Harvest

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

Well, I finally harvested the peppers on Sunday. I made up two batches of salsa, one of them was a green, Jalapeno salsa, and the other was my own concontion called 'T.B.H.T.P' or, They'll be hell to pay. I thought of the name the the morning after sampling the salsa (I won't tell you where I was, but believe me.. the name says it all). :) If anyone reading this would like a sample, drop me a line, I'll be sure to set you up with some.

Here's the recipe for the Green salsa, I got it from Jean in our customer service department. It really tastes good, and it's so simple to make!

=========
Green Salsa

2 lbs. Jalapenos

Place in pan and enough water to just cover. Cook until tender. Remove stems
from cooked jalapenos and place in blender with 1 cup of cooking water (may
need to do in 2 batches, 1 cup of water each time). Add onion and garlic to
taste. Blend until smooth.

Add 4 tablespoons tomato sauce, salt & pepper to taste.

NOTE: For this recipe I used 1 very large Vadalia onion and no garlic.

Another variation of this is to use ½ cup of cooking water and ½ cup chicken
broth in the blender.

Keeps in the refrig. for about a week. You can also freeze it.

ENJOY!!
Jean
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Since I still haven't fixed my home computer, I'm still unable to keep up the blog. This is going to be a quick shorty.

Here's a blog I found called Chronicles of Derek. The day I looked at it, I found some really funny videos - which I think is his shtick - posting funny videos. Of course, I looked at it the other day only to find a half naked chick - so.. keep it on the DL if your at work.

Oh yeah, a podcast I wanted to post for everyone (and Jen) to check out: Bound Cast, a book review podcast. You can subscribe in Apple iTunes podcasting section.

Alright then. Happy Tuesday ya'll.

Bruschetta!

So, I haven't posted a blog, because my laptop is down - actually, it's not really down, but the internet connection (Airport) is down. I'd give you details, but it would probably be about as long and boring as my last post! So, now.. since I have no internet on my computer, I'm forced to do other things. Last night I made my banana bread mix, then my cucumber/onion/sour cream salad (yummo). I decided to bake the bread fresh this morning and bring it to work, so I set my alarm for 4:40 a.m. I made out of bed on time, and set the timer for 50 mins. I headed out on a 50 minute run - just as I got back, the timer was going off - Daisy was barking, and Jen was stumbling out to see what was going on. Oops. I brought the bread to work, and it was gone in record time - less then 2 hours, and I had only told a few people!

Jen needed a recipe for her friend at work, who has an abundance of tomato's. I encourage everyone to at least try this recipe once. After that, you'll crave it! We make it, and eat a bunch.. then, all we think about is that tub of Bruschetta sitting in the refrigerator calling our name.. ! Seriously.. it's great.

Bruschetta with Shallots

INGREDIENTS:
12 roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced shallots
1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, cut into slivers
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 (1 pound) loaf Italian bread, cut into 1/2 inch slices

DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl, toss together the roma tomatoes, minced garlic, shallots, basil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and 1/3 cup olive oil.
Place the slivered garlic and 1/4 cup olive oil in small saucepan over medium heat. Slowly cook and stir 2 to 3 minutes. Discard garlic.
Toast the bread slices, and brush with the olive oil heated with garlic. Top slices with the roma tomato mixture.


And, to leave you with something funny - take a listen to this. If your at work, I'd recommend headphones! I'm not sure I totally agree with this little rat guy, but dang is this funny.. he makes some good points. :)

Have a GREAT weekend ya'll!

Road trip!

Henry sleeping
Originally uploaded by robg2251.

Here's what Henry did while I was gone this weekend on my road trip.

I was sort of dreading the drive back and forth up north this past weekend. The civic broke down in Traverse last week, and I had to go pick it up. It actually turned out to be a pretty good time.

We headed out of Temperance at 1:20 p.m. on Saturday. I rode in the back seat of my mom and her husband Phil's car (I forget what kind of car they have - a luxury car with leather seats - quite cozy!). We stopped at Ponderosa in West Branch, MI on the way. The buffet was $6.99, and the place was full of hungry patrons. I sampled various items from the buffet, and nothing really hit the spot - wait, I think the vanilla ice cream from the sundae bar was about the best thing I tasted.

