Biker's Guilt

I have come up with a new phrase: Biker's Guilt. This is the guilt you have once you realize you are not going to go out biking, even though you probably should because it's a nice day. When I got home from work on Wednesday it was raining. I knew I wouldn't be able to bike, so I instead decided to have a couple beers, which I believe is the healthy alternative to biking. After a couple beers, it cleared up outside. I felt guilt running through my body as I realized there were still two more hours left of daylight. On Thursday, it also rained, but this time I just decided to get ready for bed early and call it a night. Again it cleared up, but I was already in my pajamas, so I was feeling a little less guilt. This is when I got a text message from Tim letting me know he was working out at Edgewater Park. I looked at the clock, looked at his text message, looked at the clock again and then re-read his text message. Within ten minutes I was on my way to Edgewater to go biking. I just didn't think I could handle any more biker's guilt (I was raised Catholic, can you tell?).

Last night as I was biking around I was able to bike over to Wendy Park which is part of Whiskey Island. What an incredible little untapped area in Cleveland. It's hard to find, but it is worth it when you get there. Check out this website for more information on Whiskey Island and Wendy Park. I actually found a way to bike there from my house, and I couldn't be more excited. By the way, excitement always trumps guilt.

Wings With A Healthy Twist

I have decided to start eating healthier. Unfortunately eating healthier includes cutting back on the good stuff. However a Sportygrrl can not live on lean cuisine and light beer alone, so I went to the Winking Lizard (WL) in Independence for Wings. I present to you Wing Ranking System Part 2.

Every Monday and Tuesday, which is how often I used to eat wings, the WL has wing night where the wings go for 35 cents apiece. The bad thing about wing night is that the wings are always overcooked. I ate wings on a non-wing night once and the difference was huge. On non-wing night you get fresh wings with fresh sauce. I actually asked a friend who used to work there why they tasted so much better on non-wing night. She said often times the wings are sitting under a heat lamp or they have to re-cook them. this was exactly how the wings tasted: overcooked and dry. The ironic part is that we had to wait over a half an hour to get wings that were overcooked and barely had any sauce on them, and the sauce is of course the best part of the WL experience. Everyone knows, or at least you do now, that you don't go to WL to eat chicken, you go there to eat the sauce. The wings there aren't all that jumbo and they tend to break, which always disturbs me, but I blame it on the overcooking and not the fact that the wings aren't fresh. If that were the case, I would have a hard time going there, so I must continue to tell myself it is due to overcooking. On this particular venture we ordered five of each of these sauces: spicy garlic, caribbean, cajun and thai. My personal favorite is the spicy garlic, but all of these sauces are great. If had to rank WL on sauce alone, they would get four wings out of four wings. Unfortunately you have to rate the whole meal, and on this particular wing night, I would only give the experience two wings out of four wings. I also think I am giving up on wing night. It is worth the extra quarter per wing to get fresh wings with more sauce. I can afford it now that I am allowing myself only one beer per wing sitting, which is the healthy twist part of the meal.

Quick recap: Winking Lizard wings on wing-night are not good, but the sauce is always good. If you want good chicken you don't go to Winking Lizard, you go to Barberton.

From Richmond To Barberton

This post is dedicated to my Aunt Mary who is nice enough to check my blog all the way from Richomond Virginia. My dad relayed to me that my Aunt Mary will be coming into town to stay at a bed and breakfast in Barberton Ohio, or Cleveland+ as many people now refer to Barberton. If you know anything at all about this area you were probably as surprised as I was when I heard the words bed and breakfast and Barberton in the same sentence. I decided to do a little detective work because I don't actually believe there is a bed and breakfast in Barberton. Keep in mind when you click on Barberton attractions, the only two things listed are Charger Lanes and Magic City Lanes, the two bowling alleys in town. Quite simply, it's an older quiet city, except when my aunt comes into town because at that point it picks up, and the local Sokol Club (no website available) doubles its annual revenue. Actually there are three things to do in Barberton: bowl, drink and eat chicken. If you aren't familiar with Barberton Chicken, I advise you to read this link. While I found a lot on the chicken using my internet detective work, I am still unable to find a bed and breakfast in Barberton. Unless of course you count passing out in a booth at the Sokol Club and then walking to Hopocan Gardens for some chicken as a bed and breakfast. In that case, count me in and let them know I want extra hot sauce.

