T-Mobile = A Lot of Work

I bought Tracy a T-Mobile phone for Christmas with the intention she would return it to T-Mobile and re-up her plan to upgrade to a better phone. On Monday, Tracy and I made the trip to T-Mobile by her townhouse in Blaine after the movers were finished to look over her options.

What we learned is T-Mobile's phones are absolutely terrible. It's no wonder I had dry sweats buying her phone a few weeks back for her present. The selection is really weak compared to other cell phone providers and almost every phone has received a mediocre review. I bought her the Gravity, which is the poor man's Sprint Rant. Since I paid full price for the phone, she was able to use the credit and buy what she really wanted.

After looking over her options, with a little convincing from me, Tracy opted for the Blackberry Curve. It required her to upgrade her plan with unlimited data, but I think it's worth it. It's not much more a month and she'll get addicted to the Internet. The phone is probably the best T-Mobile offers. It's no i-Phone touch (John and Katie) or a Blackberry Storm (Dan), but it's pretty good.

What's not good is upgrading a plan at a T-Mobile store if you are in a rush. I think I spent less time getting a home mortgage than we did at T-Mobile upgrading her phone. Why does it take 5 minutes just to ring up the phone purchase and memory card and another 15 - 20 minutes to get the phone service switched over? I'd say it was pretty ridiculous and my patience has a tendency to wearing thin over customer service. Maybe she was moving as fast as she could, but it's just T-Mobile's antiquated computer software ... kind of like their phone software!

Well, we are staying at the Siegrist residence ... Holiday Inn Express as John calls it ... for the next two nights. Thanks for letting Tracy and I crash at your house and we look forward to New Year's Eve.

I Got A GPS, Tracy Got Sirius

Another great Christmas so far with Tracy and her family. We were able to spend a fun night at the Burns' eating pizza, playing cribbage and opening gifts. Then, we made a bolt for her mom's side at the Theisens' eating cheese ball and exchanging more gifts. The yearly tradition of lottery tickets from Tracy's aunt scored me $2 and her $1. No big winners this year.

This morning, Tracy, Tim, Laura and I exchanged gifts. Tracy scored Sirius Satellite Radio's Sportster 5 and a home kit from her mom, plus installation. Pretty sweet and definitely needed in Murrieta. I got Tracy the Gravity from T-Mobile, which she really likes. Of course, she guessed she was getting a phone two nights ago. No clue how she guessed it, but today she found out she was right.

I got some fun board games, shirts and even a book about "What's Your Poo Telling You." But, the gift I'm really excited about is the Nextar GPS she got me. I've never had a problem getting lost, but it has seemed to happen a little too much in SoCal lately. I guessed my gift too, but Tracy's poker face is WAY better than mine!

Oh, and I did get this sweet blue jean Levi shirt from her dad's girlfriend in our name gift exchange last night. Canadian tuxedo anyone? I think I might keep it so I fit in really well in SoCal. If Leno can pull it off, maybe I can too?

Well, we are off to my parent's house in Lakeville, nearly two hours from Sartell. It will be good seeing my family. It might be the last time we are all together for awhile, so I'll savor it. I'm excited for our Christmas dinner too ... the non-traditional STEAKS! Nice!

Merry Christmas to all.

C & T

Congrats Paskes

I wanted to say a huge congrats to Jason and Carrie, who just two days ago welcomed Carter James in to their lives at 4 lbs. 6 oz. It was an unexpected early Christmas present, but I'm really glad Carter and mom are healthy and doing well.

Congrats Paskes. Too bad Tracy and I will be moving to SoCal, or we would have offered to change some diapers...likely story.

Shiny Shoes

Leave it to the professionals. One of the shoe shiners at the airport said my shoes could use a shining when I walked by, and the sad thing is I agreed. I've been putting off shining my shoes myself, so I decided to sit high on the shoe shining perch and get my shoes looking respectable again. I'd say it's the best $6 ever spent ... with a $2 tip.

It's a little weird sitting up high watching people stare at you as you get your shoes shined, but it's kind of cool too. I swear I could see my reflection in these puppies right now! There's something to having a pro shine your shoes that seems kind of old school. Maybe my next stop will be a professional barber to shave my face with the old hand blade. Well, maybe my first step should be trying to grow some real facial hair. Take it in strides I guess.

35 minutes until I take off on Sun Country direct to MSP's Hubert. I hope Petter didn't steal some of the materials off this plane during all his swindling. Sun Country does charge $15 to check a bag. I'll only assume all the baggage funds collected go straight to an off-shore bank account. See, it's fun to assume.