We made it to Northern Auto Service by 6:30 p.m. The Civic started right up, and off I went. I headed down Garfield on some really nice twisty turn roads until I hit US 131. I headed south on 131 for about 80 miles. I managed to follow some fast pants trucks who were doing around 90 mph. I made the treck from Traverse City to Rockford, MI in about 1.5 hrs. I found Matt's place with no problem.

Matt is one of my best friends I met in junior high school. We've been through quite a bit together, and have remained great friends. It's like we never miss a beat, even though we haven't talked in months. Matt was hanging out at home Saturday evening with his two boys - Jacob -6 1/2 yrs old, and Brandon who just turned 5. He had, on ice, Samuel Adams Oktoberfest, and keg-can-Heinekans. He also was whipping up a batch of his famous enchilada's.
The boys quickly took a liking to me (I haven't seen them in months, so I wasn't sure if they'd remember me - they said they did). I was invited to play PS2 basketball with them. Brandon quickly took control of the game and was whipping Jacob and I 30 something to 16. After the 2nd quarter, I threw in the towel and went back to hang out with Matt. Brandon was all smiles knowing I was quite older then him, and he beat me at a video game.
We ate enchilada's and drank some beers. It was a nice relaxing evening. Later, Emily (Matts wife) came home, and Matt and I retreated to the basement to jam guitars. It was a pretty good time. We ended the evening around 1 a.m.

I woke up on Sunday around 10 a.m. That is probably the longest I've slept in, in a very long time. The futon I was sleeping on was actually really cozy, and the central air conditioning was at the perfect temperature. Matt and I sat and drank coffee for a while. Later, I walked up to the gas station near Matts apartment, and picked up a Grand Rapids Press. The Sunday edition must weigh 3 lbs, and is about 2 inches thick. I left Matts around 11 a.m.

I got on I-96, and headed east. I called my friend Russ from college, to let him know I was going to be at the Michigan Brewing Company in a while, and to join me for lunch. He talked me into taking a different route, and meeting him and his daughter at a park in Perry, MI. About an hour or so later, I pulled up to the park where he was with his 2 yr old daughter Julie Ann.
We chatted for a bit, and he asked if I wanted to come see his new house him and his friend were renting. I agreed, and followed him out into the middle of nowhere, where this huge farmhouse sat in front of giant corn silo's. The house was amazing. There was an 80 acre field of corn behind them, and a 40 acre corn field on either side of them. We stood around chatting for a while, then took off to the brewing company. The drive seemed to take forever..

We finally arrived at the Michigan Brewing Company in Weberville, MI. I went inside and got us a couple of beers. We found a cozy spot in the shade, and sat there for about an hour just chatting about what we've been up to.
Russ was my first dorm roommate in college. We hit it off right away - even though he was a high school jock/sports nut, and I was a guitar playing hippy. For whatever reason, we became best of friends, and still keep in touch.

We parted around 3 p.m., I got Todd (high school friend that I've kept in touch with) and my growlers filled up with IPA (side note here: Growlers are a 64 oz jug, that they fill for $8. Six packs are $8, where you get 72 oz of beer. My point is, that it's probably better to get the sixer, because then you don't have to drink all of it at once. Drinking a whole growler of IPA is a challenge, one I think I'm fit to accomplish,.. but it won't be pretty!), and I jumped back on 96 east. I drove for what seemed forever, and finally got on 23 south - where I eventually made my way to the Summerfield Rd. exit. I picked up the phone and called Shawn, a friend of mine from high school that lives on Summerfield. I talked to his mom, who was excited to hear from me, and invited me over - she said Shawn had just got home from work. I called Todd, and asked if he minded coming up and meeting me at Shawns to pick up his growler - he didn't mind at all, and was there shortly after I arrived. Shawns mom, who is the sweetest lady, was really excited to show me what she bought with her winnings from the nickel slots at the Detroit casino. She walked me in the living room and stood in front of a giant big screen television. She said she had won $1500 playing the nickel slots, and spent the money on the television.

