Robert's Updates

Christmas 2010

2011-01-11T08:48:00.002-05:00

Laura and I had a great Christmas and New Years season in 2010. We both got to spend a good amount of time with each of our families. Here are some pictures from our Christmas Season.

From Christmas 2010

I made this gingerbread house. It is really awesome because it is nice and organized. Also, the gingerbread tenants pay their bills on time and are cognizant of curb appeal.

From Christmas 2010

Laura's gingerbread house that is nicer than mine, but there is nobody living there because ginger-money is tight and this residence is just outside of many gingerpeoples' price points.

From Christmas 2010

Laura made a delicious banana pudding on Christmas eve topped with holiday chessman cookies. This was snacked on for several days.

From Christmas 2010

Laura and I after church on Christmas Eve.

From Christmas 2010

As we were opening presents on Christmas day, it started to snow! And it snowed a lot!

From Christmas 2010

Oh shit son!! Look what Santa brought me!!

From Christmas 2010

One of my mom's beautifully wrapped gifts. She must have spent a lot of time wrapping a bunch of these smaller boxes.

From Christmas 2010

My mom playing around with her camera taking pictures of the gifts.

There are few more pictures if you follow the link below each picture. Laura and I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and a safe/fun/happy new year.

New York City 2010

2010-12-28T16:58:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the extreme lack of updates, I have been pretty busy the last month. During that month Laura and I took a long weekend trip to New York City. You might remember (and I wont hold it against you if you don't) that we went last October to NYC and had a blast. This time, Laura wanted to see the big city all lit up with Christmas (her favorite holiday) decorations.

We got to our hotel (Crown Plaza Time Square) on Thursday night and we on the fence as to whether or not we should go out and see stuff. It was around 10 by the time we got to the room. And, as you might not have expected, we went and walked around time square. It was very cold, but there were still thousands of people loitering around. We didn't stay out too long because we were tired and wanted to get some rest for our journey on Friday.

Friday we strolled around 5th avenue looking at the different window decorations each of the department stores had. For the most part they were pretty interesting, but they did not live up to my expectations. Keep in mind I live in a little fantasy world where things are always incredible, experiences are unforgettable, food is indescribable, and logic and reason are nonexistent. But the walk was nice. For lunch we went to La Bonne Soupe, a little french place in between 5th and 6th avenues. There was a 15 minute wait, but when we got to our seats and received our food, it was all worth it. The soup and atmosphere at this place were really great, and the smoked salmon crepe was top notch. I would go there again, and next time load up on wine (just for fun). After lunch we made it over to Radio City Music Hall for a holiday performance by the Rockettes. We saw these ladies last year in Atlanta and had a great time. But they didn't make it to Georgia this year, so we decided to meet them on their home turf. The show was a lot of fun (and a great opportunity to rest me legs). I think the show was Laura's favorite part of the trip....since Christmas is her favorite holiday. For dinner, we walked over to Hells Kitchen (not a TV show as I found out, but an area in NYC) and ate at 5 Napkin Burger. Laura found this place a few months ago and suggested we go there. I'm glad we did! We split a huge burger that was so tasty and juice, and three lobster roll sliders that were also delicious. In addition to the burger and lobster roll, I got a side of tater tots which to my surprise were actually little fried balls of mashed potatoes! They tasted so f**king good!! No joke, I ate an entire bowl of fired mashed potatoes, and would do it again in a heartbeat if I could.

Saturday morning we woke up a little sore and tired from all the walking, so what did we decide to do that day? Yep, we chose to walk south about 40 blocks down Broadway. We did this walk last year and found it enjoyable, so we knew what we were getting into. Along the way we stopped to get coffee, and breakfast, and also look in some shops. For lunch we went to Otto which is owned by Mario Bittali (the croc wearing iron chef). Again it was nice to sit and rest my legs while eating delicious food. After lunch we walked down by the arch at NYU and noticed something odd. There were thousands of Santas walking around! It was crazy, everywhere we looked there were people (20 somethings) walking around in Santa/Elf/Snowman attire, and they were all pretty drunk. Evidently there was a massively organized Santa pub crawl throughout the city, and we were in the middle of it. It was a lot of fun seeing all these drunk Santas pounding beers and yelling curse words at other Santas who were also pounding beers and yelling curse words at other Santas who......well you get the picture.

One of the things I wanted to see on this trip was the Brooklyn Bridge. So around 3 that day we took a cab (good idea) to the entry point of the bridge. Now I just wanted to take a few pictures of it then get on, but once we got there we convinced ourselves to walk across it. About halfway over the bridge Laura decided that, hey, maybe this idea wasn't the greatest. But I thought, we made it this far, FINISH THE DRILL!!! So we finished the walk and ended up in, you guessed in Brooklyn! My idea of Brooklyn (in my fantasy land mind you) was a bunch of kids skipping rope talking to large yellow birds while cheering up a goblin in a trash can, and counting with a creepy midget vampire. But, you know, I didn't see any of that shit. It was just a bunch of cars, and not many people walking around. immediately I thought, "ok, now how the hell do we get back?" We didn't really want to walk the additional mile and change back across the bridge so we tried to find a cab. All the cabs we found told us to rot in hell (at least that's what I heard) because they weren't going back over the bridge. It was getting dark now, and we had no way back to Manhattan, so we took a couple pictures of the city from across the harbor, tucked our tail between our legs and walked the lonely path of loneliness back over the Brooklyn Bridge.

For dinner that night we met up with Laura's friends from HBS at a mexican restaurant near Union Square. At first I thought mexican food in NYC would suck, but it was actually very good. We had a great time talking and catching up since our last visit in 2009. After dinner we walked over to a place called Milk Bar which was supposed to have some really fantastic cookies. This place was pretty crowded, that was a good sign. We ordered two chocolate chocolate cookies and one peanut butter cookie. Now in my mind (fantasy land) the perfect cookie is something warm, dough-like, and can tell hilarious stories about life on a baking dish. We did not receive that cookie. What we did get was a chewy cookie, not warm, but insanely rich and delicious. This might have changed my idea of what my favorite cookie is. Bottom line - solid cookie.

On Sunday we went to breakfast at the Eatery which came recommended by Christiane's new york residing sisters. This place was very good because I ordered the best damn thing on the menu. I ordered banana and chocolate stuffed french toast, and it was the balls (Anchorman ref). Laura ordered a smoked salmon omelet that was meh, but the stuffed french toast was super.

After breakfast we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or as the fancy people call it, The Met. We spent a couple hours walking through the Egyptian, American, Renaissance, and Impressionist exhibits. We got the headsets that told us about much of the displays which was a great investment ($7). I really enjoyed learning about all of the different artistic and historical shit and would go back again because we didn't see half of what was on display.

For lunch we went to the basement of the Plaza Hotel to some fancy cafeteria owned by Todd English (some dude on Food Network). The was a wide variety of things to ordered from sushi, to meat plates, to pasta. We ordered a trio of lamb gyro sliders, and some delicious mini ravioli of which I don't remember what was in it. Both were great! Laura like the gyros, and I like the ravioli the best.

With that our trip to New York City was complete. Scratch that, we got a lovely tour of the airport as our flight was delayed a couple hours along with the rest of the masses trying to escape the city. But even with the flight delay, we had an amazing trip! I recommend everything we did except for rewalking the Brooklyn Bridge and eating the airport food. Here are some pictures from the weekend. Please check out the album for a few more images.

From New York City 2010

Inside the Trump building

From New York City 2010

Gingerbread house inside the Ritz Carlton

From New York City 2010

Rockettes in one of the final numbers

From New York City 2010

Christmas tree at Rockefellar Plaza

From New York City 2010

Santa Pub Crawl

From New York City 2010

Santas and Elf getting drizz-unk!!!

From New York City 2010

Santa's Lady friend needs something smooth to take the edge off.

From New York City 2010

Brooklyn Bridge

From New York City 2010

Macys with tree and empire state building

From New York City 2010

Tiffany's necklace at the museum, I mean that The Met

From New York City 2010

Van Goh of Van Goh. He is pretty ugly, word up!!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-30T21:04:00.002-05:00

This year Laura and I were lucky to celebrate the holiday with her family and my younger brother, David. There was so much food that nobody went to bed hungry. In fact, I think most people woke up full the next day. On the menu this year was mashed potatoes and broccoli and rice casserole prepared by Laura's mom. Laura made green been casserole, stuffing, and macaroni and cheese. David made the gravy from the turkey drippings. And I made the bacon wrapped turkey, sweet potato souffle, garlic rolls, and chocolate lava cakes. I also took it upon myself to make sure all of the beer was cold.

We played some board games and watched a few football games on TV. All in all we had a wonderful time!

Here are a few pictures from the day.

From Thanksgiving 2010

Bacon wrapped turkey before it gets in the oven

From Thanksgiving 2010

Artsy picture of the bacon weave resting on the turkey.

From Thanksgiving 2010

Turkey fresh out of the oven. While the turkey cooked, I would periodically baste it with maple syrup. This gave the bacon and skin a delicious sweet flavor, and also made the gravy turn out fantastic!

The Thanksgiving spread showing some great depth of field and amazing bokeh (look it up) in the background. The Christmas tree was put up a few weeks ago.

David's plate, correction, his first plate of food.

People playing games. It may not look like it, but they are having fun.

David wondering with the chocolate chip cookies will be done.

Chocolate lava cake with ice cream. These were very easy to make and super delicious!

Disney World 2010

2010-11-21T19:15:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the long time since my last post. Things have been pretty busy, and I have been pretty lazy. Perfect Storm. So a few weeks ago Laura and I went down to disney world for an extended weekend. There we participated in the annual Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. This event was fantastic! They had a bunch of different food/drink stations set up throughout the park offering small (and expensive) samples of different regional fare.

My favorite thing we did during the vacation was the Party for the Senses. This was the best buffet I have ever been to. There were about 20 stations offering a wide range of dishes from rack of lamb (our favorites), to duck tacos, to pork belly, to scallops, to rabbit, to pork cheek, to lamb meatballs, to Chilean sea bass and more!. Each station had a different wine or beer to test as well. Needless to say Laura and I got our money's worth. We will definitely do this event again in the future!

Here are some pictures from the Food and Wine Festival.

From Disney World October 2010

Mickey Thomas from Starship (the 80's band) performing. They were pretty entertaining.

From Disney World October 2010

Laura and I (obviously) before the Party for the Senses

From Disney World October 2010

Scallops in a curried banana sauce. Pretty damn good.

From Disney World October 2010

delicious duck tacos. meaty as hell.

From Disney World October 2010

Panacotta (spelling?)

From Disney World October 2010

Haunted gingerbread house

From Disney World October 2010

Cirque du Soleil performance.

From Disney World October 2010

We got to meet Iron Chef Cat Cora. She was very nice, and the dish she was presenting, lamb meatball on hummus, was amazing!

Food Weekend

2010-10-06T07:11:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been pretty busy and haven't had a chance to take a bunch of pictures. However, two weekends ago Laura and I decided to spend the weekend cooking instead of going out to eat. We have been doing a better job of eating in more which has really opened the door to cooking new things. On Thursday night Laura took it on herself to make some Italian comfort food. She whipped together a delicious baked ziti that must have weight 8 pounds. This thing was dense! It wasn't the pasta that weighed so much, it was the sausage, onions, and mounds of cheese.

The casserole dish could hardly contain the cheese.

Oh, and to wash that down, Laura made a batch of Reese chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. The cake batter and frosting were made from scratch, and you could really tell. Also, she placed a mini-reeses cup in the center of each cupcake before baking. After the cupcakes cooled a bit (but not too much because we were impatient) she layered on a rich layer of peanut putter frosting. These cupcakes were sooooo good and soooo filling. It was hard to eat more than one, but I managed to do so.

Finally, on Friday night it was my time to contribute. I wanted to do something a little fancier because it had been a while since we cooked a real nice sit down meal together. Normally in this situation I would go right to steak, specifically thick cut ribeye. However, when walking through Costco I got the idea to do rack of lamb. Laura and I love rack of lamb (medium rare, of course). I have made it a couple times in the past, so I thought I could incorporate what I learned to make this edition really good. To accompany the lamb I made some garlic and sour cream mashed potatoes and steamed green beans with balsamic sauteed onions. Everything came out wonderful! I was impressed with my ability to get all of the dishes done at the same time so nothing got cold or stagnant. For drinks, we opened up one of Laura's favorite bottles of wine, Chateau St. Michelle Riesling.

If you are going to make rack of lamb (or order it at a restaurant) it better be medium rare or else you are doing yourself a large disservice.

Overall it was a delicious weekend, and when we have the time will definitely do again (with different dishes mind you).

Tirp to LA (part 2)

2010-09-14T09:15:00.002-04:00

After eating at the Griddle we drove down Santa Monica Blvd to the Santa Monica Pier. Parking in Santa Monica is a bitch! So we bent over at the waist and paid the 20 bucks for underground parking.

Along the coast was much cooler than a few miles inland. It was probably 65 degrees on the pier as opposed 85 in Hollywood. Also, there was quite a bit of cloud cover. This being Labor Day weekend, and it being Santa Monica, the beach and pier were packed! It was interesting to walk along the pier and see all the people selling paintings and other various dust collectors. If we weren't so full I might have insisted we ate at one of the best local joints in Santa Monica, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Fo REAL!

The crowded pier.

The crowded beach. It was cold, so I'm not sure how people could really get in the water.

Me before my haircut looking like a jerk, with Laura.

If you look to the left, those condos were exactly like the one Donna, Kelly and Jason stayed in in the latter years of 90210. I was so excited!

People performing some stupid human tricks most likely to be followed by some frisbee and pot smoking.

After strolling along the beach we walked down 3rd street which is a dedicated pedestrian street. There were a bunch of people singing, doing flips, playing guitars, and whatnot. Along either side of the road were numerous shops that you would find in your local mall. Laura showed remarkable restraint by resisting the temptation to go in and shop.

While we were walking back to the car we spotted this gem along the main drag by the coast. We are certain it's Jay Leno's car because embroidered on the headrests of the back seats were the initials "JL". I was able to snap a few pictures (as you would expect).

From Santa Monica Laura instructed James to drive toward Rodeo Drive because she was on a mission. A mission for cupcakes. Laura had spent a good couple months researching the best places to get cupcakes in LA and she wasn't going to come back to Atlanta without her craving being satiated. So we stopped in at Crumbs (for the second time this trip). We heard about Crumbs when were were in New York last year. They had some amazing treats. However, in LA the Crumbs cupcakes were sub par and to be honest, a bit disappointing. But we got the Crumbs cupcake and were going to head to dinner, but Laura said, "Not so fast! I want to see something down the road." So we walked a few blocks and found ourselves in a line of people. What the hell were we doing? Well, we were waiting in line for more cupcakes. This time from the Oprah endorsed, Sprinkles.

After 20 minutes we made it into the store, and with a plastic bag of Crumbs cupcakes, Laura ordered a couple Sprinkles cupcakes. This might signal, to the 3rd party observer, an addiction. However, I as someone who respects the scientific method, recognize this as a poorly conducted, but extremely gratifying experiment.

The cupcake selection at Crumbs

Inside at Sprinkles.

Before doing the taste test we had to get some protein. So we hit up Umami Burger. This is a local (I think) LA establishment that has some terrific burgers. They aren't very big, but are very tasty. Also they had some pretty good onion rings.

