The Cutter vs. Meat
February 24, 2011 at 2:15 pm | Posted in Weekcap | Leave a commentTags: Fogo de Chao
This past Saturday, I went to a friend’s bachelor party which would include dinner at Fogo de Chao.
For those who are unfamiliar with FdC, they are a Brazilian steakhouse where the servers constantly circulate through the restaurant with slabs of meat, and cut you off a piece if you so wish. They have quite the variety: several types of steak, chicken, lamb, and various cuts of pork. By the time your meal is complete, you will have consumed a large amount of meat.
Normally, this is a very good thing. After all, who doesn’t enjoy meat?
The problem is that the human body may have its limits as to how much meat it can handle. I have been to FdC once before, and I spent that night having trouble sleeping due to the meat sweats.
This visit had the potential to go even worse. Preparing for my upcoming trip to Mexico, I have been on a diet for the past few weeks. Therefore, my stomach is used to less food being passed its way. I faced a similar scenario in Las Vegas when I visited the Hash House-a-Go-Go and I did not have a pleasant evening.
I was also concerned that since it was a bachelor party, after dinner we would be going out and drinking.
Personally, I would not be drinking alcohol, but instead I would have my drink of choice: The Shirley Temple. The soda and grenadine in a Shirley Temple would probably be much more difficult to handle than mere light beers would have been.
So how did I do?
Well, I was very smart about the situation. First off, I cut myself off at the point where I was full instead of unbearably full. Unbearably full is not a good feeling. I can remember a couple of occassions in Las Vegas – most notably my visits to Battista’s Hole in the Wall – where I was so full that I could barely walk, and had to waddle my way to a bathroom.
I also topped off the meal with some Tums. Tums are usually very helpful in allowing my stomach to deal with overconsumption.
Despite those precautions, later in the night as I kept pouring more liquid into my stomach, I began to feel a bit uncomfortable, and it looked like I might be in for a rough night.
Fortunately, I had one more weapon left in my arsenal. I had wisely brought some bismuth tablets with me. Two tablets - combined with a quick pit stop - got me back into game shape, and the rest of the evening passed without incident.
Getting through the night was only the first step in the battle. There was still the matter of being able to sleep, and I didn’t fare quite so well on that count.
The combination of meat and sugar did not lead to an especially good night’s sleep. While I wasn’t feeling distress, my body’s temperature seemed to be much higher than normally. I guess it was working hard to burn off everything.
Due to the presence of a baby, I am not accustomed to sleeping late anymore. I hoped that this morning might be different, but aided by the cries of said baby, I woke up not much later than my normal time. I didn’t feel too bad, but yet I wasn’t hungry in the least, and couldn’t seem to get back to sleep.
I had a kickball game to play in the afternoon, so I headed out without eating anything. I was worried that at some point, the lack of food and sleep combined with exercise might cause me to crash. I warned my teammates that there was the possibility of me simply collapsing to the floor.
But miraculously, the crash never came. I got through my kickball game and a good workout with nothing consumed besides a Special K bar and lots of water. Later on, I was able to eat dinner without incident.
So I’ll have to declare myself to be the winner of this battle against meat. But I have a feeling that meat will get another shot at me. And next time, I may not be so lucky.
Random Thought of the Week
We have a few plants around our condo. We kept one of the plants on our patio for the summer, but I made the mistake of keeping it outside for too long into the Fall, and it looked like the cold might have done it in.
I believed that the plant still had some life, so I brought it inside and continued to water it. I was encouraged to see some new leaves appear. When a new sprout popped up from the soil, I thought my mission was successful.
Unfortunately as Mrs. Cutter pointed out, the new sprout was actually a weed.
Now, we’ve been taught that weeds are bad, and should be removed. But this one was actually quite nice looking. And unlike the plant, it seemed to be thriving. So why should I be so quick to remove the weed? Doesn’t it have as much right to exist as the plant?
Well, as it turns out, the whole pot – probably due to some of the plant rotting – began to smell really bad, so I had to throw the whole thing out.
Here’s a picture of the now departed plant and weed:
Top Five of the Week
Here are my Top Five Restaurants in the DC Area
You’ll notice I enjoy chain restaurants. I never said I had a gourmet appetite. Perhaps Mrs. Cutter will share her favorites in response.
5. Orleans House – This would have been #1 if not for the fact that it closed a couple of years ago. Great steaks and an amazing salad bar.
4. PF Changs – Maybe it isn’t traditional Chinese food, but the lettuce wraps are to die for!
3. IHOP – I do like my breakfast food, and I’m a big fan of their pancakes. I have a soft spot in my heart for IHOP after my meal there at 10 PM in Orlando, Florida back in 1996.
