Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Kelly's Visit

Last weekend was one of the best weekends I’ve ever had. Kelly came in from Arizona to visit me. I wanted to see her for Valentines Day and her birthday in February, but I couldn’t make it out to see her. So, Kelly planned a trip to see me in March and we decided to celebrate both her birthday and Valentines Day last week/weekend. I'm a little impatient, so I sent her a few things for Valentine's Day.

Kelly and I haven’t seen each other since New Years Day, so we were excited to finally see each other. She arrived into town last Wednesday. It was a big deal for her to come and visit, because it’s cold here in Ohio and the weather is perfect in Arizona right now. I was sure to say “Thank you!” several times. I had a “Welcome Back/Birthday” gift bag and waiting for her when she arrived.

On Wednesday, we went to a comedy show downtown with my friend Tony. It was a good time. Some of the people in the audience were funnier than the comedians. Thursday was GREAT! I took Kelly out grocery shopping on Wednesday. Thursday I went to work. When I got home, Kelly was there looking GOOOOODDD in her dress. She had spent all day making dinner and dessert. It was our first Valentine’s Day Dinner. We lit some candles, put on some music and enjoyed a romantic dinner. She also had several Valentine’s Day gifts waiting for me. Talk about feeling special.

Friday and Saturday was spent with introducing Kelly to several of my friends. Another good time was our visit to the Ferrontes Winery in Geneva, Ohio. The food was great and our adventures with wine tasting was even better!

This blog entry is a cliff notes version of the weekend with Kelly. I’ll just type that we had a great time together and it feels really good to share time with someone you care about and cares about you!

Thank you Kelly! I had a great weekend! I can’t wait to see you again next week!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The Post Office

Every now and then the Post Office looses our mail. Every now and then the Post Office damages our mail and send you an "I'm sorry letter/envelope."

I've decided to post this funny picture and story. I get my mail at work yesterday and I have the "We're sorry envelope." So I open up the envelope and find a single sheet of glossy paper. I look at it to discover it is the back page of a magazine! If you loose the entire magazine, why do you just send someone the back page? There are some brilliant people down at the post office.

Through rain, sleet, and dark of night? The pictures are below......too funny!


Monday, March 19, 2007

Left Handers

My step-father(ex-step father now) is left handed. My sister and I grew up with him and he taught us how to do different things. I always make fun of my sister because she's right handed and does a lot of things backwards. She's a right hander doing things left handed.

This past week I discovered she's not the only person to be taught by the "left hander." I was helping some people tie their ties (the highlighter green tie Brian!)last week. They couldn't get them right or just didn't know how. When I went to help them, the one guy Ken made a comment that I did it backwards. I soon discovered that, over the last 15 years, I've been tying my ties like a lefty. This morning for work I decided to tie my tie the "right way." Talk about weird! I managed though, so I guess I'm a ambidextrious when it comes to tying my ties!

Friday, March 16, 2007

Tanqueray Style Sessions

Last night I got asked to work the Tanqueray Style Sessions Party in downtown Cleveland. I do some work every now and then for a event promotions company. Most of the jobs are easy ways to make some money and usually involve working a big event or nationwide tour. This event was held a club called "Metropolis." The party was a invite only party. "The Roots" we the special performers for the VIP crowd. I only saw part of the show because my job was to help check in guests and VIPS at the front door. There was a big crowd with a lot of "local" celebrities. A couple of people I knew came to the party. Doors opened at 8 PM and people were still showing up at 11 PM. Pretty crazy considering the headliners only performed 10-11!

Some of the funnier moments of the night had to be the people who showed up without IDs. Having your ID might be important when you're going to a bar/club where a party is being hosted by a company that makes GIN and the invitation say 21 and older. I was amazing to see all the people who were mad because security turned them away for being underage or not having an ID. We've got some smart people here in Cleveland. I got to walk around for a bit and catch the end of the show. I was tired and I couldn't feel my toes because I stood near a cold door all night. The good news is, I made some easy money on the side. I've got to pay off my college loans!

Here are a few pictures

Me and some of the Tanqueray Staff. We all had to wear green. We're ready for St. Patty's Day. I got to keep the tie.

"The performance stage"

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Ohio Weather

I have a co-worker who is orignially from Columbia (South America). We tried to explain "Ohio Weather" to her and she didn't believe us. We told her how there is always a "tease" from mother nature in March. The weather will get warm and haave everyone dreaming about spring and summer.....then winter will come back.Just to "tease" everyone!

