Vacay: Day 5

Before I start I have an announcement or three. You might have received an award and not realized it, go HERE.
If you have not yet voted on the battle of the cereal mascots, go HERE.
And most importantly I have guest posted at Life by Chocolate again with another candy interview, go HERE for that awesomeness.

Onto our regular scheduled programming.

I went on vacation in the beginning of June and I'm only on day 5 of it, man I am slow. I actually have to backtrack to day 3 because I totally forgot to mention something. Nicole and I went buffalo riding on the beach. Can you believe that, they had buffaloes in Virgina at the beach. You probably don't believe it and you shouldn't because I am lying like a cheap rug. We actually went horseback riding on the beach. A bit more believable?

We saw them on Friday when we were walking down the boardwalk and thought it would be cool to try it out. We trekked by the little stable and got the phone number to make an appointment for the next day. I called early on Saturday and made an appointment for 4 o'clock. The guy on the phone emitted the intelligence of Gomer Pyle. I wanted to give us enough time because we had the murder mystery dinner that night. We also had a coupon for $5 off each person for half hour ride.

We arrive a few minutes before 4 to see three people going off for a ride. They took our appointment!! The guy's said that he thought they were us. Ummm, we had an appointment for 2, there were 3 of them and they just walked up and you assumed they were us? Nicole and I were pretty pissed. The guy fumbled through the appointment book and was like "oh, sorry about that." We had to wait a half hour to go for our ride. Since they were douches we got an extra $10 off plus our coupons.

I'll tell ya, I have never ridden a horse before. I've been on a pony twice in my life and those were in my younger days. Riding a horse is not as easy as it seems. Somehow I picked the stubborn horse, his name was Red Bull. Nicole got the big ass horse named King. I think RedBull was tired and didn't want to take another trip across the hot sand. They had to pull him along a few times but he got goin' eventually. One of the employees told me to kick him hard to go fast. I kicked and he bolted, it is a bumpy ride in the sand. I don't know how people ride bareback. It was fun but next time I need to remember to put on suntan lotion.......OUCH!!






I look sexy in a helmet, right?

For day 5 I assume we went back to the beach. I have a hard time peeing in the ocean. What, you don't go #1 in the ocean? I wasn't walking back to the hotel to take a leak when the ocean is right there. If the whales and fishies can do it then so can I. I need to be very still in order to take a piss. The motion of the ocean makes in very difficult. I have to stand in with the water knee level in order to do my business, then I wash off in the water. If you saw me standing there I probably would have a really odd look on my face.

For dinner we decided on Hooters. I had only been to Hooter once in my life and I believe Nicole had never been. We were poppin' her Hooters cherry. I got the spicy jack wings which were tasty but not hot at all. Also after about 8 of them they got a little sickening but I hate wasted food so I forced the last 2 down. I think Nicole got a burger. I have no idea how it was, I'm sure I had a bite but I can't give any opinions on it. I'm sure it was tasty.

I probably shouldn't give a review of the Hooters' girls cuz I will most likely get into trouble. All I will say is that they are "equipped" to work there. You should at least go to Hooters once to at least check it out.

Don't forget to check out my guest post on RawknRobyn's blog Life by Chocolate, click HERE. Show here some love while you are there and follow her if you don't already.

Also if you missed the other vacay posts you can click these: Vacay: Day 1, Vacay: Day 2, Vacay: Day 3, and Vacay: Day 4.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Goin' Foreign

I potentially have a lot to write about in this post but for your sake I will try to keep it short and to the point. Recently I got a new car, wait.....correction, my fiance and I got a new car. She is helping me finance it because she is good like that and she doesn't want me to get another piece of crap.

The new car we got is a 2007 Nissan Altima 3.5L V6 SE but before I tell you about the new whip I want to enlighten you about my old ride, a 2001 Chevy Monte Carlo LS. It was definitely a sexy looking car and was fully loaded; heated leather seats, sun roof, traction control, ABS, and On Star. It was pretty good on gas for a big ass car and was great in the snow. Unfortunately after a year of owning this beast things started to go wrong like they usually do for General Motors' vehicles. The engine started to get noisy and I had a slight valve tap that got louder as the months rolled on. I also had to replace an O2 sensor, EGR valve and catalytic converter. Then my heat wasn't working so I figured it was the thermostat, turned out to be a leaky head gasket. Right there I decided to stop driving it before I did any more damage.

