Lazy Sunday

So I have been pretty lazy about updating this blog.  That last days of my "staycation" were pretty sweet.  I do think one of the advantages to such a vacation style is that there is no travel at the end, its really good 'til the last drop.  The highlights of the last couple days have been that I made a pretty sweet dinner, ran on a treadmill for more than 3 minutes, saw my high school friend's art exhibit, and started work.

The dinner I made was a mushroom risotto.  The idea to even make risotto was inspired by all the Hell's Kitchen I have been watching, it seems every episode someone messes up the risotto!!  It was fairly easy to make and I actually enjoyed doing it as you have to be active throughout the whole process.  Lots of stirring and adding broth and stirring and adding broth, bt the most important part is to taste ;)

From Legacy at Linden Park at Lynchburg

Mallory and I went to the gym again, this time I was determined to run on the treadmill.  When all was said and done, it took me about 15 minutes to go 1 mile.  I can argue that I had a small warm-up stretch and thats why it took so long, but whatever, it took what it took and I know I am no runner yet.  I was just glad I picked a pace where I actually lasted 15 minutes without dying.

A few days ago I also saw a friend of mine from high school's art exhibit here in Lynchburg.  What a small world that he would be putting on a show here and I would actually get to to come see it.  I sent him a picture text of his work and we talked for awhile after, mostly about the Incredible :P  He will be back here in late August to take down his installation and I am looking forward to seeing him.

From 2010-07-23 Marc's Exhibit

Today was my first day of actual work here in Lynchburg.  It went pretty smooth, got a new badge, and everyone was nice.  I felt very welcomed and am excited to get to know people better and get into work.  I feel very fortunate to actually like my job.  I do enjoy going to work everyday and that in itself is a great thing.

From Legacy at Linden Park at Lynchburg

SWAG!!!

REVIEW: Sierra Nevada Summerfest
I have been thinking that some thing I would like to do on this blog is review thing.  No one cares, but whatever.  No topic in mind, I just want to give my opinion on the whatever.
Today's item is the Sierra Nevada Summerfest, in case you didn't get that from above.  I am not a huge beer drinker, and I can honestly say that majority of my friends and co-workers no far more that I do on the subject.  However, this is my blog ... SO! I liked this beer. I have had the normal Sierra Nevada Pale Ale a well as the Torpedo, all fine beers.  I did like the traditional Pale Ale better than the Summerfest.  It did go down smooth and was not unpleasant, I just didn't feel like I could eat things with it and it be as enjoyable than other beers.  I like food.  I had some pretzels with it, and though it was ok, it wasn't great.  That's my shitty review.

Rating: 3/5

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Yesterday was a fairly calm day.  Some pool going, some dog walking, some grocery buying, some video game playing.

I did make my third "experiment" as Mallory says in the kitchen.  Pasta Pomodoro.  Finally something that came out good and was worth making.

I am pretty excited because I think I actually thought of something to do today and can't wait to tell Mallory when she wakes up, she will be wicked proud :P

I did download and play the offline portion of Alien Swarm yesterday.  It was pretty fun and I was surprised it ran on my laptop.  I could not however figure out how to join a multiplayer game.  Whatevs.

I am really hoping to get my Incredible soon, though I know it probably won't be for a couple weeks.  Silly HTC.

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Movienight Highlight

Some quick pics of the event:
The fact that it was only Mallory and I was humorous to me.

From Legacy at Linden Park at Lynchburg

Pretty sweet sized screen, first time I sat in the front row of a theater and enjoyed it :)

From Legacy at Linden Park at Lynchburg

It was pretty sweet to pick up some snacks and beverages at my local grocers and have permission to bring them into a theater.   The Pete's Wicked is bottled in Utica..... small world!

From Legacy at Linden Park at Lynchburg

Movie Daze

Made some tuna noodle casserole yesterday.  Came out ok, but was kinda dry.  FREEZE IT!

My sister's boyfriend got some burns on his hands and arms trying to rescue a dog from a burning vehicle.  I hope he is ok and everything turns out as best it can.  My love and hopes go out to them right now.

Me and Mallory reserved the theatre here at the apartment.  We have it from 5 to midnight and plan on watching some quality entertainment including Batman Begins and Mad Men season 1 disc 1 :P

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Virginia Views

Yesterday was a big day, even though it started off pretty tame.

Mallory and I decided after some lounging (me watching Leverage for 2 hours) that we should go and seize the day.  We went to twin peaks park, but could not figure out where they got the name as no peaks were in sight.  We then quickly opted for CAVE MOUNTAIN LAKE!!!!!!

The lake itself wasn't super impressive but the sights on the drive down and the hike through the mountain was amazing.  On the way back home we pulled over at the James River Foot Bridge that crosses the river for some more great sights and photo opportunities:http://picasaweb.google.com/begert/20100719MountainDriveDalesieBath#

As seen in the above photos, Dale also had an outside bath, I think it kinda calmed him down a bit and we let him air dry.  He was kinda .... talkative/aggressive throughout the day though ...  maybe he really is in need of some nueticals.

The night wrapped up with me looking up some recipes for the week.  I may just be feeling inspired by Hell's Kitchen, but I want to cook something, and I like to cook.

Mallory also thinks my co-workers and I hail a being named zoltan ...