See all of you this Christmas and New Year's. And, if I don't, escape the frozen tundra and take an affordable trip to visit TRACY and I during the New Year. That's right, she's moving in with me and we are driving to SoCal in the Jetta. I think our lives are about to change drastically living together, but nothing surprises me. Maybe it will be the same?

Now, I'm asking you, give us your best piece of advice of what you've learned once you moved in with your significant other. Hopefully this gets entertaining.

I'll Be Home For the Holidays...

Yesterday Tracy and I got my flight booked to return to the Twin Cities over the holidays. I'm flying out of San Diego on Tuesday, Dec. 23 and will be in town through New Years before we road trip it back to SoCal.

We had a little difficulty finding a reasonable one-way flight, but Sun Country turned out to be the best option. It was interesting watching the price of the flight change from one hour to the next. Originally, I wanted to fly home at 4:45 p.m. so I could get in a full day of work, but that flight went up $125 during the same day. It started at $219 and is now over $400, even with 70 open seats. We were going to book it when we first saw it at $219, but I wanted to wait 12 hours for payday ... bad idea.

The early 9:45 a.m. flight at that point was $145, but I was holding out to try and save a vacation day by flying at 4:45 p.m. Not to mention I have to work this weekend to stay caught up, so missing an additional day in the office isn't the best idea right now. At any rate, we played the game of watching the fares bounce around and decided to jump on the $219 early flight before it got too expensive. Three hours later, Tracy checked the price again on that flight and it was $269. If somebody knows how or why fares bounce around so much, fill me in.

Christmas Party Tonight, Renting House Tommorow

I have my work X-mas party at South Coast Winery tonight and free drinks are slated for the first three hours. This could definitely get interesting. Our sales managers are all in town and look to be pretty thirsty. South Coast Winery in Temecula was distinguished as the best California winery in 2008 so it should be classy. Well, for the first two hours at least.

Tomorrow my house goes up for rent: $1450 w/ sewer, garbage, water included, no pets. My real estate agent is graciously listing it and helping me rent it for free. Steve and Jean have done everything imaginable to sell my house and I highly recommend using their services if you ever look to sell your place in the Twin Cities. I'll re-list with them once I decide to sell again. This market is really out of their and my control. There have only been two houses sold in Robbinsdale in the last 30 days within $50k of my house and both were foreclosures at $165k. Not what you call a good market!

Off to be a wine snob.

Raiders Fans And Neck Tattoos

I started this blog on Friday, but had to run off to Long Beach for a consumer show before I could finish it...

The Chargers game was a little disappointing. We weren't able to leave work at a decent time so we got stuck in some gnarly traffic on the 15. Around 8 miles north of the stadium traffic got heavy and we averaged at best 10 MPH. By the time we got to the stadium exit the game was well underway in the first quarter. As it turns out, it wasn't a bad thing. Either way I still can't believe the NFL thought it was a good idea to start a game at 5:15 p.m. during a weeknight in California.

We parked at a nearby Lowe's parking lot, which threatens to tow non-customers from its parking lot with security roaming around trying to enforce it. Our co-worker said he parks there all the time and has never had a problem, so we had some faith in the whole free parking idea. The sign threatening a $350 tow didn't discourage us. My boss bought a tape measure at Lowes, with metric measurements (for some reason that was a big deal for him to find one), just in case the whole tow thing panned out. We were officially paying customers and we figured they couldn't tow us. Of course, they didn't!

We made our way to Qualcomm Stadium and the score was already 24-0 Chargers. However, we did figure the Raiders were leading in one category, most fans throwing up in the parking lot, which stunk of stale booze and piss. Far worse than any tailgating smells at Gopher football games, believe it or not. We made our way to our seats through the sea of black and silver and saw some seriously sketchy stuff. One thing is for sure, Raiders fans intimidate through dress and actions, and they don't relent ... to the point of making the game unpleasant. We were on the Chargers sideline in row 4 ... not bad seats, but a tough view of the action.

The NFL long ago made the leap from family atmosphere to disgusting and this game backed it up. I'd much rather enjoy the NFL games from the comfort of my sofa than Qualcomm. And, the beer isn't $8 at home and my carpet usually doesn't smell like piss. I'd say the NFL loses its luster when you attend a game in person. Maybe it's just my experiences at the Metrodome and Qualcomm, easily two of the worst stadiums in the game. I doubt my feelings would change if I went to Oakland, that much is for sure.

We left the game after the 3rd quarter and had a few Tecates and some cooked scallops, they were frozen inside, from a local KTM dealer's RV tailgate BBQ. He hasn't missed a game in 7 years but, you guessed it, he managed to miss this game. Partially from his drunken state, and the other from a Raider fan stealing his cousin's tickets from his back pocket. At least that's the story his cousin tells. He probably found them sitting on the kitchen counter when he got home!