So after being car-less for a few weeks, Nicole and I went car shopping. I knew I wanted a used Altima with low mileage and that's exactly what we got. I test drove the V6 and the 4 cylinder models and found that the V6 was a lot smoother. We have had this puppy for about 2 weeks now and I love it. It drives nice and smooth, a lot lighter than the Monte Carlo and more powerful as well. The Monte was a little underpowered for it's size.



What's sweet about the newer Nissan's is the keyless entry and push button start, no more juggling those keys. This baby is quick too, I'm passing people on the highway in a flash. It's not fully loaded like the Monte Carlo was but I'll take reliability and a 5 year/100,000 mile warranty over leather seats any day. This Altima is certified so it drives like its brand new even with 45,000 miles on it.

I just drove it home tonight in the snow and it feels like it's all wheel drive, I didn't slip at all. Even when I tried to fish tail the traction control wouldn't let me. This car has an automatic transmission but has the manual shifting option if you want to shift for fun, I used this to downshift down the hills and bends in the snow.

I wouldn't even be driving this car if it wasn't for my beautiful and caring fiance Nicole. She is way too good to me. It's comforting having someone there to support you when you need it most. Nicole, if you are reading this, Thank you for all your help.

I don't have anything negative to say about the Altima at this time and hopefully I won't have to. This is my first foreign car, I have had all Chevy's up to this point but that is for another post, this one is long enough. If you didn't realize it, this post was a review of the Altima and the first non-movie review. At least I think it is, I can't keep track of what I write anymore.

Shit Happens

I should of wrote this post on Monday but it's not time sensitive so I don't care that much. The reason I say this is because something happened over last weekend that should of sparked this post right away. I'll show you some pics first and you can imagine what could of happened.....

So my fiance Nicole and I were driving up to see my buddy Jon in Syracuse last Friday. We were about 75 miles away from his house on the Thruway around 6 o'clock with a decent amount of traffic around us. When out of nowhere there were 3 deer just chilling in the road like someone just dropped them off there. We were going 65 mph in the right lane so there wasn't much time to stop. We slammed on the brakes and swerved left (which in retrospect was probably a bad idea if there had been another car in the left lane.) Obviously we hit one of the damn things, we clipped it's ass and it did about $2000 worth of damage to Nicole's CR-V. I don't know what happened to the deer. He's probably in a wheel chair now with a broken coccyx (tail bone) and dislocated legs. I hope Bambi's cousin has health insurance.

I have no idea how we ended up hitting Bambi's cousin seeing how there were cars behind and in front of us and we were in the right lane. These deer were walking from the left side of the road and somehow maneuvered through traffic right in front of us. I think some guy with a tractor trailer is dropping off deer on the highway at random points, dude if you are reading this, you are an ASSHOLE!! The only good news is that the car was still drivable minus a headlight and part of the bumper.

A trooper stopped to help us and he was definitely related to Barney Fife and Gomer Pyle. He was dumb and didn't know what to do. He asked us if we wanted a police report. We asked him if we needed one and he said that he didn't know. What a jackass!

The kicker is we had just come from Mavis for 4 new tires and an alignment and now the car is going to be in the body shop for almost a month. Luckily there is collision on the car and Nicole gets to drive a 2009 Camry rental. That car is a smooth ride.

Deer are unavoidable, you are better off gunning for them and fucking them up as much as possible for being in your way. I have hit 3 in my life with 3 different vehicles. I'm going for the record. Anyone hit more than me?

When you're bored...

I was just flipping through my phone and came across these pics.

Almost Engaged!!

