Saturday Night
Posted on January 19, 2014 by Ching under Events, Food and Drink, Things to Do.
Saturday was a pretty busy day for us. We were up late watching Goldfinger
I had originally planned to attend Melissa’s Zumba class at Zeal at 8 AM on Saturday morning, but since I was up so late I ended up nixing that idea. I couldn’t stay in bed all day though because I had my own Zumba class to teach at Andover YMCA at 11 AM. Not that I would have. I rarely ever sleep in, even when I’m up all night.
After my Zumba class we went shooting at Bullseye with Cory and April. Then after that we had a couple of events: Cutter J the Absurdist at the Donut Whole and then The Fabulous Fleshtones at Walkers Bar & Venue.
Before going out for the evening, Brian made us some roast beef and cheese eggrolls. We made some the other day and we loved them but there was something missing. Brian decided we needed some Arby’s sauce. We ended up going by Arby’s on the way home from shooting and picking up some curly fries and Arby’s sauce for our eggrolls. What a brilliant idea! The sauce was exactly what the dish needed.
For dessert Brian fried up leftover lumpia wrappers and sprinkled cinnamon sugar over them. Those turned out really great also.
We had a little bit of time to chill at home before our first event. We arrived at the Donut Whole just in time to watch our friend Aaron aka Cutter J the Absurdist perform. This guy is amazing! Here are some videos I took of his performance.
Not only does he masterfully mix music and visuals throughout his performance, he also sings, plays with spoons, and tap dances. I’ve never watched anything like it. He’s not just talented, his creativity is out of this world.
After his performance we were off to Walkers Bar & Venue for the Fabulous Fleshtones. We’d never been to Walkers. It’s pretty new. Our friends’ gig was the perfect excuse to check it out. Apparently, Walkers is the new hangout in town. The place was packed.
The Fabulous Fleshtones were great as always. Their music is so different from the music we were listening to at the Donut Whole just moments before, though. I’m always amazed at our eclectic taste in music. LOL.
Anyway, that’s our weekend in a nutshell. How was yours?
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Painting and Shooting
Posted on January 18, 2014 by Ching under Date Ideas, Events, Relationship, Things to Do.
It’s a painting and shooting kind of weekend. I had a lot of fun painting with my coworkers last night. Click the right arrow on the picture above to see more photos from our painting party at Paint the Towne.
Huge thanks to Tammie for organizing the event and to Misty for taking a bunch of photos. Thanks also go out to my awesome husband for making mini tacos for me to bring to the party and for driving Misty and me to and from the event. I really appreciated not having drive after a few glasses of wine, which flowed quite freely because everyone brought one or two bottles and then some. There were plenty of yummy eats too so none of us were drinking on empty stomachs. Safety first!
Since I got to do what I wanted to do last night, Brian got to do what he wanted to do this afternoon. Cory and April went shooting with us also, which was awesome because they shared their targets and I got to shoot Cory’s new toy — a 22 calibre Ruger rifle.
Here are a couple more photos from the shooting range.
If you’re trying to score some points with your partner, taking him to the gun range is a sure fire way to do it (pun intended – LOL). Plus, couples who play together stay together. Just sayin’…
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Zumba World Party Party
Posted on January 15, 2014 by Ching under Events, Games, Zumba.
What do Zumba instructors do when they get together on a Saturday night? Well, we WORLD PARTY PARTY of course! LOL. Get your own copy of the game here
P.S. There are a ton of photos so be sure to click on the left and right arrows.
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YMCA Annual Campaign
Posted on January 14, 2014 by Ching under Events, Things to Do.
This is the kind of impact your donation dollars make when you support the YMCA Annual Campaign.
Please help me raise money for the YMCA Annual Campaign by completing the donation form below. The dollars go toward helping strengthen our community. Make a difference in someone’s life today!
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Metro Grill II
Posted on January 11, 2014 by Ching under Food and Drink, Reviews.
