Hockey and free beer = LIVING

As the nights go, this was an excellent one. I went to a Bolts game. Sat on the second row and when dudes would get checked into the glass, I was counting teeth. The tickets came with free Beer, and free food. I texted my kids that I intended to take them to an NHL game. Bottom line, it is a fast game with plexiglass barriers, and it was quite awesome. I would write more, but honestly, I could break it all down this way: Hockey on T.V. = kind of sucks. Hockey right next to you on the glass? Awesome!!! Beer Excellent = Free Beer even more so.

Leadership

Leadership is not the same as Management. You can be a Manager and also not much of a leader. You can be part of the rank and file and yet your leadership will make you stand out.

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Below are four women who I believe are leaders. I encourage hot women to wear skimpy Bikini's, and I applaud these women's leadership. So many of the beautiful women I know would not wear these Bikini's out in public, but I think its just something that should be done.

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I say this at the risk of your basic 1970's girl, with her full on, below the belt line, forest going on, thinking this is something for her to wear. It really isn't. The seventies are over, buy a razor. I encourage this at the risk of the big boned woman thinking this is something she could pull off, and No, you can't.

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It doesn't mean you are not beautiful with your big bonedness, its just that although you might own a badass motorcycle, that doesnt mean you should try to jump over a shitload of busses because you saw that shit on T.V. once.

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I say this as a guy who admires beautiful women in all shapes and forms. I encourage this behavior, but realize if you are riding a street bike, maybe you shouldn't be thinking about going off road. If you have a moto cross bike though, then you are the riders I am encouraging to wind it out in the form of these tiny Bikinis. I hope the fact that the picture below might cause an "R" rating for this post to not deter others. Many women could not pull this off like these four, and that is not a knock on those women that can't whatsoever, but those of you out there that can, I encourage this behavior.

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Bikini's that are smaller then your sunglasses are a lot like F-14 Fighter jets. You may have your license to fly a Cessna, and Cessna aerobatics are lovely, Not a damn thing wrong with a Cessna, But only the topgun types get time in the F-14.

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(I believe if you place the cursor on this photograph and click, it will enlarge.)

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Also, and this isnt me being sexist. It just doesnt work both ways. I believe in what I am going to say in the following few paragraphs, and I believe 99.9 percent of the people that read this will also.

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With these women and their young, very in shape bodies, wearing these skimpy bikinis is a shout out to all that is good in the world. It is an affirmation of life. They are just beautiful, confident women that basically say to hell with what every one else thinks. They are awesome.

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In contrast the guy below who is wearing the male version of this thing comes off like a dickhead. I am not gay but I can see that he has worked hard on his body. Again, not gay, but I would concede that his physique took a lot of work to have. That body involves a BUNCH of working out, and a bunch of NOT eating chicken wings and NOT drinking beer. It took will power.

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Lets face it, Even though he clearly has an awesome body, I think even Gay men would think this guy is a dickwad if he wore this thing out in public.

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It just isn't the same with a dude. This same guy wearing a normal bathing suit might clean up with the women, as they might admire his body and stuff, which again, not gay but it is solid. But truthfully, if you saw a dude wearing this out in public as a woman, or a gay man you might think he has a great physique, but the stupidness of that suit would make him a caracature, whereas, with the four women above that never crosses my mind. As summary, women wearing skimpy Bikini bathingsuits = great leadership. Men wearing shit like this, = douchebag.

Beadarilla

The Hyde Park Village area is my new home, and I am finding it's awesomeness more and more, every day. Last weekend they had the Children's Gasparilla Parade just down the block on Bayshore. My kids were in town, so we went down the street to check it out, even though my daughter protested because she said her feet were tired from all the walking we had done earlier that day at the NFL Experience.

