Cool Starbucks Tip

This morning I went to Starbucks (imagine that) and learned a useful tip from my local barista, Chris, that I thought I would share.

Starbucks has a handy dandy little green stick that you can stick in the little hole in your cup to prevent the hot coffee from splashing out all over your hand or car. Since I my stops to Starbucks are usually in the morning on my way to work, I always want one of these to keep the coffee in the cup and not all over the car, but it seems that my local neighborhood coffee shop is nearly always out. In the past, Chris has offered me a sticker from their label machine, which … kind of works, but today he solved the problem for good.

If you are ever faced with this, all you need to do is take one of their short straws (they have larger ones for venti frappuccino's that are longer and fatter, don't use these) and bend it in half then stick the fold into the cup. I am happy to say that it works well and they are a lot less likely to not have straws.

Thanksgiving 2009 Menu

So thanksgiving is next week and I need to get all of the ingredients before it gets too late. I figured out everything that I am going to make and it is very similar to last year, with a couple of twists. Either way, I figured that I would share my master plan with everyone. I got most of the recipes from allrecipes.com except for the cranberry relish (from NPR), mashed potatoes and the other ones are obvious.

I did change the recipes to NOT use shortening since it is horrible for you and I am going to do it old school with just some plain old lard. I have tried making pie crust with "alternative shortening", butter and even coconut oil, and while they were all acceptable, I have never had one come out just right so I am going with Lard this year.

Thank GOD I have two ovens, or this would be near impossible.

Anyway, if there is anything that you think I have forgotten or whatever, just let me know!

Stuffing

• 1 1/2 cups cubed whole wheat bread
  
• 3 3/4 cups cubed white bread
  
• 1 pound ground turkey sausage
  
• 1 cup chopped onion
  
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
  
• 2 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary
  
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  
• 1 Golden Delicious apple, cored and chopped
  
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
  
• 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley
  
• 1 cooked turkey liver, finely chopped
  
• 3/4 cup turkey stock
  
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degree F (175 degree C). Spread the white and whole wheat bread cubes in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes in the preheated oven, or until evenly toasted. Transfer toasted bread cubes to a large bowl.
  
• In a large skillet, cook the sausage and onions over medium heat, stirring and breaking up the lumps until evenly browned. Add the celery, sage, rosemary, and thyme; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes to blend flavors.
  
• Pour sausage mixture over bread in bowl. Mix in chopped apples, dried cranberries, parsley, and liver. Drizzle with turkey stock and melted butter, and mix lightly. Spoon into turkey to loosely fill.
  

Pie Crust

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 3/4 cups lard
  
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons salt
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1/2 cup water
  
• In a large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, lard, sugar, and salt. Blend together with a pastry cutter until crumbly.
  
• In a small bowl, mix egg with water. Blend into flour mixture. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.
  

Pie Filling

• 2/3 cup white sugar
  
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
  
• 8 Granny Smith apple - peeled, cored and sliced
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  
• In a small bowl stir together the sugar, flour, cinnamon and cloves.
  
• Place one of the pie shells into a 10 inch pie pan. Put 1/2 of the sliced apples into the shell and sprinkle half of the sugar mixture over them. Top with the remaining apples and the remaining sugar mixture.
  
• Cover apples with the top crust. Press edges with the tines of a fork to seal and poke holes in the top with a knife. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes.
  

Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish (This is the BOMB, yes I said "the bomb"… old school)

• 2 cups whole raw cranberries, washed
  
• 1 small onion
  
• 3/4 cup sour cream
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons horseradish from a jar
  
• Grind the raw berries and onion together. ("I use an old-fashioned meat grinder," says Stamberg. "I'm sure there's a setting on the food processor that will give you a chunky grind — not a puree.")
  
• Add everything else and mix.
  
• Put in a plastic container and freeze.
  
• Early Thanksgiving morning, move it from freezer to refrigerator compartment to thaw. ("It should still have some little icy slivers left.")
  

Biscuits

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1 tablespoon sugar
  
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
  
• 1 cup milk
  

In a medium bowl, combine flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt; mix well. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in milk just until moistened. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface; knead gently 8 to 10 times. Roll to 3/4-in. thickness; cut with a 2-1/2-in. biscuit cutter and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm.

Deviled Eggs

• 12 eggs
  
• 1 (4.5 ounce) can deviled ham
  
• 1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
  
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  
• 1 pinch black pepper
  
• 24 slices black olives
  
• Paprika for sprinkling
  
• Place egg in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, and peel.
  
• Cut eggs in half lengthwise, place the yolks into a mixing bowl, and set the whites aside. Mash the yolks with the deviled ham, mustard, mayonnaise, and black pepper. Spoon or pipe filling into egg white halves. Garnish each deviled egg with an olive slice, then sprinkle with paprika.
  

Turkey

• Tony's injection
  
• Tony's seasoning
  
• Inject the turkey as per directions
  
• Rub the turkey with Tony's seasoning
  
• Stuff the turkey with the stuffing above
  
• Bake the turkey per directions that come with the bad boy.
  

Brown and serve rolls

If you need directions for this you are an idiot

Mashed Potatoes

• Small bag of red potatoes
  
• 1 cup sour cream
  
• 2 tbsp garlic
  
• ½ stick of butter
  
• Cut potatoes into small chunks
  
• Boil potatoes for about 20 minutes
  
• Drain water from potatoes
  
• Add all ingredients and mix to desired consistency
  

Green Bean Casserole

I don't remember the recipe off hand; I will have to get it from Kasey.

Slacking? Not one bit.

I feel like I have been slacking since I have not written in my blog lately, but things at work have been pretty busy. I am on a new project and have been learning and using Flash and Flex to make all kinds of cool things. In anticipation of this new project, I have been sent to training for ATG eCommerce in Boston (Cambridge actually) and to Charlotte for training in Flash.
Both places had some great tings about them, but I LOVED Cambridge. That place really has character and if I would have experienced it earlier in life I can totally see myself living there. The training however was just kind of, eh, boring.
Charlotte was nothing to write home about as a city, but the training was incredible. I took a class at Lodestone Digital and it was worth every penny. Although the company paid, I felt that it was so good I would have paid for it myself.
Other than that, I have been doing the usual, busy with work, home and church.
I am not sure if I had mentioned it before in this blog, but kasey has had a broken foot since about the 4th of July, so she has been incapacitated and this has kept us from going to the beach. I felt really bad for her, with not being able to get around and being in pain. She was really sweet though and bought me a super cool camera to thank me for taking care of her. (How thoughtful!)
Now, the holidays are coming up and my favorite, Thanksgiving, is just next week! I am really looking forward to it and I will be sure to post details on the great feast that I have planned.
Well, like I said, I am really busy, so it is back to the grind for now, but I will make a better effort to keep this updated!

