skipthehero.com

The Waiting Game

2009-06-18T11:59:00.005-05:00

only a day away...

Tomorrow (Friday, June 19, 2009), my patience will finally pay off.

The first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. A little over a year later, on July 11, 2008, Apple released the iPhone 3G along with the ability to run iPhone OS native Applications (Apps) purchased from the App Store via iTunes. Then again, Apple updated the hardware and announced the iPhone 3G S on June 8, 2009, with an unprecedented release date of June 19, 2009.

I've been with AT&T since January of 2000. Which means, I was there when the company switched from BellSouth Mobile to Cingular; when Cingular bought out AT&T wireless; and when AT&T reacquired its cellular services by taking over Cingular. I've had 2 different Nokia phones and 3 different Motorola phones. All of which have served me well. The last one, my RAZR being my pocket companion throughout my desire for the iPhone.

When my 2 year contract was up, I started getting wind that Apple would soon release new hardware. So I waited.

My patience was rewarded on June 8, 2009, during the Keynote presentation at the WWDC 2009 in San Francisco, when Apple announced the iPhone 3G S. I ordered my phone on Apple's website that night, and it has been a torturous two weeks.

Tomorrow, Fed Ex will deliver my new iPhone to my apartment. And my patience and loyalty will not have been in vain.

St. Louis: Work So Far

2009-06-09T15:41:00.003-05:00

working beneath the stainless steel arch.

I've been in St. Louis for 6 1/2 weeks, now. I've worked hard, and tried to play just as hard.

Little Shop of Horrors opened at the end of May to great success. The show is really fun, energetic, and the music is VERY catchy. It's one of those shows that I have a difficult time getting tired of.

There are some really neat elements to the show. Obviously, the man-eating-plant is a sight-to-beheld. Lighting-wise, there wasn't a lot of neat effects that we had to mess with. The stand-outs are the giant LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS sign that lights up and changes colors, and various windows that light up. A big project that I wired up were a bunch of solenoids, which are electro-magnetic actuators, that release vines all around the theater house for the big finale of the show.

Since Little Shop opened, the build crew has been busy at work on The Drowsy Chaperon. This week, the lighting crew gets a hold of it. Apparently there's fiber-optics on a bunch of the walls. We used Fiber last year on ALL of the walls for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The effect actually got "oohs" and "ahs" and applause, something that rarely happens with lighting (in my experience).

Toilet Epiphanies

2009-05-10T09:23:00.002-05:00

Musings from "the can".

All bathrooms should have reading material. A magazine is preferable due to the length of its articles. A book with short chapters would work as well, such as The DaVinci Code. Nothing that you can't easily put down when "business is finished".

Homemade Pimento Cheese Spread

2009-04-15T16:26:00.003-05:00

a homemade recipe.

Ingredients:

2 parts Velveeta Cheese, Chopped
1 part Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Shredded
Pimentos, Diced
Miracle Whip
Mayonnaise

Notes:

- I buy the Velveeta Cheese in sliced form and the sharp cheddar in "finely shredded" form to make things easier.
- If you're going to use 8 oz of Velveeta (the 2 parts), use 4 oz of Sharp Cheddar (the 1 part). To make more, simply use more, for example 16oz Velveeta to 8 oz Sharp Cheddar.
- Most of this recipe is based on individual tastes and hasn't be actually measured out.

Directions:
1. Chop or grate the Velveeta Cheese into tiny pieces. Grate the sharp cheddar.
2. Add Velveeta and Sharp Cheddar cheeses to a bowl.
3. Add some Miracle Whip (to taste) and stir until the cheeses are mixed.
4. Add Mayonnaise (to taste) to create a more spreadable / smoother consistency.
5. Add diced pimentos (to taste).

Serving Suggestions:
Can be used as a cracker topping, or put on bread and make a sandwich. Sometimes I like to make Ham and Pimento Cheese sandwiches. :)

Enjoy!
If you liked this recipe, or have an interesting tweak or serving suggestion, feel free to drop me a line in the comments section.

