The Italian Challenge!!

The Italian Challenge...oh and what a challenge it was!

So, who here watches Man vs Food?  Okay, so if you don't watch the show, or you've never heard of it, it's about this guy, Adam, who travels around the world and competes in food challenges.  An example would be, eat this five pound steak in one hour, and it's free.  That sort of thing.  The show is pretty awesome and funny and gross.  haha. 

So, one day Adam travels to Niagara Falls, Canada.  ....Hey!  I work in Niagara Falls, Canada! 

He goes to Mick and Angelo's.  ....Hey!  I go there all the time!

And he competes in the Italian Challenge.  ...What?!? I've never heard of it.

So, he competes in the challenge and the food won.  He couldn't do it.  His picture gets put up on the Wall of Shame - the wall leading into the washroom area.

So, what do I do?  I ask my brother, Charlie, if he wants to do the Italian Challenge.  His answer... "Uhhhh....YES!"

The Sloan boys vs Food.  Round One.  It's ON!!!

....the food won.

And boy did it ever.  Who were we kidding?  There was enough food to feed a hungry family.  What exactly did we have to eat in the 1.5 hour time frame?  I'll tell you what:

-Soup of the day
-Loaf of garlic bread...LOAF of garlic bread
-Lasagna (the biggest piece of lasagna I've ever seen!)
-Spaghetti
-Meatballs (3 giant ones)
-Manicotti (3 of them)
-Cannelloni (3 of them)
-Chicken Parmigiana (2 big pieces)
-Italian Sausages (at least 6 or 7 of them)
-AND...and piece of cheesecake

Total weight of food...SEVEN pounds!  And that list is what EACH of us had to eat.  No sharing in this challenge!!  OMG...I'm a little embarrassed to say that we tried.  haha.  At least we can say we didn't finish.

Anyway, next time you're at Mick and Angelo's and you need to head to the can, look to your left and you'll see pictures of Adam, Charlie, and yours truly - moi. 

It's a bit late...

But...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I hope everyone had an amazing holiday! 

As most of you know, my family received some bad news recently (on the 23rd actually).  My uncle Rob has been diagnosed with cancer.  Yes...that scary "C" word.  He's in his mid thirties, not much older than myself.  This past Christmas, as we sat around the table next to the tree, it was a little different than years past.  It's easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of food and presents, and sometimes we lose touch of what truly makes Christmas special - the time you get to spend with your family.  This year, all that "other stuff" was an after thought.  This year, we were together - as family.  We were there for each other and although it wasn't the happiest of days, it was truly special.

My uncle has less than a year to live.  We received the bomb today (on the 30th).

On Christmas, we were filled with hopes and prayers...and then today happened.  Will the hoping and praying stop?  Never. 

If I had one wish, I would wish that everyone would go to the ones they love and give them a big hug and tell them how much they mean to them.  Because you never know when the bomb will come...

Anyway, this blog kind of changed wind pretty quickly.  I do hope everyone had a awesome Christmas and that everyone did get a couple nice things, ate some pretty delicious food, and got to spend time with someone they love.

Ciao babies!  xo

You HAVE to try this!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/tippexperience

My favourite website of the day.  It's so funny!! 

Some of my favs are:


-farts
-hugs
-dances with
-kisses
-has sex with
-pisses
-eats
-moonwalks with
-fights
-cooks

I'll keep you posted if I find more that make me LOL.

Happy NCCED!!

It's December 16th, and that means it's NCCED!!  What does that mean?  Take a guess...Okay...if you don't know, you'll never guess it...

It's National Chocolate Covered Everything Day!

What are you going to indulge in?  I, personally, enjoyed some chocolate dipped cookies.  My chocolate covered **** is free for the taking.  What?!  My chocolate covered strawberries is what I meant to say.  I bought too many at the grocery store.

You're sick.

CopShop 2010

Today was a great day!  Why?  Well, I'll tell you why.  I participated in CopShop.  So, what's CopShop, you ask?  It's a bunch of police officer volunteers that get to go shopping with underprivileged kids from the community.  Here's how my day went:

It starts off with the kids arriving to the mall by limo bus.  Once they meet their police officer buddy for the day, they're treated to a pizza party lunch from Boston Pizza.  My little guy had four pieces!!  And he was a pretty small kid!  haha...He told me that pizza was his favourite food.  Awesome...we have something in common.  He also got a can of Coke that looked WAY too big for him.  haha.  All I could think of was, "Fuller, go easy on the Pepsi."  (Anyone?...Anyone?...okay it was a reference from Home Alone).

After lunch, they were able to get a photo with Santa and their police buddy.  I can just imagine the face I'm making...I'm pretty sure I blinked...haha.  So, after you get your photo taken, you're free to shop around the entire mall.  Each kid is given a $200 gift card to buy whatever they want!  Talk about every kid's dream come true!!

My new friend had a list of toys he wanted.  He also wanted some nice clothes and some gifts for his family.  Thank you Zellers and Old Navy for their awesome sales!  We were able to cross everything off that he wanted!  It was so awesome.  His giftcard was down to less than a dollar once we were finished.  Talk about great shopping while on a budget!!  A lot of the stores were giving us an extra discount which was really nice.  One jewelry store even gave every kid who walked in, a beautiful necklace with a pendant on it.  It was all wrapped up and everything.  Gift for mom, check!

Anyway, once the little shoppers are finished, they meet up for some snacks, and the final goodbyes.  All their parcels were to be delivered to their homes, later that evening. 

It was truly a great day.  Seeing the children's faces light up, is the best Christmas gift anyone could ever get.  After seeing the other kids around me, I couldn't help but smile.  One kid always wanted a bike, so with his giftcard, he was able to get one.  Another girl had always wanted to get her nails done, and once we were all together again, she couldn't stop showing them off.  

