Lunch Break Notes

   This year has been one of the best years for Halloween, speaking for myself here. Sure the day was great when I was a kid. I couldn't wait till I got home from school and got into whatever it was that I was being for the night and meet up with friends to go around to the so called "rich neighborhoods" to gather a bag full of treats that I would never eat. It was all fun and games but never has it felt so great. I find that to be true to the fact that our 2 year old is obsessed. I wrote about this obsession before and am still amazed by it. I live in a town where Trick o' Treating happens a day early and so as I write this, I am able to share that my daughter was more entertained by the pumpkins, ghosts, zombies and bats that covered trees and houses than the actual treats that were being given. It was incredible to see her so happy.  One other thing that helped along the buildup for the big day, last night, is always the TV shows, movies and specials that are ...

   It has been quite a while since I last wrote anything. Life has been crazy and time has been.. well, there's just not enough of it. Since my last note a lot has happened. For starters, I now live in Toms River, a place I never fathomed living. I've been a Monmouth county resident my whole life and anything else seemed... not right. But oh how right it is! Living in Toms River is really something else. We have been greeted by almost every neighbor within 2 weeks of living here. Our next door neighbor gave us a pie on our anniversary, Mealz actually has a nickname for her, RoRo. People approach us to just talk. It is an incredible change of pace from where we were.  Now one thing I never imagined about Toms River is their love and devotion for my favorite holiday. Not Christmas, we lived in that town and it was a bit creepy, yeah I'm looking at you Ocean Grove. This town loves Halloween so much that they actually celebrate the Trick or Treat part of it a day early s...

   Don't get me wrong here, I know that there is a lot of underrated television out there today but man oh man!!! Last man on earth was truly something different. A story about the "supposed" last man on earth is a storyline that could go stale quicker  than a sourdough left out, yet they kept it fresh!  Even though this show was written as a comedy with some bits of drama, actually there is quite a bit of drama in it, making it a drama-dy. It touches on aspects of the end of the world like no other show. Such topics that are brought up are what to do when gasoline goes bad or what happens to the people in space and the nuclear plants. These are topics that no other show touches. The Walking Dead has been on for YEARS but not once did they consider what to do with all the vehicles once fuel runs out or goes bad. It gave the show a very bleak and serious touch when dropping "turds" or "oh fart" lines. The final episode was and is ...

I am a huge Star Wars fan so when I heard there was a film coming out about Han Solo I was pumped. Only thing was, I had to go alone due to there being a one year old involved. I can't just leave her in the crib alone while I go see the movie. Luckily though, my wonderful wife agreed to let me have the night so I may indulge myself in my inner child...geek..whatever you may want to call it. That's enough of the how now lets get to the what. The what, of course, being the film. Solo was incredible. It was absolutely everything and nothing at all what you would expect in a Star Wars film. I agree with many when I say that it was nice to not see the Skywalker story play out. It was gritty, not at all magical and that was quite nice for a change. Going into a movie alone is... weird. With that being said, I quickly forgot how weird it was once the movie began. No opening crawl like past films and right into the action, just like past films. I loved the sewer- setting of Ha...

   Me and my wife finally got around to watching the season finale of The Walking Dead the other night. Along with that we watched the season premiere of Fear the Walking Dead. As of lately, past few seasons to be more exact, my interest in the franchise has grown limp. With storylines falling flat or not moving AT ALL!! The premiere of FtWD just changed all that with the intro of what should be a lasting gem of a character. John Dorie, like the fish as he says but an "ie" rather than a "y". From the instant I heard his voice I knew the writers had made a great choice by casting Garrett Dillahunt to play the role of the offbeat sharpshooter with a sweet tooth and a story, yet to be fully revealed except for his love is wandering the wasteland with a matching antique pistol.    Within moments you love the character. Walking Dead has introduced and gotten rid of, a long list of likable characters but none of them had the u...

Getting your kid to try new foods at a young age can be quite difficult. It must be scary for them judging by how our daughter reacts when we try to offer something as simple as mashed potatoes or even jello. My wife discovered an incredible tactic that has yet to fail. Now, all kids are different so chances are it will not work for everyone but for us, it was a, as the Doctor says, Bingo! When offering a new food that she is weary of we simply bring the whole pot out, or in some cases, like ours the other night, the whole bird. We found that she is more open to trying new things when she is able to see right where it is coming from. Most of the time it will be out of a pot or a box. If we were to just try and give her a piece of meat she would push it away. We discovered this when we brought vegetables out onto the table one night and rather than enjoy the same vegetable in front of her, she wanted the same ones that were in the pot. What can I say? Our kids weird. ...

As I get older I find myself falling more and more in love with fluffy, sometimes crunchy and always welcoming doughnuts. As a kid I was never too fond of them but here I am in my thirties and damn... I love them. I have no idea when it happened but now that the obsession is here, it's here to stay. Years back, I would wake up early enough to head to the store and gather around the Entemans table with all the other old timers trying to decide how we would choose the treat ourselves. Now, I'm not an old timer by any means but I know how pastries draw in those with silver caps.  Me and my wife have been known to travel for great pastries and I wish we could do the same with doughnuts but with there being no shoppes that make "normal" doughnuts, it's tough. We have on place near where I live now. Broad Street Dough Co. I enjoy a good old fashioned type. I'm not so keen on the places that pride themselves on how many toppings they can pile on a single doughnu...

Have you seen Riverdale? ( Pause for effect at the end of that question.) If the person you are asking looks around cautiously before saying yes then you know they have seen what you have seen. They probably think what you think or maybe they don't and when you asked them the question they just said " yup" without hesitation. Maybe they were having sex all over the place in high school and drinking wine with dinner even though they are still kids. Maybe the person you are asking bought Starbucks on their way into school and then sat for long amounts of time in what seems like a student lounge while bickering over either sexual or murderous daily topics. If it was me you were asking, I'm shocked for a little bit of all of the above.  I can't believe that this show is geared towards the young demographic that it is with the sensationalized points it puts in front during each episode. There's way too much sex for one thing... wait... maybe they are right for...

So I just finished the series finale of star wars rebels and i have to say... that was a great show stopper, literally. I have watched the series since its premier and have enjoyed the story that it gave to star wars fans like myself. And yeah, I know it's a Disney cartoon but they took this project very seriously and you could tell. As a fanboy of the franchise, I loved seeing how this series was not just creating a new band of extended universe characters that would never see the light of day off the TV circuit. The characters were pulled from novels that were written up to 20 years ago even included them in the mainstream saga such as Captain Sendula, my apologies if I mispelt, and the Ghost were a part of the major space battle in Rogue One that was hatched to obtain and deliver the Death Stars plans that launched the first main trilogy story. Sendula would also go on to battle in the fight for Endor, it is noted even though we don't see it. Characters fr...

So anyone with kids will know what i am talking about when I say this. After you have a kid, especially the first one, the dynamics of you and your partners "intimate moments" get shifted... a bit. So long are the long nights of heavy breathing and noise making and replaced with a more subtle, peaceful and silent events. I of course have noticed the change and it makes me laugh when I think about it to myself. Some couples enjoy talking dirty to each other to really spice up the moment at hand but when you have a kid... you still say the same raunchy statements but you tone it down to a whisper. So you whisper dirty things to each other. Ha! Hilarious! You do this so you don't wake up the baby. Even though the baby sleeps in a completely different room. Also, the frequency of times that you interact with each other on an adult basis changes too. I feel like Luke Skywalker using the force to destroy the Death Star when it comes to finding the right moment to "ent...