The New Jersey Chronicles: Part III

2009-03-23T08:54:00.001-05:00

The Return! (dun, dun, duuuuuuun)

Originally, my flight was supposed to be leaving back out of Newark Airport on Wednesday evening. Well, since we kind of lost the first day to "travel funk" and none of us were particularly productive, Matt asked us if we'd mind staying one more night, so that we had ALL of Wednesday to work. We all agreed and Matt set to changing our flight plans. The only thing they had available the next day out was at 8:00am. Oh, and the four of us minus Tanny were flying out of Laguardia.

Tanny had his own problems. In the end, he had to take a train from Newark to Philly to catch his flight out (the connecting flight was in Newark).

So we all worked on Wednesday, and the plan was as follows:

- at 2am, we'd stop working. Tim would drive Tanny to Newark in the car I rented from there, drop the car off and catch some "zzz"s. Matt stayed to finish up some of his projects. Robert and I went back to the hotel to pack and catch an hour and a half of sleep.

- at 5am, Matt would pick Robert and I up at the hotel. Then we'd drive to the Newark Aiport to pick up Tim, who'd been hopefully catching some sleep on some seats.

- once we picked Tim up, the four of us drove to LaGuardia in the second rental car to drop it off and catch our flight out.

The plan worked pretty well, with the only hickup being we almost didn't allow enough time to drive through Manhattan. :(

We caught our flight from LGA to ORD (NY to Chicago) and Matt had actually upgraded us all to window seats so we could catch some sleep. The beautiful thing about my flight from NY to Chicago was that I had a 3 seat row ALL TO MYSELF! It was beautiful.

We landed in Chicago, looked to the big board for our flights, and luckily, mine out was in the same concourse! I unfortunately was confused by the time-zone difference for a moment and thought my plane was already boarding. So I rushed down to the opposite end of the concourse and saw that they weren't boarding for another hour. So the flight left at LOCAL time... not what-ever-time-Scott's-watch-is-set-to.

The flight from ORD to CMH (Chicago to Columbus) was another where I had the row all to myself. Which meant I had rows all to myself the whole round trip. (my two flights into Newark were smaller planes with one side only having one seat in the row)

Next... conclusions...

The New Jersey Chronicles - part II

2009-03-21T17:36:00.004-05:00

Getting there...

I've traveled a decent amount, I'd say, mostly by car, but occasionally by airplane. CSG was flying me out of Port Columbus International Airport with a final destination of Newark, NJ, where I was to meet up with another guy (Tanny), get a car, and head to Rockaway, NJ.

Airport:CMH [Port Columbus International]
First of all I woke up at 3am in order to make it to the airport by 4:30am for my 6am flight out of Columbus. Everything went smoothly, even though TSA searched my backpack since I was carrying on tools (all of which were smaller than the 7" length limit as stated on the TSA website), they were concerned about my wrench, pulled it out, and decided I wasn't a threat, returned it to the bag, and sent me on my tired little way.

The flight out of CMH was headed to Dulles (Washington D.C.). It was a short flight, very smooth.

Airport:IAD [Washington Dulles International]
We landed, and I look at the big board to find out what gate to catch my connecting flight to Newark. Next to my flight number and destination (in big yellow letters) it says, "CANCELLED".

Crap.

I go to the customer service kiosk, pick up the phone and work on getting a flight to Newark. The (nice) lady on the other end tells me that there's not another flight to Newark until the next day. I told her that wasn't going to work - I had to be there TODAY. Eventually (somehow) she found a flight for me leaving Dulles at 12:30pm. Originally I was supposed to be in Newark around 9-9:30am. With the new flight, I wouldn't be getting in until 2:00pm.