Nicole and I have been talking about our future a lot lately. Our goal is to move into our own apartment by the spring. I can't wait to get out of my house again and move in with Nicole. We spend every minute with each other anyway so that part wouldn't change. It's the privacy aspect; we have none. I live at home with my mom and she lives at home with her parents. The living arrangements need a swift kick in the ass. I'm ready to start my future with Nicole.

One idea is to transfer to Binghamton University and get a place up there. First Nicole needs to be accepted into their nursing program and then we can get the ball rolling.

This past weekend was probably the strongest our relationship has been. We have been talking about getting married and stuff before but this time was the most serious. I told her I'm ready to propose and get a ring. It gave me such a good feeling just to say and think that. We were at the JV mall on Sunday waiting for her sister to get her hair cut so we took a gander in Zales just for fun. I didn't think we would find anything but the first ring she looked at she loved. It also comes with the matching wedding band for a very reasonable price. It was easier than I thought to find a ring that she liked.

It was and is a big turning point in our relationship.

I get a really good, warm feeling when I think about proposing to Nicole. I don't know when I'm going to do it and I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise by telling you.

You could say that we are in a pre-engagement. I'm happier than I have ever been and I can thank Nicole Ashley Palladino for that. I love her so much.

The Truth Hurts

I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this but your Mom and Dad lied to you....

(I bet you were an ugly baby)

It might look a little dirty because I wore it to work...haha

Summer in Rome

Rome, the Eternal City.
Picture it. Italy. 2007. A young college student and her classmates arrive in Rome after an 8 hour flight. They are studying there for 3 weeks, trying to learn the ins and outs of roman culture. Also, they are trying to come back to America as alcoholics.

That's just a little back story. I had the privilege to study abroad in Italy my first summer of college. It cost $4200 to go, and I worked my ass off changing diapers, bedpans, answering call bells, and dealing with psychotic people. My professor informed us we were going to there to study, me and my friends informed him we were going on vacation. Me and my two friends shared a room. We actually lucked out because a chaperon was supposed to be the fourth person in our room but very last minute (in the airport) she was unable to come and we had the room to ourselves.
We had class from about 9am until maybe 3 in the afternoon. After that we were free to do whatever we wanted. Usually what we did was go take a nap after class, wake up, get ready, go out to dinner and then stay out all night until 3 or 4 and wake up at 9 and do it all over again. That is exactly how it went for 3 straight weeks. It was great.

It wasn't just about partying though. I saw some things I would probably never have and don't know if I will again. I hope so. The Pantheon, Coliseum, the Vatican, The Pope himself, the Sistine Chapel, Trevi Fountain, and plenty more. We even traveled to Florence where I saw the stature of David.
Me and my group of friends convinced our professor to give us 2 days off in a row so we could travel to Capri. We weren't supposed to but, we were on fucking vacation okay! We went there and it was beautiful. The water is so blue, the island is just breath taking, and its very expensive. We got ourselves a hotel and stayed overnight. In fact, everyone heard about how much fun we had, and, it is now an official excursion on the trip now. Yeah that's right, I'm a trendsetter.

On another day off, me and my friends also traveled to Pompeii. Yup, the city that was destroyed by a big volcanic explosion years and years ago. We even got to climb that very volcano. Yes. We climbed a volcano and it was amazing. I cant even describe it. It was so beautiful, so breath taking, so awesome. Words cant describe it. Everyone should see it once. That picture actually was taken at the very top and u can see the inside wall of the volcano. Pretty sick. Words cant even describe it, just go.
I cant wait to go back, God willing, I will. I want to go with Jamie. I want to show him all the things I saw because I think he would really love it. I WILL go again. Someday.. The point of the story is: travel. Travel near and far, I want to go so many places. Shoot, I even want to just go to Disney world just because I haven't been, (Jamie is taking me). See as much as you can, you never know when it will be gone. I was able to experience centuries of culture and tradition, and I really do hope I get to see much more.
Nicole

MILF T-shirt

Who doesn't love hot moms? I love this shirt, I forgot where I got it. I think it was a Christmas present or something. I do get good reviews when I wear it. It might offend ugly moms though......they need lovin' too.