Finally, after dinner we retreated to James's apartment to conduct some delicious science. It didn't take long for us to determine that the LA version of Crumbs is NOT as good as the New York version. So it was an easy victory for Sprinkles in the cupcake battle of Los Angeles. We probably could have guessed this because the wait for Crumbs was about 5 minutes, while the wait for Sprinkles was 20 minutes. So there you have it, Sprinkles is 4 times better than Crumbs.

Now that we had completed our whirlwind tour of LA and most likely developed some form of diabeetus, we got on the plane for the red eye flight to Atlanta. The trip was very successful and we had a wonderful time. We appreciate James being our safari guide through the jungle of Los Angeles.

Trip to LA (part 1)

2010-09-11T11:50:00.004-04:00

Over Labor Day weekend, Laura and I flew out to Los Angeles to visit her brother, James. While we were there we did a ton of stuff. There was very little time to relax because every second was packed with funtivities. Our first stop after getting picked up from the airport was the local food trucks near James's apartment. We got sliders at "The Greasy Wiener", korean BBQ tacos, and delicious lamb pitas. We were three for three on the food trucks. It would be nice if there was an army of food trucks around atlanta, or even better, North Fulton.

After lunch we zipped over to Burbank to get in line to see the live taping of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. We waited about an hour and half to get in, but get in we did. The guests on the show were Louis CK, Bristol Palin, and Sarah Bourelis (not sure on the spelling, and not sure I care). The Tonight Show band was spectacular. Also, Jay came out before hand to talk to the crowd and was surprisingly funny. He, by himself without queue cards, is much funnier than what you see on TV. Once the show started, it was like you were watching it on TV. It took the same amount of time because it was live to tape. Overall, a great experience.

After Jay Leno we dropped our stuff off at the Intercontinental Hotel and got ready for dinner at Lawry's. Lawry's is well known for their delicious primerib, so when it came to ordering we didnt mess around and just ordered the primerib....medium rare of course. There we celebrated James's graduation (a year and some months late, but hey, it got us a free piece of cake).

Delicious primeribs ripe for the cutting

James with his cake, of which I ate most of.

Laura and I in the lobby of the hotel.

The next day we roamed around Disneyland and California Adventure (equivalent of MGM studios in disneyworld). We followed the typical protocol of doing as many rides as fast as possible with no regard for human life. We bounced all over the parks getting fast passes and waiting in short lines and riding rides. It was crazy! We were lucky that the crowd was very light so we accomplished everything by 4 o'clock. After that I was exhausted.

That evening we went to see one of James's improv shows at IO West, a comedy club in LA. It was very funny and enjoyable. Following James's group was a more seasoned crew that was assisted by Tim Meadows. He's the Lady's Man from Saturday Night Live. So we stayed for that show and really enjoyed it. It was nice to peek into James's world because it's so much different than mine. My work involves keyboards, whiteboards, and being bored. His involves funny jokes, comedy clubs, and the Lady's man.

The next day (sunday) we met my buddy Craig for breakfast at "The Griddle". This place was named by Yahoo (authoritative body on most subjects) as one of the best pancakes places in the country. They weren't kidding! I got banana carmel pancakes, Laura got french toast with cheesecake stuff on top, and James got Red Velvet pancakes. I think Laura and I could have split one order because I could barely eat half of my stack.

Craig and I at breakfast.

This is how I felt afterwards

The aftermath

Im gunna go watch the Tech football game now, so I'll finish the trip summary up later.

Trip to Oregon

2010-08-29T15:57:00.003-04:00

Last weekend I made a trip up to Oregon to visit my grandparents and the many other relatives living in the Hillsboro area. My parents were also in the area so they joined the weekend festivities.

The weather was great all weekend. Sunny but not too hot. Just perfect. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Flowers at the famers market

My grandfather talking the watermelon man. My grandparents know everybody in Hillsboro.

Shot some cans with a .22. I'm glad that I haven't lost my touch.

Uncle Paul doing some farm work among the blueberry bushes.

Some blueberries my Uncle Paul grew. These are small ones used for blueberry muffin mixes and flavoring. Very sweet and delicious.

7000 horsepower on a tractor may seem like a little much to most people, but not the residents of Banks, Oregon.

My mom's cousin Mitch's combine to be used in the combine demolition derby. It was pretty exciting to see these hunks of metal run into one another.

Here's a link to the entire album.

Trip to Oregon

Relaxing Weekend

2010-08-14T14:06:00.002-04:00

This weekend is the first in a while, and the last for a while, with no big plans. It's crazy to think that we are already a good ways through August. So, for the weekend we decided to actually get some sleep. Its been a while since I slept in, but I made it til 9:30 this morning. Since we got the whole weekend to ourselves we thought it a good idea to get some painting projects started. These are the same projects we've been putting off for a year. There are two bedrooms on the upper floor that need a good painting. It took us about 45 minutes to put the first coat of primer on one of the bedrooms, but we got it done. I think the hardest part about doing projects around the house is starting. We will do the second coat of primer later today or tomorrow. I'll post some pictures when the project is done because right now, honestly, it looks like shit.

Happy weekend!!!

Random pictures

2010-07-31T10:49:00.003-04:00

Not a whole lot has gone on in the past couple weeks, but I was able to snap a few pictures. Two weeks ago while Laura was out of town I made some fat burgers that were super juicy and delicious. I used ground chuck (good fat content) and mixed in some salt, pepper, and fresh garlic. I topped them with thick provolone cheese, chili, and sauteed onions. These burgers were fantastic.

Last night Laura and I went to downtown Roswell to get some dinner. This place is great because there are several very good restaurants. We tried a Cajun place called Roux last night and it was delicious. The shrimp and grits were great and the shrimp poboy also terrific. We got fried gator bites that were nice, but they needed to be larger chunks. Afterwards we walked around the area then headed into our new favorite bakery (Alpine Bakery is currently closed due to relocation), Kelly Cakes. There Laura got her favorite strawberry cupcake and I couldn't decide between lemon and peanut butter/chocolate, so I got both. All of them were, as usual, fantastic!

Last weekend I took a photography class that focused (pun intended) on using available light to get great pictures. The emphasis of the class was talking good pictures of people. I learned a lot and also got the courage to start shooting in all manual mode. Kind of scary, I know, but I'm quickly getting the hang of it.

Simply reducing the saturation of the image gives a cool feeling to the picture. Laura told me how to edit this one. It came out very nice.

Delicious strawberry cupcake. If anybody wants to visit Laura and me, we'll take you here. I promise!

Last days in Hawaii

2010-07-19T08:15:00.002-04:00

So this is the last post of pictures from our Hawaiian vacation, unless I find more that I want to post. On our last day we were lucky to get a late checkout so we could spend the morning on the beach. Since our flight wasn't until 8:30, it was like a whole extra day of vacation.

The weather was beautiful again which to me was a sign from God telling us to come back. Ok, God. We'll come back. After a thoroughly relaxing morning we cleaned up and packed our bags and checked out of the hotel. Then we grabbed some lunch at Frederico's. This little mexican place was awesome! They had GREAT tacos! Wish there was a Frederico's in atlanta.

After lunch we went on a timeshare tour so we could start building up our starwood points for the next vacation! I had never been on a tour before so I was kind of curious as to how it all works. Before we went in, I was assigned the role of "Bad Cop". Basically my job was to piss on the timeshare parade. My kind of job!

The tour was very little about the actual facility and more about how you can use the points that you are actually buying to go anywhere you want. You see, you are not buying a week at a hawaiian villa, you are actually buying enough points each year to go to a hawaiian villa for a week. Get it? It's not too complicated I assure you. Once we had been there for 90 minutes I quickly put the kabash on the tour. I mean we had to go! We were not buying anything. The salesman then asked me, "If money weren't a consideration. Take money out of it. Would you be interested in the package??" I emphatically answered, "Yes! This is a wonderful package. Especially if we could get it for no money." That was his last ditch effort on the emotional sell. He gave up quickly.

On our way out we grabbed a couple complimentary cokes and hit the road for the south side of Kauai. Along the way we stopped at a nice beach to check out some people surfing on larger waves. They were much better than Laura and I. After that we ate dinner at the Olympic Cafe (not that great). At first I ordered a burger, but had to sent it back because there was mold on the bun. Nice. Instead I got fish and chips. Word of warning. Do NOT, I repeat do NOT eat an entire plate of fried fish and french fries dipped in vinegar and tartar sauce before you board an airplane for 11 hours.

just sayin.

Then we made it home! Here are some final pictures from our last day in Hawaii.

This is from Day 10, but I forgot to post it.

A paddle boarded goes out in Hanalei Bay

Frederico's tacos. So damn good.

Laura in front of the mountains of Kauai.

Summer Cookout

2010-07-12T08:16:00.002-04:00

Had some friends over on Saturday for a barbecue. I decided a while ago that I wanted to make brisket and just needed some people over to try it. The cooking process started at 2 am Saturday morning when I woke up and started the grill. After seasoning the meat and letting the grill heat up I put the brisket, all 11 pounds of it, on the grill and I went back to bed. The whole cooking processes didn't end until around 4 that afternoon, and it was worth the wait.

For sides I made some guacamole and buffalo chicken dip, and Laura made some chocolate chip cookies which didn't make it through the weekend (they were awesome). All of the food combined with a substantial amount of beer made for an excellent time. Here are some pictures from the party.

The recipe said 8-12 pounds of brisket would serve 8-12 people. Well I got 11 pounds for 10 people..... It was way too much. I think it could have served 20 people. Actually we had it for lunch on Sunday, and I'm eating it for lunch all this week.

David and I accidentally wore the same clothes. This shit always happens to me.

Fourth of July

2010-07-08T07:05:00.004-04:00

This Fourth of July weekend was awesome! The founding fathers had a lot of foresight to sign the Declaration of Independence in the summer knowing that that was the best time to celebrate. But seriously, we are so lucky to live in the greatest country ever invented. Americans are the smartest, most determined, hardest working, and creative species on the planet. It is that American spirit and the sacrifice so many people have given to make this country completely badass we celebrate on the 4th of July.

So here's how my Independence day went down. I woke up a little early and started trimming and seasoning up a couple racks of spare ribs. And in no time these slabs of meat were on the grill and cooking low and slow. The pig is so generous to share its tasty ribs and bacon with us. Thank you, pigs!

Here are the ribs with a delicious mustard moisturizer and chili powder rub.

While the ribs were cooking I made a pot of some American coffee of which the beans were prepared by Hawaiians (they count as Americans too). I relaxed and watched television for the next couple hours while I enjoyed my coffee.

This is my freedom chalice. One must get my permission to drink from this mug of liberty. (It was made in china)

By this time Laura had woken up and we decided to go for a walk. The weather was incredible! It had cooled down to the mid 80's from the mid 90's earlier in the week. After that I came home and started tending to the meat a little more. I was starting to get pretty hungry.

Around 3 the ribs were done. Laura's family joined us for the meal and a good time was had by all. The ribs didn't last long enough for seconds so I was proud. We also had beans, corn, and tater tots.

After the meal I slammed a couple beers and took a nap. Now what made this nap super patriotic was while I was dozing off I had the television set to baseball. Strategically I placed the remote control under my arm. If anybody wanted to change the channel because I wasn't "watching", the would have to pry the remote from my grasp. Doing this would cause me to wake up, thereby releasing a profanity laced tirade that would make Patton (God bless him) blush. Yeah, it was a great nap, and a great day.

Hawaii Day 10

2010-07-06T07:29:00.002-04:00

This was our last full day in Hawaii, and by far the most beautiful day on Kauai. Early on in our Kauai stay we were a little discouraged by the weather, but this day reminded us of why we love this place so much.

I woke up pretty early for no reason, I just kind of opened my eyes. Seeing there was some sun peaking through the window I went over to see the sky. It was spotless! So I grabbed my camera and ran down to the pool in hopes of getting some good pool reflection shots. Last time I tried this, there was some dude swimming at 6:45. But I was getting there at 6:30. Anyway, I got lucky and the water was smooth as glass. Take a look!

I was very excited to get these pictures. Last time we were here Laura took this same picture in the evening and it was probably my favorite shot of our honeymoon. So I told her that I would try to match hers or beat her shot. I think we'll call it a tie.

I went back up to the room to report the good news of beautiful weather. I drank some coffee and we ate some muffins and headed down to the beach. While there we read our books and admired the scenery. I read about James Monroe our 5th president and an understated badass. If you don't know about him, you should learn.

While on the beach I decided to walk down the coast of Hanalei Bay to get some pictures while the tide was out and the water was calm. I hope you like these!

These picturesque mountains are normally covered in clouds.....but not today.

The tide was out exposing all of the dead coral. You can walk out on the coral (its already dead) pretty far, but I recommend some type of water shoe.

I believe the hotel owns this boat. It pretty much just sits there all day. We did see it in use two years ago for a wedding. The bride was sailed in on the boat. A little dramatic if you ask me.

I was lucky to catch this surfer going out for the day. He is tan as hell! Judging by his skin I would say he's in his early 50's. However, his skin is so leathery he might be 20.

You might be asking yourself. What is a grown man (or young man) doing surfing on a weekday? I'll tell you, he's not making money. There are very few industrious people on Kauai. One of the poolside servers told us, "You have to find your niche on Kauai." Translated that means, "You have to find somebody to pay you for your lack of meaningful skills on Kauai." Still, its a pretty good life to be able to enjoy the ocean on a week day and not worry about things.

I had to walk out in the water for this shot. As you can see, the water is remarkably calm when the tide is out. I think all of the coral serves as a barrier to the waves during this time.

A few more pictures to come! Cant believe it's taken me this long to post them.

Hawaii Day 9

2010-06-25T08:12:00.002-04:00

Because of my sickness I had to delay playing golf a few days. Luckily that wasn't a problem to reschedule because the Makai golf club wasn't very crowded. I decided to play early in the morning to avoid the intense heat of the afternoon. Actually, that was Laura's idea, and it was a good one.

A little background on the Makai golf course. It's a mile away from where we were staying in Princville. It was renovated last year and is supposed to be one of the top golf courses in the country. Ok, that's all I really know about it. So I had a tee time for 7:50 and got to the course around 7:30. I had to rent some clubs which was no big deal, but when you do that its always nice to have a few minutes to warm up. However, the starter told me I had no time to hit a few balls because I had to tee off very soon. Oh well. Laura and I drove up to the first tee where we waited 20 minutes to start. But all of that didn't matter because I hit a 220 yard bomb down the middle of the fairway. What a way to start the day! Then I hit a perfect 6 iron to the center of the green and three putted my way to a bogey. (I don't work on putting very much so three puts are pretty much my calling card.)

I brought about 6 balls from home because I thought they would be expensive on the island. This was smart on my part. At the golf shop they were charging 10 bucks for 3 balls. No sir, not gonna do that. So I had to play the whole round with six balls; not an easy task.

The rest of the round was a ton of fun. Laura rode around in the cart enjoying a book and the gorgeous views of the pacific while I played solid round. I ended up shooting a 101 and staying within my self imposed quota of 6 balls. Success!!!

That afternoon we relaxed in the pool and enjoyed a spectacular sunset. The whole day was perfect!

The third hole at Makai. About 160 yards with a twenty yard drop. I hit a nice 8 iron to the back of the green then two nice putts for a par.

Me waiting for the group ahead of us on 6. There was very little waiting the whole day which was nice. From here I hit another 8 iron to the front of the green and two putted for par.

F' that, I can't wait for these slow mofos. I'm hitting.

artsy picture....we had a few minutes here.

