This past weekend was the annual fund raiser for the Chester Volunteer Fire Dept of Chester, WV. If you haven't heard of it that's ok - I hadn't heard of it until this year when an old Army buddy of mine, Jason Oswald, invited me to join him and some of his work friends for the weekend. Chester is about 4 hours from Huntington and is fairly close to Pittsburgh PA so we got a room in Pittsburgh near the airport.

I took off early on Friday and headed up there so I could get us checked in (the room was in my name). I hit the hotel at around 2:45 and Jason and one of his friends (Cantz) showed up at around 5. From there three three of us headed down the street about half a block to a Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner and then to a bar just down the street to drink, tell stories, and generally act stupid. We hung out there until about 1 in the morning then walked down the street looking for a Denny's - but, once we got to Denny's Jason and Cantz saw an Eat-and-Park so we went there instead so they could eat the breakfast buffet.

We finally got back to the room at around 2am where Oswald and Cantz promptly passed out. I don't sleep well in a hotel as it is and Cantz is a snoring fool so all hope of my sleeping was dashed. That actually worked out pretty well because two other guys showed up at about 3am. They were out in the parking lot calling Oswalds cell. He didn't wake up so I answered it and went down and let them in. I introduced myself, found them spots to sleep, set the alarm clock for 7AM and tried again to go to sleep. One of the two who arrived at 3, Darren, also snored. He couldn't fall asleep with Cantz snoring but, at about 4am Cantz stopped for about ten minutes - before that ten minutes was up Darren was fast asleep snoring as well. The last time I remember seeing the clock was 6:25am. Then, at 6:45 someones cell phone started to ring and thus I was up for the day with 20 minutes of sleep.

We all shuffled through the bathroom, showered, and then hit the road by 8am to go meet up with Darren's brother Joe. Amazingly we found Joe about 5 minutes after getting on the highway and we started following him. He lead us to his brother Danny's house were we picked up Danny, their brother Dennis, and their dad (whom I called Dad - I still don't know his name). From Danny's house we went to a small country diner for breakfast and then headed into West Virginia for the fund raiser.

The fund raiser is kind of amazing. It is $100 per person to get in and they sell 10,000 tickets thus bringing in 1 million. However, they give out $650,000 in prizes with a prize drawing every five minutes after noon. Plus they have 4 $5,000 early bird drawings between 11am and noon. I hadn't bought my ticket early enough to be eligible for the early drawings. The event is held at this big building called The Harv at the Mountaineer Race Track (which is a state owned hotel, race track, and Casino). As soon as we arrived at the bash we found some seats at a table under one of the many outdoor tents, got our selves comfortable, and then began to drink way too much light beer that flowed from an endless tap of free beer. The event lasts from 12:00 - 5:30pm and you basically just sit there, hang out, listen to the drawings, and drink. Eventually I snagged four hotdogs from the food line but that was about all we did at the bash.

Many people who had been there before brought cards or dominos - others even brought pitchers for their beer. Next year, if I go, I think I will bring some kind of game for us to play while we drink and bull shit each other. There are actually other ways the fire dept raises money there - they sell little instant win tickets that you pay $1 each for but you can win up to $5000. I'd honestly bet they sell close to $100,000 of these tickets at the event between straight cash purchases and people getting more tickets when they cash in their smaller winners (1,5,10,25, and $50). "Dad" and some other guy they knew both hit for $500 on those - which was very cool.

We seemed to have a dedicated ticket sales girl who looked, facially, a lot like Kendra Wilkinson from the TV show "Girls Next Door" and our waitress (basically just threw away all of our trash) looked like Fairuza Balk (she was in the movie Water Boy as an adult and was Wednesday Adams in the modern Adams Family movie). It was kind of uncanny how much they both looked like their famous counterparts. I probably should have taken photos but I wasn't sure that would be the smoothest option to go on a guys weekend and then return to my wife with a camera full of photos of other women.

Eventually the bash ended and our group headed into the Casino. Somehow we all got separated and Danny and I headed on a shuttle to the poker room. I've never played Texas Hold 'Em at a casino before; just pick up games, so I didn't realize how everything worked but I was anxious to try it out. I didn't have any loose cash on me at all but I did have a $100 bill I keep tucked into my wallet "emergencies" I was buzzing just enough to figure this was a good place to break out the benny. So I went to the cashier, got $80 worth of fives and $20 worth of ones and headed to the table with Danny. The blinds (forced bets) were $1 and $2 so it was definitely my kind of price range.

I tried to be relaxed and, honestly, to pretend like I was far more intoxicated than I was. It seemed to work (or the people at the table, in general, just sucked) and I was quickly winning money. Now, when I go to a casino and play blackjack I always take my winnings and put them in my pocket at a certain point. So that I am only playing with the money that is on the table and I forget what is in my pocket and thus, when I leave, I'm usually way ahead. I did the same thing as I played poker. After each hand I won I immediately put all of the $4 chips I collected into my pocket so that I always had just about $100 on the table to play with. Eventually I had put all but about $50 in my pocket and then I lost that on one hand that I pretty much knew I was going to lose. So I got up and went to cash in all the stuff in my pocket when, out of the blue, the dealer told me I wasn't allowed to put money in my pocket during the course of the night. She said since I was leaving the table it was OK but in the future I needed to keep my chips all on the table.

Since this wasn't a tourny, and was just a pick-up game, I'm not sure I understand that logic so long as I'm not moving money during a hand I'm involved in. But there you go - those are the rules; don't make my same mistake.