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Once we were at the parade and the people in the floats started throwing Cheap Beads into the crowd, it was all over. My daughter forgot all about her tired little feet, and the enthusiasm for those plastic beads was off the hook, tired feet be damned. As we were walking back, after it was over, my son said he liked the "Beadarilla" parade allot. He honestly thought that was the name of it. I had told him it was Gasparilla on the way down to the thing, and evidently in his little mind, and after the reinforcement of the flying beads, it just morphed into that.

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Tonight they had a concert in the Village Area. They closed off the streets, and let it fly. Jesse Palmer was there in some capacity, and he walked right by me, escorted by Four police officers on horses and a few that were walking. The place was all lit up and they had a beer stand, so that was good. A little Wednesday Night drinking seemed to be in order, but just a few, because now I have to get up in the mornings. It was all very cool in my book. I think I am going to love living

here.

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This weekend its the Superbowl, and then next weekend after that its the Grown up Gasparilla Parade. On any other normal night there are still tons of restaurants and bars and stuff in the area so all in all it seems like a pretty awesome place to live, and yes I know that Raymond James Stadium isnt actually in Hyde Park, but goodness, its only an 11 dollar cab ride away.

Thanks NTF!

A friend of mine sent this to me, and it cracked me up!-





Dear Mrs. Jones,
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I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer. I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot. From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.

Sincerely,



Mrs. Smith

Riptides and life

A conversation I had with my Dad tonight made me think about riptides. When you find yourself in one, the natural instinct is to fight to get back to shore, but in reality, the way to get yourself out of that situation is to let the riptide take you out to sea, and then after you feel the current weakening, swim parallel to the beach line, and then swim back.

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Sometimes in life, when you feel yourself in its current, the same thing applies. Let it take you and then after you get some distance from it, just swim on back.

The NFL experience

Just so you know I made both my extra points

Hunter kind of squibbed his

Chase got a little air and she thinks if she would have been closer she would have made hers

Mine was from Twenty yards --- I kicked it all Dempsy style

ITS AN OUTRAGE! NUMBER 9 IN RECRUITING

Not to be an alarmist or anything but maybe some rich alumni dude from Florida should begin thinking about buying out Urban Meyer's contract.
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My goodness, I was just over on this websight http://rivals100.rivals.com/teamrank.asp and the defending National Champions have already gone soft according to them: The Gators are Ranked 9th in recruiting right now, and worse then that little tidbit of information is that LSU is number 1, and Alabama is number 5.
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At least the Gators have a small chance at possibly winning the SEC East and hoping for some kind of luck in the championship game against whichever of these two teams wins the Western Division next year. -- Also, I guess since we are being thankful for being an Eastern Division team, we should be gratefull for Brandon Spikes decision to come back for his Senior Season so that our ENTIRE DEFENDING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP STARTING DEFENSE will come back next year.
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Not that they were dominant or anything I mean goodness, they gave up TWO touchdowns to Oklahoma. Sure Oklahoma only set the all time record for points scored in a College Football Season but facts are facts and they did score 2 touchdowns against the Gators what a Bunch of FREAKING SLACKERS that defense ended up being.
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Spikes was the only starting Junior, and when I say that, I mean that EVERYONE else on that Starting Defense was some kind of Sophomore or Freshman. Either a true or a redshirt. just to Clarify, He was not the only starting Junior projected to go in the first round of the NFL draft on that team. HE WAS THE ONLY STARTING JUNIOR and only guy eligible for the draft from the starting defense.
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This whole thing just pisses me off. Urban wins TWO out of the last THREE national championships and thinks its okay to be NUMBER 9 in recruiting during January, according to Rivals.com -- I hope Urban reads my blog and wakes up soon before we begin to be afraid of scheduling Syracuse or something.
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Fantasy guys auditioning for Me, Bill the Owner of a FF team.

A friend of mine, who thinks he is Mark Cuban with the way he sports his Guest Towells, sent this You tube video to me and It is AWESOME. I particularly liked Chris Chambers audition, who, by the way was one of my guys.
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Some Questions need different answers depending on the circumstances

President Obama's cabinet is in the process of getting confirmed by Congress. Today, they ratified Hillary Clinton's appointment as Secretary of State, but the Attorney General Nominee; Eric Holder has to wait until January 28th due to some concerns held by some members of congress.