7th hole. I got a 5 because I hit my tee shot way to the left. At least it didn't fall into the canyon like one of the scrubs in my group. Actually, the dude hit two balls into the water. I forgot to tell him you cant lay up on this hole. BWHAHAHA!!11!!

Laura and I overlooking Hanalei Bay and the Pacific. This course had the best views EVAR!!

I think this is the 14th par 3 at 220 yards. I hit a 3 iron off the tee hoping to land somewhere in front and right of the green. Instead I landed short and left on the hill. I had a crappy chip, then a decent chip, then three more putts to score a par!

The Kilauea Lighthouse. We could have paid 10 bucks to walk a mile to it, but I just took a picture, zoomed in on the preview image and figured there wasn't much to see there. So we just admired from afar. While there a park ranger pointed out two monk seals on the rocks below. He said, "we don't know why their numbers are falling each year." Uh, Ranger Rick, maybe because they are super lazy and just lay on rocks all day. Perhaps if they weren't so fat they could have the energy to bump those numbers up if you know what I mean.

Get it on, monk seal style, and reproduce.

The sunsets last for about 20-30 minutes and are beautiful the whole time.

A perfect way to end a perfect day.

Hawaii Day 8

2010-06-24T14:01:00.002-04:00

After the roller coaster that was day 7, Day 8 was much more relaxed. We spend the morning on the beach. There was more sun than clouds so it was a success. Unfortunately for me I didnt read (correction, didnt mind) the directions on the prescription advising to avoid sunlight. This resulted in a pretty nice sun burn on my legs and arms.

Getting burned wasnt much fun, but with plenty of aloe I didnt feel much pain. Really not much else went on this day as we were trying to keep it low key and cool.

better picture of the lobby

Hawaii Day 7

2010-06-23T07:55:00.002-04:00

Our second day on Kauai was pretty rough. It all started when I woke up several times throughout the night with a vicious sinus infection. Around 6 or 7 I tried to contact the doctor in Atlanta to see if I could get a prescription called out. The lady at the office said there was no guarantee the doctor would call out the prescription so I would just have to wait until 5 o'clock eastern time (11 Hawaiian).

In the meantime I tried to get a doctors appointment on the island but learned that the only place I could get into wouldn't take my insurance. Just a sec, let me correct that. They could take my insurance, but they do not take out of state insurance. So when I asked how much a doctors visit would be I was told somewhere between 60 and 200 bucks. Hmmm, so I asked, "How do you determine if its on the 60 end or the 200 end?" The lady replied, "oh its up to the doctor's discretion."

Let me tell you, if I were a doctor, I would just charge the 200 because I'm not stupid. So needless to say, I took my chances with the prescription. While waiting for the doctor in Atlanta to call me back we drove about 15 minutes to this burger joint called Ono Char Burger. The word was they had the best burgers. When we pulled into the parking lot and saw the place, I was pretty excited. It was run down and there was a line. I like those shack style restaurants. Anyway, we ordered our burgers and were told it would take 30 minutes to get the burgers, onion rings and milkshake. What?! McDonalds can do that in 30 seconds. Oh well, we can wait. It's not like we have anything better to do. However, while waiting I decided to look in the shack to see why it would take so long to make the food. I wasn't surprised to learn that Hawaiians were running the operations. Hawaiians have never been accused of being efficient. They would cook one order at a time. So they literally had 2 or three burgers cooking at one time on a grill that could accommodate 24. I had to laugh when I thought about any of my Industrial Engineer buddies taking a look at the operation and immediately shitting a brick.

The burgers were alright, not special, but the milkshake and onion rings were terrific. At this time I also learned that my prescription was filled at the local supermarket. When I went to pick it up, I found out the supermarket didn't take my insurance. Damn you, Foodland!!! Oh well, that was the best $120 I've spent on pills in a long time. :)

Here are some pictures from the day. Sorry, no pictures of the sinus infection.

Talk about a great view! This is from the hotel room. (Not pictured - me feeling like crap)

Ono-Char Burger menu. It's called Ono because after you order you say, "Ono! It's going to take 30 f'ing minutes?" Or, "Ono! You only cook one order at a time?!?!"

I did really like the look of the place. Cool vibe.

My burger had terryaki sauce, pineapple, and cheese. It was good, but 30 minutes good??? Not so much. Denny's could whip this out faster.

Walking along the beach

Hawaii Day 6

2010-06-21T09:36:00.002-04:00

This was the day we transferred islands from Maui to Kauai. We had to take a small turboprop airplane, but the flight was only an hour. Once landing on Kauai we had a small wait for our luggage. After that we quickly got our rental car and head up to Princeville on the north end of the island. The weather was a little cloudy but that's normal for this end of the island. Although last time we were here we didn't have clouds except for the last day. Oh well.

We had to do battle with the less than competent hotel staffer named Henrick. He was pretty stupid. We were told before arriving that we would be put on a high floor (which is important at this hotel otherwise you are pretty much right next to the pool). He told us, "I see you are on the 4th floor, but we have up graded you to a room on the second floor." Excuse me? That is not an upgrade, Henrick. Eventually, we got to talk to somebody else who quickly looked at the computer and told us there was a room on the 7th floor. So we took it.

That night we went to the Hanalei Dolphin for some great sushi! This place loves to put tempura flakes on all their rolls, but they were still good.

Outside of the lobby overlooking the cloudy Hanalei Bay

The centerpiece of the lobby at the St. Regis. I got a couple more pictures of the lobby because I liked it so much.

Our pre-dinner Lava Flow drinks.

Outside the Hanalei Dolphin. It's fake.

One of the sushi rolls with a bowl of corn flakes on top. It was delicious.

Hawaii Day 5

2010-06-17T07:44:00.002-04:00

It was a bit misty on the north west side of the island where we were staying. So we went back to the great breakfast place "The Gazebo" then headed to the south side of the island. The south side of the island receives very little rainfall each year so we had a good chance of getting great sun. It was only a 45 minute drive from our hotel to the Fairmont. The Four Seasons, Fairmont and some other super fancy hotels are all on the south side, but we decided to go to the Fairmont. Well, it was kind of decided for us because there wasn't free parking at the Four Seasons.

We walked through the lobby with our beach stuff (a backpack full of sunscreen) and out to the beach. I was allowed to rent some chairs and an umbrella for cheaper than what I paid at our hotel. This was an unexpected surprise. Anyway, I've made this story longer than it needs to be. We sat out there for about 3 hours, went to a nearby mall for some ice cream, then back to the hotel.

That evening we celebrated our two year wedding anniversary by going to Roy's. This is one of the best restaurants in Hawaii. We went to a Roy's in Atlanta and loved it, but it closed. I figured this is the original, so it should be good. Oh and Roy was featured on the finale of Top Chef Season 3 (the one where they go to Hawaii). The food was terrific, especially the chocolate lava cake. It was out of this world fantastic.

Here are some pictures from the day.

Lookout point on the way to the south side of the island. The land in the distance is the destination.

It was incredibly windy at the lookout point!

The beach at the Fairmont.

Some flowers at the mall. Some nice bokeh going on. (Bokeh is aesthetically pleasing blur. It should look like little circles in the background)

Laura and I before dinner.

This is from the nightly torch lighting and cliff diving ceremony at the Sheraton

First Course - spicy scallops. Theses were so f'ing good!!

This is my entree, seared ahi with spicy mustard. I'm telling you, the more rare the better. As you can see, I got mine very rare. Fantastic!

Laura got a trio of butterfish, ahi (prepared like my dish), and something else. Shown here are the butterfish and ahi. All were great....I know....I steal bites.

Complimentary dessert from Roy's. It was some bread pudding thing. Not too bad.

And to wash that first dessert down, we got this delicious chocolate lava cake. I think all fancy restaurants serve chocolate lava cake as their "signature dessert". Don't get me wrong, it is amazing. But how about some creativity?

Hawaii Day 4

2010-06-16T07:43:00.003-04:00

This day on the island we sat on our asses and enjoyed the weather. The previous day was a bit misty, but this day was gorgeous. I think this day epitomized what a typical native Hawaiian would do on any day of the week. We woke up late, sat on the beach, read books (although ours had no pictures), took an afternoon nap, got some happy hour drinks, and ate McDonald's for dinner. Here are a couple pictures from the evening.

Hawaii Day 3

2010-06-07T07:10:00.003-04:00

For our third day of the trip we sat on the beach and pool side the whole morning and most of the afternoon. I didn't take too many pictures during that time because I was reading my book or reapplying my sunscreen. Before dinner we checked out the Ritz Carlton to see what it was like. The landscaping was gorgeous and it looked like you would think a Ritz should look like. The only negative was there was no beach near by. I think guests would have to walk a good bit to the shore, but you couldn't see the beach from the hotel.

After checking out the Ritz we went to our favorite sushi place in Hawaii, Sansei. This place is fantastic! We got their signature Ahi Tuna roll, their take on a rainbow roll, some other roll, and a spicy tuna roll. All of them were great! If you ever plan on going here, take 5 minutes the day before to make a reservation. If you don't, you will have at least a 45 minute wait for dinner.

Another beach time picture with the trademark Sheraton Maui boat.

Laura and I at the Ritz.

Some crazy flowers at the Ritz. They look like birds.

The gorgeous view from the Ritz, but notice, no beach.

Sansei signature ahi tuna roll. Ahi means "tuna" in Hawaiian, so I guess this is the Sansei tuna tuna roll. I guess...

Another roll we had. I think there is some crab salad or something. It was good though, trust me.

Rainbow roll with some fat pieces of salmon nigiri.

Normally when I get a spicy tuna roll, it's for filler. But this roll was much bigger that I was use to. And it was so f'ing tasty!

Forgot to mention this above, but afterwards we went back to the hotel where they had a nightly happy hour. So for $5, Laura and I split this chocolate lava cake. What a deal!

Hawaii Day 2 continued

2010-06-05T09:17:00.003-04:00

Because there are so many pictures, it takes a while to whittle down the ones I want to show. But that is why God invented weekends. Hopefully I can get a couple more days posted this weekend or at least by the end of Monday.

The night of Day 2 we went to walk around downtown Lahaina and eat at Betty's Tacos. Betty's tacos isn't one of the top local spots but it is relatively cheap and it has a great view of the Festival at LeLe, which is one of a hand full of nightly luaus on Maui. The luau itself costs over a hundred dollars a person, but if you go to Betty's (which I don't think many people do) you can sit and watch the whole thing for free. We watched about an hour and a half then got sleepy and went back to the hotel. It was a good show though.

Laura and I at the famous(sic) Banyan Tree in downtown Lahaina

The view from Betty's Tacos

Me with delicious drink.

Hawaii 2010 Day 1 and 2

2010-06-02T07:44:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posting pictures from vacation. As you may know, Laura and I took a ten a day vacation to Hawaii to celebrate our two year wedding anniversary. We visited Maui and Kauai each for five days. Overall the trip was fantastic and very memorable. For the most part we had great weather the whole time. There were just a few instances of rain, but nothing that would dampen our spirits.

Here are some pictures from our stop in LA to visit Laura's brother James, then our first full day on Maui.

Laura and I waiting in line at the Gazebo. This is the best breakfast place on the island....we know....we have tried them all.

The Big Kahuna omelet and famous banana macadamia nut pancakes. (Note: we went back to the Gazebo a couple days later and decided we liked the white chocolate/macadamia nut pancakes better. Both were outstanding though)

The view from the Gazebo is amazing.

This is one of the best beaches in all of Hawaii and out hotel was right along it.

Laura reading her magazine. This is one of the rare times she was under the umbrella. I was almost exclusively under the umbrella.

This was the view from our hotel room balcony. How could you not love this place?!

We hit up this place a couple times for happy hour. The MaiTais were fantastic....and strong. w00t!!1

Laura and me in downtown Lahaina.

Stay tuned for more pictures as I get them ready. I have a lot to sort through.

Taste of Alpharetta

2010-05-16T11:00:00.002-04:00

Last Thursday we headed to the Taste of Alpharetta event in downtown Alpharetta. I was amazed at its size and popularity. There were at least 60 different restaurants selling samples of their different cuisines. However, most of them did some type of BBQ Pork, but I'm not complaining. In order to get the samples you had to buy some tickets, each of which cost 50 cents. We bought 30 bucks worth of tickets because my eyes are far larger than my stomach. As you can imaging, this was way too much food and by the time we left I felt like I never wanted to talk about food again. But, I lived to tell the tale. In addition to BBQ Pork sandwiches/tacos there was ice cream, gyros, fondue, shrimp etouffee, hamburgers, smoothie and much more. I found out the hard way that all of those foods mixed together in a human stomach lead to belly aches from hell. I managed to take some pictures in between my heffer-like eating binges. Please enjoy!

From Taste of Alpharetta

This is the "gyro king"

From Taste of Alpharetta

Spring Flowers

2010-04-30T11:07:00.003-04:00

The last couple weeks have been pretty great weather wise. And with that, all of the dormant azaleas have sprung to life! When we moved in last year we had no idea of what was in store for us in the spring. It was amazing to see what the previous owner had planted in the backyard, a plethora of different colored azaleas! I took some pictures with hopes of conveying the brightness and range of colors these plants add to the backyard. Additionally, we now have some flowers in our front yard that look fantastic!

From Flowers around the house

2010-04-27T20:55:00.003-04:00

Last Friday I made some pepperoni pizza. Instead of making the dough, I bought a pre-made dough from publix. It turned out really good, and was super easy. The fun part was tossing the dough to spread it out. I found out that doing this can make quite a mess. Each toss spread a generous amount of flour all over the kitchen just as a fertilizer spreader shoots the grass-food over the lawn. But it was worth it, a great time.

Here are some pictures of me "makin da pizza"

From Makin da pizza

Alive After 5

2010-04-17T08:47:00.002-04:00

On Thursday we went to downtown Roswell for the Alive After 5 event. This is where the stores in the area stay open until 9. I know what you're thinking, "that's kinda lame". And before Thursday I would have agreed with you. But what I found was there were tons of people walking around enjoying the weather. There were many people handing out food samples, live bands, and many places to get free beer and wine. It was much more fun that I thought. Here are some pictures from the event.

From Live after 5 in Downtown Roswell

One area was having a chili cook off with about 7 competing chilis. Honestly, none of them were all that great, but I'm not going to turn down free food. Also at the station they had free keg beer and margaritas. Next time, Laura is driving.

From Live after 5 in Downtown Roswell

After walking around for a while we grabbed some dinner at the Fickle PIckle where we got these delicious pimento cheese fritters which is culinary speak for fried cheese ballz.

From Live after 5 in Downtown Roswell

To see the whole gallery of pictures, just click one of the links below each picture.

Run before you crawl

2010-04-12T07:28:00.002-04:00

This weekend I participated in the East Atlanta "Run Before You Crawl" 5K race and pub crawl. It was a ton of fun. I ran with several friends from tech. Our group organizer, Pinder, told everybody that for this event people usually wear costumes. So he and I decided to dress up. Pinder went as a keg of beer and I went as a guy wearing a hula skirt and coconut bra.

Well when we got there, we soon realized that hardly anybody wore costumes so we looked like a couple of schmucks. But we couldn't have cared less. It was fun to not take yourself so seriously. The other benefit of wearing a stupid costume is when you pass people in the race they get the added humiliation of getting beat by a dude wearing a coconut bra or dressed like a delicious keg of beer. That being said, my goal for the race was to not get passed by anybody. And when you start toward the back that goal is a lot easier.

