Category: Lifestyle

Posted on

Thai Cooking Lessons

thaicookingclass

The wife and I continued our Groupon and LivingSocial addiction. We decided to take a Thai cooking course at The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) instead of doing another archery, motorcycle riding, or NRA pistol certification class. In truth, I have recently become totally fixated on cooking related shows. Anything with Gordon Ramsey is an immediate season pass selection on the TiVos. So when I saw the Groupon offer a couples thai cooking class I thought that it would be another great opportunity to get out for the night with my girl.

Chef Vicki Caparulo was our instructor for the evening. She was absolutely amazing! She seemed to have that Continue reading “Thai Cooking Lessons”

Posted on

No sleep ’til Brooklyn

884506_10200875862197509_1529770013_o

I recently participated in a sleep study to correct my nocturnal habits and longtime insomnia. Most of my friends, especially those on Facebook and other social media sites, have noticed that I am active online very late in the night. I have been like this for many years. I rarely sleep more than a few hours at a stretch. This has never been a problem for me, until about a year ago when I started feeling tired and rundown. My docs, after ruling out  Continue reading “No sleep ’til Brooklyn”

Posted on

Archery Night: Zombie Apocalypse training

598367_311290438972220_755832194_n

In light of the “Avengers”, the “Hunger Games”, and the new Green Arrow TV series, both of my kids have been interested in trying the sport of archery. So when I came across a Groupon deal for the Queens Archery Range I decided to take the whole family. We had an amazing time. My wife even enjoyed it, and I didn’t figure her for the archery type. We shot recurve bows that first night and I was shocked at how much fun I had getting my inner Hawkeye on! While the girls enjoyed themselves, they didn’t think that archery was going to be something that they would want to do on a regular basis. My boy on the other hand was hooked.

A few weeks later I took my boy back Continue reading “Archery Night: Zombie Apocalypse training”

Posted on

Here we go again

32311_570744569605990_1484518509_n

It is a damn shame that we are having this discussion yet again today. The murder of 27 people in Connecticut, 20 of them small children between the ages of 5 and 10, once again highlights a unique problem with American society. I have been watching the television coverage for most of the day with a mixture of sadness and calm acceptance of the reality of the world we live in today. I wasn’t sure of whether or not to add my two cents since I have recently become NRA certified with a pistol and have taken up range shooting as a hobby. As a child of the 70’s and a a resident of NYC, where we have some of the most strict gun laws in the country, I would be a Continue reading “Here we go again”

Posted on

I am the Night…The Dark Knight!!

Most people I know are aware of my fixation on a certain comic book character. So just as a goof I took an online personality quiz which asked the question “which Superhero are you”. To be honest, I should have guessed the outcome.

Results: You are the Batman

Batman
75%
Hulk
65%
The Flash
65%
Superman
60%
Supergirl
57%
Iron Man
55%
Spider-Man
50%
Robin
49%
Wonder Woman
42%
Catwoman
30%
Green Lantern
15%
You are dark, love gadgets
and have vowed to help the innocent
not suffer the pain you have endured.


Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Posted on

My New Mac Mini is on the way


Since it has been at least 7 years since I have upgraded my Apple desktop system I finally decided it was time to pull the trigger on the new Mac Mini that Apple announced last week. I ordered my new setup from MacMall and it should arrive in the next few days. The miniature form factor of the mini is perfect for my desk, and the third generation Intel quad core processor will provide enough power for most basic multimedia tasks. After years of favoring Apple, I have been primarily working on PCs since this summer because certain software could not be run on my old Powermac Quad G5. However, while the transition was not as dreadful as I had expected because Windows 7 was better than Vista, I still I missed my mac environment and have been anxious to Continue reading “My New Mac Mini is on the way”

Posted on

Throw ‘ya guns in ‘da air!

It appears that my Groupon and Livingsocial addiction continues onward. My wife and I spent the day at the New Jersey Firearms Academy taking the NRA sponsored Basic Pistol certification course. We had the opportunity to work with some great instructors. I hadn’t been to a gun range in nearly 20 years but the instructors at NJ Firearms made me feel very safe and comfortable. They introduced us to 9mms, 357s, 45s, 40 Calibires, 38s, and 22s (revolvers and semi automatics).

So overall it was a good day and I confirmed a couple of things that I always suspected. One, Chow Yun Fat and John Woo are absolutely full of crap. Two, shooting ranges are radically different than the paintball competitions that the family and I use from time to time. And three, my wife is a much better shot than me and definitely not the person I want to piss off. However, while my wife  once again showed me up, I did much better at the range than I did on the motorcycle training course from a few weeks back. Plus I had a really great time and met a bunch of really cool people.

Midlife crisis – 1, James – 1.

Posted on

We cut heads!

The Pres

I came across this picture of President Obama recently and it made me think.  The worst thing about having a shaved head is……. I miss going to the barbershop.  The last time I went to a barbershop was probably close to 20 years ago. I started shaving my head right around the time that my wife and I started dating.

The barbershop I used to go to was the old Jerry’s Den on Lenox Avenue in Harlem. It was always packed because everyone was waiting for the one or two barbers that were guaranteed to give you a good cut. Most people would rather wait and hour or two to make sure you got a barber that didn’t give you a jacked up cut.

The main thing I miss about the barbershop is the Continue reading “We cut heads!”