This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Tony’s Pizza. All opinions are 100% mine.

Growing up, my mom taught me lots of great qualities… however cooking definitely wasn’t one of them.   I don’t know why, but I always seem to ruin every dish I ever try to make. Either I add too many spices, or I cook it too long, or it isn’t cooked enough; I simply just can’t get it right.  What’s even more pathetic is that I recently remodeled my kitchen, and I have no clue how to use it!

Because of my inability to cook, my fridge usually looks like this (taken today):

All joking aside, I can make some very basic stuff…. like frozen pizza.   The kind people at Tony’s Pizza sent me a coupon to sample one of their products… so I did. All I had to do was pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees, when it beeped throw the pizza in, then take it out again around 14 minutes later. And voila, it was ready to go…. even a moron on like me couldn’t mess that up.:) Best of all, it tastes great!

A side benefit is the cost savings too. With everyone tightening their belt now-a-days with the slower economy, this is certainly a lot cheaper than going out all the time. When you consider the easy prep, great taste, and low cost it is a great fit for someone like me.

As most of you know I took a 7 day Mediterranean cruise last week with my family. It was my first family vacation since 2000 and, oddly enough, I really enjoyed spending time with them. My parents are getting older, Dad is 61 and Mom is 56, so it was most likely my last trip with them. Also on the ship were my two nieces (12 and 13), my cousin, and my dad’s ex-wife and her husband (weird I know).

We sailed aboard the NCL Gem out of Barcelona. We then went to following places: Barcelona, Malta, Naples, Capri, Sorrento, Pompeii, Civitiveccia, Rome, Loverno, Pisa, Florence, Cannes, Nice, and Eze

I had been to all those places before besides a few of them, so not everything was a new experience for me.

My two favorite places were Barcelona and a little town outside of Cannes called Eze. I liked Barcelona because it was very clean, had a gorgeous beach, and a kickin nightlife. Eze is the exact opposite; quaint, small, and very upscale. While in Eze, I must have seen at least 50 $100k+ cars driving around.

Some pictures are below, but you can see the full album here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephvaughn/sets/72157620135963813/

FYI, I leave for vacation tomorrow and will not return till 6/22. I am taking a Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona and go to Malta, Naples, Rome, Capri, Pisa, and Cannes, France.

Stay tuned for tons of photos upon my return.

Wish me luck!

Back in highschool, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do career wise. I was always good at history, science, and computers, but hadn’t found that one thing I absolutely loved doing. I knew that I loved computers, but wasn’t sure if that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. While still in highschool, at age 16, I actually studied on my own time to earn an A+ Certification….. which is a standard certification for those looking to be become a computer repairman.

After passing the two tests, I actually became more engaged in the computer field. I started learning more about networking, the internet, and building websites. At this time, I was certain that the IT industry was the career path for me…. until I got my first job. In 2000, I got a job at Sears selling electronics. It wasn’t until this time period did I realize how much I love working with people, overcoming objections, and learning to influence people’s decision making.

Now, I pretty much have my dream job. I work in sales for IZEA, a web based social media marketing company….. which means I get to deal with both IT and sales simultaneously.

Do you have a dream job? Have you ever considered IT Security? Right now, one of the most trendy (and lucrative) jobs in the IT landscape is ethical hacking. An ethical hacker is someone who is legally hired to break into various computer systems/networks to test their levels of security. The first step to becoming an ethical hacker is becoming certified. EC-Council offers various online classes that are both flexible and reasonably priced to help you achieve the certification in a timely manner.

Just think about how cool it would be to tell all your friends and family members that you are a real life hacker! If you are considering a career change and are interested in computers, this may be a good option for you.

Last Christmas I told my mom to get an XSHOT as one of my gifts. If you don’t know already, an XSHOT is a digital camera accessory that makes it easier to take pictures of yourself with friends (or alone). Basically it is a telescoping pole that you can extend away from you to make sure everyone, or thing, fits in the shot. You can check it out by clicking the ad in my sidebar.

Anyways, I use the thing practically everyday, till I had a little mishap memorial day weekend. Apparently I was a little to rough with it and actually over extended one of the links causing it to break into two pieces.

My Broken XSHOT

I decided to send off a quick note to XSHOT to let them know that I LOVE their product, but accidentally broke it. I really didn’t think they would do anything about it since the product is over 6 months old, not to mention that it was my fault in the first place.

Low and behold, they were gracious enough to send me a new one as long as I sent the broken one back.

I just wanted to give them a public shoutout for great customer service…. something you don’t get very often now-a-days.

Like most guys, I really enjoy piddling around in the garage. My father does the same thing as he often sits out there in is 1973 desk chair watching Judge Judy. Because I spend so much time in my “man room”, I try to make it as organized as possible. My father recently gave me these super duper heavy duty carts to put all my stuff on. He has a ton of them that he uses for his home based Penny Machine business.

What kind of garage setups do you guys have? Would love to find more ways to make the garage more useful and awesome…. kegerator anyone?

Notice how everything is on casters so I can wheel the carts out to re-organize or clean the garage floors.

I took the day off recently to do a beach/zoo day over in the Cocoa Beach area off the east coast of Florida. The Brevard Zoo is small, but extremely nice. My favorite part is definitely the Giraffes.

Sorry for my poor cameraman skills:

I owned a second car for the past 6 years, only as a ‘toy” to have a little bit of fun.   After all of the tinkering, changes, and modifications I did to the vehicle, I calculated I had just a tad over 20k in the thing.  I didn’t spend all that money for investment reasons, but rather as a project or hobby.

With the economic slow down,  I decided to put the car up for sale because that extra cash would come in handy has a cushion.   I posted several Craigslist ads and noticed a a recurring theme. Every serious inquiry I got included a trade of some sorts. The only guy that wanted to do a cash deal didn’t even have the money, he wanted to put the car on a lay-away type of program.

The car sitting in my garage collecting dust doesn’t really do me any good, so I was open to a trade as long as the item I was getting was two things: 1.) of equal or greater value  2.) be easier to liquidate.

So, a guy out of Miami contacted me about the car and asked a whole slew of questions and said he had a motorcycle to trade.  I was open to that because I love bikes, but haven’t had one in a long time.

The deal went through and I got an 00 Honda RC51 v-twin sport bike PLUS cash in exchange for my car.   I don’t plan on keeping the bike, as I ultimately would rather have a waverunner or boat.

I have owned my own house for 14 months and realized very quickly that it requires a lot of work. Seems like there is always stuff to do! From remodeling outdated rooms, doing regular maintenance, to cutting the grass….. it just never ends.

I live in one of those neighborhoods where there is a lot of pressure to have a nice yard. One guy, I swear, cuts his grass every-other day.

Well lately I have noticed that my grass as been looking a little……mmm… dead. I hired TruGreen, but didn’t see much improvement.

I had a hunch that maybe the sprinkler system was having issues, but it was just checked a few weeks ago. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to do a test run during daylight hours since I have the timer set to 4 a.m.

Bingo! Look what I discovered:

I busted out the old PVC primer and cement and got the pipe reglued in no time. Now it is just a waiting game for the yard to come back to life… .hopefully.

I haven’t been in years since I no longer have a bike, but decided to head up this year for fun. We walked around Main St and then headed to the speedway for the AMA Supercross races.