Keep eating...It could JUST kill you.

Since we are both off from work for the week, we have been maxin' and relaxin'. We decided to meet my mom for breakfast this morning at this excellent place called the Breakfast Club. The name is as cheesy as the decor, but they do not play around when it comes to hookin' up the breakfast. From oatmeal and quiche to lobster bisque and any omelet you can think of, this place is one of my favorites. As many of you should know, I am an absolute food snob and not shy to admit that. Needless to say, we would rather be caught cooking food at home and rarely go out since being burned by too many places and just having bad experiences. Occasionally I can tolerate it though, but like I said, this place is consistently good and today was no exception. Anyway, we were there pretty early today and it was not packed at all. It's a small place (12-14 small tables) so you tend to be somewhat close to the next table. So, we are there eating our breakfast and these three women (two middle aged and one in her mid twenties) were next to us eating. One ordered this monstrosity of a dish. It was similar to crepes, but they were oozing cream cheese and topped with strawberry sauce and powdered sugar. I think they called it a "Blitze" or something like that. For me, one fork of that stuff MIGHT have been cool, but not that platter of the stuff. Sheesh. Would you like a side of Defibrillator with that?!
So, one of the other women orders some fried eggs with a huge piece of ham steak to go with it. Does not sound THAT BAD, but you must consider that these older women were not the picture of health and it was as if I was watching a heroin addict inject themselves right in front of me....So, we were enjoying our breakfast (vegetarian omelet for me, Libera got a wrap of scrambled eggs, cheese and bacon and my mother had oatmeal) and happen to be in earshot of these pitiful women's convo and half of it had to do with doctor visits and awaiting results from biopsies and thing of that nature. I'm thinking, "Uh....maybe a different selection of food might help you more." Anyway, just when I thought these women had enough food, one of them asks about getting a plate of pancakes. Because I was not really focused on their convo and did not care, I heard bits and pieces about the pancakes and just assumed that it was going to be a carryout. Then the server brings a 6" stack of these pancakes and these women (actually ONE of them) inhale the flapjacks. Man, I was amazed...Where is Kobayashi when you need him?! LOL! Amazing how people can complain about their own health and just insist on stuffing their gullets with food until their eternal rest....And to think that this was just breakfast...I cannot imagine lunch or dinner for those silly women...

BlackFriday DejaVu or what have you....?

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and did not ingest too much artery-clogging goodness... :) Today is the day that the same people who broke their backs on Black Friday try to jump-start the economy again with frivolous shopping and reckless spending. Haha. Could someone tell me where the economy is faltering because it is not happening around here! The malls where jammed and the shoppers were out in full-force. Not me. Oh no, I knew better than that. Libera and I went to a store this morning to get some groceries and this place happens to sell clothes, has a pharmacy, sells CDs and plants, etc. I would say that it is similar to WalMart, but it is only local to MI and probably OH. Anyway, we got a few Christmas items 50% off and that was about it. Oh, we also hit a local hardware store near our house since I wanted to grab another bag of Calcium Chloride (rock salt is pretty destructive to cement; CaCl2 is not as bad) and we grabbed a few Christmas items there at 60-75% off. That's all folks. We were not about to roll the dice on another road rage situation today. I have no problem waiting the extra week or two to see what scraps are left at the stores. I'm not really looking for anything specific at the moment. I love a good deal and don't let too many pass by, but today was not the day to power shop.

Idiot of the Day

So, I am off work today and decide to take care of a few errands since I don't want to be bothered with them for the next few days. Plus, we will be busy over the weekend with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On the way to the bank there is a Dunkin Donuts and a local grocery store we always go to. I hit the DD and get a lb of whole bean coffee (ONLY because I had a coupon and they have an excellent brew) and jet out of there and as I am doing the turnaround to go into the bank, this idiot in an F150 decides that he does not like to wait for the SAME traffic I (and the rest of the other cars) am waiting for and drives into the inside lane when he was originally behind the car behind me in the outside lane. Obviously, I did not care if he was on the inside because I knew I had the right of way to take the outside turn and turn or cut across the street since because that is the purpose of that turnaround. Well, as the final car passes us, I see from the corner of my eye that this idiot is inching forward as if he wants to beat me across the street when he was CLEARLY in the inside lane. So, the car passes and he punches it, but not fast enough since (AGAIN) I was on the outside lane and decided to punch it before him and as I suspected, he was going to cut me off. That did not happen thanks to the engineers at Mazda :p. I was pissed that this idiot thought he was going to do that. So, I was just crawling and could tell he was furious behind me. So, he decides to speed around me and almost hits me as he cuts back in. I beeped my horn and decided to follow him into the grocery store parking lot (same lot as the bank I was going to) and he knew I was following him. I am allergic to road rage, so I had no intentions of doing anything stupid, but I just wanted him to know that I thought he was an idiot for doing what he did. Of course, in the back of mind is the idea that people would actually pull a gun on someone for such a stupid thing so I was mindful of that and was prepared to pop it into reverse if need be and he wanted to run some wild, wild west scheme on me. Anyway, the idiot passes like 20 parking spaces and parks at the end of the lot and I drive by and roll down my window and said with a fake smile, "Nice driving." He says, "Same to you @$$hole!" I just kept driving to the bank and knew that karma would come back to hammer him with a vengeance. No worries. People like that are really sad, but the world is full of them. You would somewhat expect people to act halfway civilized during the Christmas season, but then the reality hits and the evil inside of them manifests. The clown was old enough to be my dad and he's popin' off like that. AND, he was pretty small in weight and height; why is it that dudes who weigh like 150lbs drive big trucks? Does it make them feel like more of a man? That's another post, but I think it's pretty funny. That stupid guy gets my vote for the Idiot of the Day.

