Guys

Stick a group of guys in a room and this is what you get...

This is the scene I walked into last weekend, as one brother's family stopped by and another brother was around helping with the sprinkler system.

Like bugs to a bright light - games are irresistible.

What I've learned from juicing

The Russian and I watch gaming youtube videos, which I know isn't too popular for most women.  It started as his way to "teach" me how I should be playing games like Call of Duty: Black Ops, but he's probably sorry now as I keep beating him when we battle each other.

Anyway, one of the channels we tune in to is Wings of Redemption.  Not only does he post videos of his game playing, he talks about thematic randomness.  Today, his newest video was regarding juice fasting.



Wings of Redemption recently watched the video Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead like I did (a year ago).  As he's on a quest to lose weight, Wings decided to undertake the challenge from the movie:  a 10 day juice fast.

Watching the video was somewhat motivational, as I do believe in juice fasting (to an extent), even if my current situation prohibits me from partaking in such at this point in time.  However, as I do have some experience juicing, there were some things I wanted to point out for someone wanting to juice.

Tips for juicing:

1. Mix fruit and veggies in each juice - fruit as an amazing way of covering up the taste of veggies.  Any juice consisting mainly of veggies requires fruit to make it palatable unless one is accustomed to juicing.

2. Add spinach - to juice spinach, roll it into a tight ball before dropping into the juicer.  If you just drop loose leaves into the juicer, they tend to be discarded instead of juiced.  The best part?  You can't taste the spinach - not in juice, not in smoothies, never.  It's literally the easiest way to incorporate veggies into your diet.

3. Don't juice orange/lime/lemon rind - two reasons, a) unless organic, the rind has a layer of wax to protect it which you probably don't want to eat and b) the rind is bitter.

4. Limit the amount - clean up of the juicer can be labor intensive, but fresh juice can go bad.  Specifically, carrot juice can go bad and you don't want to give yourself botulism or something of the sort by trying to make juice last for several days.  Another reason - nutrients are lost as the juice sits.  (Just google it.)

Some good veggies to juice:

Carrots - rather tasty
Cabbage - best described as a fresh taste
Brussel sprouts - surprisingly good
Tomatoes - only if you like the taste of tomato
Spinach - no taste/blends right in
Cucumbers - very refreshing
Parsnips - a bit of a bite

If you're interested in juice fasting, check out the Reboot website... a community created by Joe Cross from Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.  It has details on how to fast, recipes, and community forums for motivation and help.

The price you pay

The manfriend had a request...that we play Killzone*.  Killzone.  Killzone?!?

Now, I enjoy playing video games with the manfriend.  Games like Call of Duty: Black Ops and Borderlands are somewhat enjoyable time wasters.  They may help with pent up frustration, too...But Killzone?  I hate Killzone.

Not only am I bad at it, the maps are confusing and the controls are weird.  Plus, everyone who plays this game seems to be incredibly accurate shots and amazing at dodging my randomly thrown bullets.  Needless to say, I suck at this game.

Do I have to play?

I do strive to be an accommodating, engaging fiancé.

A reserved sigh.  "Okay, we can play... one hour."

(It ends up being an hour and a half of sheer frustration.)

However, everything has it's price... "You owe me."

The Orchid Show!  Two days full of bright blooms and soft scents wafting through the air.  (You do know that vanilla comes from an orchid, right?  And another orchid smells delectably like chocolate.)  Have questions?  Comments?  In the market to buy one or ten?  Need supplies?  Find it all here!

I have what one might call an addiction to orchids.  An intense love of their uniqueness.  Not only are orchids my favorite flower, I have an ever-growing collection of them.  In Ecuador, I would frequent orchid growers to stand for hours gazing over the exotic blooms.

The manfriend graciously takes care of my five orchids that live with him.  They migrated to his place when I moved away for my internship in grad school.  Another four followed me down to my current residence.

I drool over the orchids I encounter in stores.  I literally have to pull my hands back from the pots and fight the urge to place each orchid in my cart.  Resolutely, I tell myself that the manfriend will get mad if I walk in the door with another beautiful flower.

But now...now, it's payback time.  How many orchids is gaming worth?

Apparently, only one, as that's all I managed to buy due to a lack of forward thinking when I forgot to bring my cash.  My absolute favorite flower was sold while I was trying to convince the manfriend of it's sheer awesomeness.  I ended up with this yellow and purple dendrobium (my favorite genus) instead.

*What I mean when I say Killzone, for those avid gamers out there, is really Killzone 3.