Each year around this time when I notch another year of existence under my belt, I like to stop and think about the past year, what I've accomplished, what I've learned, and what direction to take to progress forward. This year was a tough one for me both personally and professionally. It seemed like every time I got a little momentum going in my favor, I was knocked down to the ground and forced to start over. Ok, that's pretty normal. Life is a rollercoaster, after all, and my goal has always been to revel in the anxiety of the ups and joyfully scream like hell while going down. I guess this year I just got more motion sickness than usual and ended up puking my brains out a few times. It happens, I suppose.
At the same time, I also think that I shared more of myself than I ever have before in life and I'm pretty happy about that. Socially, you would never know it but there are a lot of things that I hide or am shy about. I can't really explain why, it's just the way I am. I've had a blog for over 3 years now and if you aren't a member of the South Florida blogosphere or don't happen to stumble upon it, you would never know. Many of my friends and pretty much all of my family have no idea that I write on this blog or my food blog. Why? Again, I have no idea. I guess I never think to share.
Well, I'm making it a goal for 2010 to share more of myself. I've already shown my food blog to my family and they were really surprised. My mom started telling all her friends and all that shit too haha. Yup, share more and accomplish more are my goals for 2010. I have some big plans for this year, some I hope to share with everyone as things come to light.
Wishing all the best in 2010 to all who read my blogs, share blogs of their own, and comment in the SoFL blogosphere. May this be your year to shine!
Showing posts with label 2009. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2009. Show all posts
Friday, January 1, 2010
Monday, November 23, 2009
Quest for 50
Travel, travel, travel. Seems like I'm always on the run (cue the Kravitz). This month has been pretty epic for travel though. Epic in the sense that this weekend I was able to knock off my third of the 14 untraveled states left on the list on my quest to visit all 50 of the United States.
I started November with 14 unvisited states left on my quest for 50, that number including Hawaii and Alaska. Earlier in the month I went to Tennessee and there aint no place I'd rather be (cue the Dead). Well, there are plenty of places I'd rather be but the bbq pulled pork sandwich I had at Golly Whoppers at least made me I was happy I was there at that point in time. I just wanted to make the Dead reference. A week later, I was headed to Minnesoooota, as the locals would pronounce it. Didnt really get to see the full Mall of America but I did have a few good meals, one being a burger that was almost better than the one I had at Burger & Beer Joint recently. This puppy had a burger patty with shredded lettuce, cheese, pulled pork, AND bacon on top of it!! My sales rep and I ate at a couple of sports bars out in Minnesota and the food was surprisingly good as was the service, something you never really get here in Miami.
The last state knocked off in November was Biloxi, Mississippi. This trip was pure pleasure though, no work involved. Why Biloxi? Good question. As I may have stated a few times on this blog, I love to gamble. The MGM group knows this because I have their players card and play often at their casinos when Im in Vegas. Well, they decided to mail me a postcard offering a free flight, transportation, and hotel for 2 nights for me and a companion to check out their Beau Rivage casino in Biloxi. At first I ignored it because it seemed like one of those "too good to be true" deals. Then, they called me and left a voicemail about the promo and sent another postcard. I called my cousin, who also loves gambling as much as I do, and asked him if he was down to go. They had also been sending him postcards and calls about the deal so we decided we would each take one of our buddies and head to Biloxi for a dudes weekend. I'm not going to go into detail but lets just say that it was a full weekend of over-the-top debauchery. Extravagant meals, a lot of drinking, and a lot of gambling. Oh, and I got shitfaced and fell asleep at a blackjack table for about 10 minutes which the casino staff all got a great laugh out of not only on that night but when they told me about it the next day as well. I had no recollection of that. Yay!
Biloxi was a great time with lots of hilarious memories. The casino was actually really nice and probably the closest outside-of-Vegas casino that I've been to that actually resembled a Vegas casino. The only buzzkill of the trip was that we didnt get to take a drive to New Orleans on Saturday, mainly because the rental car company had no vehicles but also because none of us were in any sort of position to drive, let alone sit in a car for 2 hours. Louisiana is one of the 11 states I now have left to visit. Wouldve been nice to knock that one off but oh well. There's always next year...
I started November with 14 unvisited states left on my quest for 50, that number including Hawaii and Alaska. Earlier in the month I went to Tennessee and there aint no place I'd rather be (cue the Dead). Well, there are plenty of places I'd rather be but the bbq pulled pork sandwich I had at Golly Whoppers at least made me I was happy I was there at that point in time. I just wanted to make the Dead reference. A week later, I was headed to Minnesoooota, as the locals would pronounce it. Didnt really get to see the full Mall of America but I did have a few good meals, one being a burger that was almost better than the one I had at Burger & Beer Joint recently. This puppy had a burger patty with shredded lettuce, cheese, pulled pork, AND bacon on top of it!! My sales rep and I ate at a couple of sports bars out in Minnesota and the food was surprisingly good as was the service, something you never really get here in Miami.
