TV Time

We all know that Superbowl Sunday is known for its awesome commercials.  Yes, I am aware there is a football game involved as well, but I today I want to focus on commercials.  I want to commend advertisers on stepping up their game to provide entertaining commercials year round and not just on Superbowl Sunday.  There have been some real laugh-out-loud ones that I dare say may be my favorite commercials of all time.

Allstate's Mayhem Series.  OMG.  Not only do I think Dean Winters is easy on the eyes, but these commercials are downright funny.  My favorite would have to be the one where he plays a raccoon.  "I've already had like four babies" - that line gets me every time. 

E*Trade's Baby Commercials.  I love the commercial where he's put in time out and sarcastically asks the dog for a warning bark. 

Geico's Rhetorical Question ads.  The best one yet I think is the "Do Woodchucks Really Chuck Wood?"  It cracks me up when the old man yells out "hey you wood chucks, stop chucking my wood!"

There are also commercials that just plain creep me out.  Burger King's "Big King" ads, which thank God have been discontinued, seriously gave me nightmares.  The newest ad that creeps me out is Toyota's People Person ad about their Prius.  It contains a bunch of contortionists hanging on to each other awkwardly to make up this huge creepy person.  I just get the heeby-jeebies watching it.

Let's share some laughs.  What are your favorite commercials and are there any you can't stand?

Dear Reuben

I was reading online early this morning and happened across two articles that peaked my interest.  The first was entitled "The One and Only Reason" citing that sauerkraut was the only thing keeping the writer's husband from trying a Reuben sandwich.  The second article was called "5 Lessons Learned from 18 Years of Marriage" (title is self explanatory.)  I've decided to write my own article called "Dear Reuben" to describe how marriage is like that of a Reuben sandwich.  Reuben's made with pumpernickel bread, btw, are my absolute favorite sandwich.

Much like a sandwich, every marriage is in need of a strong foundation.  The perfect foundation for a Reuben sandwich is buttered pumpernickel bread placed butter side down in a frying pan.  The perfect foundation for a marriage varies by couple.  Family values, respect, trust, and honesty are pretty standard "foundation" items. 

Then you add in a bunch of other ingredients that make the sandwich what it's worth.  With a Reuben you add swiss cheese and let it get all melty; this is like the glue of the relationship.  Attraction, love, whatever works for you fits here as the "glue."  Then of course there's the meat and potatoes of the Reuben sandwich which are the sauerkraut and corned beef.  Communication, humor, common interests are the meat and potatoes in a marriage.  These are the things get you through day in and day out.  

And lastly, there's the dressing.  The silver lining.  The icing on the cake.  The romance.  Any proper Reuben sandwich is equipped with either russian dressing or, my personal favorite, thousand island.  When your significant other goes out of their way to do something nice, take you to a dinner or show, or even just help out around the house this can count as the "dressing."  It makes it all worth it, breaks up the monotony and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.  I myself prefer my sandwich to have extra dressing. 

Ketchup

Today's title is a bit of a play on phonetics charades style.  One word, sounds like... you guessed it:  Catch Up.  Get it?  Ketchup = Catch up...

Anywho, this weekend was jam packed full of good things: friends, food, shoes and snowmobiles.  Not necessarily in that order but it sounded better that way.  Friday night the hubby and I had an excellent dinner out at the Reel Seafood Company.  We'd never been before and even without a reservation we had  absolutely no wait.  Unheard of in Albany, NY!  We should have bought a lotto ticket.  We enjoyed some fresh bread, adult beverages, fried calamari, stuffed shrimp and Alaskan Chicken (crab meat in a cheesy white garlic sauce over chicken). Delicious.  A little pricey though, so this will have to be something we do sparingly.

Saturday was the Big East Powersports Show in Syracuse, NY.  We went with friends of ours who share our affinity for snowmobiling.  This event features vendors from across the US who bring a butt-load of product with them at deeply discounted prices.  Deeply discounted must mean "jam packed convention center" in another language so I had to pretend not to be claustrophobic long enough to buy stuff.  I'm a bargain shopper and let me tell you...I was successful.  I got an entire outfit (Jacket and bibs) for $179.  Jackets alone normally retail over $300.  I also found Itasca snowmobile boots for $49.  At one point, though, I was trying on a modular helmet (since my current helmet is a hand-me-down that fogs up terrible) and was bumped from behind causing the face shield to slam down on the bridge of my nose.  I could have cried but I reminded myself this would all be worth it since we were going to Delmonico's for dinner afterward.  Delmonico's features their very own "Delmonico's Steak" which is a 24 ounce center cut seasoned angus rib-eye steak. This of course was the entree I ordered and subsequently ate the other half of for lunch today.

Sunday was a day of shoe shopping with my mom and sisters.  We have an upcoming wedding to look spiffy for, so we headed out to one of the malls closest to my house.  A new store had opened called Shoe Dept. Encore.  This store is like heaven for shoe addicts.  An entire room dedicated to clearance.  A tv and chairs over by the kid section.  Rows and rows of beautifully organized name-brand shoes with bargain prices.  Plenty of space so that you didn't feel overcrowded by other shoppers.  Plus the store was cooler on the temperature side of things, so that made it all that much better to shop there.  I despise shopping in a hot over-crowded store.  It makes me grumpy.  At the Shoe Dept Encore, I was far from grumpy.  I had more shoe selection than I could have asked for.  I probably tried on ten or so shoes that all could have been contenders for my dress.  I ended up with the black shoe pictured.

What did you do this weekend?  How do you feel about crowds?