Hello. MTV2 just played Nirvana’s Unplugged. I’m going to go on record and say that’s the best Unplugged MTV ever did. And yes, I am including the LL Cool J unplugged when I make that statement. Speaking of LL, his new CD drops today. I just saw his video and LL has been hitting the gym. Good for him.

Today is my birthday. I’m 33. Age doesn’t really matter to me. I don’t feel like 33. I feel like a young 25 or a 26. 33 kind of crept up on me. I haven’t even hit my stride yet. Everything up to this point has been great but I have a long way to go. My goal for the next 33 years is to go out on a date. My fingers are crossed. Sweet Lord are they crossed!

Around midnight, I’m watching TV and I hear this commotion in my kitchen. My cats are meowing and making a lot of noise. I walked into the kitchen and couldn’t believe what I saw.

Birthday cookie for Bob
My cats baked a Black and White cookie for me. I was almost in tears. Just when you think they’ve forgot, they go and do something like that. This website doesn’t make sense anymore.

I’m hoping for a lot of mail and some phone messages when I get home tonight. That’d be nice.

Also celebrating a birthday in October – My good friend Pam 10/9, from my Links page, Zach 10/14, also from my Links page, Rick 10/15, my brother George 10/17 and my friend Chris 10/18.

Famous people celebrating birthdays today: Sarah Ferguson, Tito Jackson, Penny Marshall, Linda Lavin, Lee Iacocca and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Famous people not celebrating birthdays today: Emmylou Harris, Sir Alec Guinness, Daniel Day-Lewis, Huey Lewis, Andre Agassi and Larry Bird.

OK, enough. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a great day. God Bless America.

What a gray, rainy, gray, rainy gray weekend — All day Friday and all day Saturday, nonstop rain. I dealt with it the only way I knew how; I stayed in.

Friday night, I walked home in the pouring rain, picked up some Mexican food and kicked back. I can’t remember what I watched on TV that night. I do remember lying down on my bed for a minute. The next thing I knew, it was 3 am. Damn, I cheated myself out of a night.

Saturday, It was still raining. Again, I can’t remember what I watched. I only left my apartment once, to get some dinner. Sometimes, there just isn’t anything to do. I could have gone to the movies with Walter and “Sally” but I would have been soaked by the time I got into the city. I’m not going to sit in a theatre with wet pants. That’s where I draw the line. I watched Drugstore Cowboy — a modern classic.

Sunday, I stayed local to do my laundry. I went over to Jersey City; it was crazy over there, kids everywhere, driving me nuts. I like the Nutley laundry mat so much better. After that, I went to the A & P. By the way, this may be the most boring diary I’ve ever written. I just wanted to let you know that I’m aware of that. I wrote to Apple Computers and asked them to send me a free computer and ipod. I’m not sure if that works but I thought to myself, what the heck.

for a free imac and ipod
Mystery Train was on TV, that’s a great film. Drugstore Cowboy and Mystery Train were both released in 1989. A coincidence? Probably.

Note to the TV show Iron Chef — I’m not going to watch a show called: Battle Potato. Enough already!

OK, that’s enough. Have a great day. God Bless America.

I want one of those ipods. I want to make the switch to Apple but I find myself in a quandary. I don’t have any money and them Macs is pricey! My friends are carrying around 1000’s of songs at the touch of a button and I’m still listening to CDs like some kind of sucker! I could easily talk myself into an ipod — at $299, it’s somewhat affordable. But at the end of the day, do I really need it? The answer is probably no. I hate it when that answer is probably no. “Probably No”, that’s a good title for something. Sounds like one of those hip new teen movies.

I’m going to see the Jackass movie this weekend. That’s on Bob’s To Do List. I’m glad the movie stayed true to the TV show. They didn’t stray from the formula that made the TV show a success, very smart. Also on Bob’s To Do List: dream. I don’t know what that means, it just sounded funny.

Website thoughts: I hate my message board; I think I’ve always hated it. I’m thinking of just taking the damn thing down. Message boards are pretty pointless when you think about it. I need to update The Plan today. I also need to figure out a new way of displaying my Photo of the Day(s). It’s getting bigger and there’s no way to skip around, you have to click through all of them.

I have a birthday next week. I bring this up because today, I received the first of what I’m sure will be many birthday wishes. Card number one, from a shoe store. Card number two, from a casino.

from FootAction and
Mohegan Sun casino
Story of my life. Well, it’s still early, there’s still a chance that an actual human will remember. My Mom will remember — she’s always good for a card. I don’t like sending cards. I have 3 nephews and a niece; I’m so backlogged on sending out cards, it’s not even funny. I love the kids, isn’t that enough?

I’m tired. I’m posting this at 12:30 am. After a long day at work, I’m dead on my feet. I wonder if I look as bad as I feel?

Right before the flash went off, I got my second wind. Boooooo! I guess it’s true; I can’t take a bad photo. Ha ha.

That is it! Have a lovely weekend. God Bless America.

