Run Forrest Run!

I went running today. I've been going once every three days. I'm upto about 35 minutes now...probably 3 miles. This beats my previous lifetime max of 20 minutes when I was taking Tae Kwon Do long ago.

My normal routine is walk about three minutes to School street, turn right and jog. It is an immediate up hill, then down, through the the YMCA parking lot, through the Mill Mall parking lot, up the stairs to the track. Then I run until I have one song left and jog back to that song, which usually gets me almost back to where I started jogging from.

Today I cut left on some road that took me to the same school track. I got about 5 laps in when a fire truck pulled up...and then an ambulance. A guy climbed the small fence and stopped me to let me know Life Flight would be landing in the soccer field that the track surrounded.

I was kicked of the track. I jogged back and forth around the road until I watch the helicopter land. I didn't see what happened from there.

But, I'm up to 35 minutes! Friday I'm going to walk all the way to the track and see how many laps I can do. I'm going to try to just do four miles and not focus on time...I might even try for my overall goal of five miles.

Day Off

Deanna and I were going to go hiking today, but I wasn't feeling well. I stayed in town while she went for the hike. I DID have her drop me off at Strawberries on her way in. Strawberries is the Maine equal to Sam Goody's or Coconuts. I purchased Weird Al Yankovic's "Straight Outta Lynwood." The first tape I went to the store and bought myself was his "In 3-D" cassette. I am pretty sure I have all of his stuff on CD except for his greatest hits stuff...because I have all of those songs. We even created a character at outdoor school (the camp I used to work at) based on his song "Harvey the Wonder Hamster". It was a short song, so we would play it during meals and Harvey would come out to deliver some important message like use manners or don't waste food.

The new album is pretty good. I like Pancreas, Trapped in the Drive Thru, and:



Other than that I spent the day doing laundry and writing sketches.

Once Deanna got home we headed into town to watch "Little Miss Sunshine" at Reel Pizza. We've been dying to see this movie and it was well warranted. The characters were all great. You should definitely see this movie. The cool thing about Reel Pizza is each row of movie seats has a little counter in front of it. You order pizza, they give you a number, when it's ready, your number flashes on a bingo board on the wall. Grab your grub and put it on the counter in front of you. The counter is double cool because it provides extra legroom.

CANDLE PIN BOWLING!

We all decided to candle pin bowl. I remember Larrance and Jen mentioning it last year, but we never went. Not the case this year. Candle pin bowling is a little different than regular bowling. The pins are straight (some would say candle-shaped), the ball is like a skeeball but just a little bigger, you get three bowls instead of two, and the pins don't clear until you've bowled all three...so you can use fallen pins to your advantage. We called this "using your wood."

I did alright in the first game and I think I barely nudged ahead of Deanna in the second game. It was fun all around.

Larrance had a faulty shoe and totally tripped at one point. Since he was the first to bowl we all tripped in that frame.

On two separate occasions I had knocked a pin into the gutter, and they bowled so hard toward that pin that my ball came rolling back toward us. It never made it all the way though.

I recommend Candle pin bowling to anyone.

Poe

Last night we played the game Replay in a show. Deanna was hosting. In Replay we do a quick scene and then replay it with 3 different styles. So, after the initial scene, Deanna went out to get the styles:

Deanna: can I get a movie genre, please?
AUD: Footloose...uh...80's Dance
Deanna: 80's Dance, ok. And how about a literary style?
AUD: Poe
Deanna: Great, William Edgar Poe. And a musical style?
AUD: Cha-cha.
Deanna: Excellent. We will start with 80's Dance.

Everyone heard her say "William Edgar Poe"...and everyone sort paused as if saying, "huh?"

I only hoped she would say it again.

After we replayed the scene in 80's dance:
Deanna: We will now see the seen done in the style of William Edgar...Poe...is that right?
AUD: Edgar Allen Poe
Rance: Let's do William Edgar Poe!

We then made as many near references to EAP as we could, but with the different twists WEP would have used...a Parrot instead of a Raven, Vivian instead of Lenore, etc.

Deanna blames it on age. In her defense...sort of...we both got the suggestion of Messopotamian as an era and basically did a scene about cavemen inventing the wheel. We're well learn'ed.

Sluiceway: Hike of HORRRRRORRRRRR!

Thursday I went jogging for nearly 30 minutes(29:45...I got by song length and that's what it ended up being once I checked on my return)...a 10 minute jump. So Friday was a hike day.

We had already hit the main trails we've (I've) heard of, so it was off into new territory. Jen recommended Sluiceway. She had never been on it but said Megan liked it a lot when she was out here.