2. Bugaboo Creek Steak House – My new go-to place for birthdays. Tasty food and they have talking animals mounted to the walls!
1. Damon’s – Good steaks and a giant TV screen to watch sports games and play trivia. I just wish they had one in a more convenient location.
Valentines Day
February 16, 2011 at 4:32 pm | Posted in Weekcap | 3 CommentsTags: Valentines Day
Another Valentines Day has passed us by. After ten years as a couple, and three years of marriage, has Valentines Day lost some of its luster in the Cutter household?
I suppose it has, but it was never really that big a deal for us in the first place. I think we both understand that you shouldn’t get too excited about a holiday that was pretty much invented by Hallmark.
Not to mention that back in 2007, we finally realized that by going out to dinner on Valentines Day, we were ending up in overcrowded restaurants where they jacked up the prices for that one night. What was the point?
The last couple years, we’ve celebrated on the 15th instead, and had a much better time. Restaurant prices are back to normal, and they’re usually pretty empty.
This year, since going out to dinner isn’t an easy thing for us anymore, we stayed in. I cooked a nice meal for Mrs. Cutter, and we exchanged small gifts.
Coincidentally, we both got each other Eagles themed gifts. She got me an Eagles colored replica of Cleatus the Fox Sports robot. This is a truly awesome gift, even though she’s going to make me bring it in to work and not put it on display at home.
I’ll be sure to bring it home for next football season as I’ll want it on hand when I watch the games.
I gave her a David Akers jersey. It was originally supposed to be a Christmas gift, but I bought it online from China, and I think it got stuck in customs and didn’t arrive until January. Stupid China!
The jersey may turn out to be a bad gift. Akers is a free agent, and although it looks like the team wants to bring him, back, it isn’t a certainty. It would be depressing if the jersey is out of date before she even wears it once.
Also, the jersey is a bit big on her, and she rejected my offer to alter it using my sewing kit at home. She apparently doesn’t have confidence in my sewing abilities! Even though I used to rock at Home Economics back in middle school! I suppose she’ll just have to tuck the jersey in.
Random Thought of the Week
Is it wrong that I miss the elementary school days of giving out paper valentine cards to classmates?
It was always so much fun picking out which valentines to buy. I think my all-time favorites might have been the Pizza Hut cards I got in 2nd grade.
Yeah, Valentines Day rocked in elementary school. We’d spend the day making paper mailboxes to put valentines in and then go around giving out cards. Of course, we were supposed to give cards to everyone in the class, including the smelly kids.
In recent years, I’ve decided to keep this tradition along and pass out valentine cards to either kickball teammates or co-workers.
I think they all appreciated them. After all, who wouldn’t like receiving a card with Spider-Man wish them a “swinging Valentines Day?”
Random Picture Found on the Web
Seems like a good deal to me!
One Hit Wonder of the Week
This week’s One Hit Wonder is Come On Eileen by Dexy’s Midnight Runners.
This song reminds me of a dark time in my life when at a homecoming dance in high school, I asked a girl to dance to the song, and was rejected. I seem to remember that it was also on the radio quite a bit on Saturday nights when my friends and I drove around egging houses.
I’m not sure why the band didn’t have any further success. Was it due to heartbreak over losing the Grammy to the B Sharps? Possibly.
Top Five of the Week
I’ll go over my Top Five Favorite Days of the Elementary School Year
5. First Day of School – This may seem like an odd choice, but it was always nice to see people again after a few months away.
4. Parent-Teacher Conference days – Why? Because we got half days. There was something magical about going to school knowing you were going to leave halfway through.
3. Valentines Day – In addition to exchanging valentines, there was also lots of candy!
2. The last day of school before Christmas – We’d usually watch a movie or play games and sometimes exchange gifts. Teachers generally didn’t even try to get anything done on this day.
1. Halloween – Candy and costumes! What could be better to a pre-teen?
Thoughts on the Super Bowl
February 8, 2011 at 3:45 pm | Posted in Sports, Weekcap | 1 CommentTags: Super Bowl
Unlike recent years, Mrs. Cutter and I did not have a big Super Bowl party planned. We figured a houseful of loud people was not a good mix with a sleeping baby.
So this year, it would just be the two of us watching the game at home. At the very least, this was an improvement over last year when we didn’t have electricity and were forced to leave home.
Without a bunch of people around, I was actually able to concentrate on the TV broadcast more than in past years. I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing.
So here are my thoughts from Sunday. WARNING: There may be quite a bit of randomness here:
Per tradition, I watched the two Super Bowl themed Simpsons episodes on Sunday afternoon. I can pretty much recite “Lisa the Greek” by heart. An underrated highlight of the second episode is the fake commercial for the Catholic church.
