Chapter 2-Starting fresh

My first full day in the Emerald City. I started by running 40 minutes on the treadmill. Just because I'm on vacation doesn't mean I'm going to quit working in certain ways. 

We walked a few blocks south to Elm Roasters, so mom could have her local cup of coffee. That walk took us through Pioneer Square, which is the absolute shits. It's a ghetto's ghetto. Tons of tents, tons of homeless people, tons of grafitti. And signs about the atmosphere. They care about the world, just not the people in it. Anyway back to the coffee shop. After waiting outside 5 minutes, I got my chai, which was way too heavy on the ginger. The more chais I drink, the more I realize how hard it is to get a great one. 

We took the D rapid bus north to Seattle Center, which is sort of the hub for museums and the tourist attractions. On the west side of the Center is the Climate Pledge Arena, which used to be the Key Arena. It's surrounded by apartment buildings and offices on the west side, the light rail doesn't go there, it's a strange spot for an arena. I couldn't get many good photos, it's still under construction. But during my near 48 hours in Seattle, I was impressed how many times I saw the Kraken logo on store windows, t shirts, masks, hats, etc. 

Then we went up 600 plus feet to the top of the Space Needle, probably the city's top tourist attraction. Thankfully, we had a clear day so we got some nice views of the pacific, downtown, and the mountains.  Right next door is the Chihuly Glass Museum. Dale Chihuly, who I think also had a hot sauce named after him, sculpts amazing glass works of art. I'd seen some of his work already in the Tampa area, but this was a larger facility, and included a theater playing brief films about his works. Below is "A Thousand Flowers."

With the heat rising, we rode the bus north from South Lake Union to Fremont. Time for lunch at Paseo, a total hole in the wall. Two tables inside, maybe six outside. Their trademark is the Caribbean Roast sandwich, slow cooked shredded citrus pork, topped with pickled jalapenos, huge caramelized onions, cilantro, and garlic aioli. It lived up to the huge hype. Sweet, spicy, juicy as can be. And so messy, as the divine combination of citrus juice and aioli ran down my wrists. 

And don't forget the sides! The roasted corn is amazing, pungent spices, butter, parmesan cheese. Super tender kernels, a little spicy, super zesty. Great cobs, good thing we ordered one for each of us. I also liked the fries, they added some of the same spices to the thick cut potatoes and served them with an extra side of aioli. Now this is not your standard aioli. Most are white in color, this one was pink, it looked a little like Thousand Island. And it was so garlicky, that even I could taste it and that is saying a lot!

Good job having Mexican Cokes with real sugar, the way God intended them! The total meal came out to about $55, it may sound like a decent amount of money, but this place is unique in their cuisine and they do a great job with their execution. Fremont may not be my kind of neighborhood, but this is a place for everyone to check out.

Fremont is a very artsy section of Seattle, just north of downtown. Some would call it progressive, I would call it digressive because it's so liberal and you see so many crooked sexual flags flying around. They even have a statue of Lenin where they have a lot of political demonstrations and picketing. They even have slogans spray painted on it such as "my body my choice" but I think it's for vaccination passports instead of abortion. Just weird. 

We also went into the vintage market which has tons of memorabilia and artifacts from the sixties, seventies, and eighties. They had figurines, clothing, music, all kinds of stuff piled on top of one another it was like a huge indoor yard sale. They wanted to check our backpacks though, and after the third time of asking, we decided we'd had enough. 

We took the bus back to the hotel and booked two spots on the Seattle Underground tour, one of the most popular tourist attractions. The highlight was probably hearing about how hookers made so much money, but would identify as seamstresses on their taxes. And we even saw some of the first toilets, they're actually called crappers.

Then it was a 1.5 mile walk north to Cinque Terre, a modern Italian restaurant with a focus on seafood. The funniest part is I had made a reservation a week prior and mom found it two days prior. We even picked the same restaurant! 

And the night was not over. One more bus ride south to TMobile Park for Mariners vs Athletics. It was a pretty good stadium, I was able to score two fans of craft bet for six bucks, I still don't know how that was possible. But by the seventh inning, we were spent and we took the light rail back to the hood. Of course it took about 20 minutes to find the train since Seattle does a terrible job of marking where to walk. 

On the way back to the hotel, I was just walking, minding my own business, not saying a word, and all of a sudden, a glass bottle shattered about a foot away from my feet. Some asshole threw a bottle at me. That only reinforced what a lousy city this, it was such a relief to walk off the streets and enter the Courtyard doors. 

