Category: Food

Categories
Blogging Driving Food Home Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  This afternoon during the 1 PM hour I returned home safe and sound from my short road trip up to ‘The North Pole’ / ‘The Great White North’ of Florida. I’m talking of course about the Jacksonville area – AKA ‘The First Coast’. I got everything done that I needed to get done (and then some), and I brought back home a lot of great takeaways from all of my various meetings and taskings regarding the legal acquisition of my home up there. I was skeptical / pessimistic before the trip as well as during the drive up, but everything worked out as perfectly as can be. I have a lot less stress to deal with now.

II.  Our long historic cold spell continues here in Florida. This is Day 11, and it’s coming to an end real soon. On Thursday we return back to normal with the long-awaited return of our easterly ocean breezes, maximum late-afternoon temperatures in the mid-70s, and minimum early-morning temperatures right around 60°F (starting on Friday morning). This morning up on Fleming Island in Clay County my car was covered smothered in thick frost. Luckily it started right up, but I pretty much had to sit in it with the heater and the defroster on full blast before I could actually see out of the front windshield to drive it away. It was in the mid-20s early this morning (right at sunrise) as I departed, and parts of the landscape west of St. Augustine looked like a vast winter wonderland with a thick layer of frost whitening the otherwise brown and dead ground.

III.  Is it just me, or do the various service plazas along Florida’s Turnpike look like the’re going out of business and declaring bankruptcy ?  Of course the’re not, but to me they appear to be just a mere shell or skeleton of what they used to look like. The’re still rather busy with people, but it just seems like everyone is wandering around in circles in a long-neglected mall that’s seen its better days. I actually ate a really nice cheeseburger and fries Lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger Express at the West Palm Beach service plaza. It’s located in the former location of Burger King. I guess BK pulled out (or was pulled out) – along with Starbucks and various other former favourites at the various bustling stops along the Turnpike.

Be sure not to miss my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in just 2 days !

Categories
Animals Food Humor

Monday Night Funnies

Categories
Food God Health Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Time: 7:38 AM – 8:22 AM
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Temperature: 49°F
Dewpoint: 42°F
Relative Humidity: 79%
Winds: N 12 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 30.12 Rising

Here are my walking thoughts in 15 words or less:

– This morning I walked around my neighbourhood in the cold.
– It’s a frigidly cold morning, as Homestead is shivering !
– Wind chills are deep down into the mid-40s !
– That may not be much for you up north, but down here it’s ‘severe weather’.
– Our weather will be ‘severe’ – clear and cold – for the next 2 weeks !
– I’ve been forecasting this extended cold snap since the hurricane season.
– Tomorrow morning we may have wind chills approaching the mid-30s !
– This morning I ate a GINORMOUS Breakfast at Denny’s.
– It was the ‘All-American Slam’.
– It consisted of 3 scrambled eggs with melted cheddar cheese.
– Let’s not forget the hash browns, sausage, bacon, and English Muffins.
– Denny’s is a great place to enjoy a real Man’s Breakfast !
– After I got home from that early-morning feast I knew what I had to do.
– I had to work it all off, and so I did – out in the cold.
– I walked for 44 minutes – the same exact time as last Saturday morning.
– It was another fun 2.4-mile walk.
– I’m in the best physical condition of my entire Life.
– I’ve come a long way over the past 40 months.
– It’s never too late to start all over again.
– You’ve just got to believe !

Categories
Food Holidays Movies Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  I just got home from work about an hour later than normal. We had a GINORMOUS Christmas party at work starting at 3 PM. ‘Twas the mother-of-all all-you-care-to-eat buffets (or as I like to pronounce it – ‘boo-fays’), and there was enough food for 75 of us even though there were only about 25 of us. I ate my fair share of food for myself and two other undetermined people. We also had a fun and hilarious Christmas gift exchange where previously opened gifts were being swiped left and right by the participants. I ended up with a totally awesome (and useful for me) gift. Let’s just say that I can buy food with this gift. I HEARD THAT ONE !

2.  It’s been a ridiculous week of eating for me. I actually went to Shiver’s BBQ for Lunch today just 3½-hours before the start of the Christmas party this afternoon. Yesterday morning I indulged in what amounted to essentially a 10-course Breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Get this – 2 scrambled eggs with melted swiss cheese, hickory-smoked bacon, sausage patty, sugar-cured ham, hashbrown casserole, fried apples, cinnamon biscuits, sawmill gravy, grits, buttermilk biscuits, coffee, and water. YEAH !  BRING IT !

3.  This past Sunday afternoon me and my girlfriend checked out the hot new Portofino Coal Fired Pizza joint that’s located in the former Atlanta Bread Company restaurant. Portofino clearly poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the space to make it look real nice and modern. The service was near superb, and the coal-fired pizza was great. I hope this place succeeds. It’s pretty much upscale for Homestead, but I definitely recommend it as long as their service and food remain outstanding. Go check it out and support this hot new local business here in our own hometown.

4.  69 consecutive hours – That’s how long we were stuck in the 50s and 60s here in Homestead from Saturday afternoon through late this (Tuesday) morning. Sunday and Monday were our coldest two days in a row since two similar days way back during the first week of February !  I can’t believe how many people around me were whining and complaining about the cold air invasion. Look for warmer temperatures (day and night) through Christmas Day before it cools back down again late this weekend and into early next week. We could actually be back into the lower-80s on Christmas Day !

5.  Box Office Round-Up – Last Friday night we saw the critically trashed box office flop “Did You Hear About The Morgans ?“. Hugh Grant was sarcastically hilarious (my type of humour), and I thought that it was an “A+” movie. It maintained my undivided attention and entertained me all throughout from start to finish, and that’s what matters to me. It was the 15TH movie of the year for me, and that’s one more than I saw in 2008 – and six more than I saw in 2007. Here’s to more screwball comedies and bone chilling thrillers in 2010 !