Upcoming Schedule

I'll be busy traveling/speaking in April. If any of you happen to be in these areas, please stop by!

April 3-5 St. Paul, Minnesota NACA Northern Plains Regional Conference (9 AM Friday)

April 9 Hamilton, New York Colgate University (7 PM)

April 23 Kirtland, Ohio Lakeland Community College (6 PM)

Back to Vegas

18th Hole at the Wynn

The Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay

Use the Force Frank!

Scott and I at the M&M store

Ummmmm........

Paris

Last week I flew up to Las Vegas for a couple of days to visit/hang out with my friend Scott. Every year he picks a place to travel for his "Spring Break." It usually involves going to Vegas. He invited me and a few other people, but I was the only one who could make it.

I hope you liked the photos. Sorry no interesting "Vegas Stories." We're pretty boring when it comes to the "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." Other than a lot of people watching, not too much exciting to report. Just a couple of days of relaxing and recharging.

New Shoes

Do your feet hurt? Do your legs ache? How about your back, how does that feel? It's amazing how a pair of shoes can help or hurt with the questions I just asked.

Kelly went to the foot doctor the other day to have her feet checked out. The doctor gave Kelly a list of things she should do and avoid doing. The most important thing on the list of to do's was the type of shoes to buy/wear.

I'm sure there are more shoes out there, but here is the list of recommended shoes from her doctor. The tend to be a little more expensive than most, but you can find many of the shoes if you shop around on the internet or some of the discount shoe stores. The doctor recommended buying shoes that offer good arch support. I'm sure there are other good shoes out there. These are just the ones on the foot doctor.

Athletic  Shoes - New Balance, Asics, Brooks, Adidas, Nike Air

Women's Dress Shoes - Nurture, Clarks. Clarks Indigo, Ecco, Born

Sandals - Merrill, Birkentstock

Men's Dress Shoes- Rockport lace up shoes with vibrum soles

Over the counter arch support - Power Step

GI Joe the Movie

This post is for anyone who grew up a fan of the comic, toy and cartoon GI Joe. The producers of "The Transformers" movie are making a live action film for GI Joe. The movie comes out August 2009. Click HERE to read more and see a photo of Snake Eyes.

Applebees Commercial

Yesterday I was in the gym working out with Kelly. We were on the eliptical machines and watching television. Then I noticed the people on the television looked familuar. They were the main actors from the Applebees commercial I worked in. Before I could look for myself the commercial was over. Today Kelly was watching some of her taped television shows when the commercial came on again. I thought the tv was live when I said, "There I am!" (Bad English) Kelly didn't see me, then she remembered we were watching a tape. She rewound the tape and paused. There I was clear as day!

So, the next time all of you are watching tv and see the new commercials for "Applebees Perfect Portions" look in the right corner of the screen behind the mother and daughter and you should see my smiling face.

I'm working on getting a copy of the video or some still shots from the production company. When I get them, I'll post.

Happy Easter to everyone! For those of you on Spring Break already...ENJOY! For those of you just starting your Spring Breaks....ENJOY!

Back Home!

I'm back in Arizona and it feels great! It's even better when my girlfriend (Kelly) is off from work the entire week for her Spring Break. The weather this time of year is GREAT in Arizona. We've been enjoying the time off by enjoying the weather. We're working out, hiking and going to Spring Training games. The spring training center for the Seattle Mariner and San Diego Padres is right down the street. Here are some photos to share with everyone! Enjoy!

Sun Devil Stadium, Arizona State University

Ichiro Suzuki 

My last two weeks!

I went back to Ohio about two weeks ago to speak and catch up with my friends. Many of my friends in Cleveland are like family. They've done a lot for me and I don't have enough space on this blog to type the stories. It was great to catch up with everyone. Here are some of the photos from my trip. Robyn, Sael, Raul, Ramonita, Catolina, Mary, Martha, Rich, Mike, Teresa, Brian, Rodger, Robert, Debbie, Tony and Scott; it was great seeing you again! Keep in touch!

