Hiking to the AT

After work Brian and I headed off to the Smokies for a hike. We hiked from the Cosby campground (started around 6:45) up to the point were the trail crosses the Appalachian trail. From there we hiked up to the leanto to set up camp. It was dark by the time we hit the AT but that didn't stop us. We made it by about 9, started a fire and chilled. We through out the sleeping bags under the stars and passed out.

We awoke to a beautiful setting sun (my first officially part time day off) and 2 English chaps making breakfast. We chatted with them for a while. They were hiking the full AT, 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine! It was for charity and sounded awesome! We then filter some stream water for the trip back down and set off.

I worked up a nice blister on my left foot of the way up and worked out a few more on the way down. Once back in the truck we had completed around 7.4 miles and we bushed. We arrived home, showered, had lunch with Mary and headed to Travis's to work. We worked until about 6 and headed back to my place to gear up for 8 o'clock softball practice!

We took the field and I ended up playing second base and Brian at catcher. The coach (Jinx) didn't make the practice but I noticed our 3rd base coach had a sheet with all the possible position for everyone. I guess it was fate cause Jinx had me down at 2nd. Our first game is next Thursday and I can't wait!

Florida Spring Training return day 2

Arrived back in Knoxville around 12:30. Mary and I hung out and we fell asleep for a while. We woke up in the evening and headed downtown for Brian's going away party (his last day at DMG).

When we returned to the parking lot our car was gone. Parked in that lot hundreds of times but this time they finally got me.

Mariell drove us over to the lot to pick it up. At least it wasn't the Evo or S!

Florida Spring Training return

Today we headed back home. As luck would have it the Phils played the Yanks and they game was awesome! Beth and Susan were where. Beth got a foul ball and got to see and hold a Phillies world series ring! The Phillies actually won too!

We stopped in Thomasville, GA to visit Ashley and Tim. Got to see their home, the town, eat at a nice little restaurant and see Tim's church.

We drove to Atlanta and stayed the night.

Florida Spring Training, Day 4

Game 5, our last day. In Cleanwater Phillies taking on the Orioles. Bad weather is predicted and it wasn't looking good. Sure enough we get to the gate and the skies open. It started pouring. We discovered Beth and Susans seating were under cover and on an end close to a handicapped area were we could stand.
We watched it pour for over an hour and a half. It finally let up and the game was on. First pitch at 1:05 moved to 3:00
In our seats. After about 7 of a tied 1-1 game dad and I headed to the store where we found Beth and Susan. The line was nuts but we waited it out. We headed back to watch the game. The folks in front of their seats were gone so we seat about 5 rows back from the seats we had Friday. The Orioles knocked in 3 runs in the top of the 8th, while we were gone and another in the 9th. The Phils made a good run of it and put up 3 in the bottom of the 9th. With the tying run at the plate he popped out thus ending our run of 5 games in 4 days, 3 of which were Phils games in which they scored a totaled of 4 runs. Tomorrow they play the Yankees, Beth and Susan are going but it seems like its going to be ugly.

With the skies cleared up we headed to the beach for a place to eat and watch the sunset. Never seen it set over the beach being on the gulf side and having never been to the west coast. We stumbled upon a parking lot with a Bar and Grill at each end. It just so happens that one of the was a Frenchies. They have a big bar in the outfeild at Bright House Stadium. They were associated with the Phils so you know we went there. Walking in it was packed and Phils fans all over, it was like being in Philly but at the beach. In passing a guy asked him the score and if it was a good game, I was decked out in Phils gear. Susan and I were talking to the side of the bar after getting our names in and getting a drink. That same guy that asked the score came back over and we started talking. He asked if we checked out "THEIR" bar at the stadium. Obviously this guy works for Frenchies. Come to find out he is the operations manager and they have a setup at the PGA tour also. Really cool guy and of course I asked if they had a website. They do and its pretty recent.

We got our table, ordered and Beth and I headed out to the beach to check it out.

This followed! haha

That gnome caused a lot of trouble and caused Beth to question what jagar was. Something to do with a small tailgate party, a grill, a bottle of jagar and the fact that Mr. Gnome has never been to a tailgate. So at the table Beth decided she wanted to try it out. It's one of my favs so I ordered a shot. She sipped it as did dad and neither made that bitter beer face but neither wanted more. I killed the rest.

We ate, bought shirts and called it a night.

Florida Spring Training, Day 4

Aunt Beth and her friend Susan flew in from Philly for a few games. So we met up with them at breakfast. For our 4th game we headed to Lakeland, home of the Detroit Tigers for a 1 oclock game versus the Phils. Lakeland is about an hour away from Cleanwater but we got there in plenty of time and got to watch the Phils batting practice. Stood nice and close and watch the top of the line up Rollins, Victorino, Utley, Ryan and Werth take some swings. Dad ran to see the line-up and returned with some great news! Our new ace Roy Halladay was taking the mound! I was pumped!