Since the race was in east Atlanta, I decided to carry my phone and wallet with me as I ran because I didn't feel to comfortable leaving it in my car. So half way through the race a lady behind me shouts, "Your Cards!!". I look behind and see that all of my credit cards had fallen out. Thank gawd that lady said something. The only card I didn't see was my buzz card, but I just figured I left that at home. And if I did actually lose that card, the worst that would happen would be losing all the sweet student discounts at the mall.

Well I finished the race in 28 minutes and 4 seconds! I could have been faster had I not dicked around at the beginning, but I was very happy with that time. Also, with a mile left, my cocounts popped off! That was a little scary, but I was able to hold them in place the last mile. After the race as everybody was just relaxing my name was called by the DJ booth! I was super excited, I had just won the door prize!! As I made my way to the DJ booth I was thinking, "what could it be? did I win an ipod or a flat screen tv? Ooohhh what if I won a case of beer?!?!". But as I got up to the booth the DJ said, "ROBERT J CROSS, we have your Georgia tech student ID."

Damn. But at least I get those discounts.

Shortly after the race we went on a pub crawl to five different establishments around Glenwood. The pub crawl special was $1 PBR tall boys. I had a couple and enjoyed talking with everybody. It was such a beautiful day outside, how could you not enjoy yourself?

From Junk folder

Jen, Pinder, and I before the race.

From Junk folder

Me crossing the finish line in all my glory!

(If you couldn't tell, these pictures belong to somebody else. If you want to buy them, which I did not, you can go to their website and purchase them.)

Eye Enhancement

2010-04-03T11:20:00.002-04:00

Another step in my journey to become a better photographer is learning how to use some post processing packages. I have gotten as much as I can out of picasa (except for tagging images, I've been pretty lazy about that) so now I have started into photoshop.

Photoshop is not something you just install and start rocking and rolling, it is much more complex than that. You have to have a level of understand as to what each of the tools do and equally important why they do what they do. I have been reading what I can but until I actually get into the program and start working, I'm really not going to have an idea of how much I know. Just like an exam in school. You can study til you are blue in the face and convince yourself, "yeah, I know this stuff". But if you fail the test you really didnt know it. And guess what folks, I failed the photoshop test.

So I decided to start with a technique that is somewhat simple and practical, enhancing the eyes of the subject. For this I watched a couple youtube videos (internet is sooo awesome) that demonstrated different ways to make the eyes in your picture really pop (but you dont want them to look fake). Take a look at what I came up with. The first picture is the original image and the second is the enhanced image. Please ignore the marginal handsomeness of the subject. Let me know your thoughts.

From Junk folder

Poignant picture

2010-04-01T07:57:00.002-04:00

Sifting through my pictures from DC I found this one and it made me think. Not to blow your mind with crazy politics, but I think this picture sums up the environment on capitol hill. Maybe this year or in a couple years it will change, but as for now Washington seems to be filled with only the left.

From Washington DC March 25-28

Washington DC

2010-03-31T07:11:00.004-04:00

Last weekend Laura and I went up to Washington DC for her good friend, Jane's wedding. We were there from Thursday night until Sunday afternoon and had a wonderful time. Since Laura was in the wedding, she had to attend to many wedding duties which freed me up to tour the city. My buddy, Jason, who's girlfriend Jessica was also in the wedding came along as well.

On Friday we went to the other side of the river to get a highly recommended burger at Ray's Hell Burger. The burger was fantastic and huge. See for yourself.

From Washington DC March 25-28

After that we met up with Richard and checked out the Brickskeller. This place is a simple bar/restaurant that has over a 1000 beers to select from. Our waiter took the time to make some great recommendations and explain the nuances on the different beers we tried. We had the whole place to our self. What an awesome time!

From Washington DC March 25-28

After that we took the subway to Pennsylvania avenue and observed the city from one of the tallest points at the Old post office.

From Washington DC March 25-28

Later that night we attended the rehearsal dinner which was tons of fun. Didn't get too many pictures there because it was pretty dark, and I was too busy talking/eating/drinking. Fun times....fun times.

On Saturday we walked around the mall area and checked out most of the monuments. We didn't get a chance to see the Jefferson memorial because it was a little too far away. That day a kite festival was going on so there were tons of different colors to photograph. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the monuments (and kite festival.

From Washington DC March 25-28

After lunch we checked out the International Spy Museum. It was really cool and I learned a lot about espionage, however I felt that the museum was targeting a much younger audience. You are not allowed to take pictures in the museum, but if you are a true spy, you wouldn't let that stop you. I am not a true spy. :(

The wedding that evening was a lot of fun. The ceremony was great, the cocktail hour was delicious, and the reception was not stop eating, drinking and dancing. A great evening and day all in all.

On Sunday Laura and I met up with Richard and Christiane for brunch. It was nice to see them again since they moved away last year. Having everybody in Atlanta for a few years a while ago was really great, but everybody cant stay in the same town forever. After brunch Laura took Christiane into the hotel we stayed at (The Willard) and showed her some of the flowers they had on display. I took a few pictures as well.

From Washington DC March 25-28

It was a great weekend!! Congratulations to Jane and Mark for getting married!

Spring has Sprung

2010-03-20T12:20:00.002-04:00

This week has marked (in my opinion) the start of Spring. The weather here in Atlanta is gorgeous! Friday was warm and sunny, and today (Saturday) is even better! Yesterday, Laura and I decided to sit out on our front porch and enjoy the weather. We also enjoyed a cherry limeade from sonic (spiked with delicious rum). Word on the street is if you blend a cherry limeade with coconut rum, you get an awesome drink. I don't keep coconut rum around, but I will probably have to get some to try it.

We have a couple beautiful blossoming crape myrtles in our front yard. I took some pictures of the blossoms and noticed a bunch of bees raiding the flowers for their pollen. It's only a matter of time before I raid the bees' hive for their delicious honey (ala pooh bear). Here are some pictures I took to commemorate this awesome weekend (and it's not even half over!!). Follow the link below each picture to get to the entire album.

From Spring Time in Atlanta

Wedding Shower

2010-03-15T07:33:00.002-04:00

This weekend was Tom and Christina's wedding shower, and it was a ton of fun. Christina's three sisters planned the thing and did a great job. The event was catered by Figo (always a good choice) and the cake was one of the best red velvet cakes I've ever had. Once the shower portion of the party ended, a raucous game of flip cup broke out. It was like the usual football tailgate, but everybody was better dressed. I took a bunch of pictures with the new lens exclusively, and it worked great! Here are some of my favorites.

From Tom and Christina's Couples Wedding Shower

Random shots

2010-03-11T20:03:00.003-05:00

Messing around with some depth of field junk. Some flowers are starting to bloom in the backyard.

New Camera Lens

2010-03-09T20:24:00.003-05:00

My new camera lens came in today!! I didnt get home until after dark so havent had a lot of time to mess with it. But here is one of the first images I took.

Baby shower for Rachel and Kevin

2010-03-09T20:21:00.003-05:00

On Saturday Laura threw a baby shower for our good friends Rachel and Kevin. There was tons of food, drink, presents, and fun. And there was a cookie cake which seems to be the star of any party.

Shooting the Moon

2010-03-06T08:01:00.003-05:00

Last weekend I took a few minutes to take some pictures of the moon which was really full and bright. This is a little tricky because while being in the middle of the night, the moon reflects a lot of light. Therefore fast shutter speeds are needed (faster than 1/100th of a second). Here are the five of probably 35 that came out decent. Let me know which one you like the best (or if you are like me, they all kinda look the same). Some have had some post processing, but only with adjusting contrast, so no much at all.

I am sorry

2010-03-05T09:57:00.002-05:00

I would like to apologize to the thousands of people who read and comment on this blog. I have been pretty lazy the last month and haven't posted many pictures. But I promise you I will do better this month.

There are a couple events this month where I plan to take pictures. First, this Saturday we are throwing a baby shower for our good friends Rachel and Kevin. Rachel is the one having the baby, Kevin is the catcher. Then we are going to a wedding shower for some more fantastic friends, Tom and Christina. They are getting married in a couple months in New Orleans, so that should be frikkin sweet! Finally, we are heading to Washington DC for the wedding of Laura's high school friend, Jane. I cant wait to get some super patriotic pictures! There will be a picasa album sent out soon after that trip. Also, I plan to again break out my newly developed moonwalking ability at the reception! 360 SPin!!!1

Oh, one more bit of news. I got a new camera lens the other day, and it should get here next week. I cant wait to use it. For those of you who don't give two shits about photography, here's a brief explanation of why I got it. Indoors, often times, you need to use a flash so the picture isn't so dark. The flash usually makes people look weird, stoned, uber pale, and about 65% less attractive. This lens is built to allow a lot more light into the camera thereby greatly reducing the need for the flash.

Winter Olympics Wrap-up

2010-03-01T07:35:00.002-05:00

Wow! That was a terrific two weeks of sports. It was nice to be able to tune in everyday and watch Team USA compete against the world. Really that's what it feels like to me. It seems as if the rest of the world only cares about beating America, and I find that awesome!

I had some time last night during the closing ceremony to reflect on the incredible journey that was the 2010 Winter Olympics. Here are a few of my observations.

1. Canada is a beautiful country and they did a great job of marketing themselves. We'll see how I feel about all of that in a couple weeks when spring training heats up.

2. Short-track speed skating is the most exciting olympic sport. Hockey is a close second because its really all about the match-ups. Short-track is the best.

3. Skiing events like the super G, downhill, slalom, and giant slalom are brutal. I think Lindsay Vonn and Bode Miller had about 6 DNFs between them. You miss a gate, and your event is over. I like this rule when it screws the Russian team, but I'm not so keen on it when it messes with us. We should look to modify that rule.

4. Bobsled and luge are interesting events, but it would be nice if we could run some head to head races. Here's my idea. We freeze a section of road in a village nearby. And, just like in a video game, teams can race through the town and try and knock the competitors out of the race. This would make the back three people in the bobsled actually do something during the race. They could throw rocks, or tritans, or maybe banana peels.

5. It was pretty creepy when the russians got involved with the closing ceremony. Maybe it was because I started watching upstairs and the sound and picture were off, but there was something super ominous about those russians. It was like an overly dramatic Red Dawn scene. I was having flashbacks to my coldwar days. When team USA invades russia in 2014 we are going to have to have our head on a swivel. No room for mistakes. We need to get in there, steal their gold, silver, and bronze, check under the carpet for nuclear material, and get the hell out.

6. Finally, Team USA is full of badasses. We dominated the olympics from start to finish. It's really amazing how talented and competitive the Americans are. One reporter was asked why the USA did so well and he said, "When you have 300 million people, you are bound to be good at something." This pissed me off. China and India each have three times as many people as the United State. I didn't see them dominating! The fact of the matter is the united states is made up of extremely hard working people who at their core are very competitive. This culture had made the USA what it is today. Putting aside all political nonsense, the US is the best country in the world! It is the best place to raise a family, start a business, vacation, watch television, play sports, make friends, road trip, and not recycle. The United States can do anything it puts its mind to! Except, of course, for curling. Gawd we suck at curling.

New Goal in Life

2010-02-15T10:54:00.001-05:00

My new goal in life is to open a bar just like this. It will be called "Cheerio...where everybody knows the words!"

Weekend eating tour

2010-02-14T12:11:00.003-05:00

Last night Laura made a great three course dinner. First there was a caprese salad with balsamic vinegar followed by gorgonzola pasta and veal meatballs. For dessert she made some fantastic chocolate covered strawberries. The whole meal was incredible, so she will definitely have to make it again.

This morning I made us belgian waffles with strawberries, whip cream and powdered sugar. They came out very fluffy and delicious. All in all, it has a been a great weekend full of food, snow, and relaxation.

Lamb sliders with Sweet potato fries

2010-02-13T17:51:00.004-05:00

This meal came out great! The whole thing was super easy to make!

Here is the link to the sweet potato fries. You should definitely try these, they were spectacular!

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/01/baked-sweet-potato-fries.html

This is the recipe for the lamb sliders. I was worried about over cooking them and drying them out. But, even cooking them for two extra minutes, they came out very juicy and extra tasty!

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1949747

sorry the links dont work, google blogs kinda suck. Anyway, just copy and paste them into your interweb browser.

Publix vs. Whole Foods

2010-02-12T08:13:00.003-05:00

This weekend Laura and I are gunna do a lot of cooking. Tonight we are going to make lamb sliders with baked sweet potato fries. On Saturday Laura is going to make veal meatballs with Gorgonzola pasta and caprese salad. To follow that up she is making some chocolate covered strawberries which should be awesome. On Sunday morning I'm gunna make some homemade Belgian waffles with whip cream and powder sugar. I'll post the recipes for these dishes next week if they turn out good. Sometimes you never know and I don't want to promote something that tastes crappy.

So we went out last night to get all of the stuff for these three meals and it ended up costing us somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 bucks. This is more than we spent on lunches and dinners all week. But what the hell, if we didn't cook at home we would easily be spending that much money going out.

We had to make a couple stops at Publix and Whole Foods, the latter for the ground veal and lamb. Surprisingly, ground veal and lamb aren't too expensive, like 5 to 6 bucks a pound. Another thing that caught me off guard was the price of spices. At Publix you can get small containers of whatever spice you want for $2.50 to $4. To me that is pretty expensive for what you are getting. I mean, there is not a lot of spice in those little containers, but you suck it up and buy them. However, at whole foods it's a different story. I walked down the spice aisle (almost wrote isle) to see how much I saved buying the stuff at publix and realized it was cheaper at whole foods! I got a pretty big thing of coriander for $1.75 which was almost half the price of the stuff at publix, and a lot more of it. The difference was the packaging. The whole foods packaging was in something like a thinner glad-ware while the publix version was in a glass bottle.

This got me to thinking, how much different are the prices between Publix and whole foods? This would be a good science fair experiment for the kids out there. Laura and I looked around, and there really wasn't too much of a difference between the two. Whole foods will charge you a lot more for frozen meals that are claimed to be gourmet. Note to all readers, there is nothing gourmet about frozen meals! Publix also has sales and coupons which greatly lower the prices of some of their products, so on whole you are going to save money going there. Publix also has lower produce prices probably because of the volume they buy it in, and perhaps they go after a slightly lower grade. In this case I will stick with publix because I can always get exactly what I want there. However, for those pantry items like spices I will go to whole foods.

Publix generally beats the meat of Whole Foods.....on price that is. Hahaha, that was super awesome of me. Anyway, publix prices are not far and away better than whole foods on meats and seafood, but like I said before, they go on sale which makes it a much better deal. However, I think you get a better selection of quality meats at whole foods. You are not subjected to crappy scraps they lay out. Obviously you can go to the guy behind the counter and have him cut you a piece, but most of the time I pick up the already wrapped slices. And at publix, you are definitely NOT guaranteed to get a good piece.

Publix and Whole Foods each have significant positives and negatives which sucks for me because now I will feel inclined to go to both stores to do my grocery shopping. Oh well. I guess the only consolation in this is that both places sell beer, so I guess I will double my beer supply. (chugalug!)

God bless this great Country, and death to all her enemies!

Olympic size update

2010-02-09T09:48:00.002-05:00

Just to let all of you patriots out there know the Olympics start this Friday. Well, the opening ceremony is on Friday and the games start on Saturday. The opening ceremony should be cool because I have heard rumors flying around about some of the performances. You see, the Olympic ceremonies always center around the history and culture of the particular country. They used crazy imagery to convey messages of how their people are hard-working, multicultural, and of the land. Also, props are used to show the beauty of the land and creatures that inhabit it.

