Mom’s Meals: Bringing Out the Ace Rotation

Dave and I are both home on spring break at the same time, which happens as often as Haley’s Comet does what it does. As a result, Mom has been preparing the best meals in the rotation. I’m sure the main purpose is to keep us at home so we don’t go out to eat with friends every night, but I don’t care. And it’s worked; I’ve only missed one meal this week, Corned Beef and Cabbage, because I went out. It works out because I’m not a huge fan of that anyway, but since it was St. Patty’s Day, I think my mom feels obligated to make that. Here’s a short run down of the meals we’ve had.

Grilled Private Reserve Top Sirloin steak with scalloped potatoes and broccoli

Grilled Salmon with amazing leftover scalloped potatoes

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Roasted Turkey breast with stuffing and gravy and mashed potatoes

and Today I’m waiting impatiently for roasted garlic and herb shrimp over wheat spaghetti

Congrats Mom, I’m not going anywhere during dinner time.

Friend Profile: Jay Nieves

Name:  Jay Nieves

Occupation:  Getting trains on the right track.  In charge of directing transport via rail.  Also known as head conductor.

Interests:  Crushing

Activities:  Rocking at ping pong, Call of Duty, sports, and winning “best dressed” in high school

Favorite Quote:  Scientific name for an animal that doesn’t run from or fight its’ enemy is lunch – Michale Friedman

I’ve known Jay since I was about in eighth grade through church group.  Like all my friends, most of our hangouts consisted of usually grabbing food then heading to someone’s house to play videogames or watch TV.  Jay was big into golf in high school and is still really good at it.  As I rarely golf, I do have some memories of Jay hitting the ball harder than anyone I’ve ever seen, and straight too. Continue reading

Friend Profile: Mike Hatfield

Name:  Mike Hatfield

Occupation:  Worked his way up the corporate ladder at Universal Drilling Corporation, selling mag drills to companies that want to drill the hell out of something.

Resides:  Montgomery, IL

Interests:  Crushing

Activities:  Playing Call of Duty, Coming up with get rich quick schemes

Favorite quote:  “I’m Fabulous!” -himself

The son of a preacher man, Mike decided at a very early age that he was going to do whatever he wanted to do.  This has led to some early in life thinking he’s an ass, but it’s more a matter of him knowing what he wants.  Now Mike is living in Montgomery, IL with his wife Teri, the sweet girl he met in college.

Mike’s parent’s house used to be the central meeting place many times for all of us friends.  So as a result, it was often Mike’s house that got messed up or destroyed because of all our antics.  Bocce balls destroyed, every soda in the fridge drank, and boxes of kleenex used up because of my cat allergy.  Luckily for me, cats seemed destined to always be a part of Mike’s life in one way or another.

Mike’s entrepreneurial prowess was present from an early age.  In high school, he had several schemes, though not all of them were simply get rich quick schemes.  Some did have a noble purpose.  Two specific ones that I remember are when Mike wanted to become an Apache helicopter pilot in the Army and another time Mike was pretty sure he was going to become a buddhist.  I know there were many more that I can’t remember now.  I remember in college he had the idea to create a service team where people would go into your house, and categorize and value everything for insurance purposes.  Actually not a terrible idea.  After graduating from college, Mike coaxed Teri to come to Illinois, where they lived with Mike’s parents for a while before moving into an apartment and then a house.

Mike and I met pretty much how everyone of my best friends met, through youth group in church.  I don’t remember the one moment where we  became friends, but I think that is maybe pretty standard.  This is going to be the first in a series of posts that gives a brief synopsis of all my friends, from my Iowa circle and my Illinois circles.