mmmm steak!

I don't really eat steak that much at all, its expensive and honestly I don't trust myself to cook it properly, it always turns out pretty medium to well done because there is no way I am going to chance getting food poisoning from eating undercooked meat. However let me just say...delicious on the grill...mmmmmm

• Most steaks are cut perpendicular to the muscle fibres, improving the perceived tenderness of the meat
• A Chicago
  Chicago
  

  Chicago is the largest city in the state of Illinois. With over 2.8 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous city in the country. Its metropolitan area, commonly named "Chicagoland," is the 26th most populous in the world,...
  -style steak is cooked to the desired level and then quickly charred
• A well-done steak, especially if it has “charred” portions, contains much higher levels of carcinogens than a medium-done or rare steak. 
• In Italy, steak was not widely eaten until after World War II because the relatively rugged countryside does not readily accommodate the space and resource demands of large herds of cattle. 
  
• Steak knives usually have wooden handles
• Filet Mignon. Usually wrapped in bacon to enhance flavor.
• Grain-fed beef usually comes from a more industrialized method of raising and feeding cattle, resulting in a product richer in fat and slower to cook. Most Argentinian beef is of the grass-fed variant and has a quite different taste.
• Kobe beef is a special grade of beef from (Wagyu) cattle raised in Kobe, Japan. These cattle are massaged with sake and are fed a daily diet that includes large amounts of beer. This produces meat that is extraordinarily tender, finely marbled, and full-flavored.
• Beer is fed to the cattle during summer months when the interaction of fat cover, temperature and humidity depresses feed intake. Beer seems to stimulate their appetite. It's merely part of the overall management program designed to keep the cattle on feed in the heat of the summer. The massaging is done to relieve stress and muscle stiffness. It's believed that the eating quality of the meat is affected positively by keeping the cattle calm and content.

Hot as Sh$T out!

Holy moly it is hot outside in DC. Just yesterday I went to Eastern Market and got the crap burned out of me. I know I should have worn sunscreen, but really, I didn't think it was THAT hot out there. So stupid. Now that it looks like the heat is in full swing for the spring and summer, I think I should give you all this powerful warning to WEAR SUNSCREEN!

PLEASE NOTE - I DID GET THESE OFF A DOCTORS WEBSITE, BUT ALWAYS READ THE SUNSCREEN BOTTLE OR CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN IF YOU HAVE SUNBURN QUESTIONS. I take no responsibility for any of you silly kids going out with minimal sunscreen coverage!

• One blistering sunburn in childhood or adolescence more than doubles a person's chances of developing melanoma later in life
• A person's risk for melanoma doubles if he or she has had five or more sunburns at any age
• Sunburn, also called erythema, is one of the most obvious signs of UV exposure and skin damage.
• The Skin Cancer Foundation learned that 42 percent of people polled get a sunburn at least once a year.
• If you have sunburn, then it most certainly means that your skin has become dehydrated
• UV-A rays are the primary offenders in sunburn.
• What is the SPF value on sunscreen? This is defined by a ratio of energy that is required to produce minimal redness of the skin penetrating the sunscreen, compared to the amount of energy required to produce the same reaction with the absence of sunscreen.
• An example as provided by Dr. McKay, if one would normally burn in 10 minutes without sunscreen, applying a 15 SPF would provide you approximately 150 minutes in the sun before burning, approximately 15 times the protection.
• Sunscreen needs to be applied one half hour before exposure for full skin absorption.
• Waterproof type sunscreen should be applied at least once an hour before going out into the sun.
• Sweating, swimming, and exposure to rain decrease the effect of SPF.
• The FDA recommends reapplying sunscreen every 40-80 minutes.
• Insect repellents containing Deet will decrease a product’s SPF by anywhere from 15-30%.
• Lycra nearly blocks 100% of all UV radiation, but only 2% when maximally stretched out.  
• The typical white cotton shirt has an SPF of 5-9.

A day in the life of Zoey and MG

Let me bring you all up to speed...MG is at my place thinking he is some f-ing cat whisperer, we all know Zoey is a beast and would never be nice to anyone. Well one little wag of the tail and he thinks he can just do whatever he wants to her...haha she gets him her evil claws and he runs like hell...
 

