Where's Waldo...Well, LeBron?

Take a good hard look at this picture and PLEASE answer me this: do you see LeBron James in this picture? 

Really wondering who the tall dude is in the gray suit,
SG

P.S. This picture is from the Mrs. O Blog!

Recipe: Italian Chicken

Time flies, and now we're in the month of October!  That being said, it's time for a new Recipe of the Month, but I plan to archive all old recipes.  Here's the September recipe for your eating pleasure:

Ingredients
Boneless Chicken Breasts (as many as needed)
Seasonings of Your Choice (recommends Accent, pepper, Italian seasoning)
Wish Bone Italian Dressing

Level of Difficulty: 1
(on scale of 1-5; 5 being "set aside an entire day") 

Italian Chicken

1. Clean & wash boneless chicken (I cut my chicken breasts into smaller pieces, usually cut each breast into 2 pieces)

2. Lightly(!!) season chicken (accent, little pepper, Italian seasoning is what I use)

3. Place chicken in casserole dish & SMOTHER in Wish Bone Italian dressing

4. Marinate at least 24 hours (flip chicken after about 12 hours)

5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

6. Place the same marinating dish in the oven (covered w/ Reynolds aluminum foil) and allow to cook for 1 hour and 10 minutes. [the key is to keep the chicken soaked in the marinating sauce! SO GOOD!]

7. After 1 hour, flip chicken and pour a little more of the Italian dressing over the meat. Re-cover and finish baking remaining 10 minutes.

8. Eat up! The remaining juice is yummy over rice and/or veggies!

Yum,
SG

Don't forget to try out the October recipe: bean soup!

Chuck E. Cheese's

Can you keep a secret?  Troy and I really enjoy going to Chuck E. Cheese's every now and then for pizza and games!  In fact, we decided to pay our good friend Chuck E. a visit last night!  Much to our surprise, one of our favorite games was GONE!! The adult air hockey was nowhere to be seen, but did that stop us? Of course not!!  We ordered our pizza and soda and played our other usual game--competition basketball--and then we invaded the children's air hockey!

Now, I must say that I was pretty sad to see our air hockey game go, but I was even more disturbed by a new edition to Chuck E. Cheese's: STREET HOOPS!  What a waste!! We already have basket ball!

But you see, street hoops is not your average basketball game.  Oh no!  When you insert your Chuck E. coin you immediately hear LOUD "street music", the balls are black, street hoops is written in graffiti on the game, and the net is made of chains!  Umm....Chuck E. Cheese, please bring back the adult air hockey and get rid of the superfluous "Street Hoops" that scares the little children with that loud ruckus! (also street hoops stole one of our coins...not sure if that is part of the "streetness" of the game or not!) LOL!!

Another new game was the football throw (which I was NOT good at).  Here's Troy playing.

After winning one and losing two games of basketball, I had to redeem myself on the air hockey game!!  Which I did!! :-)  Go Home team!!

Somewhere in between all the funnings was delicious pizza!! We are big fans of Chuck E. Cheese's pizza! (Although, shout out to Brixx Pizza which is our FAVORITE pizza place in Greenville!) YUM!!

So, never think you're too old for play time!! Although we were the only adults in the place without children (we almost always are!), we sure did have a good time!  And we always give our tickets to a child on our way out! So everyone wins!! ::smile!::

And if anyone knows Mr. Chuck E. Cheese personally, see what you can do about getting that adult air hockey back at the Greenville location! 

Enjoying life like I only have one to live,
SG

Do You Want to Appear Rich? Or Do You Want to Be Rich?

This article came into my Google reader today and I just had to share it!  Please read and leave your thoughts/comments!  I may do a follow up later!  The article can be found at The Simple Dollar, a financial blog, but I've also pasted it below!

"Do You Want to Appear Rich? Or Do You Want to Be Rich?"

Unless your last name is Rockefeller or Vanderbilt or Gates or Ellison or Buffett, you probably can’t be both.

Many, many people choose to appear rich. This usually means buying a house you can’t really afford, cars you can’t really afford, and all sorts of electronic devices and jewelry and other items that you can’t really afford. Outwardly, you appear to have lots of money, but you’re actually sinking in a giant pile of debt, barely able to keep your head above water.

In this case, the appearance of affluence doesn’t equal financial independence. Instead, it equals a huge amount of financial dependence.

People in such situations depend on their employer for steady employment. They depend on their continued good health. They depend on minimizing major unexpected events – a transmission failure can be devastating. They depend on a reasonably strong credit rating while they juggle all of the debt.

That’s far from financial independence. But from the outside, it does look good.  These are the people who have a nice house and nice cars but seem not to have high paying careers. Do they have it all? Maybe at a glance, but the stress is intense. They’re constantly walking a high wire. If someone loses a job or the car’s transmission fails or a child gets devastatingly sick, the whole thing falls apart. And it’s scary. Most of the time, people who appear rich do all they can to pretend such things can’t possibly happen to them, but late at night, they know such things certainly can happen to them – and they worry. A lot.

