Old & Busted- NFL Draft. New Hotness- Life.

April 27, 2009 at 8:10 am (Blacksburg, Charlotte, Cooking, Depression, Football, Friends, Golf, Janice, Life, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Sports, Sunshine, Tailgating, Virginia Tech, Weather)
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

For the last 15 years or so, NFL draft weekend was a big deal.  I’d stay in front of a TV for virtually the whole draft, taking breaks for meals and such with XM Radio tuned into the draft in my car.  I knew quite a bit about most of the players who would end up getting picked in the first two rounds, as well as a ton about VT players and those of the teams they had played the past few seasons.  But not this year.

This year, I didn’t even remember the draft was this weekend until late Saturday afternoon when I asked Jason about it on the golf course.  Even after that, I didn’t bother to watch any of it.  Just a few minutes ago this morning, I went to ESPN.com and looked at the results.  I recognized the name of maybe one of every ten players picked.  It appears only one Hokie was drafted.  Oh.  As a side note, this was also the weekend of the Virginia Tech spring game.  I had already lost interest in that a couple years ago, except for the tailgating aspect.  

On one hand, I could look at this as lack of interest in an activity I used to enjoy, which would be a sign of depression.  However, that would require me to accept ’sitting and watching a bunch of suits select players on TV for 6 straight hours, for two consecutive days’ as an activity, which is oxymoronic in nature.

In place of watching the draft and the spring game, I enjoyed a gorgeous weekend of weather, I went to the farmers’ market, I planted some vegetables in our garden with Janice, I bought a chest freezer for the garage, I played golf with Jason, I went shopping for some interview clothes for Janice, I watched some golf on TV, I installed a shelf in the garage, and I grilled some catfish.  That’s a substitution for the NFL draft that I would pick #1 overall any year!

I feel like this is a significant change in me, going from sitting and watching the world move on without me to participating in it in a fulfilling manner.  This, to me, is breaking out of the rut I had so often lamented being stuck in previously.  It’s why I left Blacksburg, it’s why I moved south, and it’s why I changed jobs.

It was a longer winter than I had anticipated, but it’s over now, and I couldn’t be happer!

This weekend is the Quail Hollow Championship, formerly the Wachovia Championship.  It’s Charlotte’s PGA Tour stop, and I’ve been going every year for about five years.  I have weekly passes again, and will be attending on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and possibly Sunday.  It’s one of the best weeks of the year for me.  Should be a great time as usual!  The weather looks solid.  Not sunny, but also not steady rain.

Leave a Comment

2008 Year in Review

December 29, 2008 at 10:36 am (Blacksburg, Charlotte, Cooking, Depression, Diet, Divorce, Dog, Happiness, Janice, Laney, Life, Lifestyle, Moving, Nutrition, Weather, Weddings, Work)
Tags: , , , , ,

Well, 2008 pretty much has to go down as the most eventful year or my life.  While there were both terrible and wonderful things that happened, the bad all came before the good, which brings some terrific momentum into 2009.  Here’s a recap of 2008:

January: Entered year depressed, living in a place I hated, enduring weather I couldn’t stand, working at a job I hated, with wife having affair in my face (Self-esteem Rating: 3/10)

February: Wife moves out of house, I begin treatment for depression (Self-esteem Rating: 1/10)

March: Treatment continues (Self-esteem Rating: 2/10)

April: Treatment continues, weather slowly improves along with my depression (Self-esteem Rating: 3/10)

May: Treatment continues, play some golf (Self-esteem Rating: 3/10)

June: Attend Jason’s Myrtle Beach bachelor party, decide marriage is over, begin dating (Self-esteem Rating: 4/10)

July: Begin interviewing in Charlotte, stand as groomsman in Jason & Steph’s wedding, find new job, quit old job (Self-esteem Rating: 5/10)

August: Move to Charlotte, meet Janice, file for and finalize divorce, begin new job (Self-esteem Rating: 7/10)

September: Adopt Laney, establish myself in Charlotte, football season begins (Self-esteem Rating: 8/10)

October: Attend Cory & Emily’s wedding in Jersey with Janice, relaunch dontfirealgroh.com (Self-esteem Rating: 9/10)

November: Visit parents for Thanksgiving with Janice (Self-esteem Rating: 9/10)

December: Accept permanent position at work, visit parents for Christmas with both brothers (Self-esteem Rating: 9/10)

Aint we cute?

Ain't we cute?

If that was a company’s growth chart, I’d say I’m doing a hell of a lot better than the rest of the economy!  If I can continue that kind of life improvement into 2009, I’ll be thrilled!  My goals include losing 20lbs by the end of May, putting me at 210 (that’s only about 1lb a week), eating and living healthier, reading and cooking more, finally taking a real vacation, and finding a new hobby.  I’m thinking of getting a planted freshwater aquarium.

Looking back on the list above, it’s hard to believe the difference a year makes.  By the way, it’s December 29 and the temperature here is in the 60s.

5 Comments

Wedding Weekend

October 13, 2008 at 10:27 am (Cooking, Football, Travel, Virginia Tech, Weather, Weddings)
Tags: , , , ,

Janice and I spent this weekend in New Jersey for my brother’s wedding.  It’s the first time I’ve been up there since he and his new bride moved there a couple of years ago.  It’s a nice enough place, but there were reminders everywhere about why the north isn’t for me (even though the weather was warm and sunny).

After boarding Laney at her vet, we flew into Newark on Thursday night, got upgraded to an awesome Volvo rental car, and drove down to Point Pleasant, where we stayed at a Quality Inn with tiny rooms.  The doorknob ended up falling off of our bathroom door, locking me in twice and out once, but I was able to get it open from both sides using items from my pockets.