MG:
    scratches (what zoey did)

    one on my middle finger (fittingly) that was bleeding like crazy
    other one at the base of the palm of my hand
LH:
    oh wow
    damn
MG:
    luckily it's my right hand...

    oh wait, I'm right handed
    I'm calling your cat Manson from now on
LH:
    but that's not her name
    so mean
    she'll hate you even more if you call her manson
    i thought you wanted to be the cat whisperer
MG:
    I give up with her
LH:
    that was a fast surrender
MG:
    well, when you're Polish and you're staring at the Nazi army, you know the inevitable outcome

    getting clawed to death
LH:
    she isn't a nazi! she's jewish!
    she just has good self defense
    you can't hate her for that

MG:
    self defense?

    I had food in my hand

    I was making a peace offering
    way to bite the hand that feeds you Manson
LH:
    haha nooo she isn't manson!
    all i have to say is this... she doesn't like rich, but he  has lived with me 8 months and never has been scratched
MG:
    Catler
LH:
    LOL
    wow you went there
MG:
    Zoe DeShitnel
LH:
    hahahaha
    i have a feeling you could go on for a while with these names
MG:
    Cat Bundy

    Zoe Dahmer
    Holocats
    ethnic catsing

    zoecide
LH:
    zoecide seems like what she is doing
    getting rid of anyone not zoey
    at least zoey deshanel will survive
MG:
    lol
    zoey buatafuco
LH:
    you are a little too good at this
MG:
    it's just cat-thartic to make fun of her

 

 

hahah yea I found that funny, hope you all did too...

Random Questions and Musings - please reply with answers

So I've been day dreaming a lot lately. On the bus, before bed, etc. I realized that I come up with some really random thoughts and questions about life, so I am going to pose these questions to you and see if anyone has some answers.....

• How come everyone has a favorite colored M&M when they all taste the same?
• What is the difference between being ticked, miffed or pissed and someone?
• How come the guys on my bus have good manners but terrible hygiene?
• Why do RSVPs ask if you have a plus one to bring if the invite doesn't say plus one?
• Why do bowls never quite fit right in the dishwasher?
• Why is everything in llama font automatically amazing?
• When do parents stop treating us like kids?
• How come I can't seem to get off the family plan on verizon?
• At what age should you not have a roommate anymore if you don't live with a significant other?
• McDonalds or Wendy's Fries?
• Why do we try harder to impress strangers than our best friends?
• How come everything has more calories at fastfood places? Normal bagel 250 cal vs mcdonald's bagel 500 cal (not actual numbers).

lightening Round!

Facts about Lightening...You never know...

• Lightning is one of the leading weather-related causes of death and injury in the United States
• You can be struck by lightning even when the center of a thunderstorm is 10 miles (16 kilometers) away 
• The spark can reach over five miles (eight kilometers) in length, raise the temperature of the air by as much as 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (27,700 degrees Celsius), and contain a hundred million electrical volts
• It is estimated that Earth as a whole is struck by an average of more than a hundred lightning bolts every second
• The odds of becoming a lightning victim in the U.S. in any one year is 1 in 700,000. The odds of being struck in your lifetime is 1 in 3,000.
• Lightning can kill people (3,696 deaths were recorded in the U.S. between 1959 and 2003)
• About 10 percent of lightning-stroke victims are killed, and 70 percent suffer serious long-term effects. About 400 people survive lightning strokes in the U.S. each year.
•  If your hair stands up in a storm, it could be a bad sign that positive charges are rising through you, reaching toward the negatively charged part of the storm
• The rapid expansion of heated air causes the thunder.
• If you see lightning and hear thunder at the same time, that lightning is in your neighborhood. If you see successive strokes of lightning in the same place on the horizon then you are in line with the storm, and it may be moving toward you.
• When you see lightning, count the time until you hear thunder. If that time is 30 seconds or less, the thunderstorm is within six miles (ten kilometers) of you and is dangerous. 
• Rubber shoes will not give you any meaningful protection from lightning.
  Taken from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0623_040623_lightningfacts_2.html
  
  

What do Jelly Beans and Ronald Reagan Have in Common?

So I was reading this page about random facts, and I saw some Jelly bean facts on there that were quite interesting and felt compelled to do a post about it. I'm not big into the jelly bean scene myself, though if I were to eat some I'd go with watermelon, peach, cherry, orange, fruity ones like those. What I won't touch is the popcorn one. What were they thinking?