A flurry of phone calls were made. Three of the guys were flying into Laguardia, and Tanny and I were flying into Newark. Tanny was already at Newark, he was waiting there for when I landed so we could get the car and head to the church (30 minutes away). In the end, the solution was the guys landing in LaGuardia would swing by and get Tanny. I would grab the car when I landed and head to the church. Cool.

I grabbed my flight out of Dulles with no further incident.

Airport: EWR [Newark International]
Upon arrival in Newark, I grabbed my checked suitcase (which miraculously made it to Newark), and headed for the tram that would take me to the rental car place. When I arrived at the rental counter, something had gone wrong with the whole switching the reservation into my name deal, and in the end, I ended up putting the car on a credit card.

The neat thing about the place where we got the car from is when I showed the attendant my reservation, he pointed at an aisle and said, "Choose a car from this aisle."

I drove a 2009 Chevy HHR around NJ for four days. Pretty sweet.

Next... The Return Trip and conclusions.

The New Jersey Chronicles

2009-03-20T18:23:00.002-05:00

business, no pleasure

Went to New Jersey with Church Solutions Group to work on an install for Christ Church in Rockaway, NJ. Never heard of it? Don't worry, people i know from NJ hadn't heard of it, either.

My portion of the gig was to work on the lighting system for the church. There were some ups and downs about this system.

The ups - I learned the basics of working with a new lighting console, the ETC ION. The really neat thing about it is it has touch-screen functionality. I love learning new gear and figuring out how things work, so this was really the fun part for me.

The downs - the church was going for a "broadcast" feel for their lights. They planned on broadcasting their service to a satellite location. To them, this meant all the lights needed to be white light. BORING. In addition to that, the ceilings were low which created kind of a "deer-in-the-headlights" lighting angle to the people onstage. The Senior Pastor complained about this, and so MUCH though and work went into figuring out how to keep that from happening while still getting plenty of light on the stage.

It was pretty fun. Mostly because two of the other guys who were working on the install were people from my church in Lexington who I hadn't worked with in about a year. It kind of felt like a bit of a reunion.

So that's just what was going on when I got there. I had a whole mess of problems GETTING to NJ in the first place... more on that later.

Fun, Friends, and Food

2009-03-16T04:20:00.001-05:00

...and landing jobs!

The past week has been a whirlwind of friends, news, and activities.

I left Ohio on Monday to head out west to visit Kirsten during her spring break. We had a blast! We went rock climbing at Upper Limits, hosted a beer and burger party at which I made my amazing burgers on the Forman grill, visited City Museum, and saw “The Watchmen” at a really cool movie theatre that had nothing but comfy leather couches for seating.

On Thursday, my patience paid off, and the production manager at Stages called to talk about the 2009 season. After a phone call, and a couple of emails, I’m heading back to St. Louis for work starting April 27th.

Heading back east, I stopped in Richmond for a visit with Dustin, Katie, and Xander for a night before heading to Lexington for a couple night visit with Logan and his fiancee Kristin, which is highly confusing me when I’m talking about her and my lady friend in the same sentence.

My last day in Lexington, I went to Sunday service at St. Awesome’s. I got to visit with a few friends from church and a few of us went out for an amazing lunch at a mexican restaurant. What was even a bigger blessing that day, was that I was offered a gig for this week. So Monday through Wednesday, I’m going to be going to New Jersey with a company called Church Solutions Group. They consult with churches and install audio, video, and lighting for worship. It should prove to be a lot of fun and hard work, a mix I tend to enjoy!

True Tales of Txt-ing

2009-03-03T20:44:00.004-05:00

OMG. I'm an idiot.

The following conversation is not made up.

Dustin: You don't happen to need some contacts, do you? ;)

Scott: Not really. Just ordered some last week. Why?

Dustin: Well.... I have some here that I'm pretty sure are your prescription, a whole box as a matter of fact. :)

Scott: [thinking Dustin found an old box that I might have left there.] Haha! Throw them away. They're probably an old prescription.