Have Bike Rack. Will Travel.

Last Thursday we put the bike rack on the back of my car and decided to try some new routes. Our first trip out was to the Erie Canal Towpath that runs from Akron to Cleveland. This path was really fascinating because you follow the canal, which is mostly dried up now, on the same path the mules used to pull the barges. While we had great aspirations for the towpath, it gets really freaking hot in the Ohio sun, so we didn't go the whole way. On Sunday we hit the road again and went to Elyria to ride the North Coast Inland Trail which takes you to Oberlin. While we had great aspirations, it gets really freaking hot in the Ohio sun, and drinking most of the night before at Mindy's pool party didn't help much either, so we turned our dehydrated selves around vowing to return. Eventually I will give up beer and it will cool down, though I guess if I am giving up beer, it will probably be a cold day in hell. That would be a fun bike path too!

Good Advice

Last week, my girlfriend received an e-mail from Cleveland+ about the opportunity to explore Cleveland with the chance of even winning tickets to go there. This seemed so inviting we decided to actually see this city of Cleveland we had heard so much about. On the advice of Cleveland+ we packed our Saturday full of Cleveland activities.

On Saturday morning we decided to do the Bridge and Subway Tour on the Veterans Memorial Bridge, which is only a few blocks from my house. This free tour allows people to explore the old streetcar routes in Cleveland. You start out by going underground to see the old subway stops, watch a historical movie on streetcars in Cleveland, and then walk all the way across the bridge to the other side of Superior on the lower level-the same route the streetcars used to take. As you can imagine the views of the city were spectacular, and a little scary as you are walking over the Cuyahoga River on a thin grate with a piece of plywood. I have a "small" fear of heights, so needless to say there were a few points where I was holding on for dear life. One of the guides told me it was completely safe, and that he would know because he worked in the Cuyahoga County Engineers office, which relieved me until he told me he worked in accounting. After exiting the bridge on Superior and West 9th we realized we needed water and batteries. Being the complete tourists, we had the digital camera in full swing so we had already run through our first set of batteries. Even though I wanted to get batteries at the porn store on West 9th to get the full feel of Cleveland, we headed to Constantines Market, where we were asked if we were from Cleveland because of the camera hanging by its strap around Julie's neck. We laughed thinking we actually looked like we won a trip to Cleveland (thanks again Cleveland+).

After refilling on batteries, espresso and water, we headed down to explore the flats. I was amazed by how the flats looked like a ghost town on the east bank. Other than Larry Flynt's Hustler Club, there was one bar left and a hair salon.

At points,we were the only people on the whole east bank of the flats and it was the weirdest feeling, however it did give us a lot of room to take fun pictures of the river, the bridges and the scenery surrounding the flats, including the panoramic picture above. We explored the west bank which was much more populated before heading home. We crashed so hard after walking around in the sun in Cleveland for four hours, but we knew we had to re-group because the roller derby was just hours away.

Saturday night we made our monthly trek to the North Olmsted Indoor Soccer Complex to meet up with some friends and catch the Burning River Roller Girls in action. Good times and Pabst Blue Ribbon in a tall can were had by all (except Julie who made thundersticks out of her plastic Bud Light bottles).

By Sunday I was exhausted, but I will never forget what a great day I had in Cleveland+, and I would recommend visiting this city to all my friends.

Marketing For Dummies

Last night as I was watching the NBA draft on Tivo*, I heard Julie say: "Where the hell do they think I live?" I looked over at her as she was reading her e-mail and said: "Who?" She then went on to tell me the Cleveland Convention and Visitors Bureau (an extension of Cleveland+) had sent her an e-mail to enter a sweepstakes to win a trip to Cleveland. The Grand Prize included: Two-night accommodations at the Crowne Plaza City Centre Hotel, four tickets to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Tickets, four Ingenuity Festival One-Day Tickets, four Dew Sports Action Tour 4-Day Tickets, dinner at the House of Blues, and two roundtrip airline tickets on Continental Airlines.

