What a great weekend! The weekend seemed to last forever which is sort of funny since I has extended weekends for the last 3 weeks and this was the standard workweek.

On Friday we celebrated my birthday and had a last hurrah at the condo. We timed it with a free Bel Biv Devoe concert that was only blocks away. The party was pretty awesome. We had some great food and fun times with friends. I forgot how much I loved Rock Band (you will see a post on this later). The BBD concert was okay but I was not expecting much since they are in theory a one hit wonder (I know they have two songs that were “hits”). We unveiled our first run of cake pops along with a buffalo chicken dip that were both awesome.

We moved most of the essentials out of the condo on Saturday so I can officially say I am moved. Now I am in process of selling the unit. On Saturday night, we went to a friends new house and had dinner. It is a great house and we had a lot of fun hanging out with friends again.

Sunday was a jammed pack day as we unpacked, went to our new gym for the first time, did a lot of shopping, did some house work, etc. I also watched the World Cup game (or at least the 2nd half). It was very exciting but disappointing. A lot of blown chances and bad mistakes. On Sunday night, we grilled some bacon wrapped fillets and corn plus made some baked potatoes. It might have been one of the best meals we had ever ate. We are really starting to get good on the grill with cooking and seasoning.

I went to Las Vegas last week for the SEMA and AAPEX show.  This show is a very good perk for working in the automotive industry. The cab driver said that this show is the biggest week for Vegas as it is slightly above CES (consumer electronic show). I have been to this show 3 times before but I missed last year. It is always pretty awesome to see all the cool cars and accessories.

This year was a little different than usual. I think it was a combination that I am really busy at work, don’t have the same enthusiasm for cars as I use to, and the fact that I was by myself. This all led to me only spending a couple hours at SEMA. I saw some cool stuff but was pretty bored.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the food. I ate Asian food 3 out of the 4 nights and also had the best steak I ever had.

The first night I went to The Paiza Club in the Palazzo. This is actually my second time eating there but the first time it was in the Venetian before the moved it to the Palazzo.  I am extremely fascinated by this place. It is on the top level of the hotel and it over looks the strip. It is hidden between rooms on the top floor and you need a key-card to get in. Once your in, your greeted at a front desk into a large room with a piano, gambling, tables, and a couple private rooms. According to Yelp this is an extremely high profile place that only Asians get into with big pockets. I wouldn’t doubt that knowing my guest. We ate traditional Chinese food and the highlight was Kobe beef tips.

The second night we went to Lotus of Siam with my work group. Our Director said this was the highest rated Zagat restaurant in Vegas along with one of the best Thai places in the US. You wouldn’t tell that from the outside or in since it was way off the strip and not in the best part of town. The inside was very plain but there were tons of pictures of celebrities on the wall. This was my first experience with Thai food. I thought it was pretty good but honestly can not tell that much of a difference between this and other Asian foods.

The third night I ate at Delmonicos in the Venetian. I got the fillet (along with everyone else) and it was the best steak I have ever eaten. That Emril really knows how to cook a steak. I was told you can make the seasoning from his website….I am going to definitely give that a try. I also tried scotch for the first time. It was very tasty but I also think we were drinking some expensive scotch (aged 14 years) so not sure if I would ever buy it on my own.

The last night we ate at Sushi Roku in the Venetian. I was with some people from Taiwan and Mexico so I thought it would be interesting to get sushi. The view was awesome as it was 4 floors off the ground and looked down the strip. The food did not disappoint either. We shared some awesome chicken and beef skewers, edamame, and assorted vegetable tempura. I got confused with the sushi menu and ordered way to much but the table was able to eat it. The warm sake was also much better here than Lotus of Siam.

I also ate the breakfast buffet at TI a lot. I really do not understand why everyone doesn’t eat there at the hotel. There is a coffee shop there that is huge and always packed. For $25 you can get a small OJ, a couple eggs and hash-browns (no meat if you did not notice). For $18 after a tip, you can eat at the buffet where they have fresh pastries, omelet stations, all kinds of meat, fruits, smoothies, and unlimited juices. Its also a nicer atmosphere but I guess there is stigma against buffets.

