TdF - Stage 1

That was an exciting last 20k or so! Kudos to Spartacus for going for it.

I sat on the couch for most of the stage. I know I can't do the length, they're on the bike half the day, I'd still be there. I ended up riding just as they were about to catch the breakaway and cooled down as they did results. Ended up only about 20 minutes. Pretty lame. Pre-race meal - similar - 2 pieces of Squirrely (apparently it's a TM) toast with cream cheese and organic peanut butter, half a can of "natural" rootbeer. No water til after.

Glad to see Hesjedal come in close to the winner. Saw him riding at the back at one point, worried who got caught in those crashes.

I should really have put more thought into this and planned appropriate foods. Could've done Belgian waffles for the Prologue and Stage 1.

Super Soup Saturday

Long (and not exciting story) about plans being cancelled yada yada. End result being that I'm opening one of those cartons of soup to grab something to eat, an unusual experience. So I read the directions re: opening (pull up the tab and tear) and I say, "wow, this is tearable soup". Which, when you aren't typing but talking, sounds just like, "wow, this is terrible soup". Isn't that scintillating? Maybe I should add that word to the title...

...Brought To You By The Letter P and the Number 3

So I'm over at a friends' place the other day, having breakfast in the dining room when all of a sudden there is a mighty crash/explosion sound from the kitchen. Upon investigation, it turns out that a pan exploded in the oven. As this is discussed by those present, I happen to notice that everything involved starts with "P". It was a Pyrex pan of pumpkins for pie. The pumpkins had to be declared unusuable as the 'glass' (Pyrex) had shattered so incredibly that there were bits everywhere. My friend made the best of it, saying it was only $3 worth of pumpkins. And there was a 3 year old present. And a 33 year old. So I made the joke that today's episode is brought to us by ... (see title of the post), a Sesame Street Shout-out.

Did you have to be there? Or did this translate to the blogosphere?

Toast Talk

I was away from home for a few days awhile back and when I returned I found my toaster outside. I figured either my housemates were VERY slowly moving me out, or something was up with the toaster. I later found out that it was apparently 'shooting out flames' while someone was making toast. I was kind of sorry I missed that. Then later I found a piece of toast outside, near the abandoned toaster, and it made me laugh because the toast was VERY black in the middle.

And while I'm on the subject of toast(ers), this summer I discovered one of the most annoying things - a Disney toaster - it plays stupid songs while it makes toast. And I thought mornings were bad before...

Game Day Diary, Part 3 of 3

So where was I? Ah, yes....

After the stretching I drove off to get myself showered up and have some lunch and so on. I then proceeded on a several hour journey to get myself to a hockey game. I ran into parking problems at one point and almost missed a connection. But eventually I found myself at the rink where I waited with a bunch of other early fans until the doors opened. I must have been one of the very first people through the doors. I did a quick look at some merchandise, then proceeded to check out the food and beverages. I ended up getting natchos and a Sprite (yep, I know how to have a good time!). I almost never drink Sprite, but I happened to see it and thought of Marty (Brodeur that is, not Short or Turco or Casey or....) so that's what I went with. I then proceeded to my seat. (Yes, not only do I know how to have a good time, I know how to do so all by myself. Wait. Uh... That sounded kind of kinky. Anyhoo....)

I chowed down on my natchos and took in the atmosphere as more people filed in. In the end, despite a nearly full areana, I had an empty seat on one side of me. The guys sitting on the other side I had a couple complaints about. One, the guy sits down and immediately claims both armrests. Two, they stunk. Or at least one of them did. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but I'm going to go with cigar smoke as it seemed like sitting beside a cigarette smoker times about 50. I finally smartened up and moved over a seat. Now I was beside a group of guys who were really enjoying craploads of beer. And I could tell they'd been enjoying said beer for quite some time, as they were hugging each other or otherwise demonstrating their affection for one another in a way that men (or straight ones at least) never do unless they're drunk. It was amusing.

The game itself was ok but I couldn't help but compare it to an NHL game and so it was a bit lackluster. But it was cool being in the crowd, having other people gasp at the same plays that I would and so forth. There were even some fights (on the ice). I noted that my reaction to the fights was different than usual. When watching an NHL game I get pretty into the fights. These being young hockey players (teens), I found the fights somewhat less enjoyable. Kind of brought back memories of guys fighting in high school. As a girl you sometimes felt bad for a guy who would have to fight even though he was probably really scared to take on some tough guy. But I digress.

After the game I made my way out and headed toward public transit. I had a *lovely* interaction with a guy who stared at me and then said really loudly, "Nice guns, Mama!"
I responded with, "Really, do you think so? Cool, let's go do it!"
Okay, I didn't really, duh. I also didn't pull out a couple guns and shoot the guy.
And for the record, I wasn't even wearing anything low cut or revealing or whatever. Jeans and a long sleeved shirt (green) with a hood. But I digress again.

And that concludes my "game day" report.

Fun With Food

I was recently trying to find something for lunch. Found some homemade humous (however you spell it) and so I looked for some tortilla chips to have with it. I found a previously opened (but sealed) bag and proceeded to eat (the humous & chips, not the bag silly). After the first bite, however, it became obvious that the chips were stale. I consulted the best before date. Well past. More than a month, closer to two. So I say to the person I'm having lunch with, "I think I'm going to need to abandon chip". Yeah, I thought that was pretty clever.

