The Reason for Bad BBQ

Today I was instant messaging with my good friend Nuke during lunch.  I was lamenting the fact that we don't have good barbecue where I live, with the exception of a food truck that is only open part time.  We don't even have a Famous Dave's, which is top notch chain BBQ.  You would think that a community with a reported metropolitan area of over 250,000 people would have some good ole' BBQ, but alas, we do not.

Nuke asked me if I had any theories as to why it was this way, and it hit me like a bolt of lightning...Democrats are to blame for the lack of good barbecue around here! 

Before you say "Jake, you're nuts", hear me out.  Where I live in Iowa is an increasingly Democratic area.  We have a democrat Congressman and we voted for Obama in the last election.  Add to that the fact that the best BBQ comes from the South and Texas, traditional Republican strongholds, and one can easily see that Democrats are to blame for the lack of good BBQ in my city. 

But let's take it a step further.  What do Democrats value?  Farmer's Markets!  And we have several kick butt farmer's markets around here.  I don't think I need to say any more.  I believe my point has been made.

With this knowledge, I'm now resigned to the fact that I will have to make my own BBQ or travel for good BBQ until such time as the Republicans seize control of the population in my little corner of Iowa.

10,000!!!

Google has this neat tracking feature, and through this neat tracking feature, I learned that my blog hit 10,000 page views recently.  I started this blog on the eve of the last Presidential election, so in a little under 4 years, I hit the 10,000 mark.  Now I know, there are some web pages that get 10,000 hits in an hour, or even faster, but I'm thrilled to hit this milestone.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to check out my blog and read my thoughts.  I hope that I've been thought provoking, funny, and recommended some good books and movies.  I'm planning to keep this blog going for the foreseeable future.  In fact, I've got a couple of new movies to blog about real soon.  So stay tuned!!!

Blogger's Block - Part 2

I have blogger's block again.  I can't seem to think of anything to write, more than a few sentences, which I put on Facebook.  Last time I had blogger's block, I wrote about it and a few days later I was able to get rolling again.  I'm not sure if it's going to work this time.  I may be all out of blogging ideas, and that would make me sad.

This started right after we moved to our new house.  We've been so busy that I haven't had time to pay attention to much of anything going on in the world and thus, no blog topics have popped into my head.  That, and we've been working so hard between having 2 houses that I'm just worn out all the time. 

Plus, I'm not watching as many movies (ok, none really), and I'm not reading enough.  Hence, no blogs. Please stay tuned, hopefully ideas will spring forth again soon.

Sometimes, bribery works!

With our move 3 weeks ago and trying to get our old house on the market, we've been working really hard lately.  We've all been sick over the past week or so, and my wife and I have been absolutely exhausted.  So, earlier this week, I picked up 2 bags of Donettes at HyVee, just for today.  Last night, I told the kids there would be Donettes out in the morning, they could get their own milk, and most importantly, they had to be quiet and let my wife and I sleep in. 

Well, the donut bribery worked!  I got to sleep until 8:15 am, and my wife even later.  I feel better today than I have for the past 3 weeks.  I'm still tired, but it's been a really good day of rest and cooking.  I made a new lasagna recipe for supper, and it was really good.  We have Mass at 9 am tomorrow, but I'm hoping to sleep in until 7:15 or so tomorrow morning and go back to work refreshed on Monday.

We've Moved

I'm very tired right now.  We just completed a move into a new house.  We lived in our old house for nearly 10 years, so we had accumulated a lot of stuff.  About 6 weeks ago, we decided we were going to move.  We loved the first house we saw, but decided to see a few more.  After seeing several more homes, we decided to make an offer on the house we saw first.  Thankfully our offer was accepted, and here we are in a new house that we now get to make a home.

I will be sending out a more personalized thanks.  But I'd like to thank all the friends that came to help us move.  I think we had close to 20 people throughout the last few days help us get our stuff moved the 2 miles or so from our old house.  I am so grateful for these friends.  I don't know what we would have done without them.

That's all I have tonight.  Hopefully I'll get back to blogging more regularly very soon.

I Love Florida!

I just got back from a very brief business trip to Florida.  I was near Orlando on the Atlantic Coast.  This is now my fourth trip to the great state of Florida, and I have to confess that I love it! 

This past week, the temperatures were in the 70s, with light winds and no rain.  The seafood was fresh, and the smell of salt water was in the air.  Given that my favorite place on earth, Disney World, was a mere 75 minutes away, I was a pretty happy traveller, despite having to work while I was there.

