This blog is about six days late, oh well shit happens then you wipe. And repeat if need........
Anywho I went to Alviso, CA this Fourth of July with some friends for beer, barbq and fireworks. Now the funny thing about fireworks is that they are illegal in CA, much like they are in NJ, but for some reason in this little town the cops look the other way.
I mean hell we had to drive to an reservation in another state and go out into the desert to buy these damn things! And they were hella expensive too!
And when I say fireworks I am not just talking about bottle rockets and roman candles, these backyard shows could have put some of the 'organized' fireworks to shame. There were some serious explosions going off all around us, and I mean all around us. I was like one house was trying to outdo the other for blocks and blocks on end!

1) The day started with beer and food, and when I say food I mean really good food. You know the kind that you really should not be eating but cannt help but to shove into your mouth as fast as you can!

 2) Kids love sparklers and ear plugs! Yes many of them had ear plugs in by the time the sun went down.

 3)Here we have my friend Ben (standing next to the atv) and one of his cousins, I swear he is related to just about everyone in this neighborhood in one way or another!

 4) I have no idea what this was called, it was loud, colorful and as loud as army ordnance! And the the quote of the day goes to a meme I saw on FB:  "Kids dont handle the fireworks, they are very dangerous let the adults that have been drinking all day do it"

 5) One of the calmer moments that night, followed by a volley of teeth rattling explosions and bright flashes of light that could have been easily mistake for floodlights on a mac truck

 6) Yes that is the middle of the street, its the safest place to light off a multi color flame thrower....duh

 7) I am not sure what was going on here but I am sure it had something to do with gunpowder and drunken adults.

A great time was had by all, I did not drink as much as I would have liked because I was driving. But it did allow me to people watch, which by the way is one of the best spectator sports in the world! The more they drank the longer they held onto the bottle rockets and the slower they moved away from the the box of mortars they just lit called 'Crack the Sky'.
And to my surprise I never had to breakout the first aide kit, and yes I made sure I brought one. The stories I have been told about what has gone on in previous years dictated to me that I had to have that bad boy on hand.

This year I decide to do a birthday challenge. I challenged myself to a suburban hike to Almaden State Park in San Jose CA and back. And here are the results:

Duration: 2hrs and 2min

Distance: 6.65 miles

Calories Burned: 824

In all it was a good hike, and even took some pictures along the way. Now if you'll excuse me I am off to rest my feet, they are killing me lol

1) It used to be a rock quarry, and is really deep in certain parts. I will be coming back here soon, but next time I am taking a car!

 2) Back in Jersey I always wanted to stop and take pictures of all the roadside memorials I saw. And lets just say there are a lot of them in the part of Jersey I am from. This one is in memory of Ronnie Macdowell, may he rest in peace.

 3) I took this picture to help me remember the name of the park, I kept forgetting lol.

 4) My camera does not do this scenery justice, but you get the idea. They have fishing, boating, swimming and......well I forget what else. But I am going to come back as soon as my feet feel like they attached to my legs!

In all it was a great hike, but boy was I glad it was over! My feet are still mad at me for abusing them like that but it was so worth it. And it sure beats jogging, it might have taken longer to burn as many calories but at least I did get the dry heaves hahaha

Cali sun, fun and work

Ok, I have been in CA now for almost a month. The job hunt is slow going but it is going. There have been a few things I have had to obtain before I could really get a move on the hunt.
One: Get a Cali drivers license. Got that last week, I had to bring in my birth certificate and my old NJ license then take the written test. Yes, I had to take the written test, the very one I took when I was 19! I passed, it was not all that hard. Some of it was common sense and some of it was just......well, NO DUH! But I did learn that it is illegal to smoke in your own car if there are persons under the age of 18 in the car with you. I did not know that!

Secondly, I had to obtain a guard card. It is a card that says you have paid a large sum of money to a certified company to tell you what is on this state run multiple guess test. And once you pass it you then go through a background check and fingerprint check. And once all that is done you get this card that says you can go work as a security guard. To me it seems more like a tax for being 'allowed' to work as a guard and not so much a certificate of being competent.
Most of the questions were......well again NO DUH! I paid my $325 and passed the test for section one of three. I go back for round 2 next week to complete my training. The card is good for two years and after the two years the only thing I have to do is pay $35 to the state to keep the card in good standing. Again see how one could see this as a tax and not an actual certificate?

But anywho, that has been my world so far. I do have some friends out here that I hang out with whenever I can. Last weekend we went to Tahoe and did a little gambling, nothing fancy just a little road trip to blow off some steam and buy fireworks ;-)

And before I go here is a road sign I saw today just chilling by the highway. And yes I was a red light waiting to get on the highway. Oh and before I forget it got up to 107 today, no humidity.....thank god for that!