Chapter 1-Smooth the Bumps

I would get delayed by 5.5 hours in the nothing happening Newport News airport. It was so slow and boring, I drank a $12 Jack and ginger in the bar at 9:30 am. After arriving at Airport 1 at 6 am, the plane finally left for Charlotte at 1pm, with about half the passengers that initially boarded 6.5 hours earlier. 

One of the most aggravating parts of this is the federal requirement to wear these outdated masks. We're nearly all vaccinated, what is the point anymore? Why can't they just be optional?

We landed around 2:10 and I shuffled through an airport terminal that was so busy it made Times Square look like a winter Iowa cornfield. My gate was located at the end of Terminal B, which means lots of large planes, not lots of room. Right next to our gate were gates that were boarding flights to JFK and LaGuardia. Not only that, 26 standby passengers were trying to get on my plane! Thank God I was confirmed, I only had to wait 20 minutes to board. 

On a brighter note, I did score a $12 meal voucher, which I used in Chicago. I thought about going to Frontera, but with their abbreviated menu, I went to Prairie Tap, a tiny bar that I remembered had a good ribeye sandwich. I took one of those down along with a pile of fries. And I would up sitting next to two random guys, Darren and Andrew, though the latter looked like the twin of Jeff Daniels character from Dumb and Dumber. We drank beer and joked about everything from comedies to sports to beer. My homework is I have to watch Blazing Saddles. It was a great time and the cool thing is I never would've been in that airport if my flights had gone according to plan. 

Fittingly my last plane was delayed another two hours... of course, for me, that's minor. But I did land around 10:30, so that's basically 20 hours when you factor in time zone changes. Lugged my 40 pounds suitcase up the flights of stairs because the Pioneer Square station doesn't have a working escalator. I passed about 15 homeless people in two city blocks. Just filthy. 

Prologue-Further Disaster

Well it's still the 1st morning of my vacation and it's already an unmitigated disaster. I'm sitting here in the Newport News airport lounge wondering when the hell I will ever get out of here. Actually the disaster started last night when I tried to get a ride to the airport from Uber or lyft and nobody would take my claim for 5 days. So I then called a cab company and they agreed to pick me up at 5:45 am. Then at 5:30 this morning, they called me and said they could be there at 6. With my plane leaving at 7, that was just too narrow a window. So I drove myself to the airport and parked my car in the lot. My car will be there for 9 days so it's going to cost me over $60. 

Then I checked in for my flight, we boarded the plane, we taxied back from the terminal and on to the runway. We had to go back to the gate because there's an air valve problem. That led to an hour of standing in line trying to get rebooted. 

As I sit here, we have now been delayed 3 and a 1/2 hours, as another airplane part needed to be flown in from Charlotte. Finally the airline decided to just scrap the flight and replace it with a different aircraft. So now I've been rebooked to Charlotte to Chicago and finally to Seattle and I'm hoping to land in Seattle 9 hours later than I arrived. Of course I'd already brought baseball tickets for tonight that are now worth Jack squat. So the trip is already off to an absolute nightmare of a scenario, now I'm just hoping and praying to get to Seattle tonight and have a full Saturday there tomorrow.

Standing By

As I sit uncomfortably in a hard gray chair by a charging station in the Philadelphia International Airport, I am actually disgusted as I look around. The fact that we have to wear masks regardless of our vaccination status is oppressive, it's senseless, it's illusionary. 

I'm expecting to get bumped at least one time, maybe two. But flying from Charlotte to Pittsburgh would've been darn near impossible. Bigger planes are needed, more flights are needed. Come on American Airlines, open up!

Oh and I had a full tube of toothpaste get confiscated by airport security. Tell me this, how is toothpaste a liquid??? Sunscreen, no problem. Deodorant, no problem. Toothpaste, problem??? What do we have, freaking chemists working at TSA?

I'm doing this weekend trip to Pittsburgh and I'm not even excited about it. The stress of finding an open flight, the threat of rain, not being recognized by other people in the 7 line army and thus feeling totally alone, and of course, the Mets stink right now. The highlights usually become finding a restaurant with some unique grub and getting hammered. 

Work is just another level of insanity. My financial aid team, at its peak, would have 5 people on it, maybe 6. We are down to me and one woman who's been with us for 4 weeks. In the last two months, two women quit, my boss went on medical leave with kidney problems, and then this week, our senior advisor's mom passed away. In essence, I may as well be the director. And the thing is, we have no idea when anyone is coming back. 