Dustin: But they just came in the mail.

Scott: [A realization] What!? Oh crap!

Quickly pulling up the shipment confirmation email from 1-800 contacts, I discovered that I had changed my billing address... but not my SHIPPING address.

...yup.

new "kicks"

2009-02-24T16:28:00.004-05:00

good-bye soggy feet!

Bought some new shoes today for the first time in... well, I can't exactly remember! My old shoes (which are near and dear to my heart) have no tread left, the insides are worn down to a plastic inner shell, holes in various parts of the top, and slits in the bottom that allow ANY amount of moisture that might be on the ground into my shoe. Here are my new sneaks in all their new-nian glory.

Vegas Valentine

2009-02-21T17:49:00.000-05:00

sans Vegas...

This Cupid's day was one of the most fun I can remember. I've only been in a relationship during two Valentine Day's ever, and the rest I've been single.

This time, I had the fortune to have an amazing person offer me some comps to a hotel near Louisville, KY. No ordinary hotel, no. It was the hotel connected to the Horseshoe Casino just across the river from "the ville". This deal was offered to me since it is pretty much equa-distant from Columbus and St. Louis.

So Kirsten and I were able to have a much nicer Valentine's weekend than we normally would've (due to either poor-college status or in-between-job status that Kirst and I have).

Friday we met in Louisville at my big brother's house. We stayed there friday night and headed over to the hotel/casino on Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday we explored what was basically a town unto itself in middle-of-nowhere, Indiana. Saturday night we enjoyed going to dinner and then heading to one of the bars to listen to some live music. We exchanged V-tine gifts. I got Kirsten a thin silver necklace with a small heart for the charm. She got me a belay device and carabiner for climbing.

Because Kirsten is in grad school, and really needed to do some work, Sunday was mostly comprised of her getting school work done. We had room service bring us breakfast, and then I watched TV and read while she worked. It was a very relaxing day. That evening we headed out to the actual casino.

I should mention that it's my first time to a casino, and it was a blast! I took $30 to "waste". First thing I did was put some money down at a black jack table. I played for about 10 minutes. I could've walked away after about 5 minutes and would've been ahead, but I was just having fun playing. Eventually I lost all the money I had put down and Kirsten and I went to play some slots and video poker. At one point while playing the 2 cent slots, I was up $5, and probably should have cashed out and moved on, but I was just enjoying playing the game, and I eventually busted.

The true highlight of the night was Keno. Kirsten saw it and was really intrigued, so we asked the guy at the counter what we had to do. He explained it to us and we sat down and picked out numbers (a lot like choosing lottery numbers) and gave him our ticket. He handed us our "official cards" and we sat down and watched the numbers as they came up. Kind of like the lottery, you have to match a certain number of numbers to win. The more numbers you match the more you win. Well, the first time we played, I won $20 for matching 6 out of 10 numbers. It was fun! We played a couple more times but didn't win anything. So we decided to head back and have some dinner. Kirsten ended up spending $15 at the casino, and I only lost $10 thanks to my big Keno win!

Unfortunately, the wonderful weekend came to a close on Monday morning when Kirsten headed back to St. Louis, and I headed back to Columbus. To add insult to injury, Sunday night, I started coming down with a cold. So I drove home with a cold on Monday and spent the next couple days taking Day- and NyQuil, curled up in the recliner, eating chicken noodle soup.

Many thanks to Kelly and Jamie for their immense generosity! It was such a fun weekend!

January (so far)

2009-01-22T22:29:00.004-05:00

playing catch up.. ketchup... catsup?

New Year's Eve
Lexington, KY
I drove down to Lexington to visit some of the old gang down there. Ashlee was having a party and I was pretty excited to see some familiar and friendly faces. Among the many highlights of the night was talking to William and Sam via Skypewho (at the time) were in New Zealand for part of their year of traveling around the world. The party was featured on one of their podcast videos, and I had a little bit of a post traumatic balloon flash-back around the time the ball dropped. I crashed on a friends couch that night in Richmond, had a lovely breakfast, and then headed on to...

