Russell's Wild and Crazy Adventures

White Sox pic

2008-06-11T23:32:00.002-06:00

Dragon and I in front of the statue commemorating the White Sox World Series Championship in 2005. Check out my pitching form! hahah! yes, I'm supposed to be posed like I'm pitching. Totally incorrect technique, but whatever.

Repeat Omaha Roadtrip

2008-06-09T14:33:00.000-06:00

Driving from Omaha to csprings for the 2nd time in 5 days!! This time was very unplanned though. George, MJ, Christine, and I's flight got cancelled this morn so we decided to just drive back since I couldn't get back on a flight until 1030p, and those other guys not till tomorrow. Fun! kinda! Maybe we'll stop and see the beautiful Quizno's lady.

Roadtripping would have been faster

2008-06-05T18:43:00.000-06:00

By the time my flight leaves for Omaha, I'll have been in the airport for more than 10 hours!! yikes! Nobody ever said I was an efficient traveler, but this stop certainly destroys any of the hour-long roadtrip stops.

The adventure continues

2008-06-05T00:59:00.003-06:00

Well the road trip is over, but I still plan on putting up some other pics and videos from the trip so be sure to check back in.

Later today - in less than 6 hours actually - I leave for Omaha, Nebraska. And you know what they say about Omaha...

Final Driving Stats

2008-06-05T00:54:00.002-06:00

I made a good push on the last day, but not enough to overcome Dragon. Here are the final numbers:

Dragon miles: 1283.2
Russell miles: 1006.8

No. of stops: 13. Right in between our guesses. (And we're not playing Price is Right rules, so it's a true draw.)

The C-470 scam

2008-06-05T00:52:00.002-06:00

Don't EVER take C-470 to get around Denver from I-76 to I-25. Even if you've just driven over 2000 miles and you just want to get home, it's advantage is still questionable. It's a SCAM!!! We paid $8.50 in tolls just to drive 30 miles! Now that's just ridiculous.

Tornadoes

2008-06-04T20:44:00.000-06:00

Our radio listening in Nebraska was constantly interrupted for pretty much the entire 4 hours in the state...by the emergency broadcast system telling us about tornado warnings!! yeah, yikes. luckily, we got spun up in the air and then gently placed down again on the road by a little friendly tornado. no damage.

We're in CO now. After refueling with the most beautiful Quiznos toad princess, we're 2-3 hrs away now.

20th Annual World Pork Expo

2008-06-04T14:38:00.000-06:00

Yep. This is what we ran into last night in Des Moines. http://www.worldpork.org

Home stretch!

2008-06-04T14:12:00.000-06:00

At the start of today's drive, here's how it measured up:

Dragon miles: 1010.1
Russell miles: 550.9
No. of stops: 9
No. of random humongous Jesus statues: 1

Sleeping is awesome

2008-06-04T03:29:00.002-06:00

It's 4:30am. We're in Des Moines, Iowa. We almost got shut out of hotels because of a freaking National Pork Expo, but we got saved by an awesome dude at the Country Inn & Suites who gave us the only room he had at a big discount and a late check-out. Later.

Dragon got crazy last night

2008-06-04T03:27:00.002-06:00

...and got a tattoo.

more White Sox game pics

2008-06-04T03:20:00.002-06:00

Hitchhikers

2008-06-04T03:14:00.002-06:00

We picked up a couple extra passengers at Cedar Point.

ChiSox game

2008-06-03T19:11:00.002-06:00

In Chicago for the White Sox game! We got sweet seats and we're definitely chowing down. So far, we've each had 2 corn on the cobs, I've had a 'Comiskey Dog', and Dragon went with the mini chicken tacos and chicken tenders. yummmm!

Post-game, we're shooting for 5 hrs of driving which will leave us with about 10 hrs for Wednesday.

A Comiskey Dog. Looks delicious, huh?? I don't even like pickles!

Driving stats update

2008-06-03T11:46:00.000-06:00

We left Cedar Point for Chicago about 15 minutes ago and already we're about to make our 2nd stop. hahah! We stopped so I could get a bottle of water and watch a clip on YouTube, and then we saw a sign for an Einstein Bagels off the highway and we can't pass it up.

This will bring our stop total to 8.
Dragon miles: 747.8
Russell miles: 181.1

Cedar Point Review

2008-06-03T10:17:00.002-06:00

Awesome park. If you go, definitely go when school is in session. We hit up 8 of the 17 coasters, including Millenium Force twice. Beware of the Iron Dragon....NOT! But ironically, that's the coaster that almost made Dragon lose it.

The Top Thrill Dragster is awesome. It tops out at 120mph...and it hits that speed almost immediately! It's freaking awesome! You fly off the start and then go straight up vertical 400 feet before peaking at the top and going straight down 400 feet! Sick! It's a short ride, but definitely worth the wait.

Check out these roller coaster records. Top Thrill and Millenium Force are all over this: http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/coasters/records/steel_records.shtml

A quick video for you

2008-06-02T23:58:00.002-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmEGaQpDOAQ

Hopefully I'll add some pics soon too.

Trip Overview

2008-06-02T23:17:00.003-06:00

A: 5/31, Depart NYC
B: 6/1, Continue drive to Cincinnati (Reds vs. Braves), then drive to Cedar Point.
C: 6/2, Cedar Point amusement park
D: 6/3, Drive to Chicago (White Sox vs. Royals), then start drive to csprings.
E: 6/4, Finish drive to csprings.

Cedar Point, kidddd!!!

2008-06-02T11:22:00.001-06:00

A Nyquil and 10.5 hours of sleep will definitely do wonders for you. I feel a million times better today with just a little bit of leftover sick. Hopefully I'll be 100% tomorrow so I can rally to pick up my driving slack!

Cedar Point has 17 coasters!! 3 down so far. Millenium Force is BEAST!!! wow. smooth ride and long, sick drops.

Coasters!

Millenium Force

Bottled water

2008-06-01T17:49:00.000-06:00

Does anyone else believe in a hierarchy of bottled water? I think Fiji is clearly dominant, then everything else is about the same, and then Dasani is a distant last. I really dislike Dasani. Example: I just bought a random Enon Springs bottle over Dasani.

Dragon thinks it's all the same.

Driving stats update

2008-06-01T14:50:00.001-06:00

Dragon: 505.3 miles
Russell: 170.3 miles
Stops so far: 4
GNR songs on the radio: 5
Number of humongous random Jesus statues: 1

Reds 6, Braves 2

2008-06-01T14:39:00.001-06:00

This is the backwards part of the trip. We just left the Reds game and now we're driving north AND east to Cedar Point amusement park. ah well. 4 hrs of driving. I need to sleeeeeeep.

Good news is that the Reds won. The chili cheese coneys are GREAT. I had two. Jay Bruce is a beast. No homer for Junior so he's at 599 still. Braves suck.

Chili Cheese Coney Close-ups

A GNR Revival

2008-06-01T06:38:00.000-06:00

Dude! Guns n Roses all over this trip! On the radio last night, we got Sweet Child 2 times and Don't Cry 1 time. This morning Dragon picked up Sweet Child on the radio while I heard Don't Cry in the hotel lobby during checkout. Dragon says: Maybe GnR just got to this area.

Dragon also says: If it were up to my alarm setting capabilities, we would get to the game at 4.

I've been kinda a negative force on this trip thus far. Between my flight coming in 6 hrs late and delaying our departure to being sick to silencing my alarm this morning, its like I'm trying to prevent this trip from going through. The only reason we're not still sleeping right now is bc Dragon set a back-up alarm.

4+ hrs to Cincy.

Take a guess!

2008-05-31T21:39:00.000-06:00

How many times do you think we're going to do a bathroom/gas/food stop during the drive?

Dragon says 12. I say 14.

Dragon / Russell Roadtrip IV

2008-05-31T21:10:00.001-06:00

4th Colorado roadtrip since Jan 2006! We're somewhere in the middle of PA now and just got some New Kids On The Block "The Right Stuff" on the radio, but Dragon switched the station and settled for GNR "Don't Cry". seriously. Anyway, I'm freaking sick in the passenger eating some healthy BK chicken tenders in the shape of a crown, while Dragon is getting mad at the night time construction speed limits. We have about 9 more hours of driving to get to Cincinnati, and about 14 hours to do it before the 1pm ballgame. sounds like a good time.

Last summer CO adventure...

2007-07-30T00:31:00.000-06:00

And what a way to end it! The day before leaving CO for a month, summitting Pikes Peak with Seagal and George. Man it was awesome. The first time Seagal and I did the Peak via the Crags, there was a ton of snow and ice on the ground. The ground conditions were way better this time, allowing us to get up in 3 hr 11 min instead of the 3:45 last time. I tell you. I think I could do this hike a thousand times and never get tired of the view. Climbing above treeline and looking east...man...it doesn't get any better than that. SO vast. Trees for miles and miles, with the mountains as the backdrop. I can't even begin to describe how amazing, how inspiring it is. It's a steep incline, but it's the views that really take your breath away.

Just about 3/4 of the way up, the clouds started rolling in. By the time we got to the top, there wasn't much to see. After enjoying a cheeseburger, hot dog, and fries at the top, we started crusing on the way down...and we couldn't see crap! Seriously. We lost the trail so many times and when we spread out to look for it, if one of us got more than 25 yds away, you couldn't see them! It def would have sucked to do this hike without a buddy.

Great trail, awesome friends, totally rewarding end. You can't beat that. Can't wait for next summer.

Link to the rest of the pics: http://uva.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119538&l=a999b&amp;id=1528364

Ute Pass Trail

2007-07-22T20:44:00.000-06:00

I've never been happier to see the incline. After climbing 3000 ft in the first 5 miles of hiking, I was ready to roll down the incline to just get to level ground again. My feet were blistered, it was ridiculously hot, I was out of water, and I'm in terrible hiking shape.

But I did a new great hike! Just what the doctor ordered. I only saw one person for the entire first 6 miles and it was awesome.

Turns out that the first people I saw before descending the incline was a dad and her young daughter...who I helped find a parking space 2.5 hours before! I thought that was great.

btw, on my way down the incline I saw a dude from michigan who was doing the incline for the very first time. And he was in FLIP FLOPS!! crazy out of towner.

So Ute Pass Trail. Check it out. I did the shortest route possible. UPT to LRR and then down the incline. 3 hrs, 15 min total. http://www.inclineclub.com/maps/upt_lrr_bt.htm

SOOOOO hot!

2007-07-19T21:34:00.000-06:00

So I decided to sleep outside last night.

Worst. Idea. Ever.

It's been crazy hot here in csprings lately...which is no good for my house with no air conditioning and poor ventilation in my bedroom. I've resorted to sleeping with the fan blasting directly on me, while laying on top of the covers trying not to move at all. It's been miserable.

So why not camp on my patio? Great idea, right? Whatever. The freaking sprinkler system in my condo community is SO stinkin loud!! It kept going on and off all night! Not to mention I was sleeping on a wooden patio deck. And I got woken up by some kind of firecracker at 630am.

