Never miss a chance to make a day exceptional.... Southern Style Grits, a Fast Ride and a Kick Ass Workout!

Got up this morning early focused on Coffee, Music and Work!

Absolutely love this song.... this cover takes Metal back to the beginning with Ronnie James Dio!

I don't talk much about my work but I will say this.

Somehow God has blessed me to get hooked up with one of the smartest, most motivated, most motivating, exceptional guys in the world. Entrepreneur, Engineer, Innovator, Leader, Most Productive, Family Man and Just General Nice Guy - this Guy is what we all want to be but just don't have the Drive and Skill Set to do it. Amazingly, this guy has been able to overlook the rebellious, quirky, outspoken qualities of yours truly and use my strengths to make me a contributing part of a close knit small staff that works wonders in a highly competitive industry.

Following a conference call with Superman that laid out my work for the rest of the week, I took a few minutes to whip out a Southern style breakfast.

For whatever reason, when I went to the grocery store the other day, I felt compelled to buy a small carton of Quaker Oats Quick Grits.

Ironically, the key to creamy Southern Style grits is to cook them low and slow with a little more salted water than what the carton recipe calls for. Keep stirring continuously to keep them from sticking and clumping up. Ideally, they need to simmer and reduce the water for at least 10 minutes. Don't hesitate to add a little more water to prolong the cooking process to at least 10 minutes.

The salt in the water should have the grits seasoned just about right but salt to taste as necessary. Add a sprinkle of pepper and a dollop of real butter.... Yep - I tried olive oil and it just doesn't taste right. It's gotta be butter for grits to be right.

I sided this batch of grits with 3 slices of TJ's Uncured Peppered Turkey Bacon and 3 eggs over easy. The key to the eggs for me is to put them right on top of the grits and then cut them up so the egg white and yolks becomes part of the grits experience.

I forgot how much I loved grits and this combo..... It made my day!

I got to a stopping point in my work today, ate another bowl of grits and laid down for a few minutes and dozed off. Woke up and despite a hard workout yesterday at Praxis, I decided to drag my sore ass out of bed and make a run at it.

My left knee was hurting, my back was stiff from the Heavy Sumo Deadlifts (I got up to 315#) and I just had an overall body sore from a multitude of 135# hang cleans, 24" box jumps and 135# push presses.

Despite all that, I threw all my stuff together and in to my bike pannier, jumped on my heavy Trek 3700 Mountain bike and started a record fast 5-1/2 mile ride up Agua Fria. Anybody that's driven or ridden Agua Fria knows the bike lane is narrow and disappears to the curbside gutter in a few places, the traffic is tight and there are a few lights.

I stayed with the same group of cars the whole way by catching up at the lights and passing in the narrow gutter at 20 - 25 mph to regain my place at the front of the line.

So.... do me a favor, when you feel tired and down and pissed off at the world, pick yourself up by your bootstraps and do something exceptional!

Cook a great meal for your family, grab your kid and go play ball in the front yard, bring your wife flowers, go for a crazy bike ride or do a tough workout!

Speaking of a hard workout, how about a crazy Snatch Complex - Power Snatch to Overhead Squat to Snatch with a 2 second pause at the bottom.

In a Personal Best, I snatched 115# like I knew what I was doing.... not bad for an old man that had his left knee laid open 2-1/2 months ago!

How do you follow that?

Well how about a Power Snatch of a Recovery Drink of Banana, Carrots, a whole Jalapeno Pepper, Fresh Cantaloupe, Frozen Mango, 8 oz of Fruit Punch Creatine Mix and a scoop of Chocolate Protein Mix!