Thursday, July 17, 2008

Well, another year older

Greetings from work. So another year has passed, and the old saying of "you can't trust anyone over 30" is starting to run through my head. I have many people in my life that don't get that statement.

First of all, ITS A JOKE! The saying is basicly saying that if you are under 25 you can't trust anyone that is 30+. I disagree with the statement, but the thing is that I can see why the "youngsters" are thinking that.

A blog is where you are supposed to get things off your chest and an on-line journal or somethign right? Well, this I guess is where I'm supposed to grow up since I'm turning the big 3-0 on Sunday. I guess I really need to start thinking on how to get my shit together.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Baseball, I love the game

Well, as mentioned in my last blog, I went to the Lake Elsinore Storm game on Monday. While at the game I caught my first foul ball (ok, so the 3rd baseman threw it to me, but I did catch the ball!). The game was fun and cheap for Nothing Night...No tickets were sold, No parking charge, No consecions, No Music and No Announcing. Just a baseball game. I went with CJ & Elizabeth Carpenter. At times the game was fun, and other times the people around us were stupid and dragged the fun level down.


I'm typing this blog from the pressbox at PETCO Park during the third and final game between the two clubs this year at PETCO. The Padres are currently trailing at the end of 4 by a 3-0 count. The good news out of this game so far is that a friend of mine (Mike Jacobs) has hit a 2-run home run. The picture is of PETCO Park from the pressbox.

Tomorrow night, life back at the Diamond with the LE Storm hosting the Lancaster Jet Hawks. I will be going with my good friend Sarah and her mom along with my mom. Sarah & I bring our moms along so that they have someone to talk to.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Wow, work on Sunday :0

So greetings from work, a rare Sunday night/Monday morning shift. I'm just filling in for the weekday guy, but an extra 8 hrs on the time sheet always looks good.

While I'm here at work, I have contacted several friends to see what they are doing tomorrow night, and as it turns out they will be joining me for Nothing Night at the Lake Elsinore Storm. Nothing Night is when the Storm do nothing but play ball. No Anthem, No tickets, No concessions, basically just the ball game, not even a Public Address Announcer. It should be kinda cool and quiet. Zach, CJ, myself and hopefully Katie will all be going.

So I shall take the camera and get many pictures so that I can put some up.

Later.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

wrapup to the vacation

Yes we are home, and the house was in one piece for those that were wondering if Matty kept it standing. j/k Matty :)

Last we left, we were leaving Wichita. We meet up with some former neighbors at a Denny's in Wichita before we left town. We then took the Kansas Turnpike up to Topeka to see the Kansas Capitol. We got back onto the " 'pike" and got off to see the territorial capitol of Kansas about 25 miles East of the present capitol. After seeing our 5th territorial or present day capitol of the trip we went to a KFC/A&W to have dinner on the far NW outskirts of Lawrence, KS. After dinner, we went through the center of Lawrence which as those that know the Big 12 (XII) Conference know it is the home of the University of Kansas (Home of the 2008 NCAA Basketball champions).

Eventually, we got into Overland Park where we stayed for the final night in the Midwest. We stayed at an Embassy Suites, which even thou I no longer work for the Hilton Corp. I still believe that ES is the best damn hotel chain in the world (that I have stayed in).

On Monday, Mom & Dad went into a JoAnn's fabrics store, since Mom had not been in any craft stores in the Midwest. After that, we went to a Gates BBQ just a couple of exits down the road. After that we eventually got into downtown KC again. We went back to Union Station to get some daytime pictures and the WWI memorial just on the other side of the street. We went up a hill to get the other side of the memorial, and pictures of the KC Mint. As we were taking another picture of a seperate statue commemorating fallen soldiers, I got a phone call lettin me know that my friend Elizabeth had her baby about an hour before the call. I would later find out that she was admitted to the hospital around 10:45a on Monday and had her daughter around 2:15p. We left downtown KC and went back to the airport. We got on the plane and eventually got back to San Diego (YEAH!!!!!!!!!). We got our bags and called our ride, who we thought would be in the cell phone lot just 3 blocks from the terminal......wrong. She hadn't even left her house and had yet to pickup our car.

Then on Tuesday, I went to the Sugarland concert at the San Diego County Fair. I attempted to see them, I along with Sarah ended up listening to Sugarland because ofthe fact that the concert was a pay in addition to the Fair.

Tonight, we (Mom, Julie, Mary and myself) went to see Little Big Town. The concert was a really good one, out of the seven songs that I really wanted to hear, I heard six.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Thanks Wichita

Well Wichita, I'll be honest, I thought you would be able to pull off the 57th NSDC, but not a big thing. I appologize, you did a fine job, I'm sure there were many "fires" that needed to be taken care of, but for the most part those fires were kept out of the sight of most dancers.

