thanks for nothing CSP

today something happened for the first time in a long time: i ate lunch alone. when i first started working i often ate by myself. i didnt mind it at all, and would usually pick up a newspaper. from time to time i would meet a friend who worked downtown, but i didnt worry about it too much. then morgan moved to baltimore and got a job down the street and since then we have eaten together most days. also since then eric started working here, as did ben and bingo. so it is rare these days for me to eat lunch alone. but dont think that this is a cry for sympathy, because i am not complaining. rolling solo i had unlimited options for lunch today, and the world was my oyster (i will be perfectly honest i dont not know what that means and cant think of a possible meaning or origin, but i think i used it properly.)

after much contemplation, i settled for cafe saint paul (CSP). it is kind of boring since it is actually in the lobby of my building, but it has been there for almost 2 years and i hadn't been.

when i entered i was optimistic; the place was bumping. there were 3 or 4 people waiting for their sandwiches and another 3 people in line about to place an order. i got in line and scoped out the menu. i breezed down the menu and wasnt sure what i wanted. then i saw the 'specials' board. this was the daily features, although i think all of the things listed on this list were actually listed elsewhere on the menu. aka they werent actually specials. anyways, i get to the third option on this board: cajun chicken wrap. bingo! no need to worry abotu that anymore, so imy eyes make their way over to the chip stand. baked lays with cheddar and sour cream... combine this with a natucket nectars half and half (more appropriately known as the arnold palmer) and it sounds like a delicious lunch. i order my food and slide to the left, heading towards the register. while waiting, i notice the cajun chicken on the menu. the last 3 words in the description caught my eye: spicy honest mustard. i enjoy h mustard, but i dont like mustard very much. also spicy mustard does not bring me pleasure. fearing the H in the h mustard would be too spicy, i quickly place a request to the sandwich artist asking for her to refrain from applying said condiment on my wrap. she smiles :-)

by this point the pleasure i am already getting is great. it is then i start brainstorming a mental list of websites that i am going to read while eating my wrap at my desk. i pay and head back towards the elevators. i see a bunch of annoying looking old guys entering the third elevator, so i intentionally slow my stride to not make it into their elevator (i am not even sure if they would have waited anyways) when the first elevator door opens and my personal express elevator awaits me.

during the walk to my desk i experience scamperitis. for those who don't know, in this phenomenon, a certain feeling that you have grows inversely proportional to the square of the distance between yourself and the source of this feeling. the most common occurance (from which the name is derived) is when you are headed for the bathroom. you could be 10 miles from your bathroom, and the feeling is one of relief. at 10 miles, you want to be at the bathroom, but it is not a big deal. at 1 mile, the feeling is 100 times strong than it was at 10 miles, but it is still tolerable. as you can see, the feeling grows faster and faster, based only on your location. then inside of a tenth of a mile you start moving your body in an unnatural way to avoid disaster. whether you like it or not, you begin to scamper.

anyways, i am filled with excitement to eat my lunch until the time i open it. dagger. it turns out that cajun chicken wrap is apparently freezing cold chicken salad, in a wrap, sprinkled with cajun spices. i am so let down. i dont like chicken salad (or egg salad, or tuna salad, etc.) i was expecting warm grilled chicken. i give it a shot anyways, and manage to get half of it down. it isnt all together terrible it is just not what i ordered. i google cajun chicken wrap and verify that i am not being unreasonable by expecting my sandwich to not have chicken salad based only on the name. my lunch went from awesome to not awesome so quickly. and i will not be eating at CSP again... atleast i got a blog entry out of it.

and i am thinking that the blame might be on me. its likely that the description says something about chicken salad. but i am certain the 'specials' sign did not... oh well. if you want my advice, if you are in the sandwich industry and are serving a cajun chicken wrap, dont use chicken salad. and if you are using chicken salad for any item, include the name 'salad' somewhere.

Serious Sirius

I recently got Sirius radio and felt obligated to post my thoughts on this product. Quite simply, it is awesome. I spend a fair amount of time in the car and I really enjoy having so many listening options. I would guess that in the last 2 weeks while listening to it (at least 14 hours probably more), I have listened to only about 5 or so complete songs. I am unable to stick with one song because I know on another station there is another great song, and I need to know what that song is. Journey, PC, Michael Jackson, Wham, etc. are never more than a scroll button away. I think Its almost like I have a personal assistant who has the soul task of thinking of random songs. The satisfaction is similar to playing the baseball player name game, needing a name that starts with L and coming up with Lee Tunnell...

