Gastronomical Additions and Gadgets

It's the day after Christmas, and it's time to bust out some of the new prezzies!

I strapped on my new Nike Fuelband this morning.  I'm still not entirely sure how this bad boy works, but it's meant to track your activities throughout the day and measure your steps taken, calories burned and most importantly, your "NikeFuel."  NikeFuel are points that are allotted for your movement throughout the day.  These points are measured the same for everyone, so you can track your progress and compete with friends online on the Nike+ website.

{I wonder if my Nike FuelBand is measuring all the calories I'm burning reading David Foster Wallace}

I'm definitely not using this to its full potential yet...especially since I don't think I've got this set up right.  The FuelBand is still not displaying all the information across the LED screen that it's supposed to (NikeFuel points, time, calories burned and steps taken).  So far, my FuelBand is handing me information by piecemeal throughout the day when I press the button instead of cycling through the entire list of information promised by the product and website.  I fired off an email to the Nike Support team, so we'll see what they propose.

I'm looking forward to wearing my new gizmo tomorrow.  I'll be taking it through a workout at home, a bike ride to work, a 6 hour long shift walking through the restaurant and up and down stairs, then a bike ride home.  I'm confident that I'm going to wrack up some serious NikeFuelage.  Watch out world!

After my afternoon workout--where I supposedly burned 500+ calories during my at-home circuit workout--I busted out my new collection of gourmet olive oil and vinegar.

I was given sample sizes of 3 different vinegars and 3 different olive oils.  After looking over my options, I decided to use the Cranberry Pear White Balsamic Vinegar and the Organic Chemlali Olive Oil to dress my salad.  I have no idea what Chemlali is, but it smelled good, and its scent seemed to pair well with the sweet and tart tones coming off the vinegar.

I'm no food critic, but I was pretty impressed.  I eat lots of salads these days, and I'm totally invested in making my own salad dressings (much to the dismay of the refrigerator shelf crowded with old, separated, pre-made dressings I bought at the grocery store ages ago).

I can't wait to taste test my through the other samples.