All in all, the lesson learned here is the NFL isn't a family atmosphere. If you are all for Junior learning how to binge drink, puke, swear, get neck tattoos, lack respect for others around you, overeat and generally just stink at an early age, an NFL stadium is the place for you. Don't forget to buy Junior a Raiders jersey while you're at it, he'll fit right in 10 years from now.

That's it for today...I'm swamped at work and really don't want to stay 3 hours late again. Still no cable or Internet. I'm beating the odds!

Chargers Vs. Raiders

I was just offered up a free ticket tonight's blood battle between the worthless Raiders and under-performing Chargers. Of course, I accepted. I'm heading down to the game with two co-workers in an hour! I'll adopt the Chargers as my local AFC team to cheer for, but the Vikes are always No. 1 no matter how many sex cruises or drugs they take ... McKinney, cough, cough, Williamses.

Vebe Visual Logo

What do you think? I made it in 10 minutes over lunch. Rank it on 1 to 5 with 5 being the best. Your input is appreciated.

NorthWORST At It Again

If there's one airline I could choose to avoid at all costs, it's Northwest. NWA has to be the most unreliable, worst airline in the industry. I'm not sure it will change much with the Delta merger, but it certainly can't get much worse. The planes are old, out of date and have more quirks than a 45-year old dressing up to play Laire.

Naturally, my 9:15 p.m. flight Monday night was delayed more than 2.5 hours due to a mechanical issue. I'm all for getting to my destination safely, but a little organization and at minimum a half-assed effort from the NorthWORST staff would be appreciated. At 4 p.m. I noticed the same flight number out of Columbus was delayed. In my two-hour pre-flight e-mail notice, NWA said on time. Not so much. If you know the plane is having an issue, come up with a contingency plan to find an identical plane, at your airline's largest hub no less, and transfer passengers and baggage immediately. It was the last flight of the night and planes were sitting everywhere. It doesn't take a high IQ to figure that out. After waiting 2 hours they finally made the brilliant decision to switch us on to an idle plane across the airport.

What it meant for me was arriving in San Diego at 1:55 a.m. PST. The flight was good all things considered, if not a little hot. Everybody complained about how warm the plane was, but no flight attendant could managed to turn the thermostat knob to the left. Besides that, not too bad considering the delay. I guess it's to be expected. It's flying the friendly skies on the worst airline in business with planes that want the 70s back. I got home to Murrieta at 3:15 a.m. after driving through some seriously dense fog in the mountains ... 100 feet of visibility. I got up for work at 6 a.m. and the day that felt like two was just getting started.

I made a drive through the Santa Anas and Cleveland National Forest at 8 a.m. on the Ortega Highway, which can really test your nerves when you are buzzing on caffeine and little sleep. I successfully made it to my business meeting in Orange County right on time at 9:30. After a few hours discussing the industry and feeling pretty good for hardly any shut-eye, I zipped back to Murrieta using the 91, now free of morning traffic. By the time I got back to the office it was 2 p.m. and time to drive 40 miles north in our KTM Sprinter van to Milestone MX to break in several motocross media ATVs.

Before I knew it the clock was ticking past 5 p.m. and I was putting in some hard laps aboard our all-new 450 SX ATV. The exercise and motos were good and it gave me a needed boost of energy for the 40-mile drive home. I got hung-up in traffic on "the" 60 so the drive ended up taking me an 1 hour 15 minutes. I've learned freeways are always referred to as "the" 15 or "the" 405 here. I'm not sure why, they just are. Next up, Taco Bell and a 25-minute wait for two soft tacos! Not ideal on limited energy. I can officially say that particular location has lost any future business from me. By the time I ate and caught up with Tracy I was crashing hard. I probably beat my grandma to bed when I fell asleep at 8:30.

The biggest news, I finally moved in a new couch today over lunch. I'm pretty "stoked" to dump the college futon and sit on some real furniture. No cable or Internet yet. It's become a game of how long I can hold out!

Where have I been and where am I going?

It's been a hectic week-plus since my last post. Moving to SoCal has changed my routine and it's actually added more work to my plate. Now that I'm within several miles of all the ATV and dirt bike media, I'm kept busy preparing for media tests or attending several, especially in December. It's a great change of pace getting out of the office, but it keeps the days in the office really busy.

