DJ John Land

Well, it looks like I'll be rooting for the Seahawks for the upcoming Super Bowl. The Patriots are a bunch of cheaters.  First "spygate", and now "deflategate".  They actually got caught using under-inflated footballs during last weekend's AFC Championship game.

Ugh...this weekend's weather is probably going to mess with our plans.  A snowstorm is slated to come in Friday night into Saturday, and from the looks of it, the driving conditions will be sloppy.  If that's the case, Al probably won't make the drive up on Saturday. In light of this, a couple of errands will need to be run after I get done at the office today: Home Depot/Lowes for ice melter, and the produce and supermarket for groceries and supplies.  It's not going to be optimal to do any of this stuff in the midst of the storm, and it will probably be best to stay in. That being the case, it looks like I'll be spending Saturday cooking (I like to do much of the week's meal prep done on the weekend), and making a dessert for the dinner party we were invited to on Sunday.  There's some recipes I want to try anyway. That's about it for now.  Gotta tough this one out I guess..

After the recent road trip to NC, commuting to and from Trenton doesn't seem nearly as long now.

There are Rock fans who think Led Zeppelin is the greatest band of all-time.  I am not one of them; actually, I'm not sure who I'd personally give that honor to.  That being said, they're not a band I dislike either.  Pete Townshend (The Who) has said in interviews that he never liked a single thing that they did). That may be more sour grapes than anything else. I digress. I was late to the party when I started listening to Led Zeppelin.  I bought Led Zeppelin I , II , IV , In Through The Outdoor , and Coda during high school.  The first of the albums listed I enjoyed completely; the latter two, for me, were spotty. During my first year of college, I bought Physical Graffiti .  It's funny to admit this, but I just didn't get it and found the album extraordinarily dull (with the exception being Kashmir ).  Within the last couple of months, my brother and I conversed about Led Zeppelin and he thought I was nuts for not thinking  Physic...

I love Mondays off, especially returning from a long weekend trip. It was time to return the BMW.  It had to have the fuel topped off before dropping it back off at Enterprise.  The gentleman that rented it to me drove me back home. This morning was all about the errands (not about that bass...no treble): Trader Joe's to pick up coconut oil, almond meal, and pecans (they had the coconut oil today...yay!) Starbucks (Al had gotten a $10 gift card which he gave me; I bought K-cups) Produce Market Verizon Wireless to trade in Al's iPhone 4 (we got $70 USD which they applied to the next bill) Wegmans Stop 'N Shop The afternoon was about cooking and laundry.  I made Paleo chicken cutlets, Paleo meatloaf, and roasted vegetables (sweet potato, red and green peppers, and onions). Interspersed with the cooking and the laundry, I caught up on the shows on the DVR ( Worst Cooks in America from the last two weeks, and Empire ). This evening was about the gym. ...

Time to head back home.  It was a long day. I was on the road by 6AM and had breakfast at my favorite breakfast place in the universe: Waffle House.  There's one in Mooresville, NC on Route 150 near the I-77.  They had a $5 special that included a waffle, 2 eggs (any style), and a beverage.  I added sausage to the mix and breakfast came in at just under $10 USD.  It was good of course, but one doesn't go to Waffle House for the food, it's the experience. Overall, it was a smooth trip back despite there being heavy rain and icing conditions in the Northeast.  I had spoken with Al, Vinnie, and Rich and all of them advised me of what was happening weather-wise.  The weather on my route was just dandy: it was dry and not nearly as cold for much of the trip.  It became overcast in the DC area and there was misty rain in MD. Unfortunately, I had gotten pulled over early on in VA, once I had gotten onto the I-81.  The cop told me that he pul...

