Jam packed weekend and it is only Saturday afternoon!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. For those of you heading to FNCE (ADA conference) I hope you are enjoying yourselves.

I can hardly believe it is only Saturday afternoon and I have already fit so much into my weekend. Let's start with Friday afternoon. While I was grading papers and making posts to my students I had a quick snack, which was this fruit bar with fiber. It tasty pretty good.

But the bar did not make me so full that I couldn't enjoy my left over tofu and couscous for lunch.

I opened my Sony Digital Reader and I had these fun peanuts again. These are the ones you put in water and they dissolve so they are eco-friendly.
I didn't put them in water yet since I did not know if the product was going to work. The first one I received was defective and I had to send it back.

I really like the size and weight. I have never had a Kindle so there is nothing for me to compare it to, but I think this will be good. I chose this because it reads PDF files which the kindle does not. For reading and taking notes on journal articles this seemed more practical (work and play!).

Very thin and easy to handle. I charged it up and it seems to work!

Friday night dinner we went to Buzius, which everyone tells us is great. It is located in Porto Martins, which is an area where many Americans live.

You can't beat the view!

Started with some olives. I LOVE olives!

They served garlic bread because it is an Italian restaurant.

We split this wonderful Greek Salad.

Ryan had the vodka penne with chicken.

I went with the shrimp scampi since the server told me the shrimps had been beheaded! I love it when there is less work involved to get to my shrimp. Plus I didn't have to see them smiling back at me. This was the largest serving of pasta I have ever seen. I probably only ate 1/4 of this dish and brought the rest home.

See, no heads!

Ended the meal with a meia de leite.

Cafe for Ryan. This Nicola coffee is the best on the island, in my opinion.

After dinner we went home to watch a movie. I found my cat in this position. I do not think she wants me to ever go away again. Either that or next time she wants to go with me.

I also got this great sweatshirt that I ordered from the bookstore along with my textbooks. I usually wear my UNLV sweatshirt, but I wanted to get into the spirit of my new school.

This morning we participated in the 2nd Annual Azorean Breast Cancer Awareness walk held in Praia da Vitoria. The walk was so nice because the entire second half was along the beach.

They had a nice snack table set up.

Here I am getting ready to walk. I am wearing one of my favorite shirts.

Save 2nd Base

I got a cool water bottle.

Lots of people walking. Not a big crowd, but given the that the island is small, it wasn't too bad.

The group again. This time we are heading up the main shopping street in Praia. It is naturally closed off as a walking street so it made sense to take the group through here.

Heading down the second half of the walk (total was just over 4 km) we went along the new walking trail that goes along the beach and coastline. We spotted this area of "exercise quipment". Not troo sure but we think it is "art" like a sculpture to remind people of the importance of exercise. But at the same time it seemed like the activity centers worked and kids were using them like it was a playground. Across the street was a sports bar.

After the walk ended we stopped for a morning meia de leite.

This is one of the bars along the beach. No alcohol this early in the morning, but a coffee YES! I think the inside looks pretty cool. They have a set up for live music and an upstairs area. We sat outside so we could look at the ocean.

Turns out this week is ExpoTerceira, which is a convention set up showcasing the local economy. So they had vendors for foods and wines, local businesses and renewable energy sources. I took some pictures so you can see what kinds of things they have here on the island.

Can we say midlife crisis? It was a sweet car.

Solar panels in the section for renewable resources.

A fun Nescafe maker.

We got samples!

Display from a local beer and wine store. They had a pretty good selection of European beers. They had some Lambics so that was good.

These fund veggie sculptures were made using one of those veggie slices that I know they show on TV and it slices onions and things. I thought this was a neat idea.

Here is the display from Make me Nuts. Remind you of anything American (hint DD). We have gone to the actual store for a nice egg and pancake breakfast. They even sell donuts (just like DD!).

I found a vendor for soymilk products. They say these can be found in local markets in the villages. This is the powdered version.

O Pescador even set up a restaurant inside the hall. I spotted pumpkin soup on the menu so I may have to go back and try some.

There was a cheese display with samples. These 2 were my favorite out of the 4. These are local cheeses made on this island. These are from cow's milk and the other 2 were also from sheep and goats milk, plus cow milk.

This is canned skipjack tuna. It is from the Azores, but a different island.

Some local jams.

Too cute. "Her" skirt is made out of garlic. This put me in the mood for some garlic, so I went home to make lunch.Yep, it's Portobella time. Got out some balsamic and garlic.

Added some olive oil.

Look how beautiful that is.

Marinated it in the balsamic, garlic and olive oil.

Grilled it up on the stove. I love this pan. Thanks mom and Joe!

At the very end I added some mozzarella since there was left over from the eggplant parm.

Served it on toasted whole grain bread.

I was actually really impressed with myself on this one.

And yes, it tasted as good as it looked.

QUESTIONS: Have you participated in a breast cancer walk this year? Any exciting plans for Saturday night?