Last weekend I headed down to Mission Beach and hung out with Derek and Chad Prull. For my ATV friends, don't be confused he's not the Chad Prull who finished second at the Baja 1000 last weekend. A group of 7 of us headed out to Canes Bar and Grill to watch an 80s hair band and the bar was absolutely packed. Naturally, four of us dressed up in 80s garb to put us in the mood. I was rocking a 1-Up Nintendo T-shirt, headband and wrist band, but Derek took the win with a jean jacket, cut-off jean shorts and an AC/DC T-shirt. There were a decent amount of people rocking 80s gear at the bar so it made for a fun time.

On Sunday we headed over to a local pub to watch the Vikes spank the Jags over some Bloddy Mary's. On my way home to Murrieta later that night I realized I'm getting too old to hang with the younger crowd. I was completely whipped. Staying out late when your used to going to bed before 10 takes a lot out of you.

On my way to San Diego my truck had some hesitation and acceleration issues and the CEL came on flashing. I noticed my truck was idling rougher for the last several months and CEL came on briefly while I was still in Ohio. The dealer in Ohio took care of a needed transmission service and recommended replacing the PCV valve and thermostat. I found it hard to believe those items were the cause of the CEL. I took care of those items on my own, saving $400 from their rip-off price hike. Seriously, $225 for a $7 thermostat and $175 to literally plug in a new PCV valve into the valve cover ... a job that takes 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Updating those items didn't cure the issue, and I figured it wouldn't. I took it to the Rancho Ford and Lincoln Mercury dealer yesterday in Temecula and it was definitely the best I've ever been treated at a Ford dealership. They fit the truck in to their schedule without an appointment, diagnosed it as a bad No. 8 igntion coil and spark plug and I was on my way. That diagnosis is what my dad and I figured it was, but I didn't have time to play a guessing game on what cylinder it was as I have a flight today at 2:15 back in San Diego. It's the fourth bad coil my truck has had. I'd say this is highly unacceptable but, from my understanding, it's just the 2001 model year F150 that has these issues. Neat!

As for today, I'm off to Minneapolis to spend time with Tracy, family, friends and turkey. I'll miss my mom's mashed potatos this year, but I guess I'll just have to wait until Christmas. We are on a rotating holiday schedule on the Vogtman side, which means this year we celebrate Christmas at my parents' house. Next year it's Thanksgiving. It works out well when extended family get on the schedule. My bro-in-law, sister and sister-in-law and brother can spend time with their families and not feel rushed to be everywhere on one day. Not to mention it's going to save me some money now that I live in SoCal.

Well, off to San Diego for my 2:15 flight. Tracy and I are meeting up with friends tonight and tomorrow we look forward to stuffing our faces. You have to love American traditions. Eat, drink, eat some more, drink some more and watch football. Sounds good to me.

My First Earthquake

I experienced my first earthquake at 4:30 a.m. this morning. We've adjusted our work hours at KTM to be from 6:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., so it has disrupted my sleep pattern on work nights. I seem to wake up around 4:15 before falling back asleep until 5:15 or so to get up for work.

Today, I was in and out of sleep when I felt the mattress jiggle. I thought I was just having some really cool realistic dream until I heard we had a 4.1 magnitude earthquake at 4:35 a.m. this morning. I heard the news on the way to work, so it reassured me that I'm not completely losing my mind.

Anyways, it was pretty neat to experience the quake. The bed rumbled for 10 or 15 seconds and then I fell back to sleep. I thought the scale below best represented what I felt. The difference between a 4.1 and a 7.1 doesn't sound like much when related to magnitude, but when it is related to tons of TNT for the Seismic Energy, you really understand how huge of a difference it is. 1,000 tons of TNT vs. 32 million tons!

Richter     TNT for Seismic    Example
Magnitude      Energy Yield    (approximate)

-1.5                6 ounces   Breaking a rock on a lab table
1.0               30 pounds   Large Blast at a Construction Site
1.5              320 pounds
2.0                1 ton      Large Quarry or Mine Blast
2.5              4.6 tons
3.0               29 tons
3.5               73 tons 
4.0            1,000 tons     Small Nuclear Weapon
4.5            5,100 tons     Average Tornado (total energy)
5.0           32,000 tons
5.5           80,000 tons     Little Skull Mtn., NV Quake, 1992
6.0        1 million tons     Double Spring Flat, NV Quake, 1994
6.5        5 million tons     Northridge, CA Quake, 1994
7.0       32 million tons     Hyogo-Ken Nanbu, Japan Quake, 1995; Largest Thermonuclear Weapon
7.5      160 million tons     Landers, CA Quake, 1992
8.0        1 billion tons     San Francisco, CA Quake, 1906
8.5        5 billion tons     Anchorage, AK Quake, 1964
9.0       32 billion tons     Chilean Quake, 1960
10.0       1 trillion tons     (San-Andreas type fault circling Earth)
12.0     160 trillion tons     (Fault Earth in half through center,
                             OR Earth's daily receipt of solar energy)

Fun Weekend

Tracy made the visit to Murrieta for a long weekend and it was good to finally be back together again after being apart 5 weeks. Now we look forward to Thanksgiving when I come home for five days.