These are from http://www.jellybelly.com/fun_stuff/fun_facts.aspx

• Very Cherry remained the most popular flavor of Jelly Belly beans for two decades until 1998, when Buttered Popcorn moved into first place. In 2003 Very Cherry moved back into top position by a mere 8 million beans.
• Blueberry flavor was created for Ronald Reagan's presidential inauguration in 1981 when over three tons of Jelly Belly beans were consumed during the festivities
• A portrait of President Ronald Reagan made from 10,000 Jelly Belly beans hangs in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.
• During the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Jelly Belly beans were served in the Oval Office and on Air Force One. A holder was designed for the plane so the jar of Jelly Belly beans would not spill during turbulence.
• Jelly Belly beans were invented in 1976. They were the first jelly beans to be sold in single flavors and to come with a menu of flavors.
• It takes 7 to 21 days to make a single Jelly Belly jelly bean.
• The first jelly bean was created by an unknown American candy maker in the 1800s. An 1861 advertisement recommended sending jelly beans to soldiers fighting in the Civil War.
• Enough Jelly Belly beans were eaten in the last year to circle the earth more than five times.
• The original eight flavors of Jelly Belly beans introduced in 1976 were Very Cherry, Root Beer, Cream Soda, Tangerine, Green Apple, Lemon, Licorice and Grape.
• The name Jelly Belly was inspired by the rhyme with Leadbelly, a 1920s blues singer.
• Jelly Belly beans were the first jelly beans in outer space when President Reagan sent them on the 1983 flight of the space shuttle Challenger. (really reagan....why?!!)

Nationals Stadium

I'm supposed to go to my first baseball game of the season tonight, sadly it is a hot mess of rain out there. I'm hoping it stops so we can go to the game, but right now it isn't looking all that promising. I guess we'll have to see what's going on with it around 5pm. I definitely don't need to get sick again due to sitting in the rain all night. Either way, great topic for today is Nationals Stadium.

• It is the first LEED-certified green major professional sports stadium in the United States
• Designed by Populous (formerly HOK Sport) and Devrouax & Purnell Architects and Planners, cost $611 million to build
• The stadium originally seated 41,888 fans, but some seats from various parts of the stadium have been removed since its opening to reduce the capacity to 41,546
• The stadium has 23 seating/pricing zones. 3,300 seats are available for $10 or less.
• The infield dirt comes from Maryland and is topped off with Turface that is a shade of deep red.
• The warning track is a clean, crushed aggregate stone that comes from Culpepper, Virginia.
• Inspiration for the look of the ballpark is taken from the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, by architect I.M. Pei.
• More than half the crowd will walk straight off of the street into their seats, without ever climbing elevators, escalators, ramps or stairs because the field is 24 feet below street level and the main concourse is at the same height as the sidewalk.
• The ballpark has approximately 3,500 pieces of steel in the bowl structure, equaling 7,800 tons.

30 day song challenge

So there are all these facebook challenges going on lately...honestly, I don't really care to go find a link to every single you tube video to do the challenges, but its fun to think about so I'll just answer them all at once...

day 01 - your favorite song - too hard to decide! What a Wonderful World or Anyone At All
day 02 - your least favorite song - mmm bop.
day 03 - a song that makes you happy  - Bright Eyes
day 04 - a song that makes you sad - When the Day Met the Night
day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone - this applies to everyone, so I am skipping. I think of lots of people when I hear different songs, its too mood dependent.
day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere - GUCI camp song!
day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event - American Boy -Reminds me of driving with laura G
day 08 - a song that you know all the words to - um a million of them!
day 09 - a song that you can dance to - JUST DANCE! BAD ROMANCE! and all of ABBA
day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep  - enya..who can say......blah blah - blah-blah...
day 11 - a song from your favorite band - Perpetum Mobile
day 12 - a song from a band you hate - again, mmm bop
day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure - I can't get no satisfaction
day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love - this is a hard choice, most people know me pretty well, so surprising them is hard...maybe.... Solitary Shell
day 15 - a song that describes you - tough call on this one... no idea so I'll go with Stars in the Sky or You Don't Stop
day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate - Lucky Star
day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio - any from the black eyed peas
day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio - Sound of Sunshine
day 19 - a song from your favorite album - Speechless
day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry - I don't really get angry often...
day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy  - any
day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad - do you hear the people sing
day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding - daddy/daughter dance, what a wonderful world
day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral - I will Remember you... too cheesy? lol. I don't know.
day 25 - a song that makes you laugh - Anything by justin beiber, its all so ridiculous
day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument - I don't play anything!
day 27 - a song that you wish you could play -any
day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty - none
day 29 - a song from your childhood - um, I listened to musicals, probably something from Phantom
day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year - Just Dance