Over the Hill Gang

So here is the link for the Over the Hill Gang at Copper Mountain in Colorado. I skied with them while I was in Colorado with Doug and had a great time. I skied the back bowls with the instructor all day long and had a blast. Anyone 45 and over moving to Colorado that likes to ski should meet these guys.

Dilbert

So I check Dilbert.com from time to time for a laugh and this 2005 Weasel poll was great. Check it out: WEASELS
Seems like there is lots of confidence in the people running this country....

5 bladed razor..

So I had to buy a new razor this last week as I left my toiletries bag at Liz's house in Snowmass. I went for the Gillette Fusion and I am a fan! This razor seems like a big joke and something that is just a game of one ups-manship but it turns out the thing is great. I actually expected a great razor from hem. The folks at Sheik should hire some engineers because apparently they only know how to make really bad marketing campaigns behind razors that are not very good. P&G/Gillette just won serious business from me again way to delight the consumer guys!

Also the site has a lot of cool sweepstakes and things to do, including this one Gear Up. Good Marketing!

Reduce Your Junk Mail

So if you hate receiving those credit card offers as much as I do register for this service, optoutprescreen. I learned about this from CNBC today and I assume many people do not know about it because the credit card companies do not want you to. You can register for a 5 year stop right on line and they make you print and mail something in to stop it forever. Anyway Enjoy the reduction in offers you have to rip up!

Aspen (Snowmass) is a great time

So I am having a gret time here in Snowmass with my friends Doug and Liz. See Liz's parents have a crazy nice house at snowmass that is ski in si out. And Doug and I have been here since late on Friday night. The snow has been amazing. The first day there was about 8-12" of powder from the night before, which made the drive a bit tricky but the skiing was excellant! We are getting more snow right now. Which is good for me beacuse I am commited to getting better at snowboarding. I am thinking about taking a lesson tomorrow. Anyway here is a pretty good picture Liz took. It is at the top of the highest part of the mountian, 12500 feet made breathing a little hard sometimes.

Skiing

So I am anxiously waiting the arrival of Friday when I will get on a plane to Colorado to ski at Aspen and Cooper Mountain Sat-Tuesday. And the best part is I am benefiting from the kindness of my friends parents. I am staying at their houses, eating their food and the mom's are requesting snack requests! Not to often you get to have a mom ask you what snacks you want when you are 27. Anyway off to work today and I will be sure to post pictures from the trip.

Random picture off the day. This is picture from a dinner we had a Ralphs - the oldest continuously owned family restaurant in the country, when my Grandma came to visit last year.

"Grounded"

So today I had the opportunity to catch up with one of my Dad's friends Pete. Pete has known my Dad and I for a long time and is probably one the best electricians around. He was in Philly for the XU woman's b-ball team who was playing in the ACC championship. The team did not do that well but that allowed Pete and his niece Tami to join Amy and I for lunch at the White Dog. Pete has recovered very well from a stroke not to long ago. And the guy has the best attitude on the planet. He travels around to see people he knows and do electrical work for them. He gets "paid" for the electrical work he does for these people by covering his room and board along with his golf. Doesn't sound to bad at all. Unfortunately I did not have my camera to get picture with Pete. Next time.

Also on the way home stopped at the Penn bookstore because they have a computer section in there that is pretty Apple focused and I wanted a MIS for a video I have to do for work. I wanted to be able to record a Voice Over for the video. I told them I needed it for a Mac Mini and they handed me one. OK great it is $12 bucks good to go. Well until I realize when I get home it is not USB and to be used on a Mac Mini it has to be USB. AGGHHH. Penn still sticking it to me!

Random picture for today:

My Dad's house in Cincinnati seemed appropriate for today, having seen Pete.

Consumer Generated Content on the Web

OK so some brands get it right when doing this and some get it wrong. One that has it right is Converse. The gallery is great and really has some cool films. I heard about the site while listening to NPR on my way home last night. So I had to go check it out. And it is cool.

Also speaking of getting it right NPR has truly embraced podcasting and feel that they are doing a great job. My only thought is to have the whole show on, while I think I want this maybe the highlights are better for my USA today attention span.

LOST - a damn good show

So watching LOST last night, and that show is great. Always interesting turns and they seem to come through with information when I am almost the point of not being able to take it any more. Also I was so pissed this morning when I downloaded the 3/1 official LOST podcast to my computer and was so excited to listen to it on the way to work only to realize it had not sync'ed with my ipod - damn-it! I will have to listen tonight after I stock up on meat at the store for the smoker - it is a smokin' weekend for sure, ribs, boston butt, all sorts of good meat!

Monday Blues

So Mondays kind of suck. There are no good reasons to look forward to Monday's, well I take that back it could be the first Monday of a vacation, that is a very sweet kind of Monday, and even random holiday Mondays are pretty cool. On second thought maybe Mondays are not so bad. You have got to have a good PMA, or positive mental attitude - someone once told me that a PMA can make all the differance.

Anyway I had a Monk-e-mail sent to me this weekend. You should really try it out - it is pretty fun. This is funny and a truly viral campaign. I think the new careerbuilder campaign is really interesting. Similar to the monster.com idea of years ago but the monkey theme makes it a "big idea" that can be easily campaigned to other things like this monk-e-mail.

Anyway there has been a request for more pictures. So I am going to start posting random interesting ones. Here is todays picture, which is from Argentina's Mendosa wine region. The Andes are a truly beautiful sight.