In this case, Canada will have a lot of people, land, and animals from which to draw inspiration. What I have been reading online is that it will be narrated by Mike Myers (star power, check!). O'Canada will be sung by Celine Dion accompanied by the rock band Rush. This should be pretty awesome. Also, a lumberjack (may or may not be played by John Hamm) is going to come on stage and chop down an honest to gosh tree! The torch lighting should also be pretty sweet. Word on the street is, Wayne Gretzky is going to hit slapshots of flaming pancakes into the Olympic cauldron. And instead of snow, the Canadian Olympic committee will rain down dipping dots of mayonnaise. Like I said, this is all rumor at this point. We'll know for sure on Friday.

Weekend Plans

2010-02-04T13:52:00.002-05:00

Laura and I are going to a wedding this weekend. Should be a fun time. And in preparation for the wedding, and other weddings this season (we have three) I have been practicing my dance moves. Laura can vouche for me on this, but I have been practicing the moonwalk and can actually do it pretty well. The problem is I dont have any moves to lead into the moonwalk and nothing to do after the moonwalk. So I came up with a plan and here is my plan:

When people start dancing, I play it cool and just nod my head and sip my drink. I will maintain this level of secrecy for a decent amount of time. Once some of the dancing dies down and the DJ call for the bride and father of the bride to do their dance I continue to hold. At the time when the father twirls his daughter and people start clapping, I know it will be my time. I will bolt onto the dance floor and moonwalk the hell out of it. No intro move or warm up. I'm gunna moonwalk cold turkey. Cold f-ing Turkey! At the end of my 30 yards of moonwalk I will do a 360 spin, or ever more like a 450 or 500, and then start doing some power crotch grabs while my sidekick (taking volunteers) shoots roman candles into the crowd.

I'll let everybody know how that goes next week with some video (hopefully). However if that plan doesnt work, I'm gunna try and hire these guys to make an appearance.

Happy Wedding Season!!

State of the Union

2010-01-27T12:31:00.000-05:00

Hope this doesnt happen!

The winter grind

2010-01-27T07:35:00.002-05:00

I made a resolution this year to be happy with what I'm doing today rather than pine for something in the future. Last year, while it was an awesome year, I felt moved way too fast. Maybe it was the second half of the year that flew by. Buying a house, going on vacations, college football, all of these things added up to an amazing year. I was thinking about where the time went and decided that I am in no hurry to get to the next year. So I think it's best for me to slow it down and enjoy what come up each day.

It's easy to think about these things in the dead of winter because a lot of the time you are stuck inside. There are a few things I want to do this year, or rather things I want to work on. Of course I want to travel and whatnot, but by deciding in advance all the individual things I want to do, it boils the year down to a few days of doing those specific things. That is why I want to continually work on projects or develop skills.

First, I want to become a better picture-taker. Some people call this being a photographer, but that sounds too much like a job to me. So I want to take better pictures and learn more about post-processing (aka photoshopping). And when I say photoshopping, I don't mean putting people's heads on other people's bodies (I already know how to do that). I am going to learn how to take my pictures that already look good and make them better. Here's a tip for all of you out there; most of the fixes to a picture can be taken care of in camera.

Next I want to get more experience BBQ-ing. I love to cook, and cooking barbecue is one of my favorite things to do. But I don't do it for the actual action of cooking, I do it for the eating. And more than cooking, I love eating. This is a skill I can work on almost any weekend I'm in town. And it's one of those things that I can do with friends. Last year, Laura and I decided to be more active about going out and spending time with our friends, and that is definitely continuing into this year. My hope is that I can get a bunch of our buddies over to the house a couple times this year to try my ever-improving barbecue. And if the food sucks, we'll order pizza.

Thirdsies, I want to play more golf. Last year I kicked my desire to improve my game into gear and got a lot better. This year, with my indoor driving range (Thanks, Laura), training aids (Thanks, Jim), and other various gadgets (Thanks, mom and dad) I plan to improve even more! I have enjoyed practicing and playing golf. It combines several things I love, outdoors, sports, competition, and shit talking. On that note, I will definitely be working this year to improve my shit talking.

The great thing about my yearly plan to improve on the things I love is that it will get me outdoors a lot and increase the time I spend with family and friends. Increasing the former might actually help me get a tan. But prolly not. The key thing for me to do is to not let myself get bored. If there is a lazy weekend afternoon I need to get my ass off the couch and do something. I'm all for relaxing, but it is so easy to get stuck in a rut. Now I have listed just three of the things I like to do (there are many others), so I have no excuse for wasting a single day.

Who's your daddy, and what does he do??

2010-01-21T10:21:00.004-05:00

Holy Smokes! John Edwards finally admitted that he is the daddy of the daughter of his former campaign videographer (or whatever she did). He said that hopefully, when his illegitimate daughter is old enough, she will forgive him. Maybe he should say, "hopefully my wife will forgive me"

The lesson in this story is no matter how gosh darn beautiful you are, lying will only make you look like a fool. The good thing about the truth is you can tell it over and over again. Many politicians haven't learn that yet.

Just speculation, but I bet that hair is responsible for even more babies.

Why buildings are never completed on time

2010-01-21T09:12:00.001-05:00

Unions suck.

more cowbell? i hate my life

2010-01-20T13:08:00.002-05:00

Go Sandy! It's your birffday! We gunna party like its yo birffday!!

Tech beats Clemson......again

2010-01-20T08:41:00.002-05:00

I went to the Tech vs Clemson basketball game last night with Tom. It was a great game, but we didn't know that until the very end. I think I want Tech to win so much that it can, at times, screw up my ability to have a great time. However, last night was not the case. I had the mindset that we could definitely lose this game because Clemson is not bad. But, I love beating clemson more than any other team out there (except for uga, of course).

So the game was close the whole time, but for the most part Tech lead. With a couple minutes left in the game Clemson took a small lead that never exceeded one score. At this point the row of Clemson losers behind us were talking smack to a quiet tech fan sitting next to us. I wanted to pop off in typical "Robert's at a sports game talking smack to opposing fans" fashion. For those of you who dont know, as a student sitting in the student section you can say anything you want without the fear of getting your ass whooped. And when I was a student, I took full advantage of those freedoms. USA! Those were the times.

Anyway, back to the story. I wanted to make fun of the 17 year old Clemson crap bags but there was a kid sitting next to the them as well as their mother. So being a classy individual, I held my tongue. I guess I just made a short story long....Sorry.

Tech went on to win, thus making the game great!! It was fun to go to a basketball game seeing as I hadn't been in over a year.

Another not so cool story. While waiting in line to drain the main vain at half time Tom and I saw Len Elmore. He is one of the guys on the broadcast team for ESPN and former Maryland player. As he walked through the line I put up my hand for a high five and said, "Len, give it up!". At first he kept walking like he didn't see me (but I knew he did.... I'm beautiful!). So I said it again, and at the last minute he slapped me some skin. It was close, I almost got left hanging in front of all my friends. That would have been embarrassing. Come to think of it, I doubt he would have given me such a bodacious high five if I were coming out of the bathroom (for obvious reasons......potentially having pee on my hand).

Len Elmore - The most famous guy I met yesterday

Did some cooking this week

2010-01-17T09:37:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week I decided I would try and make a butternut squash soup. I have always like this type of wintery comfort soup so why not make one from scratch. The hardest part was cutting up the squash because it was so dense! Anyway, this took about an hour and a half to complete. What you see is the soup with a cinnamon whip cream and fried shallots. Great recipe from food network.

This weekend I wanted to make some barbecue. A couple weeks ago I smoked an awesome beef brisket with my family. It came out great. On Saturday I thought I would use a recipe from the "Legends of Texas Barbecue" book my parents gave me. I chose to make a boston butt (pork shoulder) seasoned with Lawry's salt, chili powder, garlic powder, and pepper. Throughout the smoking process I sprayed the hulk of meat with apple juice to add another layer of flavor and keep the meat juicy.

Here's a picture of the boston butt before I cut it up. It was super tender and very flavorful!

The recipe said to serve the meat on buns and top with garlicky guacamole. So that's what I did. I had never had guac on pork sandwiches, but I have liked guac on everything else so I didnt think it would hurt. It turned out FANTASTIC!! I loved the combo of creamy guacamole, tender pork, and garlic. I will definitely do this again!

Carlton the Cat

2010-01-13T19:17:00.002-05:00

Last night I was relaxing on the couch watching a mediocre and not very interesting movie. The Soloist, in case you were interested. Anyway, I got up to go upstairs and get my phone when I saw this furry little friend. He was sitting very calmly on the front porch most likely trying to get out of the cold. He probably also heard there might be milk or tuna fish inside. He was right about the milk. I told him to wait a sec so I could get my camera, and he did. I introduced myself, and he told me his name was Carlton. He said he wasn't looking for any kind of handout. He didn't want milk or tuna fish. He just wanted to introduce himself and ask me if I had seen any mice. Sadly, I hadn't, but he was cool with it.

What a cool cat.

2010 Olympics

2010-01-13T07:57:00.003-05:00

In one month the games of the umpteenth winter Olympiad will begin. Every other year we get a different Olympic games. And every other year Team USA shows the world what freedom + capitalism + the bill of rights + pop culture equals. And that is world domination.

If you ask Laura (but now you don't have to because I'm going to tell you), the Olympics are my favorite sporting events. Also favorites are baseball and Tech football. But in February, the Olympics are more favorite than the others. I love the pageantry of all the countries parading into the games and showing off their weird looking flags. I love it when the athletes from other countries go bonkers because they placed 5th in the women's freestyle skiing competition (it's so cute). I also love how the athletes from Team USA bring 10 extra pairs of blue jeans to sell to the eastern European and Russian contingents.

As a kid I would wake up every morning during the Olympics and check the medal counts. If USA was behind I would look ahead to the remaining events and count how many we would take to reassure myself that we would in fact come out on top. I take the Olympics very seriously.

In 2008 I probably watched a good 63 hours of Olympic coverage, partly because I wasn't working at the time, but also because I knew we had to represent in Red China. This year, I plan on watching that much if not more.

There are a few winter Olympic events that I especially enjoy. Downhill skiing is awesome because those guys (and gals) go so damn fast. They get hella air time as well. My buddy, Tom did some skiing this Christmas at the Olympic venue and he has assured me that Team USA will do well. I know the Canadians, Austrians and Germans are pretty good skiers, so they will be tough to beat. But since the games are in Canada, we pretty much have home field advantage.

Speed skating and short track speed skating are also cool as hell. In the past, the Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese have done very well in these events. But I gotta feeling (queue the Black Eye Peas) that Team USA, with their bulging leg muscles, will whip dat ass. If you haven't watched short track speed skating, I recommend you give it a chance. It's the one where everybody wears sweet yellow helmets. It's super exciting because there is a lot of passing, and at times it can get physical. When people fall, they go flying into the safer barrier (just like nascar).

Of course there is the bobsled, luge, and skeleton. For some reason the Americans don't do as well in these events. Maybe its because instead of sledding we are going to work, or donating to charities, or conducting bombing runs on terrorist bunkers. I don't know, we just don't seem to dominate these events like we should. Maybe this year will be different.

In summary, the Olympic are those once in a couple year opportunities for countries to unite in the celebration of sport, community, and American glory. The games are to be treated with respect. All of the athletes competing have worked many years just for the opportunity to come to America (we all know they are going to just cross the border after their event). In one month the games will be upon us, so prepare thy mind and thy soul. It's going to be balls-freakin-tastic!!!

Biggest loser predictions

2010-01-12T15:48:00.001-05:00

Ok, I watched the newest season opener of the Biggest loser, and based on my limited knowledge of the ranchers and my unlimited knowledge of the show I will make my predictions.

First of all the season starts with, "Do you got what it Takes?" HAHA, not much I can add to that. I can already tell that this season is going to be awesome because we have some crazy women! Mix that with a healthy dose of Jillian and sparks are bound to fly! This year everybody is weighing in front of their hometown. So everybody they know is going to see their weight. I dont think this is as embarrassing as the producers might think. I mean all its going to do is just silence all the people who say, "holy craps! I bet that guy weights 350 pounds!"

Breakdown of the Teams
John and James - Fat Twins from, you guessed it, Florida. These guys are super fat! Its amazing!! However, because one of them (dont know which) was "hurt" they lost the first weigh in. So one of the chubby deckers is sent home. The other one really has no shot of winning in my humble opinion.

Stephanie and Patti - These cousins are pretty forgettable and remind me of mandy and whatsherface from Season 7. Oh yeah, Aubry. Patti looks like an egg, FYI. Seriously, check it out.

Daris and Cheryl - Daris does a great speech to a bunch of 5th graders that inspires nobody. He could win, but he has a funny looking nose, so I'm not convinced yet. Also his hair is super curly and for-like so he moves down a couple points in my eyes. Cherryl had a couple instances or banshee-like screaming. I hope she stops doing that because it is hella annoying. Daris could win, however. I put him in my top 4.

Koli and Sam - the producers for this show probably dont need to scramble to find a samoan couple that is overweight. Sam and Koli are the Sione and Filipe of Season 9. After their weigh in they gave us a taste of what's to come by letting out primal war screams. Honestly, how could I not like these tubby teddy bears? I think they will show well, but like Sione and Filipe, they will lose to some girls.

Sherry and Ashley - Oof, this team is something else. I call this team "Sherry and Ashley: Pigs in the City" because their pink shirts remind me of that lovable little pig, Babe. Although I never saw the Babe movies, I bet they were totally badass. This team could be good, but I think their Sabertooth-esque hair-dos will be their downfall. Ashley is over 350 so I dont think she can win. To win as a woman you gotta be in that 250-290 range. She eats that range for breakfasts.

Lance and Melissa - Team Texas. These two are pretty country. They talk with drawls and I bet by seasons end will even skin a wild boar or 6 point buck. They have a great chance of winning because they are a good age (30-40s) and have some energy. Some energy is more than most on this show. Also, Lance has a goatee that would make an actual billy goat say "Damn, Gina!". Watch this team to do some things this season.

Miggy and Migdalia - Puerto Rican team who, after the first episode, seems super determined to win. These two latin firecrackers wont let you forget about their puertoricanacity. In every interview they professed that they will win because they are puerto rican and they are hot like salsa and they are not lazy. I think this bravado will diminish in a couple weeks. Ole!

Darrell and Andrea - Honestly I dont know much about this team, but here is how they are going to do. First, Darrell, my brother, you look amazing! Super white beard that totally hides your chin. Keep it Rocking! Andrea, I'm not sure what you bring to the teams so just stay out of Pappa Bear's way and you'll be ok. This teams makes an early exit I'm afraid. Darrell will throw the weigh in so he can get back to his closet full of meat at home. When you're hungry, you eat!

Michael and Maria - The italian sausage stallions this team is. Michael weighs in at a 2nd grader above Shay. That's right, the producers have found the elusive 500 pounder. Michael put it best when he said, "Its pretty bad, I weigh an obese person more than some of the obese people here." Sho nuff! I like this guy because he is funny, his mom is wacky, and his fingers are really fat. Like I always say, fat people are funny. He wont win, but he will do good as a stay at home contestant.

there were two other couples that were kicked off because they didnt ride their bikes fast enough. They have no chance of winning. They will be brought back in about 3 weeks to square off for another chance on the ranch. But dont worry, the winner of that weigh off will be eliminated soon there after (is that one word or three? I dont know).

My Winner for the season is Daris. I dont feel good about that pick because I dont believe anybody named Daris should win anything. But, who knows.