I’d been wanting to try Metro Grill II since they opened the restaurant but we hadn’t gotten around to it until recently. Brian and I hadn’t been eating out for one and, secondly, when we do eat out we end up using convenience as a key deciding factor. So we end up eating where we work, play, or are going to be rather than going out of our way for a restaurant. Don’t get me wrong. We have done that, but that’s not what usually happens.
Anyway, we fully intended to make something to eat at home yesterday but the stars just lined up for us to try Metro Grill. When we went to see grandma yesterday at Victoria Falls, we drove by the restaurant. It’s located just North of Kellogg in one of the commercial strips along Andover Road. So that’s where they’re located!
At that very moment it seemed as though a lightbulb materialized out of thin air over my head. “Why don’t we just have dinner there tonight?” I asked Brian. “I’d been wanting to try it.”
We arrive a little bit before six o’clock and there were no other customers yet. I think we were their first diners of the evening.
Here are some pictures that I took of their dessert display.
Even though the desserts looked fantastic, I was worried at first. “How good can this place be if there’s no one here at dinner service?” I wondered. However, three people showed up as we were mulling over the menu and other groups of diners trickled in as we were waiting for our food and while we were eating. We were just early I guess, but we are a couple of old farts and we prefer to eat dinner before seven. LOL.
By the time we left they actually had a decent dinner crowd. We didn’t linger. We just stayed long enough to eat our meals and then we bounced because we still had to move furniture around for my World Party Party and then we had to head over to the Candle Club to watch The Fabulous Fleshtones perform.
Here are some pictures of our dinner.
Brian had the Cuban, which he said is good but not as good as other Cuban sandwiches he’s had. He said they use dill pickles instead of sweet pickles, which gives the sandwich a slightly different flavor. Another thing that’s different about the Cuban at Metro Grill is the shoestring potatoes that you see sprinkled on top of the sandwich. Those are also inside.
I had the fontina chicken with mushrooms and asparagus. All of that served on top of white rice. I’m a rice eater (lover?) so that helped me decide what to have for dinner. They have a wide selection of menu items and when I checked FourSquare for recommendations it seemed like everything was good. If it weren’t for rice, I’d probably still be trying to decide what to have. LOL.
The flavors were delicious but the presentation of this dish was a little lacking. Everything seemed like it was just piled on top of one another. The plate they used to serve the dish is also quite small. After the pile of food and the bread on the side there’s barely any room to maneuver. I would recommend serving this dish on a bigger plate. I would probably leave the bread off too because I usually eat bread or I eat rice. It’s either or and not both. For me, anyways. Other people probably feel differently and it’s good to have options, I guess.
I’d been craving fruit salad since I ate the last of what was left of mom’s fruit salad so I ordered their fruit salad for dessert. It was good but it just seemed like a bunch of fruit mixed together. And, again, the presentation was blah. There really isn’t much there. With the beautiful desserts that were on display, I really hoped that this would come out prettier. You can’t even see the coconut shreds, which they put at the bottom of the bowl. I would have sprinkled that on top of the fruit salad.
I’m not sure how much thought went into deciding what fruits to use but, even though it looked like a bunch of fruit mixed together with no rhyme or reason, they were able to create a good cornucopia of flavors in my mouth. I specially liked that it had bits of mango. I mean, who doesn’t like mango?
Despite my critique of the presentation, I did eat every bit of the fruit salad. Brian didn’t want anything to do with it, and I thought it tasted good. I still prefer my mom’s fruit salad though.
The verdict? Metro Grill II is not bad. Definitely worth checking out if you’ve never been. I have mixed feelings about the value, though. I thought my dinner was priced appropriately, but I thought Brian’s sandwich was on the expensive side because it didn’t even come with any kind of side dish. They could have put a few leaves next to it to increase the perceived value. Brian probably wouldn’t have eaten it, but it would have appeared more complete.
The quality of the food you get for the price is decent, but the place isn’t exactly a “cheap” place to eat dinner. It’s kind of in between fast food and nice. So perfect if you want somewhere casual to eat but want something better than fast food.
Oh, and one last thing, though I’m not even sure if it’s worth mentioning because it’s kind of a given for any restaurant with an open kitchen. Don’t be surprised if you smell like your dinner when you leave.
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