I want to go back to church. I haven't been in maybe 2 months now. Seems I usually end up donating plasma or doing grocery deliveries. I don't feel right about it. That said, if I'm going to a church, it has to engage me, whether with music, messages, community, volunteering, etc. I still pray and read the Bible, but in this twisted darkening country, I want that Sunday hope. I need hope. Because I have no hope in this country anymore and the way it's being run by the secular left. 

Ok let me give some good news, I know this has been a downer of a post. I appeared on my first radio show as a featured guest. It was with Long Beach Joe, who hosts an online show about the New York Jets through YouTube and blog talk. He gave me about 10 minutes, we had a great conversation, and all the reviews I've got have been great. Not that anyone would have had the nerve to tell me if they thought it sucked. Some people have told me I should try doing a show or podcast. I'd be open to it, the things to figure out are the technology and my topic. What's going to make me different, what's going to make me stand out? And I don't have a good answer to that question. 

How I Feel Regarding Pride

It's very obvious that I can't be honest with other people and certainly not on social media. Because when somebody expresses an opinion or belief system that is contrary to the ultra-liberal pop culture that has infested the United States of America in the 21st century, you instantly become a pariah and are excommunicated from the regular world. The hateful extreme left simply cannot handle people who have different opinions than them, and for a group that pushes tolerance, they are the absolute most hypocritical group of people on the face of God's green earth today.

That said, Mark and Jack ain't here. So i have some shit to get off my chest. When will America start devoting months for celebrating liars, adulterers, drug addicts, and thieves? It makes absolutely as much sense as celebrating crooked sexual deviants. And the important thing to remember is that it's not about being afraid of a certain group, it's about supporting the people without justifying their action. The word homophobe is so overused to the point that it's embarrassing. The sad part is the word love has become completely overused because most people have no idea what it is. A lot of people think love is just having a strong feeling for somebody or something. Love is sacrificial, it is an action, it is not some flickering, passing emotion. And until people come to that realization, "Love Is Love" Is nothing but garbage.

June Is the Worst Month

1) So there's a girl in Washington DC who I would like to date, but it turns out she's dating some random dude. And that random dude has since taken it upon himself to request me on Instagram, for reasons I have absolutely no idea. So I'm getting more attention from this random gastric bypass patient than the girl I'd like to get to know. If that doesn't encapsulate my lack of dating life, I don't know what does. 

2) I really make some killer garlic bread. And I'm not talking about the killer bread made by Dave and his cronies. 3/4 butter to 1/4 extra virgin olive oil. Warm it, add 4 cloves of garlic for each foot of bread. Slit the bread every  inches, brush,  sprinkle seasoned salt and Romano cheese, bake at 425 for 10 minutes, sprinkle with parsley. You're welcome. By the way,  I actually enjoy Dave's killer English muffins very much. 

3) The Mets are the least inspiring first place team in the history of baseball. 

4) I've signed up for four races. Time to start training again. I don't know if my feet are quite as swift as they were even two years ago. But... Maybe I have one half marathon in me...

5) Deep down, I still miss Natalie. She's married now, but... circumstances are just fucked up.

PS Pride always comes before the fall of man. 

May Day

 Well it's been a long time since I've posted, maybe six weeks. Let's just do this. 

1) First and foremost, fuck Facebook. I got a 30 day restriction for using the word "idiot" in a comment. There isn't the slightest doubt in my mind that Big Tech is out to oppress me and people like me. People with my political, religious, and social beliefs will be censored for things that aren't even related to those topics. Because a lot of vicious things have been said to me that I've reported, and nothing was done to them. 

So as much as it sucks, I have to play by a different set of rules. So what will that look like? One of the first things I will need to do is start muting groups from my timeline. It isn't the people I know who are aggravating me, it's the random strangers who say stupid things. God has designed me in a very unique way, with a lot of strengths in a lot of shortcomings. One of those traits is I do not have a very strong ability to ignore people who say stupid things. I need to put some boundaries in place, because idiots are not worth losing my social media.

2) Almost time for June, probably the most celebrated month for sin on the calendar. The f@g flags are about to come out in full force. I remember when I was walking in downtown Chicago when I was working right next to the Merchandise Mart building and they would always have about 12 American flags waving high in the sky. But during June, they would replace those flags with the evil rainbow. And it's the only time they would do that except when one of their sports teams was in the playoffs and winning games. It is absolutely shameful that that's what America does now, we promote and accept destructive behavior that spits in the face of God and family values. I can't say this stuff on social media because there are a lot of weak people who can handle it if you have an opinion different than theirs. The difference is they're the ones who actually preach tolerance but they can't tolerate a different opinion than their own. If there are people that want to live that lifestyle, they're going to, but quit shoving it in our faces. I mean why are people of faith discouraged from ever talking about their faith but people can wave the sexuality flag around?

