Fridays Feast

Appetizer What is your usual bedtime? Don't really have a set bedtime. Usually between 11 and 12 if I am not on call.
Do you like that, or would you rather it be different? I wish I could do everything I needed to do at night and still get some quality sleep time.

Soup When it comes to advice, do you give more or receive more? I usually receive but lately it seems as if I have been giving more. Now whether or not people actually take my advice is another matter entirely.

Salad Describe a memorable meal you've had. When my wife and I were literally down to our last few dollars until the tax refund came and had to stay at my parents house for a few days because we did not have enough food. We sold stuff to get gas money. When we finally got to my parents house, my mom made us some grilled cheese sandwiches. I would not have traded that grilled cheese for filet mignon at that moment. I will never forget it.
Main Course Name a work of fiction that affected the way you think about something. Huck Finn by Mark Twain affected me deeply. Also this little mystery called Cold Slice by L. T. Fawkes also affected me because at the beggining of the book the hero is down and out and pulls himself back into things. Which is something that I was going through at the time I read the book myself. It really helped me a lot.
Dessert What is your favorite type of fruit juice? I love apple juice and pineapple juice. I have learned however that if you drink a glass of grapefruit juice a day that it will change your outlook on life. Sometimes things that are good for you don't always taste good.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

I'm Back

It has been quite a while since I did a regular post. I have been busy as heck at work. Going almost non stop for a while now. I just wanted to drop a quick note to let everyone know that I am still alive.

I went on a conference related to my job a couple of weeks ago. The keynote speaker at the opening event said something that stuck with me. He said that life is not about time, It's about choices. If you were to, God forbid, die tomorrow, the job that you work 40 plus hours for would have you replaced by next Friday while the people who love you would only miss you for the rest of their lives. If that doesn't make you think, then nothing will.

Fridays Feast

AppetizerWhat does the color pink make you think of? The Breast Cancer ribbons in October.

SoupName something you thought you had lost, but later found. My hope in humanity and the goodness of people.

SaladIn 3 words, describe this past week. Not that stressful

Main CourseWhat are you obsessed with? Baseball and television I'm sorry to say.

DessertWhat kind of perfume or cologne do you like to wear? Don't really have a favorite. I wear all kinds because despite me saying no, my family insists on buying me 100 different kinds of cologne every Christmas. I won't run out until 2237.

It feels good to be back answering Fridays Feast after being away for a while. Have a good one.

Taking the same land twice

One of the resolutions that I have made for myself this year was to lose wight. This morning I weighed myself and I have lost 20 pounds. Yeah!!! It got me to thinking though, about something I heard once. This old military saying that some general or something was to have said once. The saying is that this general said that he hated to ever have to retreat, because he didn't want to have to take over a piece of land twice. That is how my weight loss has been. I hate to see that scale creep up even a pound, because that means that I have to lose that pound all over again. Kind of like a one step forward, two steps back kind of thing.

The new Harry Potter book comes out this summer. I feel so bad, I haven't read but one book this year. I am really falling behind in my reading. Things at work have been really hectic as this is one of the busy times of the year at my job.

A tow truck is coming to get the station wagon this week and take it off to the junk yard, presumably to be crushed. It had a good run.

Feast One Hundred & Twenty Nine

One Hundred & Twenty Nine
AppetizerWhat was one of the fashion fads when you were a teenager? Those crazy shirts that would change colors when wet is the only thing I can think of.
SoupName one thing you think people assume about you when they first meet you. That I am some big scary dude
SaladOn a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how hard do you work? This week, a 10.
Main CourseIf you were given a free 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl to sell anything you currently own, what would you advertise? My Moleskine notebook.
DessertFill in the blank: I love to _curl up with a good book___ when it is __rainy outside_______.

Feast One Hundred & Twenty Eight

Appetizer If you could take lessons to learn any musical instrument, which would you want to learn? I would love to be able to play the piano.
Soup Have you ever mistaken a person for someone else? Yes I have on many occasions. Just yesterday I wasn't really looking and nearly put some tuna in a strangers cart because I thought it was my wife.
Salad On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how well do you keep secrets? I would say an 8 overall, when it comes to work stuff I am a 10 because hey man I don't even want to be sued. LOL
Main Course What's the closest you've ever been to a dangerous animal? I would say when I went to the zoo although I was going to visit my parents one time I turned a corner on a back country road and a bull was just standing in the middle of the road. Very weird.
Dessert When was the last time you lost your patience? Really lost my patience? hmmm...two years ago at my old job. Some kids wouldn't leave the library at closing time and the other guard didn't want to make them get out. I don't really like confrontations, but sometimes you have to grit your teeth and do your job.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Wednesday night update

I hope you all are doing well on this Wednesday evening. I have been busy the past few days with work related issues. This time of the year is usually busy for me. Things will slow down a little for now but things are always steady until about the middle of March, when business picks up bit by bit until about the second week of May. Then we are into the summer months.