Aunt Pat had to work today, so I was mostly on my own. After I trained at the CrossFit facility in Denver , I decided to explore downtown Charlotte a bit.  It seemed like there had been a parade or some other event shortly before I arrived; there were many street closures in the area.  Once the activities ended, things really quieted down. There didn't seem like there was much to see.  Downtown Charlotte is very clean and overall a neatly manicured city.  There's  theater, restaurants, pubs, and the sport venues, but the town doesn't seem to offer much else.  I walked around for awhile and had lunch at The Pita Pit (which wasn't anything to write home about).  Since there wasn't really much else to see, I decided to head back to Aunt Pat's and relax a bit before meeting her for dinner in Huntersville. Since I had gotten to the shopping village at Birkdale first, I headed over to Barnes and Noble and ultimately picked up a Paleo cookbook that look...

This part of my long weekend trip was the one I was most curious about, training at a CrossFit "box". They had a 9:30 class this morning that ran an hour.  I got there a half-hour early to pay the guest fee and to avoid violating one of the many established "Burpee" rules (see below). The CrossFit training area (aka "the box") is in a separate area from the main fitness center.  The fitness center has the standard equipment (the cardio machines, strength machines, and free weights), while the CrossFit area has nearly the same set-up as The Training Room . Upon arriving and paying the guest fee ($15 USD), I was introduced to our coach, Scott.  He was very nice and had the same enthusiasm about training as Uncle Mike and Milkman back home.  I checked out the WOD (Workout-of-the-Day) and the Burpee rules written on the whiteboard.  If any of the rules are violated, they make you do a number of burpees based on the infraction (using a cell phone, not ...

With today being a day off for Aunt Pat, we had the day together for some quality time.  She suggested that we check out Mount Airy, NC, a place that pays homage to Andy Griffith ( The Andy Griffith Show, Matlock ).     We toured the Andy Griffith Museum.  One of the secondary actors from The Andy Griffith Show , Betty Lynn (Thelma Lou in the series) was there autographing photos that were sold by the museum.  She was very gracious, and spoke very highly of the actors she worked with on the show. Mount Airy is about 90 minutes north of Charlotte, right up the I-77. The downtown area of Mount Airy is referred to as "Mayberry", with many of the shops and restaurants playing off of the characters from  The Andy Griffith Show.   The Main Street area is very charming.  There are a number of restaurants and novelty shops along that thoroughfare that were interesting, and the overall look of that part of town was very charming. Unfortunately...

Though it was a long day behind the wheel, the trip down to Denver, NC (yes, there is a town called Denver in North Carolina...it's 25 minutes north of Charlotte) went very smoothly.  And why wouldn't it?  I had a brand-spankin'-new BMW to drive! I decided to rent a car for this trip to save on racking up the miles on my cars and decided to splurge on a "premium" rental.  I really wanted a Cadillac, but they fell into "luxury" status, and those do not offer unlimited miles, so "premium" was the next best thing.  Premium rentals included Maximas, Chrysler 300s, or Toyota Avalons, but since they didn't have any of these, it was a BMW 328i for me. It's a really nice car. The route from Avon: I-195 to the NJ Turnpike, to the PA Turnpike, to I-81, and to the I-77 toward Charlotte.  The rest of the journey was the local roads (route 73 to 16 into Denver). I took breaks every couple of hours, and there was the requisite stop ...

Today is my "Friday" here before I'm paroled  done for the work week.  I'm taking tomorrow and Thursday off for a long-overdue visit to visit my aunt in NC.  There was no visit at all in 2014; the last time I was there was June 2013. Things are more-or-less in place for the weekend.  I rented a car (I will be driving from NJ).  I found a CrossFit gym in Denver (so, no excuse for not getting a workout in).  Since the Charlotte area is having their restaurant week, we have reservations for dinner on Friday night. There's a few things that need to get done tonight, primarily laundry and packing.  There's not much in the way of tidying up. I'm not in the mood to cook, so it may be Cave or Bedrock Bistro for dinner. It'll be nice to get out of Dodge for a few days.  Unfortunately, Al won't be able to do this trip with me because his health aide comes in on Friday, and the trip might be a tad long for him. I'm looking forward to visiting th...