Motivation Reloaded

I really hate those ridiculous corporate posters that are supposed to motivate and inspire workers.
You might be given one of these pieces of trash if you complete a project in time and under budget.
The last two places I have worked at had these stupid things on the walls or could be seen on a manager's desk.
Give me a break.
Talk about cliche. Sheesh. I have included some in this post that I feel better represent what these things SHOULD say.... :)

Is it real science or just ridiculous marketing...

I will bet on the latter....It's no secret that I am somewhat of a fitness fan(atic) and hold my fitness activities as a pretty high priority in my life. With that being said, I enjoy the occasional sports drink (Powerade, Gatorade, etc.). I am not a huge fan of sports drinks and certainly not dependant on them for when I workout. Water is fine with me. I really only get sports drinks when I find them on sale, but nonetheless I drink them every few weeks. So, earlier tonight I finished up a workout and was just reading the label and started to think of how stupid it sounds for the marketing clowns at Powerade to emphasize "LIQUID HYDRATION" on the main visible portion of the label. Am I missing something here? Would the other states of matter (gas or solid) really provide me with hydration and they found it essential to point out that this DRINK was actually LIQUID hydration? Can hydration be obtained from a gas or solid? Uh....not UNTIL it liquefies....Idiots!!!

Ok, that's all with that. I feel much better now. By the way, Strawberry Melon is a pretty decent flavor for Powerade.

Arnold made the right call...

I am sure everyone has heard about the latest person (Stanley Tookie Williams) to be removed from this earth by lethal injection. I am also sure that you heard of the celebrity protesters and how Euros are outraged at Arnold for denying this convicted killer clemency. Give me a break! I understand that the EU does not allow capital punishment and several US states do. I think Euros have several issues they can focus on in their area and not be pre-occupied with the plight of a co-founder of one of the deadliest gangs in the US. How about we talk about the people who died as a result of Tookie? Does anyone feel sorry for them? So, Tookie wrote some kids books and got educated in the big house...Uh, great for him, but there are still people dead BECAUSE of him.

I don't live on the leftcoast, but Arnold made the right decision on this issue.

Digital Camera upgrade

I have talked about the possibility of investing in a prosumer dSLR camera for some time now. I am still set on getting the Nikon D50, but I plan to wait until after Christmas or the first part of next year to get that camera. I decided to upgrade my 5year old Sony 2.1 megapixel cybershot. I went with a brand that I thought I would NEVER EVER buy since they basically fell off the map and was getting killed by Canon, Sony, Olympus, etc. That brand is Kodak and what really tipped the scales for me was a review I read in the magazine 3D World. The magazine is out of England and a reputable source. They did a comparison of several digital cameras and the Kodak outperformed the other models. A sony they were comparing came in second. How ironic. The model is the EasyShare Z7590 and my only real complaint about it is the size. It is pretty bulky...REAL bulky, actually. I can live with it if the shots come out excellent. Some of that is user-determined though and I realize the responsibility in that. ;p Anyway, I will still keep the Sony as long as it still functions.Over the past 5 yrs, the sony digi cam has done pretty decent work. I never had any real problems with it. It is pretty solidly constructed. I never dropped it outside of the carrying case and it never got wet, therefore, I guess that helps. My biggest issue with Sony came when they moved from the Memory Stick to the Memory Stick Duo! F that! I would have probably bought another one had they not rendered my previous media obsolete. The cool thing about the sony cam was that I could take my memory stick out and plug it right into my tv since I do have a sony tv with a memory stick slot and could watch a slide show of the pics. Excellent integration! I know technology changes, but so do consumer choices and I absolutely knew my next digicam would use SD as the storage media of choice. I was real clear about that being a major factor since I am a fan of SD. I am not a fan of XD or CF (too flimsy!) since I have a feeling both of those will be obsolete before SD becomes so.Plus, I had been buying SD cards after seeing great deals on them after rebate in preparation for my Nikon D50 purchase. Anyway, there are so many settings on this new Kodak cam that it is going to take me a few weeks to get adjusted to it. The Sony was really intuitive and I really liked that part about it. Had I not purchased the Kodak, I was set on Canon for sure. My bro-in law just bought the Canon SD450 and it is really nice. The lcd on the back of that cam is huge! It's a fingerprint magnet. I will post shots with the Kodak in the future and we will see what the people think....

