As of yesterday, I have been a member of SparkPeople for one year. I’ve lost over 60 pounds in that year, and I plan on losing over 60 more by next year. It really is a great site to help with getting your fitness goals on the right track. They have a nutrition tracker, where you can put down what you ate that day and track the calories and vitamin and mineral input. That is the best thing there in my opinion, as it’s amazing how much you can eat in a day if you don’t keep track. They also have a weight tracker, an exercise tracker, free workout videos, instructions on various exercises from from licensed fitness professionals, and more. It’s amazing that all of this is absolutely free.

Pizza is an interesting food. No two pizza places taste the same. Even among chains, there are often differences between restaurants. That’s not even taking in account the different pizza styles, such as New York style Neapolitan thin crust, Sicilian thick crust, or Chicago deep dish pizza.

I have been to many pizzerias in upstate New York, and I’ve enjoyed just about every pizza I’ve tried, but the best place to find New York style pizza I have found is Aniello’s Pizzaria in Corning.

Aniello’s Neopolitan style has everything that a New York style pizza should have. The crust is thin, the slices are large, and it is easily folded. There is plenty of mozzarella cheese, the crust is not bland and has a nice taste to it, and the sauce is neither too tangy nor too sweet, with just the right amount of spices.

I never really got into iTunes when it was first released. I downloaded it a few times, got a few free downloads, and then uninstalled it. A few years ago, I tried it again after they added TV show downloads, downloading the first episode of Psych since it was a free download, but then I uninstalled it again.

Last year I started getting involved in programs that let you view video almost instantly, since I have my PC connected to my TV. I really liked Netflix Instant Viewing (especially after they made the instant viewing selection unlimited at the regular Netflix rate at no extra charge) and I got a few free TV shows and one purchased movie from Amazon Unbox, and I thought about iTunes.

I decided to try iTunes again, and this time I was hooked. I have always loved music videos, so it is great to be able to own a lot of my favorites. I haven’t downloaded much audio only music from the iTunes store, but I bought the B-52’s Funplex single the moment I saw it in the store. I’m glad I did, since I have come to really love that song. :)

They now have Disney’s animated short cartoons available on iTunes, which seals the deal for me. Everything video is only $1.99, which is really reasonable. I don’t buy much, as it would really add up after a while, but with a selection as big as that available at the iTunes store, I’ll never run out of videos (and the occassional piece of audio-only music) to buy when I’m in the mood. :)

We have a Stromahnn’s outlet a few blocks down the road from us, and when they have Monk’s raisin bread in stock, we pick up a loaf. It is so very delicious toasted with a little bit of butter. It also is really good for a toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich or for peanut butter toast. I just wish that the loaves were bigger, since the loaf always seems to go so fast. :)

Homestar Runner is a really crazy flash cartoon series. I’ve been watching it for years now. The Strong Bad emails are definitely the funniest part of the website, where the mexican luchadore character Strong Bad responds to e-mails from viewers. A lot of funny running gags are created from these emails, including my favorite character Homsar. Homsar was created from the mispelling of Homestar in one of the e-mails, and was meant to be a one-time character. He was said to be killed off in the e-mail, but it was revealed later that he was only hurt from the incident.

It’s a good thing too, since Homsar is one of the funniest parts of Homestar Runner. He pops up often in weird places, often as easter eggs that can be found by clicking on a specific part in a cartoon. He is an odd character that violates the laws of physics to humorous effects, including hovering in the air and making multiple copies of himself.

After the Strong Bad e-mails, my second favorite cartoon series on the site is the Halloween cartoons. Each halloween a new cartoon is made, and each of the characters are shown in some very funny outfits based on often obscure characters from pop culture in the past. My favorite so far is when Homestar dressed up as The Greatest American Hero and sings “Believe it or not, I’m walkin’ around, I never thought I could trick or tre-e-eat.” That cracks me up every time I see it. :)

I used to hate drinking water when I was a little girl. I would rather have a flavored soda or juice. Tastes change a lot as you get older, and I’m finding that there is very little that I don’t like anymore. I am trying to stay away from sodas (though I still enjoy the crisp taste of a lemon-lime soda every now and then), and I’m trying to drink less concentrated juice.