I apologized for my ignorance then headed to the cashier to cash in. $302 was in my pocket! So I put my $100 emergency fund back in my wallet and walked out of the casino with nearly $200 after I stopped off and tipped the dealer. Sweet. Danny finished up shortly after I did and we then had to go find the rest of the guys. By this time my little buzz was gone (though I was still feeling great) and we found out everyone had gone to a bar somewhere between the casino and Danny's house. We caught up with them there and it was about 7:30. The bar was just like any other bar I've been too. Well light, pool tables, dart boards, smokey, and manned by, in this case, two female bartenders. But something wasn't normal - something was very unusual. Both of the female bartenders were completely nude (except for their shoes). It turns out that is the bars gimmick - their bartenders serve in the nude until 9pm at which point, by law, they have to put their clothes on. Odd stuff.

We stayed until 9.

We then headed out to Danny's to let people get their cars back. Oswald and I then tried to find the hotel while the rest of the guy went to Joe's house to party for a bit. Eventually our three roommates showed up at the hotel but Darren then left with his sister in law to go back to Joes. So the four of us headed out to the bar of the previous night where we crashed some schools 10th high school reunion. We hung out till around 2am then walked to eat-n-park for a late meal (I didn't eat). We made it back to the hotel by around 3. I had basically been awake for 40 hours non-stop (less the 30 minute nap of the night before). Cantz, thankfully, slept in a different position and didn't snore so I was able to fall asleep. I woke up a few times but nobody was snoring so I fell back asleep without issue. I was wide awake at 8. WTF?

I headed down for breakfast at the hotel while the others got up and showered. When I got back to the room Darren was back but our showers plumbing had gone crazy and was backing up with some very nasty look and horrid smelling water. Eventually everyone decided they were ready to head out and we loaded up or respective cars, I bid Oswald a good bye, and then drove home to Huntington. It took me closer to 6 hours to drive home because I was so tired that I had to stop a few times to walk around and refresh.

Overall it was a fun trip - though i did drink more than I should have - and it was great to see Jason again. The last time we saw each other was at my wedding in 1999! He lives near Allentown PA now so it isn't really convenient for us to hang out at all. I'm really glad I went and hope his friends thought well enough of me that he feels comfortable inviting me again next year. I've put a few photos of the weekend up.

#MyLife #Travel #Entertainment #Photos

It has been just over a year since I returned home from Hong Kong so it should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me that I am anxious to hit the road on another cool trip. The question, this time is, where to? Well, fortunately for me, once again, I don't have to decide. Nor do I have to pay. My company is sending me on another international trip; this time to London, to help improve our current business relationship with the customer.

When I was very small (2-5 years old) my family lived in England but, obviously, there isn't a lot I remember about my time there. I also doubt, even if I remember specific locations, that I'd get much of a chance to revisit them. Unlike my Hong Kong trip there are four of us going on this one which, I think, will make the trip much more enjoyable. We will be there from the 4th-11th of October and will be working full days 6-10. Thus we will have the 4, 5, and each night to experience what London has to offer. I think I can safely speak for all of us in saying we're pretty excited about the opportunity.

So far I haven't gotten much advice on things to see, places to go, or food to eat while there so if you have been (or currently live in London) and you have some advice please share! I am meeting up with one guy - a fellow software developer - to deliver a carton of cigarettes but beyond that we have no set plans at all.

Just like with the Hong Kong trip I will be taking plenty of photos and posting them as soon as I get back.

#Work #MyLife #Travel

This past weekend Lisa and I packed up the girls and drove to Cincinnati. We left on Sunday and met up with my dad and stepmother, Patty, at the Ikea there. As we pulled into the parking lot I though, holy crap that place is huge. Patty, having shopped at the one in Portland before said, "Oh, how cute, look how small it is." I'm not kidding - the biggest store I have ever seen was described as cute and small! I have long heard of Ikea but this was the first time I had actually gone in one and it was quite an experience. Just inside the front door is a child drop-off point for a day care type facility. This place knows it is so big you will be there for so long that you need to get a babysitter once you arrive! We passed on the daycare and headed upstairs to the cafeteria. Yes, we needed sustenance and we hadn't even shopped yet. The Cafe served a variety of Swiss/Norweigen foods and Lisa and I both had Swedish Meatballs. They were OK. The price on the food was right as it cost about $22 for the whole family of four to eat and I even had a nice piece of chocolate cake for dessert. Once we were done eating we headed toward the actually shopping part of the store. Even having seen the outside of the building I didn't fully comprehend what I was getting myself into.

The store is two floors. The first floor (with the Cafe) is broken down into sections based on rooms of your house. We started out looking at living rooms and family rooms. Nested within each section of the store were little showcase's that represented entire apartments. Some were about 200 sq feet others were closer to 600 or 1000. Each showcase was broken down into entire apartments so that there were bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and closets. The showcases were pretty neat and really got me thinking about our home and the way we have things laid out. Eventually we made it through all of the different showcases and room sections of the first floor and headed down to the second floor. This floor is half "stuff" where you can find pillows or toilet bowl cleaners or glasses and plates. The pillow section was actually really cool because they were broken out by what type of sleeper you are - there were pillows for "back sleepers" and pillows for "stomach sleepers." I've always been a stomach sleeper so I was tempted to get one of their pillows but I resisted. The second half of the floor was the large product pickup area. For instance if you had seen a desk you really liked in the home office section on the first floor you could have written down a code and then, in the pick up section, you could find it boxed and ready to go. After the pickup area were the cash registers and a little grocery area that sold Norweigen snacks and other specialties. Patty bought some odd little chocolate filled cookies. The cookie part tasted like popcorn. They were pretty good but very sweet - I could only eat two at a time. We managed to finish shopping at Ikea five hours after we entered the store. Five hours? That is rediculous - who shops in one store for five hours? Apparently a lot of people because that joint was packed. Lisa and I made it out with nothing more than a small stuffed hamster for Shannon and a toilet bowl brush for the girls bathroom. I was proud of our restraint because there were a few things there we really liked.

