Milwaukee

This weekend we went to Milwaukee, WI. "We" being myself, Deanna, and Sam from CSz. Milwaukee Csz was having a regional tournament and we went to represent.

We left at 2:30pm to get Sam's girlfriend from her job downtown...we got to Milwaukee around 6:00. Almost 4 hours.

Other cities in attendance were Indianapolis, Quad Cities, Minneapolis, Houston, and Milwaukee.

It was fun to watch other teams play. There are a couple new games we got. A couple different ways to play games that work great. And a couple games that I can do without.

We played 3 games total, and we went 3-0! No losses!

On Friday night we stayed at the Hilton. We got a pretty good deal through Hotwire, and Sam go the same deal. Here is where I tangent a little.

Deanna and I have been watching this show on TV called "Little People, Big World" on TV. It's about the Roloff family from Oregon. The parents are both Little People. They have a young son, an older daughter, and their oldest kids are twin boys. Of those four kids, only one of the twin boys is a little person as well. This show is great. One, I get to see Oregon stuff on TV (I think they live in Sherwood). Two, it's great to learn about little people. The dad sells kits (Stools, clothes rack extensions, etc) to hotels that help accomodate little people. He also goes to Little people conferences around the nation.

Back to the story. As we were leaving the Hilton on Saturday to get lunch, we saw a little person. Normally if I see someone "different" I stare a little...more because I'm curious than scared or appauled. When she walked by I didn't get that feeling. It was great. THEN I saw another little person. What!? As we got in the elevator to go to the parking garage there were four little people coming out of it. I don't get giddy or starstruck around celebrities much. But I totally got that feeling as we got on the elevator and then headed to our car. THERE WAS A LITTLE PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE IN THE HOTEL!!(I assumed). I wondered if the Roloffs were there. It was a crazy feeling.

From there we went to eat at "The Safe House". If you're ever in Milwaukee, go eat here. It is fun. It is very spy themed. When you go to the restaurant you enter down through an alley. You then go into the "International Export Company" It's a small waiting area that looks kind of like an entrance to a export company. If you wait long enough someone will get on the speaker and ask you for the password. If you know it, they flip a switch and a bookcase opens up to let you in. If you don't, the voice on the speaker has you prepare for your assignment. The room is also displayed on monitors throughout the restaurant so you can see what the people are doing. We watched people: Act like monkeys; do ballet; do the hokey pokey. Once you go through the bookcase you go through a passage and when you step on a certain piece of floor, a panel of wall opens up to reveal the restaurant. The whole place applauds as you walk in if you had to do something to get in.

The Safe House is filled with Spy stuff. Some just being wall displays, but there are some other neat things: The bathroom plays a police scanner instead of music. In the women's bathroom there is a picture of Burt Reynolds in the buff with a metal heart covering his privates. If you try to move the heart you get hit by a burst of air and an alarm goes of in the restaurant letting everyone know what you've done. There's a room in the women's bathroom that let's you see through a mirror out into the restaurant. You can turn a light on in there to let people see you. They had an alibi phone booth that would let you play sound effects over the phone to disguise where you were. The pub on the corner called "the Newsroom" has a special booth that rotates into the Safe House. The neatest little thing we found was a secret exit. You can go through the main exit, or go into a phone booth. Put a quarter in the phone and a voice tells you to enter a code. When you do, the door you came in through locks and says "occupied" to the out side people. Meanwhile a wall slides open and lets you down into a passage that exits the building.

This place was great.

From there we went back to CSz. Did a 3:00 show. Then headed to the Polish Fest for an hour. Luckily we crossed paths with a man and woman who asked if we had our tickets. We said "no". They gave us four tickets. We got in for free! Wandered the grounds. Deanna and I danced one Polka...well we scurried around the floor with other people dancing around us.

Then headed back for the final of our shows.

It was a great time overall. We got on the freeway at 11:01 and made it home by 12:34am. Much better than the drive up.

Today...the Pride Parade is right out our doorstep.

Father's Day

Tomorrow is Father's Day...HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DAD!!! (he's one of the few people who read this) (also, you'll be receiving a gift in the mail)

Today we portrayed father's for a client. While on break I noticed one of those mall photography places. On a whim I asked how much the sitting fee was. She said "There's no sitting fee. Also, I'm in training so if you get a picture you'll get a free 8x10". Sold!





Pictures compliments of the fine photographers at http://www.kiddiekandids.com/

Butterflies and Nature (words)

Today Deanna and I settled the remaining phone snafus. When I started up a plan for her, it was under the pretense that she would use her current BlackBerry phone. So I got a Razor phone to use as a second phone if I wanted. Well, she wanted an updated BlackBerry, so we returned the Razor and got the process started on switch her Oregon number over to the new account.