Before the game, Mrs. Cutter had been watching The Princess Diaries, but at around 5:30, I told her that we had to change the channel. It seemed kind of wrong to be watching a movie for tween girls immediately before the Super Bowl.
I realized that if I was a player in the game, I might go absolutely insane. I imagine them in the locker room, getting really pumped up, and then running out onto the field, ready to rock. But then, they have to stand around for about 45 minutes waiting for all the pregame ceremonies to end.
Did we really need to have someone sing America the Beautiful before the national anthem? Oh, well apparently ATB was sung by a girl from the show Glee (coincidentally, airing immediately after the game!) so I’m guessing Fox had something to do with that decision.
It’s kind of sad that I didn’t even notice that Christina Aguileira botched the national anthem. I was busy trying to see if she’d go over the six second over/under on how long she held the word “Brave.” For the record, she went WAY over. And yeah, it was bad that she botched the anthem, but let’s cut her some slack. It is a difficult song to sing.
I thought the commercials were pretty good this year. Oh, and speaking of commercials, make sure you head over to The Ad Pundit where I review some of them!
People have said that this was a poorly played game. But I thought the defenses looked solid. This was some of the best tackling I’ve seen in a Super Bowl in quite some time.
I am really disappointed in the way Fox did not sufficiently advertise the fact that the Black Eyed Peas were performing at halftime. Seriously, there was a chance I wasn’t paying attention the first 500 times they mentioned it.
What did I think about the halftime show? Well, the Black Eyed Peas went with a Tron-like theme, so that was kind of cool. If they had just stood there in Tron costumes and lip synched, I think I would have been fine with it. But they sang, and were off-key.
They brought out Slash, which once again prompted the question: Is Slash even cool anymore? It was at this point that I was unhappy that Squinty had moved to Las Vegas and was not watching the game with us. I guess Slash is indeed still cool somehow.
If anyone had any doubts whether they had moved away from the more buttoned down halftime shows of recent years, those doubts were erased when Usher came out. I mean, what was that crap?
Once Usher did not fall from his harness (RIP Owen Hart) I think I tuned it out. I think the only thing that could have saved this halftime show at this point would have been for Janet Jackson to run up and flash her nipple. What happened to the good old days of Up With People?
Even though we didn’t have guests over, that didn’t stop Mrs. Cutter from making her Super Bowl chili. This year’s chili may have been her best ever, so maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t have to share. I will say that there should be a rule that if a woman serves her husband chili in the first half of a game, she can not complain about any flatulance in the second half.
I started reviewing ads in the third quarter, and I didn’t pay close attention to the game. Perhaps my enthusiasm was muted when Mrs. Cutter didn’t get all my witty football related comments. Once again, Squinty’s absence was a huge loss for this game. Of course, Mrs. Cutter might have been too distracted by the game of Angry Birds that she was involved with.
During the pregame shows, it seemed like everyone was tripping over themselves to annoint Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as a Hall of Famer. I think they might want to back off that talk for awhile. While he has played in three Super Bowls, he’s played poorly in two of them. Everyone seems to forget his performance in Super Bowl XL was largely declared the worst performance ever by a winning QB.
I was amazed that the game came down to a play where they could have called a penalty on the Packers…and it wasn’t called. Maybe I should reconsider my theory that there’s an NFL conspiracy to have the Steelers win.
But then I remember that the NFL also wants Green Bay to succeed, and maybe the NFL thought that having Roethlisberger win this season wasn’t necessarily the best thing for them. And in hindsight, I think the game should have been a Packers’ blowout. But the NFL made sure that the game was close so that the Steelers could save face.
So is it possible that the Eagles were the second best team in the league, but got saddled with a bad draw, having to face the Packers in the first round? Then again, had the Eagles not made their miracle comeback against the Giants, the Packers might not have even made the playoffs. Go figure.
After the game, the winning team celebrates, Aaron Rodgers is named MVP (which is of course a big “F*** you” to Brett Favre) and before he can properly celebrate, he has to listen to Terry Bradshaw recite a commercial for the Chevy Camaro. I would have given Rodgers mad props if he had just grabbed the mic from Bradshaw.
And so, football season is officially over. Which brings us to the Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul. Although in all honesty, the LDTTOTS really started for me a few weeks ago when the Eagles lost.
Sadly, we may not get more football for quite some time because there’s no labor contract, and the owners are set on holding a lockout. Apparently, the owners feel that the billions that they’re making isn’t enough, and the players are taking home too much of the revenue. I don’t expect this to get resolved anytime soon, mostly because NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is an assclown. I don’t know if he really thinks that fans want an 18 game schedule, but that’s the stance he’s taken.
