Horizon Diner, Manahawkin NJ

Having breakfast out on Sunday mornings is always one of my favorite things to do, and this Sunday was no exception.

The Horizon Diner is one of the oldest businesses in town. Some years back, the diner was renovated by a previous owner and is now more up to date than its original self. Although the previous owner did most of the updates, credit must be given to the new owner for the upgraded food and service.

Today’s visit offered both good food and some exceptional service. It has always been one of my pet peeves that most restaurants won’t accommodate a request for something special.  Diners however, are usually very capable and willing to prepare a dish not on its menu pages.

I like omelets with a lot going on inside, so I asked for one with cheddar and bacon with sauteed scallions and jalapenos, not too brown ( well done is a no no ) and sides of salsa and sour cream. Our waitress was a real pleasure too as she didn’t flinch when I preceded to rap off everything I wanted. She actually played along very well with the kidding we gave her during the placement of our orders.

All in all the food was done just right and we all had a good time, which is the way it should be when going out to eat.

The Regular Guy rating  * * *

The Horizon Diner

Bay Ave Manahawkin NJ 08050

(609) 597-4771

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3 cheers for Arizona!!!!

You have to give Governor Jan Brewer credit. She’s got BALLS!!!!

Not only has she worked on and helped get passed, a Senate Bill to enforce immigration laws,  but she also went over her Attorney Generals head when he refused to represent the people of Arizona on her behalf. Jan Brewer  had a statue written giving her power to join other States in their lawsuit against our President and Congress for passing what many believe to be, an unconstitutional Health Care Bill.

More of our Representatives should have the guts to do what this woman is attempting…getting back our country and doing what the people of her State ask her to.

I would hope that all of you Google Senator Sylvia Allen and Governor Jan Brewer, write to them, and let them know you support them for their efforts…After all, our President thinks illegal aliens are a joking matter,,( see Governors website video at  www.janbrewer.com/news-room/videos ) while we continue to carry the financial burden of having to pay for all the free health care they receive everyday. Do your part…its time..

The Regular Guy

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Give ’em hell….

I am tired of the bull crap being dished out to me by politicians who are self serving and couldn’t care a rats ass about all the hardworking (Legal) Americans who just want a fair shake. Being that I am about turn fifty, AARP figures I’m next in line for a membership. Yeah well you can see how I feel about that….love to see the persons face when they open my envelope!!!.I’ve had enough.

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Fifty ain’t so nifty…

“Age is only a number”! I used to hear that all the time when I was a kid and visited my relatives. The “older” ones, would always say things like that when they talked about getting old.

Something that has always fascinated me about age is when I look at my parents, no matter how old they were, they always seemed “old” to me. I can remember when my dad turned fifty and we gave him a party. I thought he was so old then. Now I think I must have been nuts to think that because I am that age now and I still feel like I am in my twenties. Probably how he felt then too.

A big part of aging is definitely a mental thing. Unless you are ill or in very bad shape, getting older happens so slowly that its hard to believe that you are old. I know this because when I look in the mirror, I see a very different version of the man I see in my head. If it wasn’t for reflections, I probably wouldn’t believe that I was indeed as old as I am. Getting older always seemed at least ten years away from where I am at.

I do however know what reality is. As a man, I know when I got old. Although I believed I knew when it happened, I wasn’t sure if it was just me who felt this way. That was until this past Saturday night, when a friend of mine mentioned to me the same thing I had believed was the measuring stick for when a man gets old.

He said that he knew he was old now because young girls don’t notice him anymore. When he said that I couldn’t believe it. He just said what I had thought was the reason I was old. I first noticed it when being in a bar. Girls would say “excuse me sir” when they needed to get past me. And worse yet, they didn’t even look at me when they said it. It used to be they would at least make eye contact with you. My friend said he realized it was happening about two years ago. We compared notes and both figured that for a guy, it was a true gauge to when we get old.

I sit in the chair and get my hair cut. The girl is maybe 36 yrs old and shes talking about meeting a guy. Her parameters are that he has hair, teeth and no more than forty because that would be too old. Wow, forty huh?? I laugh about it and say something and naturally she says that I don’t look my age but the point was already made. Forty seems to be the cut off to being young.

