The Past Week...

Greetings People. Well I feel I have neglected on my blog this year. I guess with the move and all I just really haven't had the time to sit down and blog my thoughts and happenings as often. I'm gonna blog whatever pops in my head during this blog. So maybe I can get caught up a little. This past week was overall a good week. The job seems to be getting easier. Who would have thought that a program designed back in '90 would still be in operation. Its not Windows based at all. I haven't had to memorize and get familiar with so many abbreviations or acronyms in my life. But its not too bad. I've readjusted a little and I'm catching on rather well considering I have 5 more weeks of training to go. The house is coming along rather quickly. All that's left is setting up the living room. But, I'm not gonna do that until I get a surround sound system and then spend a day cussing while I hook everything up at once. I think it will look like showroom quality when we are through. I filed my taxes and the return is gonna look mighty nice in my bank account along with a full check from Manpower at the same time. Woo Hoo. Steve dropped my bike off on Saturday. Now, its time for me to put my a$$ in gear and starting riding it. I'm determined to drop 30 lbs by May. I've already lost 6lbs since I arrived in Tampa on 1-7. My bedroom looks great. I hung my artwork and I was very impressed. I threw the headboard to my bed away. It was nice but it didn't go with the look that I am going for in this room. Without the headboard my bed has become a nice platform bed. With 12 drawers underneath for storage, I have plenty of room. My purple bedroom in Daytona was a great room. And the green bedroom is gonna be awesome now. I haven't unpacked the bar yet. I'm not gonna do any of that until I get the blinds to go out on the backporch. The cable guy came yesterday and installed cable out on the back porch. I am already getting visions of the bar that I am gonna build back there. I tell ya, the landlord is gonna love us when we leave. He agreed to split the cost with me on getting the blinds installed. It's something I would leave behind. The garage is almost empty. Still have a few things in there, but in time it will be cleared out. Speaking of cleared out, he had the backyard cleaned up some since it was overgrown, and it looks a lot better. He says he's gonna plant flowers and all, if he doesn't, I know I will. I already have a spot picked out for when I get my hammock. I have some projects I wanna complete around here and getting this place looking great in time for summer. I'm somewhat homesick from Daytona though. I guess it's because my friends were such a part of my daily life and now that I am in a big city and hardly know anyone here, it's a big change. I'm sure in time, I will begin meeting people. What can I say? I'm 31 years old enjoying life, living it up as best I can, have very little bills, grabbing life by the horns and enjoying the ride. I wouldn't be in the position I'm in if it weren't for all my family and friends. I guess everyone is in the same boat in the sense. Okay enough blubbering. LOL. I grilled some chicken yesterday for the first time on that big George Foreman grill I got back in Nov'. Damn, that was some of the juiciest chicken. Mmm mmm. I made pasta salad, corn, and cornbread. It was a mighty delicious meal. I'm gonna buy me an outdoor grill one day. I love cooking on the George Foreman. You can't go wrong with it. Unless you walk away from it and forget LOL. It looks like I am a cook after all. I enjoy it for the most part, and now that I have a dishwasher and don't have to solicit Missy to clean up the dishes, I plan on doing more cooking (and I hope to keep the weight off). LOL. Well, I guess I'm gonna get out of bed now and start working on finishing up the trim painting that needs to be done. It's on my list of things to finish this weekend. I will take some pictures of the place in the next couple of weeks as it comes together and post them. Some of you will be in shock to see the transformation from the Daytona exhibit to the Tampa showplace. Hope you all have a good week and as always, PEACE OUT ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

The Next 15 Days

Long time no see People. Most of you know that I have been in the process of moving from Daytona to Tampa. Well, good news is, it's finally happened and its over with. I give many thanks to Rachael, Lisa, Dan, Steve, Mike, Brian, and everyone who helped make it happen. We found a house. It's a cute 3 br 2 ba 1150+ sq ft home in the Temple Terrace area. Its conveniently located within 10 mins of Busch Gardens, Hard Rock Casino, the Ford Amphitheatre, amongst other places. We painted the whole house inside (minus the bathrooms) on Weds and Thurs. Then on Friday, Rachael, Lisa and I headed over to Daytona to move out over there. It was great getting to see Missy again. Boy, I miss my friends over in Daytona. Other than the fender bender right in the driveway to load up the truck the actual move went over not bad at all. I tell ya though, my body is exhausted and aching all over. I took today off from the house and didn't do anything except file my taxes (nice refund coming my way). I promise to take some pictures of the house once we get it unpacked and arranged. The best part of the house is the huge screened in back porch. The bar will be hooked up in a matter of time. Well, I'm off to bed now. Peace out!

