Eating Better than Organic

One of my favorite things that we did this weekend (besides having another golf lesson and discovering that I am really bad at chipping - we should have taken a picture at the end of our lesson because the entire green was littered with golf balls and the vast majority of them were nowhere near the hole!) ... anyway, I digress .... One of my fav things this weekend was that Brad and I took a trip to our local Farmer's market.

I've been starting to do some research on organic foods to figure out how much I want to incorporate organics in to our diets. In my research, I ran across this Time article which I thought was great, "Eating Better than Organic". I love that the author is struggling with the same questions that I am - is organic the best way to go? Or is it better to choose local items that haven't been transported halfway around the world? What does organic even mean anyway? I'm still figuring out the answers but the article did inspired me to check out the local Farmer's market ...

Not much good produce this time of the year but we did get some fair-trade coffee, home-made banana bread and then bought a bunch of meats from this guy that was dressed head to toe in camo and I have no doubt had some machine guns in the back of his pick-up truck. Anyway, despite the fact that I was a bit afraid of him we bought an array of buffalo meats and turkey which was raised on their farm in a humane, ecologically sustainable, 100% natural (no hormones, antibiotics, etc) kinda way (and Brad tells me were quite tasty).

I felt really good about our purchases so I'm thinking farmer's market will become a more regular part of my shopping routine. But I also know I'm not going to be insane about it ... I thoroughly agree with the concluding statement of the Time article "I'm not a purist about these choices - I ate a Filet-O-Fish at McDonald's on the way to [the local] farm. But in general, I have decided that you are where you eat."

Victor and Friends

Once Again I was off to the State Theatre. Unfortunately Erin had come down with a bad headache that day so blaring music was not exactly on her plate for the evening. Tonight I was seeing Victor Wooten, best known as the base player for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. He is considered one of the best bassists in the world. This perforance included his brother pictured below playing the funky orange guitar. Overall it was a great night of jazz, my only complaint is that the State Theatre for more formal shows sets tables out for people to sit at and it makes the place significantly more crowded than it should be because of the reduction in overall square footage. Made lugging around our camera a lot harder.

Duke can't even buy a win

After a decent season, Duke was given a number two seed in the NCAA tourney and Erin and I were surprised to see that their first two games would be at the Verizon Center in Washington DC. My Company, Clark Construction, happens to have a sweet luxury box there and somehow I managed to score two tickets to the second night (of course, this was all contingent on them winning on the first night during which we almost had a heart attack as Duke barely squeaked by #15 seed Belmont 71-70).

We just noticed that ever since we started this blog there are two recurring patterns... One, we like live music, and two, Duke loses. Well those patterns continue as West Virginia beat us after we played a terrible second half. The only good thing we got out of the day was some free beers (they weren't serving alcohol in the venue, but we had a stocked fridge in the luxury box) and these pictures:

Whatever Coach K was telling our team it certainly didn't help, we hit our first 2 three pointers then went something like 0-18 on threes. It was not a very entertaining game to watch especially when the luxury box was filled with a West Virginia contingent and there were only two other Duke fans there. Oh well, there's always next year ;)

Toubab Krewe: Malian Music

One of my passions in life is going to see live music and ever since Erin latched on to me I have given her the bug as well. On March 19th we once again drove the long 2 mile drive to our favorite venue the State Theatre to check this band out. Best described as the following:

Toubab Krewe is an American instrumental band which fuses the music of Mali with American musical styles The group's instrumentation includes kora (21-string harp-lute), kamelenengoni (12-string harp-lute), soku (Malian horsehair fiddle), two electric guitars, electric bass guitar, drum set, and African percussion. The group has traveled to West Africa several times, working with local musicians. In several West African languages, including Bambara and Wolof, Toubab means "foreigner." "Krewe" is a reference to the New Orleans region's spelling of the word "Crew."

Given Erin's many trips to Africa and our honeymoon to South Africa the music was very refreshing (although incredibly loud!) and we had a great time.

Perfect 10!

As part of the Special Olympics project that I'm in the midst of at work, I've been conducting interviews with Board members. Today I had the chance to interview Bart Connor and Nadia Comaneci, both Olympic gymnastics gold medalists. They were both soooo nice but I just kept on cracking up that here I was quizzing Nadia, recipient of the first Perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics history, about strategic issues facing the organization. Since they live out in Oklahoma, I had to conduct the interview over the telephone which was probably a good thing ... if we were in person, I would have had to ask for autographs and I'm pretty sure that's considered unprofessional. :)

Ugh, Duke

Duke v. UNC in the ACC finals - classic, right? Sadly, that's not going to happen this year since Duke lost a terrible game to Clemson last night. Seriously, 43% FG shooting percentage and 23% on 3 pointers? Yuck.

Anyway, at least we got to get together with Kiera, Ryan and Natalie to watch the game. As always, we had tons of fun and Natalie entertained us thoroughly!

A Stanford weekend

This weekend definitely had a Stanford theme to it which is always fun ...

On Friday, there was dinner in the city with the fabulous Jacob (a Duke undergrad and Stanford B-school grad, making him twice as cool!). Jacob was in town from NoCal on business - giving a presentation on nonprofit effectiveness, part of his role working with the Hewlett Foundation.

Then on Saturday, we had a Stanford gathering at our place with Brendan, Robyn and Eva coming over for lunch and Chad and Elise, who were in town visiting from San Fran. It was great to catch up with them and hear all the fun goings-on.

Finally, on Sunday, we got news that Jess and Sam, both classmates from Stanford welcomed the first addition to their family - Maggie. Since Maggie lives in Chicago, it'll be a while until we meet her but we can't wait!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Some interesting facts for St. Paddy's Day ...

