Fired Up

Post written by Bridget Strub.

photo courtesy of stevendepolo

This past week, date night started before the weekend began. It was awesome and completely necessary, but not an exceptionally smart thing to do. As the week wound down and I spent my third consecutive night at school past 5 o’clock whatever will power I had for the day was spent on the decision to go to the gym before school started. So when I opened my inbox and found a coupon for Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse I immediately called Pete, to say “I love you” of course, and to nonchalantly mention the coupon I happened to receive. Lucky for me it took about as much energy to convince Pete to go out as it does to get him to watch football on a Sunday afternoon, and we watch football EVERY Sunday afternoon. As we shared a plate of appetizers and two steaks for a total of $26 (tax and tip included) next to a fireplace and talking moose I couldn’t help but smile (even though I had to suppress the sinking feeling that my 5:30am trip to the gym was pointless). My bargain addiction and stomach had been filled. It set the mood for a happy weekend. We were able to spend much needed quality time together, and the pressure of the restaurant decision for date night was lifted. We were able to explore new frontiers with genuine excitement, and that definitely paid off.

As we lazily rolled out of bed on Saturday morning, we couldn’t help but notice the sunshine peering through our windows. I had an insatiable desire to be outside and enjoy whatever nice weather we had left in upstate NY. We pitched ideas like apple picking and Letchworth State Park around, but ultimately decided on driving around the east side and taking a slow walk on the Erie Canal Path. We wandered through Fairport, and discovered some incredible little treasures that I’m excited to explore and report on in the weeks to come. As our tummies began to rumble we decided to investigate Napa Wood-Fired Pizzeria in Perinton Hills Plaza. I had heard good things about it and the website looked decent so we gave it a go. We were on a pretty big high after our walk through the fresh, crisp, fall air, so we went in with pretty lofty expectations.

The dining room was pretty trendy with a fairly cozy vibe to it. We stood at the bar awkwardly for a few moments before the one employee working (besides the chef) shuffled us to our table. For most restaurants the sight of one employee acting as both host and waiter should be huge red flag that the restaurant isn’t all that successful. However, we tend to go out to dinner at the same time my grandpa would take out his lady friend, so you can’t really blame smaller restaurants for not fully staffing their dining room just to wait on three tables. Even though there weren’t that many people there, our waiter was pretty rushed, but we were determined not to let his hurried aura mess with our experience. Pete noticed two things almost immediately. One, there was a flat screen TV with the Notre Dame football game on. He put that in our “pros” column for the restaurant while I promptly placed it in the “cons”. A football game on TV during date night dinner is like being a contestant on the latest Bachelor. While Pete’s not off making out with the TV, his attention definitely gets divided. However, Pete also noticed that they offered loganberry as a beverage option. For those of you who have never tasted the glory that is loganberry, I’m sorry. It is neither soda nor juice, but MAN is it good. The minute I sip the magical nectar I am instantly transported to my childhood and a permanent nostalgic smile spreads across my face. Very few restaurants in Rochester offer loganberry as an option for their diners, so when one is discovered, they automatically shoot up on the “this-place-is-awesome” scale.

As we poured over the menu we were a little overwhelmed by the options presented to us. One would assume that over thirty-six choices of pizza would make some people happier than a greedy kid on Christmas morning. But, you know what they say about people who assume things. I found the menu to be a little confusing and distracting. Even the “create your own” option was a little disappointing because it only offered sauce and cheese with each additional topping for $1.50 each. Kind of lame. I decided to go with a gourmet pizza with eggplant, artichokes, feta and roasted red peppers, while Pete got a double-decker pepperoni pizza.

Before our order came out we had a pretty in-depth discussion about whether or not his choice meant that it was a double layer of pepperoni or an actual two-layered pizza. We weighed the possibilities and potential risks of stacking two pizzas on top of each other and quickly concluded that it wasn’t possible, but that it would be an awesome experiment to try. Pete was satisfied, though, at the thought of eating twice the amount of pepperoni than normal. He was pretty excited actually. So, you can imagine the disappointment on his face when his pie came out and the average amount of pepperoni lay atop it. I swear it looked like he had just learned that the Superbowl was cancelled. As I inspected Pete’s pie, I realized our wildest dreams had come true. Someone had actually created a double-decker pizza! At this point, the expression on Pete’s face changed so much you would’ve thought I told him not only was the Superbowl back on, but he could be the starting quarterback for the favored team. He exclaimed with joy (and he doesn’t make many exclamations) that his pizza held the “benefits of a calzone and joy of pizza”. I coveted his gooey mess as I chewed through my quarter sized chunks of eggplant that fell off my droopy crust. I have a serious problem with choosing meals that have one or two ingredients that I’m craving in it, but others that I don’t really care for. I’m a fan of the thin crust of gourmet pizzas, but struggle when it is piled with too many toppings to sustain its purpose as a crispy crust. Either way, we both were extremely full after our meal, and had at least half our pizzas in boxes to take home.

Though we were too full to take advantage of their dessert menu, I was delighted to see that Napa offered carrot cake and other tasty goodies from Cheesy Eddie’s. I’m telling you right now that if you’ve never had Cheesy Eddie’s carrot cake, you haven’t lived. They are open weird hours, and we’ve only been to one other place in Rochester that offers their desserts so it’s very rare that Pete and I get to enjoy the goodness. Yet another huge jump on the “this-place-is-awesome” scale.

My gym-going self would say that this weekend’s date nights (yes, Bugaboo can count as a date night) were a complete waste. But the girly, “I love spending time with my hubby” self would agree that the food extravaganza was an overwhelming success. While Napa Wood-Fired Pizzeria hasn’t shot to the top of our favorite spots to eat, it has scored a few “awesome” points, and I’d recommend giving it a try if you’re in the mood for options and doggie bags.

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Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 Review

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

Not Your Average Camera

the Stylus Tough-6000 by Olympus

First Impressions
When I first received the camera I decided to completely disregard the Instruction Manual and refrain from checking out the website and just play around a bit. I wanted to get my own impression of how great or lousy the camera was without the influence of the website’s marketing. To be completely candid, I wasn’t really too excited over doing a camera review. I mean, how exciting is it to compare compact digital camera’s? They are all pretty much the same. I pictured myself checking out the ISO settings, picture quality, zoom feature, maybe even get into the quality of the camera strap. Not too exciting, right? Well, think again.

