Uh Oh! Olive Garden Feast

I love food. I love all kinds of food. I have never been one to discriminate. American, Asian, Mexican, Greek--I love all types of delicious cuisines. But there is one cuisine that I like above the others: Italian. I can't get enough of the breads, sauces, pastas, and spices. For this reason, my wife and I have been quite frequent patrons at Olive Garden. And why not? Olive Garden is very affordable and over all, quite good.


We usually get the all-you-can-eat soup, salad, and breadsticks meal (under $10). Besides walking away satisfiably stuffed from my meal, I used to think I was walking away from a pretty healthy meal as well. Boy was I wrong!





According to a recent article on Yahoo! Health, the bottomless portions of salad and breadsticks are ranked among the worst "free" foods that restaurant chains give out. In fact, after eating just one serving of salad and two breadsticks, you will have consumed almost half of your daily caloric intake...and that's before you even tasting the soup! Ouch! And I thought I was doing my body good by selecting Olive Garden over a local burger joint.
So, will this stop me from eating Olive Garden? Heck, no! But, I might feel a little more guilty the next time I finish a meal from there.
Here is the article from Yahoo! Health: Click Here

Garden-Fresh Salad (1 serving with dressing)
350 calories
26 g fat (4.5 g saturated)
1,930 mg sodium
22 g carbohydrates

Breadstick (1 with garlic butter spread)
150 calories
2 g fat (0 g saturated)
400 mg sodium
28 g carbohydrates

Divisional Playoffs Selections

(Picture created by The New York Post)

Today and tomorrow, there will be some excellent football being played. Eight teams will compete for the final four slots, and the Conference championship games. Below are my selections for today's and tomorrow's winners:

Baltimore v. Pittsburgh: Baltimore's stout defense will not be able to defend Big Ben's powerful offense. Pittsburgh wins 24-17

Green Bay v. Atlanta: Aaron Rogers is on fire and Matt Ryan is bound to make a mistake in today's game. This will be a thrilling shoot-out, but GB will win 35-31.

Seatle v. Chicago: Last week's victory over the Saints made Seatle look like a team with a winning record after all. Marshawn Lynch's ground shaking run was something for the ages. Unfortunately, the train stops in Chicago. The Bears will win 28-10.

New England v. NY Jets: Rex Ryan has a big mouth, literally. He will struggle to turn his words into player-actions. Brady and the Pats will make the NY Jets look like NY Jills. Patriots win 21-14.

Reaching High Standards!

Congrats to the 8th grade students for BLOWING the practice TAKS out of the water. Just as I have said all year, when you are continually working at such a high level (high school reading passages, high school critical thinking levels, etc), the 8th grade TAKS becomes almost insulting to your intelligence. Well, here is proof that you all are true allstars!

Results for 8-1: 96% passing and 87% commended!

Results for 8-2: 100% passing and 65% commended!

Across the entire 8th grade, your overall Commended percentage was 76% with an overall passing percentage of 98%.

Well done! While we still have work to do if we are going to surpass our goals of 100% passing and 85% commended, these scores are something to be proud of.

8-3 Buffalo Bulls

Each year, the Chrysalis students select a university to represent the homerooms. This year marks the third straight year that we have done this; this is, of course, in correlation with our college-bound culture and TAKS Olympics celebration that we have on campus.
In the past two years, my homeroom has represented Spring Arbor University and The United States Marine Corps. Although each of those homerooms did an excellent job, I am so excited that the students wanted to select the University that's close to my home.
Below is the tentative design that my students have created for our homeroom tshirts. Personally, I think it looks pretty darn good! Kudos to Ashley for getting the ball rolling with her design. I can't tell you how excited I am to be representing B-lo for our university!
Go Bulls!

11 Years is an Eternity

Today marks exactly 11 years since the Buffalo Bills have been to the playoffs. In the grand scheme of their 50 year history, 11 years might not seem too bad. But consider this: Some of the current sixth graders were not alive when the Bills last played a playoff game; 11 years ago, the iPod had not yet been invented; Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and NSYNC were "cool" 11 years ago.

Interestingly enough, the Bills made the playoffs 10 of the previous 12 years before the year 2000. They were a dominate force of the 1990s. But those days are gone. The current young generation only knows the Buffalo Bills as a group of pitiful, pathetic, perennial losers.

For those of you who were too young, not yet born, or simply want to relive the infamous "Music City Miracle" play that eliminated the Bills from their last playoff game in over a decade, here it is. By the way, this is clearly a forward lateral and everyone knows that had the Refs made the right call, the Bills would have gone to the Super Bowl. Instead, the Titans went and lost by a yard.

Bringin' in the New Year with a Smile

I am three days into 2011 and am already labeling it a great year. Why? Well, let me rewind to way back when in 2010...

Two weeks ago. The final day of the fall semester at Chrysalis was amazing. We took a trip to Memorial City Mall for an Ice Skating extravaganza. Besides the event taking me back to my New York roots of cold winters and ice hockey on frozen ponds, it was a blast to see so many students ice skate (or perform moves that sort of resembled the activity called ice skating). By the end of the two hours, most of the students who stayed out on the ice were getting the hang of gliding gracefully--one foot in front of the other.


Next, I drove to Florida with Kiera, Macy, and Maverick to spend the Christmas season with family. While there, I ate a TON of great food, went bike riding, started bonfires, played Disc Golf, and saw a couple of movies: Tron and The Little Fockers.























But, nothing compares to this next thing. Kiera and I went to a diagnostic center to find out the gender of our baby...and we found out that it's a beautiful girl! The process of looking at the Ultrasound was pretty incredible. The technology that the doctors have is absolutely amazing. We were able to watch the baby move, stand, and practically do back flips inside Kiera's womb, all on a 32'' LCD TV screen. The 3D ultrasound allowed us to get a more detailed picture of what she looks like. Looking at the screen, staring at my future daughter, it's a feeling that I simply can't describe. I can only imagine what it will be like to see her smiling, crying, kicking, and screaming in just 6 more months! I am just so thankful that God has blessed us!

The picture below is everyone in the room looking at the ultrasound on the screen. If you look hard enough, you can see the tear marks on my mom's cheeks. We shared this awesome moment with Kiera's mom, her sister, and our brother-in-law.







Here is our beautiful Isabella; it serves as proof that there is a God...and He is good!

Always a New Yorker

Something struck me today. I realized that I have now spent the same amount of time in Texas as I did in Michigan for college. After four years of college, I had a lot of Michigan pride. I felt a connection with the state and even considered it my home away from home. In my time as a Michigander (Mish-ih-gan-der), I acquired a University of Michigan hat.
In my time in Texas, I have a pair of cowboy boots, a pickup truck, and a taqueria saved into the contacts of my cell. While I do not have much Texas pride at this point, I sure have begun to look like a Texan...and that is a little scary.
Here's what's crazy. I am a New Yorker, or at least that's what I identify myself as. However, I have not lived in New York for nearly 9 years! So, this begs the question: What defines us? What constitutes as our "home"? I reckon (see, there I go again) I will always identify myself and my home as being New York, even though I don't think I will ever live in New York again.



If the Buffalo Bills relocate to Toronto, I will feel extremely upset even though I am not longer in the Buffalo area.
Maybe I am overreacting. Maybe it's not so bad to realize that I am slowly becoming a Texan, at least in the material sense of things. But somehow, for some reason, deep down, I will always be living in Western New York. I will always be a New Yorker.