Scary Corn!

Tradition! Tonight was the sometimes annual corn ma(i)ze outting. We had 21 people with us this time and there was fun to be had. When we initially planned the trip there was talk of going out early to take part in the daylight fun they had...such as picking apples, launching apples in a catapult, and picking pumpkins. What we didn't think of was that we were going on 10/29. All of the apples were gone, as were the pumpkins. Martin and his girlfriend were the only ones who showed up early to partake in the nothing that was available.

When we got there, there was a huge line. Luckily the last car of our people trickled in right as we reached the front. But we didn't reach the front before having the idiot twins (pictured below) decide that it was wrasslin' time.

Remember being a kid and breaking into impromptu wrestling out in public? Me either. So we got into the maze. We decided it would be best to split into groups of 4 people. Everyone agreed. Our group had about 10 people. America! I had a map and was bad ass at knowing where we were in the maze, so everyone followed me. The first half was just a maze, the second half was haunted.

In the haunted part we found some hilarity in the scares...such as:
-crossing paths with people from our group and shortly after hearing a chainsaw sound we found Gillian face down on the ground.
-a grim reaper on stilts came out of nowhere and got me and our group pretty good, but then he took a miscalculated step and stumbled into the corn thus earning him the name "Prat Fall Death".
-a short person with a mask tried to scare us and failed. This person walked backwards in front of me....just looking at me...and when I still didn't react he turned to scurry down the path...but he ran straight into the corn. Someone in our group called this person Robert and gave them a pep talk about scaring people.
-The scare crow. When I saw the scare crow I said out loud "Oh crap, I forgot about this one." I took my camera out. It is set to red-eye so it flashes multiple times. On the first flash, the scare crow was there and then pounced. Below is what I captured in the final flash.

...nothing but a hat. He got us all really good.

This is still the scare crow following our group around. It's not scary in a well lit photo. But in the dark when you're with people you know, only to find out that one person you think you know is actually still that scare crow? That's the stuff that scares Robyn, Deanna, and Mary.

In the end we all met in the front area where Mary got humped by a Gorilla.

Well done, America. Pie and pretzl bread sandwiches for everyone!

Trick or Treat Trot

Today was my first 5k. The Trick or Treat Trot. There were about 3000 people there either running in the 5 or 10k. AND an optional costume contest. I have a great and elaborate idea for a costume that will have to wait until next year...and by the looks of this years costumes, I'll totally win.

It was a chilly morning. Deanna took all of the pics except the next one, by the way.

3.1 miles was all I needed to do. I just ran 4.?? 3 days before...unfortunately, this time I didn't have my music, and I was racing against people. This meant that I started passing people like crazy in the beginning and then had to go slower in the second half. It was awesome to pass people...it sucked to get passed. I got passed by: an undead cheerleader, batman, superman, another batman, two ladies with enough breath to be chatting, an 11-year old boy, and a 9-year old girl with her mom. Ugh.

I'm hamming it up above...I wasn't that tired at the end. But I was tired.

I don't know if you can see it in the pic above...in the last 50 feet or so I sprinted and passed one last person. The clock says 29.11, but each person had a little microchip that they attached to their shoe to record their actual start and stop time (so, if you were in the back of the crowd and didn't cross the start line until 5 minutes into the race you wouldn't have that 5 minutes against you).

Here are my stats

239 512 RANCE RIZZUTTO M 34 32/64 28:42 9:14 CHICAGO

I was 239th out of about 930 people who were running the 5k (the rest of the 3000 people were registered as 10k runners or walkers of the 5 or 10k). I was 32nd out of 64 people in my age range. I came in at 28 minutes 42 seconds and had an average mile of 9 minutes 14 seconds. The guy in 238th place was my age and beat me by 1 second.

It was fun and I hope to increase my time. Below is a video Deanna took while I thought she was taking pictures.

Style Points

Tonight was JRB Bowling night...meaning, we went bowling. Not meaning, it's something we do every Monday. Chris found a place that is a bowling alley above an Ace Hardware. It's older and has paper scoring still.

We made the best of it. I brought a prize for best style that was won by Todd aka Wildcat aka Mildcat aka Future Past Wildcat.

I dressed for sports. I had a red T-shirt and a red #14 football jersey that I got at a thrift store. Add to that my black shorts, cubs hat, knee high ref-socks, and tear-away warm up pants...which are important.

In our second game I said the style points were awarded for finishing move and catch phrases. We all had nicknames at that point. I was Terd. Katie was "Coats" because she wore her coat the whole time. Her catch phrase as she would go up to bowl? "Okay, see you later guys." 'Cause she was always ready to leave with her coat on.

I was bowling with a 7 pound little kids ball. My fingers didn't fit, but I would palm it and give it some massive spin. In frame 3 I thought of an idea in my head for a finishing move that I would do if I got a strike or spare...tearing of my pants in one clean jerk. That frame, I got a spare. It went over pretty well...and it was a solid finishing move. I know, because it worked everytime. I got a spare or a strike in every frame except the 10th in that game with a grand total of 142...all with the 7 pound ball.