Earning it’s Label
The Olympus Stylus Tough-6000 has several features that set it apart immediately from other cameras that I’ve owned or used before. Besides the non-traditional color of yellow (which looks more green to me) – the words shockproof and waterproof on the front of the camera caught my attention. (It also comes in blue, orange or silver). Being this was a loaner camera, a sly grin came to my face. Shockproof up to 5 feet, huh? We’ll see about that. After enjoying a few drops myself (which I found it amazingly difficult to let an expensive gadget slip out of my hands) I shared this joy with my wife. It brought a smile to her face as well to toss the camera onto the ground and after inspecting the camera, we were both impressed too find that it still powered up and operated fine. Oh, I can’t forget to mention the very cool stainless steel lens cover that slides up when you turn the camera to off.

The other part of it’s tough label is that it happens to be waterproof. I also looked forward to sticking this camera down into some water and capturing some images that I’ve only been able to do in the past with a disposable waterproof camera that costs about $30 and uses traditional film. The camera lived up to this feature as well and captured some terrific underwater photos that, not surprisingly, come out much better than the disposables we’ve used in past. More on this later…

The Basics
Before I get back to the fun features that really set this camera apart, let me go over some of the basic settings you would want from any camera. The features I’m most interested in, as an amateur photographer, are picture quality, flash, zoom, screen size, shutter quickness and battery. I realize there are a ton of other features, but when it really comes down to it, these are the must-have’s that need to work well.

1. Picture Quality The pictures have amazing definition, using 10 megapixels. After shooting a few pics and uploading them on my Mac, I noticed these were as impressive as any DSLR camera pictures I’ve seen. The colors were vibrant, and the images were very detailed. I could zoom in significantly and appreciate the amazing detail provided by a full 10 megapixels. This, I must say, was the turning point for me and the camera. At this point, I compared the picture quality of these new photos to my older compact Canon, and it suddenly felt broken, or at least inadequate. I had been planning on upgrading my camera in the near feature and was fully expecting to go to one of the larger DSLR camera’s but the Olympus Tough was beginning to change my mind.

2. Flash The quality of the flash, or rather more importantly, how the camera does in low-light, is very important to me as well. The Tough 6000 has a built in flash which does limit it compared to the larger DSLR’s that can handle a $200 external flash, but it did quite well in low light. I have to be honest, I do need to play around a bit more. I tried many different combinations, using the flash settings, different scenes, no-flash, and some of them came out grainy, but some of them came out extremely clear. I simply need to remember what specific combination to use the next time I’m to capture a moment in low-light.

3. Zoom There are two ways to compare the zoom. Again, I was considering going to a larger DSLR camera, in which you can add on expensive lenses allowing you to zoom in and capture someone’s nose hairs sitting on the other side of a stadium. So in that example, no compact camera would compare. Nor are they even in the same price range. But as far as comparing it to similar compact camera’s, it has an pretty impressive 3.6x optical zoom, for not having any external lens. Most camera’s that have any sort of zoom over 2x have some sort of lens that protrudes out of the camera, but the Stylus Tough stays slim and sleek.

4. Screen Size The Tough’s screen was quite interesting to me. While looking at the large 2.7 inch LCD screen when shooting a picture, it looked very clear to me. Once I snapped a photo and saw the image I just took that displays for a few seconds, it looked slightly less detailed. When I took my first few pictures I thought they weren’t coming out so great, but once I got them on the computer and viewed them full sized, I realized they look great. I’m being very picky here, but did want you to be aware of that. Other family members I showed this difference to, didn’t seem to think it was that bad. When viewing pictures I took in playback mode, you are able to zoom in on the pictures, and that certainly showed how terrific the definition was. It’s just good to know that the quick review of the image you just shot is going to be even more impressive on your computer screen or prints.
5. Shutter Quickness There is nothing worse than trying to capture a quick picture of your kids doing something cute and you end up getting the back of their heads as they run by or some other awkward pose just after the moment you really wanted. How quickly the camera can take a shot is very important to me. The auto focus feature has a big impact on the shutter quickness. Most cameras now allow you to hold down the shutter button halfway to focus and the then you press it fully down to capture the image. The quickness of the focus (or lack of) plays a big part in your ability to capture the right moment. I shot several images without using the halfway focus feature to see how quickly the camera could focus and take a shot – in case I wanted something quick. The camera did it’s part quite well. I would guess it was about a quarter of a second to focus and get the shot – where as my older Canon seems to be around a full second. And obviously, if you do hold down the shutter button halfway to pre-focus, your shot is instant once you push down the shutter button fully.

6. Battery The Tough uses a Li-ion Rechargeable Battery. Now rechargeable batteries can be either good or bad. I love not going through countless AA’s, but if the battery doesn’t last very long, you are outta luck unless you want to purchase a second rechargeable to have on hand. So how does the Tough fair? Well, I used the camera very extensively one day on our trip to the Adirondacks (which btw, seemed like the perfect environment to test it out), taking about 200 pictures one day alone, and the camera was nearly full at the end of the day. The camera is a beast. I would recommend charging before each day just to play it safe, but I have no doubt it will last for a full day’s use when it’s fully charged.

The Highlight Reel.

Okay, there are actually a ton of other very cool features that most other cameras don’t have, so I’ll try to run through those quickly.

Panorama The Tough has a very cool and easy feature to create Panoramics. The Panoramics are stitched together right in the picture with the help of a little dot. My camera does that now, you’re thinking, but not like the Tough. Simply take your first picture and then move your camera angle to the left or the right and you’ll notice a little box on the screen as well as a dot. Once you put the dot in the box (which lines up your next shot) the camera automatically takes the next picture. You repeat this step a second time and then the three pictures get stitched together with some cool animation and voila – a perfect panorama picture.

The Menu Normally I wouldn’t even pay attention to the camera’s menu system. Most of them are pretty basic and a little annoying, but Olympus did a wonderful job creating the menus for the Tough. It was honestly a joy to use. Very clear and easy, and great graphics.

Scenes If you are not up on all the settings like ISO, WB, ESP, etc. (like me), then you can easily choose one of the many built in scene settings, like Candle, Sport, Nighttime, Beach & Snow, Sunset, Underwater, Self Portrait, as well as several other useful scenes. I played around with a few, including Beach & Snow when my kids were building sandcastles and I certainly wouldn’t have changed a thing. The detail and colors came out great. If you want to master the settings on your own, they are certainly there and easy to modify, but this camera allows you to shoot like a pro without having to know all the settings.

Tap Control Alright – now we are going from cool – to very cool. This camera has something totally unique that comes in very handy for outdoor adventures. If you are an avid skier or into hiking, you would appreciate this. You can actually tap the sides, top and back of the camera to change the settings. That’s right, give the right side a tap to toggle through the flash settings, or tap the left to choose a macro mode. Or tap the back and put the camera in playback mode and then tap left and right to scan through your images you just took. Image how useful this is if you’re out skiing and wearing gloves and want to turn the flash on!

Video I haven’t played around with this feature enough yet to give a good review, but I did try a few. The videos I took came out very clear and vibrant (in good lighting) and showed little lag or delay, that you often get with video from a compact camera. It obviously won’t compare with a high quality video camera, but if you don’t feel like lugging around another device, you can certainly take home some great videos that are worth sharing.

On Screen Display Two other features I’ve never seen on a camera that the Tough sports are the Grid and Histogram. The grid allows you to easily use the rule of thirds and the histogram allows you to quickly adjust your picture so that it won’t come out too white or black and review the luminance distribution. If you know what that means, you’ll appreciate the feature.

Beauty This is another one of those features you never see in a camera, but it’s quite handy. Take a closeup image of someone’s face and the camera will actually chug away for about 10 seconds and remove any blemishes. It works very well.

Sequential Shooting The camera allows you to shoot pictures continuously at a high speed. This is handy for so many reasons, especially for moments when the subject is moving and you want to make sure you get the best shot.

And Much Much More There are still a ton of great features that Olympus implements very well in the Tough camera. I could make the review about four times as long, but this hopefully gives you a good idea of how awesome this camera is.

Final Thoughts

Now days, there seems to be a big trend in purchasing the larger DSLR cameras. These camera’s take terrific pictures but they come at a sacrifice. Price and size. You can easily spend $600 or more on just the camera, another $200+ for the flash, and $150+ per lens. The Tough-6000 goes for about $279. As far as size, DSLRs are obviously much larger than a compact camera, and certainly much more delicate than the Tough-6000. I would never bring a Canon 40d to the places I brought my Tough-6000. When we were at the Enchanted Forrest Water Safari (where the fun never stops) I actually threw the camera in my swim suit pocket, went down the water slide, and then pulled it out at the bottom to catch my family entering the pool at the bottom. To be honest, I wouldn’t feel comfortable even bringing an expensive DSLR into a theme park in which I’d have to leave it alone in my bag when I went on certain rides. Or the other option being that someone would have to stay back and watch it. The Tough went literally everywhere with me – even down the huge water slides.

When watching pictures at the end of our vacation, the Tough’s 10megapixel shots were just as good as the DSLR shots that two of my family members had. One sacrifice though – I didn’t have the zoom they did. I wasn’t able to shoot things super far away. But I found I really didn’t have many things that were really far away I wanted to capture. I did have a ton of incredible pictures of my kids playing in the water park and it did bring me a little joy to let the camera occasionally fall in the water while other guests cringed before realizing the camera was waterproof.

All in all – I would only recommend a DSLR if you are a professional photographer or someone who insists on capturing the majority of your (dry and safe) photos from 300 feet away. Otherwise, enjoy the benefit of having little to no fear of bringing your camera everywhere and getting incredibly great and fun looking pictures.

Oh, and one more thing. I didn’t return the loaner camera after my review. Instead I sent them the $279 and kept it.

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Choices & Chopsticks

Post written by Bridget Strub.

photo courtesy of Dan4th

Asian restaurants have always been an interesting phenomenon to me. Neither my husband Pete nor I are that crazy about Asian cuisine. I enjoy it, and occasionally crave it, but that’s usually the extent of it. We’ve tried to expand our experiences to different restaurants around town, and in doing so we’ve seen a wide variety of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Most of our experiences, however, have occurred between the bad and the ugly range.

We’ve been left to wait for hours to get a Coke refill and our check while watching our waitress watch us through a glass wall while hanging out with the other wait staff. We’ve caught glimpses into kitchens behind tattered curtain that exposed conditions much like those found on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. We’ve paid more for the décor on the wall than for the quality or portions of the food. I’ve spent more time in the bathroom after a visit to one restaurant than I did eating the meal. And the list could go on.

So as I ventured to go beyond my comfort zone this week, I was a little timid to try Wok With You, an Asian restaurant at Park Point in Henrietta. I really wanted our first restaurant in this quest for new and exciting places to be a good one. I actually really freaked out about it for a second. I grasped the enormity of my decision. Pete and I only get to eat out once a week. Our dinner usually determines the temperature for the rest of our date night. If I picked the wrong restaurant I could seriously disappoint Pete, though he’d never say that. That’s when I realized why we rarely divert from our few favorite restaurants. In the words of Forest Gump, “You never know what you’re gonna get.” And that’s exactly what flooded my mind as we walked through the glass doors of Wok With You.

I was full of anticipation; praying that it would be good, but willing to settle for decent. We were seated right away. There were only three other couples in the restaurant, and, immediately, my mind replayed our very own restaurant nightmares. As I took in my surroundings I thought it looked nice. The walls were coated with crisp, trendy colors, and there were no gaudy decorations anywhere. I felt a familiarity that I couldn’t quite place my finger on, but brushed it aside as I kept observing. The dining area was fairly simple with concrete floors and lined rectangular tables. It felt so simple in fact that it reminded me of my high school cafeteria. I enjoyed my high school cafeteria, but that’s not what I’m going for on a nice night out to dinner. It was at that thought that the familiarity crept in again. This time I couldn’t shake it. I was hit with the feeling that I had been somewhere ridiculously similar to that restaurant before. That’s when it hit me. It reminded me of Siam in Corn Hill Landing; one of the restaurants that ended in our bad to ugly category. A restaurant whose name is scoffed at in our home. A restaurant that we vowed never to step foot in again. I jokingly mentioned this revelation to Pete and he looked at me as if I had told him he had a terminal illness. The horror of it all didn’t set in until I flipped to the back of the sushi menu and saw an advertisement for us to check out their other restaurants. There were three restaurants named, and among them was none other than Siam itself. It’s as if someone shouted an obscenity at the top of their lungs in the middle of the restaurant. Pete and I both froze, unsure what to do.