A day or two before that, I was out for dinner. I ordered the gnocchi (it was quite good). The next morning I got this song in my head... "I did it all for the gnocchi, the gnocchi, so you can take your head and shove it up your ...." (to the tune of that Nookie song by Limp Bizkit.)

Vive Le Tour! Part 3

9. This sporting event has it all. I've talked about the toughness, the speed, etc., but it also includes eating! Eating is so important, in fact, that on the route map they show the t.v. viewers they include the location of the feed stations. Here people stand with feedbags that the cyclist must grab while zipping by. (And they also must try not to end a sentence with a preposition, all at the same time!) And these cyclists throw stuff into the crowd when they're done with it (e.g. water bottles). I'm just picturing the gleeful dreamlike state I would be in for 2 weeks after the following transpires (screen goes wavy, back in time music)....

TdF cyclist: "Zut! Triple ZUT! Zeye deed not order ze tuna! I vanted ze egg! Ze egg dammit!"
In utter disgust he hucks his tuna sandwich into the crowd. It goes sailing at speeds like that of a baseball pitch but for one GB it is spinning end over end in slow motion. Fascinated, she stares, nay, she gapes, open mouthed, eyes as big as saucers, no - as big as dinner plates! as the sandwich comes ever closer. In the last instance, time returns to normal speed and WHAP! the sandwich smacks her smartly in the forehead, leaving a red mark and a light tuna residue. She picks it up, holds it in her hands, delirious. And for the next 2 weeks she walks around in this state. Except she doesn't hold the sandwich for the whole 2 weeks, that would be gross. Instead she has it coated protectively, like Han Solo frozen in carbonite, and it sits proudly in her sports shrine in a place of special honour from then on. (Fucking prepositions).
And imagine the story she will tell, no party, no social gathering will ever pass without "hey, you know what happened to me once...."

10. Did I mention the scenery yet? I can't remember. This blog moves as fast as a moderately fast stage. But anyway, in one shot in an early stage, they showed this castle. With a moat. I think I'm in love. I am in love. This is my dream to have a place like this. (I am a rock...I am an issssssssland....). A moat! That's too f'ing cool. If there had been a fire-breathing dragon I probably would have collapsed in utter glee. Perhaps if I could afford the castle I would have enough to get me a fire breathing dragon. Or at least one that could get a few flames out every once in awhile.

11. The changing route. Yes, I was that naive re: the tour that I didn't realize it wasn't the same all the time. Oops. But now that I do know, I find this pretty cool. In one way it would be cool to have the exact same route, but it's also kind of neat to shake things up, keep it fresh (like my carbonite tuna sandwich).

12. No weather cancellations. Sweet. See the entry about tough. These athletes don't mess around. Rain delays are for pussies. (That sounded wrong somehow). I hear at one of the shortly upcoming alps stages (maybe they've even started it, I'm a little behind on my watching) there was snow the other day.

Wok With GB

First off, sorry about the title.

So tonight had all the drama of Iron Chef, but in my very own kitchen.
Really, you ask? Who'd you take on, Iron Chef Japan?

Well, um, no, not...exactly. But what I did do was make a stirfry. And the secret ingredient was (drumroll please)... various vegetables. And the competition was... none other than myself.

Now I know you're probably thinking at this point, Iron Chef this is not. However, I did use a cast IRON frying pan for some of it and I CHEFfed. I rest my case. And I did all that without wearing a stupid hat. So there.

So it actually started out innocently enough as a regular old exercise in cooking dinner. Yawn. But obviously some kind of frenzy must have overtaken me, because I crammed so many vegetables (yes, various ones) into that stir fry...

Let's count, shall we? (That was a rhetorical question, get counting you lazy asses! NOW!!)

1. Carrots
2. Cauliflower
3. Parsnip
4. Leeks
5. Red Pepper
(Don't panic, just continue counting using your other hand. If you only have one hand, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to poke fun at you or anything, sorry about the tragic loss of your hand. If it wasn't tragic, make something up.)
6. Yellow Pepper
7. Broccoli
8. Snow Peas
9. Zucchini
10. Bean Sprouts

Damn, is that it? This is the first time I counted so I really had no idea how this was going to go. Yeah, that's right, I just blog on the fly like that, I'm crazy that way. WILD!

A ha! I just remembered! You'd better pull out your toes now. Not literally for the love of god! I just meant to count on! (I'll have to remember that as a line though, "your blog makes me want to pull out my own toes").

11. Asparagus

I also used tofu, but I don't think one can count that as a vegetable. And yes, I know, ewww, tofu, but relax, I know how to cook - the tofu was just fine. I also used a hoisin sauce. And it was all served over fresh chinese noodles. One of the people who I deigned to share with started making cracks about how I knew they were chinese noodles. I bet you think I then beat him repeatedly with said noodles, but no, I did not. As John Cusack's character in Grosse Pointe Blank said, "I don't want to get into a big semantic argument about it, I just want the protein." Except in this case perhaps it's the carbs. But I think you smart readers get the gist.

And yes, in case you're wondering, I am still sitting here going, 'hmm, was that really all the vegetables? Surely there was something else...'