RAVE: Bolthouse Farms

Yeah, I know I had planned on taking a break, but did you really think I'd be able to stop talking for that long? C'mon now!

What I really want to do is RAVE today about a product that I have recently fallen in love with.

Now let me just say, as a girl who watches what she eats, my fruit juice of choice for the past months has been the Naked brand.

But in the past month I discovered a line of juices and smoothies that far surpass anything I've ever tasted: Bolthouse Farms.

My first experience was with the Green Goodness variety. I was given a taste by a friend who said "don't look at it, just drink it."

Being the adventurous type, I dove right in and LOVED what I tasted - kiwi, apple....pure yumminess. Of course, then I had to look at it. As you'd probably expect by the name, it was green. Almost looked like pureed broccoli. But trust me, it tastes way better.

Since, I've tried a number of their fruit juice varieties and loved them all.

Most recently I was introduced to the Vanilla Chai Tea flavor. It's a perfect treat in the morning, and so good for you.

What can I say, I'm hooked on this brand of juice.

I get mine at Giant Eagle in the refrigerated section near the produce. If you're looking for a healthy brand of fruit juice and smoothies, hands down Bolthouse Farms makes the best around.

Cheers!

-A

Time out

Today I made the executive decision to take a little break from blogging.

Or, at least on this blog. I'll still be over here if you care to join me.

There have been a lot of changes in the recent past that have made my life into a whirlwind of activity. Most of which has left me little time for sleep, let alone blogging.

Here's a quick snippet:

• My travel schedule has ramped up with NYC and Raleigh trips in the near future.
• I lost a close friend in an accident this weekend and have been dealing with the aftermath of emotions among me and my friends.
• I'm skydiving every weekend, at multiple drop zones, planning trips to wind tunnels and Bridge Day.
• I started dating a new boy who I'm kind of into. :-)
• My big brother is getting married and final preparations are in full swing.

Let's see, those are just of the few things that are happening in my life right now. Not to mention that I'm slammed at work! No complaints here, of course, but this all leaves no time for me to consume or review anything....

Give me a couple weeks, I'll be back in full swing and ready to review anything and everything pumpkin flavored just in time for Halloween.

Cheers!

-A

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

...or some crap like that.

Yes, I realize just how much I've been sucking as a blogger lately. My days have been consumed with an ever increasing workload and my weekends have been spent traveling to dropzones and skydiving as much as possible before the winter sets in. If you're interested in any of that, you can visit SkydiveChick.com and read my latest post here.

Anyhow, enough of this self-promotional BS....

My personal life has been nuts lately too. There's been some much going on, preparing for my big brother's wedding, trying to get organized, keeping up on bills and chores, trying to stay in touch with friends, and now with football season beginning, I'm being pulled in a ton of different directions.

Which makes the whole getting organized thing quite difficult. I told myself once that it could wait until the winter, when I wasn't skydiving and had plenty of time on my hands. But I'm starting to see this as a desperate need.

Unfortunately there's not a free weekend in sight to conquer this feat. 

But, I have accomplished a lot in the last month. Remember my post about summer goals where I mentioned the things I still wanted to cross off that list things that would make the end of the year a success? Well, let's revisit that, shall we?

1. Be a better vegetarian. CHECK. This has worked out better than I imagined. I splurged once since I made this vow, and had one boneless wing at Buffalo Wild Wings during a weekend away. Otherwise, I've been a highly committed vegi!

2. Get some tunnel time. 1/2 CHECK. It's on the list of upcoming weekend festivities. Just haven't cashed in on that one quite yet. 

3. Get back into yoga. FAIL. I had good intentions, really I did. Though in my defense, I have been doing some practice on my own, a few sun salutations every day to stretch out and relax. But haven't been back to a class in quite some time. This will be a winter commitment.

4. Attend two tailgates. 1/4 CHECK. Good intentions exist here too. Though I'm not sure it'll happen. I'm going to Bridge Day on MSU's homecoming this year, and my brother's wedding is on U of M weekend... maybe some of the later games? :-/

5. Visit the cider mill. 1/2 CHECK. I have plans with a friend to make the trip sometime this fall. But with the amount of time I'll be at my parent's place in the next couple weeks, there's no reason why this won't happen.

6. Take a trip to Wisconsin. Um, well. That could still happen, right?

Oh, and I did mention that I want to get my B license by the end of the season, and yes sir, I DID IT!

So see, I've gotten some of these things taken care of....

What do you want to accomplish before the end of fall?

Cheers!

