We finally got out of the house last night and headed up to the ‘sider. It was a perfect night for the patio. Doni and Phil were up there with Gabe and Todd showed up a little bit later. He just got back from Mexico where he celebrated his 40th birthday. It was a nice and relaxing Thursday night.

We ran outside this morning for the first time. It was a little chilly but still tolerable. Hopefully we will be ready for the 4 mile trolley run in just over a week. It is now official, we will also be running a 5K the day before the flying pig, which my dad will be running once again. All of you from the nati better mark that weekend on your calendars.

My iPod shuffle will be shipping as soon as the vendor gets more inventory!

We’ve been so boring since we got back from San Diego. I guess this is part of our quarantine process.

Tuesday night we watched TV, mostly American Idol episodes from the past couple of weeks. I didn’t see the results show last night because of hockey, so don’t ruin it for me yet.

Phil setup a webcam on his site in hopes of one day being able to see their new dog “Gabe” and whether or not he is still in his crate or not. I guess he has already broken out at least once, haha. This has got me thinking about trying to get my webcam up and running, so you all can see my turtles in action. We’ll see if I have any luck with that.

Amy (Kim’s college roommate) is coming to town this weekend, hopefully she brings some excitement with her, this blog could really use it. :)

I tried uploading my San Diego pictures from work today, but somehow I have now broken that part of the site. So if you click the “PICTURES” link above you will get nowhere. I’ll fix it all up after work today.

I’ve noticed that I’ve not only grown into the habit of using the word “quite” a whole bunch, but I also have started using … to end many of my sentences. I’m not sure what … is supposed to mean, but I doubt I’m using it in the correct way so I’m going to attempt to stop using it. I never knew I had such a grammatically correct audience. :)

Remember the free iPod that I got a few months ago and sold for more than it’s worth? Well I am in the final stages of getting a free iPod shuffle and it should ship to me soon! I’m not sure if I will keep this or sell it on eBay, I guess time will tell. If you have never seen one of these devices before, check out apple.com.

Want a free PSP?
How about a free laptop?
Or a variety of different mp3 players?

So the site is back up for now. If you did not already notice, we are back from our little vacation, here is a summary…

I left work on Tuesday and drove up to the airport. I caught up with Phil on the bus ride from long term parking to the terminal, and we quickly found Christina’s boyfriend Nick as well. The flights were rather uneventful. I did get some quality pictures of Salt Lake City from the plane. This was my first time in Utah, but I guess it doesn’t really count. Speaking of pictures, I took over 400 that I’m going to go through sometime soon, maybe tonight. We finally got to San Diego and took a cab over to the Hotel del Coronado which was quite large and beautiful. Kim’s national meeting was wrapping up, so we joined what was left of the group in the hotel bar to finish off the night…

Wednesday we woke up and headed to the beach early. We walked along the water and then had breakfast at a little cafe in town. Unfortunately we had to check out of the hotel del since even the discounted rate for the remainder of the trip was like $250 a night. We headed over to the Hilton on Harbor Island which I had won for all us on priceline. We arrived there early, way before check-in, so we checked the luggage and headed off to Sea World. We saved 20% on admission using our Southwest Rapid Rewards cards, which was a nice bonus. We rushed all around the park trying to take in all of the sights before they closed at 6PM. My favorite parts of the visit were the dolphin show, the penguin area and of course the Shamu Show. After rushing through one side of the park, we realized that we had lots of extra time, so we wandered over to the killer whale tanks just in time to watch some of the practice session. I got some of my best pictures during this, so it was definitely worth the visit. After seeing the Shamu Show, we left the park and headed back to the Hilton to get checked in. After quickly cleaning up we headed over to a local restaurant called The Boathouse. It was primarily a seafood restaurant, but they had some chicken dishes that we were quite good as well. After the long day, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for an even longer day…

Thursday we headed over to the Zoo as early as we could since it too closed at 6PM. Everyone went along for this trip: me, Kim, Phil, Doni, Christina and Nick. If you have not been to this zoo, it is huge. We took advantage of the guided double-decker bus tour so that we would not have to walk all the way out to the furthest parts of the zoo, and could still see most of everything. From there we walked back to parts that the tour missed or that we wanted to see once more. They are very proud of the Giant Pandas they have since there are only six or so in the U.S. We waited in line to see them, but once we got in the viewing area could hardly see the lone panda that was hidden in a tree. I guess the others were behind the scenes somewhere. I tried to get a picture, but I doubt any of them will come out. I really enjoyed the zoo though, and my brother would have loved it too. The elephant exhibit was quite good, and they had three or four of them out and about. I also got some great pictures of the two hippos that they had on display. At first they were far from the viewing area, but as we waited for a few minutes they began feeding them and then the water in their habitat came alive. Definitely the closest I have been to one of these huge animals. Anyway enough about the zoo. We planned ahead of time to stay the entire day in downtown, since going back to the hotel took so much time the day before. We then decided to go to a part of town called the gaslamp quarter. We started off at an Irish pub called Patrick’s II. The bartender was a little grumpy and we were getting a little hungry so we then headed over to Maloney’s. After some drinks and dinner it was off to another more exciting bar, this time the 5ifth Quarter was our choice. They had a cover band playing that entertained us for a little while. And then to round out the night, we found The Shout House a dueling piano bar. This was not quite as much fun as I’ve had before in a bar like this, but it was good enough. Kim, Doni and I even ended up on stage doing the O-H-I-O during ‘Hang On Sloopy.’ This was enough fun to end the night for sure…