Blame the Turks, I say!!! Blame them!!

Ok, that is a stretch....I am referring more to the country of origin in which the impropriety that I will explain happened to a very good friend of mine recently. I have this friend who is techno-savvy. Smart guy, bla, bla, bla.....Well, he noticed that when he was attempting to pay for goods or services with his debit card last week, that the store, restaurant, etc. would say there was a problem with the card. The first time it happened, it did not seem for cause to worry, but the third time really caused this guy to wonder what was going on. Therefore, he calls his bank and they let him know (AFTER he called his bank) they did suspect something was happening with his card in terms of fraud and they put some type of flag on the transactions because they looked out of the ordinary and the country of origin was pretty far from Detroit. The bank was able to trace it to the country of Turkey. The thief racked up multiple charges and they actually cleaned out his checking account! We have all read the news or seen news stories about identity theft and I just want to remind everyone that it is alive and well and you should do what you can to minimize it. You CANNOT completely prevent it since most of our lives are on the Internet and comprising bank security is something the "bad guys" are trying to do everyday. When you purchase items online, NEVER use your debit card. Use a credit card because in terms of disputing fraudulent charges, the headaches are not as great with a credit card and you don't have to wait 30-60 for the bank to finish up their investigation and return money to your account.

Check out the following url for some info on reducing your pain when it comes to using a credit card: 22ways to foil credit card thieves

Mole, mole, mole...GUACAMOLE!!

Ok, it's after midnight and I was seriously jonsein' for some Guac. Not a typical crave, but when it hits, forget it....it must be taken care of. I bought a medium-sized Hass a few days ago when I felt the urge would occur sometime this week. Of course I should be sleeping right now, but again, this could not be ignored. Could it be that I was in need of a potassium influx (60% more potassium than bananas; believe it!) or was it something more far-reaching than that? Who knows. Who cares. All ingredients were in the crib and the creation was ready to be created. The Hass (although I REALLY prefer the Bacon variety; they can be huge! como mantequilla (like butta baby!) are decent for kind of an everyday situation and I knew my other ingredients would outshine....I sliced the fruit, scooped out the flesh and then located all the other actors for the play. Extra virgin olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon (lime would have been better) juice, kosher coarse salt, little bit of fresh cracked pepper, garlic clove, red onion and a few drops of hot sauce. Oh man!! I wanted to inhale the whole thing, but the angel on my shoulder saved me once again...Tomorrow is another day and devouring the guacamole will most likely happen...

You OfficeMax clowns are annoying me!

Another weekend, another fruitless attempt for me to purchase an office chair from my local OfficeMax store. I had a rain check from over a month ago and have been checking each weekend from even before Black Friday. I get the same BS from these clowns. "Our system shows we have it in stock, but apparently it's not in our store. These chairs come from overseas and there is really no telling when we will actually get them in." Give me a break. It's an $80 chair that I am buying for $40 thanks to a sale they had, but now this contraption has yet to make an appearance after the sale...Hmmmmmmm. So, this clown working the furniture section tells me that he could substitute the chair for another one. I am slightly excited about this potential, but in true OfficeMax fashion---disappointed. The chair he wanted to sub in was $10 cheaper and stiff as a board. Junk! The chair I want (originally 80) for $40 is really not the greatest either, but I refuse to pay for some of the other trash in that place and most other places I check are really just over-priced or the chair is seriously uncomfortable. I may just bite the bullet and go after my dream chair, but then again, I could also not feel like a fool for dropping all that loot on a chair, then again...........We'll see.
Anyway, I will probably walk into OM next weekend for yet another disappointment on my quest for a new office chair....

Hello weekend? Are you here yet?

Sheesh...I am ready for the fin of this week.....