Hello. Work, sleep, work, sleep. You hate to get caught up in that pattern but sometimes life seems to being living you. It’s not supposed to be that way; at least I don’t think it is.

Have you ever thought back to a period in your life that at the time wasn’t so great but now, after experiencing the “real world” you long for those days? I was thinking about that yesterday while I was walking home. I was in one of those dream-like moods, pretty much just contemplating life. I opened up my mailbox and there was a postcard from my first boss. This was the time in my life that I was just thinking about! Sometimes life is funny that way.

When I graduated High School, I was lost. I didn’t have the grades to get into a real college and the idea of going to a junior college scared the crap out of me. Against my parents’ advice, I loaded up my car and just took off. I headed west, not really sure what the hell I was doing. After 4 days of just straight driving, I got to Lindsay, California — just as my money ran out. Being broke in a strange place isn’t a fun spot to be in. I ended up in a restaurant, Bob’s Drive In, enjoying my last good meal.

While I was eating I could overhear the family next to me talking about their farm. They were talking about the big crop this year and how they’re going to have to hire more farm hands than normal. It was fate. I offered up my services and the next thing I knew, I was following them back to their farm. I didn’t know a damn thing about a farm but I didn’t really have a lot of options at that point.

Jim Robinson and his family took me in and taught me a lot that summer. I fed hay to the cows and even became pretty good at driving the old bulldozer. We got the crop in and I have to say, that was the best summer of my life. Here’s the postcard that Jim sent me:

farm
He gave me my pay and some advice. He said, “You’re a nice guy but you make a lousy farmer. Go back to Ohio, find that one thing that makes you happy and do it.” I gassed up my car, drove back to Ohio and the rest, as they say, is history.

car at Mobil
OK, today’s diary was 100% BS. Think of it as a late April Fool’s joke. I didn’t have anything today and I asked Walter to send me some photos, any photos, for inspiration. –The part of Farmer Jim was brilliantly played by Simon. Simon is Carl’s friend; Carl posts on my message board.

Have a great Thursday. God Bless America.

I haven’t eaten a salad in about three months. I thought of that out of the blue yesterday. I wasn’t concerned about my health, I just thought that and said to myself, damn, that’s a great opening line for my diary. I can talk about anything now. That line gives me limitless potential –now the hard part — building on that great line.

I’ve mentioned before about how much I love watching car shows. Anything you can do to a car, I’m interested. The ‘shade tree mechanic’ / ‘do it yourself’ shows are just great! They’ll drop an engine into anything at the drop of a hat. My dream is to have a somewhat cool car, nothing fancy, just something I like. I don’t care about the outside; I just want it to have a great engine and a good suspension — a mild hot rod. I don’t have the technical know-how to build my own engine, so I looked into crate engines yesterday. A crate or pre-assembled engine actually saves you some money in the long run. Buying all the parts individually adds up. I went to a website and was shocked by the price.

Bob’s dream engine costs
about $5000
$5000, can you believe that? I thought it’d be somewhere around $2500!? If my TV career ever dries up, I think I’m going to go to hot rod school.

Now for a new feature to BobBorden.com — I call it, BobBorden.com’s Top 4 Movies Out Now That I Don’t Want to See – Here we go:

1. Sweet Home Alabama
2. The Tuxedo
3. The Banger Sisters
4. My Big Fat Greek Wedding

That was BobBorden.com’s Top 4 Movies Out Now That I Don’t Want to See. Thank you, thank you very much.

It’s getting colder in the East. I had to break out the old comforter the other night. Excuse me for a second – “YAWN!!!!!!!” – OK, I’m back and that’s all I have.

Have a good day. God Bless America.

Hello. I started updating my diary at night. I’m not sure if this trend will continue, I just felt like mixing it up a little. After I posted Monday’s diary (Sunday night) The Straight Story came on again. I stayed up until 2 am! And let me tell you something, I was tired yesterday.

Last night at the Hoboken Barnes & Noble, there was a book signing for Hoboken native/actor, Joe Pantoliano. He has a new book out called, Who’s Sorry Now – A True Story of a Stand Up Guy. I like this guy’s acting and he seems like a man’s man. He’s been in some really great films, everything from Memento to The Sopranos to The Matrix, to Eddie and the Cruisers. And I’d be interested to hear about his life growing up in Hoboken. So, after work last night, I headed straight for Barnes & Noble.

I’ve never been to a book signing before. You have to buy the book and then stand in line. The line was moving too! A person was at the front of the line making sure that people had their books opened. I asked this nice lady if she wouldn’t mind if I took a quick photo with Joe. She said, “Sure, I’m sure Joe wouldn’t mind.” I got up there, told him my name and handed her my camera. I’m posing with Joe and nothing – no flash. She tried again, again nothing. I took the camera to check it out and the flash worked. I gave her the camera back; she took another one, again, nothing! She gave up and gave the camera to a gentleman and finally, the flash worked! Joe said something like; you should go to Brooklyn and buy yourself a camera that works. Ha ha. I just wanted to get the heck out of there at that point! I got home and loaded my photos on the computer. The camera was working the whole time! There was enough light in the bookstore and the flash didn’t need to go off – I have six photos of Joe and I! — Story of my life.