After that we headed home, hopped on our bikes, and rode down to the Nature Museum where they have a Butterfly Garden. A sealed in green house with a lot of butterflies and moths. It was great. See the post below for pics.

There were a lot of Butterflies, and a lot of dead ones as well. We also saw a bird of some sort chilling out in there...Deanna found it. It looks like the bird(s) might nibble at the butterflies as seen in some of the photos...there are a lot of wing tips missing from the bigger ones. They also have a bunch of cacoons on display outside the garden. They release newly hatch butterflies every Sunday at 2:00. Some of the Costa Rican species have glassy looking cacoons that were pretty cool.

After that we went outside to walk around and look at birds. Just as were we're getting ready to walk back down to the main level a red-winged black bird landed on the rail nearby.

I like birds and butterflies.

Butterflies and Nature (photos only)

The "F" is for "Finally!"

Part two.

I didn't wait the full hour to call back. When I called the computers were up.

I presented my case and said I would like my Cingular account closed, AND my AT&T account that it would revert to closed with no cancellation fee. Here was the CSR's clever retort, "Ok."

I wasn't expecting it to be that easy.

One thing I forgot to mention was that I wanted to keep the number to be "ported over" (tech talk) to whatever other service provider I picked. THIS is where she needed to get a manager. She reinstated my phone service with a note saying "Customer will return phone today, waive the cancellation fee". We'll see if that holds true. Just to be safe, before I called them I went online and cancelled my automatic payments. This way they can't just charge a cancellation fee to my bank, they have to bill me...and I can say no to that.

So, mission objective 3: T-Mobile BlackBerry deal. Good ole Rico Diablo is diabolical about finding great deals. One he stumble across involved the BlackBerry: 1000 anytime minutes with unlimited email and text messaged. Email and text is where I was getting extra charges with Cingular so I was in. I went to the store he told me to and Boooooo. They were out of the phone I wanted. So I started talking plans. He says he's never heard of the plan.

I call Rico and ask for the plan details. He confirms them. I tell him my dilema. Rico, the mastermind, says "go to [another nearby location] and see if they have the phone...actually, have the guy there call them to check."

That I did. They had plenty BlackBerry 7105's. Off I went.

I did some masterminding of my own and told the person helping me I left a pamphlet in my other pants that mentioned the deal. She said "Sure!" and hooked me up.

Not only did I get service for myself, I set up Deanna. We now have T-mobile. We now have phone service in our house! And I have one of those Lt. Uhura ear pieces!

PS...all of this traveling was on bike! Jim would be proud...well, he SHOULD be.

The "F" in Phone

I just got effed. I have Cingular...but not regular Cingular...the Cingular that AT&T turned into. I stuck with my old AT&T plan and Cingular just took over the billing. Well...over the last 3 months my signal has started to suck ass. Deanna called in and found out it is because they are taking down the old AT&T towers. I called as well and confirmed.

So, I researched phones and finally picked the one I wanted. I got a Pocket PC from Cingular. I'm still on AT&T contract until September so I figured if I went Cingular I wouldn't have to deal with any cancellation fee hassle.

So I got a phone, signed up, even had them check the service in my area and it said "High" but right near a patch of not so good.

Well. I got home and I have the same shitty service. So, I went back and said I wanted to cancel and return the phone. Joni (the lovely lady who helped me...no sarcasm, she really was great) said I would have to call in to make sure they don't charge me fees. If I return the phone it would revert back to my AT&T plan, but it would take 10 days to get that up and running. If I go to T-mobile (which I am going to) and keep my number, it automatically cancels my plan and I get charged fees.

So I go outside the store (where I DO get a signal) and call to cancel. After holding awhile I get through and ask first to cancel my automatic billing (incase they try to charge me a fee...easier to not pay a bill and keep talking to a manager than to just find out they autobilled it). She says "Our system is down right now but I can answer any general questions". To which I reply "All I have are specific questions." "You should try calling back in an hour."

Bah. So that's where I am. Waiting.

More BEEF

Like I said...Sun screen (it wouldn't let me post more photos). This is Emily teaching us about Dance Pilates. There was a lot of frisbee, sitting around, and sleeping at the beach. It was a nice day. Sunny, but not too warm. I mention sun screen because we all put it on, but a majority of us didn't do it well. My ankles and a small part of my foot got burnt. And I SWORE I would never burn my feet again after a terrible sun burn on my feet a couple years ago.

Ed got burnt, I'm sure some others did too. After hanging out awhile Deanna said she'd go back to the cabin and make sandwiches and bring them back to the beach. Monty went with. About 20 minutes after that, Ed and Susi said they were going to leave and I felt the beach trip diffusing so I said I'd go with them and hope to catch Deanna. We did...right as she was coming down the steps...with sandwiches. So everyone but Ed and Susi stayed a while longer.