Ain’t looking for nothing, but a good time…

There is a board game that I like to play called Cashflow. I like to describe it as "Monopoly for Big Boys" but it is actually quite different. It was created by the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad as an "educational" tool that is just fun to play.

In the game, you start by randomly being assigned a career ranging from janitor to teacher, doctor, lawyer, and a range of others. You get a little card that has information about your "life" such as your income, debts, bills and what not. As you take your turn in the game, you move around the board and you are given the opportunity to make different investments, mostly in real estate, that give you additional income. The object of the game is to earn enough additional income to cover all of your stated debts so that you can retire.

As is expected, if you have the career of a doctor, you have a higher income than a janitor, but you also have more bills. This means that you are able to make more investments more quickly, but you have to have more additional income to "retire".

In most cases, as the game is played the person with the janitor's job retires first.

This teaches one of the things that is stressed in the books, which is basically that if you live modestly, it is easier to invest your money and have it work for you. If you decide to spend your extra money on a flashy car or house or 110 inch plasma tv, then you do not have that money working for you, instead, you are working for your things.

This reminds me of one of the lessons from Fight Club, "the things you own end up owning you."

Taking both lessons into account, it seems logical to me to take the Tyler Durden inspired route and back away from the consumeristic lifestyle while at the same time preparing for a more modest future and retiring "early" as opposed to being a slave to my possessions until I die.

For the past 4 years I have had a BMW and while they are fun cars to drive and have all kinds of cool dripping off of them, they have drawbacks; mainly their total cost of ownership is pretty high. I have recently decided to get rid of my Bimmer in favor of a used Xterra. The Xterra is significantly cheaper, yet performs more functions than the BMW such as towing things and taking my beloved dogs to fun places. Major drawback: gas mileage kind of sucks.

I have ditched DirecTV in favor of over the air HD, Hulu and Redbox. I would probably do better to ditch all of that for books and even then explore the wealth of free literature available from Project Gutenberg.

I now buy very little "crap in a box" food that is pre-prepared and terrible for your body in favor of real food like vegetables, meat, spices, and other ingredients. Yes, it is more work because I have to prepare it. I have to plan and learn to cook myself, but it is actually easy, extremely self satisfying and surprisingly tasty.

I have a modest home and while I do not care for its location (actually I just do not care for the location of some of the other people in the proximity of my house), I see no point in spending half of my net income on a house when a fourth will do.

 

Many times I have talked of living in a van (or RV, or boat) and living solely from online income. While that is an extreme example, it does embody the sprit of what I want: FREEDOM.

I can close my eyes and imagine a life different from my own as it exists now. A more simple life. I would wake up with the sun, eat a simple breakfast and drink coffee outdoors. I would then prepare for my adventure for the day. That could be anything, but I believe that it would be good to seek adventure in our lives, see something new, go somewhere you have never been, try something you have never done, learn something just for the sake of learning. Later in the day, enjoy time with your family and friends, because connections with people are important for both their growth and your own. Finally, I would take time in the evening for a good book and finally for reflection on the days activities and prayer.

I understand that life gets in the way and that not every day will be like that, but the way it stands now, no days are like that and frankly, that is not acceptable.

 

Sometimes I wonder why I bought into this suburban lifestyle in the first place. Oh yeah, so I could have things… Now I have things I don't need and a job I don't care for. (Note to my employer, I don't hate you, I hate being your slave.)

 

Where do you put this on your resume?

When I was younger I used to spend a lot of time playing role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons or Traveler. In these games your character would almost always have a job description of "Adventurer". You would always be on some sort of quest for riches, fame and glory.
As a kid, this seemed to be a perfectly normal profession and one that anyone would want, but what happened to that? Surely there is adventure to be had in the world today. What would the life of a modern adventurer look like? How would you explain that to a future employer? Would you ever need to explain?

----
Thanks,
Scott McArthur
www.antbytes.com

Montana Trip - Spring 09 - Wrapup

Ok, so I have been doing blogs like "Day 1" etc, but I have been taking forever to get them out and now I am already preparing for another trip to Montana, so I am just going to wrap all of this up and move on to other things.

The fifth day of my trip, Paul and I spent a lot of time chilling out and working together sharing business ideas and what not. We did go out hiking though and as we were cruising down the street, we ran into a group of wild big horned sheep. We were able to creep up on them and I was able to get some good pictures from the SUV. The hike was very enjoyable as we spent most of it talking and discussing life and philosophy. It was really nice to be able to spend some one on one time with my uncle.

I am not really sure what we did that evening, but I think that is the night that we went out for sushi. The sushi place there was really good and they had this smoked salmon roll that was AMAZING!

Day 6 we did some more bumming around the house and then we went on an adventure. Today's adventure was a quest for Bruce. Bruce the Moose.

Bruce is a young, adolescent moose that lives in the Hamilton city park. From what I understood, he lost his parents while he was very young and has lived in the Hamilton city park ever since. Don't get me wrong, he is still very much wild. Keep in mind that "city park" may not be what you think. Hamilton is only like 5,000 people and while the city park does have all of the things you would expect in a city park, it is in Montana and has a lot of land with hiking trails. Bruce the Moose is not hanging out amongst the playground equipment.

We get to the park and Paul tells me of his run in with Bruce. Paul had been hiking around the park trails and turned a corner only to be greeted by a huge wild moose. This made me a little nervous since I have been chased by cows before. It is not really a very enjoyable experience and a moose is a lot bigger, so I would imagine that it would be less fun.

Anyway, after hiking through the park for a while, we did find Bruce. I was able to walk up and get pretty close. The pictures do not do him justice. He was as big as a large horse, but his antlers were really small since he is still young. He seemed ok with me watching him, but wanted to keep a close eye on me. After a bit, he went back to eating and scratching himself. I thought that it was kind of funny when he would scratch because he would bring his hind leg up to scratch his neck like a dog does. Is that normal for a moose?

Anyway, it was pretty neat getting that close to Bruce the Moose, but there is only so much looking at a moose that you can do.

We headed back to the house and played some games with the kids then Kasey called.

Normally, this would not be a big deal, but this time she was calling to let me know that Big-a-Toe and 4 of 7 were fighting all bloody like and had been for a while. She was not in a happy place at all. I had my dad go help separate them and told Kasey to lock them up for the night and that I would be home as soon as I could. I had to cut my vacation short a day, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

I was bummed that I had to go home because we had planned to go snowboarding the next day again. Although the lifts were not running, we were going to ride up with a snowmobile. FUN!

I got home the next day and we enrolled the dogs in special training that cost an arm and a leg (which we have yet to use all of as of now). It was either that or we would have to get rid of some of the dogs. In retrospect, it has been way worth it since they are a lot mellower now and seem happier now that we have set the pecking order for them, but that is a whole other story.

