cleveland: day 3

we spent the day walking around university circle and made a couple stops along the way.

we tried to have breakfast somewhere nice, but the only thing open was a quiznos and mexican place, so we went for quiznos breakfast sandwiches. not bad at all. i absolutely hate it when the garbage cans are overflowing outside.

on our way to the botanical garden we walked through case western reserve university. they have a lot of cool art & architecture there. the botanical garden was cool. they have a giant glasshouse and half of it is a desert climate and the other half has a million butterflies flying around. the outside gardens vary from waterfalls and japanese to a set centered around music. it was a good way to spend the early afternoon. we then went to the vatican exhibit at the western reserve historical society. they had a ton of artifacts and pictures form the vatican. jason really liked it.












we walked over to little italy for dinner. i was disappointed that the trattoria had stopped taking walkins at 6:00! they were crazy busy and the food looked really good. i'd definitely make a reservation next time.

we ate at la dolce vita. the food wasn't anything special at all. and it definitely wasn't worth $50.
we walked off dinner before dessert and just missed corbo's bakery closing at 8. we were 0 for 2. pretty much everything closed, so we ended our night with gelato at anthony's, the only place open. it wasn't gelato exactly, much too cold and too hard, but it was good none the less.

cleveland: day 2

we spent the morning at the great lakes science center. it wasn't too bad, but it would have been better if we had kids with us, because it was definitely geared towards a younger crowd. we still managed to spend the morning there. the entrance of the science center not only has a set of working solar panels above the sidewalk cover, but also has a working windmill in the front. it would have been nice if they had some info about it somewhere though.





oh and the cleveland air show was going on this weekend too, so we snuck outside to watch a couple of the jets during the day. they were surprisingly close to us.

we walked across the lawn and spent the afternoon at the rock & roll hall of fame. there are a couple cool things there, but it was not worth the $22 admission fee. i vote skip it if you aren't crazy about music. the building looks pretty cool though.


during the day we made dinner reservations at nighttown, a restaurant that every source i looked at says is the best of the best. needless to say, we weren't impressed. jason couldn't find anything worth eating besides a chicken sandwich on the menu. i had pork chops with fruit on top, but they weren't so great. skip it.

cleveland: day 1

here's what was good, what wasn't, and what was ok but not worth the money...

we arrived around noon and went to the Old Arcade. it's a beautiful building, but we were surprised at how little is actually inside it. we ate lunch there out of shear hunger. and then walked to Terminal Tower, which is a huge, gorgeous shopping mall...a complete surprise to us.






then we went to the westside market. i was disappointed we couldn't buy more than some berries, coffee beans, and a couple other things.

we had dinner at the Great Lakes Brewery...definitely the best meal we had the whole trip. beer was good too. after dinner we went downtown to take some night shots.

then that night i had my cupcake i bought at the westside market. it was by far the best cupcake i've ever had in my life.

grassroots

only available at kaufmann's. i like the day and night cream. the line is advertised as organic, green, whatever you wanna call it. it's too bad they don't have anything online or in the store verifying it.

food.

the food rules of "in defense of food" are pretty simple:
1. eat food.
2. not too much.
3. mostly plants.

it's really not a bad plan.

red peppers!

it's about time our peppers turned red!

fields of gold

the corner of calkins & clover/route 65 are two fields of sunflowers. absolutely gorgeous!

public market

we got up early and went downtown to the public market. my sole reason for going was to get some local peaches. as i suspected, they were everywhere.

but before shopping, we started with a jumbo breakfast burrito. it was an excellent combination of refried beans, scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, cheese, guacamole, salsa, and ground beef rolled into a tortilla. great way to start the day!

the market has pretty much anything you'd ever want from a grocery store: the good stuff like fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish & shellfish, bread & baked goods and then the not so good junk like t shirts with stupid sayings on them, socks, and hippie clothes. i've never had bad produce from there and the canoli's inside are some of the best i've had ever.

it took us about an hour and a half to walk through the whole market and we left with homegrown peaches, real vanilla extract, a couple chocolate chip cookies, blackberries, and plums, which i was disappointed to find out were grown in california...still way cheaper than a grocery store. the blackberries are the sweetest i've ever had and definitely worth the $2/quart...i should have bought more. i should really start going to the market every saturday.

schoen place evening

tonight we went to simply crepes in schoen place for dinner & dessert. dinner was ok - i had the crespalla florentine (cheese & spinach filled crepe with tomato and white sauce) and added portobello (it definitely made the dish, without mushroom or chicken, i think it would be too flat), and others had the buffalo chicken crepe (ok, too much lettuce, not enough chicken), and the chinese salad (good). i didn't have it, but susie said the harvest salas (apples, field mix, walnuts, and vinaigrette) was really good...it looked good.

