Sea World

So today was Sea World day. In the morning, we hung out. I got up at like 8:30 a.m. for some reason even though I didn't need to. This happens to me a lot.

I made coffee and had a yummy breakfast sandwich (I even cook when I'm on vacation).

We went to the grocery store and got sandwich stuff because we were running low. I also got orange juice and I felt the need to get Florida's Natural since we're in Florida.

I know. I'm weird like that.

Anywho.

So then I took a nap because the heat has been tiring me out so much.

Then, Brianna woke me up because we were supposed to go to the Welcome Center around 2:45 so we could get a cab to go to Sea World, but for some reason, I wanted to continue sleeping.

But we eventually got to Sea World and it was awesome. I got to see Shamu, a polar bear and lots of other animals. We got to see flamingos, dolphins and sharks. We even got to pet the sting rays which felt soooo cool.

So yeah. We did get to see another acrobat show, too, which was fun.

So yeah. Lots of fun has been had by this chica.

More to come.

Later.

The Second Day

So yesterday we left for Busch Gardens around 8:30 a.m. We got there around 10:30ish because we had to stop for breakfast and junk like that. So then came the fun stuff: the animals.

Basically all Erin, Erik and I did was see lots and lots of animals. We got to see them from the skyride, from the train and from the rhino rally. We also got to see them a little bit closer.

I think my favorite was the flamingos. They were soo cute. I also liked seeing the zebras, the giraffes and the kangaroos.

The hippo was pretty cool, too. I got pretty up close and personal with the hippo. There was a glass partition in between us, but still. That was basically the only thing that was separating us.

We also got to the ride the Congo River Rapids. That was fun because us three got totally soaked so it was very refreshing.

Then, Erin and Erik left to go visit their family. I stayed at the park for a little while longer and it started pouring as soon as they left.

I then waited for the next show of Cirque Dreams which was in about a half hour. It was really cool, though.

All the people were in animal costumes. There was a couple of girls who looked like plants who did a lot of cool contortionist stuff.

There was a guy who was really good at juggling. Another guy was able to balance on moving cylinders and stuff.

Then, there was the couple who did acrobatics on a couple of ribbons which was really cool.

It was all in all a good show.

After that I rode the Sheikra which was really fun. Basically, at the top of the hill, we were suspended for a few seconds, waiting for the plunge and then BAM. You are let go, falling to your doom.

Not really. It was cool, though. It lasted about 30 seconds.

Then, I went on the rapids ride again. Got good and wet.

Then, my cousin picked me up and we hung out at Bar Louie. It was fun. I hadn't seen her since last summer and I got to hear about her wedding that's going to be happening in April which is cool.

So yeah. Then, Erin and Erik picked me up there and we went home.

I got home around 11:30 and pretty much went straight to bed after I checked my facebook and plugged in my phone (you see my priorities?)

But yeah. It was fun.

And guess what? They gave me a second day at Busch Gardens FREE! Bring on the rollercoasters!

Second part of the first day

So yeah. We went shopping. I  only spent a reasonable amount of money on unreasonably priced tourist traps.

I got a t-shirt for me and a t-shirt my dad. It came to 30 dollars. Isn't that ridiculous?

Anyways.

After walking for like two hours and going shopping and buying groceries, I ended up on the couch watching Napolean Dynamite. Guess who fell asleep?

That's right. Yours truly.

So we decided to go to Sea World another day. Which is fine. The tickets are good until early September.

I'm sure we'll use them.

So then, Erin and Erik came back and we all went to Joe's Crab Shack. It was fun. The crab was amazing and expensive, but it was worth it. Sometimes, you just have to go all out.

So now we're going to watch "Limitless" which we got from Redbox.

Can't wait.

I love, love, LOVE Bradley Cooper. I'd marry him and have his babies, but I don't know if it would work out. I think he might be too pretty for it to work out. He seems like the kind of guy who cares too much about his appearance.

I've met those kind of guys and I'd much rather they put more stock in other parts of themselves.

Anywho.

Enough about men.

I've had quite a relaxing day.

Tomorrow: Busch Gardens and Tampa.

Yayness!

Day Number One

Oh how I miss you, Glee. It's been toooo long. Oh wells. It happens. I am now without a show to watch because White Collar just ended. I guess I can wait a couple of weeks.

