Happy Birthday ‘Gibblesnix’

in which I suddenly realize that two years have passed me by…

Two years ago today, this site was born with my first post.  And now, 63 posts, 1,114 Flickr pics and 2,538 Tweets later, I’m still here. Through all of my ups and downs, good times and bad, this site still remains. At times I couldn’t put it down, other times it seemed like it didn’t exist. But honestly folks, this has been one hell of a ride and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I just want to thank everyone who helped me along the way, posted comments, read me, linked me and showed an interest in who and what I am all about. I couldn’t have done it without you all…

Thank you!

~KJ

Wheeeew

in which I’m catching my breath from recent events…

The last couple of weeks have been exciting and packed with the goodness. Thought I’d drop you all a quick post to get you up to speed. This will be the condensed version. I finally got a new roof put on the house last week after a long wait. It looks like it’s all finished up and now I can start getting the yard back in shape. I recently met a very cute girl that I’m totally diggin’ on and have been very busy. There has been great food, wine tasting, cocktails, dancing, bbqs, stock car racing, friends and plenty of laughter to say the least. Looking forward to the days ahead. Work seems to be picking up for me and feeling good about my progress and the chance to better my sales skills. My bills are paid and I seem to be managing my funds better and have more to work with at the moment. I’ve shed some pounds. Life is good. I feel good. I like this.

All for now but more to come…

~KJ

Week in review

in which I recap my mini-vacation…

I decided to take 4 days off last week and hit the course. I booked a stay ‘n play package for last Thursday at Wildhorse Resort Casino, which is less that an hour away from here. I got up early that morning, had some coffee and loaded up the car. Not much to take other than a change of clothes and my clubs. Tee time was at 10:36 am so I hit the road by 9:oo am. Ran into some road construction on Highway 11 just outside om Milton-Freewater that had me stopped for about 15 mins. Glad I left a little early. Made it to the Casino with plenty of time to check-in, dropped my stuff off in the room and headed up to the golf course. I walked around the parking lot for a bit while waiting for my caddy (@smugirishman) to show up. He was there right on time. We hit the pro shop, picked up a fresh sleeve of balls, grabbed a cart and headed back to the parking lot to load up. Went over to the practice green, chipped, pitched and putted a few balls and then headed for the 1st Tee Box. The weather was really nice. About 75 degrees and a 10 to 15 mph breeze from out of the west. Perfect golfing conditions in my book. We let our 1st drives fly and away we went.

Couldn’t have asked for a better day. The golfing was great. Not too crowded and I played well. I put my old Nickent 3DX driver back in the bag cuz the Cleveland Hi-Bore wasn’t doing me any justice at all. Needless to say, I drove the ball really good and stayed out of trouble for the most part. My short-game was on, I was rolling the ball well on the greens and managed to get off the course with an 88. Not bad at all considering that I’ve only played a handful of times this year. In the end, I walked away victorious and feeling pretty good about the whole round. Had a blast! God, I love that game.

Headed back to my room, changed clothes, relaxed for a while and then decided to hit the Casino floor. Took a quick detour into the Players Club for a cocktail or two and then started to gamble. Made a few quick hits on the slot machines, played some 3 card poker and found myself up on those bastards a couple of hundred bucks all of a sudden. w00t! Stopped while I was up, went back to the bar for another cocktail and savored my winnings for the moment. Decided to enter a No-Limit Hold ‘Em tourney and head back to my room for a bit while waiting for it to begin. Tourney started at 6:30 and I was well on my way to a serious buzz. They called us down to the tables and away I went. Started off winning a few decent pots and was then moved to another table. We had 63 entries and I was hangin’ in there. Got into a couple hands that I probably shouldn’t have played and found myself short-stacked rather quickly. Gave it my all but got eliminated in 18th place. Not bad, considering that I haven’t played any Hold ‘Em for about a year now but would have loved to have made it to the final table. Maybe next time.

So that was that. Back to the bar for another cocktail while I thought about what to have for dinner. It just so happened that it was all-you-can-eat seafood buffet night. Oh, hell yes! And they also had some stand-up comedians in the lounge for my entertainment. I decided to go ahead and eat and let me tell ya’, I soon discovered that I can eat a shit-load of steak and king crab legs. I swear, I sat there and ate more crab that ever before. I was in there for over an hour before I pulled my head out of my ass and stopped. Completely boated, I went back to my room for a well deserved nap. God, I was full and content. I freakin’ love crab!

Once recovered from the crab incident, I went back down to the floor to gamble. All in all, I did pretty good although I was so full of crab, steak and vodka that I knew I wouldn’t last much longer. Ended up calling it a night around 1 am, headed to my room and crashed. What an awesome day it was. Really had a good time.

I awoke the following morning and decided to go checkout the Museum that I had talked about seeing in the past. Glad I did. I checked out of my room around 11 am, drove back to the TCI museum and wandered through it. It was really cool. Couldn’t take any pics inside but I did get a few from behind the facility. I really enjoyed it. If you get the chance to see it, do.

I hit the road shortly afterward and was home in no time.

The last couple of days I’ve just been rehydrating and taking it easy. Cleaned my apartment, did some laundry and watched a bunch of golf. I’ll be back at work in the morning, refreshed and ready to roll. Glad that I took the time off, as I needed a break!