We obviously had a choice to make. Do we get up and go? They had only given us waters up to this point, so we had made no real commitment to them. Getting up would’ve been so easy. But the problem was complex. It always is with Pete and I. You see, Pete has a serious problem with making a scene, and getting up and walking out of a restaurant qualifies as making a scene. I have a serious problem with hurting people’s feelings and the wait staff standing around the door would definitely see us leave and feel bad. I was convinced of it. As we stewed in our indecision, the waitress came over to take our order. The decision had been made for us. There was no going back now. We dove in half heartedly and ordered a Coke. As we waited for the drink, we looked through our options on the menu. There were dishes like “Bang Bang Tiger Shrimp” and “Me fun,” but there was nothing next to the names to describe them. I figured the odds were already stacked against us for failure (yes, I know that’s a terribly negative outlook, but that’s what I was thinking), and ordering something that I wasn’t sure about wouldn’t necessarily end well (even if I wanted to order Me fun just because I think I AM, in fact, fun). So Pete and I went with what we knew. I ordered Udon noodles with chicken and Pete got fried rice and chicken. Neither of us was expecting much, but when the heaping piles of noodles and rice (respectively) came out, our moods lifted.

The food was delicious. We ate our entire meal with chopsticks – a feat I had never accomplished until that evening. I didn’t get a peak in the kitchen, but I was ignorantly pleased with the quality of the food. The bonus was that we only spent $22 for our entire meal (tip and all) which made up for the creepy Siam aura. Our only problem was that the aforementioned Coke that we ordered was $1.50 for a can (presented “elegantly” with a glass of ice and a paper covered straw). No refills. Lame. Free refills are a must have on date. I was extremely pleased by the prompt service, though there were no excuses not to be. There were only two to three other tables occupied besides our own. Our dinner even ended with a fortune cookie that told me my “love life will soon be happy and harmonious.” I don’t know what I’ve been living with thus far, but I look forward to what the cookie suggests. The highlight of the evening was, however, as we exited the restaurant. Pete led the way and as he turned left to say goodbye to the host hovering by the door, he leaned all his weight right into what he thought was the door. His head realized the wall wasn’t a door first. It kind of jerked back while the rest of his body parts from the neck down followed his head’s lead, only to have the same startled reaction seconds apart from one another. It was kind of like watching a vertical train wreck. I tried to contain my laughter long enough to make sure he wasn’t seriously hurt. After he told me that his ego was the only thing that had suffered serious damage the floodgates opened and for the next half an hour I entertained myself by replaying the incident over in my head and laughing just as hard as if I had just seen it happen. That one event made whatever residual stress that was left from before dissipate, for me anyway.

Upon reflection of our Wok With You experience, Pete and I decided that it could go on our “approved” Asian restaurants list. However, we came to one glaring conclusion. Our favorite place to eat Asian cuisine is, by far, Wegmans. Yes, I know it’s a grocery store, but it’s so much more (we’ll get into that in another article). Think about it. Wegmans provides cuisine as authentic as any upstate New York Asian eatery, and you can be confident about where the food comes from and how it is stored. The price is fairly right and you know what you’re getting every time. You can’t beat the variety of options from the buffet either. Oh, and did I mention it’s Wegmans? Heck, it’s like getting food from your mom’s fridge. Totally legit.

So yes, we tried a new restaurant, but I still feel like the old standbys would do just as good a job. Though they don’t have glass walls that could be mistaken for doors…

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Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Food (or happiness, they really are the same thing)

Post written by Bridget Strub.

photo courtesy of 27147

Food has always been a passion of mine. Not the crazy expensive, you need an overactive pallet to appreciate it, type of food. Rather, I love the good ol’ fashioned stuff. Give me a slice of thin crust pizza, a heaping plate of creamy beef stroganoff or a big bowl of ice cream drizzled with caramel and I’m the happiest girl in the world.

In fact, I like food so much that when I eat an especially good meal I sway. I can’t help it. Like my dog’s passionately wagging tail when the word “walk” is mentioned, I rock from side to side when I’m digging in to some really yummy eats. It may not happen every time, but if I’m absorbed in my meal there’s no stopping the sway.

I dream of spending countless hours in a gourmet kitchen inventing award winning meals or desserts with ease like they do on cooking shows. I imagine my family applauding my newest dish and complimenting me on how easy I made it look or how beautiful the presentation was. I often daydream about opening my very own café complete with unique varieties of paninis and salads, a wide array of drinks, and delectable pastries (all with really fun names of course!).

While I aspire to these things, I need you to know up front that this is not at all reality. In fact, before we get any more attached to one another there are a few things you should know about me:
• I once ruined EZ-Mac, therefore proving that it’s not necessarily all that “EZ”.
• I collect cookbooks, but rarely use them except to look at the pictures and dream about what I could possibly make.
• I often blame my cooking incompetency on the kitchen we inherited in the house we bought a few years ago. It’s pink and has nasty tile countertop. I don’t like going in there so of course I can’t practice my craft!
• The extent of the weekly meals I prepare for my husband and I consist of a pretty plain rotation of pasta, baked potatoes, salads and the like. I thought I was doing pretty well the other night when I added peppers and sausage to the pasta. I was pretty proud of myself.
• When making macaroni salad I misread the 1/8 teaspoons of salt I should’ve added for 1 ½ tablespoons. Don’t try that at home, your face might scrunch up and never go back to normal.