Interesting time in Atlanta

Rodger and I with Brian from last seasons "Biggest Looser"

Debris in the street outside of the hotel

The Westin Hotel

Closed off downtown streets

This past weekend I was in Atlanta with Rodger for the APCA National Conference. Rodger and I were at the conference to perform in the Speaker's Showcase. The Conference is four days of various performers showcasing there talents to a crowd of college students and several branches of the United States Military. The students and service units are there to book performers to come to their campuses or installations.

Rodger and I were selected to perform and MC the speakers showcase. We literally pulled our hair out for trying to figure out how to condense our speech/show into 15 minutes! We didn't know if we should just give a sample of what we do or condense the everything into 15 minutes. We decided to go with option number one.

The first night of the conference was Friday. We didn't have to speak until Friday, so Rodger and I networked with some other performers and shook people's hands in our agency's booth.  Our friend Matt offered to give us a ride back to our hotel. While walking to his car, we noticed a storm approaching. While leaving the garage, Matt and I talked about all the lightning and strange looks of the sky. This was about 9:30 PM.

Rodger and  I went to the Renaissance Hotel at the Atlanta International airport for dinner. When we arrived we saw reports on the television of storm damage at the Georgia Dome. Soon after that, a really bad thunder storm arrived at the airport. The rain, thunder and lightning was amazing. One bolt of lightning hit the airport and soon after, the entire airport went black. The busiest airport in the world was completely black! No runway lights, nothing. The hotel and restaurant we were in shook several times. The tvs went out too. About 10 minutes later, the airport came back online and the tvs came back on. Thats when we saw the television reports of the tornado that hit downtown Atlanta. One block away from the garage we walked to. One block away from the conference hotel. We spent the rest of the night watching the news reports, making phone calls to other performers and our agent, and practicing for our showcase.....just in case we still performed.

We woke up the next morning to find out parts of downtown were closed but things at the conference were still a go. Half of the conference hotel was without power when we arrived. I took some pictures of the damage downtown and heard stories from students who were downtown when the storm hit. We missed the storm by 10 MINUTES! Rodger and I taught some early morning workshops and got ready for our sound check and performance.

During our practice we tried option number one. That didn't go so well. One of the other speakers (Matt) who is a co-worker and friend told us, " I don't get it!" That was great input on his part. So, Rodger and I scrapped our plan and went with plan number two. We had two hours to redo our slides and walk through things. There is nice clock on stage to let you if you go over on time and if you go too long they will cut your microphones, so the pressure is definitely on.

Everything turned out great and we really enjoyed ourselves on stage. The students and service people told us they really enjoyed our message. We were really excited about several of the speakers and other performers telling us "Wow" and "You two were great!" We also like the fact that we finished at exactly 15 minutes! We have to thank Matt for being a very honest friend and helping us with our showcase.

Here are a few shots of downtown Atlanta, the debris in the streets and our performance.

Upcoming Travels

I'm here in Ohio digging out from the March Blizzard of 2008. I hope you enjoy the before and after photos of the over two feet of snow that got dropped on the state.I'm in town to see a few friends after speaking to a Charter School in Euclid, Ohio. Ohio is just one of my stops of over the next couple of weeks. Here is my upcoming schedule of appearances and lectures:

March 14-16 - APCA National Convention, Atlanta, Georgia

April 3-5 - NACA Regional Conference, St. Paul, Minnesota

April 9- Colgate University, Hamilton, New York

April 23- Lakeland Community College, Kirtland, Ohio

Interesting Video on Education

Happy Birthday Melissa! / Ohio Blizzard!

I'm stuck in Ohio for the GREAT BLIZZARD of 2008! Most of my friends here in Ohio are blaming the snow on me, or saying "Welcome Home!" They tell me this is payback for moving to Arizona. I took a few pictures this weekend, so I'll post them soon.

I have a internet connection so I have a few "Happy Birthdays" for friends and family.

My sister Melissa celebrated her birthday on Wednesday! Happy Birthday Melissa!

I also have to say Happy Birthday to my friends Dave, Mary and Sael!