The first 6 days....

How's it going People? Well, let me say that my first days in Tampa have been quite interesting. Within my first 12 hours in town, we were greeted by the Tampa Police Dept. Rachael, Grant (Rachael's brother), and I met up with Brian and Rachelle (Bday girl) at Howl at the Moon (Dueling Piano Bar) down by the entertainment district known as Channelside. Rachael and I had a blast. You will see in the pictures below that we were drinking from the "bucket". A bucket is 86 ounces of your choice between a Hurricane, Sex on the Beach, Margarita, and a couple of other drinks. Brian and crew had a bucket and we went and got a bucket for us. We had the hurricane first and it was actually very tasty. We had a shot of Rumpleminz as well along with a beer chaser. That first bucket went down rather quickly with the 3 of us nursing it together. We decided we would go ahead and get another bucket. This time it was a sex on the beach bucket. It was even tastier than the first bucket. Rachael and I would go out every so often to smoke. We were pretty much toasted by around 1230a. We hung around til around 1am. The piano bar was awesome. So we finally talked Grant into going back to the house. Well, around 2am, with Grant driving, we got pulled over by an undercover cop. To make that story in itself short, the outcome was, he refused to blow, he failed the sobriety test, and he was hauled off to jail and his car was impounded. But, the cops were nice enough to bring Rachael and me back home. Rachael didn't have her house keys, so we had to "break in" through one of the windows. So all in all, it was a great night with an unexpected ending. Rachael and Lisa went and got Grant out of jail Sunday morning. Sunday was pretty much an uneventful day. Rachael and I went grocery shopping. I stayed the night over at Lisa's so I could house sit to wait on the repairman to fix her AC's, while she went to the lawyers office with Grant. Monday was just a quiet day. Lisa's hubby had two tickets to the Tampa Bay Lightning vs Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game on Tuesday. Since the Florida Gators won the BCS bowl game on Monday night, and he had partied too hard celebrating their victory he told Lisa that we could go to the Hockey game. With me being a virgin to so much culture, Lisa figured she would break me in. We had a blast at the game. I actually enjoyed the game more than I thought I would. The Lightning won the game 3-2. There are some pics of that below as well. I definitely wanna go see more hockey. Yesterday, I helped Lisa finish patching her upstairs kitchen ceiling and I painted it for her. She cooked a marvelous dinner. She made veal Parmesan, corn, and Texas toast. It was very delicious. We have checked out a few more houses. But I guess we have come to the conclusion that we are going to move into an apartment. As much as I want a house, it just doesn't seem there are a lot of them for rent within our budget. I start work next Weds (1-17) and I am so ready to get to work. This little unexpected extra vacation has been fun, but its time to get back in the groove that way I can move into a house and get settled in Tampa and enjoy what this big city has to offer me. I have heard of a couple of bars that I wanna check out that seem to be right up my alley. But there are so many different things to do here other than bars that makes it a nice city to live in. Well, I promise to blog again soon, as my Internet access is limited. As always, Peace OUT!!

Here we are drinking from that bucket

Rachael, Me, and Grant

Mighty tasty I tell ya

Here I am with the Bday girl herself, Rachelle

Cheers to Rachael and I having a grand ol' time

Here we are again, this time with 2 more buckets. 1 straw was not enough!

This is outside the St. Pete Times Forum before the Hockey game

Here Lisa and I are at the bar at the Forum having the first drink of the evening before the hockey game

Me with rink behind me before the game

Penguins practicing before gametime

Tampa Bay Lightning scoring a goal

And the Journey Begins...

Happy Weekend People. It's officially the last night in Daytona. The house is packed and I'm waiting to head over to Tampa. Got some bad news though. Rachael and I didn't get that house that we were wanting. The guy seemed to have led us on. But, that's water under the bridge. I'm not gonna get pissed off. Then I called Manpower up in reference for the DCF job and they told me that the training class had been moved to 1-17-07. That hit hard because I had planned everything since the class was supposed to start this coming Monday. Yesterday was my last day at work here in Daytona. So now I have an unexpected 2 week vacation. So, this is mind boggling. I'm getting very nervous because of all this. But, I'm trying to grab this by the horns and make it happen. I'm excited to get to Tampa and finally have my cell phone working again. I guarantee you, I will be making a few phone calls as soon as I get into my coverage area. Til I'm in Tampa, Peace Out!

New Beginnings, New Year...