I also really enjoyed being in Vegas too. I just like the atmosphere. I did not drink much and did not gamble one dime but I watched a lot of NBA games and roulette. It is just relaxing to me. I did go to a pretty cool place next to Tryst in the Wynn along with going to Crush so did get a little night club experience in (although brief).

Pictures of my trip are here.

The past weekend was a pretty fun weekend. I ran a ton of errands with my girlfriend on Friday then called it a night. One thing to note is that we went to The Rack for the first time. I was not impressed…I was expecting better deals and more of an offering.

On Saturday, we went to a friends to watch the Mizzou game. What a disappointment! MU safeties played horrible and we did not play the same style of offense that we have been. Blaine looked horrible in the pocket with happy feet. Needless to say our National Championship dreams our over and probably the Big 12 tourney but we might pull a Kansas and actually benefit by not being in the tournament and still get a BCS bowl game if we win out.

My girlfriend and I dressed up as people from the roaring 20′s. She was a flapper and I was a mobster. We went to a friend’s party Saturday night. It was a lot of fun and we had the best costume (in my opinion).

I watched the awesome Rams game on Sunday. They look pretty good. Imagine if they wouldn’t have blown all those leads.  My girlfriend and I had a small BBQ for Halloween night and welcomed trick or treaters.

Here is my Halloween picture set.

This was what I would call a pretty lazy weekend. It was the first weekend that my girlfriend and I were both in town for a while so we did a lot of lounging. We ran errands on Friday and did a little housework. I tried to be a plumber which I thought would be easy. I guess I needed to consider the facts that (1) my girlfriends plumber friend has repeatedly worked on the tub (2) the house is older and has older fixtures. Needless to say, I took out the stem and recognized that there were several seals broken and missing. The whole issue with the tub was that it was leaking at the stem but I could also tell that it probably wasn’t sealing between the lower bath head and the shower head because the seal was totally gone. We went to Home Depot to find seals which we couldn’t so we just bought a complete replacement kit. Unfortunately, the kit had the wrong size stem. I am guess there is a standard now but not back when this bathroom was designed. We went to Ace and it really is the place because it had all kind of stem kits and seals but the person working there wasn’t very helpful and we couldn’t find anything that looked close. I ended up reusing a seal (that probably was not a good idea) and buying an oring where I needed a washer gasket. I did get it to seal and it works pretty good except the fact that the water pressure is only 75% of what it was before. I’m assuming because of the seal I reused in a different place. That a weekday goal to fix.

We watched the MU game on Saturday which really pumped me up. So much that I bought tickets for the game this weekend. How can you pass up tickets for Homecoming weekend, the first visit by ESPN’s College Gameday crew, and the #1 team in the nation? I sure couldn’t. We went to a friends wedding rehearsal that night and went to the MAC for the dinner portion. It was a good time and the place was packed.

Not much happened on Sunday either. I watched the amazing upset by the Rams. I am super excited about Denario Alexander’s excellent first game. Becki and I watched some shows on the DVR that night and were very successful on our first attempt of making lasagna. It was amazing. Here are some more pictures of the process.

Update: I fixed the water pressure issue with the shower head in like 2 minutes. The o-ring I bought ( that wasn’t the right fit and needed to be a washer gasket) was compressing into the chamber under pressure and causing restrictions. I just cut it out and going without it. It is only used to seal between the shower head and the bottom outlet which must make a good metal to metal seal since it does not leak.

I went to Lake of the Ozarks this weekend with my girlfriend. It was a perfect weekend to visit her dad. The weather was great and there was a lot of action due to the Shootout being a couple miles from his cove.

The weekend was a relaxing time where we ate a ton of food. We got the same delicious pizza on Friday night that we got last time we were down in which I ate twice as much as I should have. We had a huge fried fish dinner Saturday and I ate KFC buffet for lunch on Sunday. I have been wanting KFC for weeks after passing it numerous times on my various weekend get aways. We also had B&G’s both mornings. Needless to say, I got to hit the gym hard this week…lol.

