BAM! the holidays

Over the weekend we played a dice game, BAM!. Not many people have heard of it so I thought I’d share it with you for with the upcoming holidays and forced family time. Its easy to learn and, should you want to play with kids, its also a good addition exercise. (you can also modify the rules to include drinking with each “BAM” if you’re not playing with any kids.)

RULES OF BAM!
Each person puts in $1 in the “pot” to play.
Roll one die – high roll determines first player.
The object of the game is to be the first to 100*. (explain more later)
Each roll in your turn can be added together, and each of your total turn scores can be added together, but here’s some rules:
-if you roll a “1” on either of your dice, your turn is over and your score for that turn is zero.
-if you roll 2 “1”s (ie “snake eyes”) it is BAM! and your turn is over AND your cumulative score is zero AND you owe another $1 to the pot.
-if you roll doubles of anything, you must roll again. (which of course means you have a chance of getting a 1 or getting a BAM! but sometimes is the encouragement needed to keep going)
-Unless you roll doubles, you’re free to stop anytime you want and your score is taken and then added onto your next turn. (unless you get BAM! of course)

Once someone has reached 100 or more points, everyone else gets one turn to see if they can beat them. If someone beats them, then every person gets another turn to see if they can beat the new high score. (including the person who was just out-scored) So, this means you can be the first to 100, and not win, or it could be a battle of the top scorers where each time they outscore the other one and the “finale” keeps going for a few rounds. (of course, there is ALWAYS the chance of a BAM!)

The final winner takes the pot, of course.

Have fun!

Salad Bar Potluck

I know that I should eat more salad. I really should. Even the most fattening salad is still less fattening than the average meal and usually a salad has some nutritional value. But its so much trouble to cut up stuff for a salad. (I mean, to have a good salad you need a decent amount of ingredients, right?) So I might make one salad but then blah….I end up not making another one and the ¾ cucumber and ½ tomato etc goes to waste. So, often if I eat salad I go to the grocery salad bar and end up spending $5 a pound.

Well, I came up with an idea to do with your co-workers….. a salad bar potluck. Everyone who participates brings an item to go on salad… like one person brings chicken, one brings lettuce, another brings cheese, croutons, etc. Everyone brings a community dressing. Then you get together and everybody makes their own salad. We had our first one at work yesterday and it was nice – we had cheese, croutons, chicken, ham, bacon, carrots, peas, with a mix of lettuce / spring greens and baby spinach.

I’ll have to say, it was a lot easier to prepare more of one item than little portions of 7 items so I think it’s a winner - we’re going to do it every other week! Its an easy way to mix in healthy eating with your co-workers; so go ahead, steal the idea. I won't tell.

Blind recap

As you might have noticed, its now November and that measn the Blind Ambition Tour 2 is over. Mr. Lush and I are somewhat excited that we’re no longer in October and can now know what we’re drinking without having to guess first. It was fun, its just tiring after an entire month. But, for fun, I visited my first and last post during October last year to see how far I’d come. Last year I was just happy to say I was guessing with a reason, but I was still wrong a lot. A lot. The vast majority of the time.
This year….well, I was still wrong a lot, but not nearly as much. I didn’t keep official count, but I feel like I might have been right more often than I was wrong. Now, the caveat is most of the stuff we had was New World and I knew that, so it did eliminate a lot of options. But hey, baby steps. Next year I’ll try to focus more on Old World.
All in all, it was fun and does force you to concentrate on the flavor profiles of varietals and I was able to pick out a few nuances that even helped me guess where its from, so that’s progress, right?

Artsy Australian Riesling

Last week I shopped at the Straubs by my work (home of the beloved Kobe burger). I'm sad to report that the store is closing.....which makes me sad on many levels. However, to soften my sadness, everything was 20% off- including wine. Well, of course I had to pick some up and one was the Leeuwin Estate "Art Series" Riesling from AU. ($17 reg price)

Yes, before you ask, the primary reason I picked it up is for my Artist Series Quest....according to the website...."the "Art Series" represents Leeuwin's most opulent and age-worthy wines. They are identified with paintings commissioned from leading contemporary Australian Artists."


Ok, enough about the label....how's the WINE? Its good, actually. A bit fruity, with a nice round finish with some acid mineral in between, has some nice body. Honestly, it was one of the nicer and more complex Rieslings we've had in a long time. This might be because we often buy cheaper California Riesling to pair with a spicy shrimp pasta that is often on the Lush Dinner Menu, but nontheless it is significantly better than what we've had in quite sometime and reminded me of what good Riesling is like. Good with the pasta, but very enjoyable to drink by itself. If I see it again I'll purchase for sure.

And.....a nice addition to my Artist collection. (I know, when I get them up I'll post a pic)

Remodeling woes and whoa's!

We recently remodeled our (only!!) bathroom. After many many (MANY!)snafus, its pretty much done and I finally downloaded pics. (pro of having an 8gb memory card for your camera - can hold lots of pics, con is that you are in no hurry to download pics- our Europe trip is still on there! )

Anyway, here's some before pics:

Here's some in progress pics:

We decided to keep our tub and get it reglazed. Now, they also had to take the old glaze off - note the blue underneath. Now, please remember that we knew it was going to be reglazed so we were a big sloppy with the mortar and other things, so the "before" looks REALLY bad:

And here's the "after":

Yes, it really IS the same tub. Really. 7 1/2 hours of scraping (and more scraping) and finishing and spraying, it really looked like a brand new tub. Amazing and worth every single penny (yes, we paid someone to do this).

Here's the after pics- its a small bathroom, so its hard to get a good angle:

Trust me, we went from 1985 printed wall paneling and bronze fixtures to a 2009 look with a lot more storage. Dramatic improvement.

So now we have a recently remodeled bathroom and kitchen, and while both look really pretty good, both were really stressful (showering somewhere else other than your house for 2 weeks in a row really sucks, as does having a destruction zone for a house when you're both sick). Mr. Lush and I are not really very handy, so we have to give special thanks to my parents, his parents, and of course Mr. Luce for the quick mudding and custom shelves. (its just going to be light stuff up there, like toilet paper, no worries!)

Here's what we have learned in our remodeling (lessons for the novice):

1) Everything will cost more than what you think. Even with the good deals, the little stuff will add up and it will end up being more than you thought.

2) Everything will take longer than what you think. Really, especially if you're inexperienced and doing ANY of it yourself. Even pros take longer than they quote sometimes.

3) Ok, everything will take a LOT longer than what you think.
4) Read directions and measure. Then read directions and measure again. In a hurry? Reference #2 and #3.

5) Neither one of you is probably as good as you hope you are on anything. Try to capitalize on what you are good at but still take your time on every single thing you do. Hurrying = mistakes, I promise.

6) Recognize that you will be crabby when you slowly realize #1-5. Apologize to each other even if you think you're right; its a good chance you're both stressed out and tired and just want the god damn motherf***ing project to be done. It will be someday and there's no sense breaking up your relationship over it.

I'm not saying we can really do either of these projects again alone, but we have come a long way. At the very least, we've managed to stay together through 2 majorly stressful remodels and that's something......right?