dessert was amazing. i recommend the strawberry crepe (berries and vanilla ice cream wrapped in a crepe drizzled with strawberry sauce and real whipped cream), but substitute the strawberries with raspberries. the berries had to be local - i've never had a berry that sweet, juicy, or simply as ripe as those tonight that was from a grocery store. chris & susie had the chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream crepe which was also really good. the price wasn't too bad either at $80 for 4 of us. www.simplycrepes.com

after dinner we walked around schoen place back to the car. i was surprised everything except the ice cream place closes at 9. it was pretty dead at 9:30 when we left.

blueberry mini muffins

i made blueberry mini muffins tonight from scratch with real blueberries. i'm surprised it took a good 20 minutes to cook them...way longer than i expected. making them from scratch only took 10 minutes and they're definitely better than the blueberry flavored bits in prepared mixes.

now open...

...is buffalo wild wings in the old don pablo's on jefferson. i don't know when it officially opened, but when i drove by tonight, the parking lot was packed. i'm not sure if the old location in southtown is closed, or even if they plan on closing it.

after work walk

blue sky

halfmoons...

...are one of my favorites

kissin' kate

this picture was on the wall of the ymca camp where we had our work picnic today. the picture looks oddly like me.

no one did ever find me.

plant wall

there's a company in rochester that makes these plant walls and installs them all over the US. the new LEED-certified CAST building at RIT has this one inside the main entrance of the building. this one only has plants for decoration, but i've seen some that have flowers, herbs, and vegetable plants in them. they can be installed indoors but most of them are installed out. there are two main types of customers that have these installed - yoga, clothing, and other retail stores that have them for the wow factor and inner cities that use them to grow food for the people in the neighborhood.

the thought is not only do they look cool and can provide food, but they can provide some of the same green building benefits as green roofs. green roofs insulate the building (reduce heating and cooling costs) and collect and use rainwater to water the plants (thus reducing the burden on the sewer system by diverting a significant amount of water from it). they could also be great for city dwellers that don't have the space for a traditional garden. it's pretty cool.

you can buy smaller versions that sit on a countertop at the Green Living Technologies website at www.agreenroof.com

30 days of coldplay...

...on xm channel 51...june 15-august 15. that means the last day is tomorrow! eh, i think my trial runs out soon anyway.

batman dark knight

as far as superhero movies go, this one wasn't bad. it dragged a bit...there were at least 2 places it could have ended before it did. there are definitely a lot of special effects...almost too much. sometimes i had a hard time keeping track of the story because there was too many cars blowing up, guns shooting, and people getting kicked and not enough dialog. all in all, i give it an A-.

cobbs hill sunset

new fav drink

Santa Cruz Organic Raspberry Lemonade, Lemonade, and Limeade. $1.25 at Wegmans. and yes, they're USDA certified organic. they taste great...but at 100 calories a glass (real sugar, no chemicals that taste like sugar) i limit myself to one a day.

www.scojuice.com

eco-pillow

i bought this pillow at walmart today for $5. i bought it not only because of the claimed environmental benefits, but simply because it was the cheapest.

it seems like they've covered all areas in terms of the environmental claims on the package:
- packaging: biodegradable and begins to break down in a landfill in as little as three months
- pillow cover: made of cotton, bleached with hydrogen peroxide instead of harsh chemicals
- pillow fill: made of fiber made of recycled water bottles

too bad i can't find further info from the manufacturer online. and what the heck am i supposed to do with my old one? trash it?

fillmore glen state park

we spent the weekend in fillmore glen state park camping. it's located just south of owasco lake so the drive wasn't too bad. the park has three hiking trails all 1.5-2 miles in length. we hiked the gorge trail and saw some good waterfalls. we came back via the north rim trail - there isn't much of a view of the gorge at all, but the hike was good none the less.

after hiking we decided to swim in the stream fed pool. i could only last maybe 10 minutes in the balmy 62F water, but there were kids jumping and splashing that didn't seem to care.

we were able to get some dry wood and build a fire saturday night too, but weren't so lucky with the rain on sunday. all in all, it was a great weekend. the short bathroom stall doors are kinda weird and the bathroom water is missing "cold" but it we had a good time none the less.

the witch of portobello

"the witch of portobello" by paulo coelho

i love love love coelho's books. his books are different from traditional novels. each book has a theme - faith, trust, love, etc - and teaches a lesson. this book is his latest installment and focuses on love. his books always include a discussion of god and religion, but again, not in the traditional sense.