Luckily enough for me, I married a pretty patient man. He grew up on a farm, with a mom who can cook like it’s nobody’s business. He was used to real homemade food. The kind you think of coming out of the oven piping hot on holidays while your family is sitting around the table laughing and enjoying each others’ company. That was his daily encounter with food. He’s been more than kind when I’ve had my many mishaps in the kitchen, and never once tries to compare me to his mom. He is, however, pretty bad at hiding the thrill in his eyes when his mom asks us if we want to come over for dinner. She doesn’t even have to tell him what she’s making, he’s already drooling.

That being said, my husband loves food just as much as I do, maybe even slightly more. We established a pretty awesome tradition early on in our marriage of going on a date each week. At the end of each week we go out in hopes to put the craziness from the week behind us (we’re both teachers…there’s a lot of craziness that happens in a week!) and remember why we got married in the first place. I love date night for many reasons, but one in particular is that we get to enjoy food from various eateries around Rochester.

We used to explore all around the city (and beyond) to find fun, unique food. However, after four years we’ve gotten into a pretty big rut of eating primarily at chain restaurants or the few places that we’ve loved since the beginning. So, in attempts to help us branch out a little more we will be trying out new eateries in the next few months and I will be sharing our experiences with you. I will attempt to offer some advice on places you can go to get good real-people food. The type of food you can get on a budget (because we are which could make this a bit tricky). I might even share with you other food things that come up throughout the week, but only if you’re lucky.

Here’s the deal though, I tend to get distracted pretty easily. I have random thoughts flying through my head most of the day. Some are brilliant ideas, others just strange, lots are observations I have of the things or people around me. So, don’t be surprised if the randomness creeps into my entries. I’ll do my best to stay focused, but the random is part of what makes me me, so try to bear with me! My last disclaimer is that I can’t commit my husband to eating “strange” food for a crazy long time (he really likes familiarity), so we might have to break our “non-chain” rule every once in awhile.

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Fully Poseable Jesus!

Post written by Pete Strub. Pete writes a weekly article published every Thursday.

Tales of Glory Talking Jesus Doll

At Target this afternoon, my wife and I were in the process of buying a nifty spice rack for my friend’s wedding when we stumbled upon a Jesus action figure in the kids’ toys. A Jesus action figure isn’t something you see every day, so we had to stop and take a look. “Fully Poseable!” “I Talk, Try Me!” the box claimed. I stared for a while, trying to figure out if the toy is supposed to be a joke or not, but it is clearly no joke. After examining the Jesus action figure, I looked around and found a Peter action figure, a Paul action figure, and a set of Bible hero figurines with the title Tales of Glory. My wife and I looked through the toys and at first I really wasn’t sure what to think of them. Are action figures of the Bible a good thing?

Dashboard Jesus
In my second year of teaching, some of my students who knew of my religious beliefs bought me a Dashboard Jesus for Christmas. Dashboard Jesus is a plastic figurine of Jesus that adheres to your dashboard and bounces around on a spring while you drive. When they gave me the toy, they stood back to see my reaction which I find very interesting. This group of students, who were not necessarily religious, knew that a toy called Dashboard Jesus bordered on sacrilegious and I could have been offended by their gift. Lucky for them, I thought the gift was great. They may have found humor in it, but they had purchased a gift for me of something I care about, so I told them I loved it and brought it home with me. But I could never bring myself to actually stick Jesus to my dashboard. There’s just something about a plastic Jesus bobbing around to the music on my car stereo that seems a touch belittling for the son of God. They make other Jesus-themed joke toys, too. My friend just received a Pocket Jesus for his birthday. It is a one-inch tall plastic Jesus that can be kept in your pocket and it came with a bumper sticker that read, “Stop, drop, and roll won’t work in Hell!” In some ways I think toys like this are good. They poke fun at religious fanatics who need objects, pictures and bumper stickers to show everybody how much they love God, like the guy I worked with at a landscaping company whose car had two-foot by three-foot decals that said things like “Turn or Burn,” and “Repent or Perish.” People like that need to be made fun of (I’m not sure if that’s really a nice thing to say, but it’s true in my head). There is still something about a little plastic Jesus, however, that makes me feel uneasy. All of these joke toys are given with a wink, nudge, or laugh that basically says it’s fun to belittle God – probably not a good game to play with the creator of lightning bolts, hurricanes, and earthquakes.

I think Samson’s juicing
With this uneasiness in mind, I went home to research the Tales of Glory figurines. It turns out that there is quite a selection of figurines and action figures. Aside from the aforementioned Jesus, Paul, and Peter, there is a David, a Goliath, a Samson (who looks like he has been sharing meds with Barry Bonds), a Moses, a Noah, a Gideon, and the list goes on. There are even P31 dolls based on chapter 31 of the book of Proverbs, a chapter about the ideal women. You can check out all of the toys at www.one2believe.com . For the most part, the toys look like high quality toys. Aside from the talking Jesus, there aren’t too many frills, but they toys are attractive looking, and I can imagine kids enjoying playing with them and acting out the accompanying story booklets. Probably the weakest toys are the P31 dolls. In an attempt to make modest female dolls, the company somehow made female dolls that look like they belong in Bride of Chucky. Very unfortunate. Overall, though, I was impressed, so I began to think about the implications of making action figures out of Bible characters. I think there is a major difference between the Dashboard Jesus and the action figures I saw in the store today. For adults, making a plastic Jesus amounts to a joke, but for kids, a plastic action figure is one of the highest compliments you can pay to a person or story. When the stork brings my wife and me a baby someday, I hope it brings a complete set of biblical action figures along, especially ‘Roid-Rage Samson.

P.S. One little complaint
Alright, so as great as these little toys are, I do have a little complaint; It’s actually a big complaint, one of my pet peeves. When I read the One2believe website, the description of the P31 dolls said, “P31 dolls were specifically designed to provide a Bible-based, Christian alternative to other secular toys on the market.” And that just bugs me. For some reason Christians (and I’m one of them) feel a need to make an alternate version of everything. The slogan for those P31 dolls may as well be, “It’s not nearly as cool, but it’s safe!” I think they are selling themselves short. They could be just as cool, if not cooler. They could be outselling the competition, buying out the Bratz line, and renaming them the Daughters of Rahab. Instead, they have to slap the Christian label on it, almost like an apology for inferior quality. It’s like Christian music. Have you ever had someone tell you about a Christian band that sounds just like the secular band you love so much? Christian music’s slogan may as well be, “Plagiarism! It’s the best we can do.” Why can’t we just make good stuff – good toys, good music – and not put the Christian label on it? Isn’t there more to Christianity than being the safe alternative?