Shawn, Todd and I hung out around the yard for a while, we checked out his mini (short) school bus that he's fixing up - it needs a new transmission, and a ton of cosmetic work. We looked at the fire pit that all of us spent many nights around in our youth, then hung out in Shawns computer room while he unsuccessfully tried to burn a copy of a movie for me. Instead, he showed us a video of a lady puking herself into a bowl. After she filled the bowl up, she drank it. I would expect nothing less at Shawn's house.

I headed back to Monroe. It was about 6 p.m., and I had been on the road, pretty much all day long. I mowed the lawn, and then grilled up a bunch of veggies for dinner. I had a Belles Cherry Stout before dinner - it was very strong, I wouldn't recommend unless your a big stout fan. It did have a good cherry taste to it, but it was almost just too rich for me. Dinner was great, and it was just nice to sit and talk with Jen about my weekend travels.

I think a long road trip really does the mind good. I played the radio some, but mostly just drove and thought about stuff. It's crazy the amount of thinking you can do on the road. I turned on NPR after a while, and heard a really cool story about this yacht that Hitler supposedly owned. The boat apparently is sunk off the coast of florida, but many people in this city have items from it. Plates and chunks of wood, etc. I really like how the audio story is put together. The reporter interviewed a bunch of people, then went back and told the story, and edited all of the interviews in. It really sounds great. I'd give you a link to the story, but I can't seem to find it - they mentioned it would be on Audible.com, but everything on that website costs. Ah well - take my word for it, it was quite interesting.

I took all kinds of pictures on this trip with my Pentax. I must not have loaded the film right, because not a one of them came out. DAMN! Oh well - guess that's the way it goes. I'll be sure to load the film correctly on my next road trip.

Old folks breaking the law and new podcasts.

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

I finally got a chance to listen to the podcast Diggnation, which is a podcast of the website digg.com. To sum this up quickly, these two guys have a website. They let people post news stories they find on the internet, and people comment on them. The stories are usually tech related or humorous (at least the stories I heard). The podcast is them discussing their top stories of the week. The latest episode, started off with one of my favorite bands rocking the intro; NOFX.

Take a break and listen to a song from their most recent full length album 'The War on Errorism. The song is called: The Irrationality of Rationality. This song pretty much sums up the whole Enron situation.


Back to Diggnation. The episode I jumped in on, the guys were in Toronto at a brewery. Churchkey Brewing Co. Drinking a Lift-Lock Lager and a Holy Smoke (little bitter, little bit of a bite, but good). They went through some stories, and gave a link to TPS reports from the movie Office Space. A great podcast worth checking out.

A few more podcasts I've subscribed to recently:
Ebert & Roeper: A weekly movie review podcast, updated every Friday.

Running Injury Free: A podcast on running techniques.

Uncensored Bodybuilding and Fitness Information: A great source of information for health and exercise.

Slate Magazine: A short story podcast from Andy Bowers, former voice from NPR. This show is just like the short stories you hear on NPR.

All of these podcasts can be downloaded for free in the podcast section of Apple iTunes music store

CAO!

So last night me and Aaron went down to Cigar Merchants in Toledo with my dad. They had a cigar show featuring CAO cigar company. The vice president was there talking about their cigars.
We walk in and the place was filled with thick cigar smoke. I like the smell of cigars, but this was almost too much. We made our way into the humidor, escorted by a CAO rep. He took us through all of the various 'flavors' of CAO. I went to a CAO show a few months ago, and met the same guy. He got me to try the Brazilia Gol!, i've been a big fan of them ever since.
We picked out our cigars and went out into the main area to talk with the VP. She seemed fairly young, I would guess in her early thirties. My dad asked her how she got started in the business.. he asked if she started at a young age and worked her way up to where she is now. She said she actually was without a job, and her dad (who owns the business), called her up and offered her a job. She said at the time, it was her dad and his partner running the show. They didn't even have sales people, which is what she came on board to do. She told us a little bit about the cigar factory's in Honduras. The cigars actually go through 20 different quality checkpoints. One of them tests the density of the cigar, to ensure a good quality draw. I never knew that much went into cigar making.
Afterwards, we went to MT Loonies in Temperance, and enjoyed a few $4.75 pitchers of ice cold Bud Light.. I'm feeling the effects of the beer this morning, wait.. maybe that's the veggie burger I ate for dinner.. :)

1987 Honda Civic: Never say die!

Here's a picture from inside the Civic, being hoisted up onto a flat bed tow truck.