Sluiceway was pretty much all forested. It isn't necessarily a popular trail, so we were the only car out there, and the only people. Since it was so forested the trail had a lot of roots. It was a fairly steep climb. The pic above is standing on the trail looking straight forward. The pic below is the same place, but looking up the trail. I don't think they convey the steepness. Since the trail was so filled with roots the trail had a softness and a drum like sound as we walked. Just as I was thinking that, I heard a drum like sound that wasn't matching our stride...then I heard breath with it.

The little angel below scared the crap out of us. Luckily, she was friendly. She stopped by us once, then ran back. Then came back again (when I had the composure to take a photo). She was with a lady who lived on the island and was hiking her own trail. They passed us and we carried on.

We were both in the mood for a mellow hike and this one was somewhere above mellow. But we finally made it to one of the destinations on our trail...Little Notch. This was the first hiking location we made it to with no view (notice the trees everywhere behind the sign).

Luckily the next part of our hike would take us to the Bernard Mt. Overlook.

Where we also found this stranger.

seven8nine

Deanna and I are in a group that is putting together video sketches. We just started production right before Deanna and I left, so it will be a little while until we're actually in one...BUT, the following is our first video...and it was actually Deanna's idea!

Belfast/Brunswick

Today was the first community day off...meaning, we all get the same day off. We all decided to go into a town called Belfast. It is in a direction that I haven't been before so everything was new. For whatever reason or reasons, I was a little pissy. I still am today, but I tried to shake it while we were there...usually unsuccessfully. I don't think I'm meant to hang on shopping trips with the ladies. The town was quaint. The town's specialty? Crappy things to get your picture taken by. It was one of the times I regretted having my camera. First we passed a crappy mini cooper car that Jen and Deanna wanted their picture taken in. I realized the sooner I took the picture the sooner I'd be past it.

We stopped in a game store and I bought a couple board games that I hope I'll play someday...they looked cool. If I remember correctly they're called Pirateer and Settlers of the Catan...oh, and new cards for PIT (cocoa, gas, platinum, etc. instead of wheat, oats, barley...).

Settlers has some expansions that I might get if I like the game. The whole reason I even looked at the game was because they had a super fancy version in a wooden box that was very spendy (TD!).

From there I went down to the docks to take pics (see photo blog) while Deanna and Jen shopped. While I was walking I saw another cut out thing and was glad I was by myself.

I met up with Deanna and Jen again and we walked to a foot bridge...unfortunately we passed more cut outs and Deanna wanted a picture with me. I don't know why I hate these things so much, but they drive me crazy and they should all be destroyed.

I'm no dead head, but I think these are those bears.

The thing that cheered me up the most while we were in town was going to eat...and not because of the food. We went into this bar/pub to eat. They had that trivia thing and each table had one box. I got boxes for all three of us and we started playing buzztime trivia. A couple of regulars had started playing too, but they were talking to each other. You get to enter a name for the game. Jen was "Mikos", Deanna was "Dee", and I was "Terd". I was winning and once I won the entire match, the screen said "Congradulations to the winner Terd!" This overweight lady who was with her husband (who was playing trivia) laughed hard when she read that. The husband said, "Alright! Who is that?! Who's Terd!?" I told him it was my initials.

Everytime I get on the computer I check people's blogs. Here are my Cheers and Jeers:

Cheers to : Eric for multiple updates; Arnie and Sarah for pics and frequency; Emily for mentioning me

Jeers to: Savedigger...it's almost been two months, lets get in the game!

There are a lot of books in this house and I noticed one on the 18th that I had been meaning to read: Guru by Jeff Griggs. Jeff was out here earlier in the season, and he was sort of my level 3 teacher at iO. I say sort of because I had a different teacher, had to sub for a class I missed and went to Jeff's class, I liked Jeff better as a teacher and just kept subbing.

Guru is about Jeff's experiences with Del Close. Del Close is pretty much the father of longform improv. Jeff was hired by Charna to sort of be Del's assistant...take him weekly to the bank, grocery store, where ever he needed to go. I couldn't put this book down and I actually cried at the end. Jeff, kudos! One of my regrets is that by the time I moved to Chicago, Del Close had already passed away. The nice thing about Jeff's book is that it told great stories, but also, I felt like I either learned more about improv, or was reminded of things I had forgotten.

If you're an improvisor, and you haven't read it, you should.

Boat Co?

Second City has a few groups of people out on cruise ships. This is one of those ships. I think this is the last time the ship will be coming to Bar Harbor for a while...and I think they just got new cast members. Have a good voyage!

Meanwhile...in Chicago...