While that package is great, I really think the braintrust behind Cleveland+ should at least start outside of Cleveland proper. Maybe try the suburbs next time. Those of us who live within the city limits, really don't need a flight.

*Watching the NBA draft on Tivo was one of the best sports draft experiences I have ever had. For an event that takes over four hours, I was able to watch the whole thing in less than an hour. I caught every pick and was able to stop for some key analysis and draft fashion, but other than that, I got to avoid all the useless information they dig up to fill up four hours of television.

One Night In The City+One Night In The Country=Day Of Relaxation

This weekend had a little bit of everything. I spent Friday night in Cleveland enjoying the company of old friends while I spent Saturday night in the backwoods of Wooster enjoying the company of new friends. Sunday was spent recuperating from both these events.

On Friday we met friends at The Garage Bar. My friend Alison won a free happy hour, which entitled her to free drinks from 5 pm-9 pm, while her friends were allowed a free drink, though many of us had more than one drink. The Happy Hour lasted much longer than expected as Mindy came up and met us for more drinks after Happy Hour ended. We finished the evening off with dinner and drinks at the Old Angle. We got the wings, and because I was so hungry and a little intoxicated, I would have to rate the wings with five wings out of four, though they most likely should have a three-wing rating.

On Saturday we got up and went canoeing down in Canal Fulton and became one with nature, or at least ran into a lot of nature with our poor rowing. After canoeing we headed to a country home located on 27 acres out in Wooster. We spent the night cooking out, drinking beer out of a can and sitting around a bonfire. It was a true country night.

On Sunday I walked into my house and vegged out on my couch for most of the day. In the apartment below me, my brother was doing the same thing. Now that we are all rested up, I am taking Mark to his first Taco Tuesday tonight at Lincoln Park Pub. It is a rite of passage if you live on the west side of town. After tonight his life will no longer be the same, or at least he will now know where to get cheap tacos and drink cheap mexican beer. Same difference.

The Wing Ranking System

Unless you are new to my blog, you know I love wings. I cant help it. They call out to me, and I consider myself a connisseur of different types of wings and sauces. I have decided to have a little fun with one of my favorite indulgences and create the wing ranking system. Whenever I go out for wings, I will rank them on a four-wing scale with four wings being the highest rating.

Last night we went to the Sports Inn on State Road. Yeah...I had never heard of it before either, but everytime I pass this bar, they are marketing their "Jumbo Wings" on the sign outside. Before even going there, I prepped myself for what might be in store by calling and asking about the sauces (I didn't want to waste my time going there if they had a bad selection of sauces). The woman who answered the phone rattled off sauce after sauce, so I was intrigued. The bar itself was filled with mostly regulars, and even though it is called the Sports Inn, there is only one TV in the corner to watch sports on. I wasn't there to watch sports, so this didn't matter to me. I was there to eat wings. The menu boasted that the wings were "Voted Cleveland's Best Wings" though it didn't say who did the voting, so I wasn't sure I could trust it. We decided to get a sample of the sauces, so we ordered 4 different kinds of wings: cajun, hot, hot ranch and parmesean garlic.

While I will not be ranking service in this blog, it is good to point out that it took us 40 minutes to get our food, and there was only one server for the tables and bar patrons. Also we never got plates or a pop that was ordered. Nonetheless, when the wings arrived, some of them were piping hot and some were room temperature which seemed odd. You could tell the wings had been overcooked because they were quite dry. I also didn't like the way they put the sauce on the wings. Some of the wings had no sauce and other wings were swimming in sauce. It looked like the cook just threw the sauce on randomly as they were being shipped out of the kitchen. Of the different selections, I liked the hot ranch followed by the cajun which had both a dry rub and wet sauce on it. The hot wings were bland and the parmesean garlic wings were too much. These wings were sitting in garlic butter and then topped with a mound of parmesean and then a mound of minced garlic. It was hard to even find the wings at first in the bowl. On top of all this, they came only with blue cheese but no celery and to me celery is one of my favorite parts. By the looks of the place, there weren't a lot of signs of fresh vegetables, so perhaps they didn't even have celery to serve.