I do have some observations after having made a few trips to the Sunshine State.  First off, it's really flat, but then what do you expect from a big swamp?  Secondly, I like the Gulf Coast better than the Atlantic Coast.  I love the white sand beaches and really clear water of the Gulf Coast near the panhandle.

Finally, you can get some really good food in Florida.  We all know that the Seafood is really fresh and it is really delicious.  But, what you don't realize is that there are enough transplants from around the country that you can get all kinds of good food.  I had a great pastrami sandwich for lunch one day, and fantastic baby-back ribs at another lunch.

I don't know that I would ever move to Florida full time...I do love the Midwest, but I may have to snowbird when I get older.  Well, if I got offered a job a Disney World I might have to take it. :-)

Spongebob

My children are addicted to Spongebob!  We hadn't watched this show because we thought it was just stupid potty humor, and frankly, it is a lot of stupid potty humor, but it also has some really funny moments.  Every chance the kids get, they turn on Netflix and watch an episode of Spongebob.  Given that my wife and I have been sick and we're preparing to move...well, they are getting more chances than normal to watch TV.

At some point though, I hope they'll grow out of this phase.  While Spongebob is a funny show, it's no Phineas and Ferb.

That's all for this quick post today. 

The Best of 2011

Here we are at the end of 2011, so I thought I'd list off some of the best things that happened in 2011.

Best Movie of 2011 - "Super 8", by a hair over "Thor".  "Super 8" is just a classically great movie.  Everybody I've talked to has liked it, but I only talk to people with like opinions because I can't handle conflict.

Best New Recipe of 2011 - This was a close one, but in the end, I have to pick my BBQ Chicken recipe.  It was so good...so very good.

Best Sporting Moment of 2011 - I'll have to give this one to my South Dakota State Jackrabbits Men's Basketball team, upsetting the University of Washington a few weeks back.  It was a big win for the Jackrabbits, and in blow out fashion.

Best Family Sporting Moment of 2011 - This one goes to my 11 year old, who had his first bowling game over 100 earlier this year. 

Best Individual Sporting Moment of 2011 - This may not count as individual, but it would have to be my golf trip with my friend Stanton to Cragun's Resort in Brainerd, MN.  Such a fun trip.

Best Blog of 2011 - Nuke's Retro Movie Review was top notch.  He had me going until I got to "Highlander 2".

Best Purchase of 2011 - This would have to be my new smoker.  I've had so much fun smoking various meat products.  There's just something manly about smoked meat.

Best Tebow Moment of 2011 - The comeback win over the Bears was insane...INSANE!!!

Best Faith Growing Experience - The 15th Annual Catholic Men's Conference was an awesome day.  This is always one of the best days of the year. 

Best New TV Show of 2011 - "Person of Interest" on CBS is the best...the best I tell you!  Of course, it has Jim Caviezel in it, so how can it not be great?  Caviezel is like Denzel, everything he touches turns awesome.

Best New Cartoon of 2011 - This would have to be "Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness".  I love "Kung Fu Panda".

Best "Phineas and Ferb" Episode of 2011 - "My Fair Goalie" may be my favorite Phineas and Ferb episode of all time.  It's available on Netflix Instant Watch if you want to see it.  Not only do we learn about the Emu Curse, but we also get to listen to "Nostrils on the Bus".

Best Book of 2011 - It's tough for me because I read 2 Rick Riordan books this year, but I'm gonna give this one to Inheritance, which is the final book in the Eragon series started so long ago.  This was Paolini's best written book of the series and captured me the way Eragon captured me.

Best Golf Shot of 2011 - This would be the drive I hit on #4 at my club on an unseasonably warm day in October while playing golf with my friend Joe.  I drove the green on the 288 yard hole, sticking the ball about 6 feet from the hole, then I made the eagle putt.

Best Trip of 2011 - I'll go with our family trip to Madison, WI.  We stayed at a hotel with a water park, had a positive zoo experience and ate some good BBQ.

Best Work Trip of 2011 - Though I went to Brazil twice this year, and Maryland and South Dakota for work, my best trip was Germany, way back in January. 

Best Gift of 2011 - I got a new Food Processor for Christmas.  I love to process food!

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie of 2011 - This would be the cookie I had yesterday at the Prairie Soup Company.  It may be the best Chocolate Chip Cookie ever!!!