Upper Crust Citizen

So post pool time yesterday led to hunger and the desire for a quick fix.  We found that in The Upper Crust Pizza Company.  We ordered a large pepperoni and mushroom with a side order of cheese bread.  Being from Utica, I feel like a pizza connoisseur (this time spelled correctly).  I was actually pleasantly surprised at how good it all was, I guess I just expected non-New York pizza to kinda suck.  


Before we picked up the pizza, we stopped by our local grocers for some essentials: Cherry Dr. Pepper, Mug Root Beer, Orange K soda, hot dogs, nutty bars, and because we are very healthy, orange juice.  I know what yer thinking, I didn't know they made Cherry Dr. Pepper either!


Mallory and I made our first trip to the Gym.  It was pretty nice, I rode a couple bike contraptions for ~5 miles.  It was actually kinda depressing to see how few calories were burnt during my fake travels.  We then lifted a few free weights and did a couple machines.  Overall I got a little sweaty and it felt good to do it.  We finished that off my going back home, walking the dog and prepared for a late night dip in the pool.  We were the only ones there and it was nice.  The night was scored by Steven Tyler.

Other notes of the night, I am pretty big into Hell's Kitchen season 7 at the moment thanks to the kind people at Hulu.  I have installed Steam on my netbook and am curious if it is even powerful enough to play any games, my guess is not.  I have been enjoying the podcasts I listen to, Smodcast being yesterdays podcast of choice.


Was pretty happy to wake up at 9 this morning, and with that I will talk to *yall later.

*Working on my southern hospitality.

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"We live on a mountain"

A real nice and lazy yesterday.  We didn't even use the car, which I thought was pretty awesome.  I watched 3 movies in one day, which I haven't done since hanging out with Chad & Bill. The Invention of Lying, 28 Days, and Black Dynamite.  All movies were very good and received 4 star ratings in Netflix.

Speaking of 3, thats how many times Dale pooped yesterday too, 3 really is the magic number, huh.  I think he has adjusted to the apartment pretty well.  He definitely gets more walks than normal since we can't just let him out in the backyard.

The biggest thing that came out of yesterday is that Mallory and I decided to cancel our trip to OBX.  Things are just so nice and peaceful here at the apartment that we decided to have a "staycation".  Luckily the people at the place we were going to stay were very understanding and gave us a full refund.

Today is already off to a great start as I slept in until noon and read some of my book by the pool for awhile.  I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity.  This post has been brought to you with the support of Amazon links, because Google said I could make money or something.  I am also trying to use this Zemanta Assistant tool that would help me make my blogs more interesting ... I can't figure it out!!

Incredible

So I bought the HTC Droid Incredible today online. Verizon says it will ship by August 3rd, so i got that going for me. I came very very close to getting the Droid X, but I think I made the right decision based on what I have heard/read so far. I just hope froyo hits the Incredible soon.

The first full day in the apartment has been pretty nice. We went to the pool. The water was warm, not cold t all. There are a couple grills by the pool as well which is pretty neat. We also found the library and got some books for our upcoming OBX trip and general literary needs. To top everything off, the "cable technician" came and installed the coax cable from the wall to the TV, what would I have done without him.

Blog Reuse and the start of a Lynchburg Adventure

So its that time of the year again when I feel like I should write stuff.

I am now living in Lynchburg, VA. I am doing a 3 month stint for my work here. The journey down was pretty fun and I saw some neat things along the way: somewhere in Pennsylvania exists a combo KFC & Taco Bell that is an all you can eat buffet .... crazy right!

Pennsylvania overall was pretty beautiful to drive through. We stopped only once in Blossburg to fuel up and eat. This was harder than it should have been :P . The first place we tried to eat was the Brick Tavern. They did not take credit cards, but recommended we go up the street for wing night. I think we ended up at the Bear A Bar & Grille‎, We only took once step inside until we were reminded that people can still smoke in Bars in other states..... we did not take any further steps inside. We finally ended up backtracking a few miles to Covington (3rd site) for Wendy's where only on the road again did Mallory find a fly in her salad that they did not know how to make ....

We ended our first day of travel at a Holiday Inn Express in Hagerstown, MD. This was actually pretty nice and they had the best continental breakfast I have ever had. We trickily snuck Dale into our room for the night by wrapping him in a towel and placing him in a carrying case. Only later did we find out that the hotel was pet friendly with no extra charge if you just asked the manager before hand. Needless to say, we kept the ruse alive our entire stay.

We began our journey again from the hotel and left Maryland pretty quickly, as well as driving through West Virginia for a short period of time. West Virginia was the only time the speed limit was 70, which was pretty nice. Our second attempt at eating also failed as the first place we tried seemed to have been replaced with a Cracker Barrel store that had a giant wait. We ended up at Pano's Restaurant & Lounge, where the food was "Nothing to write home about".

We hit the road one last time. The last half hour or so was crazy blue ridge mountain driving. The windiest of roads but the most beautiful of sights. I felt like I was getting sea sick OR playing real like Mario Kart.

When we finally got to our apartment, we unpacked quickly and settled in. I can't help but feel like an outsider here. Maybe growing up in New York State corrupted me. Everyone seems to have these "crazy" accents that seemed to get thicker as we traveled.