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Updated

After posting that link I got really excited and found some other great links:

This guy may be related to a regular reader.
This guy was one of my favorite players in the 80s.
This and this are two of the few 80's players I don't remember.
Who hasn't heard of this guy?

My new free toy...

A while back I was invited to join Man Beard Blog. I hadnt yet posted, as contract negotiations were taking longer than expected, when MBB received an email from a public relations firm looking to get a review for a beard related product. Two days later I had a brand new razor in hand and was anxious to write my first entry for MBB. Below is my post from MBB, its another long one!

[since this is my first post on MBB i copied it below. in the future i dont intend to post the same material in both locations so be sure to check out MBB from time to time...]

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Due to the overwhelming popularity of Man Beard Blog, we were recently asked to review the new Philips Norelco Bodygroom and share our opinions with our readers. As an experienced manscaper and self proclaimed body hair expert, I was anxious to receive the electronic device and begin testing.

I did not have to wait long, as less than 48 hours later I had the ergonomically designed electric razor in hand and was ready to put it to the test.

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the package, pushed the button and the razor turned on. Less than 30 seconds and I went from holding a FedEx overnight box to eliminating unwanted body hair. It is nice when rechargable electronics come charged. There is nothing worse than getting a present that you really wanted only to find out you have to charge it for 8 hours to use the thing. Not the Bodygroom, the folks at Norelco are better than that.

The cordless trimmer comes with 3 attachments, and from my previous clipping experience I knew that these were intended to control the length to which the follicle was cut. Feeling crazy, I first snapped on the "2" piece and raised my right arm. This is where things got hairy. Armpit hair, especially that has been in a long sleeve shirt under a lowered arm all day, tends to be less coarse than hair on other parts of the body. This was immediately giving me trouble with the razor. It seemed to be combing my armpit hair more than cutting it. The actual cutting blades are not large, and are hidden deep under the attachment. So I felt like each swipe of the Bodygroom was removing only the first few hairs it confronted. Then those hairs were clogging the cutting area and preventing the other hairs from entering the cutting zone. I thought that if I switched to the shorter “1” attachment that the problem would be reduced. It wasn’t, as I was still struggling to cut the hair. I will say that I have had this trouble with underarm hair before. I have a three other devices and have had the same problem with all three. So it is possible that it’s not the cutting instrument, it’s me. Needless to say, when I removed the clip and went with the zero I was more successful in removing the hair from under my arm. Then I realized that at no point did I ever intend to remove all the hair from under my arm. Ouch. Not good so far, Bodygroom. On to my chest hair…

Luckily for the BodyG I don’t have much hair on my chest nor do I want any. Since the clips were already removed, using the BG to remove all the hairs was simple. One of the best features is that it has a cutting edge on both sides. This feature is nullified when using an attachment. However, on level zero the user is able to cut hair on both strokes for an increased rate of hair removal. This took much less time than cutting in the first zone mentioned.

The last area that I attempted to trim was my groin area. PS I have never refered to or heard anyone refer to pubic hair as groin area hair. I honestly felt like this is what the BG was made to do. I found that the hair in this location had a different texture that allowed it to be cut much more efficiently with the design of the Bod-G. I started with the level 3 attachment and noticed that the hair was not being clogged as in area 1. In fact it was just the opposite, I felt like Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands. It was only a matter of minutes before I moved down to level 2 and re-cut.

It was in region 3 that I really appreciated the shape of the product. Historically, I have issues due to my angle of attack and relative location of the hair to my hands. I had no trouble positioning the cutting machine and I was hacking away. I feel like I was able to remove hair that I was previously unable to reach. I was also able to put the razor in areas that I normally would not place a cutting device. This is because of the position of the cutting blades relative to the attachments. I did not feel like I was at risk for cutting myself. To explain more clearly, all forms of clippers involve some sort of blade. In most cases, this means two teeth shaped metal blades on top of one another. When the blades vibrate or move, the hairs in between the teeth are cut by the teeth of the other blade. This works well to cut hair, however, it also cuts anything that enters between the two blades. Region 3 is an area that is not as smooth as your back and the tension in your skin isn’t always as consistent. Without getting into too much detail, I have injured myself before and am always very careful to make sure it doesn’t happen again. With the BG it was not a concern. I would be foolish to say it couldn’t happen, but with the design I don’t think I came close to cutting myself.