Needless to say, I'm ridiculously tired now.

Recap: Let's go outside and do karate.

2007-07-15T21:40:00.000-06:00

I risk sounding sensitive and cheesy by saying this...but gosh I FREAKING LOVE WEDDINGS!! Seriously, is there anything better than seeing your friends so ridiculously happy?? I mean, whenever I go to these things I get to the point where my face hurts from smiling so much. Yep. That's lame but it's true.

The wedding and reception were way fun to be at. So great meeting so many of Jen and Ryan's fam and friends, not to mention it was super great seeing JB and Ryan. Awesome people and I def miss having them around in Colorado. Fun times at the reception despite the awkward attempted matchmaking of me and the other Asian girl there. And despite confirming (for the 300th time) that I am a TERRIBLE dancer. I get all hot and sweaty of embarassment just thinking about it. hahaha! Yeah. That bad. Any tips out there?? Practice partners??

If you vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come true

2007-07-14T11:45:00.000-06:00

HEY! I'm in big town Alliance Ohio with a few minutes to spare before I have to go to JB's wedding!! And what better way to get pumped for a wedding than watching the last minutes of Napoleon Dynamite! ahhh yeah. I'm going to bust a move like Napoleon tonight. haha yeaaaaaaaa jk! I just got through an almost-crisis with ironing my shirt. The original iron in my hotel room exploded all of the water all over my shirt. So I got a new iron just in time, otherwise it would've been "conspicious wrinkly shirt guy" for me! Good thing I'm so damn good at ironing. heheh.

So earlier, I was leaving my hotel room for lunch and as I'm walking down the hall, a random hotel room door opens up...and there was JB!!! hahah yeah! no joke, totally random! So we chatted for a bit and I met the bridal party, all the while unsure if hanging out with the bride before the wedding was bad luck or some crap like that (since I have no idea about wedding superstitions). It was great!! So happy for JB'ers!! It's gonna be fun!!

Hinds and I drove down to Heggy's for lunch on JB's recommendation. I asked for classic Alliance, and I think we got it. Small diner with ridiculously cheap food. I got a cheeseburger, fries with butter, a coney dog, topped off by a vanilla milkshake. It was GOOOOOD! But I think I'm going to puke. Or at least have bad gas in the chapel. jk!! hahah! Anywayyyyyy...gotta finish getting ready. peace!

6/18 - Brewers 5, Giants 4

2007-06-19T01:25:00.000-06:00

Hey. It's way late here in Rockford, Illinois, just south of the Wisconsin border. We drove through a monsoon to get here. Not the most pleasant driving.

But the Brewers stadium is great! Prob our new fave. It's way awesome on the inside, and the retractable dome came in very handy today to protect us from the torrential downpour. We were in the rightfield bleachers for this game, in hopes to catch a Barry Bonds homerun ball. And then of course we'd sell it for a couple grand on ebay. But of course we were booing that character at the same time we wanted him to hit a ball to us. Makes sense, right?

Alas, no Bonds homerun on the night. He ended up with two walks, a groundout, and a double. LOTS of boos though. We kinda felt bad for the guy. How can he be having any fun playing ball now? And seeing him play in person really makes it real. The guy has to be miserable being the most hated man in baseball. But I guess the guy set himself up for it by being a jerk, huh?

Great game in a great environment. The Brewers unleashed a hot pitching prospect for his major league debut. Yovani Gallardo. He took the win and also had an RBI double in his first at-bat. Pretty sweet. The fans were super great, and the 40+k really appreciated his performance.

Before the game, we had lunch in Chicago with Dragon's intern buddy Russ. He interns with the Cubs now and we had lunch right around Wrigley at Murphy's Bleachers. We took a walk around the stadium and took a brief pause in front of the Harry Carey statue where we met an extremely talkative bellydancer who goes by the name "Slave". Yeah. Totally weird.

Pics are super annoying to put up on this blog, so you'll just have to check the facebook album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2109358&l=e839c&id=1528364

6/17 - Day off at Uncle Bailey's

2007-06-17T01:42:00.000-06:00

A much needed day off after the first two days of the trip with VERY minimal sleep. We slept in in Cleveland before making the trip to Uncle Bailey's in Elkhart, Indiana. Or should I say "Bailey's House o' Fun". It was great! After getting our chat on as soon as we got there, we drove down to a nearby lake in Michigan and Bailey's son Tim gave us a ride on a waverunner and then tossed us around on a tube. Awesome! The lake was super great and was just totally chill to float in. Dragon and I officially decided that we're going to get a phat lake house when we get rich. Now all we have to do is get rich. So simple.

We also got to play on the trampoline, eat some yummy burgers, watch the Mets-Yanks game, and play some ping-pong. Doesn't that sound perfect?? Who needs to grow up! Not us.

Thanks for a great time Uncle Bailey!

6/15-16 - Two games, no sleep

2007-06-16T01:53:00.000-06:00

12:45 pm: Start roadtrip from my house in NY.
1:00 pm: 1st stop to get lunch.
1:30 pm: 1st driver switch. Thus begins our very efficient roadtrip style.
4:00 pm: Arrive in Philly. Hang with our old friend Jon "Hulk" Hogan.
7:05 pm: Detroit Tigers @ Phillies. Phils get rocked, but we manage to score some seats in the Hall of Fame club about halfway through the game. Best way in the world to watch a ballgame.
10:45 pm: We get on the highway to start our drive towards Canton, OH.
11:45 pm: After one hour of driving, we only drive 6 miles because of lane closures down to one lane. It's SO ridiculous.
Somewhere around 4-5 am: We start looking for a hotel around the Pittsburgh area. EVERY HOTEL within a 30 mile radius is booked up completely. Some stupid golf tournament called the US Open is in town. We decide to just drive straight to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
8:00 am: Arrive in Canton, OH and the Hall of Fame. 1 hour nap in the parking lot.
9:00 am: We're the first people into the Hall of Fame that day. We pay a visit to Lawrence Taylor. The HOF is actually awesome. Check it out if you have the chance.
1:00 pm: Check into Cleveland hotel. Lunch and another 1 hour nap.
4:00 pm: Atlanta Braves @ Cleveland Indians. Cleveland's stadium is in the ghetto. Kinda like the Bronx. We got absolutely toasted in the heat, but at least it was reversible floppy hat day!!
8:00 pm: Deliriously tired. Goodnight.

Roadtrip!!

2007-06-14T17:22:00.000-06:00

Shoot. Now that everyone's stopped checking my blog bc I never update it, I'm going to start posting again. What can I say? I'm super busy. And it's not like I can roadtrip everyday of the year. I mean, what else is there to blog about anyway?

So Dragon and I are making the return trip to CO. Actually, I'm going to CO (but only so I can catch a flight the next day so I can leave again) and he's on his way to Vegas to continue being a degenerate and gamble his life away. haha jk. kinda. no, I'm completely kidding. All of this is pending if the Stratus can make it the whole way of course. We might have to ditch the Stratus and walk. Both of us can use the exercise anyway.

Here's the plan. 5 games in 6 days. Some fun stops with some fun people along the way (TBD). Lots of iPod listening. Shenanigans and winging it the whole way through.

Before we head out, just gotta say that NYC is the freaking BEST!!! Love being back home. And as always, the time flies when I'm here. Here's what I've got to say...

- Go see the movie Once if you have the chance. The music is great.
- If you move the NYC, check out livin' in Long Beach.
- Go check out Lily Allen live! She's way fun and cute!
- NYC water makes my teeth whiter.
- Sapore on Greenwich betw 6th and 7th = great cheap Italian food.
- The Arts Diner on 52nd = a crappy "deluxe" burger.
- I want to get cable to check out what happens on Top Chef
- To the librarian jerk at the College Point library - I've lived here longer than you! Don't tell me that I can't have wireless internet access bc I moved to CO!

Snowboarding in csprings!

2006-10-26T17:14:00.000-06:00

I even took the snowboard out today! hahah! It was some pretty lame riding, but still! I took my board down to the hill in front of the church down my street and let 'er rip for 5 or 6 times. Who says you can't snowboard in csprings? Let alone snowboard in csprings in October!

Blizzard!!

2006-10-26T08:51:00.000-06:00

No, not the DQ kind (but if you want to know, my fave is Choc covered Strawberries)....the kind that gets you out of work!! It's some crazy flying snow here! Here's a before and after shot for you (not taken anywhere near the same time):

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

October baseball

2006-10-07T09:40:00.000-06:00

So I came home this weekend for METS PLAYOFF BASEBALL booooyyyyyeeeeeeeeeee!!!! (it gets the extra emphasis bc I don't know when I'll get to say that again) For a secong though, it didn't look like it was going to happen. My plane was supposed to land at 730p at LaGuardia for the published game start at 8p. Of course my flight take-off out of Chicago was delayed 1.5 hrs, but we still landed at 8p...my mom picked me up and dropped me off at Shea, and bam! I only missed the 1st inning. Sweeeet!!!

We were sitting in the 3rd to last row, but it didn't matter to me...it was still awesome!!! The electricity of baseball in NY (Mets or Yanks) is unlike any other, esp in October, and it was so great to be surrounded by 57k fans just as pumped up for every pitch, every play. I went with my bro, sis, and dragon, and we led the Mets faithful in cheers of victory.

Great game, too. Tom Glavine leads the Mets to a 4-1 victory to take a 2-0 series lead over the Dodgers. After the game, we took the obligatory picture in front of the field...and then we randomly met up with 4 guys that we swam with growing up! What are the odds?? There were 57k+ people at the game, and as we're walking down a ramp that criss-crosses with another ramp, we bump into these guys as they're walking down the opposite ramp.

I love NY baby!!! Check out this vid from the game (the chants are "Jose!" for Jose Reyes):

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Lots of snow!!

2006-09-24T20:37:00.000-06:00

csprings didn't get snowed on and the Peak looked awesome, so George and I made a last-minute decision to try and summit the Peak on Sat afternoon. But just an hour's drive away from csprings, there was a TON of snow on the ground. Fortunately, my car is totally badass and the all-wheel drive was killing the drive and riding over some huge ditches like they were nothing! It was awesome!!!

Maybe our first hint that we probably weren't going to make it all the way to the top was the group of snowboarders (!) that were looking for some fresh powder. Our second hint should have been that we totally walked by the trail at first because nobody else had been on it so it was completely covered in snow! Still, we pushed on and were treated to typical beautiful views of Colorado. George and I talked about it a ton...how incredibly humbling it is being outdoors in Colorado because it's so vast and pretty. Something you just have to experience to understand. Somewhere along the way, the shorts that I was wearing became very insufficient clothing and I stopped feeling my legs, so we decided to abort the Pikes Peak mission and just climb around the base of the Crags. There were some sweet icicle formations that we snacked by.

So even though we totally sucked at our goal of reaching Pikes Peak, definitely an amazing, fun day. Great trail, awesome views, good company and convo. peace!

