tonight's Presidential debate. Heavy rains were interfering with the satellite TV reception and the partisan reactions from the audience were priceless as they watched the projectionist fail in repeated attempts to pull in any other channel aside from Fox News.

Worth Mentioning: The cinema used this "Barack Roll" YouTube video as a pre-show trailer to help promote the debate screenings. I don't care what your political stripes are -- this is funny!



Here's the final beer-by-beer tally:

OCTOBER

• Pints of Rogue Dead Guy and Young's Double Chocolate Stout during Obama-McCain Debate Number Two. (Either I lost count somewhere, or an Alamo staffer punched my Beer Hunter card twice more than necessary. Perhaps classic Florida balloting techniques were in effect.)
  
• Pints of Firehouse #4 and Flying Dog In Heat Wheat during Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. (I took a gamble on this one and I ended up liking it. It does make being young and single in NYC look like fun.)
• Pints of Spaten Optimator and Spaten Premium during Body of Lies. (An espionage flick that struggles to make it above the "forgettable" line. )
• Pints of Dogfish 60 Minute IPA and Belhaven Scottish Ale during The Express. (See this movie. If you don't like it, your heart may be three sizes too small.)
• Pint of Drafthouse Amber during Obama-McCain Debate Number Three. (This will likely be remembered as "Joe the Plumber's debate.")
  

SEPTEMBER

• pints of Stone IPA and Newcastle Ale during the season premiere of NBC's Heroes.
  
• pints of Boddingtons and Bass during Burn After Reading (You'll hate practically every character in this movie, but you'll love what happens when they pursue only their own vain wants!)
• pint of Blanche de Bruxelles during Eagle Eye (Ever wonder what would happen if we recruited HAL 9000 to join the War on Terror?)
  

AUGUST

• pints of Dos XX and Ziegenbock during Pineapple Express (Is there humor to be mined from violent drug culture? The answer is a resounding yes, in a "better them than me" sort of way.)
• pints of Paulaner Hefeweizen and Bud Light during Tropic Thunder (Downright hilarious -- just remember to check your Political Correctness at the door.)
• pints of Stone Arrogant Bastard and Fat Tire during Death Race (Bad people. Cars. Boom. The End.)
• pints of North Coast Scrimshaw Pils and Full Sail Pale Ale during Hamlet 2. (Something's being satirized here, but I'm not exactly sure what it was.)
• pints of Saint Arnold Amber and Woodchuck Amber Cider during The Killing (Retrospective screening of the 1956 heist movie directed by Stanley Kubrick.)
  

JULY

• a pint of Sam Adams Boston Lager during Hancock (It's better than the trailers suggest. Definitely another good look at the whole "superhero" thing)
  
• pints of Harp and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale during Step Brothers (Will Farrell's antics do get funnier after a couple of drinks, but there's certainly nothing wrong with waiting for this one as a cheap DVD rental.)
  
• bottle of Blue Moon during The Dark Knight (Excellent flick all around!)

Mission accomplished!

Beer Hunter: End-of-September Update

All the hurricane-related chaos caused a definite slowdown in my quest to take down 30 beers at Alamo Drafthouse, but I can definitely see the finish line in sight now:

SEPTEMBER

• pints of Stone IPA and Newcastle Ale during the season premiere of NBC's Heroes.
  
• pints of Boddingtons and Bass during Burn After Reading (You'll hate practically every character in this movie, but you'll love what happens when they pursue only their own vain wants!)
• pint of Blanche de Bruxelles during Eagle Eye (Ever wonder what would happen if we recruited HAL 9000 to join the War on Terror?)
  

AUGUST

• pints of Dos XX and Ziegenbock during Pineapple Express (Is there humor to be mined from violent drug culture? The answer is a resounding yes, in a "better them than me" sort of way.)
• pints of Paulaner Hefeweizen and Bud Light during Tropic Thunder (Downright hilarious -- just remember to check your Political Correctness at the door.)
• pints of Stone Arrogant Bastard and Fat Tire during Death Race (Bad people. Cars. Boom. The End.)
• pints of North Coast Scrimshaw Pils and Full Sail Pale Ale during Hamlet 2. (Something's being satirized here, but I'm not exactly sure what it was.)
• pints of Saint Arnold Amber and Woodchuck Amber Cider during The Killing (Retrospective screening of the 1956 heist movie directed by Stanley Kubrick.)
  