3) During the pandemic, I was starting to use colored pencils and learn how to draw. I was only following YouTube tutorials, which for me can only do so much. You can watch somebody draw and create these absolute masterpieces, but a teacher cannot teach feel to their student. I feel like I would need someone to actually show me what to do. And even though I have created some decent works, at least for a total novice like me, I feel as though I want to learn more if I'm going to keep doing it. I don't think I've picked up my pencils in about 6 months now. And while I'm on time out from Facebook, it seems this would be a good time to do it. Maybe I just need a reason or a little inspiration to get back into it again.

4) But one thing I've always felt comfortable doing was cooking. And I've been getting into some different recipes lately, I'm especially trying to focus on making some better side dishes. I prefer to try to make macaroni and cheese on the stove as opposed to baking a full sheet in the pan. There's only one of me and I can only handle so much mac! A few things I have learned, and one is that American cheese sucks with macaroni. Sure it melts well, but the flavor just overwhelms everything else. I even tried cream cheese, and I think it just took away from the actual cheesiness and made it creamier. But tonight I used sharp cheddar cheese and Colby-Jack along with evaporated milk, a lot of hot sauce, and toasted bread crumbs. The texture came out much better, it wasn't too liquidy. I want the macaroni to be covered but I don't want cheese going all over my plate when I eat it.

I have really failed on my last couple of attempts making mashed potatoes. They either came out too hard because the potatoes weren't cooked enough or too liquidy. In fact the last time I used an envelope from the store and it was just a liquid mess. Maybe I'll go back to smashed potatoes with herbs or warm weather potato salad. 

5) On to sports and I guess I have to give the Knicks credit for finishing fourth in the Eastern Conference, something no one in their right mind thought was possible when this season began in November. At best, maybe we thought they could finish between 7 and 10 and make the play in tournament. But this first-round Series against Atlanta has just reminded us that they are simply not good enough to win a series, they need more talent, and they need to have a big offseason. And that means finding a way to get a superstar here within a year. They got embarrassed today in Atlanta in game 4, and going in it felt just like it did against Indiana in 2014 in game 4 of the second round. I was in town for that game and halfway through the first quarter I knew they were not matching up well in that they were probably going to get smoked. And that's exactly what happened, I was done by halftime. I stormed back to my hotel room at the Crowne Plaza and got wasted. If I had been in Atlanta today, the exact same thing would have happened. Even if the Knicks managed to win game 5 at Madison Square Garden, there is no way they can win three straight games against Atlanta. This season is going to be remembered as a great regular-season surprise but an incredibly disappointing playoffs.

6) As far as the Rangers go, I did not expect them to make the playoffs this season. They were playing in an absolutely loaded division and it was going to be challenging to get one of the top four spots. And thanks to certain circumstances, they fell a little bit short. But with so much young talent and a solid front office in place, it was easy to see they had a good foundation in place, but some grit and toughness were sorely needed. Well after Jim Dolan, with three games to go in the regular season, fired John Davidson and Jeff Gorton as team president and general manager respectably, I have no idea where this franchise is going and what direction they are headed. I do feel pretty good about them letting David Quinn go as head coach, I don't believe he was the man to get this team to being a legitimate contender for a Stanley Cup Championship. So with Chris Drury installed as the new general manager, he has an enormous task with getting this head coach hiring right. Gerard Gallant would be at the top of my list.  

7) I have been a fan of the New York Mets for well over 30 years now. I have seen just about every level of success and failure that is to see, except for a world championship. But for playing one third of the season, I don't know if I've seen this level of high and low in one season. Somehow they went from the most underachieving team in the first month to the most overachieving seem in the second month, and that's after they put 16 players on the injured list. They have guys I have never heard of coming from nowhere and they're contributing. The bullpen has been fantastic. The starting pitching has been really really good as well. But they have the third worst batting average in the National League and they're near the bottom in home runs. And they've been playing mostly bad teams, so it's hard to imagine they're going to keep this going. But to have a first place spot in the standings is amazing, they may very well need that cushion against the division that has also underachieved up to this point. What they really need to get back are the outfielders: Nimmo, Pillar, Almora, and especially Conforto. I mean how much longer can we watch Cameron Maybin and Khalil Lee average one hit for every 25 at bats?