Now, Kasey and I are planning another trip to Montana in the October / November time frame. We are going to both drive up and take some of the dogs with us. We will probably spend most of the time visiting hot springs!

Facebook Blogging

A while ago, I hooked my blogger blog up to my facebook notes. It is pretty handy because now if I post a blog on blogger it automatically alerts my facebook peeps.
What I have been wondering though is how I can tag people in the facebook notes. Usually when you make a note in facebook, you can tag people that are mentioned, but when it does it automatically, you can not. I had hoped that there was a way to go back and edit the note in facebook, but I can not seem to find it. Does anyone know?

Montana Trip - Spring 09 - Day 4

My fourth day in Montana was a Sunday and we had made plans to go to a natural hot spring. I had never done this before, but I have heard about all kinds of health benefits and how relaxing and cool it was, so I was pretty excited to go. Craig would not be joining us though because he had to go to a training course to become a soccer referee. It was kind of a bummer, but it was a great opportunity for him! That morning, we got up, ate some breakfast and hit the road with some snacks for the road and our swimsuits. Paul had a book about all of the hot springs in the north west USA which I glanced through for about 5 seconds.

Now, let me take a pause here to let you in on what was going on in my head. I figured that we were heading to a spa like place with a natural hot spring, maybe some mud baths, seaweed wraps and possibly a hot stone massage. I was wondering how much this was going to cost me, but I was on vacation, so… whatever right?

Ok, Paul, Kristen, Kara and I pile into the car and head out. The place that we are going to is in Idaho and about two or three hours away. We are cruising down the road and jamming to some tunes and they begin to tell me about some of the other hot springs that they had been to and that they had never been to the one that we were heading to. As they tell the stories I begin to get the idea that what I had envisioned was not exactly right. I explained my idea of what we were doing and I am told that there are some that are kind of like that, more commercial, but we are going to a more rustic one. I get out the book that Paul had given me earlier and look up Weir Hot Springs. As I read, it becomes clear to me that I was REALLY wrong in what I was expecting. Apparently this is just some natural spring that random people have built up pools for in the middle of nowhere.

I was not disappointed at all. This would be pretty cool. I mean it was in a book, so it had to be a pretty great place, right? I was starting to get hungry though and I asked if there was going to be any restaurants near the place and Paul just kind of looked at me with a smile that said "dude, you have no idea", but just said probably not. I then realized that I was going to need some food and asked to stop at the next gas station.

We were not anywhere near civilization and it was quite a while before we came across anything. We continued our drive through the mountains, the humongous trees and ever increasing snow fall until we got to a gas station in the middle of nowhere. It was kind of a gas station / camp grounds and was pretty much empty. They we went into the main house and asked if they had any snacks for sale. They had to go find a guy and then go find a key to open a different building that had some things for sale in it. I don't think that the place had been opened in a couple of weeks, but they had some chips and some other forms of sustenance from Costco, so I spent $10 on a few things. While I was checking out, I asked the guy if he knew how to get to Weir Hot Springs as the directions in the book were a little unclear.

"You're going to Weir huh? Just go up to mile marker (whatever) and watch for where the road widens. Don't park there though, you will get towed. You will see the trail and it is just a little walk in." I told him thanks and got back in the car. We continued down the road and I told Paul what the guy said.

"I am sure that we will see a sign or something though," I mentioned.

I was greeted with another smile at my naivety from Paul. "Probably not," he said.

We eventually got to the right place and saw a couple of other cars parked on the side of the road with snow all over the place, so we got out and started walking up the road. I had realized that I had not made a snow man yet, so I made one really quickly on the side of the road and we continued on, for like a half of a mile! This is not what I was expecting and it was all beginning to dawn on me what was really going on.

We found the trail and then hiked for about another half mile into the woods. Now, it is important to remember that it is winter, it is snowing like crazy, there is already a LOT of snow on the ground, and we are in the mountains.

This is NOT what I was expecting. It was so much more. The hike in was amazing. We travelled in next to a creek and through ever increasingly large trees. There were many trees that had fallen over due to the weight of the snow on their branches and they lay across the creek with two feet of snow piled up on their now horizontal trunks. Their still standing companions were easily four to six foot in diameter and rose what seemed like forever.

The terrain was not crazy ridicules or anything, but it was covered in snow and did pose some problems as some bits had to be travelled via a mandatory butt slide down the side of the mountain. It did have me wondering how exactly we were going to get back though.

After a while, we reached an area where the snow was conspicuously melted indicating our arrival at the hot spring! There were two couples already there and we greeted them and then found a secluded area to change into our suits. We were maybe 100 feet away from the hot pool and had to make that trip in the 20 something degree weather in just our suits. (some advice, BRING FLIP FLOPS!)

The hot spring itself is just a natural spring of water flowing out of a crack in the side of the mountain. It travels maybe twenty feet down the granite and is caught in a pool made by local residents from piled rocks, concrete and logs. They even put in a couple of PVC tubes at different levels to allow for emptying the pool or changing the water level. The water comes out of the face of the rock at about 117 degrees, but cools to about 105 by the time it reaches the pool. The pool is constantly circulated by the never ending stream of hot water that flows over the top of the pool. The pool is about the same size as a 12 person hot tub.

We said hi to the other people there and quickly dipped into the warm water of the pool. It was an awesome way to just chill and enjoy time together. The scenery was amazing! Since we were basically on the low side of a mountain, the best view was across the creek to the side of the mountain on the other side. I was just relishing the time spent looking at the majestic trees, and the contrast of the warm water vs. the huge falling snowflakes landing on my head that would quickly melt into a memory.

We spent a couple of hours there talking to the couples there and just having a great time. After a while though, a large group of people ready to party showed up and that was our cue to leave. We got dressed and headed back.

I had thought that the trip back would be unbearable after so much relaxing, but the stay at the spring was actually very invigorating and the trip back to the car was nothing.

This was definitely something that I could do again… over and over and over again.

Montana Trip - Spring 09 - Day 3

Snowboarding! The third day in Montana was a Saturday, so the kids Craig and Kara were off of school and we were all going snowboarding and skiing at Lost Trail Powder Mountain in Idaho. Since I live in Texas and had never been before, I had no snow gear, so I had to borrow some from Paul, which fit just fine and did a great job of keeping me warm all day.

After a quick breakfast, we were on our way. It was quite a drive although I don't remember how long it took, maybe two hours or so. As we drove through the mountains we would pass by miles and miles of near barren landscape, scarred by outrageous fires that burned for days and left nothing more than massive black trunks sticking up like shadows of their former selves. The blackened areas were surrounded by lush green as if an invisible wall would let the fire go no further. It was amazing to see and terrifying to imagine.

