Oh therrre you are! (Peter)

After a 27 days away from the blog, I’m back!  You realize that the last time I posted on here, Moammar Gadhafi was alive, Rick Perry was leading in the Primary polls, and I didn’t know “I Used to Be Fat” was a show that existed…OOOOOOhhhh how things have changed.  With all of this ground breaking news happening all around us, you might be asking: “Zach! What the $#!T took you so long to type out a couple of words and amuse me?  Could you really be that lazy that you couldn’t take time out of your day TWICE a week to make me happy?!”  …to which I would like to respond with: (with a coy smile on my face and pinky in the air) I’m sorry…I’m sooorrry….saarrrry.

Now that we’ve made up.  What have I been up to?  Let’s start from least recent and move our way to last weekend shall we?  OK:

1.)     I was able to attend the Florida vs. Alabama game in Gaineville on October 1!  The first quarter of this game was absolutely the most exciting moment in my sports watching life (except for…of course…the Klepatz to Krogman to Foster 3 pointer to win in the first round of the NCAA D-II basketball tourney in 2009…but I digress).  The game started off with a solid kickoff return by the Gators followed by Brantley pulling off a Ronny from Jersey Shore’s first season on the Tide (One shot son!) with a bomb of a touchdown pass.  The stadium went absolutely insane.  I hugged more Southerners than I am comfortable mentioning on a public forum such as this…but it was in the moment.  From there, the Alabama squad decided that they didn’t particularly enjoy getting scored on and dominated the game on both sides of the line.  (note:  Do any of you remember a D-lineman for Alabama a few years back nicknamed Mt. Cody?  He was the fattest man I’d ever seen on a football field…until Saturday Oct 1…when I saw 3 men at least his size patrolling the sidelines…I assume that this is explained by the lack of treadmills…and self-control in the state of Alabama.  Yay job security!)

2.)    I went to Flugtag!  I’m not sure how many of you have heard of this event, so stick with me.  Flugtag is an international event put on by RedBull every year in which man propelled aircrafts are “dropped” (for lack of a better word) off of a cliff.  The apparatus that flies falls the farthest, and has the most creativity points, wins! (note: do you know what I’m talking about now? No? ok…here’s the link: http://www.redbullflugtagusa.com/)   In addition, there were judges (of whom I only knew Evan Longoria) who offered their two cents.  There were a ton of different themes that grabbed my attention and I’ll try to upload some of the videos on facebook, but the ones that I especially enjoyed were: a Pro-wrestling themed one, an Oktoberfest themed one, and one with a midget pilot…who was a midget pro-wrestler…named “Little E.”  Most of these “planes” just fall flat which leaves the “pilot” in some danger…but everything went off without incident…except for when Little E’s “plane” fell on top of him and he had to be rushed out of the water by the first responders on site…but it’s ok everyone.  Little E powered through and arose victorious to do an interview several hours later with only a concussion and minor cuts and bruises.  Overall, it was an awesome time and if you ever get the chance to go or participate in it, I recommend it!

3.)    This past weekend, I went with one of my co-workers to go kayaking with manatees, turtles, and stingrays!  Was it awesome? Yeah…it was.  We put in at a bar/eatery known as Mac Crae’s which is known for cheap beer and fresh seafood.  We then proceeded to kayak several miles to a wildlife area where the aforementioned animals congregate and interact with passers-by.  The water in this area is known as brackish, which means that it is a mixture of salt and fresh water.  It is also the clearest water I have seen in my life and allows you to see down to the floor of these channels.  Additionally, there is an “island” near the shore that is known as Monkey Island because it is inhabited by several monkeys that are apparently afraid of water and have no desire to make it to the main land...  I guess there are also times when dolphins come in to swim with the manatees and other sea creatures, but I did not see any of them on this trip…don’t worry, I’ll be back.  After our kayak trip, we stopped back at Mac Crae’s for some Stone Crab claws…which recently became in-season.  Stone Crab is a little more difficult to eat than your traditional crab due to the thickness of their shells (check out my pic on facebook and you’ll see the mallet they give you to crack these things…they weren’t messing around)…despite the extra work to eat them…they are absolutely delicious!

So that’s what I’ve been up to…it feels good to be writing again and I’ll try to get back into the habit of keeping this updated more regularly.  I can’t promise the same schedule for posts as we had before, but I’ll try.  See ya’ll you all back here next time!