I always wonder what unhealthy ingredients restaurants add to common dishes to make them taste so good.   One common and favorite dish of mine is pasta with pesto sauce.  Every time I eat it, I can’t help but feel guilty because it probably wasn’t good for my health.  I decided to make the pesto sauce myself.  I Googled the recipe, found one that looked authentic and was simple enough to follow.  I bought the pine nuts, basil, Romano Pecorino cheese, and Parmesan cheese.  I already had the olive oil, salt and black pepper.  The end result?  It was absolutely delicious.

Spending money makes me feel good, especially when I feel a little down.  I realize that with the state of today’s economy I should really control how much I spend.  I am grateful to be employed during these tough times, but you never know what the future holds.  I try to save as much money as I can, but sometimes you want a little happiness in your life.  Perhaps buying the latest technical gadget will make me happy, if only for a week or so.  I went ahead and bought the IPAD, and every now and then it still makes me happy.

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My Yorkie Brutus is the cutest pup in the world, he is 2 years old and goes everywhere with me. Everyday he goes to work with me and sits on top of my desk and looks outside, he even has his own mini dresser at home that holds all of his clothes. Brutus has neckerchiefs and shirts and several dog sweaters for dogs. He dresses up for work everyday and jumps in his “to go” bag and is ready to work! Everyone who sees him loves him and he loves everyone too, we always say he can’t control his licker! Brutus loves to play with his mini tennis ball and want to be chased around the couch, it usually ends up with him chasing me though because he is much faster. He also loves organic baby carrots, squash, apples and peaches. He is a good eater and loves to lick the last of an ice cream bar before bed. Yes, Brutus sleeps in our bed usually right between us. We don’t know how our house got taken over by a 7 pound Yorkie but we hear it happens all the time!

I need a mental health day today.  I threw out about $3,000 into the garbage this morning.   It was hormone drugs for IVF.  I did it because I was afraid of how sick it might make me or how sick it could make me in the near future.  I blame myself for looking into IVF in the first place.  My husband and I are quite happy at times, and I can’t help to think that perhaps an offspring may add to our happiness and make us complete.  I hurt my husband terribly.  I threw out money and his hopes of becoming a father.

The best concert I’ve ever been to was Them Crooked Vultures at the O2 academy in Birmingham city centre. It’s a new venue, so doesn’t suffer from the overheating and poor sound quality issues that some of the other local venues have. The band is what’s known as a ’supergroup’, and happen to be made up of members from three of my other favourite bands, Queens Of The Stone Age, Foo Fighters and Led Zeppelin. It was fantastic to see three such accomplished musicians, who have such obvious musical chemistry, play on stage. The highlight of the gig was seeing John Paul Jones play a piano solo, which had the entire audience (including the other band members) in rapt silence for several minutes!

I currently live at my mothers house after graduating university. It’s nice to have been living at home for a few months, it’s given me the opportunity to save some money for medical school and I appreciate living in a nice house again rather than the student houses I’ve been in for the last few years. We’ve lived in this house since I was one year old, so it has a lot of memories for me, both good and bad. The area we live in is a suburb in the south of Birmingham, it’s a fairly safe area and isn’t too far from the city centre and other local towns. Most of my friends live in this area too, so there’s always plenty for me to do, from playing football in one of the local parks, to sharing a couple of drinks in one of the local pubs. The area is also famous for being the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the rings, so it’s difficult to avoid references to hobbits round here!

I don’t consider myself an especially flashy or fashion conscious man, I keep things simple. Today I have been wearing a dark red t-shirt, jeans and white tennis shoes. The t-shirt is my girlfriends favourite and always makes me think of her when I wear it. I like to wear jeans because they’re no nonsense, they’re easy to maintain and look good with almost anything. I also wear a couple of basic accessories. I wear a ‘help the heroes’ bracelet on my right wrist, which I purchased at a fund-raising event put on by my cousin. It reminds me that there are people abroad, including a good friend of mine, who are risking their lives for our freedom. I also wear a gold claddagh ring. This ring has a strong Irish tradition, and was given to me on my 21st birthday by my best friends parents.

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If I could have anything I wanted, I would have an Aston Martin DB9 in black. I’ve loved Aston Martin cars ever since seeing them in the old James Bond films as a child, they always look absolutely stunning and have a subtlety about them missing from other super-cars. What I like most of all about them is that they have class and elegance, they do not look out of place when driving through the city and don’t make the driver seem unnecessarily showy or flash. I’d love to own one someday, maybe I’ll buy one years from now if I’m successful in the medical field, if not I’ll just have to carry on dreaming!

In the past I have had many Halloween trick-or-treaters come to my door with dogs wearing body coverings. I have been surprised at how trainable their dogs were. I haven’t been able to get my dog to accept a blanket on his back, let alone walk around with any of the costumes that are available. I think my favorite costume that I’ve seen so far has been a devil costume. They show up with these little red capes around their back. They’re great and remind me of the film “Little Nicky” staring Adam Sandler. There was a little devil dog in the movie that always reminded me of the devil dog when they showed up. I have to say though; those dog Halloween costumes for dogs always made me feel sad for the dogs. They always looked a little uncomfortable. I wish that there was an easier way to get your family dog involved in the spirit of Halloween.

If I was to name one item that means the most to me, it would be my fathers acoustic guitar. He taught me to play while I was a child, I always remember him being so patient as I struggled to master even the most basic chords. We would sit in the park and he would play songs by the Beatles, Eric Clapton and Otis Redding. Most of all he loved to play Here comes the Sun by the Beatles, which is still one of my favourite songs today. My father passed away when I was nine, I still have his guitar, which is now over thirty years old, and play it regularly. It always reminds me of him and the times we spent together. Although the guitar isn’t worth much, it has several scratches and dings on it now, it is priceless in my eyes.