Ketchin' up

I know I have been lax in posting recently but boy do I have a lot to talk about.
Let me get my excuses out of the way first...
1) About two weeks ago, our car was broken into for the second time in two months. The culprits threw a cinder block through the passenger side window, sending millions of tiny balls of safety glass all over the interior of the car. Bastards. The loot: Two packs of cigarettes, a cheap lighter, an mp3 player from the glove box and most devastating for me - a new waffle iron. I had picked it up at New Uses for a song ($20) that afternoon, then gone straight over to gaming night without stopping home to take it out of the car. My thought is that the damn thing was big enough the thieves thought it was a laptop or something more exciting. HA! Joke's on them. Maybe they can get their moms to make them some waffles now - with ground glass syrup on the side...
Of course, that meant the whole next day was spent dealing with insurance, glass replacement and cleaning. I am still finding tiny balls of glass in the seat cushion - and in my pants cuffs, my washer and tons of other places. Sigh....
And a plug for my brother - who runs Integrity Auto Glass. If you even need your auto glass replaced, ask your insurance company to send him along. He does a great job! Thanks John!!
2) A record setting span for most viruses that one person can have in a two week period. Well probably not, but it has certainly set a record for me. I won't go into the gory details, but I will say I am so glad we bought a really comfortable mattress, as I spent a lot of time sleeping on it lately. That means I didn't spend a lot of time eating or even wanting to think about food. So I broke weak and let things slide.
I did buck the trend Thursday night by going out to dinner with the hubby for Valentine's day at Cananas Mexican Restaurant (5225 N. High St. Columbus 43214). I read a review in the Dispatch and decided to give it a try a few weeks ago. We have been looking for a good Mexican place close to our house. I figured the worse that would happen is that we would never go back. I've eaten at lots of bad Mexican places - so what would one more be?


I liked Cananas. Quite a bit actually. It's got the bright gaudy interior that you've come to expect of a small eatery. The waitstaff have been very nice both times we've visited. They do serve booze (despite what a Google Search will say) - having a cold frosty beer with my food is requirement when eating Mexican. A big chunk of the food seems to be homemade - the beans, rice and in particular the guacamole. Wow - great guacamole! Made fresh to order, it is some of the best I've had outside my own home. My recommendation is to stop in during happy hour - 6-8pm - and splurge on some $2 imports and get some tasty food. It definitely gets two thumbs up from our household!

The other part of our Valentine's outing included a viewing of Casablanca and The Princess Bride at Studio 35. If you live in Columbus and haven't been to Studio 35 - shame on you. It is the last of the independent movie theaters here in Columbus. The owners do a fantastic job of bringing their customers a great mix of movies - classics, first run, second run, documentaries plus lots of special engagements. An added bonus - they serve beer! Lots of good beer - plus pizza and subs. And most important to me and Tony - they have fat people seats!!! Yes, double wides just for those of us with extra cushioning! (And I can say the F-word being fat myself...) Next special event - The theater has been around for 70 years now and will be hosting a birthday party on Sunday (2-17-08) to celebrate. You must have a pass to get in - so you might want to stop by the theater to see you can score some passes before it's too late!

Another cool thing we did was stop at Sunflower Chinese Restaurant for Dim Sum. While I like Lee Gardens, I have never been 100% thrilled with the service. Several people had recommended Sunflower, including my boss who claims to have eaten there three times a week when he was a single man-about-town. Tony and I stopped in with some friends back in January to give their Sunday Dim Sum menu a run for its money. Boy - was it good. They had a least 5 carts running at all times - savory and sweet, meat filled and vegetarian. The food just kept coming and coming. They stopped by our table often - pretty soon a couple of them just started camping out.

Just to cap a few of the things that we really loved - the small-neck clams in black bean sauce, steamed pork buns, shu mai, beef meatballs with little bits of water chestnut mixed in, curried keel bone from chickens - damn the list kinda just goes on doesn't it? Sunflower serves Dim Sum all week long - but we love going on Sundays for brunch best. The service was great and the staff did their best to explain unusual dishes to us newbies. So check it out and let me know what you think...maybe this could be another destination for the Meetup group?

As for cooking at home - well I've been kinda keeping everything low key. The most exciting thing I've done recently was grab some excellent sauerkraut, pastrami and Swiss from Thurn's and make Rubens here at the house. I am sorry I didn't take pictures, they just didn't last long enough... I also pulled out some short ribs and threw them into the oven early last week so we could eat on them throughout the week - no pictures of those either I am afraid. I promise to reform and use my camera more often here at the house...
So that is it for the moment - I promise to try and be better. Really.

Oh one last parting shot - to the politicians in Mississippi who want to draw attention to how obese people are by proposing a state bill to prohibit fat people from eating in public - kiss my fat white butt.