Let's Go Mets!!

2006-09-05T16:01:00.000-06:00

Seagal, George, I, and Bill "Ritchie" May went up to the Mets game on Thursday night. They were playing some team called the Rockies up in Denver. I'm not really sure where the Rockies are from though because there were a ton of Mets fans up there making just as much noise. Unfortunately, the Mets scored too many runs in the first two games (21 to 8) and didn't save enough for game 3. Mets lost 8-4, but we had sweet seats, spent lots of money on stadium food, and got treated to a real gem by Mets pitcher Oliver Perez (go back to Pittsburgh!!)

Blogging is back!

2006-08-26T14:37:00.000-06:00

Seriously! It's been a while! For the first 3 weeks in August, I was in California, DC, and then Canada...but even with all that I don't have a lot of pictures to show for it :( Some super great times though, and I have all the pictures in my head so you're just going to have to believe me on that one. The vast majority of it was spent at swimming pools and hotel rooms though, so I'm not sure if you'd even really want to see what was going on there anyway. esp the hotel rooms...jk!! ANYWAY...

Between Cali and Canada, I flew to DC for my boy MKD's wedding to Lillian. The travel to (a red-eye at midnight) and from (18 hr trip to Canada) wasn't the greatest, but it was SO worth it to be there for Mike and Lillian and enjoy their weekend with them. They were just so so happy, and I love seeing that. Mike's been a close friend since my 3rd year at UVA, and he's been there for me through a ton of life changes and experiences, and to be able to be a part of his wedding was really awesome and a true honor. I brought my friend Alison, who I've been friends with for just as long, and the reception was a total blast with her! We tore up the dance floor! kinda. as much as I can at least.

A boy band?? Nope, that's just MKD and some badass groomsmen.
Me, Alison, Mike, and Lillian

The mother of all roadtrips

2006-07-20T19:47:00.000-06:00

This guy makes mine and dragon's roadtrip look like a walk across the street! Me and dragon = 6 baseball games in 6 days. Cass Sapir's roadtrip = 189 ballgames in 175 days!! He's visiting EVERY major and minor league stadium in the country to raise money for the Jimmy Fund. Sounds totally awesome and fun...until I remember how tiring our baby trip was. On our trip, our "hard" day was doing the Twins night game in Minneapolis and then going to the Cubs day game the next day in Chicago. I think we drove 7 hrs and slept 7 hrs. Something like that. In any case, THIS crazy guy drove from Minneapolis all the way down to TEXAS for a night game the next day. Dragon and I have been completely shown up.

ESPN Page2 article by Jim Caple
Tour for the Cure website
Mine and dragon's formerly awesome (but now wimpy) roadtrip

How fast can you type???

2006-07-17T13:47:00.000-06:00

Check out this online speed test! Post your scores in the comments...
http://labs.jphantom.com/wpm/

Tubing!!

2006-07-16T21:37:00.000-06:00

JB and I went tubing down the South Platte River on Saturday, and just like last year...it was awesome!! Definitely the perfect day for floating down a river in a tube! The sun was shining bright, it was hot, and the water was runnin' strong and high. And let me tell you, this ain't no lazy river!! It's pretty tame at points (even though you can still crash into the sides like JB), but there are plenty of rocks to float around and many rapids to be concerned about. It's all safe fun...I only got completely backwards flipped out of my tube once, and JB got dumped once while losing her sandals a couple times, but it's all good! We even walked back to do this awesome drop again before leaving. We went about 2-3 miles in 1hr and 15min, so it's really a pretty good ways. So much fun!!

Rocky Mtn pt.3 - Lost Falls

2006-07-14T22:07:00.000-06:00

Jumping into a freezing lake among the best scenery on the planet seemed enough for one day, so Seagal and I went back to camp, ate some scrumptious tomato chipotle pasta (highly recommend it), and tossed the football around for a bit. We were ready to call it a day even though there was 4 hrs of sunlight left and I was panicking about being bored off my ass, when I spotted a faint trail on the other side of the river from our campsite. Seagal and I had been looking for Lost Falls since we got there, but there were no clear trails leading to it...so we decided to follow this lead along the river until we got there.

We were totally hacking it the entire way. I mean, there was a faint path that was sorta worn down, but when you cross the river 3 times, you know you're not following a real trail. We went for about a mile of going over and under fallen trees, crossing the river, pushing away branches...and then we got our first glimpse of it. I was beginning to think the trek wasn't going to be justified by the falls, but man they were worth it. Seagal and I both took pictures from there and then we went closer...and closer...and then started climbing up the side. These falls were powerful. Absolutely awesome to look at. And you just get a rush being so close to something that incredible. We had a ton of fun climbing around the rocky edges of the falls. While Seagal was playing cliffhanger climbing down, I ventured over the top ledge of the falls...

Just like all of our pics, that pic doesn't do it justice, so check out this picture just so you can get a sense of how high it was. And then Seagal took a picture of me hanging on the branch at the top too. (No worries, I was perfectly safe the entire time!)

Seriously...best outdoor adventure yet. This one's going to be hard to top, but given Seagal and I's brief history together, we're going to find a way how. peace out for now!

Rocky Mtn pt.2 - Swimming!

2006-07-10T15:15:00.000-06:00

Yeah that's right! You see that lake right there? The one that's fed by that glacier in the background?? Well Seagal and I made the plunge into the sub-50 degree water on day 2 of our camping adventure.

Seagal was totally set on jumping in and his resolve never wavered a bit. I, on the other hand, was not super excited about the idea after being rained on the entire first day and not having the best summer Colorado day on day 2 either. But I was at least going to make the hike up there...

RMNP is absolutely amazing, just like I imagine all national parks to be. Everytime I head up there, I totally wish that I could have everybody I know with me because the sights are SO vast and breathtaking. Words definitely can't describe how beautiful it is...pictures can't even do it. Seagal and I talked about this a bunch, but yet we still try and take pictures like this to capture it all.

Along the way, we found this wheelbarrow, a huge rock, and some snow (?!) A little more than 3 miles from our campsite, we came across Lost Lake, which is the official end of the trail. This is originally where we wanted to go swimming, but too many people hang out and fish there (too many = 3-5 when you're in the middle of nowhere) so we hiked up over that hill on the far side of the lake. Of course, as we were walking up over that big hill, a huge hail storm came rolling in...so we took cover under this awesome tree. Here's the view from the top of the hill looking at Lost Lake.

Lake Husted! Seagal was the first to go in. And after seeing how much fun he had, I did a complete 180 and said I went in myself! Seriously, it looks pretty nice, but it was frigid!! The lake was super shallow, which made swimming in it very very difficult. But it was WAY fun and I'm so glad we went in! Definitely memorable.

Upon leaving Lake Husted, we didn't think it was going to be possible to make the day any better. But then on the way back to camp, we ran into this gigantic moose (!) along the trail that we even tracked for a little bit! When we got back to camp, we had some food, threw the football around, and then made an unexpected journey to cap off an already amazing day outdoors...

Rocky Mtn pt.1 - Camping

2006-07-05T00:33:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone had a great 4th weekend! Seagal and I did a 2-night backcountry camping trip in Rocky Mountain National Park and it was incredible fun! So much fun that I'm going to split up the blogging into 3 parts. yeah, you love it!

As you can see, my pack was rather large. I've only car camped befpre this trip, so I've never had to carry all of my gear like this, and let me tell you...it was not the most comfortable thing! To make matters less pleasant, we got rained on pretty much the entire way, but we did manage a nice (and dry) stop by the river at one point. From the Dunraven trailhead on the very northeast side of Rocky Mtn Natl Park, we hiked a total 6.7 miles to get to our campsite.

Our campsite was sweeeeeet! Way better than any hotel room! We had a bridge as the entrance to our site, a sweet dining room (that's our table and the log on the right was our chair), and once we got set up, we also had great sleeping accommodations. When you're in the backcountry, you have to hang up all of your food and anything that smells that might attract the bears...we had a genius counterbalance system that nobody was going to reach (even us sometimes!)

Once we figured out where we were, we took a little stroll as a preview for the next day's adventure. As with any hike with me and Seagal, it involved walking along fallen trees. This is something we manage to do every opportunity we get...one of these days, one of us will have a good wipe out, but not today! Oh yeah, and here's a pretty butterfly.

Tune in in a couple days for our plunge into Lake Husted...

Movie Review: Superman Returns

2006-07-04T15:23:00.000-06:00

Looks totally cheesy, right?? I completely agree...but Superman was SUPER-AWESOME!! No joke, I totally loved it. There's something about a dude flying around in bright blue tights with red underpants that just makes you not want to take it seriously, but this movie really pulled it off well. I didn't have many expectations going into it and I ended up enjoying all 2hr 40min of it and would see it all again at some point. It was real entertaining, funny at points, the actors were perfect for their characters (esp. Brandon Routh as Superman, and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor), and Superman's action scenes were definitely sweet. I tell ya, that guy comes through in the clutch. And that music?? Just awesome and it gets you pumped up. No wonder how he can score a girl like Lois Lane. So yeah, I'd definitely recommend it for a super-great time.

Happy 4th Weekend!

2006-06-30T23:21:00.000-06:00

Seagal and I are doing a 2 night backcountry camping trip starting this weekend. Should be interesting! My sleeping bag is huuuuge (!!) and I have about negative room in the pack for anything else. you know, minor stuff like food and clothes. It's all good. I do have some mean dried food waiting for dinner for me...Hawaiian Chicken and Turkey Stroganoff....yummmy! You know you're jealous. If we don't get eaten by bears and my camera makes it through the abuse I'm going to put it through this weekend, you'll get an update on late Monday maybe. Hope everyone has a great weekend!! - R

Blodgett Peak

2006-06-25T15:50:00.000-06:00

Colorado adventures are back!! Doing hikes like this in my backyard after being away for a month makes me appreciate just how awesome it is to live here. Seagal and I have talked about doing Blodgett Peak for a while now and it definitely turned out to be a great adventure. I still think it's amazing that such a sweet hike is just 20 min north of my house.

We had a great crew come out for this hike with me, Seagal, Amy, JB, Brady & Annie, and John & Ellen. Definitely way fun with a lot of people to share it with. The hike started out pretty average, but then it got real steep with a lot of loose gravel to deal with. I've read that you gain 2400 ft in 2.5-3 miles, so it's a pretty challenging ascent! We def took a bunch of breaks on the way. The final push to the top is sweet though...climbing or hopping up a big boulder field. Looks hard but it's way better than the loose gravel (and definitely a lot more fun!) The summit is worth all the hard work with beautiful views of CSprings and the region to the west.

Being that the trail is so steep, the way down was a little risky. Lots of sliding and some sweet moves. John definitely got the award for most awesome scrape.

All in all, it took us 1hr 50min up and 1hr 10min to get down...not a bad Sunday morning adventure! Definitely a good workout. Next time Seagal and I do this, we're finding the plane the crashed on the north side of the peak...