David sent me this. It's a picture of the side of the CCPA on Chicago and Halsted...that's me on that 14ft tall poster...or maybe 40ft. They both sound alike. If you're in Chicago and see it, please post with the height.

Back in Maine...

Deanna is still suffering from her cold. I still don't have it. Katie posted her second joke in a comment in the last post, so see that there.

Tonight was our second night with just the three of us. It's fun. AND we're working our asses off. If I'm not an improv powerhouse when I get back to Chicago then I'll focus on photography. It's hard NOT to get good at improv when you do it 6 days a week.

Today after we warmed up, and before the first show we watched an older lady try to park a car that was perfectly parked for about 5 minutes. She had it. The car was set. But for some reason she kept backing up and going forward...trying to get closer and closer to the curb. Her husband or man-partner even got out to help her. From our vantage point we could easily tell she was already closer to the curb than the cars in front and in back of her. It drove me crazy to watch.

In our 8:00 show I had to get a suggestion of a saying on a bumper sticker. A couple from Yorkshire, England said, "Gruhdub, blantehmehn." I naturally replied, "huh?" The guy repeated it the same, then his wife helped him by...repeating it the same. Jen understood a little better...enough to get me to figure it out: "Grow dope, plant a man."

We've added long form into the second half...something we hadn't been doing for the first couple of weeks. Double fun on those.

When you host a show here you're responsible for the opening spiel and the closing spiel. Part of the closing spiel is reminding everyone to tip the server/bartender. I always say "Let's give a hand to Porche your server! She appreciates your applause but more than that she appreciates your gratuity. She uses her tip money for crazy things like food and rent (every host ever uses this)...and, if you're visiting from out of town, standard gratuity in the states is 75%." That last part kills...but that isn't why I write. Porche said the couple from England (a country well known for lack of tipping) gave her a 70% tip! I got 'em!

Tomorrow is the first full day off. Everyone normally rotates the day they get off (except Larrance who gets 7/4 as his one day off). Now that the season is slowing, and we have three performers, Tuesday is a day off for everyone. This means we all get to spend time with each other instead of one person waiting at home for everyone to return. Larrance is flying out early to visit his mother. Jen, Deanna and I are going to a city I can't remember the name of because we've been saying we're going to Brunswick as a bit. Basically it's a hip little town with a foot bridge, a game store, and a co-op. Those are the parts I remember.

Right now, for some reason, it smells like cat food.

And then there were three...and Larrance

Last night we had the final two shows with Rex and Katie. It was great getting to hang out with them. Rex got to get killed by a cougar that had integrated with a computer, and Katie (who has surprisingly strong upperbody strength) got to make her final 185 jokes that only she could do.

When we first got here in Maine, Jen was sick. These past few days, Rex, Katie, and Deanna have been sick. I normally get sick quickly and keep it for awhile, but I've been on a huge Vitamin C kick (around 3000-4000mg in a day), plus I've been exercising (jogging 3 times a week and I'm up to 20 minutes!). I haven't even had the beginning signs of a cold yet. Also, I pretty much eat a bowl of chili a day, so that could be helping too.

In honor of Katie, I now present to you her two patented jokes:

#1:
Bob and Bill, a couple of buddies, go out Moose hunting. Bob has been before and Bill hasn't. Bob says "I'm going to go to higher ground, you stay around this level." Bill, eager to bag his first Moose agrees. Bob finds a good tree and climbs up to get a better look. Bill is anxious and looking around for Moose when he spots one! Up in a tree! Bob sees Bill pointing the gun at him and starts waving his hands and says, "don't shoot! I'm not a moose!" Bill shoots and hits Bob. Bob falls out of the tree to the ground. Bill, excited, goes over to see his kill only to find Bob nearly dead. Bob says, "why did you do that? I said, 'don't shoot! I'm not a moose!'" And Bill said, "I thought you said you WERE a moose!"

#2:
Crap...I can't remember her other joke. Hopefully I'll remember it later.

While I'm Thinking of it...

Rex and Katie do their last shows tomorrow and then it is just Jen, Deanna and I until Mike gets here around 10/1. Marla was supposed to come but some asshole decided to drink and then drive his van and then run into Marla and her husband while they were riding bikes. They are alive...I'm not sure how ok they are. I was looking forward to playing with Marla again.

If you drink and drive, please hit a telephone pole or an unoccupied car and die before hitting and injuring innocent people. If you have driven drunk in the last year, and you know you have, you are required to tell me and make one of three choices: 1) I punch you in the throat; 2) I kick you in the stomach; 3) I kick you in the crotch as hard as I can (yes, this option is available to women too). Driving drunk is as stupid as willingly letting someone do one of those three things to you, so...I'll do it.