Snow day

2010-01-08T08:22:00.003-05:00

I got up early this morning, as usual, to get to work. However, I was unable to drive up the hill in my neighborhood so I was pretty much trapped. So today, I'm stuck at home, but it is gorgeous outside! I want to go around the are to take some pictures, but like I said, I'm stuck here. So I snapped this picture looking off our back deck. For you nerds out there, I got the sun to get those cool rays by shutting down the aperture to around f.22. MaHoY!!!

Snow in atlanta

2010-01-07T22:32:00.003-05:00

Hot dog, there is snow in atlanta. Crazy bisniz!

This is a picture of a bulb flower (I think a narcissus or something like that) one of Laura's friends at work gave her. It finally bloomed and looks pretty good.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

2009-12-26T08:26:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, Laura and I celebrated our first Christmas in our new home. It was a great day. We ate very well. The lunch/dinner menu included appetizers of smoked salmon and baked brie, a turkey seasoned with sage, bacon and maple syrup, and sides of green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and broccoli and cheese casserole. Fro dessert, Laura made a fantastic mint chocolate cheesecake! The crust was made of thin mints, and chocolate chips were sprinkled throughout the cake. Next week we get to do it all again with my family. Hooray for Christmas 2.0!!!

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T22:21:00.004-05:00

Today is Christmas eve and we celebrated by making some gingerbread houses. After surveying the mess we made, we concluded that this is no activity for children. Anyway the second picture is some artsy-fartsy picture I took of the christmas tree through the glass ball of the table lamp in the living room.

Christmas pictures

2009-12-21T22:27:00.003-05:00

Took a couple pictures today of the Christmas tree and especially all of the beautifully wrapped gifts. Laura does a great job of wrapping all of the gifts for our families. She takes the time to coordinate the bows with the paper with the tags. She is pretty awesome at it.

December Pictures

2009-12-19T11:52:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures I took this morning around the house. The people behind us (not part of the neighborhood) have a couple horses. This was the first time we have seen them. One of the horses, lets call him Patches, was pretty friendly and did a good job of posing. Patches also loves to eat anything that grows on a fence.

"The Rocker" movie review

2009-12-19T08:30:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I had the honor of watching "The Rocker" starring Rainn Wilson. This movie, while receiving 2 stars, is probably a 2.25 star movie in my mind. I would give it a C. When a movie gets a C in my book this means, dont go out of your way to see it. But if you are bored on a friday night like I was, go ahead and watch it.

This movie centers around a drummer named Robert Fishman, aka Fish, who was kicked out of his up and coming band. That band, 20 years later, ends up being the biggest band on the planet while Fish is just a nobody. As you can tell, moderate hilarity ensues as Fish joins his nephew's simple garage band as the way too old, way too crazy, overly enthusiastic drummer. Now I'm not going to give away the entire plot, but I'll have you know its pretty weak.

This movie really isnt about the plot. ITs more about the rock and roll life style of the 80's mixing with the overly depressing emo generation of 2004-2009. The cast of the movie is pretty awesome, and one of the redeeming qualities of film. There are many people from the NBS shows of The Office (Rainn Wilson), 30 Rock, and SNL. Also, Christina Applegate and Will Arnet have significant roles. All these people together make an entertaining combination despite the somewhat crappy plot.

So if you are bored, have HBO, or in desperate need of something to queue up on Netflix, go ahead and give "The Rocker" a shot. Otherwise, you wont miss out.

Ems Christmas

2009-12-17T17:12:00.001-05:00

Ems threw a Christmas prom today. Theme is "a million Christmas
wishes" or "Santa charges overhead".

Christmas lights

2009-12-15T16:18:00.002-05:00

We put up some christmas lights a couple weeks ago. Sorry I havent posted a picture yet, I've just been a little busy. Anyway, we bought these lights in the beginning of november (I think). After putting them up I wanted to get some more, but they were all sold out. I guess I will have to wait til next year to make the larger display.

Biggest Loser Finale recap

2009-12-10T07:22:00.007-05:00

Tuesday was the end to epic season on the Biggest Loser. The season was full of hilarious antics by some of the chubbiest contestants in recent memory. For this post I thought I would run down the list of the ranchers, give you an update on them and my final thoughts.

Antoine - never got to know this cat. All I know is that he loves to smile and he lost a lot of weight. Now instead of being fat with large boobies, he is husky with medium boobies. Way to go Antoine!

Alexandra - She had one of the worst New York accents you could ever imagine. Pair that with no personality and you have the recipe for a soon forgotten reality show contestant. She and Antoine got engaged during the finale right after they both weighed in. How romantic. (Antoine weighs less than her)

Sean - everybodys favorite youth pastor/kool-aid man impersonator told America that he and his wife just had a daughter and named it Jillian. It looked like he still had some of the pregnancy weight to lose, so he didn't crush the weigh in. But he is down from 400+ to 260ish.

Julio - Oh Julio, where do we being. Julio came into the show as the comical fat Mexican guy. And he left as the not so funny creepy Telemundo news anchor. His creepy mustache-o and goatee were nasty. In his montage of "highlights" the BL producers included about 10 instances of his falling down and rolling around. Awesome!

Coach Mo - Still looking sad coach mo saddled up to the scale and lost something like 90 lbs. The Eeyore of this season didn't say much and didn't smile.

Dina - What? Wha wha who? What's a Dina? My point exactly. This waste of a contestant made no attempt to be likeable, memorable, or thin. She came to the finale dressed like a weather balloon and we will never hear from her again.

Abby - Abby, as we all know was the inspirational rancher this season with her tragic story. She was looking pretty good standing between Dina, Eeyore, and Tracy.

Tracy - Oh lord, this lady is crazy! Leave it to Tracy to be the only person coming out in a prom dress. She did lose a ton of weight, however mostly in her face. It looked like her skin had been stretched around her face. I thought she had botox or something. But what made her face stand out was how broad her shoulders were. I mean it was like a linebacker.

Big Ol' Shay - (funny story, when I just typed shay, I accidentally typed shat) Shay rumbled on to the stage in typical shay fashion and grabsed the mic and started spouting of.....again! She told all the viewers out in TVland that she is the best looking 300 lb chubbler in the world. She goes on further to say how we should all pay tributes to her and slaughter a goat at her alter (dinner table). This got super annoying, and to make it worse, later in the show she got a damn prize! Subway (eat fresh) is giving her a 1000 dollars for every additional pound she loses from now until next seasons' final. TOTAL BS! This sends the worst message. Why should we reward somebody who has single-handedly raised our medicare taxes. I'm going to teach my kids that the best way to wealth is to wolf down tater tots and McGriddles until you are about....say...430 lbs. Then self promote your fat self until a crappy sandwich shop starts throwing money at you. Ugh! This made me so angry

Daniel - Daniel came on stage, flexed his flabby muscles then listed to shay. While she was yammering, he kept nodding so emphatically I thought his head was going to pop off. But hey, if you are going to be the baddest youth pastor in North Carolina, you better nod that head like no other. Daniel sucks.

Rebecca - This girl was a mess! After her self-promotion tour on Jay Leno, the Today show, and the internet, Rebecca comes out wearing a bright sequin tank top, no pants, and hair cut that looks like a Ken doll. She looked like Ashley Simpson after being pummeled with a sack full of potatoes. She doesn't say a damn word the whole time. She just keeps making hella lame poses and grinding on Daniel. It was kind of a train wreck. She ended up winning the $100,000 stay at home prize and did three versions of her patented dance. You know the one that looks like shes trying to wash her hands wine stomping grapes (see video).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9aymPARQGU&feature=related
(Sorry, for some reason its not letting me put links. Just copy and paste into your favorite browser.)

Liz - Liz found out early in the show that the rest of the country doesn't like her, so she was not eligible to win the grand prize. Not like it mattered anyway because she put up a piss poor showing. She weighed in at 176 lbs the gave an awkward hill country grin and we never saw her again.

The final three consisted of Amanda (no chance in hell of winning), Rudy, and Danny.

Amanda - she lost 90 sum odd pounds and was pretty much the sacrificial lamb to the beasts known as Rudy and Danny. Amanda was America's choice and all in all she did a good job. But in the end she let down this country. She knew that we are going through some tough times with the economy, Afghanistan, and such as, the Iraq, such as and still didn't come through. Amanda - not a patriot.

Rudy - Rudy was my pick from the very beginning and he did not disappoint. Every week he was workman like. He even took the time a couple weeks to tell shay to cram it. He was what a Biggest Loser rancher should be. He ended up losing 234 lbs! But in the end it wasn't enough to beat the dark horse that is Happy Danny.

Danny - This guy, after week 3 or 4, was a total badass. Something in his mind just clicked and he knew that he would destroy anybody that got in his way. He never fell below the yellow line because he pumped out double digits every week. His only advantage over Rudy was that Rudy didn't weigh more to begin with. Danny has a much smaller frame so he could ever get lighter. Rudy is a big guy, so 200 is prolly his lowest.

Congrats to Danny, you definitely balled like a true baller. This is Robert, signing off until next season......January 5!!!!

back from florida

2009-12-01T08:19:00.002-05:00

Laura and I made it back from Florida Sunday afternoon. We had a fantastic time on our vacation! While it was a ton of fun, I have to say its good to be back in Georgia where the people are just a touch less crazy. For those of you that have ever been to Florida, I'm just preaching to the choir, but for those of you that haven't, pay attention.

Now before I get started, I want to preface myself. When I talk about Floridians, I am not talking about the people that work at the Space Center, or for Harris, or for any other respectable company. I am not talking about normal people that raise a family and would fit in in any other place in the country. I am talking about the other 85% of the state that have no job, rob KFCs, breed cats in their basements, and/or drink Old English as they drive their kids to the bowling alley at 11am on a school day.

The irony of the situation is that Disney World (the happiest place on earth) is nestled in the center of the port-o-potty known as Florida. I haven't been on this earth too long, but I have to believe when Mr. Disney was creating his vision that is now Disney World, he would have thought twice about the location if he knew Orlando was going to the be trash can it is today. The best example of this is state highway 192. This is the aorta that supplies Orlando with its much needed filth and worthlessness. For miles you drive past souvenir stores packed with Big Johnson and No Fear t-shirts. Along with Hilton Head, SC Orlando has the highest concentration of Big Dog t-shirts in the world. There are at least 5 IHOPs and 4 all you can eat lobster buffets. The classiest place along the artery of sadness is probably the Denny's. This is because Denny's is the only place that has a strict dress code of shoes being mandatory and no wet bathing suits.

To further my point, watch the national news for a week. Odds are good you will see at least two stories about a parent punching their teenager in the face then slamming four Miller Lites and riding a tractor down the interstate. 10 times out of 10 that story will be out of Ocala or Broward County. Have you ever seen a 15 year old fight a 63 year old wearing crocs? If you've been to Fort Myers you probably have.

It is for these reasons that Florida truly is the wang of America.

Disney Treasures

2009-11-23T12:41:00.001-05:00

Florida royalty

Animal Kingdom

2009-11-22T08:26:00.005-05:00

We went to the Animal Kingdom yesterday. It was a lot of fun, and not too crowded. Disney World is the only place you can see a grown man wearing a Tinkerbell back pack. Here are a couple pictures from the day.

barf

2009-11-19T13:15:00.001-05:00

First Antoine and Alexandra (I dont blame you if you have no idea who they are) and now these two?!?!

It should be called the Biggest Loser Hookup Ranch. (thanks to Rachel for finding this)

The Biggest Loser’s Rebecca: In Love with Daniel Wright! - PEOPLE TV Watch

Biggest loser Makeover

2009-11-18T07:06:00.002-05:00

Last night we all enjoyed an abbreviated version of The Biggest Loser. In this hour and a half long cry fest, all of the ranchers got makeovers. Tim Gunn and Tabitha (not sure if she has a last name) visited our portly contestants and got them looking good. Rudy told Tabitha that he didn't want his beard to go, then she promptly slapped him in the face with her crusty leather whip and shaved that badboy off. Liz also asked tim gunn if she could wear a raccoon skin vest or fanny pack. Other than those exchanges, the whole makeover montages were pretty bland. Oh and yes, we got to hear all about Rebecca's self proclaimed pretty face.

And like I said, it was a shorted episode, so this is a shortened post. Plus nothing happened so there aint much to write about. Let's jump to the weigh-ins. First Danny goes up and puts up a 12 spot. It was pretty sweet but he is still a 300 pounder. Then Rudy steps to the scale and crushes a 16. It too was pretty sweet but he is still a 300 pounder. Allen drops 5 which is a disappointment. Amanda finally got her act together and blasted a 9. That was the most she had ever lost, and I think she will never match it (only two more episodes before the finale so I feel confident with that prediction). This leaves us with Liz and Rebecca who each lost only 3 pounds. Needless to say, America was not subjected to her drunk leprechaun dance.

In the voting room it was pretty clear who was going to vote for who. Amanda of course wanted Rebecca to stay and Danny would never screw over Liz. This left us with Rudy and Allen. We will never know what Allen put because Rudy sealed the deal and wrote Rebecca. However, when he revealed his choice he gave her a verbal bitch slap. He said that he didn't trust her and that she was dishonest playing both sides of the game. This made the leprechaun very upset. She tried to fight back but Rudy, being the cool customer that he is, kept bringing it back to the vote. Sorry, Rebecca, but you lose.

Jump cut to the Where are they Now segment. Rebecaa lost a lot of weight and ran a half marathon. But in typical fashion she cried for the last 8 miles. Lam3.

In summary, the makeover week was boring except for Rudy being a prick (in a good way) to Rebecca. He could have said nothing, but he wanted to be an asshole....which is totally cool! It's clear that the best makeover of all was to the Biggest Loser. No more Shay, no more Daniel, and no more Rebecca.

Oh and one more thing. If the producers wanted to make this episode a LOT better they would have brought Shay back, then immediately eliminated her in some challenge that involved jumping.

just sayin'

Biggest Loser ZOMG!

2009-11-11T07:59:00.003-05:00

Did you watch it last night? Well if you didn't you missed the best episode of the season, if not of ALL TIME. Yeah, Kanye. ALL TIME!!

As we all know I am not a Shay fan for many reasons. Reason the first - she is annoying as hell. Reason the second - she thinks she is better than everyone. Reason the third - never shuts up. So this week the ranchers had a challenge of grabbling tennis balls off of a wall and putting them in a bucket. (Kinda sounds like an activity for cub scouts) Allen (baller) takes the challenge and wins a one point advantage. This was huge because if you were last in the weigh-ins you automatically get sent home. Also, the next two bottom people are up for elimination. Well Allen beats Rebecca (self-proclaimed pretty face.....i'm just not seein' it) and she goes off and pouts for the rest of the episode. Even more reason to get her off the show.

The producers of TBL must have read my post about this show being rigged because they addressed those concerns head-on. There was a five minute segment of Bob and Jillian talking about how Shay "needs" to be on the ranch. Jillian told bob that he needed to focus on her. This, my friends, is total BS. And I think Bob agrees because he politely told Jillian to stuff-it.

Jillian then went on a roid rage and yelled at any contestant that decided to cry. She busted up Rebecca and told her to stop being such a baby loser brat. Then she smacked down shay. It was pretty epic. Jillian definitely had her evil gorilla face on.

Stop CRYING!!! I'm serious! I'm going to rip your face off and eat it like a pizza!!! NAAASH!!!!