New Year's Day - Jan 5
Richmond, KY
...Dustin and Katie's. My main reason for heading south. I had just came down an extra day early for the New Year's Eve Party. I was spending a few days with Dustin, Katie, and their (at the time) four month old baby, Xander. Dustin was turning old... i mean 30, and he was having a big get-together on Saturday. I got to see plenty of friends, some I hadn't seen in a couple of years. One night we went over to Katie's brother's house, where he has a "man cave" and played a few games of Halo 3. On Monday morning, I drove down to...

Jan 5 - 8
Nashville, TN
...see another couple of good friends of mine, Ben and Rebekah. The following things usually happens when Ben and I get together: go to a coffee shop; talk geek; eat sushi; talk geek, etc. In between the geekery and food we have some entertaining times. We went mini-bowling. I'll have to describe this later or something... in essence - shorter lanes, smaller ball, smaller pins, no bowling shoes. Unfortunately my time drew to a close with them, and my trip started taking me back north via...

Jan 8 - 11
Louisville, KY
...Kelly and Jamie's. I was able to spend a few days with them and their daughter Malorie. Bub (Kelly) was able to "meet" my girlfriend via skype. It was a very nice relaxing time with them (as always)... and they always feed me really well. The highlight of the menu was a wonderfully grilled Filet, baked potato, and grilled red pepper, and to drink.. a nice cold beer. Feeling like I had been living out of a suitcase for nearly two weeks, which I had, I decided it was time to head back...

Jan 11 - 16
Columbus, OH
...home. Or at least where home is for the time-being. We got a lot of snow this week. I was able to go climbing a couple times at the indoor climbing gym that I joined near the end of December. Then, on Friday, I packed up and headed out to...

Jan 16 - 19
St. Louis, MO
...visit my girlfriend, Kirsten! It had been since the middle of December that we had seen each other, and decided it was time for another good face-to-face. The first night I'm there is usually low-key since it's a 7 hour drive to St. Louis from Columbus. We ate at an Irish Pub, watched a movie, and called it a night. On Saturday, I "dragged" Kirsten out to a local rock climbing gym in St. Louis, that I had wanted to check out. We took their "first timer" class that most gyms require you to take, and then climbed for a good solid few hours after the class. Of course, with a full day of climbing, one tends to crash pretty hard at the end of the day. Sunday, Kirsten had to do some work for class, and it was pretty low-key again. Monday, we made another trip to the gym to use the $10 off coupons we got for taking the class. *grin*
Of course, Tuesday morning came WAY too early, meaning Kirsten had class, and I had to drive the 7 hour trip back to Columbus.

Jan 19 - present
Columbus, OH
So, now, I'm pretty much doing a lot of rock climbing at Vertical Adventures, eating, sleeping, working on some portfolio stuff, and playing some video games here and there.

It's nice to be home... but on the down side... none of my friends are here.

The Rumors are True!

2009-01-09T18:54:00.002-05:00

believe everything you hear...

I AM still alive.

Thanks for asking.

John Williams is the man

2008-11-13T19:58:00.000-05:00

this guy comes in a close second...

home, yet not home

2008-11-06T07:27:00.002-05:00

dichotomy in action...

As many of you probably already know, I've been back in Lexington for the past week working on a lighting design at the Opera House. A couple of my friends generously offered their spare bedroom for the week.

The weird thing about this week is I've felt very at home, since I know my way around well enough to get anywhere I would want to. But since I'm staying with friends and living out of a suitcase, I've felt a bit... removed. It's very odd for me to be here as more of a guest than a resident.

In other news...

The show (Willy Wonka) opens this morning, and I'm jumping on a plane to Allentown, PA, to be in a wedding for a couple of friends of mine. We're heading into the city on Friday for the bachelor festivities, and then the wedding is in Allentown on Sunday. It should be a fun few days.