The day after the beer tour, we took a wine tour up the Old Mission Peninsula above Traverse City. The tour was great, we tasted wine from about 5 different wineries and even toured the Chateau Grand Traverse Winery facility. Our last stop was Bowers Harbor Vineyards, where we tasted their wines and had some wonderful cheese and crackers. There was a big shagy dog roaming around, which we later noticed had his face on the labels of wine they sold.
We purchased a bottle of wine, and decided to head to a nearby restaurant to get a bite to eat.
[ Side Bar ] It's so funny that hopping in the car, turning the key and driving off is part of everyones daily ritual. We really take it for granted that this huge piece of machinery is going to work each and every time. And when it doesn't?! The first thought, or words that come out out my mouth: WTF.
Yeah, so we hop in the car, I turn the key, and all we hear is this cylinder scratchy spinning sound. My first though (after I said WTF), was the starter. So, I back the car up and roll it down the hill, trying to pop the clutch to get the car started. No luck. We tried a few things, like popping the hood and staring at the engine. It's funny, I do this every time my car breaks. I have no idea what I'm looking at, but it sort of makes me feel like I know what I'm doing. We even tried push starting it again (kudo's to muscle woman Jen) with no luck. I finally bit the bullet and called triple A. After a buncha bullshit on the phone with them (and about an hour and a half later) we finally got a tow truck driver agree to come pick the car up. As we sat there, all of the people who worked at the winery drove by and waved. There was even an older guy golfing in his yard next to where we sat. No one stopped and asked what we were doing, they all just smiled or waived and went on their way in their fancy cars (as each of them drove by, I though - you wait til your car hits 197,000 miles - we'll see who's smiling then!)..
Tow truck driver arrives on the scene. His wife and kid were in the truck with him, which we both thought was odd, because we needed a lift too. The driver didn't think twice, he just said 'Hop back in your car, we'll get this up on the truck'.. So, we both get in, and sit there as this guy hoists the car up onto a flat bed trailer... with us in the car!! Is this even legal?! So, there we go.. off to the auto repair shop, sitting 6ft off the ground on a flat bed trailer, looking down on all of the other traffic on the road. Crazy.

So, it's taken me a week to write about this. It wasn't the most pleasant of experiences, but its nice that I can look back on it now and laugh. I need to remember that during situations.. (don't we all!). In case your wondering, we rented a car and drove that back to Monroe. It was a cute little Mazda 3. The ride home was actually pretty fun.
Dan Duvall (who also is the name of a guy that works at the paper) called yesterday from Northern Auto Repair, and said that the timing belt was the problem, and is fixed, but the water pump should be replaced, and the alternator belt is cracked. I think I lucked out, at $480. My mom, who is the most optimistic person in the world, said - look at it this way, you just saved yourself $3850! ($350 monthly car payments for 11 months). That's what moms are for, bringing out the good in a crummy situation.

This weekend, I'm making the trip back up to Traverse to pick the car up. I'm trying to figure out alternative ways to get up there, or things to do after I get there, to make the weekend a bit more interesting. I wrote triple A a letter, whining about their crummy service, and asked them to rent me a car to get back up and pay for it - we'll see if it works. If it doesn't, I'm heading up saturday night with my mom and her husband. The way back, I'm stopping at the Michigan Brewing Company to fill up a couple of growlers with some IPA. :)

The moral of this story is, that I have practically a brand new car. And when I hit the 300,000 mark, I'll post it, and show all of you doubters, that this little red car is going to run forever!!

Brew tour

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

Yesterday we visited three breweries in one day. Mackinaw Brewing, dowtown Traverse City, where I had their Bitter. It was pretty good. Shortly after, we went a few blocks down to Northpeak Brewing, where I had a bland Pale Ale. Later, we drove up US 31 to Traverse City Brewing Co. This was my favorite, it's less of a 'bar' atmosphere, and more of a down to earth tasting room. Everyone was really friendly, and they were more then willing to give me samples of their beers. Wednesday happened to be fill a growler for $5 day. So, I had mine filled with the Stout, which I really think is one of the best stouts I've ever had.
The rest of the time up here has been nice, we golfed, and did a steak night at the golf course - porterhouse for 9.95! Still not as good as Steve's in Monroe. Fishing hasn't been so good, for me anyhow, I took Jen out, she caught 7 fish, I caught ZERO. WTH?! Of course, I baited the hooks and removed the fish. Today, we're off to do some winery tours north of Traverse in search of this years best batch of cherry wine!

