Wow, it's Monday night and I have to say I'm pretty exhausted.  It's a great exhausted though because I know that Cat and I made the most of our Labor Day weekend.  Originally we were planning on going to Jim Thorpe, PA to do some biking and some hiking, but our habitual procrastination ended up biting us in the butt as we weren't able to get a place to stay.  We were determined to have a great weekend regardless and came up with some fun things to do.

 

On Saturday Cat and I went hiking with her parents up on the Appalachin trail.  Sweet, I can finally say I've hiked the AT...well three miles of it anyways.  Supposedly it takes 6 months to hike from Georgia to Maine so I think next year I'll quit the job and Cat and I will take a good long walk in the woods.  Cat doesn't yet know of this plan so please don't spoil the surprise if you speak to her.  Although the trail was beautiful with some great views, I really do miss hiking in the canyons that are so close to SLC.  I especially miss the hike that starts at Albion Basin at Alta and goes up to Cecret lake. 

 

On Sunday Cat and I decided (ok mostly I decided) we would play hookie from church and go to Six Flags.  We had bought season passes with the intent on going several times this summer but because of the craziness at work we found ourselves at the end of summer having not gotten the value of our passes.  Cat's really good friend from College and her Fiance (names witheld to protect the innocent) joined us for a day of fun.  The day started out beautifully with hardly anyone at the park so we bolted directly for El Toro.  El Toro is this amazing wooden roller coaster that has some super fast turns and big drops.  After the ride, the four of us were all smiling and looking forward to the rest of the day.  A few rides later we made it to Medusa which is the probably the longest ride at the park with a lot of loops and corkscrews.  Half way through the ride I looked over at Jim (not his real name) and he appeared to be doing fine but as we were pulling into the station I looked over and saw him cover his mouth with his hand and the next thing I saw was purple chunks.  Poor guy puked all over his seat, shirt, and shorts.  After hanging out for about a half hour he still wasn't feeling very well so we decided to call it quits and head home.

 

Later that night some of our other friends joined us for a BBQ.  I never thought I would be the type of guy who would get all into BBQing thing (thought it was for 300 LB. guys in Wisconsin who take their charcoal grills to the Packer games) but I have to say it's been a lot of fun this summer having friends over for dinner.

 

Monday morning I dragged Cat up to Queens to go pick up a spin bike that I saw on Craigs List.  This spin bike had actually been a huge fiasco as the guy was supposed to deliver it and after three days of complications I finally gave in and drove to pick it up.  When Cat offered to wake up at 7:00 am to go with me I was completely shocked for if you know Cat you know how much she loves to sleep in.  Finally I have the spin bike and am ready to get in shape. 

 

Later on in the afternoon Cat and I headed out to the beach.  Earlier in the summer we had gone out to the beach with the youth in the church and it made me remember all the good times I had as a kid at the Oregon shore with my family and grandparents.  One of the things we always did was fly kites on the beach.  So I decided to buy a trick kite.  Although I don't know any amazing tricks yet, I can fly the kite pretty well getting it to swoop down and nearly touch the sand before taking it back up in the air.

 

We had taken a beach umbrella and while I was flying my kite, Cat lied underneath and read her book.  The problem was she fell asleep and after a while was no longer in the shade but was rather in the sun.  Needless to say she is very burned and uncomfortable.  As I type she has a wet towel (that I had in the freezer) draped across her soon to be blistered back.

 

So all in all it was a fabulous weekend.  Work has been so crazy the last few weeks that this was definitely something that I needed to help restore perspective.  I know selling K-Y is of paramount importance, but let's be honest I'm not saving lives and it was important for me to step away for a few days.

 

Hope everyone also had an equally great Labor Day weekend.

 

 

It a duel that will go down in infamy; "The Gambler" Kenny Rogers going head-to-head against the "Big Unit" Randy Johnson.  Kind of sounds like the main event at a WWF Smackdown event, but rather it was a night of two fast ball slinging studs. 