Given the total package of the wings and our expectations, I am giving the wings at the Sports Inn 1.5 wings out of a total of 4 wings. They were much too dry for my taste, the meat didn't seem that fresh and the sauce didn't cover some of the wings. On the bright side, the beer was cold.

Writers Block

Every year about this time, I get writers block. It isn't that I don't have things to write about-this past week alone I have kept myself busy with biking, going to Pride, Father's Day activities, dogwalks through the Metroparks and a fun night downtown, including dinner at Fat Fish Blue. There is something about this time of year, where I just don't get motivated to write. I think it is because it is my "off-season." As a sports fan, June through August is my off-season because there is very little going on in the world of sports to write about. I am not a big baseball fan, so I will watch what the CAVS do in the off-season to improve, but other than that I am sports-free for the next couple months, or so I thought... I checked my e-mail this morning and got this message: "Your Fantasy Football League is ready for 2007." So much for the off-season.

Dear Sports Fans Outside Of Cleveland,

Greetings from Cleveland! I wanted to take this time to let everyone outside of Cleveland know that normally Cleveland sports team are much better losers than what the CAVS showed last night in San Antonio. I feel the CAVS misrepresented so many years of heartache by getting blown out in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. It is not normal for us to go down by so much so quickly. Normally we keep the big game close and then blow it in the end. Please see: the fumble, the drive, the shot and the blown save.

How I Spent My Time In Between CAVS Games

From Kenny Chesney going home with me to biking through the metroparks, the three days in between CAVS games were jam-packed.


After the game on Thursday we bar hopped around Lakewood where we ended the night carrying home a life-size cut-out of Kenny Chesney. When my friend saw the cut-out by the DJ booth she told me she wanted it, so I decided to slide it out the window into the bushes to get on our way out. Operation Kenny Chesney was successful, and it began quite an eventful weekend.

A couple months ago, I took a personality quiz that told me I didn't appreciate art. After this weekend I scoff at that quiz. On Friday we met some friends for dinner at Momocho, where we got the margarita and guacamole samplers before heading off to Just Art. Just Art was a show curated by one of my best friends during the Tremont Art Walk. Just Art benefited Greater Cleveland Community Shares, which is an organization close to my heart because of all the work they do for non-profit organizations in Cleveland. On Saturday we headed south to attend the Columbus Art Festival. After the festival, I ate authentic ethiopian for the first time in my life. I am not one to shy away from most foods, so it was a fun experience. After dinner, we took advantage of being in a different city and went to the Columbus roller derby. On the drive home we decided we were craving wings, but it was too late to do anything about our craving.

On Sunday morning our craving was taken care of when we decided to have Sunday brunch at the Winking Lizard. Thankfully we beat the church crowds there. After some wings and beer (pictured), I went home to clean and then headed out for a 10-mile bike ride at the Metroparks. Apparently the best time to bike is right before a CAVS game because there were very few people on the bike path. Even though I tried to keep myself busy in anticipation of Game 2, the result for the CAVS was still the same. I am looking forward to game 3, but I don't think I will be nearly as busy in between games.

Maybe Next Year, Eh?

I hardly ever pay attention to the Stanley Cup Finals in hockey. This is true for many Americans. Canadians on the other hand are a different breed. They live and breathe hockey there as I found out on my recent trip to Toronto when I overheard a conversation at breakfast. What I heard was a conversation regarding hockey between an elderly woman and a gay man (see: everyone there loves hockey!). She was saying things like (sorry I cant do the accent on the blog): "We HAVE to do it this year. We HAVE to bring the trophy back here where it belongs." I was amazed by how she kept going on and on, while I, an avid sports fan, didn't have any idea who was even playing in the finals. Unfortunately for that woman and almost every other Canadian, the Anaheim Ducks beat the Ottawa Senators last night to keep the cup here in America where it has been since 1993. I almost feel bad for all the Canadians who don't think Americans deserve to win hockey championships because we probably don't. With this being said, I think Canada should change its national anthem from O Canada to Aw Canada.