I have been trying to drink 8 glasses of water a day, and now I’m finding that I actually enjoy the taste of water. We installed a water filter on our tap at home, and it really makes a difference in the taste. I used to think that water was tasteless, but after drinking more of it, I discovered that it really does have a nice taste after all. It’s much like how I cut out adding sugar and salt to my food, and have discovered that without the additional seasonings, the food actually tastes better on it’s own. I was just so used to sugared beverages that water was bland in comparison. Now the sugared beverages often taste too sweet to me, and I often water them down a bit.

Italian sausage smells so great when it is cooking on the grill. Whenever I go to festivals or fairs, I often just enjoy the aromas coming from the vendors’ carts. Of course, the best thing is that the sausage tastes just as good as it smells. I love italian sausage on a toasted roll with a little bit of peppers and onions. We went to an italian festival last year. We each got an italian sausage, a cannoli, and we shared a lemon italian ice. It was my first time going to a festival like that, and I can’t wait to go back this year. It rained last time, so we couldn’t get to all the vendor’s carts. Hopefully this year we can spend more time there. :)

Ah, Cheeseburgers on the grill. This brings back fond memories from when I was a little girl. My dad built a long porch that went from the front of the house to along the side of the house. We spent a lot of our time in the summer on the side porch at the picnic table with our extended family (my mom, my sister, my dad, and myself, and my grandparents and grandmother on my dad’s side) having grilled cheeseburgers and (my grandfather’s favorite) hot dogs and eating jell-o and devilled eggs. My grandfather would bring his special meat sauce for his hotdogs and my grandmother would bring a Jell-o dessert with fruit and whipped cream inside and fruit and whipped cream on the top as well. My grandmothers always had huge smiles on their faces, and my dad was happily grilling the meat on his Weber grill (he wouldn’t do with anything less). When we were done eating, my sister and I would dive into the pool, and the adults would talk on the porch or on lawn chairs on the patio.

My mom and I still grill cheeseburgers sometimes on my dad’s Weber grill, but most of my extended family has passed away now, with only my mom, myself, and my sister left. Our picnics aren’t the same without them, but they do bring back fond memories of our grand picnics when I was younger.

Sliders went through a lot of changes in it’s fourth season. Wade and Remmy were kidnapped between seasons three and four, with Wade being sent to a Kromagg breeding camp forcing her to give birth to hybrid Kromagg-human babies. Rembrant undergoes a huge personality change as a result of this, as he blames himself for not being able to protect Wade, and vows to get Wade back and to get revenge on the Kromaggs.

On Earth prime, someone who claims to be Quinn’s mother tells Quinn that he is not really from Earth prime, and that he was sent away from his real dimension to protect him from the Kromaggs. He also is told that he has a brother, who was sent to another dimension from his own. His brother was sent to an Earth that does not have modern luxuries, much like our Earth’s Amish communities.

The loss of the professor really shows here, as he was often the voice of reason, and would have been very leery of Quinn’s brother, since Quinn found out the information about his brother and his parents at a Kromagg prison camp, and as Rembrant mentioned the Kromaggs can make humans see and hear what they want them to after the Kromaggs impersonated Remmy’s father in a previous episode.

I personally did not mind the changes, as the stories were still good. Quinn’s brother actually brought a lot to the show I thought, since he was very naive, and had a charm to him much like the character Brendan Fraser played in Blast From the Past.

When I was a little girl, my Uncle Ron would bring over Nintendo games for our family to try. The two I remember him bringing over the most were The Legend of Zelda and Bomberman. My mom was completely taken over by Bombermania. She became the bombermom. :)

While my sister and I were asleep, mom would be up all night playing the game. She would get to level 50, turn Bomberman into a human, and then do it all over again. I don’t know how many times she would beat the game in a row before she would finally get to bed, but often she only got 2 or 3 hours of sleep before she had to go in for work due to her Nintendo addiction.

I played Bomberman a lot too, but I never really got the fever like my mom did. I only beat the first game a few times. The original NES Bomberman was fun, but Super Bomberman for the SNES added a lot to the game that made it even more addicting. I played this again for the first time in a long time the other day, and it was weird after being so used to the SNES game. The board scrolled, there were no bombs for kicking, bombs killed the baddies in the blocks without the need for red bombs, and every single bad guy could be killed with only one blast. Still, the formula that makes Bomberman fun was still there, and most of the powerups besides those I mentioned before were here even in Bomberman’s first outing.

This game still is fun, but when my mom or I feel like a game of Bomberman, we’ll reach for Super Bomberman now.