Finally, after much delay and indecision, we bought a couch and ottoman for the apartment at Ashley Furniture. I'd describe it for you, but I'd rather you visit and tell us what you think in person.

Other than that, we took it easy and went to La Jolla beach on Saturday for a walk and to watch the sunset. It was 80 degrees and it turned out to be significantly warmer than Sunday.

On Sunday, we visited Derek and watched the Vikes eek out a W against the Pack. Finally, Childress! We also hit up this sketchy corner mexican stand / restaurant for lunch and it turned out to be really good. The best thing was it cost us $11 for two full meals. Not bad.

I'm still looking in to getting cable and Internet at the apartment ... shooting for next week. Until then, I'll be sporadic with my posts.

Halloween

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I'm still waiting to get Internet at my apartment and until then my posts will be a little brief.

I had a fun weekend down in San Diego for Halloween. I dressed up as a 70s stock car driver helmet and all and managed to keep the lid on the whole night Friday. We went to Pacific Beach and bar hopped before cabbing it back to Derek and Chad's place. On Saturday, we watched that disappointing Gopher football game and tried to forget about it with some fattening KFC.

Besides that, we hung out and played some Wii and took it easy on Saturday. I stuck around for the Vikes game on Sunday because, you guessed it, I don't have cable at my apartment yet. We went to Junior Seau's restaurant and watched the game over a bloody Mary.

The last two days at work I've been busy in training on our new Husaberg bike. What I'm quickly learning is tearing apart an engine is easy, it's the electrical wiring that's the hard part. Especially with a fuel-injected bike. Regardless, it's fun spending time in the shop instead of at a desk.

I'll have some pictures from Halloween for you sometime this week.

And, amazingly, it rained here today and it's only reached 75 the last two days. Maybe the hot weather is finally over?

Lazy? Maybe

I can't decide if it's just laziness or being busy, but I'm still sleeping with my box spring and mattress on the floor. It doesn't take much to put the bed together, but it's five nights and counting with this sleeping arrangement.

Last night I finally put my futon together, so I have a somewhat comfortable couch to lounge on. Once all of you decide to make some plans to visit me, I promise I'll have a grown-up couch for you to sit on and some pink champagne to spray on it.

Did I mention it's still hot here. I got out of the airport yesterday and sweat immediately started to pool up in areas that don't like sweat pooling up. 95 degrees here yesterday and 89 today. That's a cold front here I guess. Everybody keeps telling me that it's way warmer than usual, but I don't buy it. I'll believe it when it's 75 degrees out for five straight days.

Tonight I'm going to get some groceries and stop this string of eating out that's causing me to get fat, in turn causing sweat to pool up. And, once that's over with, I'm going to stop being lazy and put the bed together. If there's still some time, I'm going to force sweat to pool up by working out in the apartment's workout room. The whole sweat pooling up is pretty gross I guess, but I'm not over it just yet. Do you want some sweat to pool up? If so, I have an Anytime Fitness membership that I'm canceling, but my key fob still works for 35 more days. I guess they need like a two-year notice to cancel a gym membership these days. First come, first serve. Where do you want sweat to pool up? My guess is it starts with cra and ends with ck.

MacBook Pro

Today I received my new laptop, a MacBook Pro. I've taken on more responsibilities with graphic design work and advertising here, so it made sense to work on the same platform as our Kiska Design agency. After using a PC for the last 8 months, it's like learning to ride a bike all over again. At least I'm not riding blindfolded. I spent four years using a Mac at my last job, so I'm pretty familiar with how to efficiently operate it.

After turning on my new computer, JEB (Jon-Erik, N.A. Pres.) went on to say how he thinks Macs are overhyped. They're OK as a home platform, but are hell on corporate exchange servers. I think he's on to something because the old server ran by four squirrels and two chipmunks at my old job Ehlert crashed on a daily basis. I had access to e-mail there about as much as I've had people viewing my house for sale: never. I'm sure JEB's right, that it had a lot to do with all those fancy laid-back hoodie sweater Macs on the server. Maybe the whole suit and tie thing is a fair and accurate representation of a PC: They don't suck the life out of corporate servers. But, maybe South Park's parody got it right.

Last night I returned to Ohio from my weekend trip to Indiana. We had a somewhat successful weekend with our three pro ATV riders on Saturday and our Finnish Husaberg rider in the dirt bike race Sunday. It was fun having Finland native Valtteri Salonen here so he could experience a demanding three-hour race in the States. I think his Swedish girlfriend, blonde surprise surprise, was more excited to go shopping today!