Off to our seats.
Seats were first come first serve bleachers down 3rd base line. It was a bright sunny day in the 70s again but this time I was very very prepared. Long sleeve t-shirt and enough sun tan lotion to protection a small country. Game on. Halladay got off to a rough start and never really recovered. Tigers knocked in 3 in the 2nd and that was it for scoring on both sides. You never know what they are working on so you can't really take much from these games. Only after a few weeks of the reg season will we really see what these guys got!

Dads old friend Frank and his wife Phylis came up from Miami to visit with us and possibly make it to the Phils game the next day. We meet up with them and headed to dinner. All 6 of us went in 2 cars to a place called Cody's Roadhouse. It was quite an adventure. Frank and Phylis were a very interesting couple and all in all it was a good time.

That night we had some fun trying to get them some tickets. We used the business center at the hotel. Their computers were down, dads computer didn't like the printer and mine finally worked on the second printer. After all that and ordering the tickets we realized the seller has to confirm the order. We assumed they'd be ready to go in the AM.

Florida Spring Training, Day 3

Double header day! Today we headed to Bradenton for game 2 and home of the Pirates spring training to see them take on the Red Sox. It was about 45 minutes away and we got there early to check out the batting practice. The Sox were up. The wind was kickin and they were flying outta the park! We headed to our seats after being told we couldn't stand where we were watching batting practice.

We were up first base line in the bleachers. It really seemed liked we were at a Red Sox home game. Fort Myers, where the Sox call home is apparently always sold out and tickets on the street are super expensive so there fans follow them around. Ortiz hit a bomb in the top of the first, a 2 runner. It was one of 4 homers in the game. It was a great game! Tied 6-6 going into the bottom of the 7th. Pirates knocked in 2 and the Sox grabbed 1 in the top of the 8th with the Pirates knocking in one more in the bottom. Sox got on base but left them stranded. Pirates won 9-7.

It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the mid 70s. With the crazy winter we've had it some how slipped my mind how quickly and easily I burn. I put sun tan lotion on my neck and for some reason thought that'd do the trick. Oh man was I wrong!
My arms were roasted just as bad! Luckily it didn't take full effect until that night. We had another game, our first Phillies game!

Game 3. We got to the Phillies park, Bright House Field in Cleanwater in time to catch some pregame activities. We grabbed a beer and walked around the park. We had separate tickets for this game. One right behind home plate and one on the berm in the outfield.

The game started and dad headed to the home plate seat and I to the berm. The view wasn't all that great.
Obviously the sun/camera effect doesn't show the complete truth. I could see the game and what was going on. Inning and a half goes by and dad shows up, grabs all the stuff on the ground and says I got you a seat come on. I follow. He started chatting with the guys next to him and it ends up there is a group of 5 retired guys that have season tickets and he just happen to buy the one available right in the middle of them. Turns out one of them couldn't make it and they couldn't sell the ticket. It was right front of dads seat. The guys were very nice and the one to my right was from Bristol, TN. He was the head football coach at Tennessee High School for several years! We had a nice little talk but they left in 6th so dad and I got seats next to each other. Time to relax.

Got a ton of compliments on the shoes! :)

Unfortunately the Phils had an awful game! One hit and it didn't come until the 8th ending! They lost 2-0.

Florida Spring Training, Day 2

We got up, ate, checked out and headed to Clearwater to see what was going on at Bright House Field. The Phils were out practice on various fields around the area. Right by the front door Hamels was throwing so we hung out and watched him throw a few.

We headed into the shop there are the stadium. We spent a while in there and I ended up buying an awesome hat, the Clearwater Threshers. They are the Phils farm team. Got a shotglass and bottle opener too. Dad got some gifts for folks and a the hat they wear during spring training.

After we headed to the hotel but they weren't ready for us and told us to give them 45 minutes. So we went for lunch at Chilis. We checked into the hotel and watched the end of several NCAA games. I'm not a huge basketball fan, I find it super boring especially towards the end, but this was actually entertaining.

We headed back into Tampa around 5:30 to see the Yankees take on the Rays. We sat at a table picnic style in the outfield which was different but cool. We met 2 guys from NY going to the University of Tampa. They were fun to talk with and knew a ton about baseball.

As the sun faded so did the warmth. It got pretty cold so we decided to head back around 9 in the 5 inning with the Rays winning 3-2. We also had the Vols game to catch. We are currently at the hotel with Vols game on the computer and the Texas Wake Forest game on the TV.

Tomorrow is a full day of baseball! Sox and Pirates at 1 and Phillies Orioles at 7. Aunt Beth along with her friend are arriving tomorrow around 3:30 as well.