All for now…

~KJ

You might be a redneck

…if your photostream looks like mine

As I was looking at my site over the weekend, I couldn’t help but notice that the current pics in my photostream would probably give some the impression that I was truly a redneck. This might be the case, so let’s review. Glancing to the right of this post you will see the following: Me drinking vodka, guitars and a deer head on the wall, (actually an Antelope, but you get the picture), a pack of smokes, more vodka, a burger right off the grill, me playing guitar and the dashboard of a 1975 Monza as well as a Hurst Shifter. To me, nothing says ‘redneck’ like booze, smokes, BBQ, guitars, deer heads and car parts! Just sayin’. For those of you who know me in real life, this is not breaking news.

Last week when by quickly. The website migration was a total success, work was smooth and home life was good. It’s really nice to get back into the swing of things without all of the mental stress. It seems like the year is slipping by and it will soon be Fall and then another Winter. I don’t know know, each year just moves by a little quicker than the last. I really try to live slowly, savoring the moments day to day but lately, the world seems to be in a big freakin’ hurry for whatever reason. I chalk it up to age but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m just more aware of the things around me, maybe I’m seeing my life differently or realizing how short our time on this planet  really is. Not sure. At any rate, I’m trying to keep up with it all.

I decided that I need to have some ‘me’ time. I’ll be taking 4 days off later this week. My Monday is done and I have just two more work days before I take off for some R&R. I booked a room out at Wildhorse Resort Casino, including a couple rounds of golf for myself and @smugirishman. Been golfing with him for many years now and looking forward to some good times on the course this week. I haven’t played much over the last couple of years for various reasons. I miss it. I’m a golfer and that’s all there is to it. I will always love that silly game and hope to enjoy it for the rest of my life. There will be pictures of the course and the bloody outcome as always. Planning on playing some cards as well. Wanna get in a Hold ‘Em tourney and some 3 card poker. Might win, might lose, either way it’ll be fun. Been threatening to go to the museum there for many years and this just might be the trip that I actually do it. We’ll see.

Other than that, not alot going on.

Oh yeah, I haven’t logged on to my WoW account for about 3 weeks now. For some reason, I just haven’t been into it. It kinda comes and goes for me. Love to play and always will but I just haven’t been feeling it lately. The last patch hit, I logged in to check things out and haven’t been back since. Maybe after my vacation I’ll renew my desire to play. I hate it when I dont’ play and know that I’m paying for it. All good though, Supramax will be back in action soon enough.

Well, that about all for now. I just had nice New York strip, a few cocktails and I think it’s time to find something good on TV to watch. Hope that all is well in your world.

All for now…

~KJ

Turn the page

in which I embrace yet another chapter in my life…

It’s been an exciting week for me and I’m here to tell you about it. First off, I moved this site to a new server. The move was a breeze and I have to give special thanks to Ruben for making it all possible. Gibblesnix is now hosted right here in Walla Walla, Wa. I was given space on a local server that I have full access to earlier in the week. Installed the latest version of WP, imported my content, uploaded my theme and plugins with little to no trouble at all. I’m super happy and looking forward to adding some new content to it as I’ve ditched a lot of the old links and content. Kind of a clean slate to work with and I’ll be tweaking it as the days go by. Please be patient, it’s a work in progress. Still getting used to the new WP install.

The week in general has been really good to me. I feel like I’m breathing easier, I’m much more relaxed and starting to move in a positive direction overall. Work is picking up, I’m making more sales, my numbers are looking better and have a renewed enthusiasm for the job that I’m doing. It’s always been easy for me to get stuck in a rut and it’s nice to get back to ‘just being me’ again. Looking forward to the days and weeks ahead. Nice to have things going my way for a change as the last couple of month have been rough on me in more ways than one.

I went out to visit @smugirishman Friday night and simply had a blast. Nothing like a night of drinking, playing and yelling with a good friend to get ones head moving in the right direction. Took a bottle of Skyy out there, had some drinks, played some guitar and basically got blasted out of my mind. Ahhhh, good times! Glad to have a friend like him. Srsly.

Saturday, I sold the Monza back to its original owner, Mike Glyn. He has been a life-long friend of mine and I was glad to give him his car back. I bought the Monza about 7 years ago when he was going through a divorce. We both agreed that if I was ever to sell the car, he would have first shot at it. Honestly, I never did get very attached to it. It was fun to drive, quick as hell but I never fell in love with it and always felt like it didn’t belong to me. Also, I’ve never really been a Chevy guy. I prefer MOPARS. Anyway, I drove it over to his house yesterday, right where it came from. Exchanged keys for cash, had a drink and bid it farewell. I’m not gonna say that I won’t miss it cuz I will, but it was nice to give him his baby back. He was all smiles!

Today, I’ve spent some time cleaning up the driveway, (where the car had been parked for evar) mowed the yard and picked up my apt. Watched some of the Solheim Cup coverage. USA retained the cup in fine fashion. Gotta love Sunday’s, always nice to just do ‘whatever’.

So, there you have it. Not too exciting for some but it was for me.

I sometimes forget that this life is full of changes. Some good and some bad. For me, the outcome always hinges on how I deal with things. When things go bad, it’s always been easy for me to stay ‘in’ the bad instead of shifting gears and moving on to better things. When things are good, I don’t think that I embrace them enough and let them slip by too quickly. So with this post, I begin a new chapter in my life, a new beginning so to speak. One that is full of new and exciting things. Making new friends, going to new places, doing new things with an open heart and open mind. Life is just too damn short and I’m here to live it!

~KJ