8) As for the Jets, well with the draft concluded, they're in their slow. Until training camp starts up in July. I will say I am very excited about the direction of where this franchise is heading. With Joe Douglas as general manager and Robert Saleh as head coach, I feel they have a front office and coaching staff that are in synchronicity and are working together to achieve the same goal and they have a like-minded approach on how to accomplish that task. Not only that but I feel excited about their draft, they are focusing on key positions of need such as offensive line and wide receiver. Considering the schedule and the level of talent I could see this team jumping from two wins to seven wins in their first season. Just the fact that Adam Gase is gone, that should be an increase of four wins right there. The only thing I don't really understand is why they have not addressed outside cornerback, in free agency or with a premium draft pick position. Sure they drafted a bunch of secondary players towards the latter rounds of the draft, but how many of those people can we expect to plug and play from the beginning? That's not what you expect to get in the fifth and sixth rounds of the NFL draft. To a lesser extent I still have questions about the backup quarterback and the kicker.

9) I am so resentful of AEW. They are where Ring of Honor should have been for the last 10 or 15 years. They used Ring of Honor, raided their talent, and now they are the johnny-come-lately of professional wrestling. And there are people in that business who I respect and I like, but I simply will not watch them again, because I refuse to ever watch AEW. It's gotten to the point that I will skip portions of wrestling podcasts that talk about that particular company; I would rather not know anything about them.

10) All right enough about that topic, let's get back to some more personal stuff. There are a lot of people around me facing health concerns. My good friend Staci has leukemia. My boss has kidney cancer, will have surgery in June and miss six weeks of work. My father has an issue with the retina in his eye and is dealing with blurry vision. All these situations have come up in the last 2 or 3 weeks. And that's not even counting a certain somebody in Arkansas who's been dealing with health issues since I've known her and those issues go back multiple years before we started communicating. I've been very fortunate to have been pretty healthy my whole life and I can't imagine people who have to deal with chronic illnesses, but I'm dealing with that more and more. And it's hard to know what to say except I support them and I will listen if they need it.

11) So Memorial Day is tomorrow. As somebody who works with veterans and active duty military extensively, I know I have a deeper appreciation for our country's military. And that's another reason why I support President Trump like I do, I will support any president who funds our military, because there isn't anything more important than keeping our nation safe and secure and free. Those aren't just token words, they are true words. So I'm going to take a getaway day up north into Shenandoah Park. My plan is to hike up to 3,500 ft on the Old Rag Trail. From what I've heard it could be a seven or eight hour hike, I can't remember the last time I spent that much time on a high, it's rare that I go past 3 or 4 hours. So this is going to be a new challenge for me, but I think this is the time for me to do it. I hope I'll be able to spend a little bit of time reflecting and meditating and come out of it a better person. 

12) One of the best things about the pandemic ending is that I can start to plan trips again. And my biggest trip is scheduled for late July when I'm turning 40 years old. I have a cruise booked from Seattle Washington in to Alaska for a week. It was supposed to include a stop in Victoria British Columbia. I was going to set foot in Canada for the first time in my life right on my 40th birthday. But because both countries are run by incompetent fools and they can't get their crap together, the Canadian portion of the trip has since been canceled. But I will still enjoy it, I will get to go to a salmon bake, they will be canoeing and kayaking, I'll even get to go on a dog sled ride, I can only imagine what kind of the rush that's going to be. It may not be the Iditarod but that's pretty good still.

But to go on the cruise boat, a vaccination for covid is required. To be honest, I have no desire to get vaccinated. I have not been sick in any way for the last two years, so my thought is why mess with what's working for me? But I want to go on this trip. So a week ago on Monday, I had my first shot. Slowly, the numbness from the moderna needle set into my left arm. As Tuesday morning rolled around, I had very low energy for two days and it felt like the top of my left arm was twisted into knots. On Wednesday, when I was reaching my arm straight out to the left for the telephone, I never knew that could be such a painful experience. It probably took until Thursday morning for the discomfort to dissipate. And I still have another shot to take towards the end of June. I'm not going to get into whole debate about being vaccinated versus not being vaccinated. I have never felt I needed it, but if it will allow me to enjoy a somewhat of a normal life again, then that's the price I guess I can pay.

13) As far as other trips go, the week before the Seattle and Alaska trip, I've booked my ticket with the 7 Line Army for the Mets vs Pirates game at PNC Park. This is probably my favorite or second favorite ballpark in the country that I've been to, so I'm happy to get a chance to go back there. Chances are I will take a hotel room and stay overnight. One of the things about downtown Pittsburgh is a lot of their restaurants are not open for lunch, they open at 4 pm. So I'm going to have to plan my food pretty carefully. And the game starts at 7 on Saturday night and we are even running the bases on the field afterwards. So hopefully Bakersfield tacos or The Eagle Fried Chicken will stay open till midnight to accommodate my insatiable appetite for late night local grub. And it still makes no sense to me that they only have a bus service to go from the airport to downtown. They built the subway that has its northernmost stop just over the river where the stadiums are, but about 90% of the subway line is south of the city. How in the world they designed it that way, I could not tell you.