We had actually gone to Cincinnati so we could go to their labor day fireworks show. It is supposed to be huge, maybe the biggest in the country, and we thought the girls would really get a kick out of it. I tried to convince the family that we should head downtown early so we could get to our intended dinner place early because the crowds would be huge but I was overturned by everyone. Unfortunately, the downtown area was packed, the bridges across the river were closed, and we couldn't make it to the Haufbrau house in time for our 8pm reservation. Mysteriously, when we called them at about 7:40 our reservations had disappeared anyway so it didn't matter. Instead we drove all over the place looking for somewhere to eat and then settled on a Longhorn Steakhouse. I like the Longhorn but was a bit disappointed we were eating at a chain we can eat at anywhere. Typically Lisa and I like to go somewhere more local when we travel so we can experience something new and fresh. On the bright side though dinner was really tasty but we didn't get back to the hotel until it was pretty late and the girls were exhausted.

The next day we were going to split into two groups. My dad, Shannon, and I headed to the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base while Lisa, Patty, and Emily went to a 6 acre large grocery store called Jungle Jims. Lisa really wanted to go to the Museum with us but she also wanted to see Jungle Jims plus Patty was definitely not going to the museum and we weren't entirely sure how cool Emily would be with looking at old airplanes all day so she sacrificed her opportunity to hear Dad tell some stories and share his experiences.

The Air Force Museum is much larger than I remember it from 1986. It is three huge hangers full of all sorts of air planes plus a silo that contains some some huge rockets including to ICBMs (which definitely gave me chills to see; they are a scary proposition). The first hanger in the museum contains historical planes and artifacts from early flight through World War 1. My Dad, during his time in the Air Force had actually worked (lead?) a team that restored an old biplane from that period for inclusion in the museum. However, we couldn't find the plane though we did find one that looked similar. I could tell my dad was pretty disappointed to not find the plane that he and his team had spent so much time working on. It would have been really cool had it been there. The second hanger had more modern planes from WW2 to the present. Thus there were old P-51 mustangs along side a brand new F-22 Raptor. This room was really cool. It was much better lit and we were looking at planes my dad had a lot of first hand knowledge. It was great hearing him talk about each plane and explaining how different parts worked or what bits on each were a pain to work on. Plus it was great to see him sharing some of his experiences with Shannon. After we finished up in the modern hanger we were pretty hungry so we headed for the cafe. My dad was kind of bumming about his biplane not being around and wasn't really interested in going into the third hanger, the Cold War. Shannon asked why we couldn't go in that one so Dad relented and after chow we headed into the Cold War. It's a good thing we did too. The Cold War room had bunch of different planes in it including the SR-71 blackbird (my favorite plane) and the B2 stealth bomber. As we wandered around looking at all the modern day artifcats we came across an F-106 from the 49th Fighter Interceptor Squadron of Griffis Air Force Base, Rome NY. The 49th was my Dads last duty station before retiring and he knew this plane very well. He instantly recognized it's tail number and started telling us it's history. He was very very excited to have one of his old planes in there. In fact this plane was retired from the Air Force the same year he retired. It was pretty cool.

After we finished in the Cold War hanger we went into the silo and then we headed onto the actual base to see the Presidential Hanger where retired "Air Force One's" are enshrined. The presidential hanger has a sister hanger on base which is full of experimental planes. One of the planes in that hanger was the only surviving XB-70 Valkyrie supersonic bomber. It is HUGE. It dominated the hanger. All of the experimental planes were really cool - some of them were little more than rockets with small wings; it was hard to believe they could fly. Overall the whole experience at the museum was really great. We got to see a ton of cool planes, hear some neat stories, get a hint of a story my dad doesn't want to tell me, and Shannon seemed to really enjoy it. We were there for seven hours and my back and legs were worn out but it was well worth it. I've uploaded some photos of the museum - the first few are planes my dad had hands on experience with during his career.

#Family #MyLife #General #Travel #Entertainment #Photos

A couple weeks ago a bunch of us went skiing. A few months ago Lisa and I had bid on a condo package at Snowshoe Mountain here in WV at the March of Dimes Chefs Auction. The condo accommodates 6-8 but I think we had 11 of us stuffed in there. The floorplan had a second floor loft bedroom with a double bed and a set of bunk beds. Lisa, Shannon, Emily, and I slept up there. The first floor had a bedroom in the back and Dad and Patty slept back there. The Joe, his girlfriend, Chris, Justin, and his fiancee' Jules slept in the common area. The quarters were pretty tight for sleeping but overall they were still pretty nice.

Joe, his girlfriend, Justin and I didn't spend much time in the condo as we tried to get a lot of skiing in. Dad and Chris didn't show up until late Friday night (we had arrived Wednesday night). Jules tried to have Justin teach her to snowboard but that didn't work out too well so she ended up taking lessons which was much more successful. Joe really didn't know much about snowboarding when he started on Thursday but he got substantially better over the four days we were out. Dad is, sadly, out of shape (or old) and couldn't ski too much on Saturday or Sunday. Chris, it turns out, doesn't really know how to ski as well I was led to believe and he almost killed himself when I took the crew of people who claimed they could ski to a black diamond run called "Cup". Cup is one of my favorite runs and I held off on going to it until I knew Joe could handle it. Sadly, however, neither Chris or Dad told me Chris couldn't ski (well, he can ski he just can't turn or stop). Cup is a pretty easy black diamond but the surface was very icy and he just barreled down the mountain scaring the shit out of me. He eventually crashed (when he had to turn) and left his skis and poles way behind. He slid across the slope and crashed into the woods. Fortunately he was OK. A little shaken and sore but luckily alive and unharmed. I helped guide him down the rest of the mountain and then we left Cup behind for safer pastures. I went back to Cup alone on Sunday and Joe and his girlfriend also went there a bit.

