The Jake Zone---Fat Boys for Life

It's been almost 6 1/2 years since we've posted on this blog. I'm not even sure if any "Fat Boys" are even out there anymore.

Let's see, in the time since I last posted, a lot has happened. I moved to New Jersey in search of love and work. Both panned out. I am now married and have a wonderful wife who has blessed me with the greatest son in the world. He's 3 years old now. We also have one more on the way. Life is pretty good.

Above all, I'm still fat.

Here’s a new recipe I’m trying out----El Pollo de Feo

Caution:  I am trying to copy a recipe from a restaurant, but I’m not sure how it will turn out, so before making it, I’d wait until I give you the final results.

1 ½ lbs boneless, skinless chicken thigh
3/8 cup of unsalted butter
¾ cup of Sauvignon Blanc (I’m using Sutter Home, but I’m sure any one will work)
2 cloves minced/pressed garlic
1 tablespoon lime juice

Grill to taste and serve over a bed of Mexican rice accompanied with a sauce dish of the white wine, garlic, and butter.  For garnishment, you can use fresh avocado slices, sprigs of cilantro, sliced mango/orange/lime, and a skewer of vegetable alambre.  Although a little unorthodox, I’m serving a Shiraz red wine with it.  A chardonnay would probably go just as well, or a dark beer (bock).

Hooray, football season is HERE!!!!!!  I woke up this morning with a smile on my face, turned on ESPN only to see College Gameday.  I watched OU get their asses handed to them by TCU.  Now I’m watching Boise State vs. UGA.  I thought this would be a closer game, but Boise State is down 14-0 with about 10 minutes left in the first half.  Anyway, that’s all petty conversation.  The real news is my Longhorns play tonight.  Usually, I would not be worried because we’re playing UL-Lafayette, but tonight there’s a lot of emotion for their team.  It will be an interesting game, but I know my ‘Horns will win.  Of course we have Ohio State next week up in Columbus, and of course, they won today, but why wouldn’t they?  They played Miami (OH).  Woohoo.  That will be a good game next week.

My high school is 2-0 on the season.  Leander beat Westlake—the number one team in Central Texas—last week 16-6 and then toppled Austin Reagan last night 49-0.  I feel another playoff run coming.  Go Lions!

Other notable games today, Texas A&M plays Clemson tonight.  The Aggies are predicted by some to win the Big 12, but they’ll have to get through Texas the day after Thanksgiving.  Alright, that’s it for my pre-football report.  I’ll check back tomorrow.    

I know she thinks I get mad about it, but the more I think about it, I find that it is the sweetest thing. Late at night, I'll be on the phone and the conversation is getting really sweet. That's when she falls asleep. Of course, I'm upset because I never want to go, but when I know she's fallen asleep knowing how much I care about her, it makes me feel a little better. So, sweetie, if you're reading this, I just want you to know that I miss you and hope you had sweet dreams.

Let me just start by saying that since I started the night shift, I've really been taking advantage of my Netflix account. Here's a review of the movies I've seen lately.

Anchorman--Very funny. This movie had some very catchy scenes but I thought the story line was lacking. The dialogue was hilarious and Christina Applegate fit her role perfectly. I didn't think it was Will Ferrell's best work, but I'm still kinda partial to Old School.

Ladder 49--This was a spectacular movie. Although it's hard to picture Joaquin Phoenix as a good guy (after Gladiator), he was great in the movie and brought a lot of emotion to his role. Of course, when Travolta plays a dramatic role, he's always good. Definitely a movie everyone should see.

Hitch--This movie wasn't all it cracked up to be. It had it's funny parts, but I would say that those were more of a result of Kevin James and not Will Smith. They did play off of each other and made the movie funny. I would still recommend seeing it, but I'm glad I didn't watch in the theater.

Coach Carter--This movie was good as well. It had a good story, but it was predictable. Samuel L. Jackson played a role similar to his Mace Windu character in Star Wars, but brought the effect needed to be a basketball coach in a tough school. Good movie, good actors, good story.

In Good Company--This movie was actually better than I expected. I admit, I originally wanted to see it just because of Scarlett Johannsen. But this movie flowed very nicely and you could see the transition in all of the characters. Dennis Quaid played a good role as the older guy (actually playing a character of his own age). Topher Grace was great also as a 27 year old who had risen too quickly up the career ladder and forgot about how to live otherwise. Definitely watch this one.

Man on Fire--Wow, this movie was great. It was more of a thriller than anything, but I think Denzel did wonderful as a dark hero sort of guy. Dakota Fanning was great as well as a mature little girl who pulled on the heart strings of Denzel's character. I'm not gonna say much more, but this is also a movie everyone should definitely see.

That's it for now. If anyone has any other movie recommendations, please let me know.

This is just crazy....you'd think Central Texas never saw any rain or inclement weather. Wanna know the quickest way to shut down a metro area? Anyway, these August rains are out of the ordinary, but I swear, these hippies in Austin are unsatiable. If it didn't rain, it would be too hot and the drought would just kill our economy (which is expected in Austin this time of year). If we get rain, we bitch and complain because of the flooding potential and the increase in allergies (nevermind the cooler weather and lower energy costs). I for one love having this rain. And big deal, any fart in the wind causes people's allergies to go haywire around here. Yet, I woke up this morning to hear of flash flooding just north of me and in my town. It's kinda cool because one of our stations had their news chopper in the air to show us the flooding. I hope it all goes away pretty soon and I hope people know better than to cross low water crossings. That's how people die. Check this out....I just heard this saying this morning: The National Weather Service has a slogan--Turn around, don't drown! That's just messed up, but it gets the message across.