The last state knocked off in November was Biloxi, Mississippi. This trip was pure pleasure though, no work involved. Why Biloxi? Good question. As I may have stated a few times on this blog, I love to gamble. The MGM group knows this because I have their players card and play often at their casinos when Im in Vegas. Well, they decided to mail me a postcard offering a free flight, transportation, and hotel for 2 nights for me and a companion to check out their Beau Rivage casino in Biloxi. At first I ignored it because it seemed like one of those "too good to be true" deals. Then, they called me and left a voicemail about the promo and sent another postcard. I called my cousin, who also loves gambling as much as I do, and asked him if he was down to go. They had also been sending him postcards and calls about the deal so we decided we would each take one of our buddies and head to Biloxi for a dudes weekend. I'm not going to go into detail but lets just say that it was a full weekend of over-the-top debauchery. Extravagant meals, a lot of drinking, and a lot of gambling. Oh, and I got shitfaced and fell asleep at a blackjack table for about 10 minutes which the casino staff all got a great laugh out of not only on that night but when they told me about it the next day as well. I had no recollection of that. Yay!
Biloxi was a great time with lots of hilarious memories. The casino was actually really nice and probably the closest outside-of-Vegas casino that I've been to that actually resembled a Vegas casino. The only buzzkill of the trip was that we didnt get to take a drive to New Orleans on Saturday, mainly because the rental car company had no vehicles but also because none of us were in any sort of position to drive, let alone sit in a car for 2 hours. Louisiana is one of the 11 states I now have left to visit. Wouldve been nice to knock that one off but oh well. There's always next year...
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Prediciting the Hurricanes and more!
Well, with hurricane season officially underway and with Rick at SFDB refusing to bring the ol' SotP Hurricane Pool back to life, Ive decided to take matters into my own hands. Thats right, Im putting this beast on my shoulders and giving all you folks the opportunity to play weatherman/woman, you know, just like they do on TV.
To submit an entry, just comment here with a the date you think we will have our 1st named hurricane AND the name that you think it will be know as (see list below). The winner will be the person who makes their prediction the closest to the 1st date an actual named hurricane makes its debut. In the case of a tie, the first tiebreaker will be the name of the hurricane. If Suzy says September 7 "Ana" and Bob says September 11 "Stan" and we get our first named hurricane on September 9 named "Ana", Suzy wins. In the event that the name isnt guessed correctly by 2 people who have tied, the winner will be decided by who's date is closer without going past. For example, if Suzy says September 7 "Ana" and Bob says September 11 "Stan" and the 1st hurricane is named on the 9th as "Joaquin", Bob wins.
This contest will be all in good fun. Winner will bear the title of Most Awesomest Hurricane Predicter That All Must Bow Down To And Praise. I'll even post it on my sidebar, how about that? BUT WAIT! Correctly guessing the date and the name of our first hurricane is pretty freakin amazing so if that happens, I'll cough up a $25 gift certificate to the restaurant of your choice AND you still get the title of Most Awesomest Hurricane Predicter That All Must Bow Down To And Praise. Sound better? I thought so.
Entries must be received by June 15th to qualify. After that, yer beat.
Here is this list of possible hurricane names for 2009:
Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda
Also, did you know that there are 6 lists of names that are rotated in/out each year? There is also a hurricane Hall of Fame where names of the most devastating hurricanes are retired and not used again because doing so could be considered insensitive. Guess we'll never see another Katrina...
Oh, and if youre wondering what the "and more!" in the title of this post meant...
This was my 100th post!
To submit an entry, just comment here with a the date you think we will have our 1st named hurricane AND the name that you think it will be know as (see list below). The winner will be the person who makes their prediction the closest to the 1st date an actual named hurricane makes its debut. In the case of a tie, the first tiebreaker will be the name of the hurricane. If Suzy says September 7 "Ana" and Bob says September 11 "Stan" and we get our first named hurricane on September 9 named "Ana", Suzy wins. In the event that the name isnt guessed correctly by 2 people who have tied, the winner will be decided by who's date is closer without going past. For example, if Suzy says September 7 "Ana" and Bob says September 11 "Stan" and the 1st hurricane is named on the 9th as "Joaquin", Bob wins.
This contest will be all in good fun. Winner will bear the title of Most Awesomest Hurricane Predicter That All Must Bow Down To And Praise. I'll even post it on my sidebar, how about that? BUT WAIT! Correctly guessing the date and the name of our first hurricane is pretty freakin amazing so if that happens, I'll cough up a $25 gift certificate to the restaurant of your choice AND you still get the title of Most Awesomest Hurricane Predicter That All Must Bow Down To And Praise. Sound better? I thought so.
Entries must be received by June 15th to qualify. After that, yer beat.
Here is this list of possible hurricane names for 2009:
Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda
Also, did you know that there are 6 lists of names that are rotated in/out each year? There is also a hurricane Hall of Fame where names of the most devastating hurricanes are retired and not used again because doing so could be considered insensitive. Guess we'll never see another Katrina...
Oh, and if youre wondering what the "and more!" in the title of this post meant...
This was my 100th post!
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