Happy Easter from the LOST Action Figures and Frank!

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Now that was quite a road trip! I will continue where we left off (Phoenix, AZ) and only do the highlights so this will not be too long of a post. We skipped the Grand Canyon as the weather was forecasted in the 40’s and windy. We did not bring any cold weather clothes, oooopppss! The drive from Phoenix, AZ to Las Vegas, NV was quite easy. Took us through a bunch of towns…but was fun to see something different! Spots of road construction and lots of bikers.

Hoover Dam was the most interesting part of the driving experience as I am amazed at this new road project. They are basically building a new highway that will bypass Hoover Dam and lots of the twist/turns all together. I heard the new highway will save about 20 - 30 minutes. Kind of sad though as visitors will not drive over Hoover Dam anymore. The project is an engineering marvel as they have to build this huge bridge accross the river. Concrete is poured and has to be cured. Looks like it is going to be an arch bridge…I am just amazed at how this process is done. OK, enough of that…onwards to Vegas.

We got to the Flamingo Casino at 3 PM and checkin line was loooong. I don’t see the downturn in the economy going on here honestly. I gave the lady a $20 tip and got upgraded to a nice larger room on the top floor. Was cool as it had a seating area and fridge. Gambling sucked as always in Vegas. The highlight was hanging out with my buddy Chuck and friends from Ohio.

I metup with Dan and Randy on the first night at the Riviera. Dan had his parents come in and they were super nice. It was an early night as Dan and Randy had to go to the security tradeshow the next day.

The next day and night was the go big in Vegas. Earlier in the afternoon, Chuck arrived and we just sat out in the pool area (nice and warm) and drank lots of beer. We went big the only way we know how that evening, Margaritaville Balloon Hats. Yes, we are a wild bunch. It was pretty funny overall. We were the only table that everyone had balloon hats, haha!

The next day we (Dad, Chuck, and I) visited the Atomic Testing Museum. This was an amazing museum parntered with the Smithsonian. Exhibits were top notch and sometimes scary. There was this one area called the bunker theater that you went into. The lights dimmed, and basically you experienced a blast…shaking and air hitting you. Then it went into the movie about the tests and soldiers. Pretty powerful museum over all.

After the museum visit, we got gas; which was when this crazy homeless dude came up towards us roaring and asking if we were scared of him. I honestly just wanted to leave, but Dad and Chuck had a mission of cleaning the windows on the car. Scary homeless man finally went away. Rest of the day was mellow and we all saw a show at the Stratosphere called American Superstars that night. It was Dan’s first Las Vegas show, we all had a great time.

Today was the drive back home…booooorrrriiinnnng! I did have a tire pressure sensor on the rental Benz complain about low tire pressure…but they were all in range. Luckily we made it back with no probs and I returned the car earlier today. Was weird getting in my older Caribou, but was comforting at the same time.

Overall, had an excellent time on the road trip. Definitely one of the longer trips I have taken in some time. Now, back to the grind and enabling technology everywhere.

Dan, I, and Randy Outside of the Riviera Casino,
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Me, Dan, Randy, Dad, Other Lady, Jean, and Chuck @ Margaritaville,
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Hoover Dam New Bridge Project,
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Day 3 (Tuesday) was nice and mellow. Got up, had breakfast and then visited another Indian Casino (Dad loves slot machines). Money went fast as usual and we left in about 30 minutes. Then we had lunch at the Phoenix Art Museum where my friend Tammy works as their Membership and Visitor Services Manager. Staff was very nice and somehow they all seem to know me (code name The Wizard), but I don’t know them. Some highlights were meeting the creator of the hamster wizard (super nice person) and the IT Director. Got to preview the server room and viewing other server rooms always makes me feel proud of ours at SBMA!

Later that night, went to Peoria Sports Complex to catch one of the last spring training games (Brewers vs. Padres). Game was fun and there was this crazy vendor that was very loud but hilarious. He reminded me of the Chef from South Park. One of his rhymes was “Fresh cold lemonade, just like grandma made. mmmmm…. baby!”. I got a video of it, will post later on you tube.

Tomorrow is Viva Las Vegas!!! My friend Chuck is driving up and I am also going to hang out with some friends from Acuity-VCT that are in town for the security tradeshow (may even check that out too, I am sure they got some neat gadgets).

Next post will be from sin city!

Wow, driving a Mercedes sure is nice. Not sure how I am going to feel going back to the caribou. Left early Sunday (6:40 AM) and arrived at our hotel around 2:30 PM. Made lots of restroom stops along the way. The most interesting stop was by the summit where there was a General Patton tank museum. Took lots of photos of tanks and then continued on. Traffic was a breeze and had very little on the whole trip. The new thing I noticed are camera enforcement zones, which are basically cameras on the highway that will snap your photo and send you a ticket via email. They use to only have those on the 101/202 loop out here, but now they are on the 10 coming into Phoenix. Somebody told me Arizona wants to put them all the way to the border!

After arriving, we all (Dad, Tammy, and I) went to Rawhide for some old west bbq food. Was damn good. Also tried their pale ale that they brew there and that had a nice taste to it. Inside of the restaurant there was a country band playing some shit kicking music that all of a sudden went to Simon and Garfunkel songs, go figure. Unfortunatley it was around 9 PM, so we did not see any gunfights, oh well…maybe next time.