Another weekend has past. Friday night, my friend Jay and I went to see Red Dragon. I have to say, I didn’t like it. The Silence of the Lambs is the gold standard, Hannibal was just too over the top and Red Dragon was just more nonsense. Great cast but 12 years after the ‘original’, who cares?! During one of Edward Norton’s scenes, I was reminded of his performance in Primal Fear – that’s too bad. That’s two not so great movies in a row for Jay and I. The last one we saw was Barbershop. How am I going to remedy this bad movie situation? I’m never going to the movies with Jay again – Sorry, Jay.

good movie to enjoy
(file photo)
Saturday, I drove to Nutley to do my laundry. Holy crap, the traffic! The Turnpike was severely backed up and that backed up everything else. It took me about 40 minutes to get there, it usually only takes about 15 minutes. I washed my clothes, made some calls and ate some pizza. I drove to the A & P and did some shopping. I needed shaving cream and blades. I’m partial to the Mach 3 blades. But I haven’t bought them in a while. I’ve been using disposable razors for about a year. Anyway, damn, blades are pricey!

for razor blades
When I got home I looked at my receipt, my bill seemed kind of high this week. I bought Mach 3 Turbo blades by mistake. They were $17.89!!! I couldn’t believe it! I took them back the next day. Who the hell buys blades for $17.89?!

Saturday night, I could have gone to a birthday celebration for my friend Pam. I didn’t go, usually birthday celebrations involve drinking and I didn’t want to go somewhere and get caught up in a night of that. I stayed home and watched Singin’ in the Rain. Now that’s a good movie! I’ve never seen it before — I was pleasantly surprised. After that I watched SNL and called it a night.

Sunday, I didn’t do much. I went back to the A & P to return the $17.89 blades. And check it out; I got aparking spot right in front of my building, a rarity these days.

parking spot
During the summer, people drove to their beach homes and it was easy to park on the street but alas, autumn is here.

Sunday night, I watched The Sopranos and Curb your Enthusiasm. They both haven’t hit their stride yet. IFC was the place to be last night. Sweet and Lowdown and The Straight Story were playing. I really like Sweet and Lowdown and I watched 20 minutes of The Straight Story before The Sopranos came on. That seems like my kind of movie. Can’t wait to see the rest of it.

OK, that’s it. Have a great Monday. God Bless America.

Yesterday I asked to hear from everyone on my message board. I wanted to get a rough count of ‘real’ users that check out my website. Well, wouldn’t you know it, they were fixing their website all day and left me hanging! What a pain in the butt! That’s what I get for using a crap board. It’s free, don’t ya know.

Something different today – I’m writing and posting this diary Thursday night. I thought I’d update my site from home so I could sleep in a little Friday morning. I usually get up at 6 am. 7 years ago, I set my alarm that early so I wouldn’t be late for my new job — I never really changed it. It’s been so busy this week, I feel like I need sleep. I went to bed at 10:30 last night. That’s early for me.

Because of this very special edition and because I don’t really have a lot to talk about – I’ve decided to add a new level of excitement to today’s diary. What new level of excitement you ask? That’s right, booze. For every paragraph I write in today’s diary, I’m going to drink a can of beer. Enjoy.

Bob is hanging tough.
I’m so sick of the state of music today. All of the sudden, I’m being inundated with ‘garage bands’ — they’re all the same! Three chords, played fast and loud. These new bands are the new Teen Pop that was shoved down our throats. I’m not buying it! All I want is the Foo Fighters. That Dave Grohl is one talented SOB. He was back behind the skins on the Queens of the Stone Age CD, and that rocks! Foo Fighters’ new CD, One by One, comes out 10/22. It’s the little things. Why does Moby sell all his songs? Well, that was a stupid question. The answer, of course, is money. Good for him.

What else? You know what I’m sick of also? Money. More specifically, not having any. I’m 32; I’d like to drive a car that wasn’t built in the eighties! Blah blah blah!!!! I’m sick of hearing myself talk!

I’m not looking forward to Halloween this year. I told this story before but one year while I was walking home in Hoboken – some punk kids hit me with an egg! The egg broke skin too! Hell, the first diary of this site, I told you how my candy got stolen when I was a kid. Traumatic? You bet your sweet – you better believe it! I think I may have had too much.

doesn’t feel so good
This diary wasn’t such a great idea. I ended up just getting angry. Hey! I think I saw Michelle Pfeiffer on the subway yesterday. I forgot to mention that. I doubt it was her but she was FINE!

That’s it! Have a great weekend. God Bless America.

BobBorden.com does not condone drinking. The use of Coors Light in today’s diary was for entertainment purposes only.