i love the way his writing really makes you think about your life and how the things that really are important - family, love, relationships - aren't always the things we focus on the most. he has a way of presenting characters that are really relatable, causing you to reflect on your own life.

human toxome project

i remember watching a special on dateline nbc earlier this year about the toxic chemicals found in humans. dateline compared the levels of a "normal" family to those of one which did not eat fast food/ready made food and only used natural, chemical free products. much to the green family's dismay, the levels of toxicants in their blood were, for the most part, equal to those of the conventional family.

while looking for something else online today, i stumbled on the environmental working group's (the same organization that developed and maintains the skindeep database) human toxome project. the goal of the project is to really see the effect of industrial pollution on the human population by measuring how much of what chemicals are in people's blood. EWG took blood samples and tested them for 100s of different chemical compounds. the results are sorted by sex, geographic location, and age group. it's pretty interesting to see what chemicals are in, say, older people versus younger people...or even men versus women. you can also see the human health and environmental effects of the chemicals. it's pretty interesting stuff.

check out the study at http://www.ewg.org/sites/humantoxome/

trash tv

i love the people's court. the people are always trashy, the argument is always ridiculous, and something always has to be bleeped out. i've learned a lot of basic skills from other people's stupid mistakes: always take pictures of an apartment when you first rent it and on the day you move out. always do a walkthrough with the landlord when you move out. always pay with checks. you can't trace cash payments. always use written contracts. verbal contracts are legal in new york, but it just turns into a he-said-she-said game. if i don't learn anything, at least i'm entertained and after an especially crummy day, know that my life could be infinitely worse than it is...i could be suing my exboyfriend for smashing my car after he saw me with another guy.

lead & pvc free?

i bought this insulated lunch bag at walmart for $2.88 to take on hikes. the tag intrigued me as it says "ULTRA SAFE pvc & lead free lining - meets FDA & CPSC lead free standards". for $2.88, i'm sold. just for kicks i looked to see what it's made of - polyurethane foam.

here's how the three materials compare:
lead - leaches into food & causes neurological damage
pvc - leaches phthalates into food, which has been shown to cause liver damage and birth defects in lab rats (the production of pvc also creates dioxin, the most potent carcinogen known)
polyurethane foam - highly flammable

polyurethane foam is used in almost everything - car seats, mattresses, pretty much anything squishy and comfortable. not to say it's safe just because it's used in a number of products, but after a brief google, i couldn't find any compelling health effects. so there's no real health risk...just make sure not to keep it near your camp fire.

but is it really lead & pvc free? surprise! it's manufactured in china, so your guess is as good as mine.

brio's bano

along with handsoap and tissues, the bathroom at brio in pittsford has listerine pumps and little cups for you to swish away the garlic from your dinner before you kiss your date goodnight. excellent idea.

the ladies' room only had one chair. the men's room has 8ish. weird, yes. all the guys with us were fascinated by the number of chairs. what do you do with all of them? why are they also in the stalls? maybe that's where they store their extra chairs?

best vodka sauce...

...in rochester is at Veneto, on east ave. i'm a huge fan of vodka sauce when it's done right. i've had it at a couple local rochester restaurants and it's never been all that good. two that stand out in my mind were too greasy, too clumpy, and just plain didn't taste good.

saturday night we finally went to veneto. i started with the prosciutto wraps. warmed mozz wrapped with prosciutto, my favorite thing ever, over salad sounded amazing. the problem is that it was so greasy i almost didn't finish it. the penne in vodka sauce was excellent. the sauce was flavored perfect, not too greasy, not too heavy. i ate the rest today and was only slightly disappointed, as it was really greasy. still tasted really good.

www.venetorestaurant.com

sheryl crow @ cmac

toots and the somebodies opened = not so good

james blunt was the official opener = yes, he's whiny; i was fully expecting to completely hate him, but was pleasantly surprised. he's not as whiny as i expected and the music isn't too bad.

sheryl crow = i've seen her 3 other times (cmac before they redid it, new jersey, jones beach) so i knew what to expect. the crowd was a bit older...there was a 45 year old woman in the row ahead of us dancing like she was in a club. hilarious. the music was good, the weather was good, all in all a good night.

cmac = i don't remember exactly how it looked before, but i do remember big pillars in the middle, which are now gone. the only ice cream they have is dippin dots which are disgusting. beer is $8 a cup and i didn't even look to see how much other food is (dinosaur, tahou's, stadium fare). i couldn't figure out where everyone was getting mini bottles & boxes of wine.

next time = bring my own food & drink. every time i looked at the woman next to me she was eating something different. i was jealous.