JULY

• a pint of Sam Adams Boston Lager during Hancock (It's better than the trailers suggest. Definitely another good look at the whole "superhero" thing)
  
• pints of Harp and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale during Step Brothers (Will Farrell's antics do get funnier after a couple of drinks, but there's certainly nothing wrong with waiting for this one as a cheap DVD rental.)
  
• bottle of Blue Moon during The Dark Knight (Excellent flick all around!)

Nineteen down . . . Eleven to go!

King Corn

I just watched the documentary King Corn, broadcast as part of PBS's series Independent Lens. One part that particularly caught my attention was the filmmakers' interview with Earl Butz, agriculture secretary under Nixon and Ford. Butz, who died earlier this year, described how he totally flipped the objective of American agriculture policy, stopping payments to farmers not to plant, and instead subsidizing farmers to grow corn -- much more corn than the market needed. It's only government subsidies that allow farmers now to turn a profit.

Americans definitely enjoy a bountiful harvest, but at what cost? Is the money we save by enjoying cheap burgers, sodas and various items fried in corn oil actually a loan that gets repaid later in the form of medical and lifestyle costs of obesity, such as Type 2 diabetes?

The documentary is just a few shades more credible than Super Size Me, but it raises a good point: What are we really choosing to put in our bodies? This past weekend I've been consuming a lot of the processed junk I stockpiled (Hostess cupcakes do have an impressive shelf life for a baked good) and I think I can actually feel myself turning into junk again. It especially didn't help that I caught myself watching this documentary while drinking HFCS-sweetened soda and Doritos chips.

Ugh.

Beer Hunter: end-of-August update

Continuing my quest to take down 30 beers at Alamo Drafthouse, here's the updated tally:

AUGUST

• pints of Dos XX and Ziegenbock during Pineapple Express (Is there humor to be mined from violent drug culture? The answer is a resounding yes, in a "better them than me" sort of way.)
• pints of Paulaner Hefeweizen and Bud Light during Tropic Thunder (Downright hilarious -- just remember to check your Political Correctness at the door.)
• pints of Stone Arrogant Bastard and Fat Tire during Death Race (Bad people. Cars. Boom. The End.)
• pints of North Coast Scrimshaw Pils and Full Sail Pale Ale during Hamlet 2. (Something's being satirized here, but I'm not exactly sure what it was.)
• pints of Saint Arnolds Amber and Woodchuck Amber Cider during The Killing (Retrospective screening of the 1956 heist movie directed by Stanley Kubrick.)
• pints of Guiness and Shiner Bock during The Rocker (OK if you're in the mood for predictible feel-good fare. OK to wait for this one as a rental.)
  

JULY

• a pint of Sam Adams Boston Lager during Hancock (It's better than the trailers suggest. Definitely another good look at the whole "superhero" thing)
  
• pints of Harp and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale during Step Brothers (Will Farrell's antics do get funnier after a couple of drinks, but there's certainly nothing wrong with waiting for this one as a cheap DVD rental.)
  
• bottle of Blue Moon during The Dark Knight (Excellent flick all around!)

Sixteen down . . . Fourteen to go!

10 Reasons Why You Should Cast Your Vote For "O Banana!" Instead of Other Fruits and Vegetables After Your Next Race

1) They're affordable!
2) There's no need to wash them before eating.
3) The taste is mild and agreeable to a wide range of people. Some find the acidity in citrus fruits to be a little strong.
4) They come pre-bundled in bunches that are easy for volunteers to handle.
5) Even if your volunteers are clumsy and spill a bunch of bananas, at least they don't go rolling off in different directions.
6) After the race the kids could try running around the soccer field yelling "BANG! BANG!" with kale in their hands . . . but it's just not the same.
7) The big K -- potassium, baby!
8) They have no "season," so they are readily available year-round.
9) No refrigeration needed!
10) We used all the strawberries to make daiquiris.

Cheers!