So my regular guy friends, get ready. Age will creep up on you and blindside you when you least expect it. One day shes cutting your hair and the next day she’s trimming your ear hair. Life’s funny like that. It takes hair from where you want it and puts it where you don’t.

So in reality, fifty ain’t so nifty but it’s better than the alternative. Anyway, by my calculations, I still have at least ten years until I…. get old.

The Regular Guy…

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Spiaggia e Luna, Barnegat NJ

Bring a bottle of wine and make your choice. Spiaggia is two restaurants in one. Feel like having brick oven pizza or Chilean Sea Bass. I have visited Spiaggia a half a dozen times now and whether I choose to dine on pizza or some of their gourmet dishes, I always leave satisfied.

On the one side you can enjoy a full menu with some well known and some of Spiaggia’s own signature dishes, all with an Italian flair. Start your dinner with the Scallop appetizer and you won’t be disappointed. Follow that with the dinner salad and fresh house dressing, which is very light and tasty. There are too many choices for an entree to pick a favorite but I have had the Linguini with Clams, Shrimp and Scallops in a Fra Diavolo sauce, twice. The sauce is veerrryyy good and nice and spicy.

Side two of this restaurant features the same menu as side one, but also Brick Oven Pizza. The atmosphere is the complete opposite so be prepared for a somewhat noisy experience. Sometimes in fact it can be a little too much as some employees “hang out ” there while not working which interferes with the servers attention span. The noise is created from the staff itself, who tend to yell things to each other from across the dining room. Its okay if you don’t mind hearing all about the staffs lives and what they have been doing of late but otherwise I feel it should be controlled. After all, it is a business and should be more professionally run. Other than that, I have to say that the Pizza is delicious. There are examples of different pies on the menu but I always like to make up new ones each time. We tried Grilled Chicken, Spinach and fresh Tomato with a sprinkle of crushed red pepper baked into the pie. It was zingy hot, crispy and good but we didn’t realize it wouldn’t have Tomato sauce under the toppings which tended to make it dry. No problem though, because we asked for a side dish of sauce to add to the pizza.

All in all, Spiaggia rarely disappoints and often surprises me with their consistently flavorful dishes. Spiaggias prices are somewhat average to high, mostly because of the cost of the appetizers. Entrees on the other hand seem to be more moderately priced. As of now, Spiaggia is still a bring your own bottle which helps offset the cost of a night out.Call ahead for reservations as they are very busy, especially weekends between 6pm -9pm.

Regular Guy rating * * * 1/2

Spiaggia e Luna

696 E Bay Ave

Barnegat NJ

609-660-2000

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The number one reason we need more sex

I just read yesterday in a current edition of Men’s Fitness magazine that men NEED to ejaculate at least 21 times a month in order to lower the risk of prostate cancer. Now unless you are a rock star or Tiger Woods, that just isn’t happening. My advice is to seek a prescription from your doctor, “once a day before or after meals” or just take matters into your own hands…..

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Monogamy…oh yeah right, please pass the mustard.

So every one’s supposed to be monogamous, right? That’s the general rule when in a relationship, especially a marriage. So why then does monogamy seem so hard to make work?

In an earlier post I wrote about Tiger Woods past indiscretions. The other day I heard that Jesse James has been cheating on Sandra Bullock for some 11 months or so.

It’s funny that most  guys seem to take the “is he crazy, he cheated on Sandra Bullock” approach. Not quite the same response I heard from friends when Brad Pitt cheated on Jennifer Aniston, probably because it was with Angelina Jolie. Most guys gave him a pass for that, their thinking being he traded up! I especially love the celebrity marriages. Yeah, these always stand the test of time!

The point I am trying to make is these guys don’t cheat to be with someone “better” or “prettier”. Just look at the other woman in most public affairs that are uncovered. Most of those other women are downright gnarly looking. These men just get caught up in the celebrity that they are and ride the wave. Last week on WFAN radio in New York, Craig Carton spoke out about why he thinks these guys do what they do so often. He basically said that most men would do the same thing if they had such power of celebrity. That it is just too easy because women fall all over them and the power goes to their head and nothing else matters.