I performed all of this hair removal in the shower to contain the hairs. One of the worst things about removing body hair is my inability to control where it goes after removal. There are very few things as gross as finding tiny hair pieces all over the bathroom for days. Like grabbing your retainer on your way to bed and finding tiny pieces of dark hair. This is when you try not to think about what region it is from, until you taste what you think is Gold Bond and can no longer fall asleep.

Anyways, in the shower I was able to contain and then vacuum (because I never turned on the water) all of the hairs. The box says that the B-Gro can be used wet or dry, so during future body maintenance I may try using it while showering. I just wouldn’t recommend it if you are going to be removing a decent amount of hair or else your drain will probably get clogged.

After I stepped out of the shower I removed the cutting blade (I think it is supposed to be easily removable, otherwise I broke it already…) and cleanup was a breeze. It was just then that I noticed there was a mesh screen between the two blades. I own an electric razor (although I don’t use it much either) and I know the foil on the top of the BG was for removing very short pieces of hair. I concluded that this hypoallergenic foil was to complete the hair removal process, if you were looking for complete hair removal. Since I am not filming any adult movies anytime soon, I had no desire to use this feature anywhere on my body… except my face. Without thinking I turned the BG back on and began rubbing the razor all over my face. Having just shaved with a normal razor this morning I had very little hair to cut. However, what little stubble that I had was removed by the BG. Next time I should go from face to the rest of my body, as opposed to from region 3 to my face. That was entirely my fault though.

After I finished shaving, I reviewed the packaging and the website and I noticed that this product is not advertised as a facial razor. That reinforced my thoughts, that it cut shorter and more coarse hair more effectively. While it was able to cut facial hairs, that is not what it is born to do. vI felt that it performed best in region 3. This is probably not a surprise to the creators of the project, but I could see how they may have trouble pitching a male private part razor.

Overall, I would give the Bodygroom a thumbs up. I found that it outperformed all of the other products I have used for the same purpose, removing hair from the groin region. Further, it was very easy and fun to use, without compromising performance or safety. I think it would make a good present for any boyfriend or brother, in particular if they are between the ages of 18 and 40 and are troubled with unwanted hair in their most personal regions.

If you are interested, you can purchase on here.

A special thanks to Melanie for providing Man Beard Blog the opportunity to review this new product!

Gmail is awesome

Update: Here is the newest web clip.

Celebrity Fantasy Leagues - TabloidFantasyLeague.com - Draft Your Celebrity Team Today. If they are in the Tabloids You win

I read about this idea on Page 2 when Bill Simmons wrote about it. Then on vacation in Jamaica we had a mock fantasy draft (and I think B Spears was my second round pick...)

Would anyone want to be in my league if i started one, assuming it was free?

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I have been using gmail for a few years and have been very happy. One thing that is unique about it is the advertisements that it places in the banner on the page are supposed to be related to your email content. Another feature is a 'web clip' that is near the top of the page. You can somewhat control the content.

Anyways, the point of this rant is the web clip that I just read while checking my email. It said the following:

Man Powder vs Baby Powder - www.Man-Powder.com - Men. Sprinkle it on your balls. Put an end to your sweaty nuts.

I sort of wanted to click on it.

If you want nice game...

When I was young I would wash my hair at the end of my shower. About the time I was entering college, I started washing my hair first. I think there were two main reasons for this switch. The first was because of gravity. Any dirt particles that were released from my scalp would mix with the water and fall down along my body. In a sense I was washing my body and then dripping dirty water over my clean body. I am not trying to say that I have a lot of dirt in my hair or that this was ever really a problem that I had. It was just preventative maintenance. It is worth noting that about the time I made the switch I sported a very short haircut. Washing my hair was merely a formality at that point in time. The second reason that I modified my self bathing procedure was because of my desire to let the product more fully do it's job. Most of the time my showers are very brief, but from time to time I mix in longer spa-style shower. On these occasions I want the cleansing agents in the shampoo (or conditioner) to have time to wash and condition. Again, at the time my lack of hair didnt really need any additional time. But I was aware that this was a potential benefit for the future.