On Friday Shannon took some ski lessons and then on Saturday I took her out on "Cub" run. Cub is a pretty short green (easy) slope. However, on that day it felt incredibly long. I skied backwards and watched her. She would slide about ten feet and start to pick up speed and then start chanting "Oh My Goodness! Oh My Goodness" before catching up with me and holding on for dear life. She had a blast. My knees and feet however were taking a pounding from the way I was digging in to keep my speed down. We did one run down the hill and by then my body was so sore we headed back to the cabin for lunch. Then, on Sunday I took her back out. This time we went to the same hill she had taken her lessons on and instead of skiing in front of her I skied beside her and let her hold the handle of my ski pole while I held the other end to help control her speed. We did about 10 runs and had a blast. She gained more confidence on each run and she loved going up the chair lift. On the first run she was holding the pole with a death grip but by the fifth or sixth run she was barely holding it at all. It was awesome to see her improve and enjoy it so much. That morning was my favorite part of the trip. My knees were still really sore by lunch time but nothing like they had been when we went to "Cub" run (Cub is much longer than the hill we went on on Sunday).

#Sports #Family #FunStuff #MyLife #Travel #Entertainment #Photos

Well, I'm running behind a bit on this post so not only is it late but it will probably be a little short. Near the end of January Lisa and I traveled down to Atlanta for the NHL All-Star game and skills competition. We left on the Thursday before the weekend began because we mistakenly thought we would be able to go to some of the special events surrounding the weekend such as a concert on both Thursday and Friday night. Even though we couldn't attend the concerts we still found plenty to do to fill the time and, in the end, to have a wonderful trip.

We arrived in Atlanta near rush hour on Thursday and made a mad dash for the hotel that you had to go to in order to get your tickets. We were in a rush because we thought we could go to the nights concert. Lisa begged and pleaded to get the tickets from the office (it was closed by the time we go there) and her pleas worked! Once we had the tickets though we were informed that they didn't include tickets to the concerts. So, that night we walked around a bit, found our hotel, and then went to Ted's Montana Grill which was a pretty cool restaurant that featured a bunch of different Buffalo meat entrees. The coolest part of the joint to me was their insistence on being "green". For instance the table-cloth was a big sheet of recycled brown paper and the straws were paper coated in wax. We actually arrived pretty late so the restaurant was fairly empty so service was really speedy and the food was pretty good too!

On Friday we went downtown again and walked around a bunch. We went to the Centennial Olympic Park and then the World of Coca Cola. At the park we checked out a bunch of the engraved bricks and even found one from Huntington, WV. At the Coke place we did everything; watched a 3-D movie, toured a mini bottling plant, watched a ton of commercials, saw a bunch of old collectibles, and tasted around 70 different soda flavors from around the world. We drank a little bit too much soda but we still had a good time.

In the afternoon we headed up to the Lenox Mall near the Buckhead portion of town for lunch and shopping. We ate at the California Pizza Kitchen which we have seen a bunch of times before but had never eat at. It was good (I had a spicy chicken pizza). I also bought a nice coat while we were there, a badger hair shaving brush and Lisa got a pair of boots and some neat Lush products (soap, bath salts, and stuff). Eventually we left the mall (when it was closing) and headed back to the hotel and then a casual dinner at Gorden Biersch (a brewpub restaurant).

Saturday and Sunday were dedicated to the All Star events. We headed up to Phillips Arena for the Skills Competition on Saturday but we arrived pretty early and took part, sort of, in the card-trading/memorabilia show (we just walked around and checked things out) and then we took a tour of the CNN headquarters (not worth the money) which is attached to the Phillips Arena. Eventually we got into the Arena and had a great time watching the Skills Competition. Our Seats were AMAZING - we are on the blue line about 10 rows behind the players. It was great. We are also surrounded by a lot of people who all seemed to know each other - and a bunch of them all kept stopping by to talk to the guy sitting behind us. We were intrigued.

As the night wore on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) stopped by to interview the guy behind me. So I looked behind me and saw that he was short and kind of old but he was wearing a huge Carolina Hurricanes championship ring. It turns out the guy is Jim Rutherford the GM and part owner of the Hurricanes. He is also an ex-NHL goalie who played most of his career with the Red Wings. We spoke with him and his wife (they were both really nice) and another couple they were with (from Cleveland and loved ribbing me about the Bruins).

On Sunday we didn't really do anything special before the game except go back to the memorabilia show. While we were there we got Patrick Kane's autograph (#1 draft pick last year), and Todd McFarlane's autograph (creator of a bunch of figurines and comic book artist) on a figurine of Marian Hossa. I also bought an old fact book for the Red Wings from 1976 that had a full page spread on none other than Jim Rutherford.

The All Star game was really cool. It had a bunch of extra stuff around it like a performance by The Hives before hand and Ne-Yo during an intermission. I also managed to get Jim's autograph on his page of the Fact Book and I had my photo taken with him. They four of them kept giving me a hard time about the Bruins, especially when Tim Thomas was in goal because he let up a bunch. However I had the last laugh because ex-Atlanta Thrasher and current Bruin Marc Savard scored the game winning goal. A neat bit of trivia I gleaned from Jim was that he actually coached Tim Thomas when Tim was a kid and came to Jim's goalie camp. Needless to say I ribbed Jim a little after Tim gave up his 3rd goal and the group kept harassing me - they only had Jim to blame for Tim's skills. Overall it was a lot of fun and the end of the game actually gave Lisa the highlight of her night when she finally recognized a guy sitting in the section next to us.