Anywho.

So I got up around 9:30 a.m. this morning. I made coffee and had an egg over easy over toast.

Brianna got up not too long after that. We had a nice long leisurely morning that is still technically going on.

I went for a quick little run in my new Five Finger Vibrams. Yes, that's right. I caved. I can't help myself when it comes to shopping. I have an itch that just has to be scratch via spending way too much money on clothes and shoes. It's okay though because I hadn't bought running shoes in quite some time and good running shoes cost that much and more.

So yeah. It happens.

So I went for a run and then took a quick shower.

Now Brianna and I are going shopping. She needs a bathing suit. I will try and control my shopping urges.

Then after that, we plan on playing water volleyball and then doing whatever. I'm hoping for mini golf. We'll see, though.

Then, we're going to Sea World! Already bought the tickets and everything! I'm way excited (can you tell?)

But yeah.

That's the plan.

Later, peoples.

Vacation

Hey all. Since I've decided I'm not going to do a lot of facebooking this week, I thought a good alternative would be blogging.

So I am now in Orlando at our, get this, resort. Oh. It's so nice, here. There are 4 swimming pools, a volleyball net, basketball, mini golf and plenty of other things.

My day started around 4 a.m. when my mom picked me up to go Flint Bishop Airport. We got there and had no problems. I had breakfast with the madre that was a little on the expensive side but it worked. I then said "adios" and went through security.

I played on the interwebs for a little while and then boarded my too-small airplane around 6 a.m.  It was only a two hour flight and I slept pretty much the whole way (yes I did have my contacts in. I know. Bad idea).

I got to Atlanta where I had a lay-over around 8 a.m. There, I freshened up a bit and was able to find my flight quite quickly. They were already boarding by the time I got to the gate, but I still got there on time.

My plane got into Orlando around 10ish. I then had to go get my luggage at baggage claim. Get this: I didn't have to pay for it to be checked but they still checked it for me. It works. *Shrugs*

I then took the shuttle to Blue Tree Resort. There was a struggle checking in because although our room was ready, the room was not booked under my name so they had to verify my identity somehow.

I called Erin and it went to voicemail so I walked around a little bit (in the rain mind you) and then by the time that I got back, the front desk staff was on the phone with Erin.

Then, I got all my information and room keys. The person working the desk called security so I wouldn't have to walk all the way to the room with my luggage. The security guy came and whisked me off on his horse-drawn carriage (a golf cart) and I made it to my room in no time at all.

I was at the room around 12:30ish. I ordered Domino's for lunch. I had like five slices of their veggie pizza. They even had roasted red peppers on it. It was very yummy in my tummy. ;)

So then, I took a five-hour nap on the couch. The blanket was really comfy, let me tell you. I fell asleep to Scrubs. I wish that show was still on the air. Oh well.

By the time I got up it was around 6 p.m. I microwaved a couple slices of pizza. Then, I took a shower and looked to see if there was anything good on the television (there wasn't).

I then went and got breakfast stuff from the little market that's about a 10-minute walk from our room.

On the menu for tomorrow morning: eggs, toast and coffee. That's basically all I need to start my morning off right.

So then I went swimming. It was past dark by then. I loooovveee swimming in the dark.

Then, I took another shower and found "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" to watch. Erin and Erik showed up a little while later so I helped them bring their stuff into the room.

I'm so excited to get a whole 8 days off. I don't remember the last time I've had a week-long vacation.

Now, I'm just waiting for Brianna to get here.

Tomorrow will be the start of a wonderful week of R and R.

Summer Time

I just wanted to indulge you in some of my goings on of this wonderful season that we like to refer to as summer. So far I've: went to Caseville, went camping, kayaked, went miniature golfing, grilled on the beach, went swimming in the water in my parents' backyard, went to Grand Rapids, had a fourth of July cookout, went biking and running, saw the sunset on the waters of Lake Huron, saw Fireworks on the water, had game nights, played frisbee, played catch in the pond, went to a Greek Festival, went to the Art Walk, had a campfire with s'mores, stayed up way past my bedtime, volunteered with a mission in Pontiac, helped with Vacation Bible School, started Summer classes and of course I worked a few hours in between.

