July 4th Georgia Style

Ocoee River whitewater rafting. This is on the river just south of where the 1996 Summer Olympic white water rafting course is located. Very cool and very fun.

Bacon cheeseburger with oven roasted Suzy potato. MMMMMMMM Tasty!

Superchef with the toasted whole wheat buns. He is also gthe grillmeister extrodinaire. His skills are mad and awesome.

Sole food...Fathers day style.....

There we were sitting in Mimi's Cafe in Orlando on Fathers Day Sunday. We had just window shopped the $917 faucet section at the Expo and now we were grubbing up. I was about to go with my old favorite meatloaf or turkey, but I saw the Blackened Sole with Shrimp Creole. Well the Sole wasnt Blackened enough and the Creole was from someplace other than New Orleans, but it was passable and edible and it was a lot lighter fare than the meatloaf or the turkey. Just as we were wrapping up the lunch the waiter started to prepare dessert for another table. We were sitting at the bar area which also serves as the dessert prep area. He whipped out a plate with two pie slice chucks of brownie on it. One on edge and the other flat. Threw it in the nuker for 20 seconds to warm it. Heaped on two scoops of vanilla bean ice cream goodness. Threw the chocolate and caramel drizzle bottles in the nuker and warmed them. Drizzled them both on in a criss cross fashion and then topped it with warmed up walnut crumble stuff. Fortunately mom and dad are on a healthy kick. They passed on dessert and I wasnt about to make them sit there and watch me wolf one down, so I paid the tab and we rolled out quickly before my sweet tooth got the best of me.

Can I get a moment of silence and some fries with that?

Please take a moment and bow your heads, the inventor of the processing and freezing of McDonalds French Fries passed away yesterday. He was also worked on the development of Cheez Whiz. he did many other things also, but if you want to honor hiz please go out and have a plate of Cheesy Fries tonight and say a little word of thanks.

Threefer Monday Reuters and God have been busy today.......

What with Jesus wanting me to buy a 4x4 and now God giving PAris a new chance, religion has had a busy weekend....

I cherry picked the best parts of this article....

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Paris Hilton says God has given her a new chance

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Imprisoned hotel heiress Paris Hilton has said she believes God has given her a new chance and she plans to stop acting dumb and put her influence to good use.

"I'm not the same person I was," Hilton told Walters. "I used to act dumb. It was an act. I am 26 years old, and that act is no longer cute. It is not who I am, nor do I want to be that person for the young girls who looked up to me.
"I know now that I can make a difference, that I have the power to do that. I have been thinking that I want to do different things when I am out of here. I have become much more spiritual. God has given me this new chance."

When she is released, Hilton said, she might like to help in the fields of breast cancer or multiple sclerosis, diseases that her grandmothers suffered, or build a "Paris Hilton playhouse" for sick children.
Hilton, who said other inmates had been friendly, added that her skin was very dry because she was not allowed any moisturizer.
"It doesn't matter," she said, "I'm not that superficial girl. I haven't looked in the mirror since I got here."

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Why do I get the feeling that the "Paris Hilton playhouse" will be a new bar and discotech located at a hotel in LA somewhere. Also, If you are not superficial, you are not allowed to talk about not being allowed to bring moisturizer into the JAIL WITH YOU!

Twofer Monday - Reuters - my new favorite headline company...

From Reuters today...these are the real deal check them out if you doubt me....

Jesus wants you to drive 4x4, says S.African church......

Jewskimos" welcome novel highlighting Alaska Jews ......

Survey shows Germans drank more beer in 2006 .......

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I am going out now to buy a 4 wheel drive, load up with beer and go in search of some Jewskimo's....Anyone want to tag along?

Smugness run amok....

Well maybe not amok, but it is out there and I dont like the smell of it. I went to the Publix website to see if they had info on why my Ground Chuck was Greenwise last week and they did not have the actual rundown on ground beef, but they did list a lot of other info on their other Greenwise products. Publix.com if you are interested. Anyway, I did see this nice little announcement about them opening a full on Greenwise store and here is the actual phrasing (I love this stuff)...


Coming soon: our first Publix GreenWise Market!
-->With an abundant array of natural and organic foods, earth-friendly products, and freshly prepared cuisine, as well as a staff of knowledgeable associates, this store will provide a deliciously thrilling shopping experience.