Now, I'm looking forward to returning to California. I never thought I'd actually say that, but I am. This two-week road trip has taken a lot out of me and I can't wait to sleep in my own bed for a change. On days like yesterday, I sure wished my bed was still in Minnesota in the house I can't sell along with me!

On Sunday I had to miss out on my nephew Brennen's birthday party, and just two months ago I wasn't there to celebrate my niece Elyse's birthday either. Those are the things that make this move difficult. At my niece and nephew's age, they grow up so fast and I'd hate to miss out on that. Even without me there, Tracy made an appearance and gave Brennen a sweet Lego set. Brennen told me he also got a remote control car and heelie shoes that roll. He was so excited he could barely talk. To be a kid again, huh?

I don't think missing family and friends will get any easier until Tracy moves to SoCal with me, but at least I'm distracted with all the traveling, moving and new job responsibilities. Today, I was just told we could start at 6:30 a.m. and be done at 3 p.m. I think I'll like those hours ... as long as they don't turn out to be 6:30 - 5:30.

 

PDA = Oh Boy!

Add me to the world of Blackberry. After resisting a little, I've finally agreed to take on a Blackberry for work. It's a win / lose situation. It's great to always have access to e-mails, but now all my co-workers know that too! At the end of the day, I just hope it streamline's my work flow and makes everything that much easier. So far my biggest annoyance with the device is I can't turn off the keypad tone when I dial a phone number. Besides that, it's actually fairly easy to use. I'm working with the new World Edition model that will allow me to roam and make calls while in Europe. I anticipate traveling more to Austria next year as my responsibilities expand here.

Tomorrow afternoon I leave for Indiana. Believe it or not, but I'm staying in the Holiday Inn Express in Lebanon, IN, and I didn't even book this hotel room or know I had a room reserved there before my Stay Smart blog! The race team reserved a room for me, so one more round of Staying Smart for me.

I'll be cruising in a bad-ass Ford Focus. It's the rental car I've always dreamed of rolling in, thanks Enterprise. Talk about bare bones. I didn't know they still sold cars without power windows, power locks, cruise control and radio sans CD player. A closer look will likely reveal no suspension and a "Built in Amish Country" tag. I guess it's better than taking Greyhound. It's my 10-year anniversary of being Greyhound free ... can anything beat the toxic smells aboard a Greyhound?

D.C. Pictures

The weather wasn't the best, so I wasn't overly excited about my images. Here are my favorites and some of the best. Being a newbie to Flickr I wasn't sure what size to make the pictures before loading them. Next time, I'm going up in file size.

Staying Smart

I'm now sitting in my fourth hotel of this business trip and I'll try and get you all caught up on the happenings in my hectic life. My first hotel was a two-day stint in the Doubletree of Bethesda. I had a great time seeing the sights in D.C. and riding the Metro, which was much cleaner than I anticipated. While there, I saw the Vietnam Memorial and it was hard not to get a lump in my throat looking at all those names on the walls and what sacrifices they made for our country. Then I saw the World War II Memorial that had impressive water features. It's something you should see during the warmer months, I've heard it's not as impressive in the winter. I then made my way to the Korean War Memorial, which was one of my favorite aesthetic Memorials because the statues, wall art and garden was designed extremely well. Both of my grandfathers are Veterans, so it was important for me to see both the WWII and Korean War Memorials. Of course, I had to see the Lincoln Memorial and I never expected old Abe to be so big in person. Pretty cool. Unfortunately, it started to drizzle so my photography left a lot to be desired. I snapped several shots of the Washington Monument and tribute to the creators of the Declaration of Independence ... there was no Herbie Hancock tribute, sorry Chris Farley! While I waited out the annoying drizzle I spent 35 minutes relaxing under a tree waiting for nightfall and watching a lot of joggers. People watching is mine and Tracy's favorite pastime! I wanted to see the Washington Monument and Capitol building lighted, and I'd say it was worth the wait.

After a flight from D.C. to Philly to Cleveland, I arrived at Hotel No. 2 that is a truly ghetto Holiday Inn Express in Elyria, OH. I looked out my dirty window and the view revealed a stripper bar. Nothing makes you want to climb into your Holiday Inn Express bed sheets more than the glow of stripper bar neon outside your window! Fortunately, the sheets were soft and not crunchy, but the 70s wanted the room decor back. I've stayed there before, but I got a renovated room that time and no stripper bar neons lighting up my room. This go around, I felt like I was staying in a really dumpy "That 70s Show" set with a strange neon glow.