A positive about summer that I am looking forward to is fulfilling one of my lifelong dreams of seeing the Red Sox play in Fenway Park. I have never visited Boston before so this will be one exciting trip for me and a kind of vacation to kick off the start of the summer.

One of the resolutions that I made for myself this year was to lose some weight. Now I have a large amount of weight to lose but don't plan to do it all at once or very quickly. I didn't get to be the shape I am in now overnight and I am not going to lose it all overnight. I am proud to say that I have lost about 17 pounds so far. I watch what I eat and make sure that I am eating all of the right things. I probably have a couple of pounds of that back after visiting a Chinese buffet today for lunch to celebrate my bosses birthday. I did notice that I was full way earlier than I used to be and stopped eating long before the other people I was with. I guess that is progress. I had a wonderful dinner tonight prepared by my lovely wife. A nice salad and some good chicken breast. It doesn't get much better than that.

Thank you to everyone who has visited the blog the past few days and left comments. I love it when I hear from people out there who read this little blog of mine.

It is time for me to run. Take care.

Friday's Feast

Feast One Hundred & Twenty Seven
Appetizer Which television shows do you just refuse to miss? Probably too many but off of the top of my head: 24, Prison Break (returning this week), Heroes (also returning this week) and House.
Soup Who did you last speak to on the telephone? A woman from accounting at work.
Salad How many pillows do you keep on your bed? Four. Two for me and two for the wife.
Main Course Name one addition to your computer (software, hardware, etc.) that you'd love to have. Right now to be honest with you, speakers. (LOL)
Dessert What is your favorite foreign food? I love Chinese and Greek food.

The anniversary of my birth

As the title of this post says, today is my birthday. I am 29 today. Getting older doesn't bother me. I have always felt older than I was anyway. I hated my teenage years. I was never really into that going out and being stupid thing. When I think back to my teenage years, the thing I always think of is the kids that went out mudslinging. Mudslinging to the unenlightened is taking a truck out to a muddy field and then going around and around slinging mud and getting your truck dirty. It always seemed like a waste of time to me. I always seemed like I had better things to do with my time. Not to mention the fact that I didn't have a vehicle of my own until I was 21.

I was so glad to get to my 20's. The day that I turned 20 was a great day. I woke up that morning with an epiphany that things would make more sense to me now. It was like my physical number of years would catch up to my emotional number of years. For the most part, the last 10 years of my life have been wonderful. There have been mountains and valleys of course; but the biggest valleys don't compare to the mountains. The best part was meeting and then marrying the woman of my dreams.

I hope the last year in my 20's will be as good as the rest. Then onto the 30's. It should be one interesting ride.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. I hope that 2007 is going to be a great year for everyone. This is a time of the year for reflection and also for new starts. This is a great time. God has something wonderful planned for you.

If you are like me, then you make resolutions. I didn't hit all of mine from last year. I did better than the year before though. This year I am trying something different. Instead of having vague resolutions concerning weight or finances, this year I have specific goals that I would like to accomplish. This is going to make me follow a plan for great success.

Go out and have a good life today.

R.I.P. Gerald Ford

Nation's 38th President passes away. Rest In Peace, Mr. President.

Will Bloggers be affected?

...that is the question many are asking with the publication of this story.

I believe the race for the White House is heating up even more.

Time Magazine Person of the Year

As it turns out, we are all familiar with the Person of the year.

Time did the right thing this year. I actually thought that they would do something like this back in 2004 with the huge amount of blogs created that year and all of the impact they were supposed to have and continue to have on the political process.

At this rate, 2007 is going to be an interesting year.

2,000 down

This past week, the Harrismobile rolled over on another 1,000 miles of holiday traveling. So far, the majority has been going back and forth picking up my wife during the weekends. Starting this week though, we will be entering the majority of our Christmas traveling as we visit various family members for the holidays. I will keep you posted.

