The Omnivore's Hundred

The Omnivore’s Hundred from Very Good Taste

Rules of the game:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

So I'm at close to 75%, not bad....

All Star Game - Yankee Stadium

I didn't go, but Alec & Stew did. They have some great pictures from this historic event:

All Star Game 2008

July 4th pics

Soooooooo, this is just slightly delayed.... but here are pictures from our Independence week holiday in Boston. Boston is a most excellent place to spend this particular holiday. I highly recommend that you spend 4th of July there at least once in your lifetime. Enjoy!

Boston July 4 2008

Lucky number 13!

That's how many of us gathered in the Mayan Riviera section of Mexico for Thanksgiving week. Roll call included: Me, Alec, Dad, Chris, John, Tracy, Jack, Natalie, Jennifer, David, Erin, Sean and his girlfriend, Karen. (Karen was a total hit, btw. What a real find she is. Sean is a very lucky man.)

I came away with no photos of the whole gang. It's hard enough for us to all get together in the same region. I'm not about to try to tackle the enormous task of getting us all in the same photo frame. I'll leave you with this lovely shot of the beach at Tulum, the Mayan ruins we visited on Wednesday. This pretty much sums up the week.

Shape your butt!

So, I've been doing some healthy thinking lately. I say thinking because, until now, I've not really done much acting on these healthy thoughts. OK, maybe I'm being a bit harsh. After all, I finally arrange to see a GP for an annual check up (it's been 3 or 4 years since I've done that) - everything is splendid, btw. But I've been thinking for a while now that my daily walks just aren't cutting it. I need to do something more. Running's out, of course, since my knee pretty much turned against me about 5 years ago. Nevertheless, I'd been thinking of doing some sort of group class type of exercise. That means I need a gym membership. For me, the choice was easy (which is a very rare thing) - all my girlfriends are members at LA Fitness. And, oh, btw... I walk right past it during my morning walk every day. So, I finally got off my duff & signed up yesterday. Now, here's the kicker.... the group class schedule has a cycle class at 0545 (ouch!). Lucky for me, the time just changed this weekend. So I took advantage of the fake time - talking myself into believing that I was really getting up at 0620, not 0520. It worked - at least today it did! So, I'm proud to announce that I took my first spin class today. No surprise - it totally kicked my butt! But, that's what it's supposed to do, right? Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to keep my motivation going (I'm counting on my friend, Laura, to harass me into continuing) & before you know it, I'll have a new set of hot cross buns! :)

A sweet ride

I finally signed on the dotted line for my next car. We won't be getting it until Feb, when my current lease on my RAV4 runs out. I'm very excited, though. My new C30 will be one of only 8000 in the US for 2008. You can go to the Volvo website to learn more.
Oh, & did I mention that since they partner w/IBM, I got a nice little discount, too! Yippee!

Newport, July 4th

So, I'm a bit behind on posting - as usual! Hey, at least I'm consistent!

Actually, things have been pretty good lately. Although I'm as swamped as ever at work, I've been getting LOTS done - which leads to a great sense of accomplishment. That's much better than the usual feeling I have of slogging through the bureaucratic sludge of working lots and accomplishing little.

I've got 2 major projects going on right now that are close to completion - which means they are both about to go through the executive review phase. Why does everything always happen at once??? Anyway, I'm very pleased to finally be at this phase. So, hopefully I'll be able to announce that all's done & I'm off working on the next big thing (which is likely to be the beginning of the update to the projects that I've just completed! Ugh!) Anyway, I'm going to try to enjoy this moment before I get back to the dull drums too soon!

Speaking of dull drums (not that is was dull), but since I'm using my sailing terminology here... I thought I'd share this fantastic photo of the Pell bridge that Alec took during our recent trip to Newport, RI (July 4th weekend).
If you'd like to see the whole album, you can find it on my new facebook site (I can't believe I've actually joined that network - but so far it's been fun): http://tinyurl.com/2se6h3

USS Winston S Churchill (DDG-81)

So this post is a couple of weeks late. But, hey, at least I'm finally posting something. We had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend, which was kicked off on Saturday by a ship tour of the USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81). The gang included Alec, his parents, his aunt Ursula & Uncle Bart, and our friends Dianne, Leslie, Ruth & Richard & Richard's girls, Allison & Jessica. Those last four aren't in this picture, as they were off touring another ship at the time we snapped this little beauty. Touring the ship was awesome, as expected. It really gave everyone a good idea of what life for some of America's finest & bravest must be like. I think everyone walked away with a renewed appreciation for our soldiers and sailors. One of the best parts of the tour was our very special tour guide, LCDR (SW) Steve Murley. It was awesome to see Steve again. He's so enthusiastic! He was very kind to give the gang a private tour of the ship.

