Yesterday at work was good. First time in a while that I can honestly say I had a great day at work. We had our management outing, which was a 'Track and Field' day theme with competitions for each team to earn points towards our overall goal of winning our own dinner outing. Our team did notably well, with a few botches here and there that ended up landing us in a solid second place.

The only downside of the day was when I was competing in the jump rope competition...my competitor wasn't going out as easy as some of the others...and I would have been fine. Except that I've lost so much weight, that my pants started sliding down off of me. I decided to give up when they dropped below my hips and I knew they were about to go around my ankles. Otherwise, I would have had it. Jump rope is my thing!

Afterwards, one of our major resorts (Palace) was in town and taking management and our top confirmers out to dinner. They took us to Fogo de Chao....which as bald_ruminant mentioned in his GenCon posts, was absolutely amazing. They just keep bringing meat to your table until you just can't handle anymore and turn your card back over to signal the end of the service for yourself. I did go ahead and spring for dessert as well, as it had been mentioned to me how fantastic the cheesecake was. And it was magnificent. I will have to go back there again. Although, it will probably be a lunch trip, as that is only 25 bucks a head, instead of the normal 50 they charge for dinner.

All in all, had a great dinner with good conversation and good drinks. I was invited to go out for drinks afterwards, but opted to go home early to see the hubby and get into bed at a decent hour.

Today, I'm feeling a bit under the weather. I have the cold chills and sweats and forced myself to go to the gym regardless. The boss made a joke last night that no one should call in today....so, I'm not going to. I'll just go in and if I feel really awful, I'll just hang around him until he decides I really am sick and send me home. :) Otherwise, I'll just hide at my desk all day and hope that no one bothers me.

London left-overs are so tasty

http://www.cracked.com/blog/2008/08/19/how-to-win-a-fight-against-twenty-children/

You can blame roivassusej for this one....

Chapel Perilous III, Send More Goths!

That's right, it is that time again. Time to return to the Chapel.

Monday, August 25th 2008
9pm til 2am
Jake's Nightclub
419 N. Walnut
Bloomington, IN
21+ only please

And because we want even more of you there, we are going to bribe you. That's right, we
aren't above a little bribery:

For this month ONLY, we are making you a special deal:

Bring a Friend, Bring a Buck.

That's right, if you bring someone with you to Chapel Perilous and they pay full cover ($3)
you will get in for just $1! A night of DJs spinning you the best in Gothic, Industrial, EBM,
Synthpop, and Darkwave music, great drinks at the bar, and if you bring someone else to
the Chapel, you get all of this for JUST ONE DOLLAR!

Hearing your Dancefloor Confessions this Month:

DJ Rony (Industrial, EBM from Indianapolis)
DJ Coppertop (Synthpop, EBM, Industrial from Indianapolis)
DJ Hearsay (Goth, Darkwave)
DJ RavenWolf (Gothic, Industrial)

Tell Your Friends
Tell Your Neighbors
Hell, Tell Your Parents

It's time to go to Chapel

For more information and to receive updates join our Facebook Group:

www.facebook. com/group. php?gid=48118945 380

The time grows nigh, to return again to Chapel Perilous.

Chapel Perilous III, Send More Goths!

Monday, August 25th 2008
9pm til 2am
Jake's Nightclub
419 N. Walnut
Bloomington, IN
21+ only please

And because we want even more of you there, we are going to bribe you. That's right, we aren't above a little bribery:

For this month ONLY, we are making you a special deal:

Bring a Friend, Bring a Buck.

That's right, if you bring someone with you to Chapel Perilous and they pay full cover ($3) you will get in for just $1! A night of DJs spinning you the best in Gothic, Industrial, EBM, Synthpop, and Darkwave music, great drinks at the bar, and if you bring someone else to the Chapel, you get all of this for JUST ONE DOLLAR!