Friday around lunch, Janice’s mom drove to where we were staying and met us for a walk on the beach and lunch.  This was my first time meeting her, and she was very nice and easy to get along with.  And she brought some delicious cookies, which is always a bonus.

Friday afternoon and evening was the ‘rehearsal dinner’ (with the actual rehearsal being held the next morning due to some late participants).  My dad brought up his portable BBQ pit and 80 halves of chicken and we cooked them using the family Chick-a-que sauce.  As always, it was a big hit.  Even vegetarian Janice loved it!  As a side note, we tried some Quorn (which is a vegan chicken substitute) and found it to be amazingly similar to chicken and very tasty!

While Saturday morning was the rehearsal, which I did not need to attend, Saturday afternoon was the wedding itself, which was held in a really cool beachside church.  My Uncle Bob presided over the ceremony, and did a fine job.  I was an usher, and basically only had to hand out programs and walk a few ladies down the aisle.  My new sister-in-law is a wonderful girl, and I’m happy to welcome her to the family.

Following that was the reception, held at a boat museum.  The food and company were both good.  It was nice to catch up with family and friends I hadn’t seen in a while, as well as introduce them to Janice.  I even managed to not have one person ask me where my “wife” was!  I guess either the word got out, or it was obvious!  Either way, that worked out well.

Following the reception, which was shut down by the cops at 10:30 due to some wet blanket richie rich making a noise complaint, the younger among us went to a bar called Usedtobe’s until abotu 2AM.  We slept off the fun the next morning and flew back Sunday afternoon.  Let me offer some advice to people driving to the Newark airport:  Do NOT try to slip off the airport to get gas for your rental.  There is no way to find such a thing within a half hour drive of the airport.  You have to make about 50 “U-turn” exits on interstates.  It sucks.  Don’t even consider it.

All in all a great weekend!  And it was the last wedding of the year for me, which is nice.  I hope to have pictures up soon.  I hope to keep this week low key and maybe get my townhouse ready to host a VT football game party.

1 Comment

School lunches and the American digestive crisis

October 16, 2007 at 9:26 am (Cooking, Diet, Nutrition, Obesity, School)
Tags: , , , ,

There is an article in our crappy local paper, The Roanoke Times, about a new high school in Roanoke that is so overcrowded that they have reduced students’ lunch break from 30 minutes down to 20.

This is a terrible decision that can alter the lives of thousands of people. I have had a problem with school lunches for a long time now. Even when I was in high school back in the 20th century, we only got 30 minutes. If I did not bring my own lunch, I would have to spend 10 of those minutes waiting in line. These kids are now effectively going to have 10 minutes to eat their lunch every day. Eating quickly is an awful habit to form, and I think it’s a major contributor to our country’s expanding collective waistline.

It’s bad enough that some of our schools serve french fries EVERY SINGLE DAY and count them as a vegetable (mine did), teaching kids that it’s okay to ignore real veggies and subsist on fried meat and potatoes alone. Even worse is that we’re teaching kids to wolf down their food as quickly as possible, which bypasses the human body’s natural overeating defense mechanism of relaying ‘fullness’ after about 20 minutes.

While this may not seem like a big deal with regulated portions of school lunches for growing kids with fast metabolisms, it creates a habit that many never overcome. When kids grow older and enter the working world in America (which also devalues lunch breaks but does give more time than schools), their metabolisms slow, but many begin eating at all-you-can-eat buffets or at ‘casual dining restaurants’ (think Ruby TGIMcApplebee O’Shakers) where they shove 1500 calorie, 150g of fat supersized portions down your gut. If you eat that in a hurry, as your school conditioned you to, you’ll never realize how much you are overeating. That’s a tough habit to break.

And it’s not just lunch. The modern American family often does the same thing for dinner. I’m not going to be one of those people who tries to convince people that everything’s better in Europe, but the typical French dinner, for instance, is a laid back, social affair that often lasts several hours. We could definitely take a lesson from that.

Our eating habits are atrocious. Obesity levels are shocking and it’s easy to see some of the reasons why. We’re eating all the wrong things from all the wrong places and we’re eating them way too fast. We don’t know how to cook anymore and we think we can fulfill our body’s needs by eating bowls of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cheese and gravy or 2 lbs of pasta with alfredo sauce and scarfing it down so we can get back to work or back to watching a game show where morons point to a suitcase and hope it has money in it. This is going to be a huge problem until we realize the value of proper nutrition.

3 Comments

Tailgate menu

September 9, 2007 at 6:10 pm (Cooking, Football, Tailgating, Virginia Tech)
Tags: , , ,

This coming Saturday will be the first tailgate of the year that I’m going to cook for. The last two years, I’ve been using a smoker, a fryer, or a grill to cook for a fairly large group of people. We’ve done smoked standing rib roast of pork and beef, steaks, smoked boston butt (barbecue) with red, vinegar, and white sauces, smoked chicken, grilled chicken, fried chicken wings, smoked turkey, fried turkey, grilled pork chops, atomic buffalo turds, brunswick stew, chili, meatballs, and several other dishes. I’ve smoked salmon but only for myself and TGAW. I have not yet done lamb, venison, bison, or beef brisket, though I would like to.

Usually, what I cook is influenced by the game time. If it’s a night game, I have time to make something that takes longer, like brisket or boston butt. If it’s a noon game, I can only do something that takes a couple of hours or less. Saturday’s game against Ohio is at 1:30, so I have some time, but not forever. We have enough time to not make the grill necessary, it’s too warm still for stews and too nice out to need to use the fryer, so it’ll be the smoker probably. Any ideas? My instinct is lamb, but TGAW’s a wuss and probably won’t eat it. Plus I have other friends who are kind of picky.

I wish we had a good butcher around here.

5 Comments