Lisa used to watch a lot of Soap Operas, especially when we had the Soap Opera channel and it turns out the guy in the section near us is a Soap Opera star named Thorston Kaye. He has been a doctor on General Hospital and, once his character was killed, he came back as his dead characters brother on a spin off show called Port Charles. It turns out Lisa is a big fan of this guy (basically she thinks he is hot) and so she wanted me to take his photo. I did but some friend of his spotted me acting like a paparazzi and pointed it out to Thorston. Now, Thorston isn't some weak little actor boy - instead he is about my height but has been a collegiate decathalete and a professional rugby player. So I smiled at him and asked if it would be cool for Lisa to have her picture taken with him (I still didn't know who he was, I thought maybe he was an ex Penguins player she knew). He agreed and was really cool about it. He waded through the departing crowd, gave her a big hug, and then gave the camera a real smoky gaze. It was hilarious and Lisa loved it.

#Sports #FunStuff #MyLife #Travel #Photos

Mark your calendars music fans because Rock on the Range is back for its second iteration and this time the lineup is even bigger and better than last year. In the first Rock on the Range it was a one day show filled to the brim with rock music from a bunch of bands. This year the event is being expanded to take up two days - which means I'll be heading up in the morning for day 1, then rocking out for 2 days, and then driving home in ear-ringing bliss at the end of day 2 (or maybe on the morning of day 3).

It would be great if more people I know can go this year. Last year was a blast with just the four of us (hopefully Joe won't get the boot 2 times again) so I imagine it would rock even more with a whole gang going up. The show is in Columbus again (at Crew Stadium) and is on May 17th and 18th this year. I'm stoked and can't wait to exhaust myself again. Bring on the Rock!

#Music #FunStuff #MyLife #Travel #Entertainment

This past weekend Lisa and I spent Friday and Saturday at "The Greenbriar Resort." The Greenbriar is a very old, high society type of resort. While there you can go hunting, fly fishing, golfing, falconry, hunt-style horseback riding, and, probably, a whole lot more. The main building was built in the early 1900's and has been the vacation destination of really wealthy people ever since. In fact, it hides a bunker underneath it's luxurious facade that was intended to protect Congress in case of WW3 (it was declassified back in 1992). Now you can take a tour of the bunker and learn all sorts of neat facts about the facility. For instance, in WW2, the Greenbriar served as an internment camp for European prisoners of war.

I didn't take many photos and I didn't really do anything while I was there other than walk around and read. Lisa was there to work so I got to share her room for free. The place is really expensive so I didn't do anything that would cost us any extra money. Perhaps, someday, we will go back when we can afford to do something there. Overall it was still a nice relaxing day for me as I tried to not think about work.

#MyLife #Travel

Last week Shannon had a couple days off school so I took the same days off work and the four of us headed to Cincinnati for the weekend. We left on Thursday with the plan of leaving kind of early and getting there in time to visit the zoo for a few hours. Of course the best laid plans rarely work out for us and this trip was no different. We didn't get out of Huntington until close to noon and then, about 3/4 of the way there we had a flat tire. I had Lisa set the parking brake and then pulled the jack out so I could change the tire. However, we were stopped on a long slow incline so as soon as the tire left the ground the van still slipped back a little bit and actually bent the jack up. So I quickly finished jacking up the van and replaced the tire with the spare and we got back on the road.

Eventually we ended up in Newport, KY (by now it was too late to go to the zoo) so we stopped at a Graeters Ice Cream shop for a snack. We had been looking for a Goodyear so we could buy a new tire so I asked the girl behind the counter and, as luck would have it, there was one immediately next door to the ice cream shop. While our tire was being changed we went to this little mall that was mostly restaurants and looked around. They had a Halloween shop where I bought some stuff for my costume this year (I'm going to be a "nice" werewolf according to Emily). We also stopped by a book store and bought a cookbook that is laid out in a nice format for planning meals - it does it for you. Each meal is broken down with a main and a side dish so all we have to do is shop and cook without thinking about the menu. Each meal is supposed to be a "20 minute" meal to make so it should be convenient.

Finally we got the van back and headed to the Millennium Hotel which we had booked on Priceline for $50/night - a great deal considering we were right downtown. For dinner we headed to a pretty nice seafood restaurant McCormick and Schmick's. Eventually we ended the day and went to sleep in anticipation of going to the Newport Aquarium the next morning.

The Aquarium was pretty cool. They had a ton of different fish and just as many different turtles it seemed. Emily was proud to let me know they are called "Tortuga's." We also paid a little extra for a "Penguin Encounter" which let us go back to a little room that three penguins live in and we got to pet them while the lady (Rebecca I think) taught us about them. These penguins were pretty neat and were from South Africa. Because they are from S. Africa they really challenged my idea of penguins. In my mind they are always from some frozen iceberg but these guys live in temperatures up to 110 at times. they were pretty cool and they really liked to play with the wrist strap on Shannon's camera.

After the Aquarium (which was right around the corner from the Ice Cream shop) we stopped at a German restaurant called the Hofbrau House for lunch and a big stein of beer. Lisa was driving so she made me drink most of her beer so I was feeling pretty good by the time we left. The food wasn't that great - but their weiss beir was pretty good.