These fires were back in 2000 and destroyed over 307,000 acres. To put that in perspective, San Antonio is only 263,744 acres and New York City is 300,096 acres. What struck me as odd was that despite the fires being nine years ago, there was little new growth. Apparently the fire was so hot that it destroyed the seeds and since it is such a large area it takes a long time for seeds to get spread around. Also there is one group of people that want to reseed the land and another that wants to let nature take its course. I suppose that I can see both sides, but I wonder which way I would fall if I lived in the area.

Anyway, after the drive, we arrived at the ski slopes and this was a very special day indeed. Lost Trail was having their annual "Summer Sucks Skiesta" to greet the coming of spring and the inevitable closing for the season. This meant all kinds of special events, live music, 10 burgers for $10 and all kinds of other fun.

I was eager to get going, so my uncle Paul took me over to the rental place and got me squared away with boots, a snowboard and a trainer. Since Paul is part of the Lost Trail Ski Patrol, he hooked me up with a guy he thought would do a good job and it was off to the bunny slopes for me. The lessons went as expected. I fell. A lot. Since I had always rode a skateboard goofy footed, the tow line to get back up the hill was backwards for me and posed another problem, but by the end of an hour or so, I kind of got the hang of it and was having a great time. I did not get to go as much as I wanted because Lost Trail is at about 6500 feet and after several runs and tumbles I would be out of breath and getting a headache and had to chill out for a while. I did have a great time though and spent time watching everyone else ski, checking out some of the crazy costumes, talking to Kristin or Paul and eating some great Chili.

In the afternoon, some of the events of the day started. They had a high jump and rail slide competition, but the best was the pond skim. For this, they had dug a hole that was maybe four feet deep, 70 feet long and 20 feet wide. Contestants would have to come down the mountain from a designated spot on either skis or a snowboard and then skim across the pond in order to make it to the next round, which was set up at a lower point on the mountain. Apparently proper attire was optional and in fact discouraged as the most entertaining was watching the guy in just boxers fall into the frigid water or the girls in a bikini and ski boots skim to the end. Extra cool points were added for doing a flip onto or out of the pond, going backwards or getting the crowd wet with the wake. It was a really good time and I wish that I had a better camera with me than the one on my phone.

Sometime later, we headed back to the house for the evening for some smoked chicken and some chill out time. On the way we passed by a mountain that had a huge herd of animals on it. Paul told me that they were elk and there were easily 150 of them just chilling on the side of the mountain doing their elk thing. Being from Texas it was not that surprising to see large herds of cattle, but it surprised me to find out that these were wild herds. It is hard to imagine huge herds of grazing animals that size, yet there they were.

The next day we were going to visit some natural hot springs and I was really looking forward to it, but Craig would not be joining us because he had soccer referee training. :(

Such a Loser

Man, I can't believe that it has been so long since I updated my blog. I am sorry to leave you hanging about my adventures in Montana, and there has also been so much more going on to write about. It looks like I may have a chance to catch up later today, so I will try to finish up the Montana adventures and maybe some other interesting tidbits.

Boardwalk Bistro

Yesterday was my 8 year anniversary. It's hard to believe that Kasey and I have been married for 8 years. It feels like 20 minutes… under water (bah dum dum).

Anyway, last night we went out for the evening. I wanted to try some place new, and I am a sucker for French food, so I had been thinking of going to L'Etoile. After reading many poor reviews on citysearch.com though, I decided to give it some time to clean up its act.

I did notice though that the top of the list was a place called Boardwalk Bistro, but did not really think anything of it. I considered other options (Bistro Vatel, Bistro Time, or Fredricks), but I figured that I would see what people were considering the most romantic place in town. The page loaded and then BAM! Boardwalk Bistro was at the top of the list again. I had remembered seeing it down on Broadway and figured that I had nothing to lose.

I called the place to make a reservation for 2 at 8 and was greeted by a distinctly American voice, and not the uppity maitre d voice, but maybe a dishwasher. (ok, I kid, it was really just a regular guy.) I really did not think very much of it, I mean we are in the USA after all, so whatever, right?

Later that night, we promptly arrive on time for our reservation. As we pull in, we notice that the place seems packed, which is surely a good sign. As we get out and approach, we notice that people sitting outside are dressed much more casually than us. I was not super dressed up or anything, I was just wearing Dockers, a black t-shirt and a sports coat, but this did surprise me some as it was not what I was expecting.

As we got closer, we could hear the jazz playing inside. I was not surprised by this however, since it was mentioned on citysearch.com and on their website.

After walking in the door, we were promptly greeted. I informed the lady that we had reservations at 8 for McArthur, but before I got past the word reservations, she had turned to check for an empty table. I was a little worried that the all importing reserving of the table part of a reservation had not happened, but she quickly returned and then guided us to a very… subprime table. This table was not only away from the windows and had a view of the performance area that was partially blocked by a pole, but it was right in front of the restrooms. By right in front, I mean it was almost blocking the entrance.

The place was PACKED though, but mostly with people north of our age group. Like Arctic Circle north. This might seem like it would have put me off, BUT I have learned one thing for sure in my life so far. Old people KNOW where good places are. Why do you think there are so many old people on cruise ships? They are GREAT! Along with noticing that we were some of the youngest in the place, I also noticed that we were overdressed. Par for the course was business casual, but I think that this was less of a dress code and more of the simple fact that it looked like some of the guys had come straight from work. Attire did go all the way down to shorts and a t-shirt. Also, ball caps were acceptable. This was not the romantic place that I was expecting.

Our waiter arrived and took out drink orders. When he came back he said that he had noticed that in the reservations book (they have one!) it said that this was for our anniversary. He mentioned, somewhat apologetically that Monday nights were more casual and hinted that we would have a much different experience on a Friday or Saturday night.

We asked him about the appetizers and decided to get their Santorini Sampler (Two saffron rice & vegetable dolmathes, hummus, tabbouleh and tzatziki sauce served with pita bread). I might mention that while this restraint does have some French food, it is more Mediterranean food, incorporating different foods and styles mainly from France and Spain, but also some north African fare.

After talking to the waiter some more and considering the menu, I decided on the Crab Cakes with a cup of some sort of chicken soup (I cannot for the life of me remember what kind) and Kasey went for the Crab Stuffed Salmon Roulade with a Caesars salad.

We sat enjoying the music, which was a group of men playing some jazz, each taking a turn taking the lead and showing their mad skills. It was enjoyable, but we were still getting accustomed to our surroundings and did not immediately get into it, but it was clear that these guys were having a great time.

The band took a break and gave us some time to talk and enjoy each other's company, you know gaze lovingly into the other's eyes and whatnot and then our appetizer arrived. It was really good, the pita was fresh, the hummus was creamy and the dolmathes were delicious. This was promptly followed by our soup and salad, both of which exceeded our expectations. I might mention that Kasey loved the bowls that the salad was served in. I guess the best way to describe them is a regular bowl with a high back. Hard to imagine I know, but that is the best I can do for now.