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The Republicans requested this delay on his confirmation, because they have some issues with his opinions on torture, and more specifically, the practice of water boarding.

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Mr. Holder believes water boarding of terrorists is torture, and should be illegal. And right now, so do I. You can think about it and justify that it is barbaric and not in line with the golden rule, nor is it congruent with what America should be about.

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As the greatest country on Earth, we should be above that nastiness. We are not a dictatorship or fascist run puppet government. Our stature as a leading country in the world would be in question if we believed that torturing someone is EVER justified. That's what our enemies may do, small minded religious extremists do it, but as my mother used to tell me, "just because your buddy jumps off a bridge does that mean you should also?" or another cliche she adopted as her own: " Two wrongs don't make a right." This is basically Obama's view on torture, as well as Eric Holder's, and mine, at least, that is, for right now.

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While we discuss this issue in the context of confirming someone for the position of Attorney General, that is exactly the position I want him to have. I want the attorney general elect to believe that torture is barbaric and fundamentally wrong as a moral imperative. One person, or group of people should never water board another human being. And as we discuss it in the context of his confirmation it absolutely should not be condoned in a civilized society such as ours.

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If we catch a known terrorist however, and believe that scumbag motherfucker has information that could prevent something like 911 from happening in the future, and we have to water board the fuck out of that dude to pry that information out of him?..... THEN I want an Attorney General who will look the other damned way while that happens. After it all goes down I don't want him to turn around and mess with the CIA spooks or Military Intelligence dudes that did it.

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Ultimately we need an attorney General who honestly believes that water boarding and torture of terrorists is wrong, but that same guy has to understand his role in looking the other way when there is real shit hitting the fan, and it is a necessity for our National Security. I believe congress is worried that the dude is not two faced enough to be AG of the United States of America and that is why they want this delay, but obviously they can't really ask this question of the man, So I will ask it myself. Eric Holder are you two faced enough to be the Attorney General of the United States of America? Do you understand that there is an answer to the questions posed to you by congress that is right, and that there is an answer that is completely opposite of that when American Lives are at stake?

As I get older I have something to look forward to

If you keep on living, you will get older and one day you will open up a Playboy magazine and the naked woman on the pages will actually be younger than you are. Its okay because you are still around the same age and you just figure you have a shot.... When you are 11 years old and hiding under the covers sneaking a peak, you know you are just a kid. but when you are 22 and they are 21 or whatever, you are in the sweet spot. Soon enough though, you are old enough to be their father. That's a bummer, its like being 11 years old all over again, you just don't have a shot.

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It happens with Football coaches also. One morning you wake up and John Gruden was fired and his replacement is a 32 year old man and you think to yourself, how come I wasn't the head coach of a National Football league team when I was 32?

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Eventually this growing older thing will work out for you though. Know how I know? Because I see crappy movies all the time, but as my kids get older I know that someday soon we can go and see a movie that doesn't totally suck. It still might be a few years away though as this past weekend's debacle of a movie will attest: We saw "hotel for dogs"

Here is what was good about that movie. The theatre we went to has the butter machine out in the open, where you are able to access it, and put as much butter on the popcorn as you want. That's it, and that would have been true even if we had gone to a "good" movie.

Just some photos of my kids

The "Extra" weekend.

Quit Choking your brother

Dude, you and that DS game...

