The countdown to Tampa has started.

Road Trip!

In just a couple short weeks, the lady and I are going to take our first road trip. We're heading to Tampa for some fun and sun (more fun than sun, actually).

The last time we went to Tampa, it was right around Labor Day weekend 2010 (I know this because we started classes right after we got back). We flew down that time, got a hotel and a rental car, but only had a few short days there. She already knew everyone there. I was just meeting everyone for the first time.

Since then, we have strengthened our friendships with these people thanks to the joy and amazement of the internet and social media. We already know what we're doing on Friday and Saturday night. Sunday, I want to head out to a baseball game if it's not too hot. The rest of the time we will play by ear. It's going to be good.

The road trip thing just kind of happened thanks to the economy. We don't make as much and airline prices suck. I did the math and round trip in the car for gas is just as much as one round trip plane ticket for us. Also, there is adventure involved. Will we kill each other on the way down? Who knows. It's going to be fun. This also lets me not have to go through TSA checkpoints, take off my shoes, belt and whatever else. I won't have to sit in a seat that is too small for even skinny people. I am not going to have to worry about my arthritic body swelling up and then decompressing for 8 hours after the flight. I won't have to pay extra baggage fees for her 80lb's of club gear. I'll just be in MY car. A place I know I can handle for hours on end with the lady I love the most.

The next couple of weeks are going to be fun getting everything together. At least I have hotels set already. That is the good part.

I'll make sure to get pictures here. We're also going to get a YouTube video or two up of the trip. Should be a good time.

...tomorrow will be AWESOME.

Look, I had a not so good day. What did I do about it? I decided tomorrow will be awesome.

Join in the fun. I hope tomorrow is awesome for everyone.

Be Awesome Wednesday on Facebook

Monoprice cables: Hands down the best

Monoprice - Awesome cables

I purchased a bunch of stuff for my home theater the other day from Monoprice.com. I got turned on to these guys a few years ago from a friend who was redoing his basement and adding a home theater room.

My girlfriend plays Call of Duty with me.

So, back in December, I introduced Cat to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. I decided to take some video of this to document that she did indeed play.

Just recently she has decided that she has taken an interest in the game that I play with my friends. As of now, she's getting better. She gets a couple kills each game. She gets very few deaths for the most part, and she's starting to venture out and not camp so much.

There is still the occasional screaming coming from her when someone freaks her out by flying around a corner, and she shoots at everything that moves (friend or foe). But she has taken a liking to playing. Just the other night all I heard was "ooo! I want to play too!" as she was supposed to be doing her homework and I was playing.

Last night, I had her work on playing the single player campaign to which I was told "I don't like this. It's not as fun as the other game" (multiplayer). Yet after all of this. She will still try to say that video games are still "dumb"  and that she doesn't particularly care for them.

We have to play split screen because I'm not about to get a second Elite account for her AND a gamertag, so for the moment, she plays as my "guest". I am also working on getting her a headset that she likes and possibly a microphone too. At the moment, she gets a little loud while playing and everyone can hear her through my microphone while we have game chat through the speakers.

Also, big thanks to Drift0r for the words of advice on how to get her more in tune with the game. You can check out his videos on YouTube.

Quotes from Cat: "I shot him first, why didn't he die?"

Multitasking - It's how I get shit done, son.

I have this book I'm supposed to read for school (Empire of the Summer Moon) and do a book report/review by Friday. I also want to work out.

So, I have decide that thanks to the Kindle app on my iPad, I can do both. Then the crazy set in.

As you saw from Monday's post, I went 90 minutes, and somewhere around 7 miles while reading this book. It has been my life all week. At lunch, at home, and now at the gym.

The report is due Friday night at 11:30pm. Well, I have the kids this weekend and that means I have to go and get them. So, I'm not going to be home until almost 11. Not a lot of time to write a report. So, I pretty much had to have the book read tonight. With over 130 pages of a very slow moving book to read, I hopped on my trusty Precor glider/stepper/thingy tonight and away I went.

One hundred and thirty minutes (and ten and a quarter miles) later and I have about 20 pages left that will get read at lunch tomorrow. I will get to write the paper when I get home from work and have it done in time to hand in electronically.

I don't think I've ever worked out that long at a continuous pace... ever. There was always a break of like ten minutes, or something, in there. This was 130 minutes straight. Let's put it this way. I could have watched Empire Strikes Back and still had 6 minutes left after the credits were done. Wait a minute, looks like I know how I'm getting through my workouts from now on.