– If it’s Thursday night then it must be time for some mini thoughts o’ mine.
– It’s the 14TH edition of these ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’.
– It’s the sleeper smash hit series of the season for this blog !
– Last night I spent nearly 3 hours with some good friends at the White Lion Cafe.
– They officially close ‘when the fat lady sings’.
– She sang last night, and we shut the joint down just before 10 PM.
– As promised I ate ENORMOUS quantities of food.
– I stopped eating at around 9:30 PM.
– That was over 19 hours ago, and I haven’t eaten a morsel ever since then.
– I may grab a snack after I post these Mini Thoughts.
– I’m not really hungry though.
– I also ate an ENORMOUS Lunch at Sonny’s BBQ 8 hours prior to Dinner.
– I may have consumed nearly 10,000 calories yesterday.
– Some of my friends didn’t like their food at the White Lion Cafe.
– Greg eats just like me – EVERYTHING on his plate !
– It just takes him a little longer to do so.
– My food was absolutely scrumptious from start to finish.
– Of course this is coming from a dude who cooks absolutely nothing at home.
– I only eat real food in restaurants and in other peoples’ homes.
– I was in meetings pretty much all day today at work.
– They were very productive.
– Over the past 21 months I’ve enjoyed a purpose-driven career.
– It just took over 22 years to get to that point in my career.
– Next year I celebrate my 25TH anniversary working with the USAF.
– The first 22 years were pretty much forgettable.
– At least I wish to forget most of that time.
– My little brother turns 34-years-old this Sunday.
– I remember when he was born.
– I also remember all of the fun times that we shared together as kids.
– My brother is my favourite person in the entire world.
– I’ll see him LIVE and in person next Thursday night.
– That’s because I’ll be visiting North Texas next weekend.
– We’ll be celebrating his birthday on the first night.
– And his 2ND anniversary with his wife on the second night.
– And my birthday on the third night.
– And Mother’s Day on the fourth night.
– That means that there will be more MASSIVE meals in my future !
– I am so looking forward to that !
Category: Food
It’s the longest-running episodic weekly series in the entire history of this blog:
1. Friends – I don’t want the deadly swine flu. I don’t even want the ‘at-home-in-bed-sick’ swine flu. I’m just putting that out there for everyone. Please wash your hands thoroughly after you touch things. This personal health and hygiene message was provided to you as a public service by the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. The More You Know.
2. An extended coworker recently stated that I remind him of Ernie Douglas from “My Three Sons“. Well that’s certainly a nice obscure reference from some 45 years ago ! The funniest thing about it is the fact that it was one of my favourite TV shows to watch as a kid of the 1970s.
3. This season’s cycle of “The Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC-TV has been one of the most interesting, exciting, intriguing, suspenseful, and downright shocking seasons of any prime time reality show in television history. This has been one season where I refuse to record it for later viewing. I must watch it LIVE, and I must not be interrupted for anything whatsoever while it is on !
4. I do not use Twitter, I do not know how to use Twitter, and I do not wish to learn how to use Twitter. This WordPress blog right here is as technologically-enhanced as I plan to get for the unforseeable future. If you wish to know what I’m doin’ or what’s goin’ on in my Life then feel free to read all about it right here. Although I post a lot of fun things on here during the week (filler material) this blog is also a ministry for me. It is how I disciple to the rest of the world. If you’re interested then stay tuned to what I have to share with you. If you’re not interested then check out other blogs that are out there on the interwebs.
5. I’m hangin’ out with some good friends o’ mine at Homestead‘s White Lion Cafe tomorrow night. This just in. I love to eat ENORMOUS quantities of food !
TODAY I visited Everglades National Park for the first time in modern history.
Here are my takeaways in 15 words or less:
– My ‘2009 Economic Stimulus Tour’ (of tourist attractions) continues.
– I kicked it off with an 8:40 AM visit to the Starbucks in Florida City.
– The first sign I saw at the park – ‘EXTREME FIRE DANGER‘.
– I was hoping that I wouldn’t see any out-of-control wildfires.
– The National Park Service doesn’t spend a lot of money on road maintenance.
– The top layer of the main road is peeling off exposing the concrete below.
– It was a nice day at the park – sort of cloudy with a refreshing wind.
– There weren’t a lot of people at the park today.
– I was part of the very few that wore shorts.
– Dude it’s not mosquito season yet.
– The’re still hibernating / incubating.
– The skeeters need the water, and there wasn’t much of it out there.
– The ground was so dry that it was cracking like scorched earth.
– It was the dryest winter season ever recorded since mankind’s been tracking it.