Anyway, the toys are cool. Buy some for your kids.

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Priceline.com: It works!

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

If you ever travel and stay in a hotel, you’re probably used to searching for a middle-of-the-line hotel. Preferably with a swimming pool, and you’re expecting something in the neighborhood of $120 a night. That’s what we did, at least until we started using priceline.com.

Not Everybody’s Doing It You’ve seen the commercials. You’ve laughed at the goofy antics of William Shatner – Priceline Negotiator. But you’ve never actually bothered to try it out. There’s got to be a catch or something, right. We’ll there may be some sacrifices, but I’ll cover those in a minute.

Live Like Kings, Pay like Peasants: The truth is – it really works. We have made a habit recently when we travel to pay almost an embarrassing amount at checkout, while others in line behind us pay the standard price for the same room. We often lay down two twenty dollar bills and some singles while others are putting about $190 or more on their credit card. It’s all because we let our priceline negotiator go to work for us.

Survey the area: Click on Hotels and punch in the city and dates you need. After you click the Search Now button, go right to the Star Rating and sort by Stars. This will give you an idea of the quality of hotels in the area and their location.

Don’t Heed the Warnings: To start booking your hotel, click on the Name Your Own Price box on the right. Here is where you’ll actually start booking your hotel. I always choose the top star level and I always start at $40. Once you fill out steps one (location), two (star level), and three (price) you may see a warning that the amount you entered is very low and hotels typically cost much more in this area. Do not change your amount. Resist the urge.

If First You Don’t Succeed: The majority of the time, our $40 will go through. However, if we are traveling to a major city, you might not be able to get away with $40. So here’s what you do. Start at $40 for the highest star and then work up from there. Next try $40 for the next lowest star (what your willing to go down to). Or next time try $50 for the highest star hotels. The catch is, you are only allowed one try per 24 hours. Since we are married, we get two tries – once in each person’s name. And if you reduce the star level, they let you try again in the same 24 hour period. My wife has found good luck, logging all the way out of the website and being able to try again, without any problems. When your amount is accepted, you’ll know right away that you were approved, which hotel, your total amount with taxes.

This weekend we are traveling to Boston and we didn’t get our $40 price we usually get. But we did get a $90 rate for a four star hotel right in historic downtown Boston. I believe rates are typically around $250 for this hotel. It’s quick. It’s easy. And it works.

What’s the Catch? The catch is, that you don’t get to choose your hotel. If you really want a swimming pool, you aren’t guaranteed to get one. You can get any hotel in that area you selected. So it might be a little bit out of your way. Also – you are guaranteed sleeping for two people. That may mean two double beds. Although we have been able to ask for a change of rooms to get a king bed – you don’t necessarily get that option with priceline. Supposedly, you are stuck with the room you get. (But hey, it’s worth a try, and sometimes works). That’s basically it. That’s the catch. That’s not so bad is it?

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Review: Sansa slotRadio from SanDisk

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photos courtesy of SanDisk

SanDisk introduces the new slotRadio – an mp3 player and radio that plays media cards preloaded with music to make your music experience near effortless.

First Impressions. Despite seeing pictures of the slotRadio prior to unpacking the lightweight 1.3 oz player, I was taken back by how small the unit was. The media player measures two inches across and is just over a half inch deep. The die-cast aluminum body gives it a solid and durable feel.

The 1.5″ landscape screen provides some entertaining animations for each music category you can scroll through, along with scrolling text info for the current song, next song, as well as the remaining battery life.

The front surface feels as if it has a protective sticker on it that I really want to peel off, but can’t. This coating gives it more of a matte finish and I find myself constantly wiping the screen to hide any fingerprints. The belt clip on the back of the player is reminiscent of the iPod Shuffle’s belt clip.

Six Buttons. There are only six buttons found on the player in keeping with their simple design. A slider on the top puts the device in play mode, FM mode, or off. The two arrows you find on the front change the music category (see below). Along the left side of the player you’ll find the up and down volume buttons and along the right side is the next song (or pause when held) button.

One Button Short. I found one important button was missing – the previous song button. You can skip to the next song, but there is no way to go back to a previous song. This was my biggest frustration with the device. Removing this feature along with the inability to browse your playlists makes the player more like listening to the radio than a media player.

One thing the iPods don’t have. There’s no denying that the most popular media player is the Apple iPod line. The slotRadio provides one standard feature that is missing on the iPod – an FM tuner.

Swap out the headphones. As I put the earphones on, I found the music to have plenty of low end, but missing the bright sound I get from my iPod touch. Once I found a song on the slotRadio that I also had on my Ipod touch, I jumped back and forth between each pair of headphones to confirm the difference in sound I discovered. Next, I swapped the headphones between the two media players and I found that the onus fell on the headphones and not the media player. I suspect, however, that I’ve simply become accustomed to the sound my iPod headphones provide and it’s not necessarily that the slotRadio headphones are poor quality – they are simply more bass heavy and have less treble than I’m used to.

No need for downloads. There are two ways you can obtain music for the slotRadio. The slotRadio bundle comes with the player and a slotRadio mix card, which is everything you need to get started. You can purchase additional media cards, with a variety of musical styles, that come with 1,000 preloaded songs. Secondly, you can add your own music (about one album’s worth) to a slotRadio card or you can put music on your own microSDTM or microSDHCTM card. The small USB port and included usb cable provide you with the ability to connect to your PC or Mac and transfer music.

Current hits? I was interested in how up-to-date the music selection was. While I wouldn’t expect it to have music that has come out in the last few months, it did provide a good mix between classics and newer selections.

Categories. The slotRadio mix card contains the following seven categories: Rock, Country, R&B/Hip Hop, Contemporary, Alternative, Workout, and Chillout. The first five are self explanatory. Workout pretty much contains a mix of upbeat songs from the first five categories, and Chillout contains more mellow songs for the same.