All in a few months. I can't believe in about a month in a half or so Summer will be over. It seems like it just started two seconds ago. I don't understand the momentum of time, but I guess I've gotten used to it. It's a cliche, but I feel like as I get older time speeds by even faster. I don't know what it is or how it works, but that's just the ways of the world that we live in I guess. I guess I'm just being introspective. As I like to say, it happens.

So now that I'm taking summer classes, you would think that I would lay off all the crazyness. Not so much. This weekend I'm going rock-climbing. That'll be interesting. I also always make time to go to my parents' house a couple times a week to cool off with a swim in their pond. It's usually pretty nice especially on these hott, July days.

One of the things that I'm thankful for is chances to hang out with friends. I was able to do that last weekend which was really nice. My one friend lives in Grand Rapids so we don't get to see each other as often as I would like, but that's okay because we got to go camping this last weekend which was nice. We were able to do a little hiking and we roasted s'mores.

I also was able to hang out with another friend of mine last weekend. We had dinner at his place and then we went and got icecream (another thing I've done this summer.) Then we watched Harry Potter (my nice little plug for the movie that's coming out this weekend that I won't be seeing until the hype has died down a little bit).

I'm going to be doing a few things in August. I find that August tends to get busy because people want to get in as much as they can before the summer is over with. That works and all, but there's only so much time in a month. It'll be fun, though. A couple of my family members  are going to be going to the Cheeseburger Festival up in Caseville. We go to that just about every year. There's good times to be had there (that and beautiful sunsets as I mentioned).

All right. Well, that's a good summation of what I've been doing lately. I'll let you know if anymore interesting stuff happens.

Later, Gator.

Disaster in the Kitchen

Okay, so it wasn't really that much of a disaster. But it's the closest I've ever had to one in a really long time. So yesterday I made black bean burgers with steak fries. The burgers weren't hard. I did forget to buy bread crumbs so there I am toasting up some bread in the oven for bread crumbs. It was good, though because that bread was getting kind of stale anyways. It needed to have a job to do. Now the thing about making your own bread crumbs is it kind of helps to have a food processor. I tried putting them in the blender and it didn't work. So what I ended up doing is crunching them up by hand and just not using the big chunks on the inside that didn't get enough toasting to crumble properly.

After that I did the steak fries. I sprinkled on some oil, and also steak seasoning, parsley and oregano. Then I put them in the oven for 25 minutes. The recipe said to put them on "high heat." I really didn't know what that means so I set the oven for 450 and crossed my fingers that was high enough.

After putting the fries in the oven, I got to work on the burgers. I was halving the recipe, as per usual, since I'm only one person and I don't like having leftovers for days. I like to cook every single day not every other day. So, one thing it called for was a roughly chopped onion. I did that. Then I realized this and everything else was supposed to go in the food processor. I then finely diced the onion. I luckily found some chopped garlic in the fridge which I used. After that, I put in the egg, spices and bread crumbs and mashed everything up. Upon combining these ingredients, I looked at the recipe and realized I had forgotten to half the onions. I considered taking them up, but they were well mixed at this time so there was really no. Oniony burgers it is!

After this I remembered to flip the fries. I don't know why this is but my french fries always get really done when I bake them. If anyone can help me with this, I would be very pleased. I'm not sure if I'm putting them at the wrong temp or if I just use too much oil or what. But anyways. I flipped them so they would get properly burnt on both sides and then went back to cooking the burgers.

I sprayed the pan with some cooking spray and put them on the grill pan. Everything seemed fine until the fire alarm started going off. It didn't seem like anything was really burning that much besides my potatoes, but there wasn't any smoke really. At first, I was able to turn the fire alarms off. Then, they went off again. It was quite ridiculous. I then turned off the stove. I pressed "hush" on every single fire alarm to no avail until I got to the one in my room. I'm not sure if that was the one that did it since Dustin also pressed "hush" on a different one, but I was just happy the very loud noise had stopped.

The burgers were done anyways and the fries had been done so they got a little extra burn on them, but it worked out. I must say though that I didn't really like my black bean burgers. They were kind of bland. I think I'll try a different recipe next time and maybe even buy my own bread crumbs. Who knows.

All right. More cooking adventures to come.