-A

RAVE: Sunset Bar and Grill

Let me start by apologizing for being MIA this week. Between all my travels and more changes in my life (shocker) I've been pretty tied up. If you want to read about my incredible skydiving weekend, check out SkydiveChick.com. My other blog. 

For now, it's onto the review.

________________________________________________

So yesterday I found it a good day to head out for a mid-week break. This included dinner and drinks out on the East side of Cleveland.

As a West-sider who didn't grow up in Cleveland, I have no qualms with going to the East side to visit friends. None. I've met people who have serious issues with this. Something I'll never quite understand I guess.

Anywhositis...this trip took me to Fairport Harbor. We walked through a quaint neighborhood to get to Sunset Bar & Grill. 

Situated right on the lake, we had a great view of sunset - or what was left of it by that time - and the coastline heading West. 

We split some amazing mussels, my crab cakes were perfect, and I even got to taste Manhattan Clam Chowder for the first time. It was so yummy!

The drinks and service were just as good as the food. We even got free shots of what they were calling Blow Pops, which was a concoction including Apple Pucker and Bubble Gum Vodka - though I'm sure there was more in the mix.

Believe it or not, Bubble flavored vodka is pretty good. It smells and tastes like Big League Chew...c'mon, you remember that stuff from the 80s, right?

The night was capped off with a leisurely stroll back through the Fairport Harbor neighborhoods and a few fun scenes from Point Break.

Here's a snapshot of my experience with Sunset Bar & Grill:

Price: $$-$$$ (some of the dishes seemed over priced, some under priced)

Menu Selection: *** (mostly seafood)

Taste: **** (for Cleveland, I was beyond impressed with the freshness) 

Service: ***

Atmosphere: **** (it was beautiful. reminded me of san francisco)

So if you find yourself on the far East side of Cleveland in the near future, I highly recommend Sunset as a place to relax on the patio. Hurry, before it gets too cold to enjoy the sunset outdoors.

Cheers!

-A

Photography Friday: I suck!

Welcome to another edition of Photography Friday, entitled 'I suck.'

Please, remove head from gutter before proceeding. Thank you.

What I mean is, I've been terrible about getting out and taking pictures. Skydiving has consumed my life this summer - not that I'm complaining - so the personal, artistic pictures I have are limited.

However, I did recently work ground crew of a skydiving demo that my buddy Danger flew. I pretty much stood around and told people to get off the beach then took pictures of his swoop in.

Here's the favorite from that event.

About 10 minutes prior to the demo it had been cold and rainy. The clouds parted and the sun was starting to set, just in time. 

And it certainly made for a beautiful backdrop.

Maybe this weekend I'll get lucky enough to capture some other great skydiving images like these during the Work Stinks Boogie just outside Cincinnati. 

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!

Cheers!

-A

Financial rave and rant

Today's review is two-fold. One RAVE and one RANT. 

Both of them have more to do with customer service than anything else. 

Given my delicate financial state at the moment - who isn't in one, really - these issues came at a highly appropriate time.

Let's start with the rant to get this out of the way.

RANT - PayPal.

I recently found a very gently used skydiving rig. This is something that I stumbled across after searching for weeks. It's perfect, and fits amazing. So, I bought it.

This, my friends, is a massive purchase. But one that's well worth it.

Luckily, the girl I bought it from allowed me to use PayPal so I could charge it. Well, I thought I was lucky.

After a number of issues getting this to go through on the site, I called PayPal customer service to some assistance. This is where the real problems began. 

The rep. was not only incredible rude, but completely unable to help. I wasted 20 minutes on the phone with a person who essentially told me that I'm an idiot and that there's nothing she could do.

Just how I wanted to start my morning.

Where I was truly lucky, is that the girl on the other end of the payment allowed me to pay through her dropzone and avoid PayPal altogether. 

Thanks for nothing, PayPal.

Now, onto something more positive.

RAVE - American Express.

This past week has been intense when it comes to travel. I went from Cleveland to NYC back to Cleveland, to Michigan that same day then to Lexington, back to Michigan and now I'm finally back in Cleveland. 

Get all that? Whew!

Within the last hour I was in Lexington for a client meeting, I went to lunch with a colleague and left my credit card at the restaurant. Oops.

Naturally, I got on the phone while driving, didn't have an account number, credit card number, anything. 

Within 5 minutes the lovely man on the phone was able to confirm my account, cancel my card, and have a new one shipped out that arrived at my office about 20 minutes after I did today.

Talk about some bad ass customer service!

Needless to say, when it comes to my finances, AmEx made my day, even after PayPal did their best to ruin it. 

Maybe AmEx could pay their reps to train those over at PayPal - certainly they could use it.

Cheers!

-A