"Fresh From the Kitchen": July 2008

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

1/3 of the way to the finish line.

Kelly and I are getting ready for the PF Chang's Rock and Roll Marathon in January. Kelly is ahead of me in the training process. I'm playing catch-up. We have six months to the marathon and a lot of training and practice runs to put in. Kelly is already up to 13 miles and I just ran 10 miles for the first time last Saturday. I also had a 8 1/2 mile run last week. While running, my mind started thinking about a lot of things. Practicing speeches, putting together to do lists, and getting caught singing out loud. The one thought that came through my head was..." Wow I just ran 8 miles!" "Then I thought I'm only 1/3 of the way to running a full marathon (26.2 miles)."

We still have 6 months to so, plenty of time to build up the milage. We are both feel a lot better than we did last year when we were training for the 1/2 marathon. The next month will be my tough time because of all the time I'll spend out of town. Seeing the miles Kelly puts in motivates me, so I'll have to work hard to keep up with her. Be on the look out for the 1/2 way there and 3/4 way there blogs!

Cross your fingers for both of us. Especially my "old knees."

I'm hitting the road

My summer break is almost over. It's time to shake off the rust and get ready to smiles on peoples faces. I'm about to hit the road for several performances, speeches and workshops. Here is a list of all the places you'll find me over the next two months. If I'm your neck of the woods, please stop by to see me, or shoot me an e-mail. I'll be sure to post stories and pictures on the blog when I get internet access.

August 5 - Canisius College - Buffalo, NY

August 16 - Park University-Parkville, Missouri

August 20 - Central Michigan University-Mt. Pleasant, Michigan

August 23 - Albright College-Reading, Pennsylvania

August 24 - Franklin, College - Franklin, Indiana

August 26 - Rutgers University - Newark, New Jersey

August 28 - Blackhawk Technical College -Janesville, Wisconsin

August 31 - Graceland University-Lamoni, Iowa

September 3 - Tri-State University - Angola, IN

September 27 - TBA (San Antonio, Texas)

October 7 - Franklin College - Franklin, IN

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Planes, Planes and more Planes

The President of the United States.......ummm no!

Jim inspecting the B-52's landing gear

A-10 Thunderbolt. One of my favorite planes

SR-71 Blackbird

My brother is a HUGE airplane fan. He actually knows how to fly. He flew a plane when he was in is teens. I asked him what was the one thing he wanted to do and he told me he wanted to visit the famous Airplane "Boneyard" outside of Tucson, Arizona.

The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is home of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group. The base is the home of over 4,500 military aircraft. The aircraft are broken into three groups. Planes that are in storage for future use if the military needs them, planes used for spare parts, and retired planes that are used for scrap or museums. The site of that many planes is amazing.

We first went to the PIMA Air and Space Museum. They offer a tour of the boneyard and also have a museum with over 230 aircraft. It's the largest airplane museum not run by the government. Click below for more info

PIMA Air and Space Museum

Next we got onto a bus and went onto the air base to see all the planes being stored for various future uses. If the United States ever needs the planes again, many can be put back into service within 3 months. Other planes are just stored for spare parts like a junk yard. A lot of the planes used by the US Military are no longer in production, so when a plan need a part or repairs they contact AMRAG. Our tour guide told us an interesting fact. For every $1 spent storing the planes $18 is made/saved by the government when the planes are used for parts or scrap. Can you believe the government is actually doing something to save money! Wow

AMRAG

Camelback

When a friend or family member comes to town I will always take them to Camelback Mountain. The mountain is the tallest mountain in the Phoenix city limits. It is a big tourist attraction. Before my brother left town, I had to take him to the top of "the valley." I got him a camera for his birthday and he took a lot of great photos while visiting. Here are his photos from Camelback.

Jim's Feet...Living on the Edge 2700+ feet up

King of the mountain

Sedona

My brother is my first family member to come out and see me since I moved to Arizona. I wanted to show off the state to him. Kelly and I took him up to Northern Arizona last Monday to show off Sedona and Flagstaff.

Here are some photos of a very amazing part of the state.

Commercial Time

Last Saturday, I was the extra for a commercial for the University of Phoenix. The commercial will be running on one of their college websites this fall. When it's up and running, I'll let everyone know.

The commercial was shot in a bakery, so I got to carry cookies and assorted baked goods back and forth over and over again. Kelly jokes that my last two jobs have been a customer at a restaurant, so that must be my niche! =0 )

Follow Directions

Kelly and I are working on being more "GREEN." My sister shared a lot of information with us when we visited her in Florida. She got us hooked on the Discovery Green Channel. Anyway, Kelly and I have been recycling and are working on doing what ever we can to protect the environment. My brother and I went to the local Wal-Mart one day to run some errands. While we were out, I brought our some old magazines and paper products to place in the recycling bin at Wal-Mart. When we got to the bin we were in complete shock. Some people decided to turn the recycling and clothing collection bins into trash dumpsters. There were trash bags in the paper recycling. Furniture in the clothing collections. And general junk in the kids clothing bin. Look at the pictures below.

I went back to Wal-Mart a few days later and all of the bins are gone. It's amazing how people can ruin a good thing. Now there are no recycling bins for the people who want to do good. The actions of some people make you wonder about the future of our planet!

St. Augustine Day #2

After enjoying a our "adult" beverages, Kelly and I toured around the streets St. Augustine. At night there are several companies who give ghost tours of the town. We ended our night be getting some pizza and watching the boats on the waterfront.

The next day we got up and headed to the beach. The water was cold, but sitting on the beach was very relaxing. We headed back to our hotel to check out and explore more of the town. We stopped for a bite to eat at a Spanish Bakery (the homemade bread was mmm mmm good.), did some souvenir shopping, toured some of the oldest homes in the United States and visited the St. Augustine Lighthouse.