I drank a beer with Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake.

When i was a kid, I was a huge wrestling fan. Some of my favorites we're Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka, 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper, George 'The Animal' Steele and of course, Hulk Hogan. Brutus Beefcake started off under the wings of Hulk Hogan, and quickly made a name for himself. Eventually, he picked up the title 'Barber'. His finishing move was the sleeper hold. He would prance around the ring with a pair of scissors or hedge trimmers, and chop off the losing opponents hair. I went to Wrestle Mania 3, when Hulk Hogan wrestled Andre The Giant. The same event, 'The Barber' wrestled with Greg 'The Hammer' Valentine in a tag team match, but later, he cut off Adrian Adonis' hair, in a match Adrian lost to Roddy Piper.
Jen and I were standing in the coffee shop in Kalkaska Saturday morning and saw this poster for wrestling at the local ice rink, the Kaliseum. EWF I believe was the wrestling association. On the bill was Sting, midgets, a tag team group called Demolition (Road Warrior rip offs), and of course 'The Beefcake'. With nothing else to do, we both agreed we were going to spend our evening at the Kaliseum.
We ended up getting to the rink an hour early (for lack of anything else to do). We had about 6th row seats, right in the front of the aisle, about 10 ft from the ring. Jen made a friend, some highschool girl that sat down next to her and started jabbering like crazy. The girl did tell me that they had beer for sale, so I ran off to grab one.
Finally the wrestling. It was ok, but some of the dudes we're so bad at it, it was terrible. Pretty soon the better wrestlers got up there, and it looked a bit more real. I was bored again, so I ran out to get another beer. Who's standing at the beer counter, but the Beefcake. I grabbed a beer and stood there talking with him. We talked about his good buddy Hogan, and his new reality show. He said he was there when Hogans daughter was born, then he went on about his daughter for a while. The funniest part (and this was before his match) was when he pounded the beer that was in his cup, tapped it on the counter and said 'Hey, can I get another one Boss'..
I guess that's the life of wrestlers from the days when I was younger, join up with a minor wrestling association, tour around, make money off autographs, and slug a few beers before the matches.
Anyhow, the wrestling was a good night out. I don't think I'm going to start watching it again, but it passed the time for an evening - and apparently, this was the best thing ever to happen to the small town of Kalkaska. The place was pretty packed, and the fans were SO into it!

To back track a little bit.. We cruised out of Monroe Friday night around 730pm. I called my buddy Russ, who lives around the Flint area, he said that the construction has been backed up for 13 or so miles all day and night. He then gave me directions to get to his house to drink a couple cases of beer. Although it was tempting to go see him, I had a destination in mind - I already cancelled out on a mexican restaurant party so we could leave Friday.. so I wasn't about to change plans now. We took 96 to 127. 96, goes through Weberville, which is the home of the Michigan Brewing Company. We had to stop. I was bummed because I didn't bring my growler.. I always bring my growler!! (Growler: a half gallon jug that you can get filled with your favorite beer, for a decent price). I opted for the IPA (which I do every time), Jen got a Root Beer. I had a conversation with a cocky fella up at the bar, he swore by the Celis Cru - so much so, that he proceeded to knock the beer I was drinking, and lack of being able to make a decision of what kind of beer I really liked. I tasted the Cru, and it was ok, just very light. I figured out he was just some guy, that probably lives near the brewery.. and knows nothing about fine beer. Ass knocker. Jen and I got a bowl of the chili, which was pretty spicy, Jen didn't finish hers. I bought a sixer of the IPA on the way out.


