Thursday, April 24, 2008

Ridiculous...

Almost a year ago, I posted this...And up until last night, it's been used a grand total of zero times...

Last night the small group finished up our study of John and I felt it was necessary to cook a little redfish,,,Southern Style...Or fried as most people call it...

I love this fryer...Everyone should own one...


Redfish sandwiches with a special creole sauce just didn't cut it and we had to throw down a few sides...

Crinkle cut fries with some Tony's...

Sliced Green Tomatoes...

Dill pickle spears...

All of us had to see the cardiologist today because of the amount of grease intake last night but it was well worth it...

If you have anything that you want to eat fried, let me know...I'm in the full on experimental mode now with this thing...Bring something over and we'll batter it up and throw it into some grease...

Sunday, April 20, 2008

JB's Last Cast

Finally,,,I know, I know...I've been weak on this deal but here ya go...I'll try to get an album up with all the pics up sometime this week as there are a bunch of good ones...

Pretty much the first question I got from my buddies when Amanda and I got engaged was not when the wedding was or where it was at, it was "When and where are the bachelor party?" Of course, I could have chose a Vegas or beach type location but from the get go I knew where I wanted to throw this shin-dig...Buras, LA...I highly doubt most people have never even heard of Buras...So I've attached the below pic (Green arrow)...60 miles south or New Orleans...A couple years ago, a small storm called Katrina made land fall here...Yup, that's right Buras, Louisiana...

And the reason for choosing Buras you ask??? Fishing and great food...

I have to say that I have the bestest of friends on this planet. They manned up, took some time off of work, dropped a few dollars and made the trip...16 of them made it. And I'm thinkin' that most of them did.

Todd G. did an awesome job putting a lot of this together. Both of us leveraged our relationships in the marine industry and put together an insane captains bag together for all the guys...Most have been 15 shirts in total along with a bunch of other gear. I'm sure I'll see some of it on eBay pretty soon...

Of course, there are tons of stories to tell but I don't have time to tell all...I've attached several pics that might sum up the weekend though. I'll tell a brief quip with each...In no particular order because I'm lazy and tired right now...

My buddy Frenchie (Left) was crowned winner of the biggest speckle trout for the weekend...His prize...A shirt of me presented by my pops (right). Let's just say there were 7 dudes wearing those shirts from LAX (CA) to Louisiana. Apparently, they got a few questions. You have to admit, I used to be a studly little dude...
My pops (right) was crowned big winner of the weekend for the redfish with the most spots (10)...See next pic. His prize...A free pair of Costa Del Mar sunglasses presented by big bad Joe Mercurio. Great job pops...
Pops and me...Freakin' great...I hadn't been fishing with my dad in a really long time (that's gonna change though) and it was great. We went out with Ben J. on Sat. and absolutely smoked the reds. Thanks pops for generating my 'Y' chromosome. Greatly appreciated.

Rob (right) won for biggest red for the weekend. His prize...A bottle of Patron. He shared. It was consumed soon after that.
My buddy Frenchie and Rob got along well. But Rob piped up a tad too much therefore bringing the wrath of Frenchie...I think Frenchie may cruise from Texas to the wedding just so he can hang out with Rob more...
100 lbs of Crawfish...Absolutely ridiculous. So good. On a dare, my pops bit the head off a live one. There were only a few laughs watching that go down. If you've never had boiled crawfish before. Please do one day.
Todd and I decided that it would be a great idea to bring a cardboard cut out of Joe Merc down to the event. It was. One, my dad didn't realize who the cut out was until Friday night. And two, Rob violated the cut out and made everyone laugh...Pictured...Frenchie (left), Cardboard Joe (Center) and Capt. Ben Jarrett (Right)

The fishing was incredibly tough because of the high and dirty water of the Mississippi. Fortunately, we had a guide one day and Shags (left) caught some nice fish...Nice hat bro...
This is T-Mike...He's my Cajun friend from Thibodeaux, LA - pronounce (tib-a-dough). He took out Rob, Jeremy and I first day. Can't wait to see him in So Cal in June throwin' down once again with all the homeboys...
The gang minus a couple gents who had to turn it in a tad early because of the festivities the night before. Of course there's always gotta be a dude who flips off the camera...Thanks Travis...
In case you were wondering what Redfish look like once they've gutted and cleaned...Here ya go...I ate redfish three times this week. Those are called halfshells on the left and saltwater quail on the right. The halfshells coupled with Italian bread crumbs and a sauce which I'm not at liberty to disclose will knock you down and slap your mamma...Ask Amanda and the 6 other dudes in my small group who got to sample this week...
Seriously, it was a freakin' blast in the bayou last weekend. I love my friends. There's talk of a yearly trip like this...They are addicted now...

