New website!!

Hi guys!

If you haven't already, switch over and subscribe to my new blog: www.slightlyunedited.wordpress.com.

I'm not longer going to be using this one, so this is going to be my last foreseeable post using this site. Thanks for reading!!

Nila

New blog located at www.slightlyunedited.wordpress.com

To my handful of subscribers (most of whom are my family), I'm moving blogging platforms. Bookmark www.slightlyunedited.wordpress.com. I'm going to be phasing out my blogger.com account, so goodbye blogger!

Buddha Sky Bar in Delray Beach

My office suite is on the sixth floor of a building in downtown Fort Lauderdale. I live on the second floor of my building that's a few miles from the beach. I guess you can say I have a pretty good vantage point at any point of the day.

So when I heard Buddha Sky Bar was opening in Delray Beach, and it was the only rooftop restaurant overlooking Atlantic Avenue, I had to check out the view. Last night was the opening for the media and VIP guests (and for the record, I was the former and definitely not the latter).

Buddha Sky Bar is on the third floor of a building just west of the railroad tracks. It has a spectacular view of Atlantic Avenue, where I was able to see the hustle and bustle of the avenue from up above. Large windows encase the intimately sized restaurant, so there's not much of the city you can't see. It's a hip restaurant with red booths and exposed air ducts to give a modern feel. The food complements the decor – creatively packaged and minimally dressed.

That's me and my co-worker Jenn Tormo posing with the ginormous Buddha statue that sits right outside the restaurant. The photo was taken with hopes of winning a dinner for two at Buddha Sky Bar as the restaurant's running a contest on its Facebook page. (Hint, hint: PLEASE "like" my photo on FB. Please!)

There's even an outside terrace that sits between 12-14 people. The best part? There's no extra fee to reserve this space (just be sure you call ahead to make sure it's available).

Black cod miso = my favorite dish

Eel roll with coconut

My friends Phil and Jeff being served eel rolls

Tuna rolls

Buddha Sky Bar lights up at night

Pinon Grill

I like food. A lot. There's not much I won't try, not much I won't consume. The good, the bad, and the ugly, I've eaten them all. But nothing gets my goat more than paying a large sum for a half-decent meal. I've done it several times in my life, and then proceed to say a lot of expletives right afterward.

So there's nothing I like more than good food at a good price. (Well... my love of the Florida Gators sports teams just might surpass that.) And I'm glad to see a South Florida restaurant open that suffices that criteria.

I dined last night at Pinon Grill, adjacent to the Town Center at Boca Raton. Touted as serving "quintessential New American cuisine," I've been told the restaurant has been a big hit with its Boca Raton residents. And I've heard tremendously good things about Pinon Grill since it opened seven months ago. My co-worker raved about it - and I mean RAVED. He and his wife went a few months ago for a rare dinner without their two kids. He talked about the cool bar at Pinon, the good service and the good price point. Too, our former intern also mentioned how much she enjoyed it.

Before I went to Pinon last night, I grilled my co-worker:

Me: Do you have to get dressed up for it?

Co-worker: Nah, you can go casually. I mean, it is Boca so there'll probably be a few people dressed up, but you can get away with wearing jeans.

Me: Is it pricey?

Co-worker: Not at all. We had two entrees and a couple of drinks, and the total was the same as if we'd go out for dinner at TGI Friday's.

Me: But is it good?

Co-worker: Definitely. It's really, really, really good. I think I had a chicken sandwich, and I remember it being really good.

With that knowledge in mind, I embarked on an epic media dinner at Pinon Grill last night. With Kevin Blair, the managing director and co-founder of Pinon Grill, dining with us, us media folks got a spectacular glimpse of why my co-worker was raving about this food.

When asked to describe what "quintessential New American cuisine" was, Blair mentioned how the restaurant pays ode to America's melting pot, and to take beloved American mainstays and add flavor profiles from cultures that have immigrated to the States. "The whole gamut of the representation of food is here," Blair said last night.

Blair proceed to tell the server to bring out just about everything from their menu. Thank goodness because I was still hungry from my Canyon Ranch journey from last weekend!

Here's a snippet of the goodness of Pinon Grill. I can't wait to get back there to eat the other things on the menu.

The smoked beef briskett quesadillas ($15)... yum!!! I'm still thinking about it right now!

The "stacked" tomato salad ($9) is made with locally grown tomatoes and has sweet onion sprinkled on top.