Time to Face the Music. Is the slotRadio for me? Well that depends on a few things. How picky are you about your music, and how tech savy are you?

If you are someone who is fine just choosing a music style and letting the music play then the slotRadio is for you. Also, if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on buying music, or you haven’t the first clue about how to get music from your Mac or PC onto a media player, then the slotRadio makes it pretty much effortless. And 1,000 songs on a pre-loaded $40 card is nothing to shake a stick at.

If you tend to be a little pickier about your music and especially would like the ability to go right to a specific song, browse playlists, or replay a favorite song, you’ll likely find the lack of controls (especially no previous song button) a little annoying. The device is designed very simple, but at the sacrifice of leaving out some key navigation features.

Personally, I much prefer my iPod touch to the slotRadio – but in its defense, the slotRadio is a much cheaper solution. I can see this as being the perfect media player for my Dad who wants an easy way to listen to some country music or to tune into the Bills game while he mows his 2 acre yard.

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Cool Iris: Sleek. Fun. Amazing.

I stumbled upon Cool Iris when I was browsing some add-ons for Firefox. I was simply amazed at what Cool Iris did when I launched the program.

So what is Cool Iris? Simply put, Cool Iris is a fast and exciting way to browse photos, videos, and search the internet.

Well, I can do that now, very easily, you might be thinking. That’s exactly what I thought until I launched Cool Iris. I think Cool Iris is all about the experience. Once you open it up you’ll see a nice clean simple interface with several main features. I’ll explain each of them.

The 3D Wall: This is the heart of the program. Here you will see all of the results for what you are searching for. A combination of photos and videos will display in a beautiful 3D wall and you can use the scroll feature at the bottom to quickly fly through all of the results. Once you find what you are looking for you can click on the photo and view that specific article, video, photo or product in more detail.

Photos: View the full size photo. You’ll be able to share (email), mark it as a favorite, or go to the web page.

Videos: Play the video, share it, mark it as a favorite, or go to the web page.

Products: View details about the product including price and description, share it, mark as favorite, or go directly to that product’s listing on Amazon.com.

The Sidebar: As you can see in the picture, the sidebar has four main categories: Discover, Shopping, Favorites and My Computer.

Discover has many subcategories listed under it including News, Sports, TV Episodes, Comedy, and many more. Clicking on any one of these subcategories will fill the 3D wall with a plethora of content related to that category. See the most recent news happenings or catch up on the latest sports highlights. Each picture in the 3D wall will enlarge when you click on it to allow you to explore more details about it.

Shopping is one of the ways I think Cool Iris shines. If I want shop for something I can type in what I’m looking for and then fly through the 3D wall results, browsing a huge mix of products and pricing all supplied by Amazon.com. It’s like running down an enormous department store aisle with a vast amount of related products, all with their prices clearly visible. Stop and click on a product to view a few more details or keep looking. Once you find what you’re looking for, click the Go to Store button and you are brought right to Amazon where you can make your purchase through their secure website.

Favorites is where you would see a 3D wall filled with all of the content that you marked as favorite. You will need to signup and create an account with Cool Iris in order to use this feature.

My Computer instantly fills your 3D wall with all of the photos found on your computer. The great thing about this is that if you keep all of your photos in your My Documents folder, Cool Iris knows right where to look. And for those of us more sophisticated Mac users, it pulls photos right from your iPhoto library.

Examining the Search Bar: Once you click in the search bar you’ll notice a drop down list of options that you can choose to search. Popular sites like YouTube, Hulu, and Flickr will allow you to find results directly within their content. This is another way in which Cool Iris provides an experience much better than the original site does. For example with YouTube, I much prefer Cool Iris’s 3D wall to the search results I get back from YouTube. The bottom line is that Cool Iris provides a very quick, effective, and pleasing to the eye, list of results for whatever content you are searching for.

Can I use Cool Iris? Chances are yes. Cool Iris supports the three main browsers on both Mac and Windows machines. It even supports Firefox for Linux users.

Take it for a Spin: The best way to experience Cool Iris is to install it and try it out. The program is free and it is an incredible tool as well as being very fun to use. So check it out right now. CoolIris.com

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Ultimate Movie Guide for Christian Themed Movies

Click on our new Movies tab to view Guest Writer, Tom Ronholm’s Ultimate Movie Guide for Christian Themed Movies with over 60 movies that have a Christian Theme, or are worth watching for their serious and inspiring treatment of moral themes, or because the characters face moral challenges and rise above them.

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Review: Bose SoundDock Portable

For my wife’s 30th birthday, a group of her friends and I all chipped in to purchase her the Bose SoundDock Portable. We love to listen to music around the house or outside on our back deck. My wife had previously been carrying around an iPod with a small plug-in speaker (costing about $15) so this was a serious upgrade for her.

Sound: The first thing you think of when you hear the name Bose is quality sound. The SoundDock Portable doesn’t let you down. The sound is incredible. We use either a classic iPod or an iPod shuffle in the dock and have our favorite playlists right at hand. The sound is exceptionally amazing for a battery powered unit. I dare say no other battery powered unit will come close to the sound quality as the SoundDock Portable.

Design: The other thing that comes to mind when you think of Bose is usually the size. For the amount of sound you hear, the speakers are amazingly small. The same is true for this, but even more important, it feels like just the right size and weight for a portable device. The design is very simple and classy. It has a nice shape to it and your not overwhelmed with buttons or displays. There is a single light that appears in the top center of the speaker when the battery life is low (amber), or nearly dead (red). The light also flashes as you are changing the volume so you know the SoundDock is sensing the remote. Other than that, the light stays off so as not to be a distraction.

Function: It’s very easy to forget that the unit is battery operated. It’s amazing how long the speaker will play music for. We leave the power cable (that includes a nice built design to wrap the excess cord) plugged into the wall, but to be honest, most of the time you’ll find the unit somewhere away from the power cable. Recently we’ve moved the power cable to underneath our LCD TV and have been using the Bose as our Home Theater speaker system when we watch movies. We simply plug in the TV’s audio out into the headphone jack in the back of the SoundDock. The difference between the TV’s speakers and the SoundDock is amazing.