Happy New Year People. I swear I haven' t forgotten you. It's just been a very hectic few days for me. I wanna thank all of you that stopped by the 2nd Annual Rob's New Years Extravaganza. Everyone I anticipated to show up, showed up. I had 21 people stop by this year and party. The saddest part about the party was Missy had to work and he didnt get here until 130am. We all drank many shots in his name wishing he were here. Everyone missed his wit and humor that he always has to offer. A big thanks goes out to Dan, Rachael, Missy, Rachelle, Brian, and Tommy for all their help in making everythng go smoothly. It was strange, on New Years Eve I slowly prepared all the food throughout the afternoon and everything was ready by 5p. I had plenty of time during the day, that I thought I was forgetting to do something. Where, last year when I had it in the Penthouse Suite at Coral Beach, I was non-stop the whole time setting the place up and getting all the food prepared and all. Lesson learned is have the party at home. The food was a total success. The 8 layer dip that I made was awesome. The spinach dip was very tasty. I also had meatballs, lil' smokies, famous NC BBQ (Smithfields), and pasta salad. Everyone seemed to have a great time. We watched the New Years slide show, which was pretty cool. I made a gallon and a half of Washington Apple shots. The drinking game for the evening was everytime someone arrived we had to drink a shot. Well, we ran out of those by midnight. But I made some Jello Shots that tasted exactly like a Fuzzy Navel. By night's end, it was suggested that Dan and I had drank 20 shots each. Somehow though, I never got drunk. I think its because I'm a busy-body host that roams around too much to let the liquor get a hold of me and I always nibbled on the food as I walked past it. Kelly brought some party favors that everyone got a kick out of. At 1155pm we switched to the Dick Clark New Years production and I prepared everyone a shot of Champagne along with a chaser shot of Washington Apple. We all did the wishing everyone a Happy New Year and I decided I would slip outside and take in a fresh breath of air. Well, it just so happened that the fireworks being shot off of a barge down by the pier were going off. I saw them and yelled at everyone. Most everyone came outside and somehow we started hooting and hollering at cars as they were driving. Funny thing is most of the drivers blew their horns back at us. LOL. After that it seemed we all congregated in my bedroom and we all got toasted as we toasted in the New Year for the first time. LOL. By around 1a people started slowly heading home. Missy got here and I had a good hour of partying left in me. We drank some more shots and had a few drinks. We then looked at the pictures I had taken and watched the video footage that had been taken. Missy, Rachael, and Jeff crashed overnight. I crashed in the recliner and slept like a baby. I actually didnt do much New Years day except relax. On Tuesday, I came home and Missy and Jeff stopped by and we pulled everything off the walls in the living room and the hallway. Its very sad to see this place looking very barren. I had a lot of nail holes to plug with caulk. Tonite, I packed a few more totes and boxes with living room, bar, and miscellaneous things. Dan and I went through the kitchen and I got most of my kitchen materials packed up. I hope to be done with everything tomorrow evening. Mary D. is stopping by with the boys tomorrow evening and I plan on watching my new favorite movie. I'm not gonna tell you on here, Im gonna burn a copy of it and send it to you and just make sure you watch it. I havent laughed so hard in a long time. Well, I'm gonna post some pictures that were taken either by me or Rachelle. I hope everyone has the happiest of years to come and stay in good health. I am very happy, healthy, and seem to be doing well in life. I'm looking forward to see what the year has to offer me. I'm in a new job, new city, new home all at the beginning of a new year. It's an interesting feeling to have. Well, as Rachael says, I'm out like trout. Peace out!!

Here are the 3 original patrons of the first home bar I ever had (Fishnet Lounge),

Me, Gwen (Silky Chocolate), and John

Here is a shot of some of the party goers. From left to right.

Cassie, Kelly, Shaughn, Lori, Rachelle, Brian, and Shannon

Just a cute picture of Rachelle, Brian, and Shannon

Here is a shot of Me, Dan, and Kelly.

Aww, it's Rob and Rachael (all tore up) LOL

I'm getting EXCITED...