Missing the Snow

OK, so this trip to Augusta Georgia for this wedding is mediocre, at best. The upside is we won $75 in the Georgia state lottery scratch off while at Publix doing a store check on Lactaid. The Lactaid looked pretty good and at $3.39 for a 64oz the pricing was pretty good. We used the winnings for afternoon drinks and snacks at the hotel bar. The downside is we are missing the ONE big snow storm of 2006. Drinking in the bar we were watching the footage on CNN about the amazing amounts of snow and wishing we were back at home to enjoy it. So I hope everyone back home is enjoying the fun part of snow and I will be back home tomorrow night just in time to deal with the very messy aftermath. Wonderful! Well off to rest up for the free drinks and food this evening.

Best Picture of the weekend - Amy's sister in law at the bar:

Running from the snow

So this weekend I am headed down south for Amy's step brother's wedding. Should be a good time - what can go wrong - free booze and food?? I should have some photographic evidence to post on my return on Monday night. Turns out we are escaping Philly just ahead of the Nor-easter that is blowing into town on Saturday. The alarmist weather men are calling for 6-12 inches of snow. I will believe it when I see it...

On another note I have been drinking matte that I brought back from Argentina. Typically you drink it with hat water, like a tea. But down there I drank it with lemonade as it was about 90 degrees (it is summer there). With out all the sugar of the lemonade it is a much more bitter drink. But it was invented by the Jesuits so it can't be all bad. Well it is slower day but lots to get done before lunch.

Rush of Fear

Ok, so what is the last thing you want to smell when the fire alarm is going off and you are on the 35th floor of a hotel in NYC? That's right smoke. And last week while staying at the Millennium Hotel 2 blocks from Times Square that is what happened to me. So I am asleep in bed and at 1:30am the fire alarm goes off, I lay in bed thinking what drunk asshole pulled the alarm.

Then I hear someone scream and run down the hall, and then I smell smoke. So panic hits immediately and I rush to get dressed and grab my wallet and computer, rush to the door fling it open to a wall of smoke and all fire safety I ever learned is right out the window. I rush out trying to find the fire escape stairs and finally find them and rush down 35 flights, all of this because a light in the hallway caught fire and caused a lot of smoke. And all I can say is thank god that is all it was b/c the hotel so so ill equipped to deal with this that if it was real fire LOTS of people would have died. Here are some pictures from the lobby and from just outside the front door.

Conclusion: I am staying at Starwood hotels from now on! Go Westin bed!

Return from BA

Fog sucks! Because of fog I sat in Washington DC Dullas airport for nearly 7 hours this morning after a 10 hour flight from Argentina. It nearly ruined the effect of flying business class for the first time. I do love business class. The idea of being able to stretch out my legs all the way and not touch the seat in front of me is amazing, when it is usually my knees that are dug into the back of the person in front of me. The shoot went really well and despite about 10 hours of being ill = probably from all the rich food and the hot weather - I had a great time and the end product is going to be fantastic! Here are a couple of pictures from the trip.

This is Margarita, Alisa (production company assistant) and Mary (Producer) hard at work in video village on the first day


Me taking a break between shots...

Sunny Argentina

So I am on my TV shoot in Buenos Aires and it is great. The weather and people are awesome and I am eating like a king. The shoot is going very well, the director Jorge Colon is great to work with. So far I have only had Freddo ice-cream once. We had lunch at one place Amy & I went while we were here on vacation, Rey Castro and it was good then but it SUCKED! I was embarrassed to have brought people there. Oh-well anyway it will be a long day today and we are getting ready to roll film soon. Hasta Luego!

Sunny California

So I just got back from LA on a business trip and that place is fantastic, sunny, warm and just all around better than the northeast in January! Also I want to recommend the following restaurant for Dim Sum in Philly, Lakeside Chinese Deli 207 N. 9th Street, Philadelphia, PA. While it is a little on the small side it has the best service and food I have ever had in Chinatown - and all of his 1 week before Chinese New Year. And

I look forward to posting later this week from another sunny place, Argentina. I will be down there in business and while I will be very busy for most of the trip I am sure I will get to have some Freddo ice cream and a good steak or 3.

Free wireless and the Amish

Starbucks must be nervous - still charging for internet. Here in Philly we can get free internet lots of places - including the Reading Terminal Market - which ironically is crawling with Amish people - the damn Amish have internet for free and Starbucks is still trying to charge for it.

New Year's Pics

Thought I would post some of my favorite pictures from New Years.

Here was our youngest visitor, Ilenia. She was fasinated by the coasters


Andy was quite the Kelly Clarkson fan!


Casey is quite the fondue cook


and Casey also drinks out of a brown paper bag - a philly tradition for him


Overall the party was quite the success!

Vince Young & Summer in January

So Vince Young decided to cash in with the NFL (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft06/news/story?id=2284744) - and how the hell could anyone blame him. I would cash in on that to. He can always get an education but making the big money in the NFL is a rare chance.

On another note I will be going to Argentina again soon, this time on business. I am really looking forward to it. It should be a fantastic trip as it is the height of summer down there. Check out the weather there (http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/ARBA0009?from=36hr_topnav_business) So I hope to come back with a little tan to carry me through the rest of the cold northeastern winter.

New Comedy Club

Ok so Amy and I went to a new comedy club here in Center City on Saturday, Helium Helium is at 2031 Sansom St. The opening act was not so good but the headliner was excellent. The show in total with three acts was about 2 hours. The drinks were not too expensive, Blue Moon Drafts were $5, and the food looked pretty good. Cover at $20 each was not to bad either. Overall a great night out in Center City!