Nice Over done smile

Dad, Hold My D.S. so it doesnt get wet

Take a picture of me up close daddy

That was a funny thing you said dad

Let me hold my brothers arms down so he doesnt make a funny sign over my head

Act like you guys like each other

Let me take a picture of you guys on my stoop

A great day to Eat Butter

Coach Dixon used to be the wide receivers coach for Florida. Before practices he used to shout words of encouragement, and one of his lines while the Gators were stretching and getting ready for practice was to yell out the following: "Its a great day to get better" : He was loud and exuberant when he uttered this phrase.
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A day came though, when this phrase got mocked. .... Zach Pillar and the rest of the team were stretching, and before Coach Dixon could utter his phrase, .....Zach yelled out: "Its a great day to eat butter"--
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So here it is, words to live by, No matter what else is going on, it is ALWAYS a great day to eat butter. .

A New Fad that I would like to start instead of just being ashamed.

The day of the Florida /LSU football game, as me and my buddy were leaving the hotel parking lot to go to the tailgate, I pulled back from the parking spot, but my bumper was caught on the little concrete parking bumpy thing, and the fascia ripped off. We drove it on over anyways, tailgated and then enjoyed the ass whuppin the Gators put on em, (at least I did, this particular buddy of mine is a Tiger fan even though his MBA degree is from Florida. He might not have characterized it as Enjoyable) and then the next day, I duct taped it up so it wouldnt fall off. That was in Early to Mid October. I have been driving around with duct tape on my car ever since.

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Today, I went to the bodyshop to get an estimate, because it really is kind of sad that I havent fixed it yet, but life has made it abundantly clear that it has other plans for my money.

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There are a couple of lawyers kids out in the world that need to go to college someday and it has become my duty to help them with that. I owe MY lawyer and I owe my EX-WIFE'S lawyer. I also have a substantial amount of Alimony and Child support every month . Plus, the whole reason for the demise of my marriage stems from my Ex completely gutting us financially. To date I have paid back about $5500 on that bullshit, and still owe substantially more. Plus I have to live somewhere, and the electric company doesnt just give away light etc. etc. and on and on.

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All those expenses pretty much run through my checking account like I have been drinking tap water in Mexico. My bank account is like a bulimic hot chick that gorges on steak and cake, and then sticks her finger down her throat to purge.

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So it has been a matter of priorities more so then laziness, but I had saved up enough to finally get it addressed and went down to the body shop today at lunch. Anyways It is going to be substantially more than I had anticipated...should I Pay off another one of those credit cards that I never knew I had and continue driving around in a duct taped Chrysler? Or get my bumper cover fixed? Since I started my new job I have been very self conscious of the image it portrays and am leaning towards biting the bullet on the repair, but seriously its a lot of money and I have gone this long with the duct tape look and who knows, maybe I can be at the very beginning of a new fad.

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A behind the scenes look at TEBOW choosing to come back

Its not news that Tim Tebow is coming back, he announced it on Sunday. BUT... I was talking to a guy, who knows a guy who evidently was privy to some info about Tim Tebow's decision process in choosing to come back for his Senior Season.
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Apparently Urban told Tim they would let him take about 50 percent of the offensive snaps from under center next year. (This is something the NFL wants to see) I believe it will work well. --- Not saying that he wouldn't have come back had this not been offered and honestly I don't know if it is even true. We will find out though, next season if we see him under center more.

An acknowledgement of a small luxury in life.

The main meal I cook for myself are cheese crisps. Its easy, you can put a frying pan on the stove, a little butter, and the tortilla with some grated cheese inside that bad boy, and voila, a few minutes later you have a cheese crisp, all cheesy and hot and yet kind of crispy at the same time. Its like a little bit of heaven in a piece of flatbread. I like some hot sauce on top, and if I am particularly adventuresome, a little sour cream and we are in business. Here is the thing though. BUY the cheese already grated and in a little bag from the store. I ran out of the pre-grated cheese the other night, but had a block of chedder and a grater. I grated some of the block which was a HUGE mistake. The whole thing took about 4 minutes to make, about 5 minutes to eat and about 35 minutes to finally get all that crusty cheese residue from out of the inside of the little grater thingy. My hands are to big to get up in their good, and I did a half ass job, set it out to dry and then when I was putting it away tonight, I saw the hangers up in there and spent the last 35 minutes of my life getting them out. 35 minutes I will never get back. So what did we learn? Pre-grated cheese may cost more but its worth it.

