Dangel!

It has been 3 years 4 months and 24 days since the last time I saw Dane Cook live, and now I am just 7 days away from seeing him again. Back then I still worked at the Casino overnight on the 9:30pm - 630am shift. My friend Jesse and I found out that Dane was going to be at the Sundome at USF for FREE! We couldn't believe it, however, time was not on my side in this situation. The show was on a Thursday and my schedule was a Sunday through Wednesday. So, I woke up that Wednesday around 1pm and did my usual day to day stuff, and then went to work at 9:30pm. I got off work at 6:30am and waited for Jesse to get out at 7:30. We then went straight to the Sundome on Fowler and got in line. We were not the first ones there. In fact we were about 20th in line. So we waited all day there until the 7:30pm door opening. By that time I had been up for about 30 hours and was definitely feeling it. We got inside and ended up getting 4th row from the stage. They were amazing seats, and still free. The show started about an hour later and let me tell you, I just couldn't keep my eyes open. I kept falling asleep in the chair and was 4-wheelin' pretty bad. I definitely missed all the USF hoopla ra ra stuff at the beginning of the night. I also missed quite a bit of Dane's opener, Jay Davis' show unfortunately. When Dane came on it was so loud in there I finally was up. After his act he mentioned that there was some 8500 people in the dome and it was Jay's birthday, so he wanted everyone to meet him at Bennigan's next door after the show. Jay even came out and called Bennigan's on speakerphone to reserve a party for 10,000. Everybody was cracking up. Unfortunately I was so tired I told Jesse there's no way I'm going to Bennigan's just to see if they show up. I went home and got some much needed rest. When I woke up the next day and checked Jay's myspace page, you guessed it, him and Dane and about 3500 people showed up at Benningans. Unbelievable. I missed out. It was an unforgettable show none the less, but I missed out on a great after party. Just a little funny note - Jay's page says they were at UCF.

Parking Garage 500

I went up to Tampa General today to visit. The visit went well but getting home was a road rage test that I don't know how I got through. When I got to the hospital the garage was just packed with cars. I even joked around and told Lauren that I thought my nose was bleeding from being on the 7th floor of the garage. Well somewhere along my journey up I crossed into the employee side of the garage. When I followed the 1000 exit signs on my way down they led to a booth-less gate. I pulled up to it, nothing happened. Looked up and saw a Sunpass looking thing on the roof. So I screamed a few cuss words at my windshield. I drove up and down that garage for twenty or so minutes looking for this sacred cross over. I kept seeing where I needed to be but couldn't figure out how to get to it. Up and down, up and down, and always ended up at the same gate with the same BMW parked next to it just staring at me. Mocking me. I imagine the security guards watching on the camera were in tears laughing at this point. I found a guy painting one of the elevators and asked him how the hell I get out of this place. He says "I was afraid you were gonna say that." He explained to me that somehow I got into the employee parking garage. He told me he didn't know how to get back to the other side but showed me that the yellow poles sticking out of the ground were flimsy plastic and could be easily run over. As I'm leaving a guy in a truck pulls up to the painter and says, I think I have the same question he has. I laughed a little. I took one more trip up to the 7th floor and found a spot that looked like it should have yellow poles sticking up so I drove through it thinking I was home free. All the way down, 14 u-turns, I'm outta here! NOPE! Freaking BMW with a gate. Oh my god. I tell my windshield what I think of this situation again. I go up one level and just drive right over the yellow poles. It took me 32 minutes to exit a parking garage. I never thought I'd see the day where a parking garage would make me want to go have a beer. So, if you make your way into Tampa General parking garage, be wary of what side you're on.

Grid Airborne Achievement

Lookin' to get your Airborne Achievement in Grid for the Xbox 360? Do it the easy way. Hit an invisible Halo 2-like barrier sitting on the curb. I don't know if it works every time, but this spot on the curb of the Remus Drift Battle in J-Speed Super Two sent my Subaru WRX STI into a 3960° spiral (that's 11 complete spirals).

