I-AM-FUDGE

I can't believe I am 34yrs old today. Wow has time flown by. I moved back to Hawaii in 2002, I was 26, single, and back in the islands after living in Nebraska for 8yrs. Now, 34, married, tons of animals, home-owner (well, I owned my house in NE too) and still unemployed. Haha. no it's not funny, I have actually had quite a few jobs in the past 8yrs. Just for the moment I am unemployed, but that will all change...soon...I hope.
Anyway, I woke up early this morning to my cat crying at the door for one of us to feed him. I got up, fed him and the others, then came back into bed. When I got back, my wife sang me our birthday song, "happy birthday to the birthday-boy, the birthday-boy, the birthday-boy. Happy birthday to the birthday-boy." I guess you had to be here. She then got up and gave me a present. Wrapped in pages from Entertainment Weekly, was a 160GB Apple TV. Awesome. How great is that? I am excited. I wanted to jump up and hook it up to my tv, like now. One problem. It doesn't come with an HDMI cable! ? Bummer. I have to wait a few hours before I can run to my local SamsClub (the cables are a lot cheaper) and get a cable, then get home and fire this thing up, pair it to my laptop, and we can then streammmmmmm the movies, music, etc.

While reading the box, and checking it all out, she passes me another present.  This one is hard, like a wooden box.  Wrapping paper ripped, and what do you know, it is a wooden box.  But wait, this one came off of my dresser.  I opened up the box to find an iTunes Gift card for $25.  Yes.  More books and stuff to buy for playing with the Apple TV and on my iPad.


As I am typing this, she walks out with a conformation letter saying that we are staying in Waikiki tonight, since that is where dinner is happening.   It is only 8:15am and already it is an awesome birthday!





Updates to come......

I did it! Made it to day 10 of no meat. Tonight, I will be having a ribeye steak from BLTsteaks, Med.Rare

It is looking pretty good for me to make my goal of 10 days. Last week I decided to eat like a vegetarian for 10 days, right before my 34th birthday. I knew we had reservations to eat at BLT steak which is a restaurant in the Trump Tower in Waikiki. Known for their dry-aging, and super hot cooking style, needless to say, I am excited. Back to the Veg thing. Sooo, I decided I would only eat like a veg for a couple of days, which turned into going on 10 days. I was allowed to eat fish, which has saved me a few times. Don't get me wrong, I like salad, but not that often, and I do like tofu, so that helps. I think the hardest for me is when we go out to eat dinner. See at home, I make salsa, avocado dips, grilled cheese, etc, but when we go out, there are so many other great things to eat like fried chicken, big hamburgers, etc. A friend had a bbq out on a sandbar in the middle of the ocean, out in K-bay, and I was the chef. I cooked hamburgers and hotdogs, but only ate chips and trail mix. That was a tough one. Hot summer day, middle of the ocean, charcoal grill going, burgers and dogs, with all the fixins and I eat chips.
As day 10 approaches, I can taste the steak. I know it was gonna be good 10 days ago, but now with it being the first meat I eat coming out of a "meat fast" I am really looking forward to my 34th.

Here is the Honolulu Dinner Menu in case you wanted to drool along with me.

Day 5. No meat, chicken. I have been eating fish, and tofu. It actually is easier than I thought. I went to cheesecake factory last night and ordered a fish sandwich instead of a burger. That was tough. This coming Saturday is my birthday, and I will be having a huge streak to celebrate the 10 days of no meat.
Ok, I think it is the fried chicken that I am missing the most right now......

Sooo. My wife is a vegetarian, and has moved more to being a Vegan. I guess she is the true definition of the word. She has wanted me to change my diet, and eat veg as well. Today is day 4.

Not bad for a white dog!

So, I know a few days back I posted something about Ndamukong Suh. He was drafted #2, and went to the Detroit Lions. Good for him.

I love my iPad.  I have written about how I wanted one, got one, and now what I love most about owning one.  There are a few apps that you absolutely have to have on this "magical" device.
1. Netflix.  With the app you can stream movies, Tv shows, anything that Netflix offers as their play now list.  It seems as each day they are adding more and more items to this list.  The screen on the iPad is beautiful so having a huge collection of movies to choose from when bored is awesome.
2. iBooks.  Apple's answer to Amazon's Kindle.  The app is great.  Purchase the book right through the app, using your iTunes account, you can even have a sample sent to your iPad before you purchase the entire book.  You can change the font, size, color, brightness, etc.  Perfect to read from, especially when you are in a place without Wifi. The only "con" I see so far is compared to the Kindle app, there are way more books on Amazon's site, than in the iBookstore.
3. Pandora.  Once Apple allows multitasking on the iPad, this will be a #1 app.  Right now, you can stream music through the pandora app, and they allow you to request a style, or artist for that playlist.  There is also a biography of that artist, band, etc. you can read about while in the app.  For now once you exit the app, the music stops, unlike the iPod function which allows you to continue to listen to your music, once the app is closed, and you go into another app.
4. We Rule.  We Rule is a game, sorta like "Farmville" on Facebook.  You have a "kingdom" where you plant, grow and raise food to sell for $ in order to buy more things.  I have become addicted to this game, so much that it has made it to the bottom dock on my iPad.  I have farms, a fish pond, school, lumber yard and tailor shop.  I also have houses for the help to live.  That allows me to collect taxes and get more $$.
5. Apple Apps. Calendar, Contacts, Mail.  All of these apps, I use daily.  The Calendar is an extension of my desktop, with MobileMe my calendar syncs over the air.  Same with the Contacts and Mail.  With Contact is is like the old days of carrying a little book with your contacts, except you can make changes without a pencil, click on an email address and it opens up the Mail program and start up an email.  Mail looks like my desktop Mail app without the integrated inbox.  We hear that iPhone OS4 will cover this problem.

Mr. Suh will be drafted later this week into the NFL.  My hope is that he goes #1 or #2.  Most critics and industry heads have him going #2 after Sam Bradford the quarterback from Oklahoma.  He is one of the most powerful defensive lineman to come out of college.  Sports Science a show that looks at the science behind the sports.  Knowing he is going to be drafted so high, he already has promised $2.6 million to his school Nebraska.  2 Million for the Athletic department for the Strength and Conditioning program and $600,000 to a scholarship program for the School of Engineering (where Suh graduated from this past December).  This is the most anyone has donated from a single player.  How awesome.