Years later I still wash my hair first when I get into the shower.

Morgan is pretty much responsible for selecting which products I use to wash and condition my hair. Well the products that I am currently using are so much of a treat that I wanted to post about it. Almost every morning while lathering up I think to myself how great these products really are. Both my shampoo and conditioner are from the same line, Herbal Essences. When I write that line, I think of those old commercials with the hot girls moaning in the shower. I also remember the flower like bottles that I have used many times. Well this new line is different, from looking at the website it appears they have many new types. I have no idea why this typein the blue bottle was purchased, but it is quite impressive. Sporting more than a pleasant (yet not overly strong and womenly) scent, this stuff leaves your hair feeling great.

Perhaps this post is a bit metro, but I just wanted to extend a recommendation to all my manscaping readers.

dunkin donuts review

i want to take a second to provide an evaluation of a product that has a catchy jingle. lunch is over... dinner seems so very far away [i might have gotten it wrong, it doesnt matter.] anyways, based on that song, and my love for blended fruit beverages , i strolled into DD after lunch a few weeks ago. it is less than a block away right outside my building. and i have always been satisfied with all of the other food choices i have had at DD so i figured why not. big mistake.

my favorite part of smoothies is the fruit combined with the blended ice. it can be a healthy refreshing delicious treat. i must confess that while smoothies are my favorite, i also very much enjoy Icee's and have been know to sip on other forms of slurpies aswell. so anyways, at double D they have three flavor options. i dont recall them exactly, but i think it was something like strawberry banana, berry, and mango. i might have made those up, but it doesnt matter. i order the strawberry banana (aka the jamaican jammer) and because it was 100 degrees outside and i was especially thirsty, i went nuts and ordered a large.

i didnt actually ask for a large. the lady taking my order mumbled something after i indicated my choice of flavor to which she responded with a mumble. i couldnt really tell what she was asking but i confess i did say yes and my guess was that she probably asked if i wanted a large. so i get a large. you'd of thought i was at seven11 because i got a gigaGulp. i see the lady grab the keg looking container and haul it towards the back of the store. she does that and scoops some red looking syrup stuff into my barrel. it looked like the fruit toppings you can get at TCBY [which i love]. but it is far from real fruit. it is actual fruit pieces but drenched in a really sweet thick juice. its good in a parfait, but not as the basis for a smoothie. so after the lady has placed this stuff into the cup, she moves right and places my treat under the ice cream machine. turns out its actually yogurt, but you get the point. now the fun part. she blends it. what?

she brings me my smoothie and i taste it. just as i thought, it tastes like what i imagine a gogurt or other kids flavored yogurt would taste like. its sweet, but almost burns your throat when you eat it because of that tangy fake fruit flavor. and there very little evidence of actual fruit pieces. and the top half of it is all runny and the bottom half is like a melted milkshake made with frozen yogurt and sans milk. and i have 63.5 more ounces to go. oh, and it was like $5.00.

i cant say it was the worst thing i have ever had, but given my expectations it was quite disappointing. i was so motivated i actually wrote DD an email and they told me they would send me a refund in the form of gift certificates. i was happy with this solution. i enjoy DD and will go back, i will just be sure not to get another smoothie. i guess i was wrong to assume that all smoothies have ice.

i could not think of anything to write about, then while watching teh redsox game i saw a DD ad and i thought i would write about my smoothie experience. it didnt turn out nearly as well as i had hoped. i waited almost a week to post and then wrote this. [gulp]

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I read today in the Washington Post that DD plans to add 325 stores in Washington and Baltimore. I think this is a good idea, as I myself am a little tired of seeing Starbucks dominate. I have seen a few Caribbou' s pop up and have heard good things. I can't provide much of a product comparison because I have only tasted coffee once. I have had chai latte's on multiple occasions but i wouldnt notice a difference from one place to the other. As a non-coffee drinker, i am excited for more DD's because I really enjoy their breakfast choices.