It basically boils down to ego and the rush you get from the attention you are being given. At some point in every guy’s life his relationship will be tested. The men that fail can not control their ego, and the wave they are riding. Nothing else matters to them, not then and especially  not later, no matter what they say when they get caught. That’s why these guys keep doing the same thing over and over. There isn’t a force on earth (other than drugs) that I know of that can make a man cheat. He makes the choice, plain and simple.

Monogamy only exists  for men who make the effort. The men who put other things from their relationship before their own ego. It also helps to have a partner who recognizes that our ego plays a large part in how satisfied we are sexually. Men need constant reminders that their partner is interested in them, excited by them and happy with them sexually. That is why so many men wind up cheating after children are brought into the relationship. They become ghosts to their partners, and at some point they find those things that they lost, in another woman. That’s probably why so many celebrity marriages fail so often. They spend so little time with each other that the men can’t get those constant reminders from their wife so they look elsewhere. Why these women who marry them can’t figure this out by now is a mystery to me. Perhaps she believes she is different and he would never do that to her, after all she is Sandra Bullock!

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Easy to Grasp, Hard to Employ

A friend of mine sent me this one day and I saved it to read over and over again when I get lost in thought of where my life is leading to. It grounds me some and makes me remember what is important in my life and what I should be doing to enjoy it!!

Thanks Vic!

From: Vic
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 8:09 AM
To: robert
Subject: Your Greatest Risk

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Your Greatest Risk
by Alexander Green

Dear Reader,

Ask someone what he or she wants out of life and you’re likely to hear a familiar litany: a great job, a loving family, a nice home, a comfortable retirement and so on.

But what are you living for? Of all the things you might pursue in life, which is the most valuable?

“Most people have trouble naming this goal,” writes William B. Irvine, Professor of Philosophy at Wright State University. “They know what they want minute by minute or even decade by decade during their life, but they have never paused to consider their grand goal in living. It is perhaps understandable that they haven’t. Our culture doesn’t encourage people to think about such things; indeed, it provides them with an endless stream of distractions so they won’t ever have to. But a grand goal in living is the first component of a philosophy of life. This means that if you lack a grand goal in living, you lack a coherent philosophy of life.”

There was a time when great thinkers sought to answer these questions. But no longer.

Modern philosophy has evolved into a specialized academic discipline that pursues arcane questions of no real interest to the general public. When was the last time you read or heard anything from a living philosopher?

Yet the ancient Greek and Romans obsessed over these questions. They strove to learn what was most important and how to achieve it. In sum, they wanted to discover how best to live.

Their answers evolved into stoicism, a philosophy that is not widely understood today.

The word stoic is used to describe someone unmoved by joy or grief, someone without passion. Yet that is not the stoic philosophy.

Stoicism is about pursuing a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling. It’s about healing the inevitable suffering in life – and achieving tranquility.

How is this done? Ancient stoic philosophers advised:

* Contemplating the transitory nature of the world around you

* Living in the present without fear of the future

* Banishing negative emotions

* Living according to your own nature

* Pursuing virtue

* Seeking courage and wisdom

* Living simply and frugally

* Mastering desire, to the extent that it is possible to do so

Sounds simple enough. But that’s deceptive, really. These tenets require work.

Living in the present without fear of the future, for instance, may seem impossible when we consider all the sad and tragic news that surrounds us.

Yet the stoic philosopher Epictetus reminds us that most worldly events are beyond our control. What disturbs our minds then is not the events themselves but merely our judgments about them.

And we can change these.

After all, there is little you can do to stop nuclear proliferation, global warming, the specter of terrorism, or The Great Recession. Yes, you can speak your mind, cast your vote, organize.

But worry? That solves nothing.

Likewise, the stoic advice to live simply and frugally could have saved millions of Americans who overreached a ton of heartache in recent years.

Limiting your material desires and craving for luxury enables you to save and invest more of your after-tax income. Paradoxically, the shortest route to financial freedom is to fight the acquisitive instinct and the desire to appear wealthy.

Too many imagine that if they just earn enough they can finally fulfill – and ultimately eliminate – their desires.

Yet nothing ever does. New desires spring up to take the place of old ones.

Recognize this and at least you can make honest choices in your life.

This point was made more than two thousand years ago in a well-known dialogue between Alexander the Great and the Greek philosopher
Diogenes:

Alexander: Diogenes, you are a man of great repute. Yet you spend your days untroubled, unperturbed, indulging in conversation and the pleasures of life.

