The Ipod touch

I have been thinking about putting an ipod touch on my wish list. I just got my first apple product - an 80 gig ipod classic last fall. It works great and I like it. When I bought my ipod, ipod touches had just come out. I didn't think I needed all the bells and whistles and went for the bigger size on the ipod classic.

However, now I really want to have some of the great applications out there. There are so many that sound awesome. I also would love to use the wifi option. I would never buy an actual iphone though, I don't want to be buckled down by a monthly contract. Today in a down time at work, I started reading reviews on the ipod touch at amazon.com So many people love them. Made me want one even more ;) I learned that you can only have about 9 pages of applications which I believe comes out to 148 applications you can have. The size of applications also differs, with the ones that are games and video taking up more space.

While reading the reviews and thinking about it, I think if I did get one I would get the smaller version - the 8gb. I already have my real ipod with all of my music on it. I would want it for the wifi access and the applications. I would not need the biggest one like I was thinking before. So I dunno. I feel a bit weird thinking about buying a second ipod product, but this ipod touch has functionality that mine doesn't have. I also read that it's not as great for listening to music because it doesn't have the same buttons. An if I went for the smaller one I could use both ipods for each situation I needed. My birthday is coming up next month, so we will see if I can rationalize it enough :)

Healthy Fast Food

I normally shy away from most fast food places where everything is fried and covered in sauces. My two favorites and normal go to's are Subway and Wawa where I can pick and choose what I want on my sandwiches. Yum. Today I decided to go to Wendy's for lunch. Jeff and I had been watching a show on fast food the other day and it mentioned Wendy's slogan "do it your way". That got me to thinking about Wendy's again and I decided to give it a shot.

Before I went I checked out their nutritional information online to see what their numbers were. You never know what things they can hide in food. From researching online I decided to get their grilled chicken sandwich without the sauce it normally comes in and a baked potato instead of their fries. I think it's great they have other things you can have instead of fries. In the end the chicken sandwich was pretty yummy. The potato looked kinda sad, but was still also good. This is definitely something I will repeat. Yea for something different I can eat :) This also makes me more motivated to try chicken sandwiches at other places. I normally avoid them because a lot of the chicken sandwiches I have had have had a weird almost overcooked bland taste. It's hard to describe. Wendy's didn't have that taste and I was glad.

Home made lasagna

For an early birthday treat for Jeff I decided to make him some home made lasagna. Lasagna is one of Jeff's favorite foods so I thought it would be a nice treat. I went to the store and picked up two foil tins especially made for lasagna so I would have two containers that were large enough. I decided on making two separate lasagnas so that Jeff could have the real full calorie version and I could make mine so that it wouldn't bother my stomach.

In Jeff's lasagna I put a little bit of tomato sauce in the bottom, and then alternated layers of lasagna noodles, cooked ground turkey with italian seasoning, cut up slices of zucchini, small plops of ricotta cheese, shredded mozzarella, sprinkling of parmesan cheese, and then more tomato sauce. I got through about three layers before I ran out of noodles. My lasagna was the same as Jeff's although I didn't have any cheese or tomato sauce. This made it a little dry in the end, but not bad. I need to figure out some sort of sauce to include. Maybe just adding in some water would help. Jeff's came out great. I hope it was a nice early birthday treat.

Butternut Squash French Fries

While surfing the net I came across a really cool blog of a mom who likes to cook vegan, but has a lot of great recipe ideas that are similar to the kind of things I like. One thing she makes a lot that looked really good are butternut squash french fries. This immediately had me craving some french fries. I had to try it. I made Jeff go buy a butternut squash at the store that night.

I finally got around to making the fries today. The recipe itself is not hard. However, peeling the squash and cutting it into the right shape is a little hard because the squash is a bit hard and funny shaped. I think I'm going to invest in a mandolin. In the end they were really good and I was impressed. I will defintley be making them again. Even Jeff liked them. Since these fries were so good, I'm excited to try some of the other recipes Sarah makes.

If you would like to make them all you have to do is cut a butternut squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out all the seeds and gunk, and then cut the squash into big fry shapes. Spray a baking pan with pam, place the fries ontop and then spray lightly with pam and add some salt. Bake them in the oven at 450 degrees for forty minutes, turning them over half way.

Week 2 c25k

I started week two of my Couch to 5k program. I had been a little bad and skipped exercising on saturday to finish out week one. However, I had completed a trial run at the beginning of the week. So technically I did complete the week one podcast three times as per the instructions. Yes, I'm rationalizing ;)

This weeks instructions call for intervals of running for 90 seconds and then walking briskly for 2 minutes. I did pretty well overall I think. I did mess up in the beginning because the guy's voice is hard to hear over the music. I was on the warm up walk and I started running early. When I finally realized I was still supposed to be walking it was time to run, so I barely got a break in between, which made me a bit more tired through out the whole thing.

This weeks is definitely harder than last weeks. However, after doing the podcast two more times this week I will hopefully do a lot better.

Stranger than Fiction

Jeff and I watched Stranger than Fiction yesterday. I wasn't sure if I would like this movie, but I gave it a shot. In the end I really liked it. Jeff wasn't so sure. This movie is about a guy who works for the IRS. His life is mundane and boring. One day he starts to hear a woman's voice in his head that is narrating everything he is doing. I won't ruin the end of the movie, but it has a great message. What did I get out of this movie? That you shouldn't just live your life thinking this is how it's always going to be and give up. That little things can change the whole course of your life. That you should live life how you want it. If you have a dream to do something go do it.