I am sure you have heard others echo my complaint about Starbucks. And that is the stupid names for the sizes. Grande (which means big i am pretty sure) is their code word for small. then tall is medium. I forgot what large is but its super annoying. what is the point in changing the names. multiple times i have been in there and ordered something and said small, medium, or large and i was corrected. it went something like this:

Me: can i get a medium chai latte?
Them: you mean a tall?
Me: is that medium?
Them: no its tall
Me: what does tall mean? i dont want something super tall. I dont want the smallest option and I dont want the biggest. i want the medium size.
Them: we have grande, tall and [insert frustrating name that i cant recall here].
Me: is grande the biggest or smallest?
Them: its shorter than tall and less grande than [annoying name]
Me: so grande, which means big, is the smallest?
Them: well its grande.

Why is it cool to take three sizes of the same thing and give them independant names? i thought names for sizes should reflect their relative size towards each other. i feel like maybe when starbucks made those sizes they didnt know they would own the entire country a few years later. i feel like perhaps they made the sizes to have some character. then they got popular but had to stick with it. plus anyone who likes coffee doesnt seem to mind, its like they want to be part of the cool people. then you have haters like me think its totally pointless. additionally, they are losing potential customers. not only do i think its meaningless and frustrating, it makes me not want to order beverages from them for fear of embaressment and also of having the same conversation that i described above.

I need to check out DD's drink menu one of these days to make sure they didnt fall into the coffee size lingo trap. I will be pissed if they start calling their 3 sizes gigantic, voluminous, and astronomical. Although, having consumed the worlds largest [not that] smoothie I think those names might be appropriate.

really good or really bad?

I just viewed this commercial on tv.

Make sure you have the volume turned up. This is the real commercial. That is the entire thing. I didnt think it was real, then i saw it again. I think its horrible, yet at the same time I am talking about it and I remember it, so maybe it was actually a good commercial... its certainly annoying and unlike anything i have seen.

bootie new starbursts

yesterday on my way back into work from lunch, i stopped CVS to pick up some candy and a drink. i opted for a delicious propel berry beverage and some starburts. well, regarding my refreshing drink, i was not disappointed. i also punished the first pack of starbursts no problem. the thing is the s-bursts were on sale like 2 for $0.99 or something like that so i bought two. but it was a trick. apparently in the yellow box of fruit chews they snuck in some imposter normal style starbursts. everyone knows starbursts are in a yellow wrapper. if you want california flavors or tropical or berry or whatever, you get the starbursts with the other color wrapper. i saw this alternative choice, and while i considered it momentarily, i decided that i would most enjoy chewing on the standard flavors so i grabbed two yellow packs. as i have already noted, i dominated the first pack right when i got back to work. the second package i waited until this morning at work to open. well to my surprise the second pack is this icy bursts variety. far from your standard cotton panty, that is something i dont even know about. icy burst? what does that even mean? so i try it out, being that it is too late to return it and i have very few other options. it starts off well, as my first flavor is strawberry. ok, this isnt much different. as a matter of fact pink is one of my favorite normal style startburst flavors. then i get to the second piece, and it takes horrible. its like they took something good and added something that was totally unnecessary and made it way worse. dont you hate when they try and save the world by doing this. i do.

bitter, i scanned the packaging. i am mad they would make a product so different than original that looks so similiar. then i notice somethign else. i am not the most healthy eater, but i am always curious about the nutritional information on things that i eat. then i see these icy bursts and i notice that they somethign like 4.5 grams of saturated fat. this seems like tons for a pack of fruity candy. i eat enough nerds, spree, sweet tarts, etc. to know that they dont generally have saturated fat. but now i cant recall if normal starbursts have this much fat. turns out they dont, i was right. here is a comparison:

normal style

icy bursts

so thats just dandy starbursts... you took a great candy, added a bunch of saturated fat and were left with a product that tasted horrible. what a great idea!

so now you have been warned, not all starbursts in yellow wrappers are the same. and watch out, some tricky stores will mix in a few of the gross icy ones to try to get rid of them to unsuspecting starburst consumers like myself.