Daniel J Isom

About a year ago, I wrote a post about My Top 10 Board Games . This post is the update that I promised to do after a year. In that post, I stated that the games you'll find here are all ones I own. That has not changed. It's possible that after a single play there are games out there that I might like better than these 10, but I'm keeping it simple.

Summer is coming to a close but August was hot and we were very very busy. I took some steps back on a couple of these, but September is already shaping up to be a big turnaround. Here's how I did in August: 1) Bake more bread from scratch August has been hot and it was probably our busiest month of the year so I only have a couple of loaves to show. With everyone going back to school and Christine having surgery, I just didn't have the time or the energy to do more. However, as we get into our new routines, I should have quite a bit to share this month. I did a half batch of my usual bread dough so I could work on my scoring. I wasn't really happy with how either came out, but part of it was due to using a new knife. I'm not making any excuses, I just need more practice. Normally I use a straight blade pairing knife, but this time I tried a serrated bread knife. It cut much deeper into the dough than I was expecting. Even though the cuts weren't as nice I ...

About a month ago, during Prime Day, there were a lot of sales on various activity trackers. I had some birthday money still sitting in my Amazon account, so I used that towards getting the budget friendly Fitbit Flex 2 . It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that some of the more expensive models have, but I wanted to see if it's something I would actually use before spending more on one. Now that I've had it for a month, I thought I'd give my thoughts on it. This purchase was inspired by my attempt to get back on track . Since I've gotten serious about getting in better shape and trying to lose some weight, I'm down 8 pounds in approximately two months. I've lost 6 of the 8 pounds in the last month. I attribute a lot of that to the Fitbit. The reason for that is because of the app that tracks a bunch of things and the ability to set reminders. I have it set so if I haven't taken 250 steps in an hour, from the hours of 6am to 3pm, the band wi...

The summer is here and I feel like I'm grinding a bit to stay on top of these things. I don't know if it's the heat or just how busy we've been but I'm tired. I'm still plugging along though. 1) Bake more bread from scratch I almost didn't get anything done for July because we've been busy and it's been so hot that I didn't want to use the oven much. But I had some time this past weekend to get something made. I wasn't sure what to do, so I made the recipe for four one pound loaves that I've been doing. Once the dough has risen, broken it down into four pieces and shaped them with the intention of working on my scoring. From the top going clockwise, there is a pound symbol, three slashes, scallop, and a plus sign. I wasn't happy with the pound symbol but the other three came out pretty good. I was most satisfied with the scallop design. These smaller loaves baked a lot better than some of the larger loaves I've done in th...

Jersey Mike's #8 Club Sub Review You know when you go to a store or restaurant and they ask you if you want to join their rewards club? Say yes, say yes every single time. It costs nothing and you might get free stuff. If you don't want a zillion junk emails, because you will, create a secondary email address specifically for this. That's a tip from me to you. I signed up for the Shore Points ™   Rewards system that Jersey Mike's offers and I was pleasantly surprised that for your birthday they send out a free sub and drink coupon. I saved mine for a while but finally used it a few weeks ago. I've had many subs from Jersey Mike's because we use them to cater one of our meetings at work each quarter. They're very similar to other sub places like Subway. They serve subs and wraps made with sliced deli meats and cheeses. Jersey Mike's also has a large menu of hot subs that include about a dozen cheese steaks, chicken parm, and a few other types. W...

I love bagels. I've loved them for as long as I can remember. Sometimes I even take the time to make my own from scratch. That's how much I enjoy them. Ever since we've moved to Delaware, it's been hard to find a good bagel. The place in Dover that had decent bagels changed ownership and the quality has gone way downhill. The closest place to us now that has a good bagel is a Manhattan Bagel location about 20 minutes out of the way from our daily activities. So when we went back to NY earlier this month, we knew we would be stopping at Bruegger's at least once. As it turned out, we went three times and grabbed a dozen to freeze on our way home. Christine and I are big fans of bagels for breakfast, so Bruegger's used to be a semi monthly stop for us when we lived in NY. Unlike the "bagels" you'll find at fast food establishments and most grocery stores, Bruegger's bagels are actually bagels. They are not just a roll with a hole. The key ...

Red Lobster Chilled Lobster and Shrimp Rolls Review I love seafood, specifically all forms of shellfish, so I was more than happy to go to Red Lobster for lunch. This was another meal courtesy of a gift card we had received. I've had the lobster rolls from Red Lobster before and they're not bad. They aren't on the level of the seaside shacks I used to visit in Maine years ago, when my grandparents lived there, but they are worth ordering. The lobster and shrimp rolls have shrimp mixed in so there is obviously less lobster. Some may think the addition of shrimp is just filler, but the contrast in taste and texture was actually quite nice. The salad of lobster and shrimp is made with a mayonnaise based sauce similar to that of other salad sandwiches. A spring mix of lettuce lines the inside of the toasted New England style buns. It's a great sandwich construction trick to keep them from getting soggy. I'm thankful for that because the sauce was quite runny du...