The warm goat cheese salad ($9) was amazing... There was spicy candied pecans and sun-dried cranberries, two of my favorite things.

The grilled tuna burger ($14) had an Asian flavor to it with soy sauce and accompanied by Asian slaw.

The Chilean Sea Bass ($32, and caught by sustainable methods, Blair assured me) is topped with pesto and served with parmesan potatoes. YUM!

The pecan-crusted trout ($22) was equally as good as the sea bass. Blair said all the fish on the menu is sourced locally, a nice ode to our local businesses.

I was assured over and over again the Irish coffee was "authentic." And even though I could only take a sip or two (whiskey is not for me!), I could taste the great flavors.

My co-worker Jenn had the key lime pie martini.

Dessert included the sundae, created with delicious Haagen Dazs ice cream.

Oh, we topped off dessert with... French toast ($12). I could only eat one bite because I was too stuffed. I'm definitely going to have to eat this one again the next time I'm there!

My trip to Canyon Ranch

You get to a certain age where your clothes don't fall the same way they used to. When you can't eat what you ate when you were younger and not pay the repercussions of it. When you see your body doesn't look the way it used to, and when the word "muffin top" doesn't refer to a type of food.

If you couldn't tell what I was leading up to, here it goes. Yes, I am at that age right now. Sigh.

It's even worse when in the back of my mind the only thing I'm thinking about is how I'm going to fit into a wedding dress next year. Being the complete "easy button" person that I am, I figure liposuction should never be ruled out. After all, I'm the gal who considered getting Keurig just so I don't have to clean up after my morning coffee.

But as luck would have it, I got a bit inspired this weekend. (When I mean "inspired," I mean "hit over the head with how poorly I'm treating my body." And when I mean "luck," I mean "why didn't I do this earlier?")

I spent the entire weekend at Canyon Ranch in Miami Beach. For those of you inactive and lazy bums like myself who don't know much about Canyon Ranch, it's a mind-boggling resort/wellness/lifestyle/spa/residential property that really breeds a healthy lifestyle. Every part of the hotel, from its zen-like design to its uber-fit staff, makes you want to lead a healthy, active life - something I've done here and there for the past four years.

Canyon Ranch's three towers are along Miami Beach's waters.

All of Canyon Ranch's rooms are suites. Baller.

The gym facilities and instructors are superb. My fiance and I took four total courses (there were a combined 102 classes available to us during the two days were were there), and they each in their own way kicked our butts. The first one was a sports conditioning class. Taught by a former MMA fighter. Yikes. MMA fighters are known for their work ethics, conditioning, strength and overall fitness. And one was going to work on our conditioning for 45 minutes. Double yikes.

Let me first mention that I'm casually active. I play sports, cycle occasionally and enjoy the thirst of having six-pack abs. Am I fit? Not so much. Am I a complete rookie to sweating and being active? No as well. So I made sure we took an intermediate course on sports conditioning - not too easy, but not too hard.

Our workout studio was an open-air room with one side completely open to the beach. After a quick jog around the room (frontwards, backwards, sidestepping, crisscrossing, etc.), I was exhausted (stamina is not my strong suit). But nooooo... We had to do lunges. My achilles heel. After more torturous exercises using resistance straps, I was well done. Like, doing everything in my ability to not hurl.

Beyond the expansive fitness courses, what makes Canyon Ranch so different from other resorts is that the environment really encourages a good attitude toward living a better life. Talking on your cell phone is discouraged, recycling is encouraged, and taking care of your mind and body is top priority. Everyone walks around the resort in fitness outfits and sneakers - no worrying about the latest Prada styles that other highfalutin properties might propagate.

Too, I ate super-healthy. That's the only choice you have if you eat on property at Canyon Ranch Grill. There the menu list not only the ingredients, but also the calories/carb grams, protein grams, fat gram/fiber grams of the selected dish.

Canyon Ranch Grill has indoor and outdoor seating.

Monk in a Trunk is brewed in Jupiter, Fla., and is an organic beer.

The menu at Canyon Ranch Grill (celiac and vegan diets are welcomed!)