Overdue Update

2006-06-21T08:47:00.000-06:00

Well my 29 day trip is finally ending today! A 3 hr layover in Minneapolis is perfect time to do some long overdue blogging, don't you think? Sorry for the lack of updates...being without a computer for a week and all of my city-hopping definitely didn't help at all. Get this...when my computer crashed, I lost all of the roadtrip pics from before Pittsburgh! sucks! Can I say again that technology has NOT been working my way lately. Anyways, onto the update!

On a 1-day stopover with Al and Sarah in DC a couple weekends ago, we played kickball on the National Mall! How awesome is that?? We played on the grassy area between the Washington Monument and the WWII Memorial on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, our team was not very good. I scored half of the team's runs in my first at-bat (= the team only scored 2 runs total). So that's about it. Al is probably going to kill me for putting this picture up, but I think it's funny!

The End!

2006-05-31T22:37:00.000-06:00

We started with a group picture around the Stratus and ended with just me and dragon. 2600+ miles and 6 baseball games later, the trip is over! It's been real fun...we got treated to some great ballgames, and the people we've been able to hang out and crash with have been absolutely incredible. We got this mini-sampling of America and I can only imagine what my friends Dave and Elizabeth did with their 50 state roadtrip last year. I'd love to give that a whirl someday. So thanks to Pete, Grant, Brooke's fam, Kara Lynn & fam, Dan, and Seagal for making this an awesome experience!

Couldn't fit much more in the trunk of the Stratus!

Game 6: D'Rays @ Balt

2006-05-31T22:24:00.000-06:00

No foul ball antics, but the last game of the trip is an 11 inning win for the home team on an awesome night. Seagal joined us for this game at Camden Yards and we got upgraded to some sweet seats down the 3rd base line. After the game we took a pic with this great usher who was very cool and also ultra protective of his section.

Too bad dragon didn't see a sign like this in Pittsburgh

Game 5: MIL @ PIT

2006-05-30T22:59:00.000-06:00

Our great friend Dan from high school joined us for tonight's game at PNC Park and it was definitely the most fun so far! And we've had some good ones already too! Not only was it awesome to hang and catch up with Dan, but there's just always a story when you put me and Pete together apparently.

So we went for some good seats down the 3rd base line...prime foul ball territory. In the 4th inning, I heard the crack of the bat hitting the ball, and looked up to see this fierce line drive headed straight towards us. Not wanting my precious fingers having anything to do with it, I just let the ball go. Next thing I know, I turn around and see Pete (who was sitting in the row behind me) try to block or trap the ball with his body, but it just NAILS him in the chest. I mean, really hard. Like there was this huge THUMP! and the entire stadium saw the impact and went "ohhhhh". The worst part of it is that he didn't even end up with the ball. It ricocheted off his chest, and some random dude who didn't "earn" that ball ended up with it. All Pete ended up with was a nice red mark.

Makes for a great story too! Dan was getting ice cream at the time and saw the whole thing happen from afar. A group of girls took a pic of his chest. And some dad with his two kids was sitting a few sections over and made a comment to Pete on our way out. Hilarious.

oh and btw, the Pirates won 12-1. Julio Castillo went 4-4 with 2 HR's and 6 RBI's for the Pirates.

In addition, Pete earned some extra money by doing some camera work for the stadium and a few ladies. Later on, him and Dan took on the Steelers and Pete took out this guy's knees.

Goodbye M.I.

2006-05-30T22:53:00.000-06:00

Thanks so much to KL's fam for putting us up (and putting up with us). It was way fun! They also have this badass bird named Calvin (or Kelvin, I'm not really sure). So now we're back to "roughin it" on this roadtrip :)

Game 4: Yanks @ Tigers

2006-05-29T23:49:00.000-06:00

Talk about HOT! This was painful. After every half inning, dragon and I would go to the hallway to cool off...and there were many times that I would just stay there during play too. KL and fam didn't have that luxury, but at least they had Icees (and mini-pizzas) in the stadium!! Oh yeah, dragon and I had chef hats too. Get it? SHEF-field? anyway. Comerica Park was cool despite being in ghetto Detroit. It had a bunch of badass stone tigers (2) around the stadium. The scoreboard in Cincy was still the best though.

Another great meal with KL's fam and a lot more swim talk rounded out our big non-driving day of the trip. Onto Pittsburgh tomorrow...

Game 3: DBacks @ Reds

2006-05-29T00:04:00.000-06:00

Great game. Ridiculously hot day. But even suffering through the sun, we still had a real fun time. 27,000+ strong, the Reds fans were excellent and we were treated to some sweet baseball. A manager ejection, a pinch-hit 2-run homer to get the Reds within 1, an outfield assist to throw a DBack out at home in the top of the 9th...and then a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 9th to win it 5-4!! We've been real lucky to get treated to some awesome games.

Great American Ballpark was real nice too. It's only a couple years old, very well-kept with a real fan-friendly atmosphere (I have a higher vertical jump than dragon), and a totally sweet scoreboard. This scoreboard killed Wrigley's (but the old-school number cards are still cool).

After the game we drove up to Kara Lynn's fam's house in Ann Arbor for more incredible hospitality and food...another amazing dinner, a lot of talkin' swimming, and capping off the night with me and dragon being awarded Olympic silver medals (2). We've been real spoiled on this roadtrip and we're totally thankful for the great people that have really hooked us up along the way.

Easy day tomorrow with no driving to another town...just the ballgame in Detroit with KL's fam and then another night here. It's going to be fun!

Alternative transportation for the trip

2006-05-28T23:48:00.000-06:00

We had an amazing treat this morning! After some awesome waffles and sausages from Brooke's mom, Brooke's grandpa took each of us up in his airplane for a short ride! It was totally incredible. Grandpa gave me a brief tour of Kokomo and then he let me take the stick!! I made a few turns and then took the plane in for it's landing pattern (but then he re-did it). So awesome. I've always wanted to get in a small plane like that because I learned all about flying in school but never got the first-hand experience and it was so great. Nothing like flying in a big plane at all. Landing is like floating to the ground like a feather. Even Pete enjoyed it!

Pete and Brooke's dad riding alongside the plane during my take-off
Pete prepping for the flight

Brooke's family was so generous, kind, and welcoming. Their hospitality and the Kokomo experience they gave us was totally appreciated. Thanks so much!!

Game 2: Braves @ Cubs

2006-05-27T21:48:00.000-06:00

Wrigley Field is great! It's got so much character, and the area around the ballpark is really neat too. The bleachers on top of the adjacent apartment buildings are totally sweet. But with the 12:20p start combined with the 3.5 hrs of driving we still had to do to get to Chicago, a stop at Best Buy to get a new camera, and trying to find parking, we didn't get to our seats until the 3rd inning, but it was still very cool. And we happened to be a part of the largest attendance at Wrigley since the 1970's or something like that! 41,865 (I think)!

I do have to say that dragon and I were a bit disappointed in the Cubs fans though. (Turbs, hear me out before you get all fired up.) We expected them to be a little more into the game. In NY, whether you're at Shea or Yankee Stadium, the crowd is on their feet or at the very least making some noise and clapping real loud on nearly every two-strike count. And when the Mets or Yanks are rallying, the noise is loud enough that you can't hear yourself talk. Not so at Wrigley. The Cubs were down 2-1 for most of the game and in the bottom of the 9th, dragon and I seemed to be the most excited people in the stadium for the Cubs to make a comeback! With men on 1st and 2nd and two outs, nobody even stood up to cheer until very late in the count! It was weak dude.

Anyway, I don't mean to rag on the Cubs too much because it was still way fun for us and the hot dog was totally solid. After the game, we drove 3-4 more hours to Kokomo IN to spend the evening at Brooke's parents' house. They were SO nice! We had a great home cooked meal and homemade Oreo cheesecake. We also got smoked in bocci ball by her folks and then hit a couple golf balls in their backyard (which is an airfield!)

Game 1: Seattle @ Minnesota

2006-05-27T00:56:00.000-06:00

First let me say that after that initial Iowa excitement, it's all downhill from there! Driving through Iowa was way more painful than driving through Kansas. Not only was there nothing to look at (at least Kansas had a bunch of billboards), but good food options are few and far between. Here's a few little tips: 1. Don't hold out for a Quizno's in Iowa because they don't exist. 2. Don't stop in Dow even though there is a food sign...it's just a trap, and you only find that out 4 miles away from the highway.

We made it to Minneapolis a good hour plus before first pitch and we found $5 parking in this airplane hangar type building. So of course we're fascinated and take my camera out...after taking one picture, the button to take pics doesn't work anymore! wtf!!! could my technology curse kick in at any worse timing?? We tried everything, but alas, my camera is definitely not functional. (so the pics at the end of this thing are from my weak camera phone)

Outside the Metrodome, they have all sorts of fun stuff going on which was very cool. We scored some good upper deck seats in the 3rd row and for all of you Metrodome haters, we totally enjoyed the stadium. First off, it looks totally cool and well-kept. Secondly, the stadium is dug into the ground...so you walk in, and you don't have to stand on escalators or walk up ramps! How cool is that? And then on top of that, today was the day the governer was officially signing the papers to build a new outdoor stadium for the Twins, so we each got a coupon for a free dog and drink (which were phenomenal by the way)!

There were 20 min of pre-game ceremonies for this whole new stadium deal...and a bunch of Twins legends were on the field including Hall of Famers Rod Carew and Harmon Killebrew. Totally awesome.

The game was way fun and the fans were friendly and knowledgable too. Dragon even bought a Joe Mauer t-shirt and put it on top of his Yankee t-shirt on the spot!

Overall, great time and great start to this mini-tour. Go Twins!

The Metrodome!

Carlos Beltran and Joe Mauer

We're in Iowa!!

2006-05-26T11:46:00.000-06:00

At the sweetest rest area of all time. A nice lake, grilling action, a cool building...and wireless internet!!

Day 1: CSprings to KC

2006-05-25T23:03:00.000-06:00

Not too eventful here. We left csprings this morn and made our way to KC by 8pm, crashing Grant's swim practice and then catching up with him and Lindsay at Chili's. And then we went back to his place and did the obligatory viewing of the Incline Challenge dvd (which all of our hosts will be incredibly happy to see). We'll be on the road to Minneapolis in the am. When I can get my laptop online, I'll upload pics to the blog. check back! see ya!

The Summer of Dragon begins!

(l-r: JB, me, dragon, Amy, Seagal, Suz, MJ)

Roadtrip!!

2006-05-21T03:18:00.000-06:00

Dragon and I are roadtripping back east and we'll catch 6 baseball games in 6 days. We leave on Thursday, spend the first night in KC (where we won't catch a game), go through Memorial Day weekend, and then we'll go our separate ways after Baltimore...he's going back home to NY and I'm staying in MD for work. I'm sure there will be plenty of pics and good stories with great people, so stay tuned for some fun blogging through the trip!! See ya soon!!

