Eating Through My Birthday Week

My wife decided last week to have some of my favorite meals and foods all week during my birthday and it was really good.  I didn't want you to miss out on the food, so here are some pictures and a few comments about each.

There is nothing fancy about a bagel, cream cheese and lox, but the taste is incredible.  My favorite bagel is cinnamon raisin which some people don't think mixes well with lox, but it works for me.  I did have two and the one in the back I got a bite in so taking the picture really tasted good too.

We did have burgers the second night which was good, but it's not really a favorite food of mine.  However, the next night was this big roaster chicken.  I did not eat the whole thing, but I'd like to one day.  I started with a couple drumsticks and then worked on the carcass.  The leftover chicken that my wife did not eat, turned into a terrific sandwich on Friday for lunch on the road and also dominated a salad for another dinner.  It's 7 am right now and I'd have no problem eating a couple more drumsticks.  I think I can still smell the chicken in the house six days later.

I took a couple bites of this giant turkey drumstick before snapping the picture.  It may not be as big as the Disney drumsticks, but it was delicious.  I was just thinking how much fun it would be one week to have a turkey drumstick with a regular dinner every night of the week.  Yes, I am getting hungrier writing this, maybe I should have had breakfast first?

What could be better to round out the week than a plate of very large pieces of chicken parmesan? I  had two that night with pasta and one the next night with pasta.  We put two away in the freezer for another night in the future. How long would it take to defrost a piece? Can I eat it before my wife wakes up?

My wife decided to surprise me by making a chocolate cake from scratch.  I hadn't had a good chocolate cake in weeks, so I did not object.  The icing had a coffee taste to it and this was a great way to wash the chicken parmesan down-with milk too, of course.

We did not finish this in one sitting and the next night I had another good piece and I left the rest for my wife to eat the next day.  Sitting at breakfast after eating eggs, my wife told me that I could have the rest of the cake.  It was 9:30 am and I was still hungry so.....   Below was the final part of my birthday week of eating my favorite foods. (Don't worry I got the pint of Haagen-Dazs coffee ice cream in earlier in the week, but I ate it too fast to take a picture)

I only gained two pounds all week, is that even possible?

Southern Clouds Part 2

If you missed my previous blog on the incredible clouds in the South, you should check it out. That blog had the interesting and unusual clouds, but this one has the colorful ones.  The first two pictures were taken by a professional and they are too good not to include with the ones I've taken.  You may notice that many of these cloud pictures are taken in our neighborhood-enjoy.

Southern Clouds Part 1

In the process of becoming a southerner during these five and a half years, there are a number of things to adjust to.  The top five things in my opinion are: the slower pace of life, the beautiful weather, the lower taxes, the incredibly friendly people and the lower wages.   

Something that no one else talks about are the incredible clouds in the sky.  I noticed it in the first month we were here and I started taking pictures of clouds.  Clouds have never interested me, but down here they are amazing.  I asked a pilot one day that I was driving if the clouds were different here, but he said they were the same everywhere.

I finally got around to going through my phone and I emailed myself all the pictures of clouds that I really liked and there were over 50 pictures.  I went through all of them again and cut the pictures down to half of that.  In this blog are about a dozen pictures that are not colorful, just beautiful and unusual.  I'm saving the colorful pictures for my next blog.  Enjoy some southern clouds, do you see this where you are?

An Incredible Journey Completed

If you missed this story recently, it is worth reading.  Torbjorn Pedersen is 44 years old and he just returned to his home in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Ten years ago, he left his house with one suitcase and he planned on becoming the first person to visit all 195 countries in the world, without flying.

His career was in shipping products and planning construction products, but he wanted to set a travel record.  He expected it to take four years, but it took six years longer, partly due to COVID.   He spent two years working in Hong Kong during the beginning of the pandemic.

He traveled by car, boat, taxi, and shipping containers and traveled about 260,000 miles on his journey.  He spent at least 20 days in each county and planned on spending only $20 each day. He also used social media to track his progress.  He traveled into countries at war like the South Sudan and overcame dangerous situations and several serious health issues.  

Last October he married his girlfriend in the country of Vanuatu.  A few weeks ago, 150 people greeted him as he returned home for the first time in ten years.  He is planning on getting speaking engagements and writing a book about his trip.  Looking back at his journey he said, "People are just being people everywhere."