Best Dip of 2011 - We had a dip day at work.  This is a day when everybody brings a dip (salsa, cheese, etc.) in and then we vote for the best dip.  The winning dip was a desert dip that was like a pumpkin gingerbread dip...it was so yummy.

Best Commercial of 2011 - The Jonah Hill Modern Warfare 3 commercial cracks me up every time I see it.

Merry Christmas 2012!

We just finished our Christmas Eve Chili and playing some Christmas Carols on our respective musical instruments.  Chili has become a Christmas Eve trend at our house, and with David playing trombone now, we should make a tradition of music on Christmas Eve.

We also went to Mass tonight.  I was astonished at the number of people at Mass...if that many people showed up every week, we'd have to build a gigantic church.  While the Christmas Mass is always a great experience, it always makes me a little sad at the number of people who only show up at a church on Christmas and Easter.  But, at least they were there tonight, and I pray that some of them who wouldn't normally attend, think about coming back next week.

Finally, I would like to wish all my family, friends and loyal readers a very Merry Christmas.  I hope that you are with loved ones this holiday season.  And, remember the real reason we celebrate.  It has nothing to do with a tubby guy in a red suit and everything to do with a little baby, born over 2000 years ago in a manger in Bethlehem.

Merry Christmas and God Bless!

Questions We Don't have Answers To

There are many vexing questions out there.  Here are just a few:

-How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?

-If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

-Why couldn't Bill Clinton ever tell the truth?

-What did we talk about before Tim Tebow?

-Who put the bop in the bop shoo bop shoo bop, who put the ram in the ram-a-lam-a-ding-dop?

That's all I got...as you can tell, I'm struggling for blog topics right now. 

Golden!!!

I now have Gold Status on American Airlines (Yes, that's the airline that just filed for bankruptcy protection!  Don't ruin this for me!).  In fact, I just got my "Gold Card" in the mail.  This little card entitles me to many perks, including bonus miles, so I will get richer in terms of miles...yes, the rich get richer.  I wonder how liberals feel about airline mileage programs.

It's weird, but getting the gold card in the mail actually made me feel good!  I didn't do anything to earn these miles.  All of them were earned while flying for work.  In fact, while I was earning these miles, I got to sit and watch movies, eat good food, and sleep.  Essentially, I was a lazy bum and I got rewarded for it.  Now I'm wondering what conservatives think about airline mileage programs.

All I know for sure is that I'm Gold for the next 14 months.  I'll probably have a few more trips to Brazil in my future.  I'm thinking Platinum comes after Gold, and I'm sure that will be even better.   

I'm Sappy

One of my favorite lines in the Sorcerer's Apprentice is when Dave and Becky are in Dave's lab and Dave goes on this monologue about how listening to Becky's radio show made him stop and see things he'd never seen before.  Then he says "I'm sappy" in a groaning voice.

I have those moments in my life.  I had one of those moments tonight.  Lately I've been on a country music kick, mostly Garth Brooks but some other stuff too.  This brings me to the Garth Brooks song "Standing Outside the Fire" and the following Youtube video:




This video really hit my soft spot.  I don't know if it's because my wife and I have a special needs child and I'm all too familiar with the father's role here (except for the yelling part).  You want your child to succeed and to try the things "normal" kids do, but are afraid of the potential negative consequences.  I'm also familiar with the elation when your child succeeds, like when our son won the spelling bee. 

It could be that...or maybe it's just that I'm a sucker for happy endings.  Whatever the reason, I felt the need to tap into my inner teenage girl and share this video tonight.  I hope you enjoy it.

Wrangler Jeans

On Thursday, I bought 2 pair of Wrangler Jeans at Target.  As you all know, one of the main pitchmen for Wrangler Jeans is Brett Favre, former NFL QB, most famously of the Green Bay Packers, but also of the NY Jets and Minnesota Vikings late in his career.

I gotta tell you, these Wranglers really make me feel like Brett Favre.  When I first put them on, I had the strong urge to retire, and then unretire, then retire again, then unretire, then retire, then unretire when my friends show up, and then finally retire and go on radio bashing my successors.

Good thing I've been able to overcome those urges brought on by these powerful blue jeans.

Punkin' Chuckin'

No, this will not be a funny blog, unless you laugh at stupid situations.  Last night my son and I were driving home from his band concert.  We had just made a right turn, when I caught something flying at the right side of our vehicle out of the corner of my eye.  It hit near the front bumper and was very loud.  We circled around to see if we could see anything, and all we could see was half a pumpkin lying in the street.