Unfortunately, I noticed that I also ripped the crotch out of the pants. Now they need mending. But it was worth it. I must have torn off my pants 8 or 9 times over the course of the night.

Listen, Kid...

After arriving home Wednesday night, Deanna and I were looking to hang out with pals. Luckily, a lot of them were in a show on Thursday night called "Listen, Kid..." written by Peter Gwinn (writer for the Colbert Report), directed by Rich Prouty and musical direction by Steph McCullough. This show was hilarious.

The basic summary is that it's a musical that teaches kids what they REALLY need to know about the world like "friends with benefits" never really works, and you shouldn't kill people who make you angry, and other stuff that I don't want to spoil.

Rich, Joey, Tara, Sam, Steph, Deanna and I went to the Pick Me Up afterwards to hang.

It's good to be back home in Chicago! Rarerooooooooooo!

This Place is For the Birds

The thing about Niagra Falls, CAN is that it's touristy. Meaning, they have a lot of those fliers for things to do. One that caught Deanna's eye was Bird Kingdom. Once she showed me the flier I was hooked. An Aviary with exotic birds. I love birds. Even more so I like brightly colored birds.

It was raining outside and was supposed to rain all day...remnants of that storm that gave Buffalo all of that snow. We walked the 1.1 miles to the Aviary anyway.

As you go in there is a very small room as far as aviaries go. I'd say just a little bigger than your standard living room. There were many little birds here flitting about. I thought, "ok, I was expecting more, but these are indeed birds." and started taking pictures. As we were taking pics one of the workers said they recommend seeing the full facility before taking too many pictures. Ah HA! There's more!

Next was the nocturnal room. No flash photography allowed. There were some bats, some owls, some lizards (they aren't birds), Snakes (also not birds) and a couple small alligators (no bird-like features here either).

From here we walked out into the main aviary...THIS part was more like it.

There were bigger, more exotic birds in this area, and more room for them to get around. In one corner there was a caged area that you could enter. You had to use anti-bacterial stuff on your hands, and then you could enter.

As an added bonus, you could pay $2 to buy a little cup of nectar that would attract the macaws in the room over to you.

Deanna and I both did this. The most dangerous part about it was that these birds were crapping nectar all the time.

It was great. After that we walked back through heavier rain to get back to the hotel. We were soaked, and I only had one pair of pants with me, the rest of my clothes was in the car which had been valet parked. So, before we headed down to the casino I spent about 30 minutes ironing my pants until they were dryish.

The Casino was ok. The smallest amount you could get from the ATM was $100. I went to my Let It Ride table and won on my first hand. I never really won big, but I won enough times to keep me above my original amount. I had been playing for awhile and decided to stop when I didn't have enough to bet for a full round ($30) + my initial $100. So, when I got to $125 I left. I put that $25 into a video poker game and lost that, but I walked away with my initial $100 so it's like I didn't spend anything!

For more bird pics, check out my photo blog (Daily Photo under the Links to the right).

Falls!

We ended up leaving Montreal around 11am and headed out for Niagra Falls...Canada side. 400+ miles for this leg. Our timing was perfect. We hit Toronto right in the middle of rush hour, but the route we took helped us avoid all but 10 miles of it.

Another cool thing about Canada, the signs are metric. So if you don't think about it, when you see the sign that says "Niagra Falls 120" you are pleasantly surprised when it takes less than 120 miles to get there.

Oh, I forgot something. I don't know much French. And Montreal is French speaking (but most of the people know English too). For some reason I couldn't get the phrase "je ma pel Robert(said French...like Colbert)" out of my head. And not just saying it, but saying it with the inflection that Alec Baldwin used in an SNL sketch years ago...my sister understands. So...I kept saying it...which was fun...until it dawned on my that it was the equivalent of someone on the street in Chicago repeating "my name is Robert...my name is Robert" over and over. I did it less...but it was hard to stop.

So...we stayed in the Hilton right across from a Casino (the building with the word CASINO on it). We were going to be spending two nights here so we didn't go tonight. We DID go walk down to the falls though. I didn't bring my good camera with, just the little one.

I plan to come back tomorrow night with my tripod and camera to get some cooler shots.

Canada...at least the Falls area...is very touristy. We went to the Falls on the US side last year on our way out. If you ever go to the falls, trust me...Canada rules. For those of you from Portland, here is a comparison: Canada Niagra Falls = Disneyland, US side=Oaks Park. For everyone else, google oaks park oregon...you'll get it.

A Li'l Taste

What is there to look forward to in this blog once I get access to time and my photos?

Pirate Treasure, Fires, and the Super Sexe!

Film at 11:00.

On the Road Again

We left Maine around 9:00am and had one goal, make the 300+ miles to Montreal. The only thing we were worried about was getting in and out of Canada with only our driver's licences. Getting in. No problem. I guess in 2007 they will start requiring passports though, so be ready for that.