Back to Maine.

Rex and Katie are leaving soon and I wanted to tell of some funnies.

Rex seems like a man of nature. He at least has a huge Swiss army knife (and I've heard he's a demon in the sack). But he seems like he respects nature. As we were getting out of the car to hike Precipice yesterday he had a paper coffee cup that he threw into the bushes, aggressively...as if daring anyone to care. It was a bit, but was so not like him that it struck me funny.

Katie also was part of hilarity today. While I was making chili she looked in the fridge and said "Oh great! There's applesauce I bought four weeks ago." She got a bowl, spoon, and her sauce jar. I helped her open it and she flipped the jar upside-down over the bowl to get out the sauce. I said, "I hope what I think is going to happen does." She said, "what?" And then it happened...almost the entire jar of sauce came out of the jar into the bowl. I died laughing. I felt like I had psychic powers over the sauce.

It was great getting to meet you Rex and Katie. I hope to see you both around in Chicago.

Gimme the hard stuff!

With 3 days left until Rex and Katie leave we've been getting in a lot of things. Today we tackled quite possibly the hardest trail on the island...Precipice. This made Beehive look like a walk to the local 7-11. See my photoblog (link over to the right) for a map. The trail is only about a mile long, but it goes up something like 930 ft.

It started out easy enough. Kind of big boulders and rocks, but the trail would go up and down.

Then it was mostly up. Rumor has it that Jen wouldn't let Jeff and Brett go on the hike when they were out here...I think she was right. I don't know if they look at this, but here are pics of what you avoided.

This pic is pretty much straight down. There were a lot of "fun" places where you had an iron rail to hold onto and a slight ledge to stand on.

This was one of the more flimsy rails. It was strong...it just didn't feel like it. I pretty much stayed at the tail end of the group. This is what I usually do because I'm tall and can see over everyone.

Plus I can hopefully catch or support Deanna when she reaches those rocks that are hard for her to climb with her short legs...unless I'm taking pictures, then her life is in Katie's hands.

There are also ladder rungs at certain points sometimes they're severely bowed or bent due to what I assumed was falling boulders...it could have been falling people though.

Here was one of the thicker ledges where we stopped for a quick break. Apparently this trail is listed as a 90 minute hike. Katie hiked it with Jake while he was out here...or at least they started at the same time and he took off to see how fast he could do it.

I stopped to take photos as everyone got to the next level. Deanna wanted to take a picture. It wasn't as treacherous as it seems in this pic...there was a series of steps over to my right. That thin grey line behind me is, however, the road and the entrance to where we parked.

Here's a zoom shot of people who were watching us and waving from the parking lot.

Here's the not zoomed shot. They were a ways down there.

To give it a little more perspective, here's me next to the parking lot. Not far from the top at this point.

We finally made it and there was a cool pond of water at the top.






There were a couple other people at the top who took our picture. They didn't hike up Precipice...they took one of the easier routes to the top. There was a slightly overweight guy at the top when we first got there who took another route up and then headed towards taking Precipice down...THAT is insane. We told him about 5 times NOT to go that way, but he did. Deanna felt really bad, but about 3 minutes later he came back.



Here's Rex in front of Jackson Labs. He likes that place.

It took us just over an hour to reach the top, and about 90 minutes to get down. The trail we took down almost seemed harder, but it was fun.

Later on we had two shows. In the second show the crowd was drinking a lot. Jen and I started a scene for Larrance's Choice (Sing it) with the suggestion "Wizard of Oz". It was one of the lamer scene initiations I've done...the best part was that Jen was a Munchkin I named Chimchoh. Rex ended up grabbing one of the curtains off the window and coming out as the wizard...he was behind the curtain the whole time. My song was first and wasn't that great. Rex's was next. Jen's was the last song singing about how she would take the wizard down. In the pause of the first line I said "CHIMCHOH!"...then again in the second pause, and a drunk guy in the front row said it too. Then he said it again on his own. Then I pointed to him expecting him to say it...he didn't. Then I pointed to him again in the next pause and he said it...along with 2 others. Pretty soon we had the whole audience shouting "CHIMCHOH!" when I pointed at them. It was the saving grace and super fun.

Oh...great...kayaking...