And I'm also very happy that the Virginia Jets Fans group will be taking a road trip to Charlotte in September for opening day when the Jets play the Panthers. It's going to be our new quarterback Zach Wilson against our most recent failed quarterback hope, Sam Darnold. It'll be Robert Saleh, the Jets new coaching hope, against Matt Rhule, the coach the Jets probably should have hired three years ago instead of Gase. I would not be surprised if that stadium was 30-35% Jets fans.

14) As happy as I was with the Cloud 2.0 shoes from On that I purchased in October 2019, I was that disappointed with their Cloudswift running shoes. I've had them now for about 9 months and the cushioning has just completely worn off. They're fine for walking and maybe standing around in but I have so little support on the balls of my feet when I run. And for shoes the cost about $130, I expect better than that.

Wrestle Mania Predictions

Night 1

Singles match for the WWE Championship

Bobby Lashley (c) (with MVP) vs. Drew McIntyre        

Prediction: Drew McIntyre

 

Bad Bunny and Damian Priest vs. The Miz and John Morrison   

Prediction: Bad Bunny and Damian Priest

 

Tag team match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) (c) vs. AJ Styles and Omos    

Prediction: AJ Styles and Omos

 

Steel cage match

Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon  

Prediction: Braun Strowman

 

Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins

Prediction: Seth Rollins

 

Tag Team Turmoil match

Lana and Naomi vs. Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose vs. The Riott Squad (Liv Morgan and Ruby Riott) vs. Natalya and Tamina vs. Billie Kay and Carmella     

Prediction: Billie Kay and Carmella

 

Singles match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship

Sasha Banks (c) vs. Bianca Belair         

Prediction: Sasha Banks

 

 

Night 2

Singles match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship

Asuka (c) vs. Rhea Ripley        

Prediction: Rhea Ripley

 

The Fiend Bray Wyatt (with Alexa Bliss) vs. Randy Orton         

Prediction: The Fiend Bray Wyatt

 

Nigerian Drum Fight for the WWE Intercontinental Championship

Big E (c) vs. Apollo Crews      

Prediction: Apollo Crews

 

Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn

Prediction: Sami Zayn

 

Singles match for the WWE United States Championship

Matt Riddle (c) vs. Sheamus    

Prediction: Sheamus

 

Tag team match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship

Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Tag Team Turmoil winners  

Prediction: Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler

 

Triple Threat match for the WWE Universal Championship

Roman Reigns (c) (with Paul Heyman) vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan          

Prediction: Edge

 

Easter Weekend

1) Here I am in Cary. It's Good Friday and it's a night I miss going to a church service at Willow Creek. They knew how to make those services atmospheric, memorable, and meaningful. 

2) Such an utter tragedy how sports have bowed down to the evils of ultra liberal culture loyalists who wants to destroy our great country and rebuild it in their toxic, hateful, delusional image.

3) Between pulling the All Star game out of Atlanta over new respectable voting laws, not having a backup plan for COVID, resulting in the postponement of c Opening Day, Rob Manfred is a clueless, spineless coward. 

4) DiFara pizza for the first time tomorrow. Been waiting ten years to try it. I'm so ready. 

5) Kris Knoblauch > David Quinn

Turning the escape channel on xm radio. Need to unwind. 

St. Patrick's Day

Today is about the most ho-hum March 17th I can remember. So much is missing. Going back to 2014, I've been running in St. Patrick's Day weekend events. The only exceptions were when I was injured or COVID reigned. For the first time, I'm not racing this weekend and it's my choice. I just don't have the desire when there's no set start time, no after-race party, and no crowd. The atmosphere is just lost. 

There are no good Irish pubs within probably 45 minutes. I'd love some good Gaelic action with the music and a cool Smithwick's, which by the way, is far superior to Guinness. Can't really get that on the Peninsula.

I'm just not that good a person. I don't know how else to say it. It is so tough for me to feel good for people when something positive happens for them, particularly when it's a promotion at work or finding love. Because I wonder why I don't get to have those kinds of things. I just exist, and that's it. It's ok when my guy friends find a girl. But nearly any woman I know falls in love and...I want to just strangle him. 