Incline Challenge!

2006-05-14T23:25:00.000-06:00

The incline challenge met all of the hype on Friday with Lar running away with the incline king crown (26:25), me taking 2nd (28:54), Pete in a close 3rd (29:28), then Brian (32:10) and Seagal (34:35). Deb took video of the start while Karen was our starter, and a big crew (Charlene, Mariejo, Amy, Amy, Alicia, Turbo (!)) went up early to greet us at the finish. We all went to The Loop afterwards in Manitou for some mean Mexican food as a reward.

Big shout out to Charlene for some awesome commentating that really made the highlight video happen. Maybe someday you lucky people out there will have the chance to see the exciting race video production I threw together!

The Recon Team (Annie, Turbs, Amy, MJ, Alicia, Charlene, Amy)

The racers! (Me, Brian, Lar, Dragon, Seagal)

Lar got mauled by Annie and Brodie at the finish

Dragon running like a badass at the finish

I'm a black hole of technology

2006-05-08T12:26:00.000-06:00

I believe that's how my boy Mike put it when things were going super wrong with my car, garage door, and camera a few weeks ago. Well it hasn't stopped. My car is definitely ready to go as I'm considering biking to work for the rest of the week. And my computer just shut down in mid-typing this morning. blah. So I think I'm going to move away to a deserted island and communicate through styrofoam cups and string.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Things have been quite busy. And I haven't been doing much fun stuff lately. I figure that blogging about doing the incline has gotten way old by now. More soon!

Incline Update

2006-04-30T14:50:00.000-06:00

The Race is on!! Per Dragon's challenge to the rest of us, we're racing the incline on May 12 after work. Not sure if the race will be super hard to predict, but it'll still be interesting and prob meet all the hype. Dragon definitely unleashed a monster in the rest of us though (Seagal, Deb, and I at least). Seagal and Deb did best times on Thursday in the 31-32 min range. And I went a best time on Thursday (30:45), Friday (29:07), and yesterday (28:54). Takin it to a whole new level!

Movie Review: The Sentinel

2006-04-30T14:27:00.000-06:00

When Dragon and I saw the commercial for this movie during an episode of "24", dragon said, "Why don't they just call it 24 the movie??" That comment turned out to be totally right on. but that's why I liked it! Seriously, Kiefer Sutherland plays a badass, there is a mole inside the gov't working with foreign terrorists in an assassination plot against the president, someone thinks they're being framed, etc etc. If you watch 24, you know all about this formula. But it's still good and still entertaining and still suspenseful (kinda). I'd def recommend this if you like that kind of 24/CSI/Cold Case genre of action/crime-solving television.

Kiefer plays a Secret Service investigator (not CTU) named Breckenridge (not Bauer). He's got a hot partner played by Eva Longoria (this is def not 24 now) and they're looking into Michael Douglas' character's involvement in an assassination plot.

I think what I like about 24 and The Sentinel is that the main good guys use their own best judgement and take matters into their own hands in a way. They don't follow through on orders blindly...not that I think questioning orders is great...but sometimes you have to actually think in order to do the right thing. What a concept. Like in the movie 'The Fugitive' when Tommy Lee Jones starts to figure out that maybe Harrison Ford didn't kill his wife, and stopped acting like a mindless, stubborn agent. Now that I think about it, people who don't think and people who give orders without really being in touch really kill me. I'd say it's all around us. blah.

Anyway, go see The Sentinel. It'll make you a better person. jk.

Catamount Trail @ Green Mtn Falls

2006-04-23T20:29:00.000-06:00

Two great hikes in a weekend def make it go by fast! Today we did my local fave - Catamount Trail at Green Mountain Falls. I've done this trail probably a dozen times and still love it. Located just 20 min west of csprings, this hike has got it all - it's super fun and challenging with incredible and diverse scenery. A real fun and physical climb to start, a walk through a heavily forested area that opens up into an awesome meadow, and then a little more up (and a lame walk on a gravel road) and you have a sweet view of Pikes Peak with Catamount Reservoir in the foreground. The entire route follows a stream...and who doesn't love water on a hike?? There are waterfalls and little pools all along the way, and crossing the stream is always a fun time (esp if you're with JB). And there are a ton of rocks to climb on...which is a plus if you're a monkey like me, dragon, and seagal.

One of the coolest things about this hike is how different it is each season. In the spring and summer time, it's totally beautiful with all the trees and wildflowers in bloom. Same deal in the fall with the aspens turning and leaves changing colors. In the winter time, ice on the ground makes this a way more physical and fun challenge.

I usually give myself about 4 hrs for this hike. It's hard to say how long it really takes because I don't mind taking time to screw around or taking frequent breaks because it's so pretty. I'd say it's like a 5-6 miles...prob closer to 5.

Seagal walking the tightrope over some water! Dragon successfully did it too. I was the only loser who bailed because I was going too fast and the tree was wobbling way too much.

Dragon squeezed between the rocks. Seagal went over it. JB and I skipped it and went around.

Dragon taking the easy way to cross the stream.

Trail info: To get here, take 24 W and make a left when you see the sign for Green Mountain Falls. Follow the road through town, past all the stores and you'll see a dirt parking area on your right. You have to park here bc there is no parking at the trailhead. Walk 2/3 mi up Hondo Ave to the trailhead. When the trail splits early on, take the yellow dots to the left. After crossing the stream the first time and climb up a bit, the trail will split again...yellow to the left and orange will go up. The orange is the Catamount Trail and will go up for a while. Just keep looking for the orange dots - they are definitely there - but if you lose the trail, just follow the stream up and you'll meet up with the trail eventually. On the way back, the orange trail is pretty tough, so you can pick up the blue trail at the Garden of Eden. It's a lot of long switchbacks (and way less interesting), and it'll meet up with the yellow trail close to the bottom. fyi, the yellow trail jsut takes you on an easy hike to the other side of town.

Pikes Peak via the Crags

2006-04-22T20:02:00.000-06:00

Two dudes that look real hardcore outdoors: You guys summiting today?
Me & Seagal: Yeah
Dudes: Is it snowing up there? What's the weather like?
Seagal: I heard high winds, but that's all.
Dudes: Are you bringing snowshoes or anything?
Me: Uhhh...all I have is what I'm wearing and a fleece in my bag.
Dudes: Well we'll carry your frozen carcasses back here.

And so we began our long journey to the summit of Pikes Peak (that we only decided on at 8pm last night), both wondering if we seriously underestimated the road ahead, wearing shorts and without any hardcore gear. The next 6 1/2 hrs proved to be absolutely incredible and the most intense hike I've done so far. For the most part, we were on very steep terrain - I made up for skipping the incline with Pete this morning and then some. Actually, this hike was like 10x incline. It was ridiculously hard. We went up through the forest over large patches of ice, and then we cleared treeline and just kept going up. And up some more. Along the way, we had some absolutely breathtaking views that were picturesque Colorado with forests and snow-capped mountains that no camera could ever do justice. I wish you all could have seen it - it was totally special.

After climbing forever, we reached an area called Devil's Playground that had some totally awesome rock formations, sweet views of a huge valley...and incredible gusting winds. (This is where I whipped out the fleece.) From there, we did our best to follow a trail that would take us the last 2.5 miles to Pikes Peak (which was now in sight). The trail was NOT easy to track at all. It was marked by cairns (piles of rocks) and we had a very difficult time finding them for some reason. But they're there for sure...and if you lose them, just find the easiest line towards the peak and eventually you'll relocate the cairns. The trail is also hard to follow when it's covered in snow.

The last mile or so is crazy intense. You basically climb/zig-zag/hop your way through an enormous field of jagged rocks that will take you to the summit.

That last 2.5 miles was everything I envision for climbing to the top of a mountain. It's unbelievably intense and you're able to see your goal the entire time...and you're totally hurting and fatigued, but so driven on reaching your destination. And when you do reach the top, it's an awesome awesome feeling. When we hit the peak, there were three people walking towards us (who had driven to the top) and we shook their hands and chatted for a bit. It was a super great feeling.

After a 50 min break at the top and the mandatory picture with the sign, we made our way down...which was not the least bit easier at all. We were basically going straight downhill the entire time and our quads were totally on fire. Definitely not easy.

So we're back...alive and well. And guess what? We never saw those two hardcore dudes who scared us at the beginning of the hike. But even though those guys turned out to be a couple weenies, there was definitely some totally intense stuff going on on the mountain. At Devil's Playground, we ran into this skier dude who was going to ski down the backside of the mountain...who knew?? On the way back, we saw these crazy ice climbers. And we thought we were badass.

All in all, it took us 3 hr 45 min to get to the top and 2 hr 45 min to get down. I've taken Barr Trail to the top of Pikes Peak before, and hands-down without a doubt, this backway up DESTROYS Barr Trail. It's way more intense and physical, the views/scenery is 100x better, and you can go up and down in the time it takes you to just go up on Barr Trail. This hike is definitely not something everyone can do. It demands a lot. But if you're up for the challenge and you're comfortable with a little risk, then it's SO worth it.

I found this website last night and it's totally right on for directions and trail description:
http://www.onedayhikes.com/Hikes.asp?HikesID=154

Note: There is a $4.00 fee to park at the Crags campground so make sure you have the cash to put into the self-service box. Also, there are only a dozen or so parking spots at the trailhead so you prob have to go early during the busy season.

Ormes Peak pics

2006-04-21T21:34:00.000-06:00

I know I'm slow putting these pics up from last weekend, but they're worth a look!

See that blue dot on the left side of the pic? That's Dan's truck! How in the world did we get lost on the way back with such an easy marker?

Owww! Alicia is poking baby Russ here. Great (unintentional) pic by Dragon.

If you've never been on a hike with me, I love to run around, jump, and climb like a monkey.

Beth, Alicia, Seagal, Dragon after conquering Ormes Peak!

One last ride

2006-04-20T19:27:00.000-06:00

I went up for one last ride on the slopes for the season with Brooke today. The snow was hard and slushy, making for some really fast runs...just the way we like it! We were flying down the slopes...did 8 runs in 1hr 40min before we called it quits for a short day out there. It was great fun as always, and just good to be outside boarding under the awesome sun.

Want to know the best thing after a day on the slopes?? A soup meal at Mi Zuppa!!! Hands-down, it's unbeatable! I haven't been there with anyone that doesn't like it. Everyday (except Sunday), they have a rotating menu of soups for you to choose from. I heard that they have more than 100 soups in their arsenal, serving only 6-8 at a time. The soups are incredibly tasty, chunky, and filling (you will definitely be full after a soup meal). Some examples are the Cheeseburger in Paradise, New England Seafood Bisque, Texas Roadhouse Chili, Mom's Chicken Noodle, and Elk Stroganoff (Turb's fave). Included with a medium cup of soup, you'll get a demi-loaf of fresh baked bread, and a very excellent cookie.

(I'm on the phone with Brooke now and she says "It's SO good!")