We went fishing Saturday morning. We at least cost something this time but no keepers. I caught a small 12″ bass that was a borderline keeper so we threw it back. We hung out in the cove most of the afternoon but did go for a boat ride. We hit up one other cove and looked at the race. The picture above is a picture from pretty far away. There was a no wake zone forever so we did not go all the way down. There was a huge amount of boats if you can not tell. We were told that it might be the busiest weekend on the lake. All I can say is that I want a boat on the Lake more than ever. I just love going for boat rides. I can so see myself owning a place down there in 5 years.

True Blood was very interesting Sunday night. I almost felt like that could have been the season finale. That seems to be True Blood’s thing. I am pretty sure that I remember them bringing a conclusion to the major plot line right at the beginning of the last episode last season. This time they just did it at the end of the second to last episode. It’s going to be a slow next episode in my opinion but a very good season so I am happy.

My girlfriend and I made an amazing pizza this week. Thought I would share some of the pictures and ingredients.

Ingredients

1. 12″ Boboli original pizza crust
2. Ragu pizza sauce
3. onion slivers
4. green pepper slivers
5. pizza seasoning
6. Kraft pizza cheese
7. pepperoni
8. sausage
9. real bacon
10. banana peppers
11. jalapeños

As you can see from the list and the pictures we had quite a list. We basically put on the sauce then cheese then meat then veggies with another thin layer of cheese to hold everything down.

Here is the final product before cooking.

Here is the final product after cooking. We cooked it for 10 minutes on the middle rack at 450 degrees. All I can say is that it was pretty awesome. Might have been the best pizza that I have ever had. The next time I might add a little more sauce and cheese but it was still very delicious. We might also buy fresh dough on the Hill just to see the difference.

Nightlife

Due to my workout plan and the need to catch up on sleep, I took it pretty easy. On Friday, I watched some of the boys play Tanks on Wii. According to Matt Smith, it is the “best game ever.” I realized that I am not good at using a Wii remote but maybe it was the remote. I could not race cows, shoot birds, and I barely played Mario Kart. I enjoyed Mario Kart; probably the most out of any version. I would probably get a Wii just for it.

On Saturday, Mike and I hung out on Wash Ave. We decided to give Sugar another try. It was a “singled out” party and was packed. You wore a green lei if you were single and a red if you were in a relationship. We left around 1:30 to try Lucas Park. It was also packed and we stayed about 30 minutes. I did break down and had 3 drinks. We concluded the night with a little Rock Band.

Workout and Diet

This was a great week of working out. My “no cardio” diet seemed to work wonders. I read in college how you didn’t need to do cardio if you had a good workout but it never worked for me in losing weight. I think it was because my diet. I lost  between 10 and 15 pounds in the past week. I  basically worked a different muscle group each day, ate a good diet, and tried new supplements.

Below is my normal day of eating.

Breakfast – Wake up to a hard boiled egg and one scoop of a protein shake.

Lunch – Either roast beef and over roasted chicken with super sharp cheese rollups or left over chicken breasts.

Preworkout – One scoop of preworkout mix.

Post-workout – One scoop of a protein shake.

Dinner – I normally mix up my dinner between 3 or 4 different meals. They were (1) 3 egg omelet with diced green, yellow, and red peppers with cheese and lean ground beef (2) baked chicken with broccoli (3) baked cod with green beans and a little red potatoes.

Snack – Either celery with peanut butter or cream cheese.

I had a goal of losing 10 pounds but my stretch goal was 15 pounds. It seems like I hit this. The workout has become a little addictive so I am improving my goals to shoot for 200 pounds with a stretch of 195. I also am trying to get a six pack. I never thought I good get a “six pack” but maybe that was due to poor eating. I am going to give it a try in trying to look good for pool season. I am been doing kneeling cable crunches which seem to work wonders.

Taxes

I did my taxes this weekend. I am a little disappointed in a couple things. (1) I am still not sure about deducting the full amount I paid for grad school on my taxes. (2) I did not qualify for Lifetime Learning credit or Hope credit. (3) I could not deduct any of my student loan interest since it said I made too much money. (4) I missed a first time home buyers credit by less than a month.