On Saturday we headed to Kings Island for a day of fun (from 12pm - 7pm). We spent most of our time in the Nickelodeon part of the park riding rides that both Emily and Shannon could ride. However, there were also a few rides there that were perfect "in-between" rides for Shannon. She is too small to go on most of the Adult rides but she is too big for most of Emily's rides. Instead they had some rides like "The Avatar" and "The Raptor" which were perfect for Shannon. The Avatar is a big sled that spins and slides back and forth on a ramp. It spins pretty fast and the ramp goes up and down so it was pretty thrilling for her. Then the Raptor was a suspended roller coaster. It didn't have any big spins or loops but it went fast and was, by far, the biggest roller coaster she has been on so far. She really seemed to enjoy both rides which was cool because she wouldn't have even thought about going on them last year.

After we had fun on the rides we played a few different midway games and everyone ended up winning at least one prize. Overall it was a cool day at the park. However, at around 7pm they start to shut down the kids rides and start to turn the entire park into a haunted house throughout the month of October. At this time the employees all start to show up dressed in costume and with pretty good fake injuries on their heads and stuff. While the girls dealt with seeing them OK I'm sure they wouldn't have liked it when the employees tried to scare them so we headed out. We ate dinner across the street from our hotel and then headed to bed again for our final morning before heading home.

Lisa had planned a nice surprise for the girls on Sunday and we headed to the US Bank Arena for the Disney Princesses On Ice show. The show was OK if you like watching figure skating and the girls seemed to really enjoy it so that was cool. Before the show started (we got there a little early) we actually got to see the Cincinnati Walk for Breast Cancer. It was huge - there had to be thousands participating. There was a small group of young women at the end cheering and yelling and just getting the crowd fired up. They had some pretty funny chants - one was "No Bikes, No Scooters, We're Walking for our Hooters" they were really into it and it was cool to see.

Here are some photos of the walk

#Family #FunStuff #MyLife #Travel

Well, technically, I have been back since Saturday but today is the first chance I have had to actually blog about my return to the states.

In my last week there I actually started to build relationships with some of the other people who work at the Hong Kong office so on Wednesday a group of us went and played basketball. I am not very good at basketball though I do get a little better if I play somewhat frequently. You might think, considering I live in front of a park with a basketball court, that I would play fairly frequently but you would be wrong for thinking that. Instead I almost never play. I warned the guys that I wasn't very good but they said not to worry about it. I didn't lie - I wasn't any good - however, fortunately, most of them aren't very good at basketball either so I didn't really feel outclassed by anyone on the court. There was a large guy named Vijay who really used his size and strength to his advantage down low and really pushed me around whenever I jumped for a rebound but other than him I didn't really feel like anyone was doing anything "better" than me. We played games to 21 and the games all took over 30 minutes. It wasn't pretty. In the final game my foot got tangled up with this large Dutch guys foot and I tore my big toenail up pretty badly and sprained the top of my foot. It hurt like hell.

I figured my one advantage in basketball in Hong Kong would be the fact that I am 6' tall and most of the people there aren't. However, it seems the banks only import tall people and so along with Vijay there were some other people who were substantially taller than me in the game. The Dutch guy was easilly 4" taller than me and there is a tall Brit who was probably 6" taller than me. I actually managed to block one jump shot by the Dutch guy but beyond that my highlights were very rare.

On Thursday the tall Birtish guy, Joh, and two other guys (Barrie and Mike - another Brit) and I went out after work back to Lang Kwai Fong to have a couple beers. As the night progressed Mike and Barrie eventually went home until finally, around 2 or 3 am it was just Jon and I so we headed to Ebeneezer's Kabab stand and had a very late dinner before parting ways. Over the course of the night Jon and Mike both talked to me briefly about staying on in HK. I told them the bank wouldn't be able to pay me enough and they both laughed and told me I'd be surprised. While the bank may be able to pay enough I just don't think there would be enough incentive for me to uproot my family and move to Hong Kong. First, and foremost, Lisa already has a very good job which would be hard to replace there. Sure she could get another sales job but she always wanted to work in the Pharmaceutical industry and she probably wouldn't be able to do that in HK. Secondly, it is really hot there and Lisa would be miserable in the heat. Thirdly, Shannon is in her second year of school and is pretty much friends with everyone. While she could make new friends if we moved I would prefer if she didn't have to move around like I did growing up. If I went to Hong Kong we would undoubtedly move back from HK well before she was done with school. Furthermore, flying home to visit friends and family would be a pain - that is one long flight. And finally, I doubt the bank would be willing to buy our house at market value right now and I don't think we could afford to move unless they did.

If we were not American, but rather British or Canadian the thought of taking a Job in Hong Kong would have a bit more allure. They don't have to pay taxes in their home country will living abroad while US citizens do. Effectively these guys get a pretty nice pay raise just from moving and not paying out the 30-40% in taxes. They do have to pay apx 10% in HK tax but that is even offset some because they don't have to pay tax on any money that goes towards rent or mortgage. Considering how high rent is there I imagine that is a pretty nice savings.

Friday was my last day and I only worked about 7 hours before heading back to my hotel to finish packing and preparing for the flight home. On Saturday I woke up, checked out, and headed to the airport where I figured I would have plenty of time to get a bite to eat before I departed. I was wrong. It took a long time just to travel through the airport. Security was actually pretty fast but the airport is really large and there are a ton of places to stop and shop on your way through - it is almost like a mall in and of itself. I stopped and exchanged my Honkies for USD and then stopped in an electronics store and considered buying a playstation portable. I decided against it and instead bought some chocolate and headed for my gate. My flight departed at 12:30pm on Saturday. After a 14 hour flight I arrived in Chicago at 1:30pm on Saturday. Crazy eh? Once in Chicago I had a 5 hour layover. Fun!