The drive through Canada is awesome. Much more scenic. Gas feels cheaper because the price listed is $.82-$.94 (per liter though).

We made it to Montreal no problem. We did something this time around that saved us some cash...researching and hotwire.com-ing. The deals on hotels in Canada were great, and they were nice hotels. Here is the view from our room in the Delta...we had a little patio.

The unfortunate thing about our stay in Montreal was that we were tired from not sleeping well the night before, we were hungry, and we needed to leave the next morning. So, we didn't really get to check it out all that much. On our walk around to find a place to eat we DID find out that strip clubs are just a little less frequent than Starbucks. My favorite outdoor neon display? Super Sexe!

Last Day on the Island

Today was the last show, and our last day. Deanna and I decided to go into town early to shop. There were going to be huge blow out savings on everything! The island is seasonal for the most part so EVERYTHING MUST GO!

Well...apparently not. Cruise ships kept coming into port so some of the shops were holding out longer and we didn't get many awesome deals at all.

So, we went to eat.



My lady.

Backdraft

As we were getting closer to show time, we noticed a little smoke in the air. There is a Rite-Aid across the street and to the right a block from the theater. There are apartments above it and one of those apartments was on fire.

I didn't start taking pictures right away because there was only smoke. I saw a firefighter touching the windows to see if some were hot and then he went somewhere else. Then, the window shattered and out came the flames.

The story as I now know it is that the guy who's apartment was on fire is an epileptic. He got out of his apartment, then went back in to try to put it out and had a seizure. They got him out and he was taken to a Boston Hospital via lifeflight. How much of that is true, I don't know. The story was constantly changing.

This is about as bad as it got before they got the hoses up there. Deaths, Earthquakes, Fires...this season hasn't been bland.

Blog Hiatus

Tomorrow is our last full day here. We have two shows tonight and one tomorrow.

Rumor has it there are some awesome sales on the island, so Deanna and I are going to go in early tomorrow...this means we will have little time for packing and cleaning. We will be leaving early Sunday (hopefully) and drive 315 or so miles to Montreal. Then 400 the next day to Niagra Falls (Canada side) where we will stay two nights, then try to make the 500+ remaining miles back to Chicago.

I say all of this because I am about to pack up everything and don't know if I'll blog again until I get home.

So if you live in Chicago, we'll see you soon. If you don't, thanks for reading and I hope I can keep things exciting on here while back at home.

EOL

Booty!

Before Katie left she ordered a bowl. There was some cereal box, it was either Pirates of the Carribean cereal, or a cereal sponsored by the movie. It had an order form. And Katie did it. Today the above bowl arrived at the Maine house. There isn't much to give it perspective. It isn't a cereal sized bowl. It's much bigger, like the kind you'ld serve popcorn or chips from at a party.

Last Day Off: Holy Ground

Granted, I haven't had any Pepsi in a long time...at least 3 months, maybe more...I think the last time was in January. BUT, RoNo and I have this ongoing thing: I hate Coke, she hates Pepsi.

Well tonight we went to a Mexican Restaurant (no idea on the name) and out front was a Coke vending machine. As we walked in I actually thought to myself "I need to take a picture of that for RoNo when I leave."

It gets better...we get inside...Pepsi is their cola of choice...in can or bottle.

But what's this? A paradox? The only cups they had?...

The best of both worlds...a great cup that can only be filled with a great beverage.

The Last Day Off

Usually everyone gets their own day off out here in Maine...but at the end of the season when things calm down it made more sense to go dark (no show thus the theater is literally dark inside) one night so everyone could get a day off...which is great news for Larrance who usually just takes off July 4th. Since we're in the last week of the season, and today was our last day off, we went on a drive.

Here we are somewhere. We were headed for Schoodic Point. I'm not sure if this is actually it.

These were at what I thought was actually the real and official Schoodic Point.

Larrance's reflection in the water.

Deanna reflecting by the water.

Three solid months of improv can change a person or two.

So can knowing there's a Detroit Tigers game on that night that you forgot to set TiVo to record.

The light was hitting the "golden hour" and Deanna wanted to take a picture of me. I took a picture of her while she was doing so.

(Photo by Deanna Moffitt)

I was also trying to get some shots of Jen and Larrance that they could put in a press kit...this wasn't one of them, but Shreeman looks sneaky.

After we did our Scenic stuff we came to this place to eat. I'll call it "Mexican Restaurant" because I can't remember the name. See the separate post for more details...kinda.

And we topped off the evening with a game night. The game: Celebrity. This game works with each person writing a name of a celebrity, character, movie title, or cartoon character on a piece of paper. Each person writes 10 names. We split into teams and you try to guess the names in 60 second rounds until the bowl of names is empty. You do this three times. The first round you can say anything but the name/words on the paper. Then you refill the bowl with the same names. The second round you only get to use three words to try and get your team to guess...it's hard, but everyone has heard the names at least once because of the previous round. The final round is silent, you act out the clues. By looking at the picture, try to guess who wanted to play the most.