Bryant fail... Much ado about the Cowboys' loss yesterday and the "bad" call over Bryant's "catch" being called an incomplete pass by the officials.  They got through last week's game against the Lions with some questionable calls favoring them, but Karma is a dish best served cold.  My goodness, the whining and the gnashing of teeth coming from Texas, particularly from Dez Bryant and Jerry Jones, is quite humorous! And that's the part that's most delicious: that Jerry Jones is in a tizzy...again. Suffice to say, this Giants fan is oh-so-glad that the NFC East rivals are now in the off-season. Picks for next week:  Indianapolis and Green Bay come out on top.  I could be wrong, but I'm not a betting man. TTFN.

The EOS - July 6, 2011 In the last episode in DJ John Land , there was mentioned of the drama with the EOS en route to Elizabeth.  The folks at Shrewsbury Motors discovered it was a problem with the ignition coil, and fortunately it was covered under the extended warranty. It's often viewed that extended warranties are considered rip-offs.  I went with one on this car because I have a little paranoia concerning the intricacies of the convertible top. Further, Al had a '98 Benz that had an issue of it getting stuck in the down position, and that would be disastrous for me since I don't have covered parking. Unfortunately, there was a $100-deductible that I had to fork over as part of this repair. More unfortunately, there was a slew of maintenance items that needed to be addressed, and all told, I forked over $1,200.00 USD. We picked up the car today, and it runs much better.  Everything that needed to be done is done. The rest of the weekend was enjoyable. ...

Two days after the piano was listed on eBay, I received a message from a potential buyer asking if he could come by my mother's to try the piano out for himself.  After going back and forth a bit, we arranged to meet up in Elizabeth around 8:30pm. I left Avon around 7pm, taking the EOS up there, since I knew it had a full tank and hadn't been driven since Monday.  About six miles into the trip, just before reaching the Parkway, the car started acting funny and the EPC and engine lights came on (the engine light initially flashed).  I pulled off, turned off the car and restarted it.  The lights came back on, but this time the engine light just remained on.  I managed to get the car back home okay, grab the Beetle, and got to Elizabeth about 10 minutes before the buyer came over to look at the piano. Once I got to the house, there was a lot of stuff on top of the piano that had to be removed quickly, and I had just gotten the last of it removed just as the guy...

Brrr!  It's a cold one!  An Arctic blast is currently hitting us here in the Northeast and is supposed to stick around until Friday.  It's supposed to get worse tomorrow. The only positive that I can take from cold weather is the convenience of shopping for perishables during lunch hour and not having to worry about spoilage when I leave the stuff in the trunk. I'm going on very little sleep today due to a bad bout with insomnia last night.  Though there was some (low-quality) sleep in the pre-dawn hours, I'm a mess today. Yes, I will be hitting the gym this evening (call me dedicated...or crazy...or both).  It's a conditioning workout and it should tire me out.  It may be wise to stave off going to bed until at least 10pm. New Year's Eve was an entire week ago.  This month is certainly flying by! Are pianos selling these days?  I just listed Mom's last night on eBay, a baby grand Mason & Hamlin that was purchased waaaaay back in May...

It's now 2015.  Another New Year.  There are resolutions and goals.  The Planet Fitness commercials are running in earnest, hoping to cash in on those who have goals to lose weight in the new year. For others, there are goals to have a brighter outlook in 2015, or maybe reign in spending, or do more traveling, or whatever. I'll refrain from mentioning how Planet Fitness is the worst gym in America. Nonetheless, it's important to have some goals to shoot for.  It's more important to actively pursue them. Here are mine for 2015: Continue my training regimen and become stronger.  This means pushing heavier weights during strength sessions (regularly working with 28 kb KBs).  It also means working on those ever-challenging pull-ups (I can presently bang out 6 in a set, but want to get to 10). Continue to eat clean 80% of the time, and continue to ban eating anything from McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, etc. Participate in at least four 5K runs, and...