A Weekend Without Cooking

You may be wondering why I am writing a blog post if, in fact, there was no cooking done this weekend. Well, truth be told, I did cook a little bit. I don't know if Friday night counts but that's when it happened.

Friday:
So I got home around 10:30 or so from Video Gamer's Club upon which I took a shower and got started on cooking my "Veggie Pizza." There isn't a lot involved in this. Basically, I used croissant dough and baked it in the oven for about 12 minutes at 375 degrees (I've made a few croissants in my day, let me tell you). Then, after that had cooled basically, all you have to do is spread some cream cheese on top with cut up broccoli and carrots. It was a good way of using up the veggies that were about to go bad in my fridge. Next time, I'll make it from scratch and it will be a little more exciting. The cream cheese could have used some herbs or something. It was kind of bland. Also, note to self, I should probably refrigerate it instead of leaving it in my car all day. It would've tasted better if it had been cold. I had been making this for a party I was going to on Sunday, by the way.

Sunday:

So yesterday was Easter. I had no involvement in the meal that was made except for maybe helping put things on the table which really doesn't count. Somehow I got stuck working yesterday mostly because I was being nice and not making my dad work yesterday. Well, I missed getting to go to church so I was a little bit pissy especially when customers kept trying to buy things around the time I was trying to close up. Anyways. We had ham, green beans, croissants (did I tell you), tossed salad, mashed potatoes and scalloped potatoes. The scalloped potatoes really didn't turn out that good, but I'm not surprised. My mom doesn't really like cooking with cheese which I don't understand at all. But anyways. This is why I should have been there helping. Somebody needed to be the one to add the cheese, butter and milk (most of which my mom avoids).

So anyways. I did make a little something for my lunch today last night. I made tuna salad. It's actually quite good. Basically it's tuna, celery and onions with special mayo. The sauce includes mayo, dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, pepper and sugar. So yeah. It turned out really good. And all I had to do this morning was spread it on a couple of slices of bread and voila! Tuna salad sanwhich to go.

So anyways. I haven't gone grocery shopping this week, but I do wanna make a couple new dishes. I was thinking about doing fish again. We'll see, though. I kind of wanted to make stir fry, too. We'll see what happens.

Happy cooking!

Eat Dessert First

So the other day I was actually able to make dessert (I think it was Saturday. Not sure). It actually turned out really good. I made mixed berries compote. It's basically sugar, water and frozen fruit cooked on the stove. It turns out to be this amazing warm syrupy goodness that went really good on my icecream. The only thing was that it kind of melted my ice cream a little too much. Maybe next time, I'll let the compote cool before pouring it on my ice cream.

So yesterday, I went grocery shopping. I know it's been less than a week, but my dad wanted me to pick up a couple things and I wanted to get a couple things anyways. So one think I picked up was croissant rolls because I was going to make a veggie pizza for the Writing Center party I'm going to this weekend.

So I left my groceries out. I didn't put them in the fridge because I didn't think it would be a big deal. I figured yogurt and cream cheese could deal for a couple hours. When I was putting away my groceries, I found the croissant rolls had popped out of their canister. So I ended up making croissants. So that means I'm going to have to go to the grocery store again. It's kind of frustrating.

So after I made croissant rolls, I made chicken noodle soup. I had bought the stock earlier this week. It basically consisted of chicken, noodles, stock, onions, carrots and celery. I also put parsley and thyme in there (dry). It turned out okay. Whenever I get store bought stock, I always am disapointed. This is what makes me want to make my own homemade chicken stock. It's kind of a lot of work, though. I don't really want to buy a whole chicken. I feel like I would end up throwing away a lot of stuff after the stock is made afterward.

Dessert

So yesterday, after showering and doing the dishes, I attempted to make bananas foster. I had bought bananas and ice cream for the occasion specifically, forgetting the vanilla of course. So first, I attempted making the sauce. Since I was only making one serving, I quartered the ingredient list. This did not work somehow. Each time I ended up burning the butter/ sugar mixture. I have no idea what I was doing wrong. I will attempt it again though since I still have bananas and icecream.

What I ended up doing was eating fried bananas with ice cream and chocolate sauce. It was good but it wasn't that good. It may have been because I got the cheap ice cream. Oh well.