DELICIOUSLY THRILLING!?!?!?!?! Holy Shopping Carts Batman, I need to see this. I bet there will be more than one Hybrid Synergy Drive Prius Highlander parked in that parking lot. Part two of this story is the local coffee shop that is not Starbucks is located in what used to be a two door gas station that they cleaned out nicely, painted up in morose tones and put in an XM stereo tuned to Coffeehouse type music. Well they chose locations poorly because there is a large outdoor box store project going in across the street with a 900,000 square foot Book A Million-Joe Muggs Coffee Shop going in that will be finished in the next 2 months. Nothing like discount books and legal stimulants (that is from the character Joe Foxx in "You've Got Mail"). Anyways the propietor of Brewsters coffee shop has already throw up the surrender flag before the monster store has open. This morning there was a large for sale sign up in front of the store. I would feel bad for him, but to my critical eye he has never been truly enthusiastic about his endeavor. He was never open on Saturday and he never showed any creativity with his operation. Well, bring on the discount books, I am ready for a little variety.

Smug Spaghetti

If you have not seen the SouthPark episode about the smug cloud threat that happens when people turn smug about being more green than anyone else, you whould make it a point to watch. I have been reading more and more about the rising "smug" factor with people who want to be green and earth friendly and organic, etc. I really have nothing against that, I dont like to see people mistreating the gifts we are giving every day, BUT I also dont like the other exteme of people who want to be green at all cost.

So there I was strolling the isle at the local Publix and they have a new house brand tag called Greenwise that implies you are either being extra friendly to the Earth or organic. I saw a section in the meat department that had a couple packages of Greenwise Ground Chuck and it was actually the same price as the "regular" ground chuck. So I picked up a package along with some mushrooms, onions, and garlic. I was going to buy some Paul Newmans organic style pasta sauce, but they did not have my favorite tomato basil flavor, so I opted for the regular. Even still you do get 1/2 smug points because Paul does donate money from all sales to some charitable funds.

I rolled home and broke out my latest Marshalls red tag special, a very nice heavy duty garlic press. Chopped up the shrooms, diced the onions, pressed the garlic, sauteed the ground chuck and mixed in the sauce. let it simmer for about an hour to get good and happy. Served it up with some freshly shaved parmesan cheese and it was tasty. I have never pressed garlic before, usually I dice or chop it fine, but the press really breaks it down and lets out the flavor without having the little garlic chuncks left. It was very tasty. I should have broken open a bottle of Pinot Noir to go along, but I am getting over a head cold and taking lots of cold medicine which has really dehydrated me. I had to cut short a bike ride this morning due to cramping and knee aches. So I am working on rehydrating so I can try and keep up tomorrow a little longer.

By the way even with the 2.5 smug factor spaghetti sauce, I really could not taste a noticble difference from my normal awesome spaghetti. But I did feel smug about it none the less.

No Lunch for YOU!

I thought it was just a couple places, but yesterday I had to add another location to the long list of eateries not open on Monday in Sebring. Headed down to The Caddyshack to have lunch with our customer and they are closed on Mondays. I think the three remaining eateries that are open on Monday should do us all a favor and close down on Mondays also, that way I can just not plan on having anything to eat and it would make my decisions a whole lot easier than rolling thru the list of lunch spots and having to remember who is open to take my money.

Vices-the good kind.

I was strolling the isles at the beer and wine superstore in Tampa with some my friends and I spotted this tasty little treat. From the makers at Boulder Beer Company, a fine 5.9% offering called Sweaty Betty Blonde Wheat Beer. I am not much of a fan of wheat beer, but I can drink it, but based on the fact that I am heading out to a summer bicycling training camp (vaation) in Georgia in a few weeks I decided to start laying in a supply of beverages for the trip and a 6 pack of Sweaty Betty is the first 6 pack in the stash. I have to give Boulder Beer a thumbs up to the marketing guys. Here is the description on the end of the 6 pack carrier for what is contained within the bottles. " Irresistable. Firtatious. Soft. Supple. Unavoidable. Smooth. Exuberant. Glistening. Wild. Firm. Rare. Succulent. Luscious. Ripe. Natural. Glowing. Curvaceous. Magical. Wheat. " That sounds like one hell of a er,,, beer. I must admit that they are better at selling beer than Ford is at selling cars lately. Maybe there is something to be learned here.

Real Life - Movie Life

No, Nacho is not my real life, but I will admit to taking away certain things from Nacho and other movie characters. From Nacho, being passionate will take you far in life, even if it is passion about wrestling. From Blues Brothers, dont talk back to the penguin or she will whack you with a rule. From Star Wars, if you get in a fight on a lava planet, someone is going to get burned. From Breaking Away, being passionate about something will take you far (repeat from above) AND if you pass the mighty Italian team they will throw a pump through your spokes. From Sideways, he wont drink any funking merlot! From Brewsters Millions, money wont make you happy. From Trading Places, money wont make you happy. And from Benji, dogs bring a lot of happiness to your life. There is more to this list but blogger is about to have a scheduled shutdown for maintenance so check back later.