• The day is a celebration of St. Patrick, one of the patron saints of Ireland. Interestingly, St. Patrick was often associated with the color blue. However, St. Patrick often used the shamrock to describe the trinity, leading to the phrase "wear the green" meaning to wear a shamrock on your clothes. Over time, green became the St. Paddy's day color of choice.
• Chicago dies its river green every year in celebration of St. Paddy's Day. Apparently, that all began in 1961 when sewer workers used green dye to check for sewer discharges and got the idea to turn the river green to celebrate St. Paddy's day.
• I have a Killians Irish Red beer waiting for me at home to celebrate the holiday. Then I remembered from my recent tour of the Coors Brewery in Golden, CO that Killians is actually brewed in Golden as part of the Coors brand. Oh well, maybe not so Irish after all but its the thought that counts!

Erin Go Bragh -- Ireland forever!

Go to hell, Carolina, Go to ... oh crap

We went out last night to watch the big Duke v. UNC basketball game with Ginny and Geoff. We should have known the evening was going to be bad news when we went to meet up at Bailey's to watch the game and the restaurant was pitch-black. Apparently, they had lost power and the candlelight atmosphere and lack of tvs were not quite what we were looking for!

Then off to Carpool which apparently was reserved for a private party so almost every table in the house was blocked off. Finally... third time was a charm and we made it to Mister Days and found ourselves a table there to watch the game.

Sadly, the Dukies couldn't pull out the win (probably b/c Geoff was wearing a Carolina ... I mean, Columbia ... blue shirt. That's right Geoff, we will not let you live that one down!). Anyway, it was still a fun evening despite the loss. We'll get you next time Carolina!

Haircut for Duke

Erin and I find it so entertaining when the dog goes for his haircut. We usually wait so long to cut his hair that he looks like a different dog and appears to instantaneously shed some pounds. Here are the before and after pics ...

VIP Dinner

Erin and I had the opportunity to attend a VIP dinner at a restaurant that my company, Clark, just finished building. The restaurant is called the Monterey Bay Fish Grotto and is a really cool space ... we even got to dine in their wine room, the best private room in the restaurant.

The night began by spending a good hour in the bar. Rumor had it that the Lerner’s (family that bought the Washington Nationals) and Daniel Snyder (owner of the Washington Redskins) were in attendance as well, so we were all on the lookout but never did catch a glimpse. The dinner lasted about 3 hours and we were treated to charbroiled shrimp, crab meat and tuna steak for appetizers and then we both chose swordfish with fresh crab meat and asparagus.

To top it off, Erin had a chocolate latte for dessert while I had my favorite dessert, crème brule. And, of course, since we were surrounded by many bottles of wine, we had to partake in a few good ones ... all in all, it was an excellent dinner (and free which was the best part!) and everyone had a great time.

Whose Blog is this Anyway?

So I’ve heard through the grapevine that certain individuals (you know who you are!) have commented that this blog seems more like Erin’s blog, than Erin and Brad’s. While I must admit that I have been a little lazy, the next several posts will be my introduction to the blog world. I hope that my recaps will be as entertaining as Erin’s.

Welcome Eva!

We just had dinner with Brendan and Robyn (friends from grad school) and got a chance to meet the newest addition to their family, little Miss Eva. It was great to catch up with Brendan and Robyn and have a chance to finally meet their new daughter (she's ~2.5 months old now) - seriously, how cute is she!?

Philly fun

Mentioning Lauren in my last post made me reminisce about an awesome weekend that I had a few months ago. Myself and one of my best buddies Julie (also from elementary school) went up to Philly to spend the weekend with Lauren in her new, seriously sweet pad. We had a ridiculously fun weekend - at one point, we were at a bar where they had one of those old school picture booths so here are the pictures that ensued...

Its always a blast when I get together with these ladies and just looking at the pictures makes me chuckle. Too funny. Can't wait for the next adventure, ladies!

Happy Valentine's Day

I know that I'm a few weeks off on wishing all a Happy V-day but Brad and I just celebrated Valentine's Day (and our 6 month wedding anniversary!) on Saturday night.

First, we went to this awesome restaurant called the Blue Duck Tavern in DC. Our fabulous friends Lauren and Max (Lauren is a great buddy of mine from elementary school) got us a gift certificate for our wedding and we thought that V-day/half-year anniversary was as good a time as any to use it! We seriously gorged ourselves with course after course of excellent food - crab gratin for an app; NY Strip (for Brad, clearly) and Lobster for me, an awesome bottle of white wine recommended by the sommelier and then shared a slice of apple pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. SO good, I'm drooling just thinking about it - thanks Lauren and Max!

After dinner, we went to our favorite place in town, the State Theater for a jazz concert featuring Maceo Parker - a legendary funk and jazz saxophonist. The man is 65 and can still seriously get down! It was a great show but did get a little repetitive after a while - seriously, if I had a dollar for every time he said the words funk or funky, I could retire.

Our First Golf Lesson

Both Brad and I got golf clubs for Christmas (um, Christmas '06 but who's counting), so we finally signed up for golf lessons determined to learn how to play the "right way" instead of trying to teach ourselves. So, we had our first lesson this weekend and learned lesson #1: don't take your first golf lesson in early March - turns out standing on the green when you are shivering is not ideal.

But overall, the lesson was great - Joe, our new instructor extraordinaire, talked verryyyyy slowwwlllyyyy but was also really patient and didn't make us (um, me) feel ridiculous when I didn't even know what the different types of clubs are (which by the way would be woods (including drivers), irons (including wedges), putters, and the new hybrids). We spent the lesson learning the basics of golf etiquette, how to hold the club and swing and finally after 50 mins of lesson time, actually took out some golf balls and hit some putts.

Bottomline is that we suck. BUT, we suck just a little less than we did before the lesson so I'd call that success!