Random Picture Found on the Web
Here’s Santonio Holmes and Mickey Mouse:
I assume this took place after Super Bowl XLIII. This scene will not be taking place again this season.
I’ll conclude with my Top Five Favorite Super Bowls that I’ve Watched.
Keep in mind that this list mostly features games from recent years. This is mostly because as a child, I don’t recall paying close attention to the game. And then for awhile, the games were mostly blowouts.
5. XXXI – Packers vs. Patriots – The first time I could drink while watching and didn’t have to worry about getting up early the next day. Sigh…I miss college.
4. XLIII – Steelers vs. Cardinals – It was a surprisingly nice day, so we played half time flip cup. And the second half of this game was very entertaining.
3. XXXII – Broncos vs. Packers – Had a lot of fun watching this one, and in hindsight, it was great that Brett Favre was denied a second title.
2. XLII – Giants vs. Patriots – Just to see the heartbreak on the faces of Patriots fans.
1. XXXVI – Patriots vs. Rams – I got hellaciously drunk, and it was a great game and the underdogs won in a dramatic conclusion.
Stupid Aliens
February 1, 2011 at 2:43 pm | Posted in Weekcap | 1 CommentTags: Hans Riemer, Pac-Man Fever, Pepco
First off, please check out my new blog: The Ad Pundit.
For those of you who might have wondered why I don’t do commercial reviews as part of my weekcaps anymore, it’s because I’ve spun them off to their own blog. This week, I’m looking back on commercials from past Super Bowls.
If nothing else, it’s worth checking out the review of the Forever Lazy ad.
This past week was not a stellar one in the Cutter household. The area got hit with snow and ice, and as a result, we were once again left without electricity.
On Wednesday night, the lights began flickering, we saw a big flash of light outside, and then everything went dark. Based on our past track record with Pepco, we figured that the lights weren’t coming back on anytime soon.
We were correct. Power was not restored until Friday night, leaving us without electricity for over 48 hours.
This is not a good thing to have happen when you have an infant at home. We were forced to find alternate accomodations for Thursday, but fortunately, our friends the Perezburys were kind enough to take us in.
I’m sure Pepco will blame the heavy tree cover in the area, even though there have been reports that the real issue is their crappy equipment. It also doesn’t help that they were too cheap to bring in outside contractors to help them until the next day.
At least Pepco’s lousy equipment did provide us with some entertainment. About an hour after the power went out, we noticed that the sky outside our condo was growing brighter. At first we thought it was snow lightning.
But then, the sky got even brighter and began to change colors, accompanied by some strange electrical sounds. Mrs. Cutter and I both began to suspect that we were under alien attack.
It kind of seemed like how an alien attack would go. First, they cut the power. Then we’d start seeing lights from above.
Unfortunately, the real cause of the lights and sound was not nearly as exciting. It was just a Pepco transformer exploding. Apparently, someone got some close up video of the event:
Fortunately, Pepco may be forced to get their act together soon. My favorite politician, Hans Riemer is on the case! And we all know that if you do not listen to Hans Riemer, there will be consequences!
Random Thought of the Week
If we were attacked by aliens, I realize that I’d pretty much be a goner. I have no real weapons on hand, and I have to watch out for the Cutlet.
Then again, Tom Cruise somehow managed to survive in War of the Worlds, so maybe I’d get lucky.
Random Picture Found on the Web
This is a picture of a woman getting attacked by a seagull as she attempts to do the Titanic pose.
One Hit Wonder of the Week
This week’s one hit wonder is one of my favorites.
The time was 1982. The entire country was swept up in Pac-Man mania, and a young Cutter was no exception. I couldn’t wait until I got to go to the arcade and play Pac-Man. Not only did I enjoy playing the game, but I also bought a ton of related merchandise.
I watched the cartoon. I had the portable home game. I had hats and T-shirts. And most importantly, I had this record:
It’s Pac-Man Fever by Buckner & Garcia!
The duo certainly capitalized on the game’s popularity, as this record was their only hit. They tried to recreate their success with the follow up “Do the Donkey Kong” but that song never caught on.
Top Five of the Week
Thinking about Pac-Man has given me a chance to come up with my Top Five Favorite 80s Arcade Games:
5. Star Wars – I thought it was really cool how they had the sound clips from the movie in the game. “Red Five standing by!”
4. Frogger – I loved frogs as a child, so it was only natural that I liked this game.
3. Tron - Not only is it based on my favorite movie, but it is also an excellent game.
2. Pac-Man - It was a simple game, and yet it had the entire country addicted.
1. Punch-Out!! – I was obsessed with this game. The night when I defeated Mr. Sandman to win the belt was one of the biggest moments of my young life.
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