I actually have too many tasty food photos to choose from to add to this post this week—not pictured are the two cookies I purchased from Crumbl in Rochester Hills yesterday (Pink Velvet, and Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake). I liked both, but Pink Velvet was definitely better.
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| Brisket tacos from Isalita, Ann Arbor |
What I've been up to this week:
- Seeing live music! This is only my second concert during the pandemic, the first being an outdoor one (Lindsey Stirling, at Freedom Hill in August). One of my new band obsessions is The Accidentals, whom are actually Michigan-based, and they were playing a show at The Ark in Ann Arbor. The Ark is indoors, but their COVID policies are great—you are required to be vaccinated AND masked—so I felt safe going. I went with two friends and before the show we went to Isalita, a Mexican place in downtown Ann Arbor, which had pretty good food. Sawyer Fredericks from The Voice opened for The Accidentals and he was pretty good too.
- Eating out. Isalita last weekend, as I mentioned, and on Wednesday three friends and I went to The Melting Pot, which was fantastic—it's one of my favorite "treat meals" and I hadn't been since pre-pandemic. Normally it's about $100 for 2 people there, if you do the "Big Night Out" option (four courses), but they always have deals—on Wednesdays, they currently do a "Best Fondue Friends Forever" (BFFF lol) deal where you get a cheese course, salad, and a chocolate course for $29.99. You can also add an entree course to make it four courses, and it would be $39.99. I think it's about the same price as the regular fondue ($24 for 2, and salad is $6 normally) but we also got some "premium dippers" such as sausage, prosciutto, macarons, etc. Overall a very tasty and fun time.
- Seeing movies. The only movie I saw in the theater this past week was The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but it was excellent; I hope Jessica Chastain gets an Oscar nomination out of it. I didn't know much about Tammy Faye before the movie and the story is pretty interesting, as well. On Sunday, my boyfriend and I tried out The Many Saints of Newark, thankfully on HBO Max vs. at the theater; I have only seen like one Sopranos episode and the movie was kinda slow and boring to me ... if I had to choose a rating, maybe 2/5 or 2.5/5. He (a Sopranos fan) thought it was okay but also slow. On Monday, I watched The Starling on Netflix, which was cute; I'd give it 3/5. I love Melissa McCarthy but thought she was miscast in it, but I did think Chris O'Dowd was right for his part. Last night, I watched An Officer and a Gentleman for the first time, on Starz, and really liked it; I'd give it like 3.5 or 4/5 stars. They're making it into a musical and it's coming to the Fisher Theatre (Detroit) in February 2022, too, so that will be interesting to see. I also need to watch the first Venom sometime this weekend, because I didn't see it and I have tickets to see the 2nd Venom on Sunday in 3D ... not sure if you need to watch the original first, as I know the gist of the plot, but I'd like to.
- Watching TV. I started watching Squid Game, which is currently the #1 show on Netflix and is on track to become the #1 most watched show EVER on Netflix, which is pretty crazy. American Crime Story: Impeachment has been getting better and better—if you're not watching it, I highly recommend it, especially for Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky and Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp. I'm also liking the new Wonder Years remake—it's definitely different from the first one but the spirit is still the same. It's on ABC and also on Hulu the day after it airs. And as I've mentioned before, I've still been enjoying Doogie Kamealoha, M.D., on Disney+, Only Murders in the Building, on Hulu, and Ordinary Joe, on NBC, although the plot is a bit hard to follow since essentially there are three plots going on at once.
- Antibody bloodwork, round two. The reason I went to Crumbl in Rochester Hills yesterday is that I did my second round of antibody bloodwork, for the UNC study I'm in (and Crumbl is 1 mile away from there)—the only bloodwork I don't mind doing. Their scale is that anything over 1.0 means you have antibodies, and after the first round (1 month after my initial two Moderna shots), my number was 4.7—which I think is okay, as it means I DO have antibodies, but some people were getting 100 to 300+ for their number, so I interpreted it as meaning I have a lower number of antibodies vs. other IBD patients. I'm hoping that number will go up now that I've had my third dose of Moderna ... fingers crossed.
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| Flaming Turtle chocolate fondue at Melting Pot, Troy, MI |