After the tour, the younger crowd all went to lunch at a great little restaurant in Manhattan called Vespa. The food was very fresh & the backyard garden made me feel like we were in a special secluded little hideaway.

After lunch, Steve & the girls went for a tour of Dianne's fantastic new office in the Time Warner Center building at Columbus Circle. (Alec had to go get his haircut - too bad!) What a view of Central Park that girl has! Amazing. She's a very lucky woman.

That evening, Alec & I had dinner with Alec's family (those mentioned above) and good friend Bob Surace. It was a fantastic day, all around.

Di had so much fun that she and Deb met up w/Steve the next day for the sunset ceremony on the USS Wasp (LHD-1), which is an altogether different kind of ship. I would have loved to have gone, however Alec & I were off celebrating our first anniversary.

We spent the afternoon at the La Prairie Spa at the Ritz for couples workouts & massages - which makes for very happy munchkins! Alec & had a wonderful dinner at Bar Americain (Bobby Flay's most recent of his NY restaurants - which I'd been wanting to go to for over a year now). We stayed the night at the Ritz & then came back north the next day to play tennis at the Mount Kisco Country Club.

So... life ain't bad! Hope your weekend was as much fun!

The natives are restless

Living in a newly minted condo complex comes with some special problems - namely the creation of a brand new condo board. It would appear, that everyone that was elected to our board last March had very little or no condo board experience. Thus, not only did they have no precedence for how to conduct a meeting or run the board & make decisions at our condo association, but they had no experience from anywhere else that they could capitalize upon. This has created several problems, which I shall not go into, so as not to end up in a law suit for slander or some other such thing. However, let it be known that there have been several things that the board has done that has resulted in a general uprising in our building.

The good news is that there is a possible light at the end of the tunnel. General elections will be held in March. Some of the concerned association members held a meeting last night to discuss the several improprieties in question & to put together a strategy for the elections in March. I don't know if it will work. I certainly hope it does. In any case, I'm glad to see that we're trying to do something about it and I'm happy to be a part of what hopefully turns out to be a good solution to the current situation. In addition, it was really nice to have met some of my neighbors!

Dogs & their people

Dogs are nice. I love dogs. But I despise dogs that are undisciplined & untrained. Really, it's their owners that I don't appreciate. These kind of people are doing a disservice to society - who have to deal with a menace and to the poor animal that they have taken into their home. In most cases there is only one excuse - LAZINESS. People train your dogs & discipline them! After all, I'd like to be able to sleep. Do you hear me, you inconsiderate upstairs neighbors???? Grrrrrrrrrr.

Rainy post election day

So the elections are over (mostly). Still there's a couple of cliff hangers for the Senate, which hopefully will be resolved by the time I return from MEXICO!

That's right, I'm off to the warm, sandy beaches of Cancun. Gonna meet some family to celebrate Dad's 65th and kick back for a few days. I can't wait. The only sad thing is that my dear hubby couldn't join us. Poor fellow has no vacation left. :(

It'll be hard to have fun, but I'll do my best. Hehehehe.

I'll be back late on Sunday. Hopefully, I'll have some fun things to share.

Adios till then!

I'm Back!

Wow! I can't believe it's been almost a year since my last post. Needless to say.. I've been busy.

One of my biggest challenges is that my hard drive crashed about 4 months ago. I never had the time to recover my blogger log in until now!

I'm going to try to get this started again. There's so much to share...

For starters, here's a wedding photo!

Happy Days...

...are here again! [Music and Lyrics by J. Yellen and M. Ager]

So, to finish off the STRESS SAGA... I talked to my boss, who was very reasonable. I'm going to take of the last week of the year & carry over 2 weeks into January. Fingers crossed the condo actually closes this time!

Other wedding updates: Hired the florist, hired the photographer, Mom got her dress! She's gonna look so smashing! I'm so happy for her. :-)

Oh & best of all... it's snowing!!! I celebrated my birthday this week. Many thanks to all who celebrated with me, in person or afar. I felt your love from around the globe. It snowed for my birthday, too. But today, it's really coming down. I might just have to go build a snowman! Yippee!

I'm boring.

This page is my proof.

Stress

Stress:
6. a. A mentally or emotionally disruptive or upsetting condition occurring in response to adverse external influences and capable of affecting physical health, usually characterized by increased heart rate, a rise in blood pressure, muscular tension, irritability, and depression.

Well, lately, I feel extremely metally disrupted. It's crazy. I was telling Carol on Monday that I could actually FEEL my blood pressure was high. So, after a couple of days of that, I ended up with total & utter exhaustion. This, of course, came just in time for my dear mother's visit for the Thanksgiving holiday. Nothing like great timing.

Speaking of Mom.... now there'sa woman who's had her share of stress. She's finally getting over a really nasty bout of shingles. After all she's been through, I could probably stand to learn a few coping techniques from her.