Natalie got engaged, even though she was always in love with me. I know it, I felt it when we were together and she said it. Melissa has been dating some guy for 6 months. Her timeline is now a damn relationship chronicle. Gag me. 

I don't want to feel that way. But I'm 39. My life is likely halfway over. I'm tired of being a decent and kind of handsome guy who's either too far away or not quite the right fit or the right age or too emotionally open or whatever else is wrong with me. My time is running out and fast. 

And what impact can I have? I'm just a worker. I'm not a leader. I wasn't meant to be that. I feel like I'm just totally dispensable. After I die, I'll be forgotten within a few years and it'll be like I was never here. 

The writer of Ecclesiastes was right. Meaningless. Everything is meaningless. 

I'm sorry to be negative in this post. But I just can't shake it tonight. 

Homemade Lasagne

When I was growing up, I had an electric pasta maker, the Ronco model. My family always seemed to get excited every time I'd make it. I think I was maybe 13 or 14 years old when I first got the machine, so maybe I didn't really appreciate what an impact it had on my parents and even my grandparents when I would make pasta for them. But eventually we had used it to the point where sometimes we would hear a loud pop when we would extrude the pasta noodles out of the machine and it didn't seem safe to use anymore. So for years, it sat collecting dust in the garage because I wasn't sure it was safe to use anymore.

Fast forward to this past January. A friend of mine won a free virtual pasta making class. Now normally, the class costs $100, but for reasons I still don't know, she decided to give it to me. So I had to find both a recipe and time that worked for me. I chose a Friday, a day I had off, and the dish was classic lasagna. Now despite my Italian heritage, I am not normally a fan of lasagna, mainly because I don't like the taste of ricotta cheese. But this one just had fresh mozzarella and parmesan cheese. 

So they sent me the ingredients and supplies that were needed, most of which I had. I did have to get a couple of things. First was 00 flour, which is a very fine Italian flour, commonly used to make pizza dough and pasta dough. Also I had to get a jar of tomato passata, which I had used once before when making meatballs. It is basically a strained, seedless tomato sauce without any seasoning. The toughest thing for me to find though was a natural fiber cloth to dry the pasta on. Eventually I decided to try to find a cheesecloth, and I went to four different stores before I could finally find it. Who would have thought I would have actually found it at Wal-Mart?

So mom came into town the day before, the class started at 5 pm. There were 15 of us. And we were from all over: Canada, Australia, New York, Chicago, Oregon, Texas, DC, etc. I had a bottle of red blend ready. I mean, is it really a pasta making class if you can't taste a little wine throughout?

We started by making the sauce. I sauteed carrot, celery, and onion, which I'd already minced in the Vitamix, in a good amount of olive oil. Once they had sweated down, I added a pinch of salt. From there, I added half a pound total of ground beef and pork and two cloves of garlic. The garlic wasn't even called for, but come on, how could I not? It took a few minutes for the pink to cook out, and then added 12 ounces of passatta, with salt and pepper. So I let the sauce come to a boil and then turn it down to low and covered it. The only thing I would have done differently with it is I would have drained a little bit of the fat off the meat before I added the tomato. But the smell reminded me of my grandmother's kitchen in Brooklyn. It just smelled so purely Italian.

Then it was time to make the lasagna noodles. It took 1 cup of 00 flour and two eggs. I poured the flour on a wooden cutting board, and created a funnel in the middle, where I would crack the eggs. I started working the eggs slowly into the flour and the dough began coming together gradually. Once I had something of a sticky dough, I began kneading it with extra flour. Fold and press, fold and press, fold and press. Then I cut the dough in half and it was time to stretch it out. This was the toughest part. After ten minutes of that rolling pin, I was sweating. The goal was to get the dough so thin that I could see the shadow of my hand through it when I held it up in the air. And it probably took close to 10 minutes to roll out each 4 oz section. But once it was finally thin enough, or close to it, I laid the dough out on the cheesecloth for a couple of minutes. Then I cut the dough into long lasagna strips, nothing too precise.

Into the boiling salted water the noodles went for 1 minute. What's so great about the fresh pasta is it would float to the top of the water when it was ready to be done. And then I immediately put the cooked noodles in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Then I had to lay the noodles back on the cheesecloth and gently dry them off with a paper towel to remove any excess water.

