Pedals and Pancakes and Pizza... Oh My!

Jeff and I have been going to spinning classes on Saturday and Sunday mornings. He bought me a membership to Urban Active for Christmas, and ended up getting a free 30 day trial membership in the process. He liked spinning so much, that he got a month-to-month membership. He says he'll keep it until spring.

After doing several cycling tours in Northeast Ohio, I realized that I needed to do something to become adept at tackling the hills of our rural roads. The company I work for has a cycling team that commits to do Pedal to the Point every year, and many people take a spinning class in Strongsville that 1. I have no way to get to and 2. It starts before I even get off of work. Urban Active had a holiday special where you could get an 18 month membership for $299 and after I noticed their spinning classes on weekends, I decided that I wanted the membership and I asked "Santa" for it.

First of all, you won't believe how people became outraged that my own boyfriend bought me a membership to a gym. "Aren't you offended?!" asked one co-worker. Nah. Going to the gym with a BF (or even your BFF) is like having a date/outing where you just happen to get in shape. Urban Active (like many other gyms) has a cardio "theater" where you can hop on a treadmill, elliptical, arc trainer or a stepmill and watch a movie. I also started the "Couch potato to 5k" program this week in hopes to run in an alumni race for my high school in Dublin. Now, I am hardly a potato but I am no runner. The next several weeks will be interesting, to say the least.

After spin last Sunday, we stopped by Lush at Beachwood Mall and picked up some goodies and then headed to Woodmere to have breakfast at the Original Pancake House. When you've been spinning and shopping for stuff that smells good - Sometimes all you want is a plate full of carbs. And those carb-frisbees can be stuffed with coconut (my pick), strawberries (Jeff's pick) or even bacon. Yes, OPH makes a pancake even Michael Symon would love, and he'd only have to walk across the street to get it. The food is inexpensive and good, and in some way it kind of reminded me of going out for breakfast on a Sunday morning when I was a kid, even though I'd not been to an Original Pancake House before last week.

We went to Sur La Table afterwards, and bought a molcajete, much like this one and a new corkscrew (with a bottle opener on top, perfect for opening Mexican Coke found at Alesci's and Marc's!). We also stopped by Trader Joes, and I was very sad to see that they've evidently stopped carrying honey chevre. Does anyone know of a place to find it? I cannot wait for the Sweetfire chevre at the Shaker Farmer's Market. Come on, Spring!!

Once at home, I made a sandwich fit for a Superbowl. Using a loaf of Italian bread, hot capicola ham, salami, hot pepper rings and provolone (all from the West Side Market) I put together something the exponentially outclasses Subway or any other sandwich shop I've been to. The meats and cheese cost about 10 dollars, and the bread was a couple of bucks, but we have enough deli cuts to make two sandwiches and then some (hey, guess what we ate tonight?). After using olive oil and red wine vinegar on the bread and sprinkling some oregano on top of the cheese, we piled on the meat, peppers and cheese and stuck the whole thing under the broiler for a few minutes. Yum.

I actually don't have a lot to say about pizza, except that since we bought a pizza stone we hardly go out for it anymore (Angelo's is the exception). With the closing of Vidstar Video in Coventry, we got set up with Netflix and will be having a date night (in) while watching The Dark Knight and making good use of our pizza stone. Tomorrow will involve a pineapple, ham, and bacon pizza.

What do you like on your pizza?

When I Grow Up

Sometimes I can't decide between posting daily and having little to say, versus posting less frequently with more to say. I think the latter grants me certain liberties in talking your ear off apoetically - also it means I can make up words like "apoetical".

The weeks and weekends have been far too busy to recall in fantastic detail but I'll do my best. We've started a lot of things at work that keep me busy and push me to the brink of madness. I am realizing that what I currently do is not something I care to do for any great length of time. A couple of years ago, I told Jeff that what I really want to do is "make something with my hands" but I don't really know exactly what that is. It's harder to make a living this way, it's something I've thought about for a long time.

I've had recent thoughts about becoming a personal trainer, though I'd like to be in a little better shape to do this. I'd also like to be a writer, I've thought about writing a children's book for some time now. The most amusing part about writing is that after I work all day, the last thing I often want to do is sit in front of a computer. I think I'd like to sit quietly soon, and read something.

Jeff and I saw Sunshine Cleaning this evening at the Cedar Lee Theatre, it was a great movie - and you really can't beat $5 tickets and free popcorn. I have to say that being able to go on a date on a weekday is really cool, though it may seem pedestrian to most people. We dated for nearly two years while living miles apart and as time went on it became harder (emotionally) to do. Imagine consolidating all heartfelt, face to face conversation and interaction into one or two days on a consistent basis for 22 months!

Jeff ran in a track meet at Baldwin-Wallace on Saturday and placed fifth out of twenty or so runners. He ended with a time of 15:55. The weather was nice, but a little too warm for his liking, I think - for running anyway. We went to Panini's in Coventry and watched the Bluejackets game (boo) and ate hamburgers. Sunday, we made a Turkish stew with lamb, apricot preserves and other yummies. We got the recipe out of this month's Gourmet magazine (I got a free subscription when I registered for the Pedal to the Point). It's a pretty neat magazine and it seems to have some good recipes. I will post the stew recipe and other recipes we find interesting at another time.

I picked up a bottle of the Rose wine suggested by the magnificent partners in crime over at Sensory Overload from Whole Foods - It's really tasty! Someone has to come and help me finish it, though. Any takers?

Oh! We stopped by Music Saves and the new record store on Waterloo and picked up a mystery bag of CDs. Jeff and I have amazing luck buying CDs and falling hard for the newly found artists. Jeff wrote a journal on Last.fm about it, actually - and I take great pleasure in his confession that I "1 upped" him by discovering Woodpigeon at a discount/used record store in Hamilton, Ontario. Woodpigeon is one of his favorite bands now.


Songbook is the CD I found at Cheapies for a few bucks - what a find!!

Regrettably I am not Blogger savvy enough to post mp3s here, but your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to listen to Woodpigeon sometime this week. Bonus points if you buy an album or individual mp3!

Dear readers, I would really like to hear your stories of interesting (and enjoyable) music finds. What did you find, and how did you find it/them? Have you ever bought a CD just because the cover art looked interesting? Dish, dish, dish!