Oh, most of the guys were playing frisbee in the water. This is funny for three reasons. 1) Ed had his car keys with alarm in his pocket and they got soaked (I assume they still worked). 2) Later in the afternoon Chris picked up Todd from a train station and met us at the beach. When Todd got in the water he had his phone on him. and 3) Playing frisbee in the water literally tore open the side of Jim's shorts. And then when he went back to play again, it tore open the other side.

That night we ate played games out in the front area like track ball and horse shoes. I don't play horse shoes much, but I played a little out here. I took a picture of one lucky round. I couldn't believe I threw a double ringer. You can call me Roger Miller if you drink tea.

That was the beef trip. Good times. Well done, Beef. Katie, Bill, Piero...you were missed...that's why we called you doing terrible bits.

BEEF CABIN!

I forgot to write about this. Last weekend Deanna and I went camping with my i.O. team, Johnny Roast Beef. And by camping I mean we rented a cabin that had a tv, dvd player, and hot tub. It was Emily's find, and thus was reffered to as her Country Home (said in country accent).

Here's Emily on the porch of her Country home.

I really don't care for camping at all. That was the original idea. "LET'S GO CAMPING!" Boo. I worked at camps for 5 years. I've been outdoors enough to know that it's okay as long as there is an "indoors" at the end of the day. Sleeping on the ground is for animals, suckers, and apparently Chris McAvoy.

We (Deanna, David Montgomery and I) drove up (down and over a little) on Friday. About a 2-3 hour drive from Chicago to the cabin in Michigan. We took off around 3:00pm just to get out of the city before traffic got extremely bad. Emily told us she wouldn't be at the cabin until 6 or 7, so we stopped at Bluechip Casino to kill some time. I lost $57 on a texas hold 'em style table game. Deanna lost $20 on slots. David won $5.25. $5.25 was the big winner.

After that we were on our way and the first to arrive (after Emily, Brian and Jim) at the cabin.

The whole trip was pretty fun. Friday night was a lot of sitting around and eatting. A few slogans or catches phrases were "whose up for the tub?"

"There's no parents here. We can grill whenever we want."

And "you sackin' out?" Which was said to anyone who was saying they were going to go to sleep. I don't have any pics of that.

Saturday, all 9 of us got up and Emily (with help from some other ladies) made a breakfast fit to feed an ARMY! (of 7 or 8)

We then all headed to the beach and put on our Sun Screen...more on that later.

Time out for love

I am surrounded by a lot of good people out here. #1 of course is Deanna. Hands down. She's been working her butt off on a project recently and she is kicking ass at it. She get's stressed out, but I still love her.

A long while ago a few of us from ComedySportz got together. Everyone seemed to be bummed out. I was bummed, Deanna was bummed. I knew of someone else who was, Deanna knew of someone...and those someone's knew of someone. I think there were about six of us initially. Well we got together to hang out and stop being bummed. We had a ridiculous photo shoot. I made CDs for everyone and labeled them "Fun City!"

We've met a few more times with varying people here and there, but Fun City has stuck. So much so that David, the marketing guy at CSz had an idea for something and called in Fun City to take care of it...he calls us Fun City.

So...it looks like Fun City is there to come to the rescue!

To everyone in Fun City...you're the best.

Of Singing and Cinging

For the past month or so...while I've been back in town and done with the teaching gigs, I've been part of an improv group called ACE. What do we do? Well, three of the last 6 Sundays we did an improv set. The other three we did a staged reading of "Guys and Dolls", with music. It was a blast. I was Benny Southstreet.

I had never seen Guys and Dolls before. We got a CD to listen to when we first met. As I listened to it I thought "This is going to suck". The music was okay, but there were a lot of boring songs. Luckily, as we got more familiar with our roles and what not, it started to be fun. Once we got it on stage, it was a blast! Last Sunday was our last Guys and Dolls show. We're taking July off and we'll be back in August with something...maybe Bye Bye Birdie...maybe not. We were talking about doing School House Rock, but it looks like that won't show up until I'm in Maine.

Totally unrelated, our (Deanna and I) phones have been getting really crappy service in our apartment for the past couple months. Deanna looked into it and found out it is because we were AT&T and that got transferred over to Cingular. We didn't necessarily get transferred to Cingular service, we still had our plans, and our phone still use the AT&T towers, it's just handled by Cingular. Well, Deanna found out that they are slowly taking down the AT&T towers. The only people using them are people who haven't "migrated" to new plans. Add to that that my phone is falling apart. TIME TO PHONE SHOP! Deanna will probably switch to T-mobile. I am still undecided. I would like to get a pocket PC so I can connect my GPS (see earlier post) to it on the road.

I also bought a 580EX flash for my camera. I understand my camera fully. I understand my headshot lights. I have never liked the look from a mounted flash. So, I'm taking an online course that looks great. If nothing else, it will help me like using a flash when needed.