More Domo

Today I happened to be in our local Target. Target is a great store and has all sorts of cool things. One section of the store I always check out is the seasonal section. Last Halloween I found that they had some really cute Halloween Domo, which is where I got my pumpkin and devil domos. Ever since I found my Halloween Domos, I always go back to that section of the store to see if they have any new ones.

Today they had all their Easter stuff out. I noticed they had some Hello Kitty stuff, but after looking a bit I found they had two Easter Domo's out! I picked out a stuffed domo dressed as a little chick and a domo with bunny ears. So cute. These two plus a pink domo a friend of mine got for me brings my total to nine stuffed domos ;) My collection is really starting to get big.

Couch To 5k

I decided to give running a try. I am out of shape and I wish I had the stamina to run. I also wouldn't mind looking like a runner. I tried running on the treadmill one afternoon last week and realized what bad shape I was in. I ran for about 7 minutes out of twenty total.

When I was finished I talked to a few friends about it. One brought an internet site to my attention. It is called Couch To 5k. It is basically an interval running program that lasts 9 weeks. It's for people who are out of shape to slowly increase the amount of running you do and decrease the amount of walking you do in a thirty minute session. In the end you will be able to supposedly run 3 miles in 30 minutes. It sounds really cool actually. There are support forums and all sorts of podcasts you can download. I downloaded one that includes techno music. It has the guy who created it in the background telling you when to run and when to walk. There are a variety of podcasts out there with all different sorts of music genres.

This site gives a breakdown of the different walking and running intervals that you go through each week. I am starting my first week today. I did do a trial run on Saturday and surprised myself. I thought I wouldn't be able to finish the whole podcast and would tire out. However, I actually finished the whole podcast and didn't have any troubles. I was very proud of myself. It made me look forward to today when I am really starting. I hope the excitement continues I continue to move through the weeks successfully.

Cleaning the tub

Last weekend I started a cleaning experiment. I have been looking for a way to clean our bathtub floor, which is made out of fiberglass, ever since we moved into our town home. I have cleaned it before, but it never got really clean. I wanted it to be white. I asked around and got a variety of suggestions on what to use to clean it.

In the end I went for a combination of methods. I first poured powdered comet on the bathroom floor. I wanted to use a brush to really put some elbow grease on it, but I couldn't find a brush anywhere. I need to pick one up. So instead of using a brush I used Mr. Clean magic erasers as my brush. They worked pretty well. However, I think I went through five of them. A friend of mine said that they now make super duty magic erasers with scrubbers on the bottom. They sound cool and I look forward to picking some up. Anyways, I used the erasers as a brush, and then after each use I rinsed the eraser under water, squeezed it to get the water out, and then dipped it in a little white vinegar to clean it a little more.

In the end our bathroom floor did finally look white. I was very happy. It took about an hour just working on the floor alone. The only problem is since I used a combination of methods, I'm not sure which one was the material that made the most significant difference. I'm thinking it was the magic erasers, but I guess I will have to try using them first the next time. I was so proud of our clean bathroom floor that I kept going in the bathroom to look at it and didn't really want to get it dirty again. Oh well. At least I know what to do now to get it clean again.

Happy Spring

Happy 2nd day of spring. I can't wait for the warm weather. I love being able to wear short sleeves and shorts and to have the windows open in the house. Today to celebrate spring Jeff and I went over to Rita's and had a some water ice. Mine was mango flavored. Rita's is great because it's a dessert I can eat. Yes, it's very high in sugar, but there is no dairy and no chocolate. I will have to go back and try some more of their flavors. They also supposedly have sugar free flavors, but they didn't have any tonight when I went.

Hello Kitty 3-D Cookie Cutter

Sanrio has come up with so many interesting gadgets. I found this post which advertises that jbox.com is selling a Hello Kitty 3D cookie cutter that can be also used with toast! Cute. I wonder if I would be able to assemble the cookie or if it would fall apart.

Stuffed Shells

I found jumbo pasta shells at our local farmers market this past weekend. They sparked all sorts of cooking ideas in my head. I had already been thinking about making some sort of pasta stuffed with meat dish so I picked them up.

When I got home I googled stuffed shells recipes until I found a good one on cooks.com. The recipe calls for ground beef, but I substituted it with turkey. I got rid of the onions and substituted egg beaters for a real egg. I also realized while making it I didn't have any nutmeg so I used seasoning salt and italian seasoning. I bet nutmeg would have given it a good taste, I'm sad I didn't have any. The meat mixture was basically a mix you would use to make meatballs.

I made two pans full of the shells. For Jeff, I covered the bottom with tomato sauce, put the stuffed shells in, and then covered it again with tomato sauce and Parmesan chesee. For me, I put a little bit of water in the bottom of the pan and put little bits of butter through out it. Then I cooked them for about 30 minutes and served. Very yummy.

The next time I try this I will cook them in the oven for maybe ten minutes less. The pasta was a little crunchy on the edges, but otherwise fine. Jeff also enjoyed making his own stuffing with my leftover shells. He put tomato sauce and shredded cheese in them. I may also try to make a lasagna with similar ingredients. Oh the possibilities ;)