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Extra

One of the cool side deals about moving to Tampa is more access to my children . This weekend My X has a thing with her boyfriend (dude lives down in this area somewhere) So even though its not "my" weekend she is bringing them down on Saturday afternoon and will pick them up on Sunday to take them back... Extra is what I call that ...

First day on the new job

Someone once called me a "Worker Bee" It was said in a mocking sense ... The kind of criticism that somehow I am not cut out to be my own boss. Might be true ... who knows.
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The last 18 months or so I was working for someone, but it was a straight up commission type of deal in that if I did not get it done, then baby doesnt get a new pair of shoes. It was set up kind of like I was working for myself. My bosses lived in far away cities with giant mice that owned dogs. They would just send me the work, and I would send it back in a little bow tie. Rarely did I ever have any problems with them, nor did they with the final product. I did okay with it, however as soon as someone offered me a job I took it.
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Today was my first day back on the job. One with a salary and bosses, that dont live in far away mice towns. These are the types of bosses that have offices just down the hall. I did get one of those cool ass phones though that someone else pays for. Thats cool.
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Also in my last gig I could set my own hours and often chose not to have those hours be early in the morning. This job not so much, I actually had to get up and you know, GO to work.
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Its all good, made it through the first day not really accomplishing much but I did get a sense of what is expected out of me and I dont think I will have any problems exceeding those expectations.

LEGENDARY

To Quote Barney, from the T.V. show: "How I Met Your Mother" ---- LEGENDARY!

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The 2008/ 2009 Florida Gators are not just an ordinary National Championship Football Team, they are LEGENDARY. This is a dynasty. What we have the opportunity to watch here is the National Champions from two of the last three years.

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Its like being a UCLA basketball fan in the late 60's and early 70's. Urban Meyer plays the role of John Wooden.

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Its like the past tense of that movie "Field of Dreams" It has been built and they are here.

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Urban Meyer wanted the fastest team in America and thats what he has. You aren't even allowed to be a trainer at Florida if you cant hang with Husain Bolt in the 100 meters for at least a little while. Fans have to run sub 5 second forty yard dashes before they are allowed to buy season tickets.

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All respect to Sam Bradford. He is a really good Quarterback. But last night, just like Dorothy said to Toto, or at least something close: "Florida's Defense Isn't Kansas', and I dont think we are in the Big 12 anymore Toto." Okay, maybe thats not quite what she uttered, but if she was done following the yellow brick road and had tickets to last nights game, that might have been something she said. Who brings their dog to a National Championship Game anyways?

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Tebow is the Greatest College Football player of all time. He wills his team to win. It is such a joy to be a Gator fan because of the whole team, but especially because of that kid. When he is not busy dominating College Football at the highest level, he spends his spare time creating a better earth for us all to enjoy. Again, nothing against Bradford, but next year when Tebow wins his second Heisman and Third National Championship, the only thing not right about it will be that its not his Third Heisman.

Enjoy the Gator Aid bath Urban, Many more are sure to follow.

Just a little over 6 Hours till game time tonight

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but this years college football season is going to end tonight.
I hope it will be done in the best way possible with a Gator Victory. Either way though, it was an awesome year.

I hope Tebow comes back for his Senior Season, but if he doesn't, I will enjoy watching him in the NFL. I believe he will prove all the doubters wrong and will be a star in the NFL as well. Time will tell though and no matter what happens in the Pro's, in my opinion he will go down as the greatest College Football player EVER, no offense to Herschel Walker ....



Urban, I hope you come back as well. The NFL is a lot different then College and although I believe you could do well in the Pro's, I also think you could go down as an all time legend if you stay at Florida another 15 years or so....




Go Gators...