Well spank me stoopid........

I have finally gotten my blog back up and running, I am not sure if I want to keep this blog or if I want to start fresh, I have been with this one since 2005! And I feel that I have learned soo much since then; my writing style has changed, my look has changed, my life has changed and even my location has changed.

I have soo much I have to say that I am not even sure I can, I mean I know I can but I do not know if I really want to go back and do a years worth of recaps!! But I guess I can just do a fast and dirty version of what I have been through:

• Graduated college
• Hurricane Sandy beat up NJ
• The family has been doing well
• Lilian bought a new car, a Kia Serento
• The sister-in-law is now a nurse
• The wife now works in the corporate office of her job
• And I now live in San Jose, CA

Yes, I said I now live in San Jose, CA! We have been planning on this move for about three years now, and just this past July I made the move over. We packed my car and I drove from NJ to CA via route 80. It took me five days to complete my trip, I stopped four times along the way: Indiana, Nebraska, Wyoming and Nevada. I could have made it in four days but the wife found a super cheap room at Circus Circus in Reno and I just could not say no to staying in Reno!

It cost me about $305 in gas and about $210 in hotels. It also cost me a sore butt from all that driving lol! The drive was as smooth as anyone could have hoped for, only a small amount of traffic in Pennsylvania and a small bout of rain in Nebraska. Other than that it was smooth sailing.

Found a room to rent on the second day I was in CA and that has been home ever since. The only hard part about this adventure is that I miss everyone back home, I miss them tremendously. I underestimated how much I would miss everyone, but we knew this coming into this endeavor and I am not about to back down on what I came out here to do.

I have been out here for almost a month now and the job hunt is on! I have had two interviews and I have another one lined up this Friday. I have been applying to just about any place that I think my schooling and background fits, so wish me luck on the hunt for a job......no a hunt for a career!

I will be coming back as often as I can to post pictures, because I love posting pictures! Life is truly just the memories you make along the way, and I use a camera to help preserve them. And to end this post I think I will post a few of the ones I took on the ride over:


My last trip to double D's

 Yep its only 46 hours and 39 minutes to go!

This is pretty much what it looked like for 90% of the trip

 Here are my two travel buddies, well actually they belong to Seth and Lucas but they are mine now!

 And here is my other traveling buddy, and luckily it was only need to open bags of chips and beef jerky lol

 I stopped in Lincoln Nebraska at the Horizon Inn and next door they had the only 24 hour sex shop I have ever seen......and by the way if you are looking for a clean and cheap room in Nebraska, the Horizon Inn is the place. Great place in my book.

Other road shot

I found this gas station in the middle of fucking nowhere Wyoming and this was the sign in the bathroom. It was really off the beaten path but they had what I needed.

 This is the Tree of Utah, found right off route 80 in the salt flats of Utah. Not sure what or why but it sure made for a cool photo.

Usual gas station condom machines lol

 Breakfast at Denny's......I was really hungry!

 The room I found in San Jose, it might look small but it is all I need for the time being.

And that is it for now, I will be back sometimes this week to continue breathing life into this place. So many fond memories at blogspot with so many more to come.

Time time breath again.....

Well it only took me two days to get my blog back up and running, and a huge note to self: Put passwords to all email accounts and sites I belong to in one place!
It has been a wild time since last I posted; unemployment problems, financial aid problems, job hunting problems, living situation problems and just life problems in general. But those are things I am tired of talking about and that is not why I started blogging, I want to come here and post some of the rambling crap that seems to ooze out of my head. A place to kick back and just say things like, 'Today I saw a lady walking her cat, nothing to strange about that; other than the fact the cat was purple!'
And yes I did see that this morning, craziest thing I have seen in the ghetto this month. Hookers, pimps and crack heads have become the norm, but a lady walking a purple cat! Well, that about does it for me haha!

I grew a long goatee, then I shaved it off. I wanted to keep it until I got a job but it got really annoying and ended up shaving it off. I started running and lost just about 11lbs in a month, I am now back to working out again and it feels great. Yesterday I did pull ups and push ups and a three mile run. I still cannt do too many pull ups but the run was pretty good, I did three miles in 31:16. Took off almost 2 minutes from my last 3 mile run.
I also celebrated my 36 birthday in July, and to that my sister in law said; 'How does it feel to be almost 40?' And let me say I did not kill her, age has taught me that it is much more fun to kill them kindness that with a knife muahahahaah! And besides I know what makes her jump and scream, pay back should never be this much fun!
I am going to try and come back here more often now that I have all my sign on issues dealt with. I know I have said that before so lets see if I can keep that promise to myself because I really do like my blog and it helps keep track of all of life's ups and downs.