Friday Kim and I headed to Tijuana Mexico. Kim and Doni also went to Mexico earlier in the week so Doni and Phil decided to skip it this time. It took absolutely no effort to get into Mexico, all we did was walk in. First thing we noticed was the Tijuana River which we walked over. Not much water in it, but it smelled horribly and was very dirty. That was just the beginning though. I read so much about going to Tijuana, but nothing can actually prepare you enough. I was shocked at the poverty of the entire area. It was pretty depressing at times. We did make a few buys however. I got a pair of Foakley’s for $15 and a couple bottles of tequila. Before we knew it we were ready to head back to the good old U.S.A. The line at customs was not too bad and we got in with no trouble at all. All you need is a driver’s license and then the simple answer of “U.S.” when asked your citizenship. They didn’t even check out what we bought, guess I should have bought more liquor. :) From there we met up with Doni and Phil at a place called The Fish Market and then headed back to the hotel to clean up again. We decided that we would head to Old Town for a nice Mexican dinner. We ended up at Casa de Bandini which was an excellent choice. They had large margaritas and amazing food! From there it was back to the hotel to enjoy one final night of vacation…

Saturday we had to wake up and get to the airport to catch our flight back home. It was sad to leave, but I think we made quite a contribution to San Diego and were financially ready to leave. :) The flights were once again rather uneventful. When we got back into town we met up with Mike at our favorite plaza restaurant, Tomfooleries, to reminisce on the trip…

Yesterday was full of the typical errands, but I’m glad we made the choice to fly back on Saturday and not on Sunday so we had a whole day to adjust. Mike and I did go over to Doni and Phil’s to check out some dogs that they were thinking of adopting. They did settle with a cute little pit bull, hopefully they get some pictures up soon. I learned quite a bit about the breed and found out that they often have a bad reputation. This little guy is so much fun so far…

Edit: Phil has updated his blog and included pictures of the new puppy!

Stupid router did it again! If the site goes down while I’m gone that is why. Please call Netgear for me, thanks…

My router is really pissing me off lately. It keeps thinking that my computer has a virus when clearly it does not. Netgear support is worthless as well. Have I said this already? Well it is worth saying it again…

Vacation time has arrived! I’m leaving work at 4 today to head to the airport and then it’s off to San Diego. Kim has been there since Sunday, but I guess they have been doing a bunch of work stuff. Our itinerary as of now is this:

Wednesday (aka tomorrow) we are heading to Sea World. I was hoping to get in for free since I am baby shamu’s godparent and all, but I forgot that the real baby shamu resides in Florida not California. This may sound really funny to most of you, but it is a true story. When we were younger my mom would encourage us to enter tons of these contests and we won all the time. One time I made a birthday card for the first baby shamu’s birthday. The card I made won my entire family an all expense paid trip to Sea World Orlando. Mom, if you read this, have you ever seen the card online or any of the pictures???

Anyway, back to the plan. We are then going to the zoo on Thursday. It has been awhile since I’ve been here and I am really looking forward to it. I wanted to do the wild animal park as well, but I do not think we will have time…

Friday we plan to head to Tijuana Mexico. I’m excited to do this since I’ve never been to Mexico. I know this probably doesn’t even count, but it should be fun either way!

I’m sure we’ll throw dinners and bars into the mix late at night, but that is the plan as of now. We will be flying back sometime Saturday (unless we can get bumped). Have a good rest of the week…

First Mitch Hedberg and now the pope?? One of my buddies from the message board said it best actually:

So if heaven exists, we have Johnny Cochrane, Frank Perdue, Mitch Hedberg, Terri Schiavo and the Pope all in line at the Pearly Gates.

Mitch must be laughing his ass off right now.

This is the first time in my life that the pope has died, and so far I’ve learned so much about the process of his burial and electing a new pope. I was stuck to the TV for a few hours on Saturday as the news of his death was hitting all the networks, but I’m getting ahead of myself…

Friday night we met up with Amanda and a couple of her coworkers over at Brio to celebrate her promotion. Joel showed up a bit later and from there we headed to The Hurricane for the Shaking Tree show. Steve Christy, his brother and a few friends showed up as well. They didn’t get to play for very long, but I think it was one of their better sounding performances. We got out of there as soon as the dj’s were starting up and headed to Harpo’s to finish off the night…

Saturday we woke up and had lunch at Chipotle! Doni met up with us, and then the girls went out shopping for San Diego clothes. And then as I mentioned earlier, I was glued to the TV for a couple of hours, but eventually I found my way up to the Brooksider. Phil, Todd and Chris Martin were all up there getting ready to watch the basketball games. The girls met up with us a little later, and I believe we left after the first game. Not much else too exciting for Saturday…

Sunday, I dropped the girls off at the airport and they were on their way to San Diego! I spent the rest of the day working on my computer and walking around the plaza and parks around our street. It was such a beautiful day! I believe we set a record high 82 degrees yesterday and it was nothing but sun. Today is supposed to be just as nice, but unfortunately I’m stuck here at work. Only for today and tomorrow, then it is time for me to head to San Diego as well!

Yesterday rumors were flying around that comedian Mitch Hedberg died at the age of 37 and I guess it is true. The story still hasn’t hit most of the major news sites, but according to his spokesperson it is true. I did have the opportunity to see him once before this tragic event. He was by far one of the funniest guys I have ever seen. RIP Mitch…

I have added a new “song” of the moment from Mitch. Download “This CD Is In Stores.”

“I’m sick of following my dreams. I’m just going to ask them where they’re going and hook up with them later.”

I think we are going to head to a Shaking Tree show tonight. Not much else planned for the weekend yet. Kim leaves on Sunday for San Diego, I cannot believe our vacation is here already!