Leave Us Alone

I graduated with an undergraduate degree in public relations, which is going to make this next sentiment seem really strange, but the Cavaliers are getting too much press. I love the CAVS. This is no secret. Everyone in Cleveland it seems loves the CAVS, and now everyone in the country seems to love the CAVS, so what is my problem? The problem is if Cleveland is going to be a viable underdog, they can't do it with so much press. Everytime I turn around a so-called expert is picking the CAVS, interviewing LeBron James, asking the Spurs how they can possibly match up with the CAVS. We have moved from underdog, to trendy underdog to the trendy pick to win it all since our clinching victory over Detroit.

Give us a chance to be the underdog in this series. Nobody thought we could beat Detroit this year, which made that series victory so sweet. If people start picking us to win this thing, they curse us and they take away the glamour of Cleveland being the underdog. Let us be the Detroit Pistons of 2004. If you recall nobody picked them to beat the Lakers that year, and when they did they became everyone's favorite underdog. I even cheered for them and I have always hated the Pistons. At this point I would like the national media to just leave us alone, to not like us, to not pick us to win it all. Don't curse Cinderella before midnight even arrives. We already have enough curses to overcome just by playing in Cleveland.

*As a sidenote, I do not care what we do against the Spurs. Beating the Pistons in 6 games was sweet enough for me.

Cleveland+ Is Smiling This Morning

Sportygrrl Went To Toronto And All You Get Is This Lousy Blog Entry

I am back in the states (I have always wanted to say that) after being tourist extraordinaire in Canada and Western New York the past couple days. There were many attractions visited and much beer drank in a short amount of time, but I am sure I remember enough of it to pass on.

On Thursday we arrived at our crazy bed and breakfast. We were greeted by a large deer head, a crazy umbrella and hat collection and the most eccentric collection of stuff that followed us all over the house. Our room actually ended up being the whole third floor of an old victorian house with our own private bathroom that had a hot tub and a private rooftop deck that allowed you to see the city skyline. One amenity that was not mentioned on the website was that we were right across the street from The Beer Store-that was quite a bonus.

We actually didn't spend much time at the bed and breakfast because every morning after breakfast-a huge spread of eggs, potatoes, sausage, bacon and fresh fruit-we headed out on our urban adventure. Our first night there we ate at the oldest restaurant in the city called the Senator Diner, where I got the Macaroni and Cheese that came with homemade ketchup-everything in Canada is served with ketchup, which is why I loved this trip so much! After dinner, we went to see Evil Dead The Musical, on our walk home we spotted the CAVS game from outside a bar called The Beer Cellar, and went in for a couple of beers and finished watching the game. On Friday we went out on our much-anticipated double-decker bus tour around the city, made a quick stop at the CN Tower, ate lunch at the best thai restaurant in the city, Green Mango, adventured around the West side of the city in search of hats and books and caught a French fim that night at the local film festival. On Saturday there was an event called Doors Open Toronto, where most of the buildings in the city opened their doors for tours. We chose to tour the old Distillery section of town, which was followed by a self-guided tour through the south side of town straight to the Steam Whistle Brewery. At the brewery we were allowed unlimited beer and access to the old-fashioned photo booth where I seized the opportunity to take my picture while drinking beer. After the Steam Whistle we headed back to enjoy some beverages from The Beer Store, took advantage of a sunny day on the rooftop deck and then headed out for the night. We had a magnificent dinner at a restaurant called Hair of the Dog, where we enjoyed calamari, peppercorn ribeye steak and lamb stew. From there we were let into a concert free of charge just because we got there late. We were able to catch a group we were interested in seeing all weekend called Kids on TV, a crazy queer punk, electric band that was incredibly engaging. We had just enough money for the cab to make it back to our bed and breakfast that evening, which showed that we used all of our Canadian resources to the fullest. We headed out of the city on Sunday to do some last minute things, like pick up some funny t-shirts and our favorite alcoholic beverages to take back with us.