Hearing your Dancefloor Confessions this Month:

DJ Rony (Industrial, EBM from Indianapolis)
DJ Coppertop (Synthpop, EBM, Industrial for Indianapolis)
DJ Hearsay (Goth, Darkwave)
DJ RavenWolf (Gothic, Industrial)

Tell Your Friends
Tell Your Neighbors
Hell, Tell Your Parents

It's time to go to Chapel

so im crazy busy just trying to get life back to normal after gencon, and now i cant find my ipod.
its the snazzy touch one, so im freaking out like mad!

dont know what to do. i know i had it at the con, and now i dont know where it is. i think or thought i brought it back, but.....
grr. got my car back from the shop, but two of the back lights are fucked up. so im going to have to get that dealt with as well.

machine gun symphony show on thursday at birdys. should be good stuff.
a week from tonight will be my first gig outside of indy. its only bloomington, so its not super far away or anything, but im getting nervous already. ggrrrr.

oh! and my free batman ticket expired today, so i bought an imax ticket for the show tomorrow at 3:40.

fuck! im too busy right now.
i guess its better than being too bored, but i could use some down town. in fact, i could use a lot of down time.

back in lebanon, and right back to work, story of my life, but who can complain when your jobs look like this?

The western facade of Indy's new Lucas Oil Stadium.

Saturday there were the first tours of the new Colts' stadium for those of the citizenry who were neither well-heeled enough to attend the $250 admission opening Gala the night before, nor season tickets which got you into a more intimate tour the following day.

As you can imagine, that left a lot of us to take those free Saturday tours.


This was the line to ride up -then immediately back down- the one open escalator to the upper deck

Although I had scored a bunch of tickets, in the end only a small band of intrepid friends decided to brave the hordes of GenCon-ers, free tour-takers, and baseball game-watchers all descended on our unassuming downtown. Thankfully we decided to just take my Ooeypooey permit and park on campus and walk across town, as once we were on foot, we saw that gridlock was the word of the day.

Once we got in (after spending 15 minutes queued at a gate they didn't open, then another 15 pushing our way to the front of the proper queue) we set out to purchase a beer from the oft-promised concession stands that would be open.

Much to our disappointment, while there were indeed stands open, they were not selling beer to the hoi polloi who took the free tour. They gave it away to the big-wigs, or let season ticket holders buy beer, but apparently us schlubs couldn't be trusted to not get wasted and trash the place on the day it opened, LOL!


NO BEER FOR YOU!

As far as the stadium itself, it was pretty cool. If you've ever been in Conseco Fieldhouse, imagine that, but for football. Aesthetically, they are very similar, IMHO.


When entering from the northern "front" gate, you can see an open view of the entire stadium.

So yeah, "old school fieldhouse" is the major motif, with smaller themes of "if it doesn't move, put a sign or something on it" and "will an ad fit here?" Corporate partnership is a big part of the decor, and frequently the concourse will be head-to-toe in the livery of appliance stores, banks, law firms, and other big-money spenders. There are lots of "Lucas Oil" branded race cars all over the place, for instance, and again like Conseco the concession stands seem to be going for that "carny barker" vibe with unique color pallets and liberal use of special lighting.


The main window looks towards downtown, a nice touch.

Since we didn't get any beer at the stadium, when we were spat out of the tour at the south gate, Mo realized we were near Spencer's Stadium Tavern and we should just continue our walk a little further to go get a beer. When we got there because the band was only about an hour and a half from starting they tried to extort a cover charge from us. Bastards! We promised to quickly drink one beer and be on our merry way, but Jason was convinced the waitress just overcharged us for our bottles of Two-Hearted to make up for it. Walking back up West to the car we passed another bar, Basey's Downtown Grill & Spirits, so we stopped in for another pint-thankfully this place at least had 312 on draught. Seemingly a regular ol' neighborhood bar, this place hit the jackpot with the new stadium being built across from it's back parking lot. Moving on we decided to extend our impromptu pub crawl with a final trip to The Bourbon Street Distillery, which despite it being the unofficial bar of Indy's IU Law campus, I never had been to before. They didn't quite have the beer selection I would've expected, and the spinach dip was kinda watery, but we were treated to a lovely strip tease by some random girl on the third floor of the Canal Court Apartments across the street, which made for a very happy balcony. Authentic New Orleans Experience indeed.

But I must say, despite the great time, it would've been *much* more fun had my, and my buddy Jeh's, significant others been able to attend. Women who mind the kid (or kid to be) while the men go goof off, I salute you!

Cross-posted to indyscribe.com

If only real babies were so well behaved.

Saturday morning the wife took a break from her doctor-ordered bed rest and we went to Infant/Child First Aid/CPR class.

It was mildly interesting, very basic, but some good stuff. I had never held an epi-pen before, for instance.

Probably the most interesting thing was the way the taught us to keep the proper rhythm when doing chest compressions on an infant. I'm told baby heartbeats are up over 100bpm, so in order to do it right you've got to be moving pretty fast.