Remember how exciting that prospect seemed in the last post? I do. Remember what happened when we went last year? I barely do, but here are the main things to catch you up. Deanna and I went on a sunset kayak tour where we went out in tandem kayaks to watch the sunset and then come back...about 2.5 hours. You might think "that sounds romantic"...only our group had 7 tween/teen girls and a 10 year old boy who were all related somehow...and no parent with them at all. At one point the boat with the 10 year old ran into us...I said "hey, see these other yellow things around you? They're boats with people. Watch where you're going." He started to cry and I felt no qualms whatsoever.

I remembered a few important things on our way out today: My knee that hurts fine on it's own after a Tae Kwon Do injury didn't feel to good crammed in that boat...answer, 3 advil pre trip this time. It can get cold and wet, but not as cold as people lead on: answer, wicking shirt and a wind breaker.

As we got there I remembered a few more. The aquasox they lend you suck, and they hurt your heels...where your regular shoes. And..."I think the water was calm last time."

So here is the inside of the kayak where my legs are supposed to go. Not a lot of space, and with the foot pegs as far as they would go, I couldn't straighten out my legs. All we're doing so far is inspecting the boats.

We then get in so we can practice attaching the skirt to the kayak.

Our guide, Sean, seems pretty cool, and we're the only people with him on the tour, so that is nice.
Finally we get out on the water. I couldn't WAIT to get out on the water! (remember this part for later)

Here's Deanna and I out in the water ready to rock!

The water today? Choppy. As soon as we headed out Deanna's foot cable came loose. The person in the back has rudder control with their feet...I'm too tall to do it. So Sean comes to us and finds out the left pedal is loose and fixes it. Mere seconds later the right one comes loose. He fixes it. I'm getting irritated 'cause I want to get out there and paddle! (remember this one too)

We finally get all set and head out. Sean is all jokes. This and the water and the paddling is good for about 10 minutes. The choppiness of the water and the fact that my foot is asleep starte to irritate me...then everything starts to irritate me. The best thing for me to do in this situation is say nothing until I can bore through some of the paddling and throw out a funny (and not biting) comment to put people at ease. 30 minutes into it I was done with the water, I was done with the paddling, I was done with Sean's jokes. It was three hours.

I was hoping for a tour that was longer, but had a break on land in between so I could take pictures. I'm glad I didn't do that.

Unless there is a kayak called "The Daddy Longlegs" or something bigger, I've done my last kayak adventure for a long while. Deanna really wanted to do this, and she's feeling the same way. We did see a bald eagle in a tree, and I took a picture, but it was too far away.

After the trip we got pizza and went to the show. Great house tonight and a fun show. Deanna and I had a great scene where we were spouses on X-mas...I got her socks and she got me an HDTV tuner.

Tomorrow is my day off. Not sure yet what I'll do.

KAYAKING!!! (will be postponed)

Last night we had the idea that we would go Kayaking. This idea based only on knowing that there was kayaking on the island, and not knowing any of the details about times. Once the morning came we found out we wouldn't have time to do it before our 5:00pm call time. So, Deanna, Katie and I went on a hike.
The name of the trail we were heading for is BEEHIVE. There is a hard climb on the island called Precipice. Beehive is supposedly a mini version of it. The beginning was easy. A rocky trail, but at a slight slope. But dangerous! A butterfly attacked Deanna's ankle! Feasting on her hiking flesh!


As we got further along it got steeper. To the point of rungs being added to the trail for safety. It was at one of these sets of rungs that Deanna and I discovered the edge of the earth square.


We kept climbing. I helped Katie out of some hard spots by capturing her image so as to remember her better if she should fall.


Once we got to a less scary part of the climb we took a breather and drank some water from bottles.





Then is was back to climbing. It still didn't feel like that big of a climb. I'm ready for Precipice. Remember the picture below, it will be used as a reference to a picture even further below.


Deanna got scared. You'll see to the right a metal grate. This is all that was between life and death!...and the top of BEEHIVE!


The view from all of the sides of BEEHIVE was better than from the actual top, thus, no picture of the top. We hiked down to a pond called the bowl from BEEHIVE.


And made our way back to the car. It was on this walk that we passed an excellent view of the hive we just climbed. It looks a lot scarier from the bottom, but there it is. See that mostly bare part at the top?


And see these people on that part? That's where we were in that picture I told you to remember earlier.


As we finished walking to the car, a dragonfly hitched a ride in Katie's armpit...just for a little bit.


We then headed to Jordan Pond house. Famous for their popovers, more famous to me for their lemonade. The lemonade is homemade and they don't add sugar. Instead, they bring out a little cup of sugar water and you can add the amount you like. I always add it all.


From there we went to the top of Cadillac Mountain. The highest point on the island. Just for a quick glimpse.


Tomorrow we attempt kayaking for real. We have a battle plan and should be going 3-6:30.