Around this time a group of maybe ten young people dressed in tuxedos and evening gowns got up to sing. We were told that they were Encore 2009 from Athens Texas. The waiter informed us that they were travelling around and would just be there for that night. They sang four songs including Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and other similar songs. Kasey and I both enjoyed watching them very much and as they sang, we began to get more comfortable with the place. Since we are very go with the flow people, this was easy and the night was turning out to be a good one.

We were discussing how a young person would go about getting into a group like Encore 2009 and figured it had to be a college group. I mean what kid wakes up and thinks "Man, what I need is to get together with some other jazz singers and just like tour the state!" Especially kids from Athens, deep in the heart of east Texas. As they wrapped up and were walking off, I stopped one of them (Matt) and asked. He told me that they were in fact from Trinity Valley Community College and were a small group that is part of a large choral group that was in the area. Good for them! (By the way, Matt's myspace has some great pictures of Encore 2009).

Our entrees arrived and the first thing that we noticed was the slice of salmon was as huge as a large piece of cake. It was easily three inches tall and overflowing with crab meat. Both dishes however looked amazing. I tasted the salmon, and yes it was good, but the crab cakes were AMAZING. They were not only delicious, but complex in both flavor and texture. Each bite was a new experience. The combination of buttery crab meat, creamed avocado, lettuce, almonds, mango, fried potato strips and several other bits and pieces provided for a surprise every time my fork entered my mouth. GAH, it was awesome.

Anyway, I could go on and on about it, but I will leave it there. The food was all that and a bucket of chicken.

Throughout dinner and dessert, the lineup on the stage changed nearly every song and included Jim Cullum (who we have not heard of, but is apparently a big deal here in the San Antonio jazz scene).

After finishing our dinner and deserts (key lime cheese cake for Kasey and crème brulee for me) we ended up staying for a couple more songs just to see what would happen next. I have to say that I was a little unsure of myself when the night started, but as the evening went on, I had a perma-grin as everything melded together to form a wonderful anniversary date.

Kasey and I loved the place and I hope that it makes it into our regular list of places to visit.

Montana Trip - Spring 09 - Day 2

My second day in Montana (first full day, Friday) started pretty early. Craig and Kara (my cousins) had to get up and go to school and since I wanted to visit with them some, I got up as well. The day started out slowly, exactly how I had wanted. A couple hours later, I asked my uncle, Paul, what we were going to do that day and he pointed to a mountain out the window and said that we were going to climb that.

I was ready, but still had no clothes thanks to the airline and only had a pair of Doc Martins boots that are about 10 years old and have zero tread. Regardless, I did not have any more suitable shoes on the way, so I was going to need to go to the store. I borrowed some clothes and a more suitable coat from Paul and then we went to the store.

At the store, I bought a pair of hiking shoes, some wool socks and a chap stick. The shoes were great and made me feel as if I could run faster and jump higher! ;) We then headed to a sandwich shop (like Subway, but mo betta) and each got a foot long to take with us, half to eat now and the other half to eat at the top. Sweet!

We headed to the base of the mountain and started hiking. It was a bit snowy, but did not seem too cold. It is amazing what a difference having the right clothes can make. I had always hated the snow growing up, but as I thought about it, I realized that I was always playing in the snow in jeans, gym socks and sneakers with just a coat, no hat and usually no gloves. I was a kid and stupid then I guess, but having the right clothes made all the difference in the world!

The climb started out pretty easy and went along a nice creek. After about a half mile, we turned to start heading upwards. This is when things started to take me by surprise. See, I had never been in the mountains before and did not know what to expect. My house sits right at 227 (about 681 feet) meters above sea level. I was now climbing at about 1350 meters (about 4000 feet). While that is not a huge change for some, it was enough to wear me out pretty quickly. I started to get winded REALLY quickly and felt as if I could not catch my breath to save my life. We rested a bit and I could go on, but it quickly became clear that this would have to be a slow climb and Paul had some things to do that afternoon.

Instead of going further up the mountain, we opted to hike around it. This was much easier for me and was still a great time. I did leave a bit disappointed though and really wanted to come back to climb to the top of the mountain later that week.

That evening we rented some movies and spent time catching up as well as waiting for my luggage to show up. It finally arrived at about ten at night! The best part is that I was able to give the family the gifts that I had brought from San Antonio, some Mexican food (canned chipotle peppers, enchilada sauce, awesome salsa and Rudy's BBQ sauce for my aunt and uncle and Texas A&M hoodies for the kids). Everyone was happy and we went to bed ready for a day of snowboarding and an end of winter Skiesta celebration at Lost Trail on the Montana and Idaho border.

I had never snowboarded before, so I was not sure what to expect, but I knew it was going to be a great time.

Montana Trip - Spring 09 - Day 1

Recently, I took a trip from sunny and warm San Antonio to Montana to visit my uncle, aunt and two cousins. I was taking this trip alone since my dogs had been fighting lately and Kasey and I did not want to subject anyone to that experience while they watched the pups.

I was looking forward to this trip for a long time and got more excited every day. I knew that I would miss Kasey, but I also knew that I would be having a lot of fun. In truth, if she could have gone, we would have taken a cruise or just gone to Cancun or something with more of a beach theme, but alas, that was not to happen.

Ok, enough of that, on to the trip.

First off, let's talk about flying. I used to have to fly all over the place all of the time for work. There would be days when I would wake up and go to the office only to be told to go home and pack because I had a flight out at noon. I loved it. That all changed after I got married though so that I could spend more time with my wife that I loved more. All of this air travel that I did was pre-9/11 though and back when the airlines were doing well economically. I have traveled since then, but this flight introduced me to some new screws added to the experience. Everything seemed pretty normal, but then I found that the airline now charges for luggage. Any luggage other than one carry on is subject to a $15 charge. The second piece is an additional $25. If it is over sized or over 50 lbs. in weight, that will cost you another $175. I was taking only one bag, but it was large and stuffed with every stitch of warm clothes I owned and gifts for the family. I was worried about the weight, so I stood on my home scale holding the bag and then subtracted my weight. This informed me that my bag weighed 49.8 lbs.

I was sure that by the time I got to the airport it would have mysteriously gained a couple of ounces and I would be charged. I told Kasey that if there was a problem, I would just have her come back to the airport, take the bag and I would spend $200 on clothes in Montana! As it turned out, I took a pair of jeans out and put it in my laptop case to come in just under the weight limit. I paid my $15 and got on the plane.