In Hong Kong service in a restaurant is vastly different from that in the US. I could go into any dive in HK and get pretty darn good service. At the Chicago airport I went to Chili's for lunch and had pretty crappy, pretty typical, American service. I went to Chili's because they were showing college football on the TV. When the game ended Tennis came on. I asked the waiter if he could try to get football on the TV and he said "Talk to the bartender" so I asked him "can you just pass my request on to the bartender?" and he said "I'm busy" and walked away. Nice. At about the same time some loud drunk guy yelled out of the bar at his buddy calling him a fatass. Another quick bit of culture shock when I returned. In Hong Kong people rarely talked and nobody ever yelled. I don't mind the yelling or noise here but it definitely jumps out at you when you've been living in virtual silence for five weeks.

I finally arrived in Charleston around 8pm I think. The girls were all at the gate waiting for me and it was great to see them. We then loaded up the car and headed home. Once home I handed out all of the presents I bought the three of them and gave everyone a bunch of extra hugs before we finally headed to bed. I woke up at a pretty normal hour on Sun and had breakfast, played with the girls, watched some football, then went grocery shopping, and then came home and at about 8pm felt exhausted so I went to bed so I could wake up at 5:30am to start off my work week back in Huntington. So far this week I have been falling asleep really early every night - last night was just after 9. I have to be at work by 6am so I can overlap with some of the HK people while I work in the morning. I figure I will get used to this new schedule shortly and then stop going to bed so early (but not too late).

So that's it. I'm home. Hong Kong was fun but a lot of hard work (60+ hours every week) and I am glad I had the opportunity to go. However, I am glad to be home even though I'm still working 60 hour weeks. Hopefully that won't be taking place for too long. I put up a couple extra photos in the end of the Hong Kong Week 5 album from my trip home.

#HongKong #Travel #Photos

This past weekend I had it all planned out. I'd go to Macau on Saturday, relax by the pool at the Hotel on Sunday, get a good night sleep and then get back to work for my final week in Hong Kong. Not surprisingly none of that really worked out the way I expected. Just goes to show that I need Lisa around when I am really going to do something that requires a little prior planning.

Friday night was really the catalyst that started everything off on the wrong, but exciting foot. The main manager at the office I'm working in took the team (15 of us including him) to a dinner at a pretty nice Chinese Restaurant called "Peking Garden" where we had a nice meal that was highlighted by two full Peking Ducks. The food was good and the wait staff very efficient. A cool bonus was this guy who came out and made pasta in front of us by hand. It was neat to watch. He would split the long piece of dough in two, stretch it, fold it, cut one end off, then split the 4 pieces into 8, stretch fold, cut, repeat until the pasta, which started as thick as bread, ended up as thin as spaghetti.

After dinner we all headed to Lan Kwai Fong - party spot of Hong Kong - for drinks and socializing. I started off with the plan to just hang out then leave in about 30 minutes and head to bed. Instead I was invited to participate in a contest called CityChase. It was a promotional event for the actual CityChase that takes place on the 15th of Sept. In this event contestants are invited to complete one challenge - the winner of the challenge gets a prize. So this guy Padman, who is here for the company from London for two weeks, and I decided to participate. The challenge involved figuring out some obscure clues about Lan Kwai Fong and then finding a specific bar and finally getting someone to buy you a shot. Great - just what I didn't need an excuse to go talking to women in a bar. But, it was too late. I had accepted the challenge and there was no way I was going to let this British guy beat me. So, using my slightly more extensive experience in Lan Kwai Fong to my advantage I took off for the bar (the only Irish bar in the area). Unfortunately, when I arrived there were already other people there competing in a similar challenge. I was also clueless about figuring out how to get some strange woman (or man I suppose) to buy me a shot. I tried being straight forward with a couple people but they weren't buying. Then Padman showed up and he tried to be very direct with a couple ladies but they thought he was full of shit and just judged him as a loser. He tried again and almost succeeded with one but she finally told him to go away. It seemed neither of us were going to win. So I offered to just buy his drink so we could find out the prize. He liked the idea but we both decided that we would prefer to complete the challenge. Finally a new group of people came in. Two huge guys and two really attractive women. I moved in for the kill. I figured I'd either get the drink or one of the huge guys would kill me. I explained the situation and one of the girls in the group agreed to buy my shot. Woo woo. So I won. I got my hand stamped by the bar and moved back to the finish line to claim my prize with a dejected Padman in tow. The girl who gave us the challenge card awarded me my prize - a free entry to the official CityChase. Dammit. I am, of course, not going to be here for that so I basically just won piece of paper. However, the experience was fun so that was cool.

Padman and I then headed back to Stormies to meet up with the rest of the crew but, because we were so bad at getting someone to buy us a shot, they had all given up on us and left. So Padman and I decided to hang out. He is actually pretty cool and we had a good time just chilling. He is single though so I decided to take him somewhere he would have a chance to meet some hot single ladies so I took him to Dragon-I. While there are probably better bars (for the price) I don't know where any are so Dragon-I is the best place I could take him. There are plenty of attractive ladies hanging out since they get in and drink for free so I figured Padman would be pleased and he was. The only problem was I stayed until about 3am so I didn't get back to my room till about 3:30. This pretty much put a serious dent on my getting up early to head for Macau.

So at about 1pm I woke up and still needed to go to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) to talk to the tailor. I showered, got dressed, and loaded up for the tailor then headed downtown. Eventually I arrived at the tailors, I tried on the shirts for him, and he identified what needed to be fixed and I headed out for the Ferry station to get to Macau. I got there at about 3 and decided to try and get the 3:30 ferry but then started debating the 3:30 helicopter ride which, while much more expensive, would be a cool experience. I talked to the ferry people and suddenly realized I would need my passport which was back at the hotel. So, I ran out, down the street, up the escallator, up the road, down Robinson road and into my hotel where I grabbed my room key and headed up the elevator to my room. It was 3:30. Damn. No getting back in time for that ride. So I showered, changed clothes, and grabbed my safe deposit box key and headed back downstairs to get my passport. Finally I hailed a cab and rode back to the ferry depot. The next ferry wasn't leaving until five and neither was the next helicopter. If I took the ferry I would get there at 6pm or if i took the helicopter 5:15. I decided to take the helicopter and start my time in Macau off like a high roller even if I couldn't afford to act like one when I got there.

