Birthday Addendum
So I got home from the office last night and had a kick ass round of Battlefield 1943 while I waited for Kate to arrive. She got home just as I was finishing with the highest score of the round. Stoked.
I got my gift, which was Beatles Rock Band (awesome!), and then we went out to dinner. After dinner, it was a viewing of Avatar, which is flat-out the most visually stunning, well-realized alien world/culture I've ever seen on the big screen. Walked out of the theater completely floored at the quality of the movie.
All in all, an excellent evening.
Weekend, Food, Etc.
Well, I was all gung-ho about racing 'cross this weekend, but that's off the calendar. I was going to race Saturday, but that's all the way up in Fargo. Too damn far to drive for a single race. I'll settle for hammering a couple of hot laps in a local park and doing some mount/dismount practice.
Some cookin' is on the agenda for the weekend. Since Sunday is the Vikes-49ers game, I will probably get up and take a stab at a pierogie pizza. The whole concept is something I cannot ignore and sounds like it would be a good game-time food.
Also have a chimmichurri recipe that I'm dying to try -- we discovered the Agentinean green sauce while we were in Vegas, and fell in love with it.
In other news, we've had to move our wedding date because our locale and the associated hotel rooms are inundated by the Bayside Blues Festival. Dammit. Now I gotta wait another two weeks to marry Kate. Ah well. She's definitely worth the wait.
I am sleepy. Work is too long today. I want a beer. And a nap.
The New Diet
So far, so good.
Operation: No More Crisco Arteries is underway. I've got the heart-healthy multivitamins from GNC, plus a CoQ-10 supplement. And I've got Udo's Oil that I'm mixing in with my meals. I saw greasy/fried food today, and it actually repulsed me. Wow. Not sure how I'm going to make it through the MN State Fair this year.
The other big thing underway is a logging of my soda intake, so I can figure out what the baseline is, and reduce from there. I know it ain't good, but I gotta get this shit under control. Going to reduce the number of ounces by 15% each week.
Review: Clif Shot Bloks

The number of energy foods on the market seems to have been exploding the last few years -- ingredients are cheap, marketing's easy, and the science doesn't need to be rigorous, so it's easy to bring your own brand to market. All you need is a gimmick! And that's either change the ingredients, or change the format.
In the case of Clif Shot Bloks, we're looking at a change in format. Where you previously had gels, bars, and beans (yes, jellybeans), you now have "bloks" -- what amounts to a square gummi bear, laden with flavor. The ingredients haven't changed significantly from other energy foods and don't seem to have some goofy "magic ratio" of carbs-to-protein, meaning that Shot Bloks work the same as any other energy food that relies upon the basic understanding that complex carbs are good.
So the Shot Bloks work. But what do they taste like? I snagged the six flavors we had in-stock at the bike shop. One packet of each, with the intent of testing them more for flavor than anything else. On my way home, I decided to double my data points and incorporate my girlfriend in the process.
The Testers
Dan (me!) -- has been riding bikes seriously for over two decades. Well-versed in energy foods and their usage, flavor, and reputation.
Kate -- not an athlete. May never have eaten a Powerbar. I don't know. I can't imagine a non-athlete submitting themselves to such an indignity.
The Process
On Monday night, while watching TV, we nibbled at each of the cubes, analyzing strictly for flavor. We didn't cleanse our palettes between cubes unless a flavor was particularly nasty.
The Flavors
"Cran-Razz"
Kate: Tastes good -- like, uh, something. Not 'cran-razz', though.
Dan: Hello, cough syrup!
Strawberry
Kate: Good. Weird aftertaste. It's got some chemical taste to it.
Dan: Tastes like strawberry with an aftertaste of ass.
Cola
Kate: Bites you. Yuck.
Dan: Tastes like it was stored in the same room as the world's last can of RC Cola. I had high hopes for this -- like the Gummi Coke Bottles. I was saddened.
Orange
Kate: Tastes like orange slices. No chemical aftertaste on this one.
Dan: Reminds me of Pedro's Orange Peelz degreaser. Complete with the vaguely oily residue.
Margarita
Kate: Ahh. *gagging noises* Too much fake salt!
Kate + 20 Seconds: Ugh. Nasty.
Dan: I would only eat these if I had a bottle of tequila to wash them down with. That's not conducive to energy or sports!
Mountain Berry
Kate: Alright, but could be more "mountain berry"...
Dan: Do I have to keep eating these things?
The Favorites
Kate: Cran-Razz
Dan: ANYTHING THAT'S NOT THE MARGARITA FLAVOR.
The Verdict
They work like most energy foods. The gimmick is in the format. Kate will never eat these things again and may never even ride a bike again, based on her experiences in this tangent of the sport. Dan will stick with Clif Bar Harvests and Gu.
Today’s Update: An Update
Update: Don't really expect anything.
Busy enough at the office where I worked through lunch (as usual), and tonight Kate's got her best friend over to watch Grey's Anatomy (a title that I never thought would grace an entry in this blog).
Thus, I am going to sequester myself in the office and play Civilization IV until my eyeballs fall out. It will be like my days of bachelorhood -- except that the Roman numerals in the title of the game are slightly different.
I thought about being bad and getting something crappy to eat on the way home. I've eaten healthy for two days in a row. Seems like it's better to ruin it now, rather than after doing it for two weeks.
