Ok, let's get to the main event. The ranchers were taken to the circus because....I have no idea why. But they were taken to the circus. The challenge was to jump through other contestant's hoops 100 times to eliminate them from the competition. The person's whose hoop is the last with out a 100 "jump throughs" wins. And in case you missed this, yes, there were trampolines, and yes it was hilarious! Leading up to the challenge the ranchers were talking how teams have kind of formed between the younger crowd and older crowd. Young Team - Rebecca, Shay, Amanda, and Daniel. I don't like any of them. Old Team - Rudy, Allen, Danny, and Liz. I could do without Liz, but still a solid team.

So Shay talks to Rudy at the beginning of the challenge and forms an alliance saying neither of them would jump through each other's hoop. Rudy, of course said ok. But give me a break. Rudy, the strongest player in the competition pairing with Shay, the most annoying and slow? Hellz nah!

The competition started and Liz and Daniel were quickly eliminated. Next went Allen and Amanda. Then Rebecca got tossed. So we were left with Rudy, Danny, and Shay. Naturally, rudy and danny went tag team to eliminate shay because she is the enemy. Shay started spouting off at Rudy (yeah, at Rudy!) saying he was a jerk and liar blah blah blah. Rudy stood up for himself because he is a badass and basically told shay to shut her pie hole. It was awesome. And Shay cried.

Rudy won immunity which was huge because he definitely would have been below the yellow line.

At weigh-ins Shay dropped an amazing 17 lbs!!!! Too bad Danny did too. Liz dropped 12 and Allen 10 (plus the 1 for winning the first game, so 11). Now this was crazy! Allen barely edged shay by .02%!! That 1 pound he got for winning saved his bacon! Daniel lost the weigh-in so he was immediately sent home shifting the balance of power to the Old Team. Wooohooo!!!

In the elimination room Shay was sent home over Amanda. The daniel/shay elimination combo was epic. FTW!!!

even more New York pictures

2009-11-10T06:27:00.004-05:00

More New York Pictures

2009-11-09T21:03:00.003-05:00

Here are some more pictures from our trip to New York. They are in no particular order.

It was tough to get a good picture of this statue because there were tons of people hanging on it. There were also a good number of people getting their pictures taken at the other end of the bull. Nothing beats a picture of you with with a big brass bull butt (and balls).

Street performers that did all kinds of flips. They will probably audition for America's Got Talent. This was over by the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

The Arch near NYU.

Laura in front of Madison Square Park

This squirrel was the size of badger. He jumped up on the fence hoping to get some Cheetos, but I didn't have any so I just took a couple pictures of him. He wasn't amused, so he shot me the bird and ran off. Kind of an asshole if you ask me.

Me with one hot momma! Let Freedom Ring, Bitchiz!!!!1

Laura in the winter wonderland section of the Macy's store.

Time Square

Let's talk some TBL

2009-11-04T12:46:00.004-05:00

Last night's episode was pretty terrible. The gang went to Washington DC to do their part to get America fit again. Wow, that sounds like a ton of fun! So the first challenge was to see who could get the most people to the Washington monument for a workout with Bob and Jillian. The ranchers handed out stickers to people on the street and lured them in with free subway. Fat Daniel was recognized by some of the people on the street from his appearance last season. So right away he thought he was hot stuff and started preaching about changing your life and living a healthy life style. Too bad he was talking to a bunch of skinny girls who were all like, "That's super interesting, but we are active, and we do eat right.....How did you get so big?"

Liz (who is that?), yeah Liz, the 48 year old grandma won the challenge. She was so proud of herself. She kept pumping herself up in the interviews, it got pretty annoying. I turned to Laura and asked, "How many raccoons do you think she has eaten in her lifetime?" Because based on her nasty country slang, and her crappy one liners, I would say its gotta be over 27.

The show continues on and the ranchers goto the White House and make a salad.....awesome. Then they meet a couple of Senators (not important ones) and they tell them how it sucks to be such a whale. The senators politely nod their head and feed them lines about how they will increase funding for healthy living initiatives. Rebecca does her tag line of saying she is just a pretty face (by now we all know this is bullsh1t) in front of the Senators to get more camera face time. It was a pathetic showing, fo sho.

Ok, I cant do this anymore. This episode was just such a waste of time. Spoiler - Rebecca wins the challenge then does her stupid clapping leprechaun dance. She wins immunity then drops 7ish pounds and again does the stupid clapping leprechaun dance. Shay drops 9 lbs and praises herself relentlessly. She eventually got hungry and rolled off the scale. Oh, and congrats to Shay for dropping below 400 lbs. You are an inspiration to us all. Seeing you accomplish that makes us all believe we, one day, can weigh less than a pregnant walrus. Thanks Shay!

Back to the summary. Everybody put up huge number expect for Tracy and Liz. They went up for elimination and, what do you know, Tracy got sent packing. The only interesting thing about the vote was shay voting for Liz. Shay hated Tracy. I see a Liz lead vendetta on Shay. Perhaps the first biggest loser boxing match? If that's the case, for whatever boxing analogy you come up with, Shay is definitely Butterbean.

It's pretty clear that this episode of Biggest Loser reached an all new level of suck, but the preview for next weeks episode looked awesome. The preview showed Shay crying (nothing out of the ordinary) and pleading with the other ranchers. This suggests that she will be below the yellow line. Now, the producers could be showing a clip from an earlier episode when she was up for elimination, I don't know, but I sure hope not.

Prediction - Next week they will send two people home. I believe they need to speed this thing up a little bit. (Update - The preview said they will eliminate two, so nothing new here) People to fall below the yellow line will be Shay and Rebecca with Rebecca getting sent home. I don't think shay will leave because the producers want her there and I never get what I want with this show.

a few pictures from NYC

2009-11-03T06:25:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures from our trip to New York last weekend. This set is from Friday when we walked all over Midtown. We started our day with the NBC Studio tour which was pretty cool. From there we walked through central park, time square, and grand central station. I will post some more pictures later.

Rockefeller Center as seen on 30 Rock

Matt Lauer dressed as Luke Skywalker. cough cough dork cough!!!!

Laura on 50th Street with Radio City Music Hall in the background.

The top of the Chrysler building

St. Patrick's Cathedral

More of St. Patrick's Cathedral

Oh, even more of St. Patrick's Cathedral

Not sure what building this is, but it had a cool reflection. There were several of this style with the curved base. This particular building was near the Plaza across from Central Park.

Part of the famous Radio City Music Hall sign.

Grand Central Station

Made it to NYC

2009-10-30T11:53:00.000-04:00

We made it to NYC last night. This morning we went on the NBC studio
tour and saw Dylan rattigan (spelling) from cnbc. We also saw the cast
of the Today show in their Star wars costumes. Now, as you can see,
we have made it to Bloomingdales where laura is getting her shop on.

Stay tuned

East meats West

2009-10-27T18:29:00.003-04:00

Yes that pun is intended. When people start talking trash about America, you just point them to this article.

http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/10/23/only-in-japan-the-burger-king-windows-7-whopper/

What would people do with out American ingenuity and innovation

Thanks to Matt for finding this.

What won't people do to their babies?

2009-10-27T13:03:00.004-04:00

I was at the doctor's office this morning, and while I was waiting for him to come in the screening room I saw this brochure.

It caught me off guard because, damn, that baby has got one swanging head of hair. Why would anybody with hair like John Rzeznik from the Goo Goo Dolls look so sad? Ok, so he probably has an ear ache (just using context clues) but that glorious do has to count for something.

(John Rzeznik aint cryin')

In all honesty I think the baby is crying because he's an emo baby. He's got an emo hair weave and in order to sell the emo package he had to be crying. I bet if we saw more of that baby we would see black painted fingernails and a GooGoo Dolls CD.

There is no doubt in my mind that the hair atop that baby is a weave. I couldn't even grow hair that illustrious, and I'm a grown-ass man! Did you know that there are people out there that actually make wigs for babies? The wigs have got to be much easier to make than adult wigs because they are considerably smaller, and the users have no idea what they are anyway. I did a little research and stumbled upon a website that sells baby wigs. I give you BabyToupee.com http://www.babytoupee.com/index.php

At BabyToupee.com you can buy an assortment of adorable baby toppers including The Samuel L., The Little Kim, The Bob Marley, and my favorite The Donald. Any of these fabulous headpieces will vault your baby's popularity with the other babies that can't talk or think rationally at day-care.

Is Baby Lil-Kim gunna go out tonight and make some bad decisions?

Baby Donald is super successful! With this wig your baby will bring that success at any cost attitude (even if it means divorce).

Can you hear that??

2009-10-22T14:23:00.004-04:00

Oh my God, did you just hear that??? It was the sound of sleigh bells ring-ting tingling. There it was again! Off in the distance, it's getting closer and more clear!

Ladies and gentlehams, its the beginning of Fall, and to Laura that means Christmas! What? Too early you might ask? Well, the only reason Laura is getting prepared for Christmas now is because I told her we couldn't set the tree up in August.

The question is, why is she SOOOOO excited about Christmas? I mean, I like Christmas. It's fun and all, but I temper my excitement until, say, December. But Laura, oh no. Now is the time to get in the season. From my intense interrogation I found out why on earth she would want to celebrate Christmas the whole year around. And to my surprise it wasn't getting tons of awesome presents.

She loves the whole atmosphere from the Christmas tree, to the tinsel on the stair railings, to the stockings, to the Christmas cookies, to the hot chocolate, and especially the sales at the Mall. So in the Cross family we start the Christmas season after Halloween. In about one weeks time, the Christmas tree will be set up, the tinsel will be on the railings, cookies will be in the oven and Laura will be ecstatic! I fully expect to be listening to Alvin and the Chipmunk Christmas songs whenever we drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dnrosVyamY

This movie was actually based on Laura's love of Christmas.

TBL Update

2009-10-21T08:46:00.003-04:00

It's Wednesday and that means it's time for a little Biggest Loser talk. So get your mind right and let's get down to businazz.

First things first, this week was a pretty boring episode. All of the contestants (except for the gimpy ones) had to dig a hole in the sand to find a wooden trunk. I think during the challenges, the gimps should have to ride a bike or do something physical instead of cheering/snacking. For instance, a bonus should be given to the gimp who rides the furthest during the challenge. Anyway, back to the story. Team Blue Cheese wins this challenge running away and their reward are tickets back home for the week. However, if they go home, they will be without their trainer. Tracy knows that if she skips the trainer she will be killed, so they pass the reward to the Black Angus team.

For the next hour of the show we see the homecomings of all the Black Angus losers. This part of the show gets really preachy and self indulgent. "Oh (insert rancher here), we are so proud of you! You look so good!" FALSE. At this point in the show all contestants are fat/tubby/full of diabeetus. But the families/friends have to lie to their faces for the camera just as they lied to their faces when they said, "Go ahead, have another corn dog."

While at home, we learn that Shay is even more annoying than on the ranch. She goes to Subway with her unattractive friends and tells them what to order. If I were one of her bustid friends I would be all like, "Hellz nah, U aint gon tell me what to order. Iz a have a 5 dollar footlong BLT deep fried with some oreos and donut holez." Then Shay would be all tempted to wolf down my awesome meal. MWhahahaha! Back on track. Shay tells her hussy friends that she is in control of her decisions and she deserves to be at the ranch and she is the best and she is a better person than everyone else etc etc etc. It got super annoying.

When the Black Angus team got back the ranch, they had a last chance workout with Drill Sergent Jillian. There, Daniel decided he would have a sob fest with Jillian just so he could give her a hug. Probably the first time Daniel has hugged anything other than trashbag full of pit bbq. It was so corny.

At the weigh in, Team Blue Cheese dominated behind the 14 lb weight loss of Mix Master Rudy. His drop really put the pressure on the other team. Black Angus had to lose an average of 6.5 lbs per person in order to win the weigh in. Shay rolls up the scale and manages to lose a whopping 5 lbs! This is nothing for a 400 plus pounder. But she, as usual, pats herself on her huge back and says "That is 5 pounds! I am proud of that! I control my life, so 5 pounds, that is awesome." Then Boring Dina goes up there and drops 5 lbs (not great), but she is proud of herself. However, in the interview Big Fat Shay starts talking some smack. "Dina is not pulling her weight. We need to lose 7 pounds each, and she only lost 5."

Hello?!?! Shay, you are the one weighing the team down! you barely lost 1% of your body weight! Dina did her job, you are the dead weight. OMG, it makes me so mad. Well, finally Daniel gets on the scale and represents by gaining a pound. What?! Daniel, from season 7 and 8 gain a pound? That's right, he is not doing his job for the second season and needs to be let go.

Needless to say, the Black Angus team lost the weigh in so it was time for elimination. Danny, was safe because he dropped 15. To me the decision should be easy. Daniel or Shay. Its easy because I like those two the least, but still they did the worst and they contribute nothing but crappy motivational speeches. Shay talks to the team as if they CAN'T send her home, like she deserves to be there. News Flash! Nobody deserves to be there! There is not right saying, if you are unable to control your eating, you deserve to be on the BL Ranch. NO! Shay, listen up. You contribute nothing to the challenges, you just add weight to the bottom line for the weigh-ins, you consistently under perform for weight-loss, you sneak sandwiches into the workout room by hiding them under your hocks, you smell like Kit-Kats, and you are annoying. You should be the one going home.

But no, damnit they send Dina home. Who is Dina, you might ask? Right, she is a nobody that cant jump onto a 3 inch high stool. But at least she lost weight. Daniel came in second for the elimination. Dina had it right when she said, "Daniel has had multiple opportunities, everybody else on the ranch should get the same opportunity he had." Well said, but no dice.

What a game!!

2009-10-20T08:44:00.002-04:00

Went to the game last Saturday, and it was awesome! Unlike two years ago, there were very few Virginia Tech fans in the stands. We saw quite a few of them on MARTA heading down to the game, but not in the stadium. I guess they got lost or something.

It was a cold/windy day which made it necessary for me to wear 2 jackets. When you are big tech fan, 1 jacket is never enough! Anyhoo, as I said earlier, we saw a bunch of VT fans in the parking deck at MARTA getting all ready for the game. They were painting their chests a nasty orange/maroon-purple color. This was three hours before kick off and about 15 miles away from the stadium. Not the smartest bunch, but hey, nobody ever accused VT of being smart. I mean, what were they thinking?!

"Hey Jasper, should we paint our chest now, or a little before game time?"
"Durrrgh, let's do it now?"
"But wont we get paint everywhere on the train? And it's pretty cold outside so it would be another three hours we would have be outside with no shirt on."
Jasper, at this point was getting annoyed, "I SAID DURRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!! Let's DO IT NOW!! Gawlsh!! You r a MOE-RON!"

Well the Jackets went out there and beat a little ass so I was able to get this shot of me celebrating as tons of students ran out on the field. I guess the last time they ran out on the field was last year against FSU, but this time they took down the goalposts (I didn't stay that long). And the last time they took the goalposts down was in 2003 against the mighty Auburn Tigers.

Let's go jackets!!

2009-10-15T13:02:00.001-04:00

Woooooo!

random picture

2009-10-15T06:14:00.002-04:00

There are a bunch of these little bastards flying around our house. Anyway, this picture is for you, Richard.

Biggest Loser is rigged

2009-10-14T10:14:00.002-04:00

After last night's episode, it is crystal clear that the biggest loser is rigged. Allow me to set the scene if you will. In previous episodes, Tracy (the moo cow who fainted on the beach) had taken every temptation (cupcakes and no trainers) to have control over the weigh-ins. The control she got really wasn't much in terms of who goes home and who stays. They were more controls to help her stay those two particular weeks. Anyway, she successfully used the powers granted to her to make every rancher hate her, especially big ol Shay, and Rebbecca.

