Archive for February, 2008
Friday’s Song
Feb 29th
Some Mad Hope – Matt Nathanson – Come On Get Higher
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My Car
Feb 27th
Well, just an FYI, I now own my car. It’s kind of a great feeling. Now… what to do with that extra $275 every month… ;)
Music Extra!!
Feb 26th
I normally post songs on Friday but this is a special occasion!
Dolly Parton just released her new album “Backwoods Barbie” and I kind of love it. I know! What’s wrong with me! Oh well, you should check it out. Below is my favorite track from this new album.
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Just Some Life Thoughts
Feb 25th
As most of you probably know, my father passed away unexpectedly this past August. It’s coming up on 5 months since he passed and it seems like it just happened. Time seems to have a different meaning to me over these past months. You always hear people say “there are good days and bad days” when they explain to people how they’re doing after losing a loved one. I never fully understood what they meant by that statement. Now I do. Literally, there are good days and bad days. For me, 99% of my days are good. I don’t dwell on the loss and sometimes don’t even find myself thinking about it. Then there is the remaining 1%. Those days are bad because I’ll run across an old email, a photo, a card, or just some item dealing with the estate. I think that my bad days consist of mostly small bouts of depression or sadness just realizing how much work I have left to do or how much I truly miss my dad. I don’t’ think that the “bad” days will ever stop happening. They’ll probably become much less frequent in the future and maybe I will even be able to stop calling them “bad days”. Only time will tell. I wanted to say thanks to all my friends who have made my life truly great. I’m sure you know how much I appreciate you but it never hurts to say it again.
I’m never sure about posting items like this. I don’t want to be a “Debbie Downer” but, at the same time, I think writing about this sort of stuff helps with the whole process and most of you probably care about me enough that you don’t mind that I’m writing about it.
AFI – 2008 Edition
Feb 24th
This post is done in response to one written by [Mike]. He has decided to post the top 100 films of all time for 2008 (according to the AFI) and has the goal of watching all 100 by the end of 2008. I am also going to list the 100 films and bold the ones that I’ve seen. As of this posting date, I’ve seen 40 out of the 100. To view the list and see how I’ve progressed so far, click the more link below.
Read the rest of this entry »
Baseball – Quickly Approaching
Feb 22nd
Baseball season is quickly approaching and the spring training season is just around the corner. I seem to go through these phases with different sports. I get really into one for a year or two and then I switch to a different sport. I have never really been one to memorize stats or things of that nature, but I do go and cheer on the team.
Contrary to what some may think, this is not a fair-weather type of deal. Case in point, I was a season ticket holder of the Phoenix Coyotes for 2 years and during both of those years, they were either last or second to last in their division. Another example, I’m a current season ticket holder for the Arizona Cardinals and they have been mediocre at best (the real motivation for my season ticket purchases was getting a guaranteed seat in the new stadium and seeing my Pittsburgh Steelers these past two seasons).
Back to baseball… Every weekend in March I have tickets to spring training games around the Valley with [Mike]. This will help me to get ready for the upcoming D-backs season. I will not be getting any sort of season ticket package to the Arizona Diamondbacks but I do plan on attending more games. My goal is to go to Opening Day this year against the LA Dodgers. This is the 10 Year Anniversary of the AZ Diamondbacks franchise and to celebrate they are getting a brand new video scoreboard. This thing will be HUGE and will be the largest in the majors. I’m kind of excited to see it (read: “nerd”).
Before I end this post, there’s one more thing that I just thought of while writing this entry. The Diamondbacks have been around for 10 years and, yet, we have not hosted an All-Star game. Why is that?!
Friday’s Song
Feb 22nd
La La Lie – Jack’s Mannequin – Everything in Transit
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American Idol – The First Performances
Feb 21st
Just a quick update on American Idol performances by the boys and girls*. The first theme of this season was the 60s. Kind of a crappy decade to choose if you want the youth of America to appreciate the songs. Oh well, I’m sure there was a reason behind the madness.
The Boys:
After watching the performances on Tuesday, I was not much impressed by any of the contestants. There were some good ones, noteably the songs performed by David Archuleta, Jason Castro and Michael Johns. After Tuesday’s performances, these three seem to be the strongest guys. One of the worst performance of the night was by Danny Noriega, who sang Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley. How was that song even on the song list for the contestants to choose from? I guess American Idol considers 1957 to be part of the 60s decade. WTF? All-in-all, the guys did okay. I’m interested to see what we get next week. Bottom 2 – Garret Haley and Chikeze.
The *Girls:
Oops! Stupid TiVo didn’t record American Idol because I had it setup to record a movie (Some Like It Hot) that ran long into the 7pm starting time of AI and Big Brother was recording on the other tuner. Why doesn’t TiVo have some sort of alerting system or message that would show up in the inbox to let you know when a Season Pass show will not be recorded? Oh well, I hear that I didn’t miss much.
Tonight the bottom 2 boys and bottom 2 girls get the boot from America. Let’s hope the least talented of the bunch are the first to leave.
Helping You to an Early Grave
Feb 21st
So, here is an image of the nutrition facts from a box of Hamburger Helper Beef Pasta. I will admit that this was one of my most favorite varieties of the Hamburger Helper brand and that I’ve had it more times than I can remember. Sad really, considering one could make this in a much healthier fashion.
Look at the sodium content of one serving! What’s scary about that is what they say is a serving size. Who can eat only one cup of this and be full? I could easily eat half the box, which would be almost 3 servings. My whole daily serving of sodium would be captured in my dinner meal! No way is that good for the heart and blood pressure.
I’ve never really been one to read the Nutrition Facts on foods, but I’m doing it more these days. It can be an eye opening experience!
Fresh & Easy
Feb 20th
So, as you may or may not know, I detest grocery shopping. The stores are always crowded, people are rude and shopping for food is boring (especially if it’s alone). In comes Fresh&Easy. I love this grocery store. It’s minimalist by design. This in itself is appealing but there are other added features that make me happy when I shop there. A small list follows:
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Not Crowded – You aren’t going to find the moms with 8 children buying 10 carts of food in this store.
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Food is Fresh – The produce is some of the best I’ve seen in a long time and their pre-made “From our Kitchen” selections are also quite nice. No preservatives or the smallest amount possible are used in all they sell.
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All Self Check Out – No more waiting in line as someone chats up the cashier about their lives. This store is all self check out and I love it.
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Limited Selection – You want yogurt? Only 2 brands to choose from. Want bread? You might have 3 brands to choose from. This just makes it that much faster to choose items that may not be on your list or that you don’t care about brand.
So, if you have a Fresh&Easy near you, try it out. I’m pretty sure you won’t be disappointed.
P.S. Fresh&Easy won’t replace the regular grocery store completely as they are lacking in unique produce and other items that can be easily found at other grocers. That’s ok though as these unique items are only needed once in a while.