The chicken Italian sausage flatbread at Canyon Ranch Grill... Total calories/carb gram: 230/26; Protein gram: 13; Fat gram/fiber gram: 8/2

Stuffed roasted poblanos... Total calories/carb gram: 165/6; Protein gram: 19; Fat gram/fiber gram: 7/1

South Georgia Island Chilean Seabass (Marine Stewardship Council Certified Catch)... Total calories/carb gram: 390/14; Protein gram: 16; Fat gram/fiber gram: 32/2

All in all, the weekend rocked. You can even purchase a residence at Canyon Ranch and truly LIVE this way. I can't wait to go again. Especially because after we checked out of the property, we ate loaded nachos, quesadillas and eight slices of pizza. Non-organic, of course.

P.S. You'll notice there are no photos of me in this blog posting. Why? You guessed it. There's nothing more off-putting than seeing photos of a sweaty, near-vomiting blogger. As my boss says it, "I need to keep the two or three readers I currently have."

Extreme Home Makeover

I just finished watching the most recent "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," featuring our family friend Carrie Prewitt. Amazing. It was incredible seeing Coach Prewitt again, and extremely heartfelt to see her get the home she deserves. Admittedly, I normally don't watch this show (some parts are too sappy for me), but I definitely set my recorder on to tune in to this one. Some highlights of the episode that hit close to home:

1. Seeing clips Middleburg High School

Even though I didn't attend Middleburg High School, I basically grew up there. My parents both worked at the school (I think they worked there a combined ridiculous amount of years... I want to say 70-some total years), and my older brothers both graduated there. In the summer time when I was younger, when we didn't have a babysitter, I would hang out all day in my dad's office while he worked. Members of MHS became part of our extended family, including Coach Prewitt. I remember my dad taking me to volleyball matches to support the team (yeah, if you couldn't tell, there wasn't too much to do in the little town of Middleburg...), and I remember watching games when I was as young as 10. My dad was a regular at the volleyball games, both home and away. He loved Broncos volleyball - and he was Coach Prewitt's No. 1 fan.

2. Seeing a clip of former MHS players

As a kid, I looked up to Jenny Manz. That name probably doesn't mean too much (not compared to feature guest Misty May-Treanor who made a nice cameo on the episode), but she was an all-star in terms of Middleburg High volleyball. She graduated along with my eldest brother in 1996, and she was the first person I remember seeing who could spike a ball at a 30-degree angle. Jenny and the entire volleyball team came to my elementary school when she was a junior and demonstrated a quick volleyball clinic. After seeing her spike one ball, all the elementary girls (myself included) idolized Jenny. She'd later become a highly recruited player, eventually settling at the University of Florida and coached by another volleyball great, Mary Wise.

The home Coach Prewitt ended up with is so remarkable, and something that's so fitting for her - Zenlike, with personality, and warm. If you've ever traveled through Middleburg, you'd know there's no such home that rivals the one Coach Prewitt now lives in. Middleburg's a small town, small enough to know most everyone in town, their brothers, sisters, children, parents and cousins. I lived there for nearly 20 years, and I remember one of the biggest happenings in town was when Publix was being built there. (And then that got bumped by the more recent opening of Wal-Mart.)

No doubt this Extreme Makeover has superseded every one of those occurrences. Congrats to Coach Carrie Prewitt and the beautiful family she is raising. We all love you.

Mother's Day Done Right

Mother's Day is this Sunday and instead of my writing about my mom (who I adoringly admire), I'm here to write about another special mother. One who will be featured in Sunday's "Extreme Home Makeover."

This mother is named Carrie Prewitt, and she lives in my hometown of Middleburg, Fla. If you tune in on Sunday night, you'll understand why Carrie Prewitt - or Coach Prewitt as I know her - deserves this extreme home makeover. And, if you know anything about the small town of Middleburg, you'll know home makeovers are a long time coming. Middleburg's a unique country town. When describing my hometown to some friends in college, I was able to count the number of street lights in Middleburg on one hand, something my friends from Tampa found hilarious.

Coach Prewitt is a good friend of my parents. Before they retired, my parents both worked at Middleburg High School, the same school where Coach Prewitt still coaches the championship-level girls volleyball team. She's a legend in Middleburg and in North Florida. She lives, breathes and is Bronco volleyball. She gives up her weekends and personal money to devote to her players and team. When I would accompany my dad to work on Saturdays, we'd always see her jeep right outside the gym and her directing a Saturday practice. We would later be told it was been there for hours, since early that morning.

She lived less than two miles from my parents' home and would periodically come over for dinner to enjoy a traditional Vietnamese meal. She lived in a trailer, something not at all unusual for the folks of Middleburg. It may have been a double-wide trailer, an "upgrade" in the eyes of many Middleburg-lites.