Diogenes: Tell me what is so much better about the life of Alexander the Great?

Alexander: I am a conqueror of nations!

Diogenes: So, conqueror of nations, what are you going to do next?

Alexander: I will conquer Greece!

Diogenes: Yes… then what?

Alexander: I will conquer Asia Minor!

Diogenes: Alright… then what?

Alexander: I will conquer the rest of the world!

Diogenes: And then?

Alexander: Then… I plan to relax and enjoy life.

Diogenes: So why not relax and enjoy it now?

He must have made an impression. The great conqueror once remarked, “Were I not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.”

Diogenes lived according to his own nature, caring little for reputation, luxury or material possessions. Few would subscribe to his brand of extreme asceticism. But at least he had philosophy of life – and lived it.

Most of us never take the time to consider our grand goal. Instead, we choose society’s default position: the pursuit of affluence, social status and pleasure.

The problem with doing what everyone else is doing, however, is that you may mislive.

Instead of pursuing and enjoying what matters most, you could wake up one day to find that confusion and distraction have caused you to squander your one precious life.

And who really wants to take that risk?

Carpe Diem,

Alex

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Caps, Jensen Beach Fl

Every neighborhood has a local watering hole with good eats. Jensen Beach is no different when you find yourself at Caps.

If you’re looking for a cold beer and a well prepared, tasty and affordable meal in a relaxed and  comfortable setting, this place is where you want to be. Being within walking distance for many of its patrons, it is easy to understand why most of my neighbors visit Caps on a regular basis. You can tell right away that the owner and his clientele know each other well from the banter back and forth between them. It is always great to have a place where you can go and feel like its yours. In a sense, its like being Norm in Cheers. You get that from Paul, the co-owner, bartender, waiter and busboy all mixed into one.

Tonight we dined on pizza, which although quite simple in ingredients, can always be a difficult thing to make well. Surprisingly, the pizza was terrific. With a very crispy crust, tasty sauce and an abundance of toppings, this pie satisfied my craving quite well. Coupled with cold draft beers and friendly service, it made for an enjoyable evening out with our friends.

Items on Caps menu range from Thai Calamari to Mahi Reuben’s, and I understand that their Burgers are very good too. There are enough interesting choices on the menu to make me want to return for a second go ’round. I am definitely looking forward to trying a burger!

The Regular Guy Rating * * *1/2

Caps

10999 S Ocean Dr

Jensen Beach Fl

772-229-3287

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Kornheiser Kiboshed!!!!

We live in an over sensitive society. Peoples feelings get hurt by some of the silliest things. We have all heard the term “politically correct”, have we not.  It is so important that we do not offend our neighbor.

Tony Kornheiser, an ESPN show host, was suspended for two weeks, because he commented during his show, on the clothing that a co- worker, Hannah Storm, wore to a film premiere. The comment read like this: “Kornheiser described an outfit Storm was wearing at ESPN last week as “horrifying,” saying her shirt was too tight and looked “like she has sausage casing wrapping around her upper body.”(AP.).

I have to question why this is so bad. It isn’t like he said she looked like a two bit whore in that outfit. Today a comment like his is enough to get you suspended! You are not allowed to give your opinion on how someone is dressed. Other people get paid to comment on public figures like Hannah Storm’s attire, everyday. Just check out People magazine or the  Star. My question is this. If Kornheiser said this about his on air partner, Michael Wilbon, would he still be facing a suspension? I sincerely doubt it. Is it that we have to treat women differently than men? Is it that women are more sensitive than men? Did he really say something that bad, that he deserved to forfeit his pay and face the embarrassment of having to apologize for his comment.? Okay maybe he offended her, but it was just his opinion. It goes with freedom of speech.

My thought is that he works for the same company as she, and ESPN felt a need to set an example because everyone is so damn scared of being sued for sexual harassment. There is no way that this happens, had he commented on a fellow male co worker’s attire.

Wake up people and stop this craziness. There are far more serious things to suspend someone for. Punishing this man for stating how he felt a female co-workers  attire looked is over the top and ridiculous. The headline should have read ” Stuffed Sausage Storms in and Kiboshes Kornheiser!” At least I would have found that funny….

Just One Man’s Opinion..

The Regular Guy

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