As far as next years 58th NSDC, we need to get alot of people to register, because we are still way low on numbers the last I saw we had only 2,355 registered. I believe that I saw that the bare bones break even point is 6,000. Wichita had 6,025 but had many more advantages than we do in Long Beach.

Tomorrow, or later today, we packup to go back to KC in order to come HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love traveling, but as anyone who travels knows, some of the best moments in traveling is coming home. :)

I will update pictures and more information once I get home and rest. That probably won't be until Thursday at the earliest as I'm planning on going to the Fair on Tuesday & Wednesday to see Sugarland (Tue) and Little Big Town (Wed).

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Going down....

Well we went to the Kansas Underground Salt Museum. Located just outside of Hutchinson, Kansas which is only an hour away from Wichita. The gang (The Mays, The Davis, Phil Farmer's son, CJ, Pauline, Gary, Sherley and Thomas -- 14 total) made reservations and paid for our tickets. We then went about 6 miles back towards Wichita for breakfast at an Amish restaurant. Decent food if I do say so myself, large portions of hash browns and biscuits. We then went back for the tour, there were only 3 of us that took jackets along for the tour, we probably didn't really need them, but they were nice to have.

The tour was about an hour long, very interesting and if you are claustrophobic, be in the second group of 14 in the tour group, last in to the elevator, first out! They took us through the mines for about 30-40 minutes on a tram explaining some different things. Very interesting like I said. Then you can take a short walking tour of the different areas of the active mine that is about 2 miles away within the same tunnel system. At the end of the walking portion you are introduced to the Underground Vault area where all of the major motion picture houses send at least one copy of every film they make and many of the costumes and props. Check out the pictures over at myspace.

We came back, and dad was pissed at me because of the fact that I officially told him that his stupid jokes were starting to piss me off. He stayed in the hotel room the rest of the day while my mom & I went over to the convention and had fun. I need to get to bed, we have a 8am (CDT) wake up so that we can see the presentations from both OKC and Spokane to see who wins the NSDC for 2012.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

And then it was summer

WOW, my fears of Wichita in June came true today.....HOT and kinda sticky.

I woke up today late (10:30) and took care of the standard morning things. We found a Denny's for breakfast and then came back to the hotel. I called the Mays and since we were all going to be going to the same places, we did it together. We went to the NSDC to get our badges, and while the Mays were taking care of some problems they were having with the badges, we shopped at the NSDC booth (since it was the only booth open, it was not a hard choice to see where we wanted to shop!). From there we migrated over to Sheplers here in Wichita. Sheplers is a big time western catalog business that has a few actual stores (LV & Wichita to name a couple). The Mays found some stuff, I found a really sweet looking Budweiser shirt, but they did not have it in my size (I found the only one and it was a small, there is no way a small is going to fit me!!!!). After that and the group seeing someone get pulled over by Wichita police we went to a local eatery (Town & Country) to have dinner. I had a mesquite grilled catfish plate, mom had Beef brisket, and dad had wait for it...... a salad!!!!!!!! During dinner (since I know Jesse will bring it up) I was eating mom's jello that had fruit inside of it. I made a few wrong turns and quite a bit of it ended up on either me or the floor (refer to the May's P.A.D. possibly for more information).

Finally dance time came around, neither mom nor I did a lot of dancing (Mom 0, Chris 1 -- Tip scoreboard) mainly because we were as tradition, getting all of our ducks in a row for the rest of the convention. We were trying to find where the L&F booth is (really hidden behind two different halls, ours will be more in your face) and finding out what time we are going to be working the 58th NSDC shop (it was never open tonight, so we still have no idea).

Anyways so now it is time to go to bed cause we need to be at the Mays RV around 8 so that we can go to the Salt Mines about 1 hr NNW of Wichita, and when we are up there, we are going to an Amish restaurant for breakfast (hope mom can find something to eat). Later!

P.S. If you care, Fresno State ended up winning the CWS tonight after defeating Georgia 6-1. Zach Stone (son of NBC 7/39 Sports reporter/Weekend Anchor Jim Stone) bothered me tonight during the dance to let me know that the Central Valley Bull Dogs ended up winning the game with the guy form RB closing the game out. Memo to Zach, who give a bleep. It was not Wichita State, Miami, or Rice in the finals. Both Bull Dog (Dawg for Georgia) teams got hot at the end of the season, Fresno State was only 4 games above .500 going into the conference tournament, they really should not have even been in Wichita. They got there the only way they could by winning the WAC tourney, and then getting luck in the CWS tourney.