Let me back up a bit to explain why I'm so stressed. The obvious answer is the new condo & the wedding. The more detailed answer has to do with certain aspects of each.

The condo is easy to explain: the builders have been giving us the run around about a closing date. First they said Nov. 22. When Nov. came around, we took a look at the project & said to ourselves, "there is NO WAY that place will be complete on time." However the builders, who like to live in this blissful world of denial refused to fess up to this dire situation. So, at our urging, we got them to agree to at least move the closing back to Dec. 9. Why waste a day's vacation when you know it's not gonna happen, right? So, just as we are finally done with all the back & forth on setting that date & working on a walk-thru date.... we get a letter from them that says, hey, guess what? We're not ready & we have to move everyone's close dates (AGAIN). So now we're scheduled for Jan. 2. I have to think this is a much more realistic date. However, with all the run around we've gotten from them, I simply can't get myself to feel at ease about this whole thing. Now this wouldn't normally cause me so much stress, except for the following: I saved all of my 2005 vacation for this moment. Plan is, we'd close & I'd paint & decorate. Now, Dec. 9 was pushing it, but still allowed me to take those 3 weeks I have. Now that we're closing in 2006, this put a whole new twist into the equation. Now I have to negotiate with my boss to carry over all or part of my vacation into 2006. Why not just take the 3 weeks now &then use some of my 2006 vacation, you might ask? Well, because I'll need all of that for (that's right, you guessed it), the wedding!

Speaking of which... here's source #2 of my Stress:

1. We had our tasting last week. Results were not good. Now this is one of (if not THE) highest rated restaurants in Westchester county. So the fact that the food wasn't good completely hit me from left field. I know they say there's always something that goes wrong with every wedding. But this was certainly not one that I was planning on. Nor am I willing to accept. Heck b/w Alec & me, half of our family is Italian. The food MUST be good!!! And there must be lots of it!! I met with my contact at the restaurant yesterday & made it clear to her that I am not happy with the situation. We made several revisions to the menu. Alec & I will have a second tasting next Wednesday night. Fingers crossed.
2. It's possible that we'll have too many guests for the space. I refuse to even think about this.
3. As must be with all things. $$$$$$ I'm having a really hard time managing the budget on this baby. I don't think I'm being extravagant in anything that I'm doing. The problem is that I failed to keep the guest list down in the beginning. That and the fact that this in NY. I'm a KY girl living in a NY expensed world. The dollar figures on everything are horrendous. I think I'm just going to have to figure out a way to live with the fact that things cost a lot more up here. I can't figure out how to cut costs any lower than what I've already got. Believe me, I've looked around. Ugh.

Hey, on the subject of money... Did I mention we're buying a new condo? Oh, and we're going to need to furnish it. Oh and the holidays are coming.

Smoking Stinks

Literally. There have been so many people in my life who smoke. It's a nasty rotten habit that has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I've seen them struggle to quit countless times. How can I help them? I don't know, but I refuse to give up the quest.

If you're trying to quit smoking, here's a few resources:
www.smokefree.gov
www.lungusa.org

Good luck. And remember, it's worth the struggle. Don't let this habit kill you.

Bridesmaids, Bridesmaids Everywhere!

Or at least the gowns were. I subjected poor Anne-Marie to trying on every dress in the tri-state area. In the end, we came up with a winner & she remained my friend & maid of honor! How lucky can a girl get??? I'd post a picture but I think I'd rather keep everyone in suspense. Besides, I think there's probably some copyright issues involved. (something only a true geekgirl would think of!) Sorry gang.

Did somebody say Pool Party??

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!














Labor Day was awesome. We had too many burgers... AGAIN! I really suffer from the Italian "get too much food for your guests" syndrome. Thanks to all my ancestors!

Even Milo had fun hanging out, as captured by Anne-Marie:

Taj Mahal

I recently had the good fortune to visit the Taj Mahal and here's proof:

Completely wilted in the August heat at the Taj 

It was really hot and took about 4 hours by car to get there. It was really amazing & I'm glad I spent the time and money to do it. Who knows if I'll ever get to go back, right? Amazing how white it is, huh? The palace is made of a non-porous marble, which is how it stays so bright.

Save-the-Date and other wedding items

Ok, so it's been WAY too long since I posted anything... Sorry. And the thing is that there have been SOOOOOO many things going on. I'll do my best to recover. The problem is that when things get busy, I don't have the time to write. When I have the time to write, I don't have anything interesting to write about! It's a dilemma. Oh well. I'll get over it. Let's move on.

Last month witnessed a major event... I finalized the wedding guest list & mailed out the Save-the-Date notices. Pretty cool, huh? What a relief!

On another note... I found the dress! wahooooooo! So, I'd tell you all about it & post a picture, but my future Mr. might happen upon this site & read all about it/see it. So as not to destroy the surprise, you'll just have to wait and see.