A big part of the focus tends to be short term happiness and impressing other people – but long term happiness and enjoying yourself takes a big back seat. Fake it until you make it? Only if you’re bringing something more to the table – and that “something more” comes through without lots of superficial elements to impress others.  Trust me, I’ve been there. It can be fun in the short term, but over the long haul, you realize how many opportunities in life you’re missing.

On the other hand, one can choose to be rich. From my perspective, being rich means being as financially independent as possible – almost no life events can impact your situation – and being surrounded by the things you care the most about. Yes, this has one disadvantage over appearing rich: you don’t get lots of shiny things whenever you want them. But it comes with tons of additional advantages.  You’re not tied to your job for purposes of compensation. If you hate your job, quit and find something you don’t hate. The money isn’t the constraint.  You’re not buried in bills. Each month, you don’t have to pay much at all out in required bills.  You don’t have tons of different things that need constant care and maintenance. You’re not cleaning a 6,000 square foot house. You’re not caring for five different cars. You’re not keeping up an immaculately landscaped yard. Sure, if you’re passionate about one of these, you can chase it – but if you don’t care, there’s no need to have them or maintain them at all. You don’t have “friends” that constantly judge you based on the stuff you have. You don’t worry about having enough money when you retire.

In the end, it comes back to one simple question: do you want to appear rich, or do you want to be rich?

Hope you enjoyed the article,

SG

 

The Randomness Continues...

My visit to the dentist last week resulted in a lovely surprise--a new toothbrush find!! I think the only good thing about going to get your teeth cleaned is the free baggie you get afterwards (with the toothbrush, travel size toothpaste, & mouth wash)!!  Anywho, the extra soft Colgate 360 toothbrush is pretty great!  It has this thingamabobber on the back that brushes your cheek while you brush your teeth (lil' weird at first, but then it's pretty cool!).  I've named my toothbrush Susie and she's been doing a fine job!  I'd definitely give it 2 thumbs up.

So, next time you're in the toothbrush aisle, consider giving Susie's family a try! And let me know if you like it!  

Saying cheese,
SG

**And don't forget to purchase a new toothbrush every 3 months!**

Young America, We May Have A Problem...

As most of you know, this afternoon raised much discussion in law school classrooms, dorm rooms, and corporate offices across America!  Why, you ask?  Because for approximately two hours today, Gchat was down!  For many of us,  a large red line appeared above our Inbox alerting us that our contacts had temporarily been "lost."  This was the first sign.  Next, our Gchat was disabled and the horrifying gray dot next to our name sparked controversy all across America!  Somewhat confused, we managed to turn to blackberry chat, Google Talk on blackberry, or some other internet service (I'm not on facebook or twitter so I was really out of the loop today!)!  But, that wasn't enough.  What would we do without Gchat?  Would we have to...do homework? actually work on our jobs?! AGH!!!

To further prove the severity of the situation, cnn.com stepped on the scene to verify that, "Yes Folks, GChat is indeed down!"  (Who knew Gchat/Gmail was that big!!)  Certainly, many of us initially thought, "Maybe it's just my Gchat"  But no, when we checked with our blackberry chat friends or facebook friends, we realized it's ALL OVER!!

This isn't the first time this has happened, but this is the first time that I've seen CNN actually include the madness in it's list of "Hot Topics" articles!  For me, that was a wake up call! Young America, We May Have A Problem!  Why are we so addicted to this screen?!

I didn't think I was that into instant messaging type programs since I'm not a MySpacer (MySpace still exists right?), facebooker or twitterer (I may have made that word up), but when Gchat is down, I pause for a moment to think..."What am I going to do?" LOL!!  This, my friends, is a problem! 

What's the solution? The cure? Who knows--recklessly abandon our daily outlet to our friends both near and far? Nah!! LOL!! Too extreme.  But perhaps more thoughtful reflection on how many ways we have to connect with people and for people to connect with us.  Can you cut down? 

I'm not sure what to do, but I do know that seeing the article on CNN today was enough to make me think...does Gchat having difficulties really deserve to share headline space with "4 police officers shot in New Jersey raid" or "G-20 leaders meet to bolster global economy"? 

What do you think?

Wondering what life would be like without a blackberry, Gchat, or this fun blog,
SG

Can't Eat Just One...

Nope, I'm not talking about Lays Potato Chips! I'm talking about one of the unhealthiest (but most DELICIOUS!) food items around--Krispy Kreme Donuts!! Had a craving for them last night before church so Troy stopped by and brought us a dozen home last night...

...Here's a picture of the box this morning after I packed a few for work today.  There must be some secret crack in these KK donuts because you CANNOT eat just one! Especially when they're "Hot Nows" or after placing them in the microwave for exactly 10 seconds. 

Check out this website on the "Five Worst Foods You Can Eat"  Don't be surprised at what's listed as #1!

Enjoying a donut break while I'm young,
SG