Month: February 2009

Categories
Blogging Travel Weather

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

What’s happenin’ my blogging friends ? !

– I am now in Allen Texas.
– It’s a northeastern suburb of Dallas.
– It’s where my brother and his wife and their dog call home.
– It’s in the mid-80s outside right now.
– This is North Texas in February, so that will soon change.
– Tomorrow it will only be in the mid-50s here.
– On Saturday when I board a plane for Florida wind chills will be near freezing.
– I’m looking forward to returning home after this long road trip.
– Allow me to briefly explain this road trip.
– I left Homestead Florida shortly before 4:30 AM on Tuesday morning.
– I drove about 375 miles up to Clay County (near Orange Park).
– I then picked up my parents, and we drove about 345 miles westward.
– That’s about 720 miles of driving for me in one day !
– We stopped for the night in Milton Florida (just east of Pensacola).
– We ate Dinner at a fancy Mexican restaurant called La Hacienda.
– We got back on the road again on Wednesday morning.
– We made it another 415 miles – straight into the heart of Louisiana.
– We stayed at a hotel in Alexandria – near their airport.
– Their airport used to be England Air Force Base for 50 years until 1992.
– We completed the long road trip into Allen Texas today.
– In all I’ve driven about 1,450 miles since Tuesday morning.
– Only the first 375 miles was done in my car.
– My car is still sitting in Florida in my parents’ former driveway.
– That’s right – former driveway.
– They are now residents of Texas.
– I moved them and their cat in their car.
– They lived in and around Jacksonville for over a dozen years.
– I fly back to Jacksonville International Airport on Saturday.
– I then take a taxi back to my car some 35 miles away.
– I then drive 375 miles back home to Homestead.
– I’ll be back at home late this Saturday night.
– Don’t worry I’ve still got your ‘Friday Night Blogroll Review’ tomorrow.
– I’ll also do a ‘Saturday Night Retro’ once I get back home.
– Most importantly I’ll see a lot of you at Life Pointe Church on Sunday.
– I have no trips planned for March, April, and May.
– That’s the way that it needs to be.
– I’ll be all tripped out come this Saturday night.
– It’s been a really crazy February for me.
– Perhaps the craziest of them all.
– I want March to be mundane.
– I can’t wait for it to start on Sunday.
– I can’t wait to go back to work again on Monday.

Categories
Blogging Food

Monday Night Countdown

Let’s go GREEN !

There we go. I thought of this week’s countdown earlier today while eating my MASSIVE Chinese Food Lunch.

It’s my favourite green vegetables:

5.  Lettuce – I can’t enjoy a MASSIVE half-pound swiss cheeseburger at Fuddruckers without lettuce – lots of it – shredded style. Perhaps I’ll be able to squeeze in a Lunch at Fuddruckers while in the northeast suburbs of Dallas Texas later this week. Danny ?

4.  Celery – Give me a whole bunch of celery stalks and a bowl of french onion dip, and I’m good to go. I can’t eat just one. I’ve got to eat at least 21 !

3.  Broccoli – It used to be my favourite green vegetable, but it’s slipped a couple of notches over time. If it’s not cooked properly then I don’t like it as much. It’s got to be cooked / steamed hard so that it’s soggy to the taste.

2.  Spinach – I love to eat spinach. It makes me strong like Popeye The Sailor Man. If the spinach is creamed then it’s even tastier. A Thanksgiving Dinner is simply not complete without creamed spinach.

1.  Collard Greens – Publix makes them pretty good, and so does Shiver’s in Naranja Lakes Florida (a local BBQ joint). This has recently climbed to the top spot because although my experiences with collard greens is admittingly limited I must state that the collard greens at Shiver’s is possibly tastier than anything else on the menu – including the sweet potato fries. In fact it may just be the most delicious food item that’s available for consumption on U.S. 1 in Miami-Dade County !

That’s how I rock and roll this week with your ‘Monday Night Countdown’. This blog is now going on a short two-day hiatus. I’ll be back on Thursday night to kick it into high gear with a fresh new ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’. Until then – keep it real my vegan friends !

Categories
God

Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad

Here are my takeaways in 15 words or less:

– Alex did a bang-up job on the drums during Praise & Worship.
– The whole band totally rocked God’s house this morning.
– The band seems to be multiplying.
– I counted 9 of them up on stage.
– We didn’t sing just to hear ourselves sing.
– We sang so that God would clearly hear us.
– Pastor Mike B. presented the teaching this morning.
– It was all about Perseverance.
– I must follow God’s will for my Life despite the world around me.
– I must run the race that is marked out for me by God.
– I must be persistent in praying to Him.
– I must ask, seek, and knock – and never give up.
– God wants to give me Goodness.
– God wants to change my mind, heart, and soul.
– God chose me when I was a sinner.
– I must get up again after I get knocked down.
– Satan wants to keep me down and out for the count.
– God wants me to rise above it all and continue moving forward.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NLT, 2ND Ed.)
16  That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
17  For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever !
18  So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Categories
History Life Television

Saturday Night Retro

I’ve got over a dozen pictures of varying sizes on display atop the entertainment center in my living room. I frequently look at them. They are pictures of me, my brother, my mom, my dad, and my cats over the years. My brother appears the most number of times within these pictures – a total of 12. By comparison I’m only featured 7 times !

The oldest picture of them all features me, my mom, and my dad. It was probably our first professional family portrait, and I believe that it was done in 1972 – perhaps 1973 – when I was 5 or 6. The photo studio imprinted on the back of it was located in Lanham Maryland not too far away from the Catholic Church that we attended back then. It looks like I’m wearing my Sunday finest !

Here now is the earliest picture of me that you’ll ever see (unless an even earlier picture of me is discovered – very possible). As usual I removed my mom and my dad from the picture to protect the innocent:

Me At 5
Me At 5 ... Or 6

Incidentally that teddy bear that I’m holding was not even mine. It was supplied to me by the photographer so that I would look even cuter in the photo-op.

According to a photo album that my mom has of me it is well documented that my favourite television show at the time (1972-1973) was “Wait Till Your Father Gets Home” – an animated family sitcom much like “The Flintstones” of the 1960s. Check out its memorable theme song, and if you’re over 40-years-old and remember all of the lyrics to it then sing along with me: