Rochester Pride: Queen Edition

This is part of a three piece series about the Rochester Pride Parade 2011. I will of course start out with the most important part of any parade: the Queens!!

This year's parade was much bigger than in years past. This is a huge year for New York on the path to equal rights, so we were out celebrating our new right to marry in force this weekend.

There seemed to be some sort of fairy tale theme to some of the Queens this year which is awesome!

We like to go down near where the parade ends and get some nice side street parking a few blocks away. We tend to secure a nice curbside spot and spread out under a tree on Park Ave near Goodman.

I'm happy to say that the furries were represented. This okapi would love to see people dressed in furry outfits at all times. (No I'm not one, but I do know some!)

This is an awesome three wheel vehicle that makes me think of The Undertaker. "Fancy" says that she would totally travel in a motorcycle like this because t isn't likely to flip over and cause a stick to go through her head.

Ah, Alice. Who doesn't love the Mad Hatter? My favorite part about this pic is that the grill of the truck isn't decorated. Wonderland, indeed.

Like the gurls up there, I too will wave goodbye to you my loyal and appreciated readers. Stay tuned for my next installment for some more Rochester Pride!

Okapi Weight Loss Program Phase 2

So, as many of you know I've been doing my workout program for two weeks and have lost a few pounds. I'm sure I've also gained a little bit of muscle, so all in all this okapi is happy. Now comes the fun part: phase 2. 

Have you seen the movie "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead"? Yeah, well I hadn't either until one of my best friends, The Ewok, came to my house after watching it. She told me all about this movie with this guy who juice fasted and lost weight and turned his life around and cured himself of a debilitating auto-immune disorder and helped save others and...well you get the picture. At first I was extremely cynical, but after several hours of The Ewok banging her spear and drilling in the gospel of the juice, I was intrigued.

I told "Fancy" about the juice fast and we streamed the movie on Netflix that very night. It turns out that everything The Ewok said was true, so "Fancy" and I decided to try it. I did extra research on juice fasting and we picked a date to begin: July 17, tomorrow. 

Juice fasting is when you eat only fresh fruit and vegetable juice for a period of time (usually at least 10 days). It cleanses your body of all the crap built up from years of eating terrible "food". You can only drink juice and water the whole time; no coffee, tea, cigarettes, booze, or food. I'll miss tea and food, "Fancy" will miss coffee, cigarettes, and food-plus she'll be working. This is going to be goddamn tough.

I went to the downtown public market this past Thursday, which by the way was rated #1 in the country last year, and bought $70 worth of produce. I have green leaf lettuce, celery, red peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, lemons, ginger root, peaches, and two kinds of apples. We're ready to juice! 

We will juice fast for a minimum of 10 days starting tomorrow, so I won't be able to do any restaurant reviews this week which is totally sad for me, but I will post about other stuff. I should have lots of energy after the first couple of days, so I'll be able to check out some sweet nature spots to throw on here for you guys. 

Lastly, please excuse my tone over the next several days: While my body is cleansing, detoxing, creating new cells, losing fat, and clearing up my skin I will probably be at least a little miserable. I'll probably be like Stan Marsh from South Park in that episode where everything seems like shit to him. On a totally unrelated note I think I'm a lot like Stan Marsh in other ways, like always wear a blue hat with a red stripe along the rim, I swear, I'm cynical...screw it, I'll just do a post about this sometime. I clearly have a complex.

Tryon Park, a Green Sanctuary in the Urban Forest

A fantastic place to go for a great hike in nature can be found in Irondequoit and is literally a forest in the city. The area is not developed, but instead left to its natural roots. There are some actual trails or you can just make your own, that's what this okapi likes to do.

This park has a bunch of bike trails and even a bike bridge, none of these are paved. The trails are ranked "difficult", so you want to make sure you're already a biking bad-ass before you check these out. This nature half pipe (pictured below) has roots sticking up and the angle is definitely steep, so biker beware.

In fact, this is one of only two parks in Monroe County where off road cycling is allowed and that's a temporary situation. It's part of a program to see the effects of off road cycling on the park environments, so if you're a cycling enthusiast keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't hurt the forest.

One of the best parts of this park is that it's raw nature. No one is coming through here maintaining it, so you get a real country feel just minutes from the highway. Also, since the place is hidden pretty well, it's never really crowded.

Since I was the only one around on a weekday afternoon I could let my mastiff, Stella, choose our paths. She loves going for nature walks-especially without a leash! She's awesome at hopping over fallen trees and running down steep embankments, so she is quite the tour guide.

One of my least favorite parts of the park is the graffiti, broken glass, and abandoned trash. This is the flip side of having such a hidden, un-maintained park; there are entire cars abandoned here and a ton of broken glass. Fortunately, this aspect is dwarfed by the sheer size and beauty of this 82 acre wild land.