When I arrived in Denver, I got to see something that I have not seen in a long time: snow. I hate the snow. It is cold, wet and slippery. This was no ordinary snow though, this was blizzard snow. All flights were grounded and I was stuck in Denver for an undetermined amount of time. The trip was not getting off to a good start.

After a couple of hours, I wandered off to find some food. I filled my belly with a $15 sandwich and some chips then proceeded to wait, and wait and wait. This was not all bad though, as it gave me some time to play Final Fantasy on my PSP, something that I do not take enough time for lately, and to read, something else I have been neglecting.

After some more time, my flight had a gate change and was ready to go. I was finally on my way!

From the plane, I got to see some of the most beautiful landscapes that I have ever seen in my life. The Rocky Mountains are truly a sight to behold!

While staring out the window of the plane, I imagined myself hiking through that wilderness and living like Les Stroud in Survivorman. I know that I am not that hardcore, but I like to pretend. J I also got to thinking about the early pioneers and the Louis and Clarke expedition. I also considered the Mormon settlers and got to thinking that this was a really inhospitable environment! I would not have wanted to be a Mormon settler back in the day. I can imagine stopping in the mountains and saying "yeah, this is good. Let's stay here". I suppose that they stopped in the summer, but man, when winter came, I would have been all like "Dude, I am going on to California, or at least somewhere more south. You guys have fun." At least Louis and Clarke kept going!

:) Anyway…

I finally landed and got to see my uncle. I was really stoked to see him and knew then that this was going to be a great week. My joy was quickly deflated when I came to find that while I had arrived, my luggage had not. Yeah, the luggage that I had to pay extra for was not in Montana and would not be there until the next day. The airline said that it would be delivered to my uncle's house the next day, but would not refund my $15.

We left the airport and headed to Hamilton from Missoula.

The evening was spent visiting with the family and catching up.

My uncle lives in what is known as the Bitterroot Valley in Montana. The town is situated in a large valley and obviously has large mountains on either side. This provided for some awesome scenery.

One thing that was really cool is that twilight seems to last for a really long time in the valley. This is because as the sun drops on the horizon, the mountains cast a huge shadow, making it dark, but the sun is still illuminating the clouds. While Texas does have the Hill Country, it has nothing on the Rockies, so this was pretty amazing to me.

Tune in next time for my adventures in altitude and find out what happened in the Legend of the Lost Luggage!

Jack Bauer for President!

I just wanted to share this. I need to make a little bit of time to post some stuff huh?

Blogging

So apparently my blog is more popular than I thought! In the past week I have had at least 4 people that I can think of tell me how they or someone they know has noticed that I have not been blogging so much lately. Well folks, I hate to disappoint my fans, so here I am! J

Actually, the drop in blog posts has been a direct result of me joining Facebook. I have to say that I have been using it more and more. The more I use it, the more I need to use it. It is like NO Xplode (which is like crank). ;)

Anyway, I have been obsessed with updating my status message on there. It is a quick way to let people know what I am up to. Scary thing is that they get to know the patterns of my life. For example, I have been watching the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 series from the beginning on DVD and most every night, my last status update is something like "Scott is watching Star Trek DS9". The scary thing is that I have had people comment on nights that I do NOT watch Star Trek! It's almost expected. I think that people put their kids to sleep by my Star Trek schedule or something.

Anyway, I suppose that the fact that I can update my status and upload pictures straight from my Blackberry gives me the sense that all of my fans know what I have been up to. I was recently reminded though, that this is not the case! I feel so bad that I have neglected you guys!

Oh the stories I have to tell!

I have been so busy. I had an awesome trip to Montana involving snowboarding, mountain climbing, airport fiascos, wearing nothing but shorts in 4 foot snow, and even an encounter with a wild moose!

I have been training my dogs with techniques similar to police dogs and I think that I may start using a training method used by some monks.

I have totally become addicted to playing Mafia Wars on Facebook.

I have found a great park to go hiking at during my lunch hour!

I got to see Tom the other day! Imagine the mischief we were up to… ;)

Our new church building is under construction and popping up very quickly.

Anyway, as you can see, I have a lot of catching up to do on here, but if you want a sneak peek, friend m on Facebook and check out my mobile pictures. Many of the "live" stories of my life get posted up there as they happen. There is a lot about Montana there and some other great stuff too.

You know, I think that blogging is all about the comments. The more comments I get, the more likely I am to post…

Hi Cathy! I am glad that you like this blog. I was surprised to find that you read it!

iMac Update

So, I got one of the broken iMac's that I bought on craigslist working! I am using it now and I have to say that I like it. :) I have never used an iMac g5 before and my first thoughts are: Nice, but LOUD.

Man, this thing has some serious fans. While they are not always running, when they ramp up, they really pack a punch and can even be heard from the back bedroom.

Now I just have to get the other one going. I was told that it had a bad CPU fan, but I am thinking that it is a bad power supply. After learning more about this one I have a better understanding of them and I think that it will be easier to fix.

I was looking on the Apple refurb site and I can get a new 20 inch iMac for like $899, so I think that the plan will be to get these going, sell them both and use the cash to buy a new iMac. I think that I may even get the apple care protection plan for it too. It is an extra $250, but as I get older I am getting tired of fixing broken stuff and I will likely end up paying that much for parts later anyway.

I don't know, I really like these things, but they sometimes seem so fragile.

Well, my iBook has lasted for 4 years with only needing to replace the plug in and battery, Kasey's however has been through the wringer and I think that I have spent about $300 in parts for it. I have become so good at taking that laptop apart, I can completely disassemble it in about 10 minutes.

We will have to see... $250 now, or some adventure later.... Hmmmm....

Anyway, this iMac that I have fixed is a 17 inch 2ghz iMac g5 iSight. I bought it for $200. Spent $65 on a power supply and added a 500 gig hard drive (worth about $60). For $320 it is a great computer! If I knew that I could get 2 years out of it, I would keep it, but I am affraid that since it is the old PowerPC processor, that I will start to run into apps that will not run on it. Besides, you can only upgrade the memory to 2.5 gig and with Photoshop, 20 FireFox tabs, 5 Word documents, Thunderbird and a couple spreadsheets Kasey likes to run at the same time, I am not sure that is enough. ;)

Skunk Update

I did not kill the skunks.

I really wanted to.

But I was too lazy to get a pellet gun.

And I did not want to stay up late stalking them alone.

Maybe Tom will go hunting with me some day.

That would be sweet.

Here is a haiku.

I hate the skunks a whole lot

They stink up my dogs

I want to kill them real bad.

 

Thank you.

Mac Madness

So several years ago, I got my first Macintosh. It was 2003 and I got an old 1998 Wallstreet Powerbook. It was a little foreign at first, but as I used it more and more, I found that I wanted to use it more and more. I began to really like it and in 2005, I bought myself and Kasey two new iBooks.