Big thanks to all the sponsors that donated gear to the cause...you've clothed my friends for at least a couple of weeks. And a huge huge thanks to Ryan Lambert of Cajun Fishing Adventures (www.cajunfishingadventures.com) for putting up with all my buddies for the weekend...

56 days to go my friends...See you in the OC shortly...

Friday, April 18, 2008

USA Today says I'm old School...

Saw the below article in today's USA Today on the front page of the money section...It made me laugh....

Because remember when I posted this...

It's just how I roll...Get it, "How I roll"...Like how I roll down my own window...

Thursday, April 17, 2008

TV Rots Your Brain...

I don't know if the above is true but if it is, then Amanda and I have mush in our domes right now after last night...

I know, I know, I'm supposed to be uploading and telling stories from this past weekend...But I'm too lazy to download all the pics and tell all the stories right now. I'll work on it...

It seems like Amanda and I haven't had a full on lurk fest in awhile so we treated ourselves last night...7 - 11 TV watching (I took it until about 2am after she left)...No talking about work, no talking about the wedding, no talking about anything....Just best friends laying on the couch together enjoying each other's company....

In the midst of our lurking I've come up with a couple questions/conclusions?

1) I haven't watched Survivor in a long time and I was surprised by what's going on with the show now in Micronesia...It seems as if you have to look good without clothes to get on the show now. I thought I was watching Real World/Road Rules Challenge...What happened to overweight gay naked dudes?

2) I love The Office. My life has gotten significantly better over the last two weeks because of the new episodes...Favorite line tonight from Michael, "What's going on Oscar Myer Weiner.....lover". How one does not like this show is beyond me. I get a sense of night before Christmas feelings on Wed. nights because I know about the goodness I get to partake in on Thursday evening with Michael Scott and gang...


3) The re-run of Battle Garlic on Iron Chef America was phenomenal...
Mario Batali is a beast in the kitchen...Even with those lame clogs he rocks...Costentino did throw down though..


4) I wish I had the stones to be a crab fisherman...Deadliest Catch is freakin' awesome and I think Discovery Channel is the off the chain bad arse overall.


That's it...Gotta go...Survivorman starts pretty soon...

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Back in the ATL...

Amanda and I are back from our trips...Great times had by all...Lots of story to tell...Too tired right now...

Check back in the next couple of days for full details...

What did you do this weekend?

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Out of Office...

Amanda and I leave for our respective bachelor/ette parties tomorrow...I'm headed south below I-10 to the great state of Louisiana and Amanda is off to So Cal.

I will be here for the next few nights...

Eating a couple of these...


Trying and hopefully catching a few of these...
And hangin' with these guys...And a few more...

Cell phone only works for Amanda, so holler back Monday...

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

My Future Wife Makes Me Laugh...

Here's a recent telephone conversation my future bride had with a receptionist at a dermatologist...

Receptionist - Hi, thanks for calling Dr. so and so...

Amanda - I would like to make an appointment

Receptionist - Ok, for what?

Amanda - Huh?

Receptionist - For what part of the body?

Amanda - Ah....The skin....

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Ayn Rand Owns Me...

About 8 months ago, my friend Valerie recommended that I read Atlas Shrugged. She said that it would change my outlook on a lot of things in life, especially business. Being somewhat of an avid reader, I was game. Well, I can officially say that I am finally done. 1168 pages, several plane flights and hotel stays later I am done.

Although it took me forever to finish, I will say it is a phenomenal book. It reads like drying paint in some areas, hence the time it took to read it. I would go into all the details of the book but I have forgot many of them. Maybe I should read it again? Na...At least not right now.

I will say that while reading it, I saw many similarities to the current political differences we hear everyday...And this book was written in 1957 and took place during the industrial revolution...

Read the Wiki entry here to gain some insight if you don't want to commit to reading the entire thing...

It's on to a bunch of other books I have in the queue...The World is Flat, Getting Things Done, For Men Only...These are going to be a breeze compared to this beast...