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August 30, 2008
Never Ending Pasta Bowl Strategy
College football is back! And, I must say, off to a very good start. Today Penn State won and Pitt lost. There is no better scenario. Despite what my mom thinks, Pitt is NOT it. And quite frankly I like it when they lose. I say this because Pitt fans are such talkers and I have to hear their yapping all the time about how they have a championship team. Um...no. Not even close.
So yes! Fall is certainly on it's way. But today's weather would give no indication of that. Why you ask? Well, because it was HOT today. And humid. O and I swam this morning and then I went for my 3:30 brick. I was quite a sweaty mess of salt by the time that was done! But it went well and I survived and when I got back I drank about 3 gallons of water!
In other news, O and I went to the Never Ending Pasta Bowl at the Olive Garden tonight. Now in the case that you don't know what this is, I'll fill you in. For $8.95 (at least that's what it costs around here...maybe it's more elsewhere?) you can have as much pasta as you can stomach. There are different pasta choices (penne, angel hair, whole wheat linguine, etc...) and different sauce choices (alfredo, meatsauce, five cheese marinara, etc...) and you can just mix and match and go to town. I suppose the name explains it all.
So of course my problem is, the initial bowl (which is regular size) is enough to do me in and I never get around to trying the other stuff! It should be noted that the "refill" bowls are much smaller. So today I went in with a plan. A Never Ending Pasta Bowl Strategy if you will. I was going to ask the waitress if it was possible that I started with the smaller bowl size so that I wouldn't get full with the intial dish (and the salad and breadsticks) and would then get to try different combos. And that's exactly what I did. But apparently they don't play that game. You have to start with the big size. Hmmm...strategy wrecked!
Oh well. I still had a good showing with one additional bowl of pasta. But O...WOW...he really brought his "A" game! He had THREE additional bowls of pasta after the initial big one. Now that is some serious eating! And he looked strong the whole way. Impressive if you ask me. We wanted to ask our waitress the record for number of bowls of pasta ordered but we chickened out because she really wasn't that friendly and didn't seem to be in the best of moods. And I think she already thought we were weird.
But either way, it was fun. And filling. My glycogen stores are definitely restocked!
Good night everyone!
Posted by beth at August 30, 2008 8:34 PM
Comments
Has O looked into competitive eating? There is a "Donut Derbey" that some people we know are doing tomorrow--bike 33 miles or so and for every donut you eat 3 minutes comes off your time. It sounds like a good race for him.
You guys should get sponsored by Olive Garden with all the mentions you give.
Posted by: maija at August 31, 2008 6:51 AM
I think that the waitress really missed out on some interesting conversation with you and O. The thing I really like about you guys (having never actually met you...) is that you seem to bring the fun wherever you go.
I like hearing about overindulgence when it applies to you and O, because you guys NEED that much food to fuel your activities. However, I cringe a bit at the thought of all of the people who DON'T need it taking advantage of that special deal, to the detriment of their health.
Regarding the Olive Garden sponsorship, I agree!
Posted by: Alison at August 31, 2008 10:36 AM
The challenge at this donut derby would be to see if I could end up with a negative time. The question is, what would be my limiting factor, the fact that I don't have a good bike or the number of donuts I could eat....
Posted by: O at August 31, 2008 11:03 AM
OK, I will give that to you, Pitt football stinks. And that's because they have a moron coach that they won't get rid of! But we still won't root for PSU... unless they're playing someone like Notre Dame, who we like less.
I'm so jealous you will get to watch the Steeler games. I was super tempted last year to get that NFL ticket or whatever the cable company offers, but that still didn't guarantee we'd get the game. So we just call my parents like 100 times and wait for the post race highlights. Yes, we are lucky and get to watch the Cowboys or the Titans down here in Arkansas. After 3 years we're still not big Razorback fans either.
Posted by: Mira at September 3, 2008 9:22 PM
I'm not sure what the record is, but me and some buddies have had our own "Never Ending Pasta" Challenge and last years champ had 7 bowls. This year was 8.
Posted by: Frank at September 21, 2008 6:03 PM