well that was an interesting day

So we (Mom, Dad and (obviously) me) got up and left the house for the adventure that was my birthday. We went to Sonic in Fullerton to grab some lunch and then over to Croakers in Garden Grove. While at the dance, I was presented a cool cake from everyone (thanks Jesse and Cheryl for purchasing it). On the cake was a baseball diamond and all the candles...including sparkling candles which none of my b-day cakes have ever had. Also there was a NASCAR candle that kept playing a sound of cars passing at high speed. Of course by the time that the cake came out, Dad was in the car, because as we all know, if he isn't having fun, he is not going to be hanging out.

So after the dance, the May's, Davis', Carpenter's and CJ all made our way over to Lake Elsinore to watch the Storm do battle against the Quakes. With CJ being the only Quakes fan in our group, he was very passionate in favor for his Quakes. The problem with this, is that Thunder (the Storms main mascot) heard CJ and CJ then became Thunder's target. Before the game, while I was attmpting to get some broken bat knobs for the hat rack that I'm trying to make, Thunder left the group sitting 10 rows from the field, and went down to talk to his helper on the field. At this point, I was thinking, Oh boy, CJ, you are going to get hit be some silly string by the end of the night. The helper went into the clubhouse and grabed a bottle of silly string. She came back out and handed it to Thunder who tryied to hide the bottle of silly string. He meandered back up near CJ and the gang, and then he sprayed him with nearly half to all of hte can on CJ.

During the ninth inning of the game (in which the Storm ended up losing 5-0) CJ, Amanda, Elizabeth C., Eric and myself all went up to the the Storm radio booth to see and talk to Sean McCall. Amanda, Elizabeth and Eric all got something from Sean (Eric a friesbe, Amanda & Elizabeth both got MLB baseball's)...Thanks Sean, you are the coolest!!!!

Tomorrow, look out Hollywood, I'm coming up to be apart of the audience for "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?"

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.