R.I.P. Peter Boyle

Everybody Loves Raymond's famed patriarch died Tuesday evening from multiple myeloma and heart disease, according to his publicist. His former castmates shared some of there thoughts here. He will be missed.

Coming to terms

It has taken me several years to come to the fact that I am who I am. I can't change everything about myself. I work on those things that I can change about myself, such as my weight or being more organized. I cannot change the fact that I am not some super alpha male. I have to accept that.

Does this mean that I am not capapble of alpha behavior? Of course not. I can do what needs to be done when the situation calls for it. I just wanted to be the classic alpha male that you see in television and in the movies. I have written about my love of Magnum, P.I. on this blog before. Some part of me always wanted to be Magnum I guess. That is not me though, and I can accept that.

1,000 Down, How many more to go?

A couple of posts back, I commented that my wife and I were to do some heavy traveling between the weekend before Thanksgiving and New Years. I had thought at the time that we would end up with between 1,500 and 2,000 miles before 2006 had ended. The way things are going now, we will probably double that number easily.

You see, my wife has taken a temporary job for some extra money for the holiday season. This job is in another city. Since we have holiday parties and other commitments throughout December, I have been going back and forth to pick her up on the weekends. With only one car now, the miles have already started to add up.

When we arrived back in town earlier this evening, I looked at our odometer I had set to record our holiday miles and it said 1.9. Over a thousand miles in two weeks! At this rate we will easily do over 3,000 miles in the next 3 weeks. A heavy hit in the pocket with gas prices starting to creep back up.

Movers and Shakers

The word came down from the top today that O.J. Simpson's book and interview has been scrapped. The people have spoken and Mr. Murdoch listened. I personally am glad it is not going to be shown.

Michael Richards sure stepped into it this weekend, didn't he? In the middle of his comedy routine, the actor best known for playing Cosmo Kramer, shouted racial slurs to some hecklers. I believe that everyone is going to say or do something really stupid in their lives that they wish they could take back. In this era of videophones and You Tube, such actions could ruin you forever. According to this report, Richards is trying to stop this thing before it blows up any more.

My wife and I went away this weekend. I told her to reset our mileage counter to see how many miles we are going to put on our car between now and New Years. The way things are going, we are probably looking at traveling between 1500-2000 miles between now and the end of the year. I will keep you posted.

Wednesday will mark the two year anniversary for this blog. In the two years I have been doing this, I have learned a lot about writing and a lot about myself. I have not posted nearly as often as I have wanted to in that time; something I am trying to improve upon in the new year. This blog is going nowhere though. It's only up from here.

Isn't it funny how life turns out

Last week, I suddenly got the urge to read some Dominick Dunne. I went to the library to pick up Another City, Not My Own, the authors book about the O.J. Simpson trial. I own the book and had read the novel twice before. It is one of my favorite books. Dubbed "A Novel in the form of a Memoir" , Another City tells the story of Gus Bailey, Mr. Dunne's alter ego and all of his exploits during "The Trial Of The Century."
I finished the novel on Monday. Today both O.J. Simpson and Dominick Dunne are back in the news. O.J. by way of the new book that he has coming out. "If I Did It..." details how the former football star would have committed the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman. Simpson was acquitted of charges of murder in October of 1995.
On November 27 and 29, FOX will broadcast a sit-down interview that Simpson had with Judith Regan, who published his book. The two-part interview, titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," is being called "unrestricted".
Dunne, meanwhile, is being sued for defamation by former California congressman Gary Condit. This is the second time Condit has sued Dunne for defamation. The first case was settled for an undisclosed amount of money and an admission by Dunne that he did not intend to imply that Condit was "complicit in [Chandra Levy's] disappearance."
It is strange to have both figures pop up in the media just a couple of days after I finished reading the novel.

Ode to the wagon

My 1988 Chevy Celebrity Station Wagon seems to have finally given it up. I am going to be getting rid of it soon. I received my license driving that car. We went everywhere together. I am going to miss it.

Ode To The Wagon

We have been through a lot,

you and I.

The miles together, up and

down the road of life.

When I was starting out driving,

you were there.

Chasing love, chasing jobs, chasing dreams.

Leaking oil, drinking gasoline

Dusty, rusty, ragged as well

chewing up asphalt, and givin 'em hell.

Outlasing old, outlasting new.

My car, my office, felt like my home at times.

That shaggin' draggin' wagon.

Good Night Old Girl.

I'll see you down the line.

Respectfully Submitted,

Joseph Harris