Today:

So every week my mom and I go out to eat. Today I suggested this Mexican place, Casa Real, on Miller. I'd only been to the one in Oxford and had never eaten there so I thought we could try it out. Immediately, I could tell something was wrong once I sat down at the table. My mom, instead of drinking her margarita, was asking for more water. It was weird. Apparently it wasn't as good as Nuevo Vallarta's margaritas (which was actually true). Another problem was the chips weren't hott. This is a necessity at an authentic Mexican restaurant. They just taste better.

I ended up ordering a chimichanga which was good. It was really big though and I mostly just ate the rice and beans. I ended up having a lot left over. I also didn't leave enough room for dessert for which I was sad. Oh well I guess. I'm sure I could just make flan myself. What is it, like, eggs and sugar and milk or something? It sounds easy enough at least.

All right, well, more food adventures to come...

Healthy Food

The last time I wrote on this blog was New Year's Day. I know. Pathetic. I don't know where the time went. It seems like yesterday was the first day of the semester and now we're almost into finals. But anyways.

In my last blog I mentioned possibly doing something with this blog involving food. I'm going to attempt to do that from now on. I'm not sure how often I'll post but I'm hoping a couple times a week at least.

On to my food adventures.

Wednesday:

I was inspired to make chicken salad and sweet potato fries. I found both of the recipes online quite easily. When I was at the grocery store, I only needed a couple extra things. For the chicken salad: walnuts, dried cranberries, celery and onions. For the sweet potato fries: sweet potatoes. I kind of simplified the recipes to ease the affect on my wallet.

When I got back home, lo and behold, I had forgotten the dried cranberries. It was too late to go back so I had to do without. Basically the salad consisted of chopping vegetables up, cooking the chicken and mixing mayo and white vinegar together for the sauce. One problem I did run into was toasting the walnuts. I somehow managed to burn them but they were still salvageable so it was okay.

The salad turned out good and I accompanied it with sweet potato fries. The only thing about these was having to peel the sweet potatoes. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I chopped them, covered them in oil, salt, pepper and cinnamon. After a half hour in the oven, they turned out really well. They tasted like Thanksgiving and I regretted not having pumpkin pie to go along with them. Oh well. I was happy with the finished product so it's okay.

Thursday:

Not as exciting.

I made sloppy joes and spaghetti (sauce from a jar with ground beef). The only actual cooking skill that was needed for this meal wa s chopping onions for the sloppy joes. The sloppy joes that I make include beef, onion, ketchup and mustard. Nothing else. I know it sounds to simple, but try it. It's amazing. Then, I made spaghetti with meat sauce for today's lunch and early dinner (I usually eat dinner twice).

Friday:

So today was yet another grocery day. This is what happens when I get ideas for recipes: I shop a lot. More money out of my pocket that I don't have much of (thanks to having to pay my taxes). So I bought the stuff I needed for (hopefully) all of the week's meals including today's meal: shrimp scampi. I bought shrimp. That's it. That's all I needed for shrimp scampi.

Basically to make the shrimp scampi, you melt butter in olive oil with chopped garlic. Then, you cook the shrimp in that sauce. The linguine (spaghetti) is cooking while this is going on. Then, you add parsley, crushed red pepper, lemon juice (white wine vinegar) and I added a little parmegan for good measure along with the cooked spaghetti. Voila! Shrimp scampi. It was amazing. It was so refreshing to eat something besides: spaghetti, chicken quesadillas, or chicken alfredo. That's one of the reasons I'm doing this blog. I'm hoping to get a little variety in my cooking. It's gotten to be a bit boring eating the same thing week after week.

All right. I'll keep you updated any and all meals. Til next time.

Salud!

New Years

So I don't know why, but I felt the need to make New Years resolutions this year. I tend to make resolutions every semester so it just happened that this time it is also a new year instead of just a new semester. So here goes:

1. Exercise more
2. Eat healthier
3. Try cooking new recipes each week
4. Continue doing well in school
5. Go to another Spanish-speaking country

I know a couple are kind of vague, but I tend to break them easily if I make them too specific. Another thing I'd like to do is dedicate myself more to my writing. I'd like to continue with this blog, but I'm not going to have the theme of music anymore. I might do something with food, but I'm not sure. We'll see. I'll let you know when I figure it out. All right. As you were.