Portability: The dock station for the iPod neatly flips around to be concealed and the SoundDock can easily be thrown in the car to take with us on a vacation, outdoor picnic, or overnight hotel stay. It’s wonderful to be able to ensure you have a terrific sound system with you anywhere you go. If it’s a short trip, like a picnic, we don’t even need to bring the power cord.

The Remote: The remote is small and pretty basic. It has an on/off button, play, skip tracks, volume up and down. It has one other button which is very slick as well. The Next Playlist button. This allows you to toggle through all of the playlists you have created on your iPod.

Rating: I really can’t find any fault with the Bose SoundDock Portable. I would not change anything on how it is designed, however I may add one feature. I would make the remote magnetic and able to stick to the side of the speaker. It would be a great way to keep track of the remote when you are not using it. The only drawback of purchasing this unit is the price. At $399 it is a significant investment for a portable speaker. You certainly get what you pay for, but that is likely more than your average music enthusiast may want to pay. If you listen to a lot of music and can take advantage of having a portable speaker, then by all means, you won’t regret this purchase. I give it a 9 out of 10 and the only reason it doesn’t get a perfect 10 is the price.

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Review: Starbucks Travel French Press

I am not a morning person. I truly wish I was. I love the idea of getting up early, having time for a hot breakfast, doing devotions, and simply not being in a rush. But the truth is, I usually stay in my nice warm comfortable bed as long as possible.

For me, having any chance at all for a hot breakfast or time for coffee is not possible unless it is incredibly quick and easy.

I found one solution for morning coffee in the form of a french press travel mug from Starbucks. I am more of a snobby coffee drinker and I love coffee brewed in a french press. So this is the perfect product for me. I heat up the water in an electric kettle and by the time that is ready, I’ve added the appropriate amount of coarsely ground coffee to the french press travel mug. Then I simply add the hot water and run out the door with my travel mug. After about five minutes, you press it and its ready to drink. From then on, its just like a normal travel mug.

The design is great. I love the stainless steel and hand grip. The top spout has a great seal on it. The only slight flaw I’ve found, which seems to be common for most french presses, is the few grounds that I get at the end of the cup. So you have to be on guard as you near the end of your drink. The true Dutchman in me has to fight the urge to get every last sip I can out of it.

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Review: Blast Your Bench by Lee Hayward

Fitness Review:

Blast Your Bench

I came across the Blast Your Bench program after doing some research for my next fitness routine. I had just completed the p90x program and looking for something that would help me work towards one of my life goals of bench pressing 315 lbs.

One Caveat: I am going to be very vague in this review to protect the content that Lee Hayward has put into this. He spent a lot of time creating this routine and it would be unfair for me to share the details that you would receive when purchasing his downloadable PDF.

The Goal: Blast Your Bench is designed to help you increase your one rep maximum for the bench press exercise. In other words, the maximum amount of weight you can lift for a single repetition of the bench press.

What you get: The program is a downloadable PDF file and costs $40. You can try the 14 day trial, but you won’t be able to actually complete the program before the trial is up. Lee also includes a ton of other similar fitness PDFs which add to the value. I haven’t had time to read through all of those. Lee does a great job of going into great detail about how and why the program works. It’s well worth reading the 139 page report.

My Review: The program lasted for a total of five weeks. The first two are a general warm up program in which you don’t do any flat bench. The following three weeks are the actual program. At the very beginning Lee shares some advice on how to determine your current one-rep max for the bench press. I was able to bench press 265lbs. I’m in pretty good shape, especially coming off of the p90x workout and I think it was fair of me to start Lee’s program here. I didn’t come into this with no weight lifting experience. This amount was pretty much the maximum weight I had ever lifted, so I knew if I could improve on that, it would certainly be due to Lee’s program.

The three weeks of the actual Blast Your Bench program were certainly different that any other routines I had done in the past. While I can’t give any details, each workout I found both very challenging and very fun. I really enjoyed how the progressions worked and the way it is designed really worked well for motivating me. The first week really kicked my butt, or should I say my chest. It proved quite a challenge. The second week I found myself eating it up and making great progress. The third week I continued to make progress, but I did find that my arms and shoulders starting to feel slightly stressed. I’m not sure what it was due to, but my guess is that it was partly due to being a very challenging program and the stress it places on your body, as well as the third week really focusing on heavy weight, more so than the first two weeks. Lee does caution that the Blast Your Bench program is not something you would do no a continual basis.

I cheated: I always like to share when I didn’t follow the program exactly because that may impact my results. There were two major suggestions that Lee gave in his pdf packet that I did not follow. I did not follow his advice to increase my caloric intake. I won’t give the numbers he recommends, but it would have been a significant increase. It’s not that I disagreed at all. I definitely see the value in taking in more calories for this program. I did end up eating a little more, but I chose not to simply because I didn’t want to increase my weight that much, or spend the extra time and money eating additional meals. I also did not take any supplements including Creatine. I’ve heard very impressive results when using Creatine, but I chose not to for two reasons. First, I wanted to see what I could personally bench press without relying on the help of supplements. Second, my wife is a nurse and simply doesn’t want me to use supplements such as Creatine. She actually had a patient who was overusing Creatine and ended up on her floor. So to respect my wife’s wishes, I don’t use any supplements. Although she has nothing against protein shakes or protein bars.

The results: I was very pleased to find that my final test for my one rep max I was able to do 295lbs. That’s a gain of 30lbs in just three weeks. Not bad for someone who weighs 165lbs.

My recommendation: I found the Blast Your Bench program fun, challenging, and I was happy with the results. I feel as if this is not a one-time value for me. I plan on implementing many of the routines he provides into my future workouts. I also plan on coming back to the full program any time I hit a plateau. My only negatives about the routine where how my shoulders and upper arms felt stressed towards the end of the third week, however I can’t say for sure if that is the fault of the program. Especially since I didn’t follow it exactly. Also, simply from a marketing and design perspective, I’d love to see Lee update the PDF report with a better design and layout. The content is terrific, it could just use a slightly more professional look.

I give the Blast Your Bench an 8 out of 10 and believe it is well worth the $40 investment.

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