Some of these kids have it pretty rough at home.  Knowing that I was part of this very special day for them, is the most rewarding thing I've done in quite some time.  It's easy to get wrapped up in all the Christmas hustle and often we forget how lucky we are.  I hope and pray that everyone of those kids makes it through and is able to remember today and how much fun they had.

It was also quite refreshing to see how many groups came together to make this day possible. 

Now, back to my paperwork...  ;)  Happy Wednesday!  

Dilemma Part Deux

Okay...so I usually forget something when I go to the gym.  Usually it's a water bottle or headphones, or something simple like that.  A few days ago, as you all read, it was my shower sandals.

So what did I forget today?

Clean underwear.  So, here's the dilemma, after my shower, do I wear my sweaty underwear under my clean clothes?  Or do I go commando?

Well...nothing says comfort like an unfurnished basement.

Ahhh...Sh*t!

I came home from the gym and I went to the trunk of my car, and I was horrified to discover that a case of Coke Zero had exploded EVERYWHERE in the back of my car.  Damn cold weather!

I said a few choice words and then thought to myself, "this looks like a problem for tomorrow."

haha..perfect.

It's official!

My ticket to Vietnam is booked!

I'm heading back!!  This time I'll be kicking ass and taking names.  Okay...probably not...but I'm still SUPER excited to head back!  The people, the shopping, my friends, the SOUP!!  I CANNOT WAIT!!

See ya in a couple months, NAM!!

Dilemma

So, I've started working out at the gym again...the gym I used to work at.  Anyway, the other day I got myself in a little pickle. 

I go to the gym and I have a great workout.  I exhausted and covered with sweat and I head into the locker room.  I grab my towel and soap from my gym bag and then the horror hits me like a ton of bricks....

I forgot my shower sandals!!!

So...this is that pickle I was talking about. 

What do I do?  Do I take a shower barefoot?  If you've seen a men's locker room...ew.   Or, do I put on my nice warm, dry clothes and head out into the blizzard?  Let me remind you, I'm covered in buckets of sweat.  Again...ew.  This is quite the dilemma.

What did I end up doing?  Wouldn't you like to know...

Well...I'll tell you what I did.  I took a shower...BAREFOOT!  My feet itched for two days.  ew.

Cure the winter blues

I went to the grocery store, cart in hand.  I walked up and down every aisle.  I looked for all the things I could find that were on sale, or a good price (in my mind).  I grabbed noodles, and rice, and granola bars, and cookies, etc etc.  When I went to the cashier, the total wasn't very much.  To my surprise, I actually had enough cash in my wallet.  As I left the store, I gave all the food, that I had just bought, to a man collecting food for the food bank.

It felt GREAT!

The man was overjoyed.  What didn't seem like a lot, is quite the opposite to someone in need.  The money I had in my wallet - my Tim Horton's money - was enough to buy bags of food for some of the less fortunate families, here in town.  I give up my coffee and sandwiches for a week, and a family gets to eat.  Period.  Sometimes a little goes a long way. 

...and boy does it ever feel good to give. 

You should try it.  :)

Bah Humbug!

Today is the annual Ugly Christmas Sweater pubcrawl.

And I have to work. 

I could cry.

My outfit was going to be awesome.

Bah Humbug.  I quit!

Time to Embrace Winter!!

I often find myself complaining about winter.  And let's be honest, winter has hardly begun.  Although, I hate the winter roads, I hate brushing my windows off, I hate the cold, the list goes on....

it's time to

EMBRACE WINTER!!!

We live in CANADA and we should love winter!!  On the weekend, I went skating for the first time since grade four.  I thought I was going to fall on my rear end...I didn't!  I actually had a lot of fun!  I hope to try ice hockey this winter for the first time (eek).  Some friends and I are already starting to plan a weekend trip up to Blue Mountain for some awesome skiing and boarding.  I want to snowshoe and x-country ski to keep fit.  I have a lot of winter plans in my mind.  If I'm able to accomplish half of them, then I'm bound to have an amazing winter.  Here's to winter, and here's to a lot of fun!

When did Canadian television become so good?

So, today I turned on my tv and it was on CBC.  No big surprise there.  I find myself watching more and more Canadian television.  In fact, the channel rarely changes.  I loved Corner Gas when it was on.  I've become a big fan of Little Mosque on the Prairie.  Dan For Mayor was pretty good.  And now my "new" favourite show, Men With Brooms. 

I don't know why I love these shows so much?  I think it's because the characters remind me a little of myself.  For instance, I think I could move to Dog River, Saskatchewan tomorrow, and fit right in. 

Now last night was a special treat.  It was a double episode of Men With Brooms, and then the "Christmas Special" of Little Mosque On the Prairie (Oh the irony...lol). 

So, Men with Brooms...there are three friends who curl together.  They need a fourth player to make a full team.  Where do they find this fourth player?  At a donut shop.  They see the worker sweeping up a mess and *magic*.  He's the fourth player.  Anyway, this fourth player is accused of being a chronic hobby jumper.  He goes from volleyball to fencing to knitting (lol) to curling to bowling.  Anyway, he reminded me of myself.  I am TOTALLY a chronic hobby jumper!

Now let's see...what have I done this year...geocaching, cross country skiing, downhill skiing, photography, drawing, swimming, running, cooking, squash, the list goes on!!  It's a bad habit...I know!  I love doing things for a month or so, then BAM!  I switch and try something else.  And it's not like I stop enjoying the activity, it's just that something else catches my interest.

Anyway, I reinstated my gym membership today.  hahaha.  Hopefully this hobby sticks around for a while.  I still need to lose my Christmas fat from last year...and probably the year before.

As for Canadian comedies...KEEP THEM COMING!!