I went to high school in Jacksonville, but Coach Prewitt let me play on her travel volleyball team based in Middleburg and go to volleyball camps for free, where I learned to how do a 1-ft.-plus vertical jump (which has now decreased to a 1-inch hop). She was the best coach I ever had - and she was only my coach for about three days.

I remember one dinner we had. I was probably 16 at the time. The conversation turned heavy, and we somehow got on the topic of relationships. I had never even had this heavy of a talk with my own parents. I remember telling her that my future husband's religious background didn't matter to me, that I would marry him for who he was, regardless of who he worshipped. But then she told me something that would forever change my life. She told me, gently, that she used to feel the same way, that she too wanted to marry a man no matter his religious affiliations. But something changed, she said, when she got older. She started realizing that a person's religious values are one thing, but how to raise a child is another time. She got me to slowly realize that life isn't just about me, that it was also about any offspring I brought into the picture, and how my husband and I wanted to raise our child.

I totally don't mean to get religious - and I'm definitely not arguing for or against anything - but I still hold Coach Prewitt's words close to me. Even off the volleyball court, she was still coaching me.

So I can't wait to check out her segment this Sunday night. In reading the local paper online, I've learned Coach Prewitt has become a mom herself. She adopted two teen girls recently. What a woman.

Happy Mother's Day to Coach Prewitt. I am so, so happy for you and the great new home that you've always deserved.

Return to Origins Recycling Program

Whatever you do, don't throw away your empty cosmetic bottles. Instead, take them to the nearest Origins retail store or department store counter. There, they will take those bottles to the proper recycling facility. It doesn't matter if it's an Origins bottle or another brand - they'll still recycle it! Pretty cool, eh? It's called The Return to Origins Recycling Program, and it's something I think everyone should be encouraged to participate in.

With my job, I tend to get triple the average gal's supply of makeup and beauty products. While that's an awesome perk to my job, it leaves me with a ton of empty bottles, tubes and compacts.

Empty cosmetic bottles and packaging can end up piling in landfills because the average recycling program might not recognize the hard plastic materials as recyclable. So it ends up in the dumps only to get piled up higher and higher, and adding more unnecessary waste to our planet. After you take your empty packaging to an Origins store, it then gets shipped to a central location where it's sorted for recycling or it - through some amazing science that I cannot explain - can get converted into steam or electricity.

Examples of acceptable packaging you can give to Origins:

• glass jars
• plastic jars
• bottles
• tubes
• caps
• lipstick covers

Origins stores and department counters in South Florida:

• Inside Dillard's inside the Galleria Mall
• Inside the Macy's inside Coral Square
• Standalone store inside Town Center at Boca Raton
• Inside the Macy's inside Town Center at Boca Raton

Celebrating a Sustainable Wedding

On a personal note, something exciting will occur next year... my wedding! I've been busy getting inspired and taking in all these suggestions, but one set of suggestions really weighs heavy on me - making it a sustainable wedding. Weddings can be a tremendously wasteful and unsustainable, and I really don't want to add anymore waste to the world than I have already done.

To get a couple of caveats out of the way, I don't pretend I am any more "green" than the normal person. I recycle, I reuse, and I try my best to reduce my carbon footprint by carpooling, riding my bike, etc. But, I haven't yet started composting, and I could definitely take shorter hot showers.

So I asked my friend Joe Winn, CIO of Greater Good Alliance, if he had any advice on helping make my wedding as sustainable as possible. Coincidentally, he was in contact with his environmentally conscious friend who's also planning a wedding. In his own words below, here's his and his friend's advice to me:

"As you know, weddings can be an expensive proposition, both for the wallets and the planet. From too much food to huge amounts of air travel, it all adds up. Every one of these suggestions/ideas is being adopted by a close friend (of which I am part of the wedding party, yay!) in her wedding, so all these are credit to her.

Here we go:

Travel impacts. First, she lives in San Diego, is from Virginia, and is marrying a Kiwi.

What she is doing: Therefore, to reduce travel impacts, they will be holding three weddings, one in each place. They do have to travel far and wide, but the guests do not (go to the one closest), so there is a definite reduction in impacts over one wedding where tons of people fly from all around the world to attend. Additionally, the VA wedding will be held at her parent's home, so no cost of facility rental or special customization of the property (it's waterfront, so that's pretty nice). Drivers are encouraged to carpool, both to reduce emissions and to maximize use of limited parking facilities.