We headed north, for what seemed like forever. We hit Grayling around 11ish. We had no problem finding Spikes Keg o' Nails. The place was pretty quiet for a Friday night, I imagined this loud and rowdy hole in the wall sort of bar. It was actually pretty nice in there. Old wooden booths with names of patrons carved all over them. I was disappointed that they didn't have Sam Adams on tap (as the website stated!).. so I settled on a Bass Ale. To eat, I had a world famous 'Spike-Burger' and Jen had mozzerella sticks. Burger was basic, nothing too out of the ordinary, for sure I wouldn't call it a 'world famous' burger.
We made it to the cottage by about 12:30a.m.
The rest of the weekend has been pretty mellow. We met some of Jens friends from work in Gaylord (they had just finished a triathalon), ate at Goblers (a restaurant known for turkey dinners), had a fish fry with my mom and her husband, went to the casino where I came out $2.50 ahead out of $10 (WooHoo big winner!), and here I sit in the Daily Grind coffee shop, like a nerd on my computer. Best be getting back to relaxing.. I think today will be the big city of Traverse, or 9 holes of golf. More pictures to come - check out the flickr site for more.

Sunflower and links

Well, for everyone that asked what that giant weed my neighbor was growing, here is the result! A giant sunflower. Pretty crazy just for one flower. I'm going to try and grow some of those next year.
Here's some links I've been saving up - oh yeah, and a recipe at the end. Enjoy!


Police speed traps
- Great website, very informative!

Mac Hints
- If your a macintosh geek like me, you'll dig this.

Boss Key!
For $15, you can buy an app from this company, which is just a script that shuts your programs down, or reboots your computer with the click of a button. Hmm. I think if you need this, you should really consider not having a job.

Stuff on my cat!
- Hilarious. This dude puts stuff on his cat and takes pictures of it.

Rob look-a-like?!
- Someone said this dude looks like me. The picture on the main page doesn't, but this one sort of does. odd.

Podcasting in the nets
- Wow.. I hope podcasting doesn't turn out as bad as they say.. interesting story.

Everything Digital
- Speaking of podcasts, I'm going to have to check this one out. Sounds like the tech-casts I've been listening to lately.

Tomato Grower!
- This site you can buy seeds for just about anything.. well, legal that is. WebDave said he got a bunch of hot pepper seeds from this place, they supposedly have a pepper that is hotter then a habanero!

And to top this off, I have a recipe for you all! A girl in customer service brought this in today, it's amazing!! And looks really easy to make.


Peanut butter frozen pie

1 - 8oz. cream cheese

2 - 8oz. cool whip (extra creamy)

3 - oreo pie shells

2 - cups powdered sugar

1 - cup milk

1/2 - cup peanut butter

Mix together, pour in pie crust, FREEZE! Makes 3 pies.

The human clock!

Click the photo to check out the site. Good stuff. If someone could, please watcht it for an entire day, well, two days - I want to know if they ever repeat the same photo.

And for the Cool Gadget of the week (which also serves as my Christmas list):
The iHome: an ipod docking station, which acts as an audio system/alarm clock! Very cool.

Finally Wednesday...

This week has been going pretty slow. We've had all day meetings on Monday and Tuesday at work.. they were torture. The second day went a little better, we all had to get involved more. The first day was just sitting there listening to these guys talk.

I did yoga for the first time last night with Jen. I still don't understand how I was sweating buckets, and all i was doing was stretching. It was pretty neat though, very relaxing.

It's supposed to be a record high today - 94-96 degrees. woohoo! I hadn't planned on leaving the office today, but I think i'm going to do some running around on lunch. It's steak night tonight, so the gang of us, and hopefully the training folks for our new system will be coming along. I think we're going to club 129 (Monroe's martini bar, which also serves as a great cigar lounge) around 5pm, then hitting up steaks around 630-7pm. I hope it cools off a bit this evening.

I'm glad I'm finally back to my office today, I'll be able to crank out some much needed work. I have to try and get ahead a bit, because I'm off next week. It's fun, once I'm on vacation, but when I get back and before I go, it's always a lot of catch-up work.

The Fair Cam has been working great. A couple of minor glitches, but all in all, it's been a success. Everyone has been suggesting that we put it in the Evening News fair booth, rather then pointing on the midway. Bryan isn't so thrilled about that. We talked about next year, possibly doing a few cams around the fair, people would just have to select which cam they wanted to view. All in all, it's a pretty cool idea, and even cooler that our company is flexible enough to let him pull this off. I can't wait to see our site-hit results at the end of the week.. hopefully good.