There are 5 mi zuppa locations in the country (all in Colorado). Breck was the first store (located in the City Market shopping center just west of Main St) and only has a single bench for seating room. The Frisco location (right off of I-70 on the west side of town) has a bunch of tables for seating which is super great.

We definitely need one of these in csprings. We don't even have a decent wrap place in town! Am I wrong?? I feel like this kind of place (soups, wraps, salads) would totally take off in csprings! Who's in with me??

Check it out: www.mizuppa.com

Ormes Peak (via Idiot's Way)

2006-04-16T23:06:00.000-06:00

Without a doubt, this was the most raw hike I've done so far...so raw that I'd classify it more as an adventure than a hike. Not only were we totally hacking it through the "trail" (and I use that term loosely), but the drive there was totally rough. We had to leave Dragon's Dodge Stratus at the side of the road and hop into the bed of Seagal's truck just to get to the start of the hike because the road was totally vicious with HUGE bumps and holes. No joke, we were getting tossed around and catching some big air in the back. Totally fun (and a little crazy I guess).

We never actually did find a trailhead or parking place. But the road we were on circled Ormes Peak so we knew where we wanted to end up. So we found somewhere to leave the car and just started heading towards the summit. It wasn't really a hard elevation gain, but the terrain made the trip really difficult because there was no real defined trail to follow. We just made our way through the woods, traversing piles of rocks and finding the path of least resistance. It was definitely some good rugged Colorado fun on a gorgeous Easter Sunday. The summit was beautiful, with a clear view of Rampart Reservoir on one side and the west side of Pikes Peak on the other. Very awesome. Lots of rocks for a monkey like me to jump around on too.

The way back really made the adventure complete...because we couldn't find our way to the truck. After wandering and backtracking for a bit, we just decided to find the road and walk along it back to the truck...all of that added prob an hour to the trip.

We actually picked this hike because Seagal had this map that mentioned plane wreckage that you're able to see from the summit and that just sounded awesome! We found some object attached to a long wire and a 8 ft metal pole that I carried around for a bit, but no obvious signs of plane wreckage. And it's no wonder we didn't find any because the plane wreckage is on an adjacent peak called Blodgett Peak!! ah well. next time...

Elevation gain: ~500+ ft
Distance: ~3 miles roundtrip (?)
Directions: Take hwy 24 W to Woodland Park. Make right before McD's and then stay on road and follow signs to Rampart Reservoir. Go past the reservoir and make a left on Rt 303. It forks, and stay right on Rt 302. This is where the road gets really rough. A regular car definitely can't do it. Ormes Peak will on your left as you drive around the half-loop counter-clockwise. We drove all the way to the end of 302 and parked, and just went for it from there.
Here's a rough map to get to Ormes.

I never thought I would say this...

2006-04-16T00:27:00.000-06:00

...but today is my 4-year work anniversary here. Yep that's right. I've had the same job since May 15, 2002...and I appreciate it all the same now as I did back then. Thinking back to 4 years ago, I've definitely grown up and matured a lot in my time here (which probably doesn't say much for back then) and it's awesome for me to think how far I've come.

Movie review: Lucky Number Slevin

2006-04-15T23:59:00.000-06:00

Not sure what to say about this one. I think I really would have liked it a lot had I not saw where it was going to end up after the first 15 min or so. So I sat there for much of the movie just waiting to see if I was right...and for the most part I was. It was still entertaining and funny at points, and Seagal, MJ, and friends seemed to enjoy it a bunch. Josh Hartnett's character was pretty witty and had some good lines in there. I think the twist would have been great if I didn't see it coming.

Basically, Josh Hartnett's character gets caught up being mistaken for someone else and trapped between two rival mobsters. Somehow he has to find his way out of the mess without getting himself killed. Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley play the rival mobsters. Bruce Willis plays a mysterious "world-class assassin". The movie follows Josh through the predicament as he dodges mobsters, assassins, and cops. yay.

Lucy Liu definitely made the movie for me though. Her character was awesome. She played the next door neighbor of the person Josh's character is mistaken for...they fall in love, blah blah blah. I'm so used to seeing her play these badass fighting roles (Kill Bill, Charlie's Angels, Ballistic Ecks vs. Sever), but here she played this way cute girl that was filled with energy and was totally great. I would have totally fallen for her if I were Josh's character too. And for that, she's my new girl. Did you know that she went to my high school?? Granted, she graduated 11 years before me, but she gets points for being a big geek like me.

Movie review: The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior

2006-04-14T20:42:00.000-06:00

If you watched pro wrestling growing up and have good memories wrestling with your brothers or friends pretending to be your favorite wrestlers, including the Ultimate Warrior, you really need to check out this DVD. It was definitely entertaining in itself, but the best part about it for me was how it brought back a lot of "kid" feelings and how awesome wrestling was to us back then. Sure it's fake and the characters are ridiculous, but that's what made it so great!

This DVD profiles one of the most wildly popular wrestlers when I was growing up, The Ultimate Warrior. I had forgotten what made him so awesome, but it talks about his theme song, how he always ran to the ring full-speed, and how his matches were so intense and quick and just totally full of energy. Pete and I got some great laughs during the segment that talked about his interviews and how they really didn't make any sense at all. We also got some chuckles watching clips from his matches and how he would be getting destroyed and then start shaking and jogging in place while shaking his fist in the air, and then in 10 sec flat, have his opponent pinned. So awesome.

Apparently, the Ultimate Warrior was hard to work with and many people didn't like him. But because he was such a popular attraction, he had 2 chances to comeback in the WWE and 1 in the WCW. Interviews with Hulk Hogan, Sgt Slaughter, the Brooklyn Brawler, Bobby "the Brain" Heenan, Ric Flair, and others provide some insight on what he was like. Currrently, Warrior is doing inspirational lectures! We gotta check that out!!

We weren't crazy wrestling fans growing up, but I had forgotten how much fun it was to come home after Sat and Sun morning swim practices, have breakfast, and then watch wrestling at like 10 or 11am. Doug and I wrestled with each other a lot (what brothers don't?), always pretending to be differest pro wrestlers, and thinking back on it really makes me laugh and smile a lot inside. Good times. I remember a lot about wrestling with Doug, but I really only have one good story that is somewhat worth telling - the time when I picked a fight with him while he was doing his homework on the sofa, and he kept holding onto his pencil while we were wrestling, which of course cut me under my eye. Of course I got pissed off at him, but really it was my fault of course. Ah the memories.

So check out the DVD! Dragon bought this copy from Amazon, but I was thinking that I need to buy one for myself. It's also got 5 full matches on there as extras!

Status check

2006-04-12T23:12:00.000-06:00

Garage door: Check
Camera: Not check
Car: Still running
Ankle: Almost check

So things are getting better!

btw, this professor who I'm working with on my research project just sent me an email. He's a real academic, real formal and professional guy...and he put used "btw" in his email! It was great! computer short-hand is turning mainstream and I like it! The best is when people actually talk in computer short-hand.

Make it stop!

2006-04-10T19:41:00.000-06:00

I seem to be on a downhill run right now. It all started so innocently last month when the door to my washer/dryer got off track and I haven't been able to fix it. Since then, my camera got busted, my car transmission is about to go, and I sprained my ankle this weekend. And today I come home from work to find a broken cable on my garage door which made it off-track so now it can't open or close without manual help. And then!! my cell phone hands-free earpiece broke tonight.

so what else is going to happen? bring it on I'm ready.

Call me Larry

2006-04-08T12:28:00.000-06:00

Today was going to be an awesome Colorado day - the incline with dragon and then Green Mtn Falls hike with Seagal and his boys. The incline was great...up in 33 min even with stopping to talk for about a min or two. I had to meet Seagal at my house at noon so I sprinted down Barr Trail. I was making incredible time and felt great on the run...definitely thinking about how perfect it was to do GMF.

As I was increasing my speed coming out of a turn, my left foot slipped under me on some loose gravel and I twisted my ankle big time. It happened so fast that I couldn't help but lay out completely and slide head first and then roll onto my back. I was on a mission to get down the hill so I got up immediately and started running but almost fell on my face again. My left ankle is def swollen now and I lost some skin on my palms. Of course I still had like a mile to go so I hobbled, skipped, walked the rest of the way.

I talked to Lar on my way back and he gave me good advice on how to make it heal quickly. I guess I'll be layin low for a while. blah.

Most popular links

2006-04-05T23:22:00.000-06:00

For some reason, Amy's blog is always the most popular or 2nd most popular link clicked on my blog. How is that? I mean, no knock on how awesome Amy is, but she rarely updates it! Amy, start updating your blog more frequently...people want to know what you're doing! I'm sure you've got some excitement to tell us about, right?

The other popular link from week to week is my MySpace page. heck yeah! Not that anybody leaves me any comments (you have to be on myspace and my friend to do that), but still cool if you want to see who all of my awesome friends are or just click back here to see my blog I guess.

Dragon and I did the incline in the pouring rain today. Nothing can stop us. Although we did sit in the car for 30 min trying to wait it out. peace.

I'm back (and camera-less)

2006-04-03T22:53:00.000-06:00

I really don't have anything to blog about, but I just thought I would because it's been a while I feel like. I didn't take any more pics in Seattle and I've got nothing real exciting to tell the general population about it other than I had a super great time despite being totally worn out. I took the day off today to try and recover from the week, but I'm definitely still as tired as I was yesterday. blah.

So my camera of almost 3 years is hitting it's last legs I think. I had the LCD viewscreen repaired recently and now I just sent it in because it zooms out very little and then gets stuck and can't zoom in or out. So I'm not sure how many pics will be in my blogs for a little while. I'm probably going to get a new camera very soon because I'm real attached to taking pics. Here's what I'm looking at (if you care):
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022108canona700.asp

Congrats to JB and Ryan on their engagement! Upon my return, I also had 4 wedding invitations waiting for me in the mail (well one was a save-the-date card). It's an epidemic!

Does anyone know anything about buying cars?? I have to start doing my homework but I'll take any advice I can get.

Big shoutout to my girl Kat who thinks I should blog about how I am the type of person who always has to share my feelings with others. Which is probably part of the reason why I blog. But I don't really reveal a lot of my feelings in my blogs...just kinda what's going on in my life on the surface. For the whole story, you just have to talk to me.

OK enough randomness for now. If you're lucky, you'll get a movie or book review before the end of the week :)

Awesome seafood

2006-03-28T00:05:00.000-07:00

Ahhh yeah. Nothing beats some great seafood on the waterfront. Last night, a group of us had a super fun time at Salty's in Seattle. There are three Salty's locations and we went to the one at Alki Beach that gives you an AMAZING view of the Seattle skyline. SO beautiful. If you ever get the chance to go, sneak around the right side of the restaurant and there's a little walkway that gives you an unrestricted view of the city.