Flowers: Oddly enough, they tend to be the greatest environmental impacts at an average wedding. Normally, they are grown in another country and flown (refrigerated overnight) to the destination, then trucked to the wedding. That's not to mention the fertilizers and water used to grow those flowers in environments not suited to them naturally.

What she is doing: Working with a friend who grows all the flowers locally, so they can be simply driven over on the day of the wedding. Additionally, they are all native species, so no funky fertilizers needed. The lily bulbs are not native, and are being shipped, but they do not require refrigerated or overnight transport, so it minimizes many effects there.

Decor: From centerpieces to random pieces scattered throughout the area, the decor is often made of one-time-use materials and can come from nearly everywhere in the world. The impacts can sometimes be substantial.

What she is doing: No landscape changes being made for event besides additional flowers being planted (all sourced locally). All centerpieces are constructed of recycled glass bottles, locally sourced flowers, and sea glass/sand collected from the backyard. Essentially, everything that will be used to beautify the event is 100% biodegradable and has almost zero carbon impact.

Purchased items: If you have enough at your home to provide for an entire wedding, then you're a hoarder or the greatest party property. Whether it be table cloths or bowls, online purchasing tends to have large carbon impacts.

What she is doing: All shipped items were purchased direct from warehouses in bulk during their seasonal stock transitions (tiki torches, for example). This way, items come in as few shipments as possible, and were destined to be moved anyway. Paper lanterns were also purchased, but these will be resold following the wedding, making an economical form of recycling.

Invites: You can go really wild with this, with 12 sheets of paper, different plastics, and all kinds. Just read the latest wedding magazines to see what people do.

What she is doing: They made their own invitations (I have one on my desk; it's adorable) with basic stencils, "wax-like" designs, and a fabric ribbon around it. Nothing excessive, and can all be recycled (hopefully people will). Additionally, this single invite covered all the wedding locations. Plus, the leftover paper from the wedding invitations will be used as confetti on the tables. All RSVPs are conducted through e-mail or phone, and no further wedding materials will be sent out (all additional information is available through their website).

Wedding favors: You've got to give something away, and so many of them are, "oh, that's so nice, but what can I do with it?" Plus, it's another "thing" being used.

What she is doing: Being a Southern wedding, the favor is a Mason jar mug, to be used as your cup during the wedding (no disposable cups being used at the event), then taken home to re-use. If people do not take them home, they will be donated or used at the house. No trash will result from this item.

Seating & eating arrangements: You can rent, you can buy; again, few have the resources for sitting down 100-something people.

What she is doing: All chairs, tents, and tables are rented from the most local company available to minimize transport emissions.

Food: One thing I remember from every wedding I've attended is the sub-par food, and the sheer volume of it. Sorry to all my friends, but the food just is rarely good. Plus, who knows where all the ingredients come from. Then there's the cake, and it usually comes from a large company who ships it in (that, and the cake topper).

What she is doing: The caterer is a local person, and all foods are locally grown, sourced (again, Southern culture), and seasonally available. Additionally, all seafood being served will be sustainable (Check Monterey Bay Seafood Guide). There's only so much one can do for the cake. The cake-maker is another local person who is also making the cake topper, reducing transport emissions.

Dress: I'm a guy. I know nothing of this topic.

What she is doing: Purchased a new dress (since they tend to be cheaper... don't ask me), but it will be used for all three ceremonies. After the third in New Zealand, it will be sold (recycled).

Other wedding ceremonies (what she is doing): All wedding locales will be embracing the same ideas of locally sourced materials, foods, flowers and people for services. Plus, they will even be combining the New Zealand travel with an educational workshop (for their studies) and the honeymoon (in Tonga), so no back-and-forth travel to the States.

As you can see, the majority of the items being serviced/purchased are from small, local businesses (or one-person shops). This helps support the local community, fulfilling the people (and partially the profit) part of the Triple Bottom Line. The local foods, materials and flowers help benefit the global environment, but more specifically, the local one. We've now covered the planet part of the Triple Bottom Line. Finally, nearly every one of these sustainable steps also was economically friendly. It cost less to be sustainable!

Obviously, there are dozens more ways one can be sustainable in wedding planning and the event itself, but I think she has done a great job in putting some of these things together. I'm certain there are many more things being done that just weren't mentioned. But, bottom line: None of these things increased the cost of the wedding. Every single one reduced the cost of having the weddings.

So be economical, be people-friendly, and be "green". Go get married!"