Next up was a road trip from Elyria, OH, to Cononver, N.C., with my KTM co-worker and talented ATV R&D Technician John Maley this past Sunday. Maley, 40ish, is an older tech who has been around for a long time and manages to talk more than me. Needless to say, we had a good time driving to Conover in the KTM ATV box van joking and ripping on just about everybody that we passed. He's a bigger smart ass than me in my prime. Very entertaining. Naturally, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Conover. This Holiday Inn Express is more reminiscient of the commercials you see on TV. It was new, the decor was much better and the towels softer. The breakfast bar was a lot better too. Off topic for a second, but didn't Holiday Inn Express do a terrific job with its commercial / marketing campaign? I'd say it usually lives up to its billing. Holiday Inn was tanking before the whole Express campaign got going. And, I actually really do like most of their renovated / new hotels, except the dump found in Elyria.

Back on topic ... We were in North Carolina to meet up with my old friends / co-workers at Ehlert Publishing for their ATV Trials shootout event. And, GNCC XC1 multi-champ dirt bike rider David Knight was testing for this weekend's season finale. He's racing an ATV, and Maley did a great job prepping and setting up an ATV for him to test and get dialed in. It was a good event, but I'm wiped out. We got up early both Monday and Tuesday, and I stayed up late battling slow Internet connection to stay caught up on all my work e-mails; it turned out to be a battle I couldn't win until tonight. After watching our 450 XC ATV score the best acceleration numbers Monday and knowing all the test riders were pleased with the ATV after riding Tuesday, I'd say everything went flawlessly. And, to top it off, Knight really liked the setup on his 525 XC he'll be racing this Saturday.

After an 8 hour-plus ride from Conover to Vermillion, OH, I now sit in my fourth hotel, a Holiday Inn Express. This is the hotel I spent two months in when I first moved to Ohio before the temporary apartment arrangement, so I knew I could expect a clean room, no stripper bars or crunchy sheets, and a quiet stay. That, and the Internet connection is always reliable here. On Friday morning, I'll wake up and head out to Indiana for the Ironman GNCC finale. I haven't booked my hotel yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's a Holiday Inn Express. And, if it's not, I'm back here in Vermillion on Sunday for two more nights before returning to California. I need all the smart I can get these days. I guess that advertising campaign really did work!

D.C., Finally!

It was a long day of traveling, starting at 4:55 am PST this morning and finally ending at 7 p.m. EST. Flying in to Reagan is pretty unique. I got my first glimpse of the Pentagon and Washington Monument at the Constitution Gardens from the air. I anticipate riding the Metro back to D.C. tomorrow evening to see the historic landmarks first-hand. The Metro lived up to its billing and getting to Bethesda was relatively easy. A tip for travelers, ride in the back of the train car so you aren't in everybody's way with your luggage. I'm glad I decided to ditch the gearbag on this trip, which means I won't be able to ride dirt bikes in North Carolina next week. Oh well, it can't be all pleasure and no work, but it would be nice if it was!

I'm off to a local cafe for dinner, but check out the view from the Doubletree Hotel! I'm on the 12th floor, there's a full moon view out one window and downtown Bethesda from the other. The coolest part is the room has a balcony, which is pretty trick. You don't get those much anymore at hotels. Oh, and I strongly recommend using Priceline's name your own price. I typed in 3.5 stars out of 4 and scored two nights at the Doubletree for $90 each night. That's $150 less than the listed call-in price for a one night stay! Usually the hotel lives up to the star rating. Tracy and I stayed at a 3 star hotel in La Jolla last April, but it was more like a 2.5. Always bid on the highest star level and start really low, you'd be surprised what hotels will accept!

Public Transportation, It's Grreeaat!

The traveling bonanza gets underway at 5:15 a.m. Pacific time tomorrow. It's about an hour drive to Ontario airport from Murrieta, which I just happened to pass while on some official KTM business today. Kind of convenient because I know what to expect for travel time etc. Tonight kind of feels like I'm packing for a week of hockey camp. You've got a gear bag, a personal bag, a backpack loaded down and you're a little nervous.

Traveling does get old after awhile when it's for work, but when you get to go to new places it kind of makes you feel like a kid eagerly anticipating his first day of a new school year. You don't want to do anything stupid, and you don't want to get lost looking for your classroom.

As for Thursday's classroom, I'll be at an important business meeting in Bethesda, Maryland, at CPSC headquarters along with several other influencial member companies of the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America. Most of the other companies' representatives come from the old guard and have been in the game for a long time. But, strangely I've never felt out of my league while sitting at the boardroom table. No matter our age, we all have one thing in common and that's the passion for the motorsports industry. Believe it or not, I think new blood like myself at these meetings is a benefit for everybody there. It's a fresh perspective that represents the next generation.