I fear that I may have a latent desire to join the competitive eating circuit. After seeing a recent trailer promo for the "Beer Hunter" card at the Alamo Drafthouse, my first reaction was "Let's go for it." Modeled after my campaign to eat an entire fast-food establishment's menu in March's "Tour de Sonic," I'll be attempting to sample as much of the beer menu as possible between now and mid-November. Just like Jerry in Spirit of the Marathon, I want to earn that T-shirt.

The count so far to date:

• a pint of Sam Adams Boston Lager during Hancock (It's better than the trailers suggest. Definitely another good look at the whole "superhero" thing)
  
• pints of Harp and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale during Step Brothers (Will Farrell's antics do get funnier after a couple of drinks, but there's certainly nothing wrong with waiting for this one as a cheap DVD rental.)
  
• bottle of Blue Moon during The Dark Knight (Excellent flick all around!)
  

It's a tough challenge, but someone has to step up and accept it.

Four down, twenty-six to go....

Raising Cane's: Yup, they're basically chicken.

Raising Cane's was a primary sponsor of this year's Freedom 5K. Dropped into the race packets that morning were coupons for free "Box Combo" meals -- four chicken fingers, cole slaw, fries, toast, and a drink. So I decided to stop in and give one a try.

The company's "one love" is chicken fingers, and it shows. They were cooked when I placed my order and the freshness of the meat was obvious. The fingers were battered, but weren't greasy. The tangy flavor of the accompanying "Cane's Sauce" was very subtle, but I still liked it. The crinkle cut fries and toast were pretty good too. The cole slaw was rather bland, though, and needs something to make it something more than mere roughage.

The biggest disappointment was the lemonade. I adore fresh-squeezed lemonade. While I could tell that it wasn't the pale shadow of lemonade that you'd get from a Country Time mix, there didn't really seem to be all that much lemon present.

Unless I really needed something alcoholic to wash them down, I'd rather save a time and a few bucks by getting the chicken fingers from Raising Cane's instead of, say, Chicken Crispers from Chili's.

Now if I could get Chik-Fil-A's lemonade with Cane's chicken, then we'd really have something cooking....

Sonic Drive-In Saved My Morning Commute

After coming home today and eating dinner, I decided to head out to clear out some junk. OK, it was more like I just wanted an excuse to drive by the local Sonic for a cold and frosty dessert.

I jumped into the driver's seat of my Honda and discovered that the motor wouldn't crank! My records show that the last time I bought a car battery was in '04, which further confirmed my suspicion that
I was faced with a dead battery. After an unplanned trip to AutoZone and a nearly hundred dollars later, I find myself dropping in the new juicebox at 9 p.m. at night. Fun.

Anyway, I'm back home again after taking the new Duralast Gold battery for a test drive and finally taking advantage of the 99-cent shake special at Sonic Drive-In along the way. It's a good thing I was in the mood for a drive out. Otherwise, I wouldn't have discovered the dead battery until tomorrow morning. And not getting it to crank when I need to get to work would have certainly made me a crank!

Thank you, Sonic cravings!

Taquerias Arandas

Just because there's not enough Mexican food in this blog....

Tour de Sonic: Cause for a Pause

I am going to admit to myself right now that completing the entire sampling of the menu at Sonic Drive-In will be too ambitious of a goal to complete by the end of this month.

It's not as if I haven't been trying -- of the 146 discrete items I identified on the menu, I've had 75 of them. But the overwhelming majority of what is left are the different dessert and drink options. I'd be looking at making several dozen trips in the last week to clear out the cold and refreshing columns. I won't even start on the nutritional imbalances this would impose.

I'll definitely finish it off in the next month or too. Meanwhile, I can offer these observations so far:

The Java Chillers and hot lattes are calorie-laden, but awesome. I have no idea why I'd need to enter a Starbucks ever again, unless I'm trying to meet someone.

Ched 'R' Peppers are an oily mess. I can guarantee that I won't order them again.

CreamSlush treats are a watered down mess. I don't see the point in diluting ice cream.

The variety of slushes, on the other hand, have been a pleasant surprise and I'll be ordering them more often. Lemon-berry fruit slushes rock!