Since then, my 14 incher has worked flawlessly. Kasey's 12 incher however has had… issues. First off, let me say that Kasey has gotten every penny's worth of use out of that laptop. She has used it so much that the letters have been rubbed off of many of the keys. Her laptop has had the hard drive replaced, the power supply replaced, the hinge clutch replaced, the mother board removed and reflowed (fixes a poor solder job at the factory that causes the video to not work) and the memory upgraded (ok, that is really simple). Anyway, I have done all of those myself and needless to say, I have gotten really good at taking that laptop apart.

She recently has had to abandon it and start using mine because it would just stop working sometimes. I looked into it and it seemed to be a bad hard drive. After a trip to Altex, 20 minutes replacing the hard drive, and another 30 installing OSX, it ends up that it is the ATA controller that is bad.

This is pretty bad news because that is what makes the hard drive work. If that is broken you pretty much cannot use the laptop. Since it is built in to the main logic board, it is expensive to replace. I looked around on eBay and I can get a new (used, but working) logic board for $150 or a whole identical working laptop like hers for $200. It looks like that is the end of the road for her laptop. Mr. FrankenMac will be sold for parts when I get back from Montana.

On another note though, I was cruising craigslist and found someone selling 2 17 inch G5 iMac's for $400! The catch: they are broken. One just needs a fan ($20) and the other needs a power supply ($65) and a hard drive (I have one already!). So for about $500 Kasey and I will be enjoying OSX desktop style!

I did tell Kasey that if I do not have them fixed by her birthday that I will sell them. That gives me two months! I have a really bad habit of starting or planning projects and never getting to them, but I have already ordered the power supply, I already have a hard drive, but I cannot get that stupid fan out! I am afraid that I am going to break something just trying to get the stupid fan out of there.

Anyway, I looked on Apple's website and it seems that I can get a refurbished 20 inch new Intel iMac for about $800. I think that once these iMac's are fixed, I can sell them for about $450 each, so I may do that and just buy a new iMac. I think that this time I am just going to plop down the $250 for Apple Care also…

Yeah, so I am a nerd and that is what I have been up to. :)

It’s Like Crank

So, the other day I ordered samples of N.O. Xplode. N.O. Xplode is one of those "dietary supplements" that come in a big bucket that you are supposed to take before you eat. It has all kinds of stuf in it, like vitamins, caffeine and amino acids. I had never taken it before, but in my quest to get all kinds of buff and loose the gut, I thought that I would give it a try.

Anyway, the three samples came in individual pouches and were flavored orange, grape and lemonade. It says really big on the package that there is no aspartame, which I was happy to find, but it is still loaded with sucralose (Splenda) which I do not like the taste of, but I have yet to determine how bad it is for my body. (As an aside, it is bad for the environment because it does not break down in your body and it does not break down in nature, so basically after you
"expel" it, it ends up SOMEWHERE and never goes away.) Today, I figured that I would try the orange flavor.

I mixed the whole packet with a tall glass of water. As I stirred it in, it created a creamy and foamy looking drink, similar to a watery milkshake. I decided to let it settle for a bit or else I would just be drinking a bunch of foam. After like 10 minutes, it was still foamy on top, translucent in the middle and opaque at the bottom. Hrm….

I decided to lightly stir it and take a big swig.

My first impression was "Yum! Dreamcicles!" followed quickly by "OMG, it is tingling my tongue!" I quit drinking and put the glass down. The tingle was kind of strange and unexpected. A short minute later I was thinking "I hate the Splenda aftertaste." L (Still, it is not as bad as aspartame and does not seem to be as bad for you.)

So, I let it sit a bit more while I thought about it and continued to work, then had to stir it again before taking another drink. This process continued for a while and after 20 minutes, I had drank about half of the glass and was feeling very… Jacked Up… I was shaky and kind of tingly all over. I was a little worried, but went ahead and finished the whole glass.

That was probably too much.

I read the package and it ends up that each one is two doses. It recommends trying just one and seeing how that works for you and then having two at a time after that. Well, I did not, so whatever.

I went to the gym and I was really excited. I could tell that it was going to be different, and I was really looking forward to working some of this off and feeling normal again.

In the locker room, I changed with jittery hands and then spent way too long untangling the headphones for my iPod. I needed to get moving!

I hit the inclined bench and did 50 sit ups without even thinking about it. I then grabbed a ball and did another 50 sit ups. I really only stopped because I got bored. Usually I do 20 on the bench and 20 on the ball, just as a quick warm up.

I then went down stairs and noticed that my heart was really going. I figured that it would be a good idea to take my blood pressure, and it turned out to be a little elevated, but not as much as I expected. It sure felt like a lot more though.

I then hit the machines and did bench press, preacher curls, triceps push down, rows and squats. At each machine I set it for the same weight that I have been working out with, but I was easily able to do more than twice the number of reps that I usually do and was not wore out after each set. What I mean is that my muscles were not tired. I was breathing really hard though and was light headed, so I would stop, but I could have kept going if I had a better cardio vascular system. (I still need to work on that). When I did my squats I actually did twice as many with twice as much weight and would go to my toes to work my calves too. I was squatting with 240 lbs, which to me is pretty impressive since I usually work with like 120!

After my squats though, I was really out of breath and light headed. I had to take a break and stare at a TV for a while. I could not concentrate on it though since I had too much going on in my head. I decided to take it easy since I was not too sure what to expect from this stuff. I then went up stairs and walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes. I feel like I could have gone for hours…

N.O. Xplode is something else. I have never taken anything like it before and it was definitely an experience. It is now about 4 hours later and I still have a ton of energy, but I do not feel like I am going to have a heart attack. Next time I will definitely just use half of a packet.

I am not sure if I recommend this product, since I have nothing to compare it to, but I can image from this experience that it will definitely make your workouts a lot more intense!

Montana

So, the end of this month I will be going to Montana to visit my uncle Paul, go snowboarding and just basically chill and do nothing. I am really excited about it, but Kasey will not be going with me. L

We have been watching Phelix (one of 4 of 7 and Big-A-Toe's brothers) for an extended period and the pups have found it necessary to play the pecking order game. This means no fun dog fights. They have not been that frequent lately, but they did have three of them within a two week period. They were not too bloody or anything, just a couple of scratches, but it is still enough that we do not feel comfortable leaving them with someone else.

I wanted to go on a trip to France, or even just on a cruise with Kasey, but it looks like that will have to wait until the fall. Maybe, if we plan early we can do Christmas in Paris. That would be pretty sweet. J

Anyway, that is neither here nor there. In the end, I am going to Montana and I am going to have a great time. Kasey has gone on several vacations and just visiting trips without me, so she is ok with it and I suppose that she probably does not want to freeze her butt off either!

I will be sure to get some pics while I am there. I just hope that I don't break my legs in the mountains!