So this week, if the rancher wanted to play, they could spin the wheel in hopes of getting the power to pick new teams, black and blue. They should really name the teams Black Angus and Blue Cheese. Anyway, several people spun the wheel and landed on tasty num nums, but Tracy managed to land on the prized spot on the first time!! No way! That is crazy! How on earth could that have happened?!? There is no chance one of the producers was under that wheel controlling it...

So Tracy picks the teams, and does a really good job of it. She puts all of the best players (except for Liz. Liz is a scrub) on her team and all the worst players on the other team. In the process she splits up several of the pairs. This infuriates everybody and makes Tracy even more of a villain. A W E S O M E

Tracy and the blue team, or course, dominate the challenge which really doesn't get them anything except a video from home (lam3 prize, not helping you win). But, they manage to lose the weigh-ins because Holier-than-Thou Dan and Turkey-Knee Shay manage to lose 27 lbs between them (start the sarcastic slow clap now). Then Shay stays on the scale and starts to pontificate about how she cant let others make decisions for herself and she is strong and blah blah blah. These weekly sermons by Shay are getting uber annoying and she is coming off as a complete dork. Ok, we get it, everybody has told you what to do in your life. They told you to eat multiple bags of Cheetos and chase it with a mushroom swiss stromboli. We know, we know.

So now, its clear, Blue Cheese team lost the weigh-in, Tracy is going home. But Wait!! Coach Mo decided that he would go home. He said that he would leave, and that he wanted to go. So if somebody WANTS to go, they have to go, right? WRONG, the other players on the blue cheese team should step up and say, "You know, Tracy has been a queen dick this whole season. Sorry, Mo, but Tracy.....get the fudge out!"

However, the producers didn't see it that way. The producers, in all likelihood told Mo to get the fudge out, and that if anybody voted for Tracy, they would be the next one to leave. Bodabing, Coach Mo is gone, and Tracy is staying. Next week, when we see Tracy walk back into the stable where all the ranchers are staying, I'm sure it will be funny as hell to see the Black Angus team react.

Biggest Loser = rigged

Let's get to some Power Rankings
1. Jillian - fiercest creature on the ranch
2. Bob - total badass with sweet tattoos so you know he's a total badass
3. Rudy - has a lot of weight to lose still and has been separated from the dead weight that is Dina
4. Allan - still somewhat athletic, too bad Jillian isn't his trainer
5. Dan - He needs a tummy tuck, pronto
6. Rebecca - "not just a pretty face", I believe its more like "not even a pretty face"
??? - all the rest have no shot in my eyes of winning this, so they are not ranked.

God bless the USA.

What a great day

2009-10-11T09:03:00.003-04:00

Saturday was awesome! It started off with me sleeping in until 8!! During the week I wake up around 5:15-5:30 so an extra couple hours does so much for my restfulness. Then I sat around, drank a few a.m. beers while watching College Gameday. Then I went over to Laura's dad, Jim's house (actually, it's her parent's house) to watch the UGA/UTenn game. We ate some pizza topped with many different types of meat and plenty of grease and watched UTenn demolish the bulldags.

After that game there were several others we could watch, all of which turned out to be pretty lame. I kind of dozed off because my belly was full of food and drink. Then I let out a couple deep resonating belches and I woke right up.

Around 6, Laura came back from the outlets with her mom and we went out to get some supplies to plant some herbs that Tom and Christina gave us as a housewarming gift. Thank you so much, Tom and Christina!! Anyway, it was a nice little Saturday, we went to the home depot, but we didn't have enough time to make it to Bed Bath and Beyond.

When we got home we watched some of our DVR shows like South Park (Chipotlaway.....hilarious). Then I got down to the real business of the night, GT vs. FSU. After the teams traded touchdowns in the first quarter, the game was delayed for over an hour. This sucked, except for the fact that UF was playing LSU, so I watched that for a while. Finally the game came came back on and it was a TD-fest. It was like MTV spring break at a shady Cabo hotel, everybody was scoring. But I have to say, our offense was playing like total badasses.

I couldn't stay up for the whole game so I went to bed, and this morning I woke up for the second half which was super duper! Long story short (I guess it's too late) we won and FSU lost. Josh Nesbitt played like a warrior. Next week against VT is going to be a huge game! I just hope our defense plays better.

All in all, it was a great day....and as for Sunday? Well, the Falcons will be playing, so .... yeah, Sunday will be good.

Stuck in my head

2009-10-08T09:05:00.002-04:00

I have a chronic disease where every night I go to bed with a song stuck in my head. And every morning when I wake up it's still there or has been replaced with another song. The songs that get stuck up there are usually pretty crappy, but if it's a good song, it will quickly turn to crappy in my mind. Here's a little rundown of the past couple weeks:

Mylie Cyrus - Party in the USA (thanks, laura. this song is rancidly terrible)
Black Eyed Peas - Tonight's gunna be a good night (not sure of the tittle, and I dont really care to know)
Kelly Clarkson - My life would suck without you (my life sucks when this song is playin in my head)
Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow (the Peas making another appearance on the list)
Pearl Jam - The Fixer (a good song, but ESPN keeps playing it during their Ultimate Highlight)
Rhianna - Disturbia (thanks again, laura)

I am not proud.

Gourmet dinner for one?

2009-10-06T20:52:00.002-04:00

Tonight I ate Campbells chunky clam chowder (NFL approved) with
tobassco and a Coors light. Then I'm gunna go watch TBL. This is a
typical meal of Robert circa 2006. Oh those were the times. I used to
live off of Raman noodles, hot dogs, cheap beer, and Juniors hamburger
baskets. Tom and Richard can attest. Simpler times....simpler times.

Six Sigma

2009-10-06T14:15:00.003-04:00

I'm starting Six Sigma Green Belt classes tonight so I can become a certified GE foot soldier in the war against defects. There I will learn how to wave my hands in a more authoritative fashion and hopefully, one day be taken seriously by my co-workers. Basic training is 5-9pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays for two months. Expect updates throughout the process. My first objective is figure out why it's called a green belt. Second mission will be to find an actual green belt and wear it everyday to class.

"The tenants of Six Sigma are:

Teamwork
Insight
Brutality
Male Enhancement
Handshakefullness
Play Hard"

-Jack Donaghy at the GE "Retreat to Move Forward"

Tracy

2009-10-02T08:07:00.004-04:00

This is the crazy lady that has successfully pissed off every biggest loser rancher.

"Hooray, Tacos!!!!!"

TBL Update

2009-10-01T07:42:00.005-04:00

Let's talk some Biggest Loser. Last night I finished watching one of the great episodes in TBL history. People were crying, scarfing, getting yelled at, and enemies were created. As I predicted, two people were eliminated and there was a temptation challenge. However, the temptation challenge wasn't as epic as we have seen in the past. This being only the third week, many of the ranchers could resist the cupcakes put before them. Whoever ate the most cupcakes would get the power to pick the individual on each team to weigh in for that team. The reward really isn't that good because you don't know who is going to lose more pounds. Anyway, the winner in this challenge was Tracy by a landslide.

Earlier in the episode Tracy decided for herself and Coach Mo that they would forgo the use of one of the badass trainers for a 2 lb advantage at the weigh in. This pissed Bob and Jillian off so bad. Then the trainers found out that Tracy went to Pound Town on cupcakes for the crappy reward we already discussed. This sent Jillian in to an epic roid-rage where she threatened to rip Tracy's face off with her bare hands (she could do it....i know she could). Its clear that Tracy is crazy and has no idea what's going on.

At the final weigh-ins Tracy took it upon herself to piss off every team by picking the person the team didnt want to weigh in. This was the final step in a series of gameplay and relationship building flaws. Now everybody, including the trainers, hate Tracy. Hopefully she will stay on the ranch for a while so everybody gets really angry like a overweight swarm of bees.

Baiowulf

2009-09-30T07:30:00.002-04:00

Oh snap!!

Biggest Loser Tonight!

2009-09-29T10:32:00.004-04:00

Ok, calm down folks. Tonight is another episode of the Biggest Loser and after last week I believe we are in for a surprise. Last week as many of you don't know (because I am the only one on this blog that watches the show) nobody was forced to leave the ranch. This week, two people will probably be sent home. I also predict there will be a temptation challenge. Temptation Challenges are where they try and trick or entice the ranchers into eating unhealthy. This usually results in a hill-to-the-arius montage of 300-pounders going balls crazy on cupcakes, donuts, 'tater chips, cokes, twinkies, ho-hos, goobers, hot dogs, nachos, dum-dums, snickers, three musketeers, apple-o's, whoppers, reeses pieces, cookies, pizza, lasagna, BBQ spare-ribs, apple pie, toblerone, and cotton candy. OMG I cant wait!!!

I plan on watching tonight's episode in the prone position while shoveling chili and beer into my mouth.

"WooHoo!!!!!! Temptation Challenge!!!!!"

Chili adventures

2009-09-28T14:44:00.002-04:00

Yesterday (Sunday), I started to prepare a brand new chili recipe. This recipe calls for the use of real dried chilies and no chili powder. So I got some dried chilies (1 pound to be exact). The recipe calls for New Mexican chilies but the store only had a small amount of those, so I supplemented with anchos and red chilies. The latter of those two being incredibly hot.

I spent much of yesterday taking of the stems and removing the seeds of the small red chilies. I should have taken this as a sign. The New Mexican chilies were much larger, so there were less of them. Anyway I prepared the chili paste and tasted it. At first it has a great taste, then the heat hits you right in jingle bells. This stuff is going to be hot. Its going to be 9 alarm chili!

I decided to go ahead and make it because I'm not a wuss. So tonight I will finish the batch and let you all know how it comes out.

Thank you rich

2009-09-26T12:51:00.000-04:00

Thanks for the tailgate game!! It was a huge hit!!!

Captain danger!!

2009-09-25T17:22:00.001-04:00

Today when I got home I noticed the most scary sight in the world. But
did I shy away?? Hell nah!! I got the shovel and I scooped the dead
bird off the driveway and threw it in the woods.

Captain f-ing Danger, they call me.

Work buddy

2009-09-25T15:21:00.003-04:00

I got a new buddy at work. His name Oscar and he is a stink-bug. I dare not squash him because

A) he is a buddy of mine, and

B) he will let out a stank odor and the people that sit around me would think that I ripped one. I couldn't live with the embarrassment.

GT vs UNC

2009-09-25T07:22:00.003-04:00

On Saturday Georgia Tech will take on the mighty Tarheels of North Carolina. Last year we got whipped but this year will be different. How do I know it will be different? Easy, I have done extensive scouting of the two teams and I have come up with the two main reasons Tech will win.

1. Georgia Tech has better players
2. Georgia Tech has less women on the team (sorry ladies)

" Momma said knock you out!!"
-- Jonathan Dwyer

personal items

2009-09-24T12:54:00.002-04:00

The last couple days at work I have noticed a disturbing trend. More and more personal items are being left in the men's bathroom. The first item I saw was a stack of papers (not toilet papers). A few days later I saw an umbrella (because all the rain OUTSIDE of the building). Earlier this week the items have regressed to a more interesting sort. On Tuesday I say a toothbrush and toothpaste, and just today I saw a half full (or half empty) can of RC Cola!

I understand people that brush their teeth at work, but I don't understand leaving the brush and paste for said teeth on the bench outside of the stalls. It could be worse, they could have left them on top of the rolls-o-tp.

A little message to the person responsible for the RC Cola: Where did you get that? I didn't think they sold RC cola any more. Why leave the half consumed drink in the bathroom? Did it taste like poo? I know it didn't because RC Cola tastes great.

Biggest Loser Power Rankings Week 2

2009-09-22T20:32:00.010-04:00

Obviously the top two people on the Biggest Loser Ranch are Bob and Jillian. They are certified badasses who don't cry and don't moan and don't make excuses. Bob and Jillian are vengeful and they take no prisoners. Here are the rankings for the actual contestants.

1. Dan - He obviously has the most experience of anybody on the ranch. By experience I mean love handles. Those experience points are serious motivation for him to bust it and win this mf-er.

2. Rudy - Ex-football player who has it in him (i.e. tons of lbs) to lose weight each week. The only thing that can stop him are his loser (pun intended) ranch-mates.

3. Allen - I put Allen in the three spot because in all likelihood he has been thin before. He is a firefighter so I think, deep down, there is a somewhat athletic person inside of him. He does have really small ears, and its hard to believe in people with small ears, but for now he is a strong contender.

4. Amanda - She is quiet but I can tell she really wants to win. Once we get some more individual challenges we will know what she is made of. We already know she can compete because she was able to make this season's show in the finale of last season.

5. Sean - Probably one of my favorite rancheteers because he is 100% entertaining. The first week he didn't have a clue that he had type 2 Diabeetus which was a comedic gem. I think he has a legit shot to take the gold in this competition, but he needs to shed his "I love love love everybody attitude" and get down to kicking everybody's (including you Type 2 Diabeetus) ass.

6. Antoine - He's young, good looking (just ask Alexandra), and ready to do something to make him feel proud. Antoine, while not the most outgoing, could really shock the world and take the Biggest Loser by storm. The only think holding him back are his moobs. Srsly, those are intense.

7. Rebecca - She has already crowned herself the "pretty face" of the competition. I don't think her competitors will smiled upon that down the road. So far, and its early, she hasn't shown that desire to win.

8. Shay - She is the heaviest of all contestants which means she can, theoretically, lose the most weight. The only problem is she quit and talked back to the Trainers. Rule Number one of Biggest Loser: don't mess with the trainers because they will mess you up! Well she is talking a lot about other people and not worrying about herself, so I could see her making an early exit.

9. Abbey - The rancher with the most heart-wrenching sob story is probably not going to be the winner at the end of the season. I don't see a winner when she talks, she just doesn't seem super determined.

10. Julio - Kind of a doosh but I think he will be motivated after being in the bottom two the first week. He has "dead legs" and the ranch hands are already talking about how he is lazy......doesn't bode well for el julio.

11. Coach Mo - Talks a big game about being a coach and how he can motivate. He said, "if you let me, I will get in your head..." He meant, "if you let me, I will eat your keebler cookies..." Then he guilt tripped Julio like a champ. More talk like that and he will be moving up the power rankings.

12. Tracy - The partner of Coach Mo, who almost bought the farm in the first challenge of running a mile, is a long shot to win this contest. She decided to spend a week in the hospital instead of on the ranch supporting her teammate. When she gets back the ranch I think the ranchers will give her a week and not vote her out. But I have a feeling she will have another episode.

13. Danny - He cried in the gym because Bob made him workout...boo hoo hoo. Then he cried AGAIN before the challenge! Anyway, an attitude of defeat and baby tears wont get you to the finals. Suck it up. Oh and we don't need to see him strumming his guitar by the pool. We need to see him doing sit-ups and climbing stairs.

14. Liz - Jerry showed last year that older people can lose uber amounts of weight. However, she just seems so boring that I believe the ranchers will vote her off because they wont remember who the hell she is.

15. Dina- Who? Yeah she is a looooong shot to win this. She had a little mini-melt down early in week 2. Not a good sign. I don't think the rest of the contestants really care about her either. My only fear is that she will bring her partner Rudy down with her.

16. Alexandra - She got axed in the first week. Then she was all talking about how she has a crush on somebody at the Ranch, but she wont say who it is. Spoiler alert - It's Antoine!!

Flooding

2009-09-22T09:46:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Mark for finding this picture that perfectly explains the flooding we are experiencing here in Atlanta.
For more great Kanye pics go here http://imaletyoufinish.com/