Anyways, this bring me to my next point: Why can't Minneapolis or even Los Angeles truly figure out public transportation like the east or even Chicago (The L) has? OK, L.A. has that earthquake thing that can make it a little challenging, but really the bullet train idea would be a huge improvement. Minneapolis is slowly catching on with LRT, but it's not even close to a viable solution. I've sat in worse traffic in Minneapolis than almost any other metropolitan area, including L.A. Sure, things get bad here, but everything is really spread out. Two hours to go 90 miles in rush hour from the Inland Empire to LAX would be equal to the 90 miles two-hour trip from Saint Cloud to MSP at the same time of the morning. Is it bad in L.A.? I guess that's all relative. It's bad in Minneapolis too.

Which finally brings me to my last point. I arrive at DCA in Washington, D.C., at 5 p.m. tomorrow. The best part is, I won't have to rent a car or take an expensive taxi. I logged on to the Metro website and it basically plotted the directions for me. It gave me what trains I need to take and precise times to get to Bethesda. The best part is, I'm actually excited to try out the transportation system there. I've ridden Boston's T, and I hope the Metro compares. In the meantime, I'll be a little excited and a little nervous. And, if I have time after the meeting on Thursday, I'd really like to see the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. I've never been to the nation's Capital, and I am really looking forward to it. My only wish would be that I could share my experience with Tracy. There's always next time!

All the Cool Kids Are Doing It ... And Some Jamaican Burn-Outs

I preface this blog with a quote from my friend Brad who said "Start blogging, all the cool kids are doing it." That was about five years ago. Now that I know the fad is over - hopefully like the boyband era and frosted tips - and all the cool kids aren't doing it anymore, I've decided it's a good time to start blogging. No, I'm not going to frost my tips!

Since the fad isn't a fad anymore, and Tracy and I are starting our own business called VeBe Visual, it made sense to blog. I've been working on some rough draft logos and branding and I'll post a few in the next couple of weeks to get your opinions. It's like a focus group without all the free food ... neat!

Now that I'm officially in California and moved in to our apartment awaiting Tracy to move, it's time to be distracted from unpacking boxes. Seriously, I give the Allied folks props. I thought the moving process would be like teaching a fish to walk ... impossible. Not so. Allied did a tremendous job moving so I tipped the moving crew $30 on pick-up and delivery. There wasn't even a scratch on any of the items moved. The boxes had so much paper in them the Jamaican with full-on dreads living below me was jealous. The packing material looked like huge Zig-Zag papers.

Hardly to my surprise, about 1.5 hours into the move, a distinct smell of marijuana hovered throughout the apartment. It's a three-floor outdoor staircase to our apartment and one of the movers cracked, "My legs are getting heavy. I just smoked a lot of second-hand reefer!" With our porch door open, strong 50 mph South / Southeast Santa Ana winds and the Jamaican a smokin', the entire apartment started to reek. The second mover joked, "I think that's some really good stuff he's hitting!" For some strange reason, I think he had some "experience" to know whether or not the stuff was good just from the smell.

It reminds me of when we viewed the apartment and I thought to myself, "It smells kind of different in here. It must just be because everything is new." Umm ... not so much. I've got no problem with the man a smokin' and a livin' his way of life, but if he wants to continue burning his joints, maybe he could be kind enough to gift us some incense! OK. Enough complaining. It's not like Tracy and I didn't expect this from apartment living. Even if our place is really top notch, you can't choose your neighbors. At least he's quiet, likely because all those joints makes him super chill. Maybe he even has his own blog like me, and is complaining that the guy above him and the movers are "some indubitable white dudes." I give him credit, I had to look that word up to know it meant authentic. Maybe it really does make you smarter!

Welcome to California living! And California living in the high desert - locals call it the valley, but valleys are supposed to have rain and that hasn't occurred in 7 months. October here means fires and Santa Ana winds that whip up to 70 mph from the desert east. Today it's calm here, but you can never be too sure what tomorrow will bring this time of year. I'll leave you with this, the view from our apartment. To the Southwest, the Santa Ana Mountains, looking toward Camp Pendleton (above), currently burning again for the second time in one week. To the West (right), smoke hovers from a small brush fire that has been contained in Newport Beach. Our area isn't threatened like the huge fires in San Bernardino. Outside of the fires, it's really a tremendous view in the morning and evening and part of what sold us on this place.

Next up, traveling across the country from Maryland to Ohio to North Carolina to Indiana. And, naturally, more updates to follow.

VeBe