The past 24 hours here in Ohio have been a great example of the "tease!" The weather here can be crazy. The past two days the weather has been in the 70's or near 70 degrees. It rained yesterday morning, then the sun came out. A couple of my friends called and asked me to throw the football around with them. This was about 6:30 in the afternoon. We were in shorts, enjoying the weather and having a good time. About an hour later, thunderstorms started to roll through and the sky's got dark. We the hints of funnel clouds and the boom of thunder. That ended things pretty quick. I went inside to watch the news and there were tornado warnings for the area. For the next couple of hours it poored. At this point, flood warnings were issued because of all of the rain and snow that had melted from the warm temperatures. It rained all night. When I woke up this morning, there was a nice coating of 1-2 inches of SNOW everywhere. I was just wearing shorts outside a few hours before. As I drove to work, I saw the one river was over it's banks. As I type this now, the sun is out and the snow has melted. Flood watches are still everywhere. Even though the sun is out, it's definately hat and glove weather.

Got to love the weather in Ohio!

Sunday, March 11, 2007

The cure for Cabin Fever



Old house on a farm near my me. I wanted to get a picture of it, but I was waiting for the weather to warm up to get a photo. The farm is being converted into housing developments and a park.

With all of the cold weather in Ohio, cabin fever was starting to get to me and a lot of my friends. The skys are gray, the temps were under freezing for three weeks, and you start to feel like a prisoner in your house. The cold weather did allow me to stay home and watch a few movies. My schedule gets so busy at times, I don't get the chance to watch many. In the last two weeks I've watched a lot of movies at home, on the airplane, and in the airports. The movies I suggest renting/watching are:
"The Gaurdian", "The Devil Wears Prada","An Inconvient Truth","The Departed","Cars", and "Goal".

It's looks like the cure for Cabin Fever is near! Warm weather...ok warmer weather! The weather is finally starting to break here in Ohio! The sun has been out for the last couple of days and we can finally see the grass! I can actually go outside without a hat and gloves. Today I got to wash my car at the car wash! The temps are only in the 40's and 50's but thats better than single digits. March is here and I'm ready to get outside and enjoy some spring and summer weather! The Canandian geese and birds are starting to come back to the area. The dear are out everywhere and sun is out early with the time change this morning. The itch has begun!

The itch to go outside really starts to get to you when your best friends loves golf and converted you to loving the game. The only problem now is....I need golf clubs. Bought some clubs a couple of years ago, but they're not made for mutant body. Clubs aren't desinged for my long, tall, lanky people like me. I told Scott (my best friend) that I'm going to start a new golf apparrell and equipment line called "Orangutan Golf!" EVerything will be for people with super long arms and legs!

I'm hoping the warmer weather continues (yeah right I live in Ohio!).

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Lake County Global Fashion Show

Today I was the Master Cermonies for the 4th Annual Lake County Global Fashion Show. A few years ago I was asked to be the public address announcer for the show. This year they asked me to come back and MC the event. What a crazy event. I recieved all the information on the models and what they were wearing 10 minutes before the show. There were some tough words to pronounce, there were over 200 people in attendance, the program was being video taped for cable and several of the models came out on stage in different orders than I was told. Me, the sound crew, the video crew and the stage crew were definately kept on our toes. I did a lot of ablibbing, but things eventually worked out. I was told by one of the crew members that I had big "balls" going out infront of crowd with no prep time or information on what I was speaking on



Me and some of the models backstage.

Jugular Jack

Last night I went out to a local bar to watch a friend's band play. They're a group of friends who all like music, so they put together a band called Jugular Jack. They funny part of the night was the fact that the bar spelled their name wrong on the advertising. They spelled it "Gugular Jack!" Click on the title to this blog to go to their website.


Wichita, Kansas

Two weeks since I blogged! It must mean that I'm busy or on the road again. It's a combination of both! I was in Wichita, Kansas with Rodger this week speaking at a Leadership conference at Wichita State University. Rogder and I have had fun speaking together this year, but this had to be our favorite/best performance. We were invited to speak with local high school students and students of the college. The facility was beautiful, we were given an OUTSTANDING introduction (Thanks Sheersty) we had a the audience was GREAT and planning committee was AMAZING!

Before I speak somewhere, I try to call ahead an ask a lot of questions to make sure I (we) can give the best show possible. The students who planned the confernece at Wichita were on the ball. I'm sure they could teach some professionals on how to be organized. From meeting us at the airport, the sound check, taking us out to dinner, setting up lodging; they did everything they could to make the event run perfect. All the time and effort made life easy for me and Rodger and we had a lot of FUN!

Thank you Student Ambasador Society!

Another part of the trip that was nice, was the fact that we got away from COLD Ohio. The temperatures were in the high 60's in Kansas. Thats a big difference from the 20's and snow of Ohio.

Below are some pictures from the trip!



Rodger and I with the Wichita State SAS


The Electronics Vending Machine at the Atlanta's Airport. You use your credit card to purchase Ipods, video cameras, digital cameras, headphones, etc.



Arial photo of Wichita



Photographs from the performance