Made it to Tampa! Day 1

Dad and I left at 8:30am this morning for Florida. We were headed to Clearwater for Phillies spring training. We set out with no goal destination in mind since we didn't have anything to do today besides get there. We thought we could maybe get an extra night in our hotel but they were booked. Still undecided on a distance we stopped about 45 mins south of ATL for lunch, chick fil a! We thought maybe we could split it up and stop half way but decided to go for it. Dad got us the last room in Hoilday Inn Express in Tampa. About 150 miles outside of Tampa it finally stopped raining! We arrive here around 7:30pm. Now we look for food and chill. Our goal is to make the Phils game at 1:05pm tomorrow in Clearwater. Pick up some tickets on the street but we'll see what tomorrow will bring. Fingers crossed for sunny skies, cheap tickets, good seats and cold beer!

Edit:

Had dinner a Bahama Breeze next door and it was awesome. Had a great cheeseburger with applewood bacon along with an Aruba red, their house beer.

Also realized after dinner the newspaper was wrong, no Phils game tomorrow.

Todays shoes

Better late than never. Been wanting these for a long time and finally
found them for 25$! Adidas SL 72s!

Poker night!

Playing poker again! I did pretty freakin good too! Bought in with 10$, paid the house back, paid my 5$ for food and wine and have $2.50 to play next time!

Great cheap whisky!

Today was an ROR day. We worked most of the am and got a lot done. We took lunch at 1 and hit up Tomo. We had a great lunch and will be going back there again for sure! It was half off sake bottles so we drank a 750 (that we paid for) and befriended our waitress. She was
super nice and hooked us up with pretty much another full bottle of sake. We did quite a few shots with her and possibly got a job doing their site out of it! After, we went to the liquor store and picked up this awesome whisky! $5 Haha!

Softball gear!

For Mary's bday we went up to the outlets. While she did her thing I
got all my gear for softball. I'm playing with Michael and a bunch of
friends. We are called The Garage. Practice starts the 25th and games
April 8th!

Work showcase

Boston Bruins Raffle page finally up and running. Started this project a few months back and finally all the stars have aligned! Hopefully the first of many raffle sites to come! I designed and did the surface css coding for this while a 3rd party did the backend coded. We are in discussions about reworks though.

Work showcase

Created a little flash app for the home page of an upcoming website we are developing and I really love the way it turned out. I created the illustration and did all the flash work. Notice how each item you change changes the others accordingly. Fun little project.

One step closer to debt elimanation!

Today marks a huge step in our path to zero debt. Paid off my credit card today. I had it paid off but we loaded it up quite a bit before our wedding. We have a tad more CC/loan debt to kill before moving on to the cars. One of which is almost paid off.

Got my FDE lower done.

Had these parts sitting around for a while and never had the time to
put it together. Well today was the day! Looks great, now I just need
another upper!

Rockstar heaven!

Rockstar discontinued their 24oz can and Mary got me all the ones they
had left at walgreens. 11 of them! That's 11 weeks worth of goodness!!

Work showcase

Click on the image for a better view

Few weeks ago I was put on a logo for Blue Hen sauce. This illustrates the process and work put into a logo design. It also didn't help that the client didn't know exactly what he wanted and apparently how much a designer puts into a logo, including research. A quick search shows that the blue hen is an actually term for a chicken yet not a recognized breed but dates back to the Revolutionary War and is also the state bird of Delaware. The blue hen resembles a roster. So imagine were my stating point would be? A roster look? Wow! Imagine that. Phase 1 was complete and sent for review. Only comments in return were it's a roster not a hen. Try again and make sure the artist really knows the difference between a roster and a hen. Huumm think a mention of that may help in the beginning? Nah, let's direct this blind person towards a wall and laugh when they run into it. Also added was, maybe make it comical. Phase 2 completed and sent. Bottle looks like liquor but here is an image I found that is exactly what I want. Really? How hard is that? Phase 3, bam! Done.

Disclaimer: This was for a 3rd party client. The middle man is the one make these comments not the actually client.

Beginning of the beginning

So I finally decided to do it! I have made the decision to move to part time at DMGx to help pursue my other goals. I have been extremely nervous about telling them my decision. I wasn't sleeping well, having stress related heartburn and was over working. The last 2 nights I woke up around 3am and couldn't go back to sleep. So the time came. Went to the boss's office yesterday morning and told him I needed to talk. A few minutes later he came into my office. "As you know I have been very stressed lately (he had recently made the comment I looked stressed) and I have been over working myself." He agreed. "Well I have talked with Mary and have decided I'd like to go part time."..... Wade, "That is not a problem at all. You know we have been having a hard time keeping everyone busy here and that seems to make the most sense." Weight lifted. We went on about how it would work and that it shouldn't be a problem.

The rest of day I felt great. The feeling to changing something in your life in such a positive way is just indescribable. Had a few beers at lunch with the guys and we have planned our first full day of work together. I slept great! Woke a few times thinking it was weekend, guess I was just that relaxed.