Boo, People. Well here it is Thursday morning. This week seems to have flown by so fast. The damage from the tornado we had on Christmas day is pretty bad. The Embry Riddle Aeronautical University took a very bad blow from it. It totalled 4 college buildings and damaged 6 others. They had over 50 planes destroyed. The Sutton Place apartments lost 3 buildings completely and had damage to 5 others. At this time, the damage in Daytona alone (2 other tornadoes hit in the area) is at $33 million now, I'm sure that number will go up. I wouldn't be surprised if it hits $50 million.For some reason, this is really weighing on my mind. It's just sad that these people literally have no where to go and have nothing left to carry on with. It's just a sad sight. I hope FEMA does declare it available for funds. That's why we pay taxes. On the home front, I have got some more packing done. I've got some cleaning up to do in order to get ready for the New Years party I'm having. Its gonna be a very small crowd compared to last years. I had 40 guests last year stop by. This year's party will be low key. I'm having it here at the condo. I'm gonna invite about 15 people. I'm gonna make my spinach dip that all of you love, gonna make my 7 layer dip, and the INFAMOUS BEERPUNCH that you all can't get enough of. After the party is over, I am gonna go ahead and finish packing up the kitchen and living room. I should have everything but the Projector taken down. Rachael and I are still awaiting word about the house we are hoping to get. My friend Danny (longest friend I have had in Daytona... he picked me up and rented me a room in his house) when I moved to Fla. back in 2-98. He visited for a while and he gave me a Xmas gift. I confirmed with Manpower that I guaranteed to start in the training class on 1-8. He sounded at first that it wasn't because they are requesting more bi-lingual agents. After I told him that I had already gave my notice to my job and done everything to get relocated to the area, he then told me that I was for sure to be in that class. I'm nervous as hell, because if something major (job falls through or the house doesn't come through) happens, I don't know what I am gonna do. I've worked hard on this move and I have really tried to cover all the bases as best I can. But, until I get started at the job and I get a lease signed on the house and the keys to it, will my nerves calm any. I've been very anal about this move, because most of you know my past track record moving has never been pretty. I use to just move at the spur of the moment literally. It got me into some very very bad predicaments. This time I'm doing it the best I can on a single man's budget. I'm just very nervous. But anyways, I'm off today and I am about to hit the sack, its almost 320am here. I will definitely post some pictures from the New Years Party. That's the one day I think friends should get together and reminisce over the past and look forward to the future. Good night and peace out!

Eerie Christmas Day

Hi People. What a strange Christmas day. I woke up around 730am and checked the weather out to see if I should expect rain on my way to work. My job is about 2 miles south of the house and the buses don't run on Christmas day. So I had to walk. I actually made it in excellent time. But I was the only one in the office today and it was very busy handling the office. I went out for a smoke around 12 noon and I was looking up at the sky and I told the security guard for the office that I bet we were gonna get hit with a tornado. The clouds were very low, but they were hauling a$$ North and it was just weird feeling. So I went back in to work and around 130ish we started getting some thunder and lightning and the power kept flickering on and off. I was chatting with Dan (my roomie) online and I told him I had a hunch that it was going to be remembered as the Tornadoes of Christmas Day 06. I was watching the live feed of the Doppler radar online. I'm in a building with no windows except the front door and I'm terrified of lightning. I went up front and looked out and it didn't look too bad and I went back to work. I went out for another smoke around 230p and the security guard told me that a tornado had hit. But he was wrong in where he told me it hit. I finished that cigarette and got back to my desk to see a message from Dan that one had hit the police department and an apartment complex there. There were houses that were completely destroyed. The airport sustained a lot of damage as well. More than 60 planes were damaged. I feel so bad for the people that lost everything they ever had on Christmas day. The news didn't get much footage before the sun went down, but I'm sure there is a lot more damage than they realize. They said it was an F2 tornado that hit us. That's up to 150mph winds. Can you imagine sitting at home having dinner and out of nowhere one hits you. It's just sad and scary to think about. Well, I was supposed to get off work at 5pm but I didn't get finished with the reports til 540p. I walked back home. The Cranberry Sisters (John, Tommy, and I) and Dan were supposed to go to see the premiere of Dreamgirls. We got all the way to the movie theater and the line was 20 mins long just to get tickets, so we decided to go have a couple of drinks. We stopped at Rumors first and it was rather boring. Then we headed on over to the Streamline and we were practically the only ones in the bar. LOL. So, we called it an early night. I guess after the long day of answering 70+ phone calls and inputting 30 internet reservations and the tornado affair, its just been an exhausting day. It wasn't a good Christmas at all. Since, my cell phone doesnt work in Daytona, I couldn't call everyone like I wanted to. So, I guess I'm just a little lonely. But my friends helped me through. So I'm feeling better. I ask that everyone keep the residents of Daytona that were affected by the tornado in their thoughts as the next few days go by. I'm sure it changed some of their lives forever just in a flash. Luckily no one died and there were only a few injured. But Central Florida as a whole got smacked with a few tornadoes. Deland got smacked by a smaller one. There were a few more elsewhere. I'm off today (Tues) and Im going to work on some more packing. I only have 2 weeks left to go and I should be finished by the time I leave for Tampa. Well, I'm going to bed. Gnite and peace out!