We weren't quite done being tourists as a we made a pit-stop in Niagara Falls. This is where my nerdy side came out, because I was determined to catch a movie on the history of Niagara Falls at the visitor center. After the typical pictures that everyone takes at the falls and the movie, we headed south to Buffalo to eat at The Anchor, the birthplace of wings. As you may know from my many previous entries on this blog, I am a huge lover of chicken wings, so visiting this place was better than many of the attractions we caught in Toronto. After filling ourselves with wings and spilling sauce on myself, we headed back to Cleveland where the skyline looked so small in comparison to Toronto. However, it was good to be home for Memorial Day to cook out, while still enjoying the fruits of our trip by drinking the Canadian beer we bought on our way out of the country. Shhh...don't tell border patrol!

Cleveland's Great, But It's Time For A Vacation!

This past weekend I tried two new experiences that made me realize how much I love living in Cleveland. On Saturday we went to the roller derby. If you get the chance I highly recommend catching a bout next month in North Olmsted. (Technically if its taking place in North Olmsted, I guess its really Cleveland+) This experience is the most fun you can have at an indoor soccer complex drinking beer out of a can watching women skate around in circles trying to knock each other down. On Sunday we decided to take a more sophisticated approach to the city as we walked around my neighborhood and did the Ohio City Home Tour.

While I love the summertime in Cleveland, it is time for a small break, so I will be spending this Memorial Day Weekend in Toronto. Tomorrow at this time I will be laying out on the sandy beaches of Toronto breathing in the fresh air coming off of Lake Ontario. Wait...thats not right. Tomorrow at this time I will be at the duty free buying cheap bottles of my favorite vodka. Either way, I am looking forward to getting away for a couple days. A full update should be expected upon my return. Have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend!

If You Or Someone You Know Myspaces...You Should Read This

Yes I have a myspace page. Yes I am 31 years old. No I am not a sexual predator.

With that said, I know I am a little old to have a myspace page, but I promise I don't use it for creepy reasons (well I guess that depends on how you define creepy). I know a lot of other people my age with a myspace page who use it as flippantly as I use mine. I never thought twice about it until I read this article on the dangers of myspace. I always thought that if I wasnt a naive teenager I would be safe on myspace, and I could ignore all those warnings about how dangerous this website could be. Apparently I was wrong. It really does get you thinking about how you should limit the number of drunk pictures you post of yourself on-line...

Only At Wal-Mart

I am proud to say I don't go to Wal-Mart very often, but I am ashamed to say when I do go, I get sucked in for hours. Once inside, all my political views go right out the door when I see their prices and the intriguing deals only Wal-Mart can offer. I have never seen things packaged together like they are at Wal-Mart. The shampoo comes with hair gel for $4.89, and the body soap comes with lotion for only $3.94. My favorite combo had to be the box of tampons I saw with a free tube of Banana Boat Glow Face. Along with your tampons you get something described as this: "Banana Boat® EveryDay Glow Face Daily Moisturizer SPF 20 uses self-activating tanners to enhance your skin’s natural tone." Can someone please explain to me how these two things go together? Somehow when you are inside the confines of Wal-Mart this makes sense.

Why You Should Not Drink At A Silent Auction

I got a voicemail yesterday that went like this:
"This is Cleveland Public Theatre and we wanted you to know, you had the winning bid from Saturday's silent auction (There was a long pause here that really scared me because I could not imagine what I had won or even what I had bid on.) You won the season pass to the Wexner Center for the Arts for the 2007-2008 season."

Apparently I bid on this item which I vaguely remember. What I find so funny is that the Wexner Center is located in Columbus. Somewhere in between all those free martinis Saturday night I must have thought I should be spending more time in our state capital watching more artistic movies and plays. The weird thing is that I don't really even do this in Cleveland and I live here.

Holy Gas Prices Batman!

One of the benefits of getting a new car was the gas mileage. However it doesn't matter when I still have to pay $50 to fill up my car. I am lucky I only drive 5 miles a day to get back and forth from work, but it's still crazy. Isn't there someone we can go to war with to fix this problem? Oh wait...apparently that's what we have not been trying to do for the past 17 years.