– If there’s no water in the solution holes then we must be in a drought.
– That’s because those holes reach the water table.
– I spent the first 45 minutes of my visit at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center.
– That’s a nice place, as I could have spent twice as long there.
– One sound you don’t hear inside the park – lawnmowers !
– It may not be mosquito season, but it certainly is bee season.
– They were buzzing (scaring) all around me in certain areas on the trails.
– None stung me, so that’s a good thing.
– I probably wouldn’t be here writing this if I had sustained a bee sting.
– If there’s a lot of people gathered then there must be a HUGE gator there.
– The gators were just chillin’ in the shallow end of the water.
– Some were tanning themselves on the shore with their mouths wide open.
– Gators are just like you and me !
– The Gumbo Limbo Trail reminded me of a place I played at as a kid.
– It was in the mid-1970s, and it was in the woods alongside my old ‘hood.
– Chuck and Keegan were two childhood friends of mine back then.
– They ran a territory on one side of the creek known as ‘Wolf Pack State’.
– I ran the territory on the other side of the creek.
– The Gumbo Limbo tree has peeling reddish bark.
– The Gumbo Limbo tree is just like you and me – a tourist with a sunburn !
– Everglades National Park formed out of Royal Palm State Park.
– It’s a vast wilderness – just like the U.S.A. once was.
– It smelled really good on the Mahogany Hammock Trail.
– The Everglades overall smelled really nice.
– It’s nature’s air freshener.
– Even the residue skunk smell was quite alright.
– You don’t know what nature sounds like until you visit the Everglades.
– All you need to do is sit down, keep quiet, and just listen.
– Noise pollution is not invited out there.
– Trees still provide abundant life to plants long after their death.
– Trees learned that from their Creator – Jesus – who does the same.
– It’s 60 miles on the dot from my home to Flamingo.
– I walked every half-mile trail from the park entrance to Florida Bay.
– This was the longest officially-sanctioned ‘Walk-A-Thon’ in history.
– I used no insect repellent at all.
– It wasn’t until the final trail in which I started to get bitten by bugs.
– It was also one of my favourite trails that I walked on.
– The bugs were alive and biting on the West Lake Boardwalk.
– I even saw a rare mosquito come close to my arm.
– A few ENORMOUS flies bit me.
– Now I feel like I really visited the Everglades !
– The bugs were there because the boardwalk went through a mangrove swamp.
– The ground was actually moist too.
– After that final trail I headed back to civilization / America’s Riviera.
– I made a pit stop at Mamma Mia.
– That’s right I ate there for the 2ND time in 7 days.
– It’s my new favourite sit-down restaurant in Homestead.
– I feel right at home there.
– I ate the mother of all MASSIVE meals big and small there this afternoon.
– That’s how I roll on a Saturday afternoon in late-April.
– My 111-mile round-trip excursion ended 7 hours after it started.
– I didn’t realize that I got a suntan / slight sunburn today.
– I realized it when I shaved after I got home.
– It stung a bit.
– It also didn’t help that I shaved directly over a few small insect bites.
– This day trip was so worth it.
– I’m visiting again next December or January.
– You can count on it !
Categories
Thursday Night Mini Thoughts
– You know how I roll.
– If it’s Thursday night then I’ve got some mini thoughts on my mind.
– I’m so glad that you stopped by for a few minutes.
– The Atlanta Bread Company has closed its doors forever here in Homestead.
– Like I didn’t see that coming from a mile year away !
– Anyone who knows me knows all about my frustrations with that place.
– The place was poorly managed from the very beginning.
– Let’s hope that Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse are better managed.
– They both open up next month.
– Dude I am so ready for both grand openings.
– You do know that Red Lobster is also moving in next year, Yes ?
– IHOP in Naranja Lakes closed its doors several weeks ago.
– I ate breakfast there up to 150 times during 3 years of Saturday mornings.
– Honestly I may have only missed about 6 weeks over 3 years.
– I ate there because the food was totally bodacious dude.
– The service was also mucho outstanding mate.
– And then my waitress left.
– Oh yeah – and I decided to get healthier.
– It was all over after that.
– My longtime IHOP waitress works at Cracker Barrel now.
– I see her on Saturday mornings perhaps once every 3 months or so.
– Oh I almost forgot – I ate at Mamma Mia last Sunday after church.
– Service was good, and my spinach manicotti was delectable.
– I’ll be back for more.
– TODAY I ate Lunch at Casavana with a crew of crazy coworkers.
– Me gusta el sandwich de pavo.
– Check out this video clip from a classic episode of “King Of Queens“:
CountUp 