Music Man Haiku

2008-09-28T22:37:00.002-05:00

what we do to stay sane...

During the Saturday evening performance of Music Man, the music director came up with a fun little way to "pass the time" during the show. We were each to come up with a haiku about The Music Man and turn them in at intermission. I think they're going to make some kind of collage eventually and post them somewhere. But here are the ones that I came up with. Enjoy!

MM Haiku #1:
Stubborn Iowa
Harold is a Music Man
Pool is devil's tool

MM Haiku #2:
Shipoopi dancing
melts the heart of Marian
kiss on the footbridge

MM Haiku #3:
School Board members fight
the quartet sings Lida Rose
just can't corner Hill

MM Haiku #4:
Oh we're in Trouble
The Show is three hours long
I need a cold beer

Transparent Rooster

2008-09-15T17:57:00.002-05:00

30 years of life summed up in a comic...

from the online comic, Not From Concentrate (#292)

M & M's Combat

2008-09-05T21:38:00.001-05:00

Survival of the yummiest.

Whenever I get a package of plain M&Ms, I make it my duty to continue the strength and robustness of the candy as a species. To this end, I hold M&M duels.

Taking two candies between my thumb and forefinger, I apply pressure, squeezing them together until one of them cracks and splinters. That is the "loser," and I eat the inferior one immediately. The winner gets to go another round.

I have found that, in general, the brown and red M&Ms are tougher, and the newer blue ones are genetically inferior. I have hypothesized that the blue M&Ms as a race cannot survive long in the intense theatre of competition that is the modern candy and snack-food world.

Occasionally I will get a mutation, a candy that is misshapen, or pointier, or flatter than the rest. Almost invariably this proves to be a weakness, but on very rare occasions it gives the candy extra strength. In this way, the species continues to adapt to its environment.

When I reach the end of the pack, I am left with one M&M, the strongest of the herd. Since it would make no sense to eat this one as well, I pack it neatly in an envelope and send it to M&M Mars, A Division of Mars, Inc., Hackettstown, NJ 17840-1503 U.S.A., along with a 3x5 card reading, "Please use this M&M for breeding purposes."

This week they wrote back to thank me, and sent me a coupon for a free 1/2 pound bag of plain M&Ms. I consider this "grant money." I have set aside the weekend for a grand tournament. From a field of hundreds, we will discover the True Champion.

There can be only one.
(original link)

What's in a Name?

2008-08-27T22:52:00.003-05:00

"Let's do, Chuck! Chuck, chuck, bo buck...

After I got home from work this evening, I decided I didn't want to make anything for dinner, and that I would go out and grab something to bring it back. My choice for this evening ended up being an obsession I've had since about a month ago. Imo's Pizza makes this amazing and delicious Meatball Sandwich, and if you ask for it on Garlic Cheese bread... wow!

But this story isn't about a sandwich.

I called ahead to Imo's and went in to pick up my sandwich. I handed the woman behind the counter my debit card, and she inquired, "I've always been curious about this bank. Why is it called Fifth Third?"

I replied, saying that I had often wondered the same thing. We had a laugh about it, the transaction was complete, and I took my sandwich home, and ate every delicious bite.

After dinner, the conversation came back to mind, and so I did a quick search on the interwebs, and this is what I found:

Abbreviated from the Wikipedia Article

Fifth Third's unusual name is the result of the June 1, 1908 merger of two banks, The Fifth National Bank and The Third National Bank, to become The Fifth Third National Bank of Cincinnati. Because the merger took place during a period when prohibitionist ideas were gaining popularity, it was believed that "Fifth Third" was better than "Third Fifth," which could be construed as a reference to three "fifths" of alcohol. The name went through several changes over the years, until on March 24, 1969, the name was changed to Fifth Third Bank.

