Monday, April 9, 2012

The OLD and the 'NEW's

I have been off the radar again lately and I apologize.  I have been crazy busy at work.  Had to travel to Southaven, MS for 2 weeks, where I got to experience what 80 deg and sunny feels like every day.  Quite a shock to the system when you are used to 40 and misty.  It was a nice change though nonetheless.  The 2 week business trip was very jam packed with work as well as extra curricular activities:
  • Trip to the casino where I won $300 on craps, and became a local hero at the table where I rolled the dice consecutively for 45 minutes without "crapping out"  It was a once in a lifetime experience.  I won this 95 year old man next to me over $3000.  I thought he was going to have a heart attack.
  • Trip to Beal street in Memphis.  For those who don't know what Beal street is, well its similar but smaller in scale to Bourbon street in New Orleans.  It is about 3 blocks of streets which are roadblocked off to cars, and you can walk up and down the street with drinks and basically do whatever you want.  They even had a bar that sold alcoholic Slurpees!!  I literally felt like a kid in a candy store.  But this story doesn't end with a happy ending like the casino trip, too many Slurpees = misplacement of personal items.  I ended up losing my phone and never finding it :(  What can you do, you live and you learn.
  • Trip to Fed Ex Forum.  Got to hit up a Memphis grizzlies game where they took down Ricky Rubi, Kevin Love, and the Minnesota Timberwolves.  Very nice venue and glad I got the opportunity to go.
  • Buffalo Wild Wings!  There isn't a buffalo wild wings within 200 miles of me out here in Seattle, so I was stoked to drive by a "B-Dubs" and eventually stuff myself full of blazin' wings!  
  • Bike & Run outside in weather where i don't have to dress up like I'm going skiing!!  This was like paradise.  The area wasn't the prettiest, lots of farm lands as i got out of the "Hotel District"  Totally took advantage of the nice weather getting a run and or bike in nearly every day of the trip
  • Greyhound Dog Racing Track.  Finally on the last night there we decided to hit up the Dog track and bet on some greyhounds.  You cant even imagine how entertaining this is until you get there.  For $1 each race you can pick a/a few dogs and heckle your heart out in the stands.  One race i cashed in for $74 on picking the first 2 dogs to come in 1st and 2nd.  And i was a dogs booger away from hitting a superfecta, which would have netted me a grand!  but fun was had and i cant complain :)
Within hours of getting back to the Seattle area my girlfriend was boarding a plane on her way to hang out with me for the week because her school was on spring break.  We went to the zoo, had some nice dinners, got lots of Slurpees from 7-Eleven, and even went golfing.  I was very inconsistent across the board on the course that day, but iris managed to capture an action shot of me taking off my shoes and crawling in the muck to save myself a penalty stroke, and eventually win the hole.



I sprayed my drive left into the trees, not knowing it was a swampy mess over there, and sure enough it was either take a penalty and a drop, or take off the shoes and crawl in with the swam animals.  Naturally i chose the latter, and managed to hit the green from 105 yrds out bending it around the trees, and nearly sink my birdie putt!  I escaped with par and was more than pleased with the result.



But the most exciting thing we did together was create one of the coolest shirt designs of all time, and I am in the process of getting them made.


As most of you already know I love Bigfoot.  I watch Finding Bigfoot on animal planet every week!  One day last week I got the idea to make my own shirt, and I was thinking what design can i create and more or less claim it as mine.  I got to thinking and naturally a Bigfoot was the first thing that I had to include.  As i was brainstorming, i got to thinking..."I don't really have any sweet shirts for races, and more importantly post race podium shirts"  Nothing would send a better message at awards than someone with a huge Bigfoot walking a bike into transition :)  So my Iris and I got to work.  Before long she had this huge grin on her face and turned her computer to me and said what do you think??  I was speechless!  She had created a masterpiece!!   Minor additions have been made, and the final product will be on display shortly :)

Its tough to top that, but lastly, and most exciting...I LEAVE FOR CHATTANOOGA WEDNESDAY!!! :)  I am so stoked to head out east and finally meet up with my new team members from EVOTRI.  It is going to be an amazing long weekend of fun times/stories/training/as well as tours of some of the stellar sponsors we have.  Mad props to Sweet for finding such a ballin' location for base camp as well.  CANT WAIT!

3 comments:

  1. So excited for your adventures with your new team! I can't wait to hear all about it. And I can't wait to get in some training rides/runs with you when I finally get to Seattle - YAY!!!!

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  2. That shirt is awesome!

    See you THURSDAY!!!!

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  3. Ha, awesome! I think Bigfoot needs a HUB Endurance trucker hat though! :-)

    See you Thursday!
    Andy

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