 

The Tigers are back in the playoffs since 1987 and are now tied up in the ALDS against the Yankees.  Around noon I received a call from my rep at NBC asking me if I wanted to go to the game.  Did I want to go to the game?  Do crack addicts want their crack?  Do bears poop in the forest?  Of course I wanted to go to the game.  And then I think I lost all capacity to think clearly.  The problem was that I had been sick the first half of the week and Cat had been so nice to stay home and take care of me, but now she was sick and I felt some obligation to go home and take care of her.  Thankfully I was able to gain some compusre and rid myself of this hysteria to realize this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity (ok well at least for another 19 years) to see the Tigers in the playoffs.

 

I don't profess to be a play-by-play commentator so I'll make a long game into a short story.  Rogers (41 years old) played phenominally well.     After the game he commented, "I never want to show anybody up," Rogers said, "but I wanted this game as much as I ever wanted any in my life."  Kenny pitched a no run game through the eighth inning.  It was amazing to see Rogers handle the likes of Jeter, A-Rod, Giambi, and Johnny Damon. 

 

When Leyland pulled Rogers the crowd went nuts chanting his name as he walked to the dugout.  The crowd was so electric that you couldn't help but feel that you were part of something great.  Finally the people in Detroit have something to cheer about.

 

LET'S GO TIGERS!!!! LET'S GO TIGERS!!!! LET'S GO TIGERS!!!! LET'S GO TIGERS!!!! LET'S GO TIGERS!!!! LET'S GO TIGERS!!!!

 

 

Last Sunday Cat and I went to the Lions football game.  That's right Mom, we skipped out on church.  Going into the game, the Lions were 0-2 which has left the fans little faith (many consider football their religion so I take the liberty of using the word "faith" in this context) in the team for this season.  We can only be thankful that the Tigers have made the playoff for the first time in 17 years.  I digress, let's not focus on the positive.   I think the fans have realized that going to the games is simply setting one's self up for disapointment.  The unfortunate side effect to this conundrum (having optimisn in the wake of a harsh reality that the Lions suck) is that many people drown their sorrows in multiple beers.  However, I must admitt that I don't understand this strategy, as a bottle of beer sells for $7.50 so I don't understand how shelling out this amount of money can mask any type of disapointment.

 

Apparently the cost of beer has not affected the consumption of this beverage.  I think the beer vendors realized that if people were stupid enough to pay $2.95 for a gallon of gas, they would be more than willing to pay $7.50 for 160Z of beer.  Until the cost of beer comes down, we are going to be slaves to the Germans and not the Saudis.  With this said, I might encourage consumers of beer to stock pile as we are reaching the time of Octoberfest when demand will peak and prices will undoubtly soar to an all time high.

 

There is one upside, however, to this mass consumption of beer.....high quality watching of low quality people.  (Crap and the Lord says man shall not judge his neighbor....or at least his fellow Lions fan).   I'm not sure I've been in an environment this good for people watching since my friend Nate and I went to the WWF wrestling match when I was 16 years old.  The picture below is of this crazy guy who kept standing up during the AC/DC music that was pumped through the speakers to excite the crowd.  The funniest thing was that he kep singing the songs as if he were an opera singer.  Since when did opera music become the favorite of crazy football fans?  Apparently only after several bottles of beer and a football team with a losing record.

 

In any case, it appears that some people are so embarassed to be seen at the Lions game that they come incognito.  The below picture is of a guy who came to the game as Darth Vadar.  Who comes to a football game in a Halloween costume?  The best was when Darth bought crazy, drunk, fat opera singer another beer. 

 

So although we all had faith that the 0-2 Lions could beat the 0-2 Packers, we all left the stadium in a depressed state as the Lions lost yet another game. 

 

                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                           

 

In advertising you don't make a lot of money but the perks are not too shabby.  Tonight Cat and I went to see the Detroit Pistons play the New Orleans Hornets.  This was Cat's first time ever going to a professional basketball game so it was kind of a bummer that the Pistons had a fairly easy win of 101 to 93.  

                                                                                                                                         

I think the highlight of the night was the $3 pretzel + the $1 nacho cheese dip.    As it turns out we both would have prefered saving the $1 and using the complimentary mustard.  Oh well c'est la vie.

 

When we got home from the game we discovered that Cleo (who had been home all day by herself) had mischeviously destroyed the rubber lining around her food and water bowls.  It looks she got pretty bored while mom and dad were out partying it up.

 

 

Well it's been a long day so we're signing off.

 

Jason