When we got home, we found the other half of the pumpkin lodged in the grill of our van.  One of the bars in the grill was broken, but thankfully there was no other damage.  The pumpkin was relatively small...and fortunately the people throwing it weren't too accurate.  I think there could have been real trouble if the pumpkin would have hit the windshield or any of the windows.

I'm sure it was stupid kids who did this.  I don't understand that...I never had the urge as a kid to cause damage to other people's property.  I just don't get what drives some people.

Luckily, no real damage was done.  A lot worse things could have happened so we're thankful that we got off as easily as we did.

Why So Unhappy?

Tiger Woods made his much anticipated return to the PGA Tour today, shooting a two over par 73 at the Frys.com open, a Fall Finish event.  Normally, Tiger doesn't play in the Fall Finish events, but due to injuries and poor play, he added this event to get is game in better shape before the President's Cup.

After his round, he said that he is "Not Happy" with his round.  Tiger is never happy these days.  In fact, he's generally really miserable.  I can't say that I blame him...he screwed up his marriage, his health has been a wreck and his golf game resembles mine more and more every day. 

But, at the same time, I can say that I blame him.  Tiger has lead a pretty charmed life.  He was the best golfer on the planet for the better part of 15 years.  He's won over 70 tournaments and 14 majors.  He's got 2 kids.  He's become the person he dreamed of being growing up.  So, why isn't it he happy?

Well, because there's more to life than being a great golfer.  I tend to think that Tiger got to the top and thought, "this is all there is?"  So then he tried to fill his life with other things, and it never got better.  That happens to us all when we achieve something we really want...in the end, accomplishments of this world always disappoint.  So then, like Tiger, we try to fill our lives with other things, looking for the one thing that will make us truly happy.

Maybe Tiger, and the rest of us, need to spend less time looking for things of this world to make us happy and more time looking for Jesus Christ.  True happiness can only come through living a truly Christian life.  Personally, I struggle with this every day.  But I have realized that I'm a much happier person when I quit trying to find things in this world to make me happy and realize that I should be happy with the many blessing God has already given me...such as a great wife and 2 wonderful boys.  Don't get me wrong, I still fail more often than I succeed, and I'm still somewhat convinced that a pickup will make me happy, but that's a problem for another day.

I wonder if Tiger will ever realize Who the true source of happiness really is?

Another of the Things That Make Me Go Hmmm...

Last night, my wife and I watched the movie "Tristan and Isolde", which was billed to me as a love story with sword fighting and battles and such.  Well, it's not...it's a star-crossed love story with a few moments of action, followed by long moments of heartache and sorrow.  I only rate it 2 stars, because I'm a happily-ever-after kind of guy.

This got me wondering...why do people like to watch movies and read stories that end poorly?  Why do we want to end up sad or scared or both?  I've never been a fan of movies that have sad endings, and I'm also not a fan of horror movies, and frankly, I don't understand people who are.  If I'm going to invest 2 hours of my time into something, I'd rather laugh than cry, and I'd rather my heart start pumping because of action as opposed to something scary.

This is another blog without any real point, other than to wonder in writing about things that I think are weird about other people.  I guess to each his own.  I'll stick with my over the top action films and sappy happily-ever-after stories, and the crazies out there can watch their horror films and shows with sad endings.

It's a Trap!

That title contains the famous words uttered by Admiral Ackbar when the Rebel Fleet gets ambushed by a fully functional Death Star at the conclusion of "Return of the Jedi."  Why is that my title?  Well, it's because I believe we all have an Inner Admiral Ackbar.  We all know when we are heading for trouble, and we need to listen to our Inner Admiral Ackbar prior to engaging in that trouble.

Some examples of when we should listen to our Inner Admiral Ackbar:

1 - When a politician tells us they will do what we want them to do if elected...all we have to do is vote for them.  It's a trap!  They never do what they say they are going to do.

2 - When someone asks for you to come over and help them move a few things.  It's a trap!  You're going to be moving their whole house!

3 - When your kid offers to do any chore.  It's a trap!  They want something. 

So, listen to your Inner Admiral Ackbar and everything will go more smoothly for you. 

My Happy Place

I've had a good couple of weeks at my new Happy Place...Indian Creek Country Club, where I've been playing my golf this summer.  I realized this was my happy place about 10 days ago.  I was playing golf on Men's night with a group of great guys.  The weather was hot, but not raining, and I was playing pretty good.  My family was at the pool, swimming and eating supper.  I knew they were having fun, and I was having fun, and I realized that I was a happy camper. 