Our party of 12 was separated into two tables, but we had seats right at the windows looking into the city. The waiter at my table was awesome. The oyster crackers were incredible. We ordered a "Trio" appetizer which was a crab cake, coconut prawns, and calamari which was super excellent. Everyone's meals were great too, but the absolute best part was the FREE dessert that our kickass waiter hooked us up with. Our table got 2 pieces of white chocolate mousse cake (that was featured on the cover of Bon Apetit magazine in Seattle) that was heavenly. Those cakes were completely devoured in no time flat and we were very close to licking the plates too. If I ever go back, I'd def buy that outright.

So yeah, I'd totally recommend it. Esp with a girl. It's def on the pricey side (you're lookin at $20-30 for an entree on avg) but it's worth it for the atmosphere and the taste.

Bailey, Suz, Larry, and Amy with the Seattle skyline in the background (what, you can't see it with my crappy camera?)

Suz and Larry staring into Seattle

Comeback from the balloon mess

2006-03-25T21:45:00.001-07:00

It's all good (for now...I'm a little worried about flying tomorrow morning). After last night's mess, Pete, Beth and I rocked the incline this morning. It was a SUPER beautiful day. Totally clear and on the cool side. I almost went a PR with a 31:40. Pete went 3 min faster at 41:07. And Beth was 9 min faster at 52:57. Totally great.

At the top, I was grateful to meet this 73 year old man who just finished doing his incline for the day. He was telling me that he's done 28 of the 54 14,000ft peaks in Colorado. So insane! I wish I could be that active when I'm that age.

A big reason I was grateful to meet that dude was because his awesome story distracted me from being about to puke all over the place.

See you in Seattle!!

I got schooled by a balloon

2006-03-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

So last night, my boy Dom brings balloons over to this big bday extravaganza. Of course I jumped all over that as did a few other people...but these balloons were impossible to blow up!! Or very close to it at least. More than 20 people attempted to blow up these balloons. People were turning red. The more people that faied to do it, the more people attemped. In the end, only three people were able to do it - Dom's girl, Pete (of course), and some big dude who prob had lungs the size of my whole body. Not to be one to be stopped by a tiny piece of rubber, I gave it everything and more. I mean, why would they manufacture balloons that I can't blow up? I think I have always had pretty decent lungs. But alas, the balloon proved stronger than the insides of my head and the left side of my face is definitely all messed up on the inside. I feel like there's fluid trapped behind my ear which I imagine is not a good thing. Not really sure what I can do about it though. And if you think I talked loud before, just listen to me now when one of my ears is not at 100%. Screw balloons. Screw the people that make them.

Movie review: Wedding Crashers

2006-03-20T23:10:00.000-07:00

So it takes me 2 hours to iron 9 shirts. That's what I found out today when I watched Wedding Crashers. (I'm still a very slow and meticulous ironer even without a movie going on.) In any case, I'm not sure what to say about Wedding Crashers...I feel like my expectations were in the wrong place. Coming right off of enjoying the unrealistic, stupid comedy Anchorman, I thought I was in for something like that. However, Wedding Crashers actually tries to come off as somewhat believable! How about that? There were definitely it's funny moments that I can totally laugh at from a dude's perspective. I really liked the first half of the movie better than the second half...the first part made me laugh a ton more, but then the second half brings in a sensitive love story aspect that wasn't what I was expecting. During the second half, I just kept thinking "dang this movie is really long for a ridiculous comedy" and "these dudes falling in love is supposed to be funny to me?" Maybe I'm being too hard, but I would have enjoyed it more if they kept up with the "jerk guys crashing weddings to get girls" theme. But instead, the jerk guys tranform into sensitive ones, and that just isn't as funny for me. If I wanted to see a movie about a guy falling for a girl, I'd watch a chick flick.

I do, however, have to say that Rachel McAdams is unbelievably pretty. This just confirmed it. Yes, I actually saw her in the Notebook, and then in Mean Girls too. How beautiful is that girl??

Sad news on the homefront

2006-03-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

One of my old friends from back home called me on Sat morning. I hadn't been sleeping very long at that point but Tim never ever calls me so I figured it could be important so we talked. And it sucks, but whenever I get a call like that, I brace for bad news...I'm pretty sure that's a little protective mechanism that stems from when my sis called me about my dad. In any case, I was ready this time. Tim told me that there was a real bad accident involving some members of my old club swim team, the Flushing YMCA Flyers. The team's season culminates emotionally and performance-wise every March at the YMCA State Championships. It's a weekend of a ton of fun and fast swimming that everyone looks forward to for the entire year.

This year's meet was in Buffalo NY, about an 8 hour drive from NYC. A minivan with 2 moms and 4 swimmers were making the drive up there when they apparently stopped to check on a tire. A tanker never saw them and wasn't able to stop or avoid them in time. From what I read, it was an absolutely horrible accident. The driver and 3 of the children (a 10 yo and 16 yo boy, and a 14 yo girl) were all killed instantly. The other mom and boy are hospitalized. It wasn't huge news out here, but it was all over the news back home.

The team decided to continue swimming the meet, leaving the lanes empty for where the 3 swimmers would have been. So sad. It's been years since I was in their place, but I can totally remember those trips to Y States and how tight we were as a team. Unfortunately, me and my teammates on the Flyers back then also know what it's like to lose a teammate we essentially grew up with. The 14 and 16 yo also went to my high school too so it just brings it a little closer to home for me and makes me appreciate what I've got and have been able to do a little more.

Daily News article 1
Daily News article 2
Daily News article 3
Newsday article
NY Times article 1 (you need to be signed into the NY Times site...it's free)
NY Times article 2

Pete's first incline

2006-03-19T01:56:00.000-07:00

Within a week or two of being here I believe, Pete challenged the entire office to a race up the incline. (Surprise, surprise.) What more, he even did a whole bunch of trash talking (even more of a surprise). Coming from a self-pronounced sprinter, these were pretty bold words considering that the office is filled with endurance beasts. We are, afterall, in csprings and that's how we do.

So at the end of May, we're having this race and in preparation, Pete did his first incline today. I actually think he'll be very competitive with the crew because he really does have an idea of what he's got himself into and who he's up against. Not to mention that he'll strategize the race to death.

Part of Pete's strategy today was to take little breaks and take in the scenery as well. Here's one of those rest breaks.

>
Pete did great for his first time...41 minutes! It was Gina's first time too and she was up just under 40 min. Here they are at the top.

Movie review: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

2006-03-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

Pete and I were all psyched about renting "The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior" after reading about it on The Sports Guy's column on ESPN Page 2, but alas, Blockbuster doesn't even carry it in their database. what's up with that?! I mean, the Ultimate Warrior was ONLY the most popular pro wrestler when we were in elementary school and every boy wanted to pretend to be like him when we wrestled with our friends! Not sure how we're going to remedy this, but somehow Pete and I will get our hands on this movie and I'm not gonna lie, I'm very much looking forward to blogging about it.

So anyway, we ended up renting Anchorman, a flick neither of us had seen and I think both us would agree that it met our expectations for an excellent Will Ferrell comedy. You definitely have to be in a light, stupid sense of humor to enjoy it, otherwise I'll guarantee you won't like it. I def hate people who see movies like this and Zoolander and say they didn't like it because it was so dumb and stupid...what else are you expecting?? Obviously, the movie is entirely unrealistic and ridiculous, but that's what makes it so great! So if you're too serious, don't bother.

Just like any good comedy, there are plenty of one-liners and references that will come out of this movie I'm sure. Will Ferrell is his normal self. Steve Carrell (The Office, 40 Year Old Virgin) is great one of Will's sidekicks. Christina Applegate has clearly grown out of her Married with Children roots to play the serious female role (very similar to Matilda in Zoolander like Pete said). My faves are Ron Burgundy's definition of diversity and the awesome cameos from the other news crews. You'll just have to see it.

I'm not spending any more time reviewing this movie. It's pretty simple stuff. Definite Oscar-caliber acting and you will almost certainly be overcome with deep emotion and tears at the end of the movie.

Mission aborted

2006-03-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

3.5 hours of driving, and precisely 0.00000000 hours of snowboarding. Ah man, it really sucked this morning. All day yesterday, I was a little concerned about the road conditions, and then pretty apprehensive this morning just before leaving, but I really wanted to try and make the trip because Che was here just for the boarding pretty much. I mean, I really wanted to go too. I wouldn't have laid off of exercising my last few days in VA to ensure I was fully healthy, reserved a hotel room, or woken up this morning at 530a if I didn't want to go myself either. But with the road report not the greatest and having to drive back by myself for work on Monday morning, I would have opted not to go if I were on my own. Not that it was undriveable, but my car SUCKS in the snow!! Hyundai Elantras are not really Colorado vehicles, and I know from the couple times I've slid into the curb or guard rail (with minor damage) and the many slide-outs in the last couple winters. So when my car slid past the turn from Hwy 24 onto Rte 9, and then I had to get a running start just to get out of the gas station in Fairplay, I talked myself into giving up and turning back just before starting the climb to Hoosier Pass. The thought of possibly sliding down the back side of Hoosier Pass was not very appealing to me and definitely not worth it at all. So in Alma, almost 2 hours into the drive and very very frustrated, I said we were turning back.

I felt terrible for sure, but I just couldn't get myself to risk it. Yeah, I know I'm a baby. And to make matters worse, when we were driving back, 9 out of 10 cars going the opposite direction were SUV's, but those 1 out of 10 non-SUV's really compounded my guilty feelings. But then I just kept thinking about how stressed I was about driving towards the mountains and how stressed I would be driving back Monday morning after some more snowfall, and I felt a little better. At least it's way beautiful here in csprings. And now I can unpack from my trip.

Restaurant review: Giuseppe's Old Depot

2006-03-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

My fave place to eat in csprings! I love it because of the atmosphere. It's an old train depot from the late 1800's that closed operation in 1971 and was turned into a restaurant! It's totally awesome...you walk in and there's the old ticket booths in the nicely renovated lobby and then the dining area has the feel of a big train car. It's got this real homey and warm feel to it, and that's why I love it. I think it's way fun to eat there. The adjacent railyard is still functional so every now and then, a train will roll by and that's really cool.

Chris and Yanni, my friends from UVA who are engaged and are moving here after their wedding, were in town for a couple days looking at some housing, so I took them there for lunch.
The salad bar is great, and the soup and salad bar is pretty much all I've ordered the last few times I've been there. There's a lot of variety at the salad bar and at the end, you can have unlimited chocolate pudding! That's hard to beat. Giuseppe's specializes in their Italian entrees...the calzones, pizza, lasagna, ravioli, calamari, bruschetta are all pretty good. They also used to have an amazing pasta carbonara, but that was taken off the menu. I've also gotten the open faced hot turkey sandwich, and that's definitely a real winner too.

Unfortunately, I've definitely been there a few times when the service has sucked. Real slow at times. Lunch started out as one of those times, as it took us a while to get our drink orders, drinks, and then bread. I was parched, so I def realized the slow service.

