Justin Germino Ramblings

Yes, my family and I did go to Denny’s this morning promptly after dropping my son off at kindergarten.  The line was long and it was a fourty minute wait, but we had 3 grand slam breakfasts and only paid $4.15 cents for drinks, plus I left a $5 tip.  The restaurant was so busy and by the time we left there were over a hundred people waiting in a line that wrapped around the building.  I don’t know how the restaurants can make money off of giving away free grand slams, but it certainly did a good job in drawing crowds to Denny’s.

The food was fairly good and better than previous times I had attended, the service was decent considering how busy they were and every table was filled and had to be turned over in a minute or so.  They had the food and drinks out fairly quickly as well.  Kudos to Denny’s for running such a massive campaign, that we partook in.

-Justin Germino

Our company Rock Along Productions 3rd Rock Show is being held at Goat Head Saloon in Mesa, Arizona on Saturday February 7th 2009.  This show features 4 excellent local rock bands including Razer, Sectas, Ethan 103 and Tridon who comes up from Tucson to play for the show.  The cost is only $7 dollars, but if you go to Rock Along Productions website, you can print out a $1 Off card which makes it $6 to see almost four hours of live rock music.

We also have the Phoenix Music Awards backing us up and will be showing up bringing some of their bands as guests, this should be a big bash and we are expecting a fantastic turnout.  We would like to see all fans of live music who live in the valley come out.  Also, join our Rock Along Productions Club meetup group where we coordinate monthly shows and get together’s with our fans and friends.

We hope to see as many of our Arizona followers as possible at the show, I will be the doorman and wearing the Rock Along Productions T-shirt.

-Justin Germino

It is really tough to be commercial real estate right now, Casa Grande is a sprawling small city but there are vacant communities everywhere. Home builders who went bankrupt leave dozens of acres of unfinished models, homes and vacant lots littering the city everywhere. There are entire shopping plaza’s complete and vacant with “For Lease” signs all over the windows.

You can actually go down some streets and stare at these things and feel almost as if you are in a Ghost Town, where there are literally dozens of homes with no residents, dozens of commercial buildings with no tenants or stores. All of this wasted building space, some of it is prime property in good well trafficked areas too.

I am sure it is like this all over the country, but in Phoenix since most of the building are established, there isn’t the vast expanse of abandoned buildings and homes like there is in a smaller city. I hope over the next few years more business take the chance and try to pick up in the area. Some do really well, others shut down within 6 months or a year, one such example is that there used to be 2 restaurants that served Greek Style food, and both have shut down in a year or less.

Everywhere feels the economic downturn, but this city it is very visible on the street corners of nearly every street and every residential community.

-Justin Germino

Keeping romance alive in your relationship is essential, what comes naturally early on takes a little more effort and thought when you have been with the same person for many years, live together and share kids together.

Remember that marriages or relationships are work and require upkeep. Complacency ands comfort are great but can be toxic if you and your partner don’t make an effort to keep passion alive.

One simple thing I have done is occasionally, maybe once every week or two is make homemade chocolate covered strawberry and banana kabobs. One of my wife’s favorite treats she appreciates that I take the time to make them instead of just buying them.

The best thing is they are inexpensive and so easy to make, I have simplified and perfected the process into these steps.

For 2 kabobs you need the following:

• 1 banana
• 6-10 medium strawberries
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 bar of chocolate (any type you like, milk chocolate, dark chocolate or even just a Hershey’s bar)

1. Chop the banana’s into pieces about as thick as two fingers. Cut large strawberries into quarters. Alternate banana’s and strawberries as you slide them onto the kabob.
2. Break up chocolate bar and put into microwave safe bowl. Put 2 tablespoons of butter into microwave safe bowl.
3. Microwave chocolate for 20 seconds, test stir with spoon. Repeat in 20 second intervals until chocolate can be stirred with spoon. It will be very thick, take it out of microwave.
4. Microwave butter for 20 seconds and check it, microwave again until butter is melted. Then remove from microwave.
5. Now slowly pour the melted butter into the melted chocolate. You pour very little and then stir. Get the chocolate to a consistency where you can scoop it up with a spoon and drizzle it. It can’t be too thick or thin, so keep checking. I will say approx 1/2 the butter depending on consistency you want.
6. Using the spoon, drizzle chocolate/butter mixture over your strawberry banana kabobs generously. Then stick the dish in the fridge for one hour for the chocolate to set and chill. Or if you want to serve it with warm drizzled chocolate you can serve right away.

Only takes about 5 minutes to make this great dish and my wife loves it.

So take the time to find out some of your wife’s favorite desserts and make it at home for her. Surprise her sometime, it goes a long way to keep romance alive.

-Justin Germino

I had never even heard of Loquat trees was just something that never crossed my path before, so I decided to do some research to solve my curiousity. Apparently a Loquat is a fruit native to Southeastern China, Though they are well tolerated and planted in other parts of the world and can be grown in California quite well apparently.