So, today is significant in my life for 2 reasons. 1) There are 8 weeks and 1 day until Jersey comes to Texas. Oh yeah, the countdown has begun! We're gonna have so much fun.

2) Today is my 1 year anniversary at Biomat. Wow, I can't believe I made it this long. But, I can't argue (especially when I get my paycheck).

That's about it for now. Everyone have a good day.

Over the past few days, there have been incidents in my life that have allowed me to reflect on my time that I spent with my grandfather. My whole life, and I do mean my whole life, people have always commented on how much I look like my grandpa. Most of the time, I passed it off as people being nice and just paying a compliment. Between the two of us, we would joke around about it and he would say, "No we don't. He's too feo!" It was only this past year that my grandpa explained to me that Feo was just a nickname. I knew that, but he never really explained that he had given it to me as a joke, but that it would mean a lot more because only the people that were close to me would call me by that name. The more I think about it, I realize how much I'm gonna miss it. When it comes down to it, if my grandpa was half as proud of me as I am of him, I would take it as the ultimate compliment. Over the last few years I found myself trying to mold myself after him. While I will never be a full success at it, my goal is to do my best at it. After all, I know that would make him proudest. So as I go through my life, I may miss my grandpa, but all I have to do is look in the mirror and I'll see him; and it will remind me to live life to its fullest remembering all the things he taught me.


With this past weekend, the Fourth of July came and went for many people. Yes, we all celebrate our independence, but do we realize exactly what we're celebrating? It's not about barbecue and fireworks, and how good of a tan we can get. It's honoring the men and women who have ever fought for our country. Whether they were fighting on the initial battlefields of the Revolutionary War, or fighting to defend our country against other evils of the world, we should honor all our heroes on more than one or two days out of the year. What I'm getting at is that to me, my grandfather is my hero. He selflessly put his life on the line fighting for our nation.

I just want to wish everyone a safe and happy 4th of July weekend. It's hotter than a motha down here, but I love it. While most people are bitchin and lookin for the coldest blowing A/C, I'm cruisin town with the windows down. Don't get me wrong, I wish it would rain soon around here, but I'm also thankful for the sun.

It's nice having this long weekend cuz I really haven't done squat. I got home from work about 6:30 Friday morning and slept for like 4 hours. Then I woke up and took my mom to lunch. After lunch, I went to Frys and bought the new Dave Matthews CD. In case you don't know, I've been Dave-a-cised by Jersey. I must admit, the whole CD is good. Now I'm trying to collect as many of his songs as I can. Weird, huh? Now all I've got to do is turn her into a country music fan. We'll see how that goes.

We went down to Gruene last night and the food and music was great. First, we went to The Grist Mill where I enjoyed the chicken fried steak. Their gravy was so thick and the fries were awesome. Most of all, the atmosphere is nice as you eat while overlooking the serene Guadalupe River. Then we went next door to the legendary Gruene Hall for some wonderful music by Rotel and the Hot Tomatoes. This band, well, namely the drummer Jim, and the guitarist, Phil, are friends of my family, so we go out and support them every chance we get. The place was hot, but it was cool being in a place where so many legends have played over the last 30 years. The beer was warm, the room was hot, but for the most part, the girls were not.

Now it's Sunday and I'm not planning much of anything. I'm thinking about going to a party over at some friends' house with Stacey and Roland and pop some fireworks. That sounds like fun. Oh well, everyone be safe and I'll blog tomorrow or later.

This is the view of the UT Tower the night I graduated. This picture was taken from in front of the Littlefield Fountain. 

Sunday, June 26, 2005 (Rosenblatt Stadium, Omaha, Nebraska)--The University of Texas Longhorns Baseball team wins their 6th National Championship. This was the 2nd championship under Augie. The best part of the College World Series is that Texas had a better record than most of the teams, yet they were unseeded. Instead, they pay the critics back by not losing a game in the whole series. Congratulations Horns, thanks for the great season. Now, we can finally concentrate on football. Hope Mack can follow-up where Augie left off.

Oh yeah, for any of you that do not know, this is a picture of the UT tower. This is also known as the Main Building. The significance of the building is that it is probably the most prominent one in Austin. Although it does not stand taller than the Texas Capitol, it sits up higher because of the hill that it's on. The orange color is a sign of celebration. Rarely is the tower fully orange like in this picture. Even more rare, the "1" that is lit up in the windows signifies that an athletic team from the school has won a national championship. Other times that the tower is fully lit orange is when UT wins the Big 12 Football championship, when the beat their rivals, the Aggies of Texas A&M, and when a class graduates from the university. When I graduated in 2001, the tower was lit orange like you see it here, but in the windows was an "01" signifying the year that I graduated. To make that even better, there was a display of fireworks and lasers in the background (I'll try to post a picture, because it was one of the most awesome displays I have ever seen). Lastly, the tower was lit orange like this when Ricky won the Heisman trophy. The windows read "34", Ricky's number, in honor of his accomplishment. For more information on the tower, click here.