On Monday, Dad and I explored. Went to a military airplane museum out in Mesa, AZ. Was pretty cool. The museum is ran by mostly volunteers and is an actual working musuem where they restore old war plane. They had everything there from bombers to jets and the volunteers were awesome. They knew tons about the planes and had a passion. Most were in the air force themselves. After that, we visited Fountain Hills to see their Veteran’s Memorial and then headed over to Fort. McDowell Casino. The memorial was beautiful right on the lake. The casino sucked…smokey and money went way too fast. Later in the afternoon I went to Ikea to by some more forks (only have 2 at home, kind of getting annoying) and then took Dad to Rock Bottoms for a burger and I had their pale ale…very nice.

Later that night I met up with one of of my vendors that use to work at Insight and is now at MicroAge. We went to Dos Gringos, was great. Outside patio bar and they have a great happy hour for $2 Pacificos. Thanks Shawn for the beers!

Tomorrow, Dad and I will be visiting another casino (Lone Butte) and then visiting my friend Tammy at the Phoenix Art Museum for lunch. Then the spring training ball game tomorrow night (Padres vs Brewers), woo hoo!

Wow, it sure has been a while since I have updated my blog. Life has been super busy the last month with work projects and personal life (yes, I know…the blog is part of my personal life). Figured it is time to start again as I am leaving tomorrow for a mini road trip with my Dad. We are heading to Phoenix - AZ for three days, then visiting the Grand Canyon, and finally ending up in fabulous Las Vegas. Arizona should be action packed, visiting with my good friend Tammy, catching a spring training ball game, and going to raw hide old west town. Vegas will also be full of excitement as Dan and Randy from Ohio are coming to town along with my buddy Chuck who is driving in from Santa Barbara.

So now on to the first marking that this trip is going to be GREAT. I went to go rent the car tonight and I reserved a Dodge Charger (basically a full size car). I go there and they have NO full size cars. All they got is a Cobalt and a piece of shit Chevy Aveo. Looking at my Dad and I in this car…not happening, it would be like a clown car. I am not really interested in either of those and have the attitude if I don’t get the car I want, I walk out and just take our Mustang. Must be my lucky night cause they have a Mercedes C300 available. I got it for a few bucks more than my other rental, score!!!! The car is awesome and full of tech gadgets, so yeah…I am pretty much in heaven right now. Have already thumbed through the owners manual and got my phone paired with the car. w00t! w00t!

I will try to update this daily during the trip, but may be difficult depending on Interweb access.

The Mercedes C300, Score!,
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Tonight I went to watch Tim and Patricia win the Territory Ahead tennis finals. It was a long journey form the beginning and they are now the champs. The best part is they have a lot of fun while playing. Congrats to the Hogans!

Tim and Patricia, Da Champs
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Tim Got Game
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So Does Patricia
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Very exciting day today, I ordered a treadmill (Sole F80) last week and it was delivered today! I have been working on making room for the beast all President’s Day weekend and cleared enough space out. The mat I ordered arrived last night and I set that up. I am hoping the mat will help reduce noice and also keep dust/debri out of the treadmill.

I am 100 percent I will use it, instead of having a piece of equipment that just sits there. I have been walking daily for about a year now and finally had enough of dealing with the homeless. Plus it will be nice when it rains or is cold and is much more efficient to fit in with my busy schedule.

Treadmill Mat Waiting for Treadmill

The Sole F80 Arrived!

This week’s episode of LOST was purely awesome!!! Love the time travelling aspect and seeing Jack’s dad come back was eerie. How the heck is he there? Also, John got the smack down! He was suppose to turn the donkey wheel, not Ben. Ben is always up to something and I believe he left the island on purpose….perhaps to come back as a savior.

in honor of the Orchid station, the Lostees left the fire scene of the Orb Station and went back to visit the orchid station. As John explored, he discovered something nobody has ever seen before, super sticky wrestlers!!!

John getting a view at the Orchid Station
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Sayid always on his phone
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Oh no, super sticky wrestlers!!!
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Haha, the LOST action figures explored a whole new station last week….the ORB STATION!!! Tim really owned it on this one….he made the whole thing come to life.

The Orb Station is very mysterious and odd…definitely has to do with human evolution research. In their usual mode, Jack took to wanting to shoot Mr. Darwin and John really wanted to eat our lovely monkey friend. But towards the end, the monkey did something that made the lights go out and then the flames grew…

LOST crew discover the latest station…the ORB.
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Jack has had enough of Mr. Darwin.
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Sayid, Kate, and Sawyer in a deep hypnotic state.
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Came home today and Dad was super excited. He requested two voucher coupon things from our lovely government to help purchase the new digital converter boxes (DCB’s) and they arrived today. I still am not sure why we need them as we have the super deluxe package from Cox Communications, but none the less, Dad is happy. I think it is more out of principle that he beat the deadline and I am sure we will end up purchasing two of them just because we can. He was mentioning some sort of emergency setup so when the power goes out we can connect the DCB to his portable TV and then run that off of a battery operated power supply. This, I will have to take a picture of…perhaps we can put it all nicely in some kind of backpack system.