I did get more money than I was expecting though. Paying $900 in interest payments a month for my place really adds up deductions.

Various

• I cleaned my place.
• Bought an automatic fish feeder so my fish do not die on my 12 day trip to Jamaica.
• Played absolutely zero Gears of War 2
• Completed my forecasting excel sheet for my Tycoon simulation next week.
• Finally got my PC to recognize my external hard drive that I was using with my Moxi box.

Sports

I meant to do this earlier and since Dan Bockhold called me out, I need to mention the amazing MU game vs Kansas. It was one of the most exciting games I have seen. It would of been awesome to be the there. I would rank it up there with some of the KU wins and the OT game vs Iowa St that I witnessed in college. I really think MU is going to go far into the Tournament. They could get a really good seed if they beat either Oklahoma or KU (again) in the regular season. They also should do really good in the Big 12 Tournament if they get a bye. The team they play in the 2nd round will be somewhat tired since they played the day earlier which gives MU an excellent advantage because of their depth and their ability to wear down a team. The MU win against Nebraska was solid win too. Unfortunately, I will be on a flight to Jamaica during the OK game so I will not be able to watch it.

I do not believe a word A-Rod said nor do I believe his “cop out” that “I was under a lot of pressure.” For one, we all have pressure. That doesn’t mean we cheat. Secondly, that is the price you pay for an insane contract that was way too high.

The NBA All Star weekend was very entertaining. Owens had several dunks in the celebrity game and the slam dunk contest was pretty entertaining. I did not watch the entire All Star game but I did notice that Shaq can really dance. His intro in the beginning was entertaining.

So on the recommendation of Mike Hoff, I decided to go out and buy a slow cooker. There was Black Friday deal on it for only $20 so I had to pull the string. I am eating more unhealthy than ever right now so I figured why not. It would be a great way for me to cook pulled pork, beef stew, and chili; all favorites of mine.

I scoured the internet for different pulled pork recipes. I did the same for beef stew recipes … I am making it next. I found all kinds of different recipes so I decided to combine some to make my own. This is what I did.

Ingredients:

1. 4.5 pounds of Pork shoulder roast
2. 1 sliced onion
3. Tiger hot sauce
4. Sweet Bay Ray’s Original BBQ sauce
5. 3/4 cup of water
6. Honey

I started out by putting a layer of sliced onions at the bottom of the greased slow cooker. I then put in the massive piece of pork. I put the rest of the onions on top of the roast. I combined 1.5 cups of BBQ sauce with 3/4 cups of water, 2 tablespoons of hot sauce, and 2 tablespoons of honey. I stirred the mixture together and poured on top of the roast. I set to the cooker to low on a 10 hour timer and left for work.

I was struggling with a couple things in the process. For one, I didn’t really feel that comfortable leaving it on while I was at work since it was the first time I was using it so I am glad my house did not burn down. My other issue was if it was going to cook correctly without burning. This is why I added the BBQ sauce and water. I contemplated adding more water to hopefully distribute the heat. Some people said they didn’t add any sauce or water while others filled the pot 2/3rds of the way so I compromised. I figured it wouldn’t cook at all if I did no sauce. I asked around at work afterward and I was told that you don’t need to add any fluid because the piece of meat will release water as it cooks.

But back to the cooking portion. Upon getting home, I took the roast out of the slow cooker to break it up. It was a big piece and falling apart so it was hard to get it out. I added more sauce to the slow cooker plus some more onions. I broke up pork with a fork then put it back in the cooker for 30 minutes. I unfortunately did not get any pictures after I broke it up but it broke apart great.

The end product tasted pretty good. I might cook it a little different next time. I have found in past barbecuing experiences that Sweet Baby Ray’s is not good BBQ sauce for slow baking. I think it has too many sugars in it so it comes out loosing a lot of its good taste. I would probably try cooking it without BBQ sauce or maybe try a different sauce. I tried some more a couple hours later and it was amazing. I think the BBQ sauce and some time to solidify and made it even better.

I cooked beef stew that following night. It was awesome. I woke up to a house smelling great. Nothing like eating stew for breakfast. It was just like my dad makes which is a plus.