But if you're there with friends and you can appreciate the atmosphere, then it's all good. I mean, I still go there a lot. Check it out.

http://www.giuseppes-depot.com/

Concert Review: Jamie Cullum

2006-03-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

Really awesome show. If you don't know Jamie Cullum's music, it's kinda jazzy pop...can be pretty mellow at times, always catchy with great vocals, some real good lyrics, and he does some unique covers of songs. Definitely different from a lot of stuff that's popular now. He's British and he's sometimes described as Brit pop, but as Annie said, that makes her think of the Spice Girls, which is he clearly the opposite.

So the show was super great. Jamie's got a TON of energy and is constantly jumping and dancing around (I think he got on top of his piano and jumped off it three times during the show) and it was so fun to be there. There have been many shows I've been at where an artist's mellow songs takes the energy and crowd out of a performance, but not last night. The mellow songs were pretty powerful and captivating, and there was always some great instrumentals to go along with the sweet tunes. Jamie's very interactive with the crowd during (singalongs and whistle-a-longs) and in between songs, which I really like in a show.

One of the highlights was him playing the piano, beatboxing, and drumming on his piano to Ne-Yo's "So Sick", then Kanye West's "Golddigger", then Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman", going into his version of Pharrell's "Frontin" (which is also on Jamie's studio album Twentysomething).

Jamie and his band are all very musically talented and they were able to showcase that for sure. He's got a trumpet player who also does guitar and back-up vocals and plays all sorts of bells and whatever. His saxophonist also plays the bongo and does other stuff. The old man drummer is a beast. And the bassist whips out a stand-up bass every now and then. Jamie himself played the piano, guitar, drums, and bongos.

So check it out!! It was way fun.

Brady and Annie fresh from their honeymoon (and a major crash on the slopes)!!

Me and Suz!

Old friends

2006-03-11T01:09:00.000-07:00

I couldn't script a better ending to my awesome trip that already allowed me connect with so many old and new friends. I'm walking to my connection in Chicago's O'Hare Airport and not paying much attention when somebody ducks in front of me and says "Russell??" I was absolutely stunned and caught off guard - it was my old friend Nadine who I hadn't seen since 1999. Totally amazing. Running into an old acquaintance is typically pretty cool...but running into Nadine was really something special for me. Hands down, Nadine had the biggest influence on my life in terms of how I interact and communicate with the people around me. She basically taught me how to really talk to people. Those skills, and the confidence that I got from watching her operate and copying her opened up so many doors for me. When she talked to you, you could just feel her genuine interest, care, and attentiveness no matter how mundane the topic, and because of that, she really endeared herself to her audience. I saw how people responded to her, and I knew how much I enjoyed talking to her...and so I learned from her because I wanted to make people feel the same way when they talked to me. Totally invaluable stuff that I'm extremely grateful for. When I write it down it sounds pretty minor, but I know it had a very major affect on my life.

We completely lost touch after 1999 because our lives were taking us in opposite directions, but I often wonder about her because I still feel and appreciate her influence on me a lot. Nadine's now happily married in Chicago doing a lot of traveling for work, which is how we managed to cross paths. We ended up catching up for more than an hour while I waited for my flight to board. The perfect ending to my VA trip.

Goodbye VA

2006-03-10T04:56:00.000-07:00

Despite having the sickness for almost a week, this trip has been super great. I still managed to get a lot accomplished work-wise and really balance my time with friends here. The 2 weeks have flown by so fast and I'm going to miss the routine and crashing at Al and Sarah's place. Thanks to all the people that made this trip awesome (half of whom will never read this blog ever): Alison, Heidi, Amanda, Sarah, Brady, Annie, Kid, Dharma, DBell, Haag, Moose, Nick, Brendan, BigD, Norman, Jenny, KZ and Ray B and all my Fishie friends, Kit, Dave and Kevin, my GW peeps, the UVA men's team, and everyone else I saw at the wedding.

I'm going to be back blogging a bunch of restaurant reviews after I get back (maybe). There were def some good eating experiences around here. Now I'm back off to CO for an action-packed weekend. till then, see ya later.

Restaurant review: NanLa

2006-03-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

NanLa (formerly known as Viet Grill)
907 King St
Alexandria, VA

Dharma and I accidentally ended up going to this place and it turned out to be super awesome. She had wanted to take me to this other Thai place that ended up being a little further down King St, but we walked in and decided to take a seat because it was all the same to me.

I ordered the chicken curry and Dharma ordered some lemon poppyseed chicken thing. All of the entrees came with a salad that had this great sweet and sour dressing on it. And then the food was awesome too. It tasted as good as it looked for sure. The chicken was practically melting in my mouth, the curry was great, and there were these huge ass potatoes in there too which turned out real good. Dharma's plate looked to be just as good. She had veggies on the side that were totally bright with color.

I'd definitely go back. With a pretty girl preferably. The atmosphere was real cozy and nicely decorated. Service was real good (which wasn't hard because we were literally the only people in the restaurant the entire time except for the lone guy at the bar).

DC Adventure

2006-03-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

I'm at like 85% health now. Which means I can actually do things other than lay in bed now. So me and my two fave girls in Old Town Alexandria took a little adventure in DC. It felt good to be outside (accompanied by two beautiful ladies). Check it out...

The Washington Monument

My boy, Mr. Jefferson's Monument!!

Check out these rockstars. Alison and Sarah. Hot dogs make them happy.

Me and Al on the swing of death.

Brady & Annie's wedding

2006-03-05T16:23:00.000-07:00

So I was able to rest and rally from my sickness to be one of Brady's groomsmen last night. I'm still totally bummed that I wasn't able to attend all the rehearsal stuff on Fri night, but incredibly grateful to recover enough for the wedding. Even though I wasn't 100%, I had a total blast. Call me a girl all you want, but I nearly lost it seeing how happy Brady was, watching Annie walk down the aisle, and thinking about two of my close friends getting married to each other. It made me super happy to be there, and as I stood in front of everyone in the church, I was able to reflect and appreciate a lot of the moments I shared with Annie and Brady. I feel so fortunate to have been able to get to know each of them - Brady as one of my first-year residents (his dad remembers me from Brady's move-in day 6 years ago) to rooming with me in csprings for the last 6 months...Annie and our many Colorado adventures together - hiking, camping, boarding, tubing. I wish them endless years of happiness together in the future.

I definitely didn't tear up the dance floor (or meet my future wife), but I had a great time reconnecting with lots of old friends and making new ones too. Besides the marriage, the highlights of the night for me were catching up with my old resident Nick who works for Steven Curtis Chapman's non-profit adoption organization (Shoahannah's Hope), meeting one of Brady's friends who just moved to NYC to pursue his music career (Norman Vladimir), and an awesome conversation I had with one of my old ressies dates. The two of us ended up talking about our jobs, which naturally leads to how much I love mine and how I landed such a great gig. This girl could totally relate to how miserable I was with my past job and was inspired by the chance I took to find the dream job. She was definitely pumped by my story which made me super happy. If there's one thing I enjoy seeing people do, it's seeking out happiness. Not settling for less than they deserve. I truly believe that there is no need to be "stuck" somewhere that you are unhappy at, esp when it comes to your career. I feel like I've had it very lucky and didn't have to fight extremely hard to get where I'm at, but I think I'm living proof of it.

Sick in DC

2006-03-01T19:23:00.000-07:00

Sucks!! I went to the pool on Mon PM, had to strain my voice to talk at the pool and then wake up the next morning at 415am...and now I'm sick. Really sucks.

Man down

2006-02-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

Larry got rocked on Friday morning. We were chatting as usual and all of a sudden this rock appears out of nowhere in the middle of the trail and his foot catches it as he's stepping forward so he ends up stepping forward with his foot rolled inward. Lar was a trooper though and we jogged lightly all the way down, but his ankle is pretty beast now. Ouch!! Take care of it Lar! Check out his blog for more details (and pics): http://funrunlar.blogspot.com

Restaurant review: Empire Asian Buffet

2006-02-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

If you're REAL hungry for some Chinese food, this is THE place to go. Empire Asian Buffet located on North Academy has got this chinese buffet thing down! I took Brady here for his "bachelor party" (he's getting married in a couple weeks and Annie doesn't like Chinese food) and good times were had by all. So anyway, this place has a huge variety to choose from...stuff that I've never seen at any other buffet before...and it's good too. The traditional stuff is tasty - fried rice, lo mein, crab legs - and the other stuff is fun to experiment with. In the end, my favorite was the roast pork. Oh yeah, and they do an awesome job with the requisite soft serve ice cream for dessert. Mongolian bbq is also included with the buffet, but I've never gone for it in the two times that I've been. Probably the only bad thing about this place is that there is TOO much to choose from! Price is very reasonable too. $10.99 for the buffet. Check it out!

Move over Kelly...

2006-02-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

Even though I've been informed that Kelly is recently single again, there's a new girl in town. Appropriately, she's Winter Olympics related...Tanith Belbin. What? You don't know who she is? You mean you don't watch ice dancing?? Well, neither do I...usually. (I do have to say that of all of the figure skating disciplines, ice dancing is least painful for me to watch because I think there's always stuff happening.) But not only is Tanith WAY good looking (she was 3rd in ESPN's hottest female athlete voting, behind Amanda Beard and Jennifer Barretta) and totally smiley...she's actually good too! Def no Anna Kournikova. Her and her partner, Ben Agosto, just won silver in Torino - the first ice dancing medal for the USA in 30 years. Just more reason to make 2010.

Restaurant review: Manitou Pancake & Steak House

2006-02-20T14:08:00.001-07:00

Well after today's incline grand finale, we were geared up for a big breakfast reward at the Manitou Pancake & Steak House down Colorado Ave between Manitou and csprings. Unfortunately, I never kicked my feeling of wanting to puke after the last incline climb, so I definitely didn't have my appetite with me. I settled for an Egg & Bacon sandwich and a side of ham, which was still hard for me a stomach. But it was good!! And everyone was satisfied with their meals. Larry ordered almost everything off the menu and he seemed real pleased.

Our waitress lady was real warm and friendly and informed us that there's a great breakfast buffet on Sat and Sun. In general, the place seemed like a real genuine local fave. Deb, Charlene, and Lar said that the place is always packed and smells great when they bike by in the mornings. Their hours are 6a-2p.

President's Day / Incline weekend

2006-02-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

I'm way sore and tired. I blogged the beginning of the madness earlier, but capped off the weekend with 3 more inclines (1 Sunday, 2 today) to bring the 4 day total to 6. I definitely nearly puked at the end of the last one, but I did it!! And today's were my fastest of the 6 (34:40 and 34:26)...the other 4 were about a 38 min average. Big props to Larry and Charlene for doing all 6, and Brian and Deb for doing 3 of them. I definitely appreciated the company and know that if I ever want to do something crazy like that, I can count on the team for buddies. 4 years ago, I kicked off my drive to be a speed skater by buying skates and equipment without ever stepping on the ice. Now this. Gotta keep going!!

Go USA!!