This - Not This

Friday morning I'm working from home. I'm sitting at my desk while Jenna, in her cold ridden-Nyquil doused state, is sleeping heavily in the bedroom. Well, Nathan is up and wandering around the house aimlessly. He keeps lookin' at me like "what can be so important on that computer that you can't play Rock Band 2 with me?". I hear him head off to the bedroom one more time to try and wake mom out of her medicinal coma and don't hear anything for a good 10 or 15 minutes. He comes back and holds his hand out to me. Well, every day when I take a shower, I grab a multivitamin out of the medicine cabinet and then go into the bedroom to get dressed. I usually set the vitamin down on the nightstand or our dresser while I put some clothes on. Since I have the short term memory of Tom Hanks in that old Saturday Night Live skit, I usually end up forgetting my vitamin until I see it later that night. The vitamin is what Nathan hands me. It's kind of slimy to the touch so I look at him for a disgusted look because I know I almost gag at the taste just from taking it with a glass of water. The half second it's on my tongue is enough to leave that fowl taste in my mouth for hours. He doesn't have a look. But it's wet, I'm sure he tried it. I ask him, "did you put this in your mouth?". He says, "there ya go daddy, not candy." I lost it! I said "very good Bubby, not candy." "Daddy's. Mehcine. Not candy." I couldn't believe how cute of a moment came out of one the parent's instinctual fears: kid getting into the medicine.

Bulls On Parade!

Nathan has got rockstar in his blood. The kid is just obsessed with music, well rock music anyway.

Hangin' In The W.C.

Last Saturday, Jenna and I went to the W.C. with Josh and Lauren to check out their new movie theater. The Cobb Theater Cinebistro was extremely nice. We will most likely only go to this theater from now on. When you walk in and go up the stairs you're greeted by a hostess just like any restaurant and seated. We ordered our drinks and meals and they take down your movie time so they can try and get everything in before it starts. The food was one of those things where you're like "this is good, but I think they're overcharging me." We didn't order any alcohol but from what I heard the price was jacked way up. We then went into the theatre with our tickets that have assigned seats on them. We were in the upper balcony which is 21 and up because they will serve you alcohol and dinner in the actual theater 30 minutes before the show. You can also go and get alcohol during the movie if you want. The seats were incredible. They're huge leather seats that you could almost fit two people in one. They also have an arm-rest inbetween them that goes up (Jenna and I couldn't get ours to budge) that will basically turn your two seats into a small sofa. On the outside of the pairs of seats are small swivel tables similar to a school desk so that you can put your food and drinks on. I was so impressed with the theater itself, it was hard to enjoy the movie as a movie. We saw Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist which was great. It was comparable to one of Michael Cera's other films Juno. Hilarious dry humor, but a great story to go along with it. If you get a chance, I highly recommend the Cinebistro experience and I will definitely drive the extra 15 miles to avoid the nightmares of the Brandon theater parking lot.

I Got A Fever

Well, in actuality I have a head cold. But I do have Rays fever and the only cure is more Rays' cowbell. I have been watching this team for a couple months now since they're the only ones on TV down here anyways. Well, they have got quite the squad. I have been impressed on a daily basis with their skills in pretty much every department. It's amazing how far being great at the fundamentals of baseball will get you. I mean when almost every game has someone trying to bunt with nobody on, my (Ray's) hats off to them. We were out in St. Pete on Saturday and ended up going to the game. Man, what a great decision to go to this. I thought they were going to clinch the night before and Saturday they would be all hung over from celebrating. Well, they didn't clinch their playoff spot so Saturday was one of the most exciting events I've ever been to. If we would have been one of the first 10,000 fans in the door we would have got a Troy Percival figurine, but we weren't. However, since the Rays had a good chance of clinching that night, they were handing out the Rays' cowbell. We got our bells and took our seats on the third-base line. The seats were amazing to say the least. We had so much fun and our hands are still calloused from clapping so hard. Even though I know I have a head cold, I think part of the problem with my throat might be from yelling so much and so loud at the game. If you haven't caught Rays fever yet, just watch some of their games. Each play, each at bat, each decision is exactly how it should be executed and that makes them an enjoyable spectacle to behold.