I cooked a rad dinner last night. Zucchini and onions sauteed in olive oil and seasonings, grilled eggplant topped with herbs and shredded mozzarella cheese and some of the best sweet corn we've had all year, from the Westborn Market in Dearborn. I've been eating junk lately, I decided it'd be good to be eating some more veggies as often as I can.

Alright, I figured I would end today with some tunage. Today, I'm feeling in the mood for some three chord punk. The Queers, are a down and dirty snotty-pop version of the Ramones. They've been shredding out of so-cal since the early 80's, and have been with Lookout Records a good portion of that time. I've had the pleasure of seeing this band on numerous occasions, each time reminding me of the high energy, song after song with no breaks, 1-2-3-4 count regimen that the Ramones followed for live concerts.

Punk Rock Girls
From the album: Don't Back Down

Love Love Love
From the album: Grow up

See You Later Fuck Face
From the album: Pleasant Screams

My view.

my view
Originally uploaded by robg2251.

This is my daily view. The ol' apple g4 Ti-book is nestled on the edge of the big square coffee table that Jen brought to the house, that at first, I put up a fight against - this sucker is huge! After we carried it in the house, and set it down.. I quickly warmed up to it. It has a drawer on each side of it, and i think, secretly, Jen let me have three of them, just so I'd accept this beast. This coffee table has become my own. It's pretty much the only mess I make in the living room now, the clutter on top of this big ol' table - it's all mine. You'll notice in the background, the bag - I believe that was a sixer of Sweet Corn I bought from an old farmer at the market. In front of that was a birthday gift I received from my dad, when I was around 24 or 25 - a Pentax 35mm camera. in front of that is some ipod accessories, and closer sits a glass of ice cold beer - I'm trying to guess which kind of beer I would have been drinking out of a cold mug (had to be something very good - cheaper stuff is nothing but bottle).. in the background you see the kitchen - if you look far enough back, you'll see that I left the cabinet wide open, a great hobby of mine. Refrigerator, with the usual pictures and magnets - and my stereo cabinet, with stickers all over it (thanks Dan!). I get a daily view of the TV like i was sitting in the jungle watching.
Thought I would show you what my morning and evening look like each day. DISCLAIMER: this was a couple weeks ago when the table was messy. Today, it's still a little messy, but with not as much stuff - there's a lienenkugel sweating on the table (on coaster of course.., Jen) I had better tend to....

So, let me get something off my chest here. My neighbors, who are, pretty nice folks, decided it would be cool to get their kids pit-bull puppies. Both of their kids, one just graduated, the other is young - have no interest in taking care of dogs. So, good ol' dad goes out and purchases two large caged in fence structures (because the dogs have tried eating each other - literally - we saw it!!) - so, they keep them separated. So now, the dogs are REALLY not getting any attention. Before, I would walk up and pet them - they were the most adorable puppies. Now, we walk down our driveway - and bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark - get the picture? it's awful. I'm building up this steam toward my neighbors.. they don't seem to care that the dogs bark at us, they just are really good at ignoring it. Give me some advice here folks - i'm about to crack. To top this, the oldest kid, has figured out if he puts the truck in neutral, gasses it as loud as he can, then drop it in drive.. he can roast the tires! woopee!!! Alright. I'm showing my age aren't i?! i suppose I am. But, life isn't as easy now, as it was back when I was his age. At times, my job is pretty stressful. And somedays, or weekends, I'd like to sit back, relax and have things just be mellow. All of these recent neighborhood events have been motivating me even more to look into the whole refinancing thing, and eventually moving to a nice little beach house on 20 acres, with a nice deck out back where we could sip margarita's and watch the sun dip into the sea.. ahh.

Time for some z's. Last golf lesson was tonight and I'm whooped. Thanks to Andrea for the killer salmon - dang that was so good, perfect with brushetta! - Speaking of - I wanted to post the recipe for this brushetta if anyone wants to try it - it's really easy to make, drop me a line if you have any questions.

Later ya'll.