In ancient Greek culture, the King of Ithaca, was Odysseus.  Returning from a war it took him ten years to get home. Who would believe that in 2023 we have a real Odysseus and he's now safely home in Denmark?

My Birthday Cake

When it comes to a birthday cake there are no rules, so I am not breaking any here.  My 63rd birthday is this coming Saturday and I have already eaten my birthday cake.  They say you can't have your cake and eat it too, but I absolutely did.  I looked this proverb up and it said it meant this, "You cannot simultaneously retain possession of a cake and eat it too. Once the cake is eaten, it is gone."

On Saturday, July 22nd, almost a month before my birthday, my wife and I met my sister and her husband at the famous Harold's Deli in Edison, New Jersey.  I have walked into this deli many times over the last 30-40 years and looked at a chocolate cake and said, "One day, one day."

I would like to tell you that I bought the whole cake, but as you can see below I got enough of it.  This piece was maybe 1/8th of the above cake.  It was really, really thick.

We had just had a big meal and I shared a piece with my sister and husband and I really enjoyed eating this.  It tasted as good as it looked, I promise it did. My milk was ready, what could be better than this?

Later than night I ate some more cake and I saved some for breakfast the next morning.  I had to eat it because we were driving home at 5 am.  They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's the picture of me eating the cake in the hotel room.  It's a terrible picture, but the expression on my face is priceless.  If you look carefully you can see I have a very large piece on my fork; I did not put it all in my mouth. The cake was eaten, but it will never be gone from my memory or my stomach!

"MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE"

 

It was September 17th, 1966, when the television show, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, first came on the air.  I was six years old and I did not watch it. During the seven years, a group of extraordinary spies took on only the most difficult assignments, if they chose to except it.  The beginning of each show had them receiving their mission by tape recorder and then it would "self-destruct. The theme song was great and as you heard it clips of the show flashed in front of you.

It was a very good cast that included Peter Graves, Barbara Bain, Greg Morris, Martin Landau, and for a couple years, Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame. In 1988, due to an actor's strike, the show was revived for two years.  Since then, seven movies have come out beginning in 1996 with Tom Cruise as the star.  Some of the other known actors and actresses in these movies have been, Jon Voight, Vanessa Redgrave, Josh Holloway("Lost"), Jeremy Renner("The Avengers"), and Henry Cavill.("Superman)

The seventh movie, "Dead Reckoning, Part 1) just came out and the conclusion will be out next year.  My wife and I have seen all the movies and they have always been good.  We went to the movies last week and saw the earliest show and this is what the theatre looked like before twelve people joined us.

It was a terrific movie and the action was non-stop.  It ran close to three hours, but it did not drag.  The most talked about scene is when Tom Cruise rides a motorcycle off the top of a mountain to catch a train. (Really)  It's well worth watching and I'm sure when they put this idea on the air in 1966, they were not expecting people to still be enjoying it almost sixty years later.

MY BOOK IS COMING SOON!

This is not a very good picture of the front and back of my book, however, this is all I have.  I had to take a picture of this on my computer and then send an e-mail to myself and post it the way I post any picture on my blog.  I can make technology difficult, it's a gift I have.

My final edits of my book are at the publisher and they are putting the book together.  I may have some books in my hand in 3-4 weeks and the book should go on sale somewhere around the end of the month or beginning of September.  I don't have some other details at this time, but after two years of working on this, it is getting close.

On the cover to the right is my reddish, orange van, which I have had for the past almost thirty months and I've given over 3,500 rides. On the left is my greyish, green Ford passenger van, that I had for the first 3 1/2 years of driving around 7,500 Uber and Lyft passengers.  Below that picture are four special quotes from my riders that summarizes the experience many other riders have had.  The cover will look a lot better than this, but it is very bright and I think Palmetto Publishers in North Charleston, South Carolina, did a terrific job.

The book is dedicated to my riders who have entertained, educated, inspired and shared their lives with me. Included in the book are my fifty favorite rides, inspirational rides, fun moments, and rides from "The Twilight Zone." Some of the other chapters are on sports, southern hospitality, relationships, unique names and occupations. It's been quite an adventure the past five years and I'm looking forward to sharing it with more people.