Hootie!

Jen and Mark Bryan, the guitarist for Hootie and the Blowfish.

Every year, Hootie and the Blowfish get back together and do a show in Charleston.  It is usually the only show that they play as Hootie since Darius Rucker and the rest of the band are pursuing solo careers and other endevours with their own bands.  They scheduled the show for two nights, Friday and Saturday, with a music festival during the day on Saturday.  The opening band on Friday night was Toad and the Wet Sprocket and on Saturday, Foster and Lloyd opened the show.  The headliners of the music festival during the day were a couple guys from Sister Hazel, who played on a small stage set up outside of the Family Circle Cup arena.  They also came out and played their hit "All For You" during the Hootie show, which was a lot of fun.

We started out the night on Friday eating dinner and having a couple drinks at Vespa, a small pizza place on Daniel Island right outside of the Family Circle Cup facility.  They have awesome wood-grilled pizza and some good happy hour specials.  We had general admission tickets, so after dinner we headed straight to the gates to get in line.  We timed it perfectly, getting close enough to the front where Jen could run up and snipe a couple of seats in the front row of the GA section. 

Darius Rucker's truck featuring the Ravenel Bridge.

It was a perfect night for a concert and the show was better than I was expecting.  They played all of the old favorites, some of Darius's new hits, and quite a few covers.  My favorite cover was Champagne Supernova by Oasis, which they played during their third encore. 

After the show, we went to an Irish pub up the street to have a few drinks and hang out with a couple of our friends who joined us for the concert.  There was an irish group with bag pipes and a snare drummer playing in the bar, which was loud enough for us to appreciate after being at a rock concert for three hours.

When the night was winding down, we were getting ready to leave when Mark Bryan walks in the door.  He's the guitarist for Hootie.  We decided to stay for another round.

Once Mark and the rest of his entourage got settled in, Jen went up and talked to him.  She asked if they were going to switch up the songs for the second night and he said they were going to change things around a bit.  He asked what song she wanted to hear, and she told him that she had never heard them play "Show Me Your Heart" live and he said that he actually wrote that song...and then proceeded to sing the first few lines of the song to her.  I thought I was going to have to carry her out of the bar.  Hootie night #1 = success.

The next night was a bit different story, as rain clouds tried to put a damper on the party.  It was nice all afternoon and we got to enjoy the music festival and even went back to Vespa for another pizza before the show.  We managed to get seats in almost the same place in the GA section and took turns going on beer runs.  Foster and Lloyd played for a while and right before Hootie was getting ready to play, a huge storm rolled in.  They made everyone in the GA section take cover and get off of the metal bleachers (which was a good call), so we grabbed an umbrella and huddled near the stairs so we could get our seats back when the storm blew over.

Devoted fans.

After probably an hour of waiting and some entertaining antics of a few people that had floors seats including a mock tennis match, something like a dance off, and a game of catch with a tennis ball from the floor to the 2nd deck, a security guard came around and started telling everyone that she show had been canceled.  No one believed the guy, so most everyone stuck around.  After a few more minutes, Mark Bryan picked up a mic and announced that they wouldn't be letting a little rain stop them. 

Once the stage was ready to go, Hootie started playing and put on another awesome show.  They played a couple