The one where I pat myself on the back

The reason they say a dog ages about 7 years for every one of ours is because dogs die a lot sooner then people. Generally speaking a dog is going to live around 10 to 14 years, with that lifespan its like being 70 to 98 years old in people years. Tiny little Yapper dogs live a little longer ----Big old working dogs a little less...

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Blogs have even shorter lifespans. (in general) I have seen blogs with one post. (licious?) I have seen blogs die, bloggers quit for a variety of reasons, so having seen all that, I just wanted to point out that this blog is over a year old ... My first post was Jan 3 2008 and here we are on January 8 2009. In blog years its like I am a 75 year old man.

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My blog is like an old medium sized dog laying on a porch of an old Florida Cracker home. - every once in awhile I will get up off the porch and bark at a car driving by or a squirrel that is messing with me just a little bit to much, but in general I just kind of lay there under the old porch swing, licking my balls and napping.

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More about my recent bar hopping

Just to revisit, all three of those bars that I wrote about in my previous post are within walking distance, and to get there I had to walk by some other bars. One of them is this total dive ass looking thing that claims it is world famous. The sign says it is : " The World Famous, Tiny Tap Tavern.
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Here is a rule to live by. Any time you walk by a bar and the sign says it is world famous, then at some time you need to drink a beer there. It doesnt matter that it is just a cinder block looking thing that I had never heard of until I walked by it. That is not relavent. the fact is that they claim they are world famous, and what if I walked by that bar every day to go to some other bars that look nicer and had less cinder block, but never had a beer at the Tiny Tap, and then I found out I was the only person in the world that never heard about the world famousness that is this bar?? How silly would I be? That would just be a damn shame.
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Thats the kind of neighborhood I live in. I live in a neighborhood in which you could justifiably walk by a world famous tavern to go to some other bars that dont claim that they are wold famous and still feel okay about yourself --- Plus there are "Three" beyond awesome steak houses also within walking distance. ... Its like I live in a steak eating, beer drinking world of wonder.
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Alas, I have not come across the first hotdog stand so I certainly miss that about Miami... Plus, although you can walk to the grocery store, its a long ass walk ...
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I will just drive to the grocery store most of the time ...And I will soon have a beer at the WORLD FAMOUS TINY TAP TAVERN

Checking out the neighborhood

I went out on the town for the first time since I moved here to Tampa. I had my kids with me for the first 7 days and they just dont bar hop yet, and then when they left on Sunday, I just didnt go out on Monday and Tuesday, as they are kind of dead nights, but tonight, I found a few bars in the area and had a few drinks. The first bar I went to was called Cork. It is basically a wine bar but they also have beer. Evidently some kind of club was meeting their tonight, so from what I could tell it was like a made for T.V. movie in the sense that you go to this bar and tons of good looking women are hanging out and they were basically all kinds of friendly. Anyways, I talked to a few people and then I went over to the "Dubliner." That place had some awesome pizza, so being the kind of guy who loves some Pizza, I ate some. Then I went to Mac Dintons and had a few beers and then came home. I caught a golf Cart ride, although I could have just walked. Either way , that golf cart service works well for me.

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It was like I was a kid waiting to jump into the water but instead just dipped my toes .. I think this neighborhood will work well for me.

A story from the Tampa Bay paper

Reading in the Tampa Tribune today about a six year old who missed his bus to go to school. What did he do about it? He went in the house, found his parents Keys and drove himself to school, except he didnt quite make it, He wrecked. He wasnt hurt and the police later took him to school after getting him checked out at the hospital. He told them he learned to drive by playing video games.
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1) Lots of initiative for this kid, He probably really likes school.
2) How did he reach the pedals?

Trying

Trying, I am...

Tampa is the new Miami (at least for me)

Whew.... Moving is a bitch. Basically I am done with it now. I am a resident of Tampa. The new Job starts in 11 days.
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Moving to a new city is stressful, Starting a new job is as well. I am kind of in between jobs, except I still have a few things to do for my last one. I have a bad case of the lazies though, and it is spreading.