     

This flower was one of the few splashes of color in the green and brown world of the forest. 

Tryon Park is located on a street by the same name which is a dead end off of Winton Road. *There is no park sign that you can see from Winton Road, just a dead end sign.* It's a little odd to get to as you can see it from 590, but have to go around the block to access it (Browncroft Blvd, Merchants Rd, Winton Rd, and finally Tryon Pk). 

If you live in Monroe County and haven't gone to Tryon Park, shame on you.

"Grand Super Buffet" is Actually Not an Exaggeration!

Grand Super Buffet in Henrietta is the new favorite Chinese buffet of the okapi family. Now, let me start by saying that this isn't my favorite Chinese food, but my favorite buffet Chinese food. 

I am a firm believer that there are three types of Chinese food: 1-Authentic: go to China or a real Chinatown in a major city and you'll see what I mean. It is in a category all by itself and if you haven't tried it, get on a plane right now and do it, you'll thank me! 2-Take-Out/Sit Down: This is the top level of American Chinese food and totally delicious in its own right. 3-American Chinese Buffet: Not as high quality, fresh, or delicious as #2, but a lot more variety for your money.

So, as far as buffet Chinese food is concerned, this is your best bet in Rochester according to this okapi. This buffet is part of a chain with another location in Irondequoit and one in Greece, but this is by far the best of the three. They boast four full hot food stations, plus one salad bar/condiment, one dessert, one ice cream,one sushi/Mongolian grill, and on weekends one dim sum. This is a huge variety!

 

If you love seafood, this is the place for you. They have several shrimp dishes including garlic shrimp, coconut shrimp, fried shrimp, and even shrimp on ice. They have clams, whole fish, fried fish, craw fish, and sushi. All of this was on a weekday is very impressive, but on weekends they toss in crab legs and dim sum, not to mention their new "lobster Sundays"!

Other than seafood, they have several chicken dishes which are quite good including old standbys like sesame and sweet & sour chicken. The lo mein is the best I've had at a buffet (and better than many take-out places) which is quite an achievement, it is spiced just right and there are a lot of firm noodles. This okapi goddamn loves noodles. There are a ton of American foods as well including french fries, mac and cheese, beef roast, pizza, and fried chicken wings, so most kids should find something they like here.

They have the typical dessert assortment including pastries, Chinese doughnuts, and ice cream, but the best by far is the egg custard pastry: these are amazing!! If you can't find something for dessert here that you like-I give up on you. All in all, the buffet is really good and with several soup, salad, main dish, and dessert options, they strive to fit everyone's taste. The prices are fair as it rolls in at $11 per person during the week and only an extra buck for weekends.

These great fortunes were a happy conclusion to our meal and I will definitely return here (after my body are soothed, of course). I can't give this place 5 stars because of a couple of lackluster items: coconut shrimp, cheese wontons, spare ribs, and spinach with cheese. They weren't awful, but I've had much better. Also, the service is sub par since my water became empty and I had to seek someone out for chop sticks (none on buffet). I give it 4 stars and recommend it to anyone looking for a big variety for a good price.

Tiffany Stories Part 8

Tiffany: It was just terrible!

Me: What was terrible?

T: THE DATE.

Me: What happened?

T: We went to the movie and it was awesome!! Then we went to his house and he made me chicken parm.
(Yeah, so, it used to be veal.)

Me: What did you have with the chicken?

T: (blank look)...asparagus?

Me: that’s disgusting.

T: No, the asparagus was fine, but I've had better veal at RESTAURANTS. (Now it's veal again. This is strange.) We had wine with it. (It was originally champagne, but, you know, whatever...)

Me: Oh no! That sounds terrible!! How did you ever survive that date?

T: (glare) I'm not done. After dinner we went down to the basement and played Operation and Life!! 

Me: Hahahahahahahahahhahahah

T: What? I love those games and so does he!! What is so funny?

Me: Um...you’re 21 years-nevermind. Go on.

T: Then we started kissing and

Me :( disgusted look) dude.

T: He is a terrible kisser. And he was feeling me up the whole date. We're over!!

Me: How did he take it?

T: He doesn't know, but he will be crushed. 

After this I didn't see her for a few days because we were short on payroll. When I saw her again I asked if she was seeing anyone new. She said that she was avoiding romance as she now wants to move out of state. I was crushed. So, I thought "it's ending. Oh, no. This is terrible." Again, I didn't see her for days and when I did she was quiet. No stories. No nothing. And then I worked with her today. As soon as she saw me, she said "guess who I heard from." 

I said "Tre?!"

"Oh, yes and have I got a story for you." 

Stay tuned!