I'm pretty excited by this (on the inside... I'm not doing cartwheels about it or anything) since I feel like my "useless knowledge trivia" well had been starting to run dry.

Hooray!

2008-08-25T11:56:00.004-05:00

Congratulations are in order!

Dustin and Katie just sent out a photo of their brand new baby boy! I'm so excited for them. And they're the first of my closest friends to have a baby, and so now I'm Uncle Scott! I can't wait to get to Richmond and visit the new boy.

Alexander (Xander) was born on Aug 22 at 11:09am. He weighed in at 6 lbs, 12 oz, and 20 inches long. Enjoy the photo of the beautiful baby boy!

The next 36 hours...

2008-08-16T22:13:00.004-05:00

lots to do.

Okay. So here's my schedule for the next (approximately) 24 - 36 hours.

11:30pm (Sat) - 8:30am (Sun) -- Sleep
9:30am - 11:00am -- Setup for Jungle Book
11:00am -- Run the last Jungle Book
2:00pm -- Run Joseph
4:30pm -- 6:30pm - Dinner
7:30pm -- Run the last Joseph show
9:30pm -- Start Strike for Joseph
3:00am -- (hopefully) finish strike for Joseph

Wish me luck.

36 hours in Paducah

2008-08-15T23:37:00.002-05:00

Home is where your friend is.

At the beginning of this week, I took a brief trip to Paducah, KY. "What's in Paducah," you might ask.

Normally, nothing of much importance to me is in Paducah. This past week, though, Stephanie and Chris were there.

They were visiting with some of Steph's family, and they invited me to stay with them. I headed out Sunday night after the performance of Joseph, made it to Paducah, reunion full of hugs, and then crashed about 1:00am.

Monday was my day off, which is what enabled me to make this little mini-vacation, and it was SO much fun and very relaxing. Chip and Sonya (Steph's relatives) have a really nice house with an in-ground pool and a home theatre (not just a really nice tv and surround sound... an ACTUAL home theatre). So as soon as we woke up, we had some breakfast, and then headed out to the pool for outdoor recreation. The highlight, for me, was they have a little Sea-Doo Scooter that pulls you along under water. It was a lot of fun to put on a pair of goggles and see if you could make it all the way around the pool on a single breath of air with the thing pulling you.

When we had our fill of the pool, we came inside to watch a movie or two. We finished up the usable daylight in the pool and headed inside for dinner, and some more movies. Over the course of my 36 hour stay, we watched "Bank Job", "21", "Licensed to Wed", and "Fools Gold".

Tuesday, we ate breakfast, watched another movie, and then just relaxed and watched some of the olympics before I had to head back to St. Louis for the show that night.

It was wonderful to see Stephanie and Chris again! I'm so fortunate to have them in my life!

This Week In Brief

2008-07-28T19:23:00.002-05:00

Just the Bullet Points.

- worked some
- played some
- dropped my buffalo wings
- huge bruise on my left hip
- saw Hancock
- haircut
- opened "Joseph"
- dressed like a gangster

The Road to One Hundred: Introduction

2008-07-20T23:47:00.000-05:00

Drop and Give Me 20!

Tomorrow, I'm starting this training plan called One Hundred Push-ups.

I stumbled upon the site a few days ago and contemplated what it would be like. I've needed to do some physical activity, since the majority of my job is just standing around at this point. So I'm going to do it. Starting in the morning, I'm going to make my way toward being able to do 100 consecutive push-ups.

The program boasts that if you stick to it, and don't cheat yourself, in six weeks you should be able to do 100 consecutive good-form push-ups.

I already did the initial test, and I could do about 20 good-form push-ups. So I figure I'll be at a good starting point in the program. Check out the website if you get the chance. I'll be posting my progress as I go.

Eleven Days

2008-07-18T00:10:00.001-05:00

time's slipping away...

Not sure how I feel about turning 30, yet.