The time had arrived to assemble the lasagna. I used a loaf pan and it worked great. I started with enough sauce to cover the bottom of the pan. Then came a layer of pasta noodles, then fresh mozzarella and Parmesan, then more sauce, and so on. I think in total we had 4 layers of each before finishing with the mozzarella and parmesan. Into the oven 390 degrees for 25 minutes. Just enough time to clean up the pots, pans, utensils, and counters. For the last few minutes of cooking, I moved the pan to. The upper rack to get that cheese melted. A little Italian parsley on top for color.

 

I turned on the Frank Sinatra station, it seemed only appropriate. This lasagna wasn't what I would call pretty. It wasn't one where the layers stayed perfectly compressed after I cut into it. But oh, that flavor was so amazing. The sauce was so rich and the noodles tasted incredibly light, I had none of that heavy carb feeling that people often complain about after consuming a lot of pasta. I would definitely make this again and I would probably do another Nonna Live class too. 

MLB Predictions

NL East

y-Atlanta

Washington

NY Mets

Philadelphia

Miami

NL Central

y-Chicago

w-St. Louis

Milwaukee

Cincinnati

Pittsburgh

NL West

z-Los Angeles

w-San Diego

San Francisco 

Arizona

Colorado

AL East

z-NY Yankees

w-Toronto

Boston

Tampa Bay 

Baltimore

AL Central

y-Chicago

w-Minnesota

Cleveland

Kansas City

Detroit

AL West

y-Houston

Oakland

Anaheim

Seattle

Texas

NLCS

Los Angeles over Atlanta

ALCS

NY Yankees over Chicago

World Series

Los Angeles over NY Yankees

Perception of People

I have focused so much on how other people think of me. And I know so little of the truth. People will so often avoid confrontation, that they will never tell people what's going on. They simply walk away with their opinions and judgments hidden inside. What's scary is this kind of dynamic happens between family and friends too, it's not just some random person you just met. And I know I'm guilty of it. I try to think well of people. But it is hard some of the time. 

I wonder if one day, maybe in the next life, perhaps I will learn those private thoughts. Who was my trust well placed in? Who violated that trust? I think the answers I would uncover would astound me. 

We can't erase hate in this world. Our minds are full of sin and darkness. That can not be changed. All we can do is suppress it. And as this country and world descends faster and faster towards hell, I struggle so hard to hide how I feel. 

God, please forgive me for my horrible thoughts, my terrible words, my offensive actions. I am so wanting to be a great man, one that you would be proud to call your son, your own, your good and faithful servant. But I am so limited, so oppressed, so battered, so rejected. There are these obstacles that I don't know if I can get past. I struggle to last a single hour without violating your word. Truthfully, I cannot imagine me without my anger, my frustration, my self doubt. Even in heaven, how could my failures ever be separated from me? 

My disappointments seem to be so much more prevalent than my success. I feel like just a regular person, who will live for a few decades, die, and quickly be forgotten. I have no wife, no kids, no siblings, just a few good friends. And I'm 39, it's probably too late for any major changes to happen now, well, positive changes anyway. All I feel I can do now is work hard, save money, enjoy a trip and great meal once in a while, and eventually, I'll probably work myself to a sudden death. 

This Order Was Creepy...

Yes, that was an order I had to shop for today. God bless her, if I don't deserve a good tip for delivering those items...Maybe I should have picked up some chocolate and vodka as a bonus. 

Ted Nugent With The Truth

Ted Nugent wrote Joe Biden a letter via Facebook and it is going viral fast. Just in case it is censored, here it is in it’s entirety.

Dear Vice President Biden,

Although I refused to listen to it, I understand that during your presidential acceptance speech, you were calling for the unity of Trump supporters.

I remember four years ago my President Trump also called for unity. I remember how Congressional members of your Democratic Party responded by boycotting his inauguration. I remember how you and your Democratic party cheated and used the greatest law enforcement institution of this country to spy on my President Trump's campaign. I remember how you and your Democratic Party created a fake Russian dossier to try and impeach my President Trump. I remember how your speaker of the house ripped up my President Trump's beautiful State of the Union speech on National TV. I remember how you and your Democratic Party tried to impeach my President Trump over a Ukraine phone call. You accused my President Trump of pay to play. Come to find out Joe, it was really you and your son Hunter.

I remember how you and your Democratic Party blamed my President Trump over a pandemic that he had nothing to do with. I remember how you and your Democratic Party encouraged rioting and looting of my great United States of America. I remember how you and your Democratic Party used the media to spread lie after lie about my President Trump. I remember how you and your Democratic Party stole the election from my President Trump. This Trump supporter remembers all that Joe, and will NOT be unifying with your Democratic Party. Your abject criminal dishonesty is treasonous. You belong in prison along with the rest of the Swamp.

Ted Nugent