They played a copy of The Bee Gee's "Stayin' Alive" which, if you stay on beat, is apparently the perfect song. How appropriate, no?

Supposedly "Another One Bites the Dust" is also a good match, but not as powerful motivationally. ;-)

I thought it would be easier than taking a pic of a pic....

Well, GenCon has come and gone now. It was a great time. I didn't game with the exception of the LARP, but we picked up some new games that should be/are fun. We played Red Dragon Inn a few times yesterday and once on Saturday night prior to our normal game. We would have played Dread last night, but realized we still didn't have a Jenga tower and everyone was too tired and lazy feeling to want to run to the store to grab one. Eh, it'll happen sooner or later.

However, I am frustrated at myself. I went to the gym today. I told myself I wasn't going to weigh myself. I had skipped my workout on Friday morning and I ate like crap pretty much all weekend (from Thursday thru Saturday), with the exception of yesterday. But post workout, I was feeling pretty good and my curiosity got the best of me. I had to weigh myself. All my fabulous eating over the weekend gained me half a pound. And I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but when you've been working SO hard, half a pound is a lot and kind of frustrating.

Oh well. I'll just have to work harder.

Tomorrow at work should be fun. We're doing a track and field-esk competition. I feel like I'm much more in shape than several months ago....so I'm excited for the challenge because I think I'm up to it. :) Should be good times.

Purchases made/bought for me at GenCon: Red Dragon Inn 2, Dread and a fabulous piece of artwork from Nigel Sade (awesome artist that ivan23 pointed out to me, thank you for that!). I will post a pic of it later. I put it up last night (with some help after cutting myself on the frame and hammering my finger) and I think it makes the living room look more complete.

Anyway, that's all I got for now. Keep on keeping on all.

last day in Maine, i did a bunch of stuff today, something about this one is just right.

the reason i'm in Maine for the weekend

So, I've been recently reminded that not everyone is a Myspace whore like me. I've made a commitment to myself to try to make...myself....start blogging again here. I don't want to leave my other friends out in the cold. It's only fair I give everyone else the ability to point and laugh at my completely ironic and somewhat entertaining existence.

Anyway, we are now day three of the Con....and I am SORE. I spent all day in costume yesterday because of the 7th Sea larp that was yesterday evening. And my legs hurt. My back hurts. And for some unknown reason, even though I didn't carry anything yesterday, my right shoulder still hurts. Oh well. Just part of the older thing, I'm sure.

Well, so, my entertainment for yesterday evening...the LARP. It was okay. I spent most of the evening devising evil ways to take down Andy's character once again. And had this huge great plot that Frank helped me think up.....and we implemented it. And it should have worked. But I guess it didn't really fit into what Dana was trying to do. So, it kind of got glossed over. PISSED > me.

The other portion of my character was supposed to be entertaining the masses. I thought I understood that....my troop had Shakespeare to recite for the crowd. But I was thrown off when one of the GM's approached me and said, "Aren't you supposed to be entertaining?"

"Yes, my troop has things to perform."

"No, aren't YOU supposed to be entertaining?"

"What?! With what?"

"With that info that should have been included in your packet."

"Nope, nothing there. What am I supposed to be doing?"

"Acting or dancing...or singing. Something to entertain people."

"Well, shit. Hold on. DANNNNNNN.....write me down one of your songs, would ya? Awesome."

Okay, impromptu song for the crowd. That was a larp first. Apparently it went okay. I wasn't too pleased with it. I don't know why, but I got nervous and the voice was shaky....and I flubbed a few lines. But que sara.

So, that's where I am at for the moment. Will be heading to the Con again soon.         

arrived safe in Maine this morning, been a real busy day.

i'm posting this one for my boy, so mommy can show him what daddy's doing..... kinda. i know he'll like it.

had an odd little day. my girl lois stopped by for a short set to brighten things up for me. she has always been able to do that.

my client from yesterday forgot this restraint in the dressing room. i always tell people, "make sure you have all your stuff, because if you leave something i'll put it on someone tomorrow." well, i wasn't kidding.

we're at the New York house tonight, sucked into the gymnastics all-around final. leaving for Maine early. i suppose i'm hitting the ground running, i have 4 jobs booked in 2 1/2 days. busy, busy, busy.

i wouldn't have it any other way.

i wasn't going to post this one, but, i changed my mind, obviously. enjoy.