Just for Tom

Ok, now you can leave anonymous comments on my blog, but I have set moderation to be on, so I will have to approve them. Gotta avoid spam you know!

I Hate Skunks

So, I have written before about how I hate the skunks in my neighborhood. They wander up and down the alley behind my house and cause all of the dogs to go nuts, plus they have sprayed my dogs on numerous occasions. In general, they stink and they make my life miserable at times.

To make matters worse, I have found that there are people in my neighborhood with whom I have a connection to (a friend's parents) that feed the skunks, let them hang out in their garage and have probably named them. They live only a couple of streets away, and they are not helping the situation at all. No, these are not pet skunks, they are real wild skunks that they let hang out at their house.

Anyway, after being kept up late into the night with my dogs barking as they helped to protect the neighborhood and take care of their part of the outside and then smelling skunk funk again, I have decided to take matters into my own hands.

I am going to kill the skunks.

Now, if I did not live in the city, a little $60 .22 rifle from Wall Mart would be ideal for this, but since I do, I am going to have to resort to other means. In order to be a bit stealthier and not freak out my neighbors, I am going to have to use a high powered pellet gun. I have been looking at them and considering options and I have yet to decide. I have found several great hunting pellet rifles, but they are only single shot break action guns (basically, you pump it in the reloading action). These are pretty great, but I would really like to have one that uses Co2 and has a clip of several pellets, so that I do not have to reload and can fire quickly like a .22 rifle. I have found several pistols that do this, but not a rifle (yet).

Another bad thing is that the Co2 ones I have seen do not have as much power as the break action rifles, so I am not sure that it will kill the skunk. It may just make it really mad and get me sprayed!

Hmmm…. I am not sure.

Another thing that kind of stinks (hahaha) is that the skunks are most active at night. I have found through experience that I am usually tired at night, so this will be a barrier.

I will have to figure it out. Any help would be appreciated.

BTW, I am leaning towards the GAMO Shadow, but I have found a Remington Airmaster on craigslist for only $50, so the price difference may make me go that way. I have yet to decide. I also wonder how hard it would be to mount an LED flashlight and/or a laser pointer from an airsoft gun (I don't even know if I could make that accurate).

Maybe I should check the pawn shops…

Strange Obsessions

I know that I have not been updating the blog very regularly lately and I think that I have figured out why. Ever since my surgery, I have had several strange obsessions. The fact that I enjoy these things is no surprise, but I have just found it strange that there are so many at once. They are not really big things, but they take up my time.

Oatmeal. I have found that I REALLY like to have oatmeal in the morning and if I do not wake up early enough to have some before I go to work, I think about how I missed it all day and try to devise a plan to get up earlier tomorrow. I also try to think of different things to put in it, you know, berries, sugar, brown sugar, different combinations. How messed up is that?

Star Trek Deep Space Nine. I have to watch it and like every single day. At least one or two episodes. One is not enough, two is just right, but three is bliss. Four scares me because I know if I watch too much, I will finish soon and not have any more to watch. (Of course I will watch Star Trek Enterprise next and then Battlestar Galactica, then Dr. Who.) I don't even care about regular TV any more. I do not care what is going on in the present. Except for Big Bang Theory… Strange.

Facebook. Ever since I ditched MySpace for Facebook and installed the mobile app on my blackberry, I have to constantly update my status. I just figure that all of my fans what to know what I am up to all the time. What is funny is that I have actually had one person look on Facebook and see that I had not updated in a while, so they actually CALLED me on the phone to see what I was doing! (Love you Malissa!). Now I am not only flipping out my Crackberry to check my email, the weather or whatever, I have to tell the world what I am doing and see what my friends are doing all of the time.

Football Tycoon. I think about this stupid Facebook game all of the time. It is NOTHING like football. It is more like … hoard money and get skill points… Whatever. I obsessively check my game to see how much cash I have, if I can play some games, or if I can buy any new stuff. There is NOTHING to this game. I simply have to get high numbers. I guess that they make me a better person. Whatever. (Hold on, lemme see how I am doing…)

Buying clothes on eBay. In the past week, I have bought two sports coats, a pair of Dockers and I have been obsessing over this super fine Calvin Klein tuxedo that I just HAVE to have. I mean, a TUXEDO? Really? I would actually have occasion to wear it about 4 to 5 times a year, but still, I don't think that I should be thinking about this as much as I have been. I have bought new clothes on eBay here and there for years, but now I find that if I see someone wearing something that I like, I want to find out more about it to make my eBay search easier. Ok, that is just weird!

Anyway, I am sure that this all has to do with some strange government device that was secretly implanted in me during my surgery. I know that they are watching and trying to control my consumer habits, but I think that something is wrong with it. Maybe someone in a black Perry Ellis suit and Ray Ban sunglasses will come and knock on my door and fix it for me.

Surgery

As many of you know, I have been out of it for the past while because I had to have surgery to repair a hernia. I guess I was working out too hard and getting all kinds of buff and hurt myself. I don't really want to go into details about it but I do have some things to say.

First off, this is the first time that I have ever had surgery and it ends up that surgery is not fun at all. There is nothing cool about it. It is expensive and it hurts. It makes you feel old. On the other hand, I did get to old man it around the house for a couple of weeks and work from home for a while. I think that it gave me a good peek into what the future holds for me and it was pretty cool. If it was not for the pain, I would totally do that all of the time.

Second, Kasey sucks. Ok, not really, but as it ends up, it hurts like CRAZY to laugh after someone pokes and sews all over your abs. Kasey just happens to be a really funny person and would end up making me laugh a lot. Sometimes though she would do it on purpose because she thought that it was funny to see me laugh and cry at the same time. I mean I was literally crying because I was laughing and then laughing at the absurdity of it all as I cried. It was not cool at all. Kasey even got up to go around the corner and laugh so that I could calm down, but I think that she forgot that I was not deaf because I could totally hear her and it did not help. I am really thankful for her though. She was a lot of help and helped to keep a smile on my face, even if there were tears at the same time.

Third, you use your abs for like EVERYTHING you do. After they cut them open, it really hurts to do anything.

4^th Vicodin (Hydrocodone) is awesome. I mean it is not the best thing in the world or anything, but man, it sure was my best friend when I had to get out of bed in the morning.

Star Trek is awesome. This experience has given me a chance to delve into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It was a great way to remind me why Star Trek is so great. I cannot wait for the new movie.

A great response when someone asks how you are doing (they ALL do) is "I'm feeling a little better every day". It lets them know that you still hurt, that you are getting better and that you are done talking about it.

Putting ice on the wound does not really help, but it makes you feel better.

I knew that I would talk in my sleep, but I found out that I also scream and complain in my sleep too. J

Anyway, I am sure that there is more, but that is all that I have time for.