The fruit is an orange yellow color and unlike most other fruit tree’s it ripens in the fall/winter rather than the spring. Apparently it is related to the apple but from the pictures I have seen it looks like an oval orange or lemon. It is also used as an ornamental tree.

So now I know what a Loquat Tree is, and since I researched it I won’t soon forget.

Funny how when you don’t know what something is, some people are driven to research it until they found out. I mean previously in the “olden days” you had to ask people or go to the library and find a book. Now you can just Google or Wiki anything and have your answers.

God Bless Technology

-Justin Germino

I have often wondered while Entrecard dropping about all of the (mostly mom’s) who write blogs about their children’s lives from babies to toddlers and as they grow up through the years.  I think its funny how some blogs post photo’s of kids either in a bath tub, or covered in mud, or in some other embarassing situation.  If these blogs live on for years, what end of embarassment will kids have as their friends and other kids from school search for their names on Google only to find out all the embarassing stuff about them as a young kid that was posted publicly.

Now most people honestly post their lives and everything that is going on which is totally cool, but I question posting things that may embarrass your kids later in life.  Socializing is hard enough, you don’t need to make bullseye targets out of them on the web.  Fortunately most people use only first names, but it isn’t hard to find people these days.  This is why I may mention my kids and something they have done, but I won’t post pictures of my family or kids on my blog.  I don’t even reveal their names, because my personal blog is about me and my struggles, but I don’t want to expose the rest of my family anymore than I have to to tell my adventures and stories in life.

After all, I chose to share this information about myself publicly they didn’t.

Just one of my thoughts and insights, you may or may not agree.

-Justin Germino

So my wife and I have a creative thing going to keep our relationship fresh. We alternate taking each other out on dates. Last night we go out for Mexican & Manicures. More accurately I got a pedicure while she got both a manicure and pedicure. We went to her favorite place on Pinal Ave called Villago Nails, and I was looking forward to doing something unique (for me anyway) again. I had gotten 1 pedicure before on a cruise back in December 2007 so it had been a while.

I don’t know if it is like this for everyone, but getting a 20 minute pedicure is like some strange torture. There is a mixture of tickling, pinching, scratching, grinding and rubbing as they trim nails, dead skin, massage feet and calves.  I am also a little ticklish and could barely keep from squirming while the lady was buffing my heels and filing my toenails. Grins, chuckles and the occasional cough got me through it.

My pedicure was finished in twenty minutes but she had another two hours to go with a full set being done on her fingers, so I moseyed over to Fry’s grocery store and bought some energy drinks, AMP was on sale $1 per can, and some banana’s, chocolate, strawberries and a dozen pink roses for my lady.  There was a man in the store wearing a beanie who looked at me kind of funny because all I had was fruit, chocolate and flowers in my basket at one point.

In the end my feet feel nourished and softer than any mans feet should feel. My toe nails actually look nice with their clear polish and I am feeling in touch with my feminine side now.

Thought this would be a funny story to share with everyone.

-Justin Germino

My Friends and Fans, there are only 2 days left to vote for my poetry blog for BlogNetAwards Best Blog of 2008.  I am so close to actually being able to win this Blog of the year award and I need your support.

Please click on VOTE FOR WANDERER THOUGHTS

Then use these images to help you vote:

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Click on the Login Link above the stars:

Then either login if you have a BlogNetAwards account, if you don’t click on the “register” link at bottom and enter your username/password and email.

I need your support, and thank you for voting for me.
Leave me a comment after you have voted and let me know so I can thank you personally, since I have no way of knowing if you voted.

-Justin Germino

Windmill from http://dfoolonthehill.com has awarded me with the Passionate Blogger award, and this is one award I had not received yet and was a cool one to have. Thank you very much for presenting me with this award my friend.

I am a passionate blogger, I love to blog about everything that I can. This is why I run 4 blogs and each covers a range of topics from poetry & literature to technology and movie reviews to this blog which is my personal blog.

-Justin Germino

So I have been working out on average 3-4 days per week and spending about 1/2 to one hour on my work outs. Usually it is in my office, where all of my exercise equipment is, and I blast some music on my WinAmp.

My typical music tracks include Distrubed, White Zombie, Megadeth, Joe Satriani, Blue Man Group or anything with fast and heavy drum beats and loud guitars. The angrier the music the more it helps me with my adrenalin rush.

My workout includes Pull Ups, Push Ups, Jack Knifes, Sit Ups, Benching Weights, Leg Curls, Bicep Curls, Running up and down steps carrying 25lb weights.

My muscles are usually sore but not unpleasantly so by the end of the 20-30 minutes, and my breath is usually gone. My heart beating rapidly, and I drink usually 2 eight ounce glasses of water over the 20 minutes I work out to keep hydrated.

I always feel really good after my workouts, I really do feel a “high” as one would get from the surge of adrenaline. I encourage everyone to try working out more, and do more muscle workouts. They have more impact and make you feel better and take less time from your day than cardio. You get more calorie bang for the buck.

1 minute of hard exercise is worth like 6 of cardio only exercise as far as calorie loss and muscle gain. (I am just guessing those numbers based on some facts I read somewhere).

-Justin Germino