The Helicopter ride was cool. We flew pretty low the whole way and I got to see the area from a neat perspective. Then, when we arrived at Macau we got expedited treatment through customs as we got to go through the "Diplomatic" line. That was sweet as the line from the "ferry people" who were just arriving from the 4 o'clock ferry was pretty long. Once through customs I headed outside and hopped on the free shuttle for the new Venetian Macau.

The Macau version of the Venetian pretty much looks just like the Vegas version it's just 3 times bigger. It's huge. However, the Grand Canal Shoppes were only about 50% completed and open (if that many) and the Casino, while large, had very few games that interested me. The slot machines are all overly complicated and there were very few blackjack tables. On top of that there were few to no Roulette tables and zero craps tables. I decided to stick to blackjack. I had gotten 1000 Macau Pictas when I arrived (about $100) but the tables at the Venetian only took Hong Kong dollars so I had to go convert my money. That was weird. Finally I had the right money and headed to the $100 HKD table (the cheapest they had which is something like $13.50 US per hand. Way more than I like to play (I like to play $5 hands). While I ended up losing my money (and another $100 US) after that I managed to stay at the table until around 1am until finally both poverty and hunger demanded I head out. The Venetian was fully booked and the guys at the table told me that the ferry didn't run all night so I needed to find a place to stay. The concierge at the Venetian recommend the Wynn and sent me on my way.

After waiting about 10 minutes for a cab I headed to the Wynn (about a ten minute drive) and then tried to check in. All they had available were two suites so I took one (ouch that was expensive). It was an amazing room, here's the floorplan (pdf). Not worth the money considering I was alone and the guy in the room next to me woke me up at 7am yelling on his cell phone. But wow, the accommodations themselves were top notch. A huge living room, an expansive bedroom, a palatial bathroom, and even a private massage room. The TV, a 60+" plasma, even knew my name! It was pretty amazing. Of course I slept like shit just like I always do the first night in a new hotel. However, checkout time wasn't until noon so I took my time leaving unfortunately I had to leave by 11 because I planned on meeting someone in HK for lunch at 1pm.

After checkout I caught the shuttle bus to the ferry and bought a ferry ticket - 1st row in "first class" which was a whopping $30. First class amounted to slightly bigger seats, a smaller cabin (so less crowd noise) and a small lunch served as soon as we disembarked. I passed on the lunch because I wasn't sure how my stomach would handle the ride. It turned out to be pretty smooth sailing and we were even in an old ferry that rode low and heavy. I arrived in Hong Kong at 12:50 - plenty of time to be at lunch on time because it was scheduled at a place near the Western Market. The Western Market sits adjacent to the ferry terminal. I hurried out to the Market and then up to Queens Road Central to look for the Millenium plaza and the Gaia Restaurante. 30 minutes later I was still wandering up and down Queens Road Central between Central and Sheung Wa (west end to me). I couldn't find it. So I started to give up and left Queens road heading back to De Veoux Road where I could do a little work before heading to my room and lo and behold I saw Wing Lok street which, I thought, was supposed to intersect with Queens Road Central at, you guessed it, Millenium Plaza. So I headed up Wing Lok street and found the restaurant. My companion was nearly done eating and had, understandably, assumed I wasn't coming since it was about 30minutes past our arranged meeting time. She was very gracious and accepted my apology and invited me to join her. From there I ate lunch and we chatted for a few hours. I was very surprised at how much time passed.

The lunch was one of those things that came out of the blue. A few days previously Lisa had been in a doctors office talking to one of the Nurses about how I was here in Hong Kong. The Nurses best friend, Judith, it turns out had just moved to Hong Kong that week to take a job with a newspaper. Lisa gave the nurse my email address, the nurse passed it on to Judith, and Judith emailed me. It is funny how, in a small town like Huntington, Lisa managed to find someone for me to have lunch with. It was nice. She was very friendly and it was great having someone to eat with. After five weeks eating out at restaurants alone gets pretty old.

After meeting with Judith I headed up to my hotel, dropped off a small bag of stuff I had bought in Macau, showered and changed then headed back to TST to pick up my shirts. They all seem to fit very well now and the collars are what I wanted so I'm pretty happy. I wandered around TST for a bit afterwards looking at Jade and Gold stuff trying to find something neat for the girls but had no success. They actually have a lot of these neat little hollow gold statues of varying sizes. The gold is shiny in some places and dull, sort of a brushed look, on the rest of the statue. As it is the year of the pig there are a bunch of cute little pig statues that Shannon would get a kick out of. However, I want to find one that Emily can have too and there isn't a monkey to be found. Well, there was one, but it didn't have the same cute motif - it was more of a realistic monkey and very serious looking.

Judith gave me an idea though so sometime this week I'm going to leave work during the middle of the day for a while and head over to Kowloon to visit a jade salesman. I am doubtful the Jade is real but what he does with it sounds like a cool gift for both Shannon and Emily so I don't really care. I won't spoil the gift here until the girls have them in hand. I also have to go to Causeway Bay again and pick up Lisa's birthday present. Her birthday is this Saturday (the day I get home) and she is turning 40! Make sure you wish her a happy birthday!

#Family #HongKong #MyLife #Travel #Photos