We've really enjoyed belonging to this little 9 hole country club here in town.  We've enjoyed the pool immensely, and both boys have exponentially increased their swimming ability.  I think we've made some good family memories around that pool.

I've really enjoyed the golf as well.  At first, I was struggling with my golf game as I adjusted to a shorter, tighter golf course with small greens.  But, I've made some strides and seem to be playing pretty good now.  I've also met some really nice people...in fact, everyone has been super nice. 

And, I've managed to do fairly well in some golf events.  I finished 6th in the Club Championship, which is pretty good given that I played pretty poorly the first day.  Last Sunday, my friend Jared and I finished 2nd in the "Ryder Cup" format tournament.  We played 9 holes of best shot, 9 holes of best ball and 9 holes of alternate shot.  We shot -3 in the best shot, -1 in the best ball and +2 in the alternate shot to finish 1 shot behind the winners.  Jared blames himself for us not winning...I blame him too...lol.  No, not really...we both missed a few putts we should have made, but overall, we played very well, and we lost to 2 really good golfers.

Today was another great day.  I have been busy at work lately and feeling somewhat stressed out.  I left early today and planned to play 18 holes if I could.  I had about 3 and a half hours, which is doable if it's not busy.  Well, I got to the course, and it was not busy...in fact, it was slow.  I finished the first 9 holes in about an hour, so I played a second 9, and finished with 1 hour and 20 minutes before I had to be anywhere.  So, I went around again...I walked 27 holes and had some good company from some of my fellow members along the way.  Just a great way to let my stress out and relax.

I am so glad that we chose to join Indian Creek Country Club.  It's a great place for the family and for my golf game...it's a win-win!

Blogger's Block

It's been a really long time since I've blogged, in relation to how often I normally blog.  If I were Nuke, this would be a really short time between blogs.

Anyway, the reason I haven't been blogging is because I've had blogger's block...I just haven't had any topics pop into my head.  I've been in sort of a reading and movie watching desert for the past few weeks, so I haven't even had any of those to fall back on.  Well, I do have one, but it's the 5th book in a series, so I really need to combine that one with another book review.  Frankly, it's been frustrating.  On Tuesday night, I sat down to blog and had nothing...I just stared at my computer screen.

Some ideas have been slowly filtering back into my brain.  Hopefully I'll have some real topics soon.  Please hang in there with me.

I Love that Sound

Yesterday, my 10 year old and I went to the 25th Annual Quad Cities Air Show.  I haven't been to an airshow in about 11 or 12 years.  When I was a kid, we used to go to the air show at Ellsworth AFB every year.  I've seen the US Navy's Blue Angels, the USAF's Thunderbirds and the US Army's Golden Knights Parachute team.  I was a lucky, lucky kid.

The Quad Cities Air Show is one of the best air shows around...at least that's what I've heard.  They had a lot of top notch entertainment yesterday, but the best was the Blue Angels.  I was so thrilled that they are back in action after being grounded recently. 

For those who haven't seen a Blue Angels show, they start off with their C-130 (a.k.a Fat Albert) doing some flight demonstrations, including a steep descent.  Fat Albert carries their maintenace crews and ground support equipment.  I love C-130s, so this was really cool for me.  Then, after Fat Albert lands, the 6 US Navy's F-18 Hornets that make up the Blue Angels team show up.  Airplanes 1-4 fly the entire show in formation, while airplanes 5 and 6 do solo maneuvers.  I took way too many pictures, which I may post at some point.  The highlight of the show for me is the "sneak attack".  I'm not sure if that's what they call it.  Basically they distract you with 4 of the airplanes doing something, and then one of the solo airplanes comes in from behind the crowd, and you don't hear it until it's right over you.  This was the maneuver that got the team in trouble a couple of months ago because they flew it too low. 

The show was great, and I love the jet engine noise.  We got to see an F-15 as well...so loud, so wonderful.  My 10 year old was thrilled with the noise and the demonstrations.  It was so great to see him so excited.  When I was a kid, it was going to airshows that got me interested in aerospace and led me to a job in the aerospace industry.  I don't know if yesterday's airshow will ever lead to anything like that for my son, and it's not really my choice.  All I know is that it was so much fun to see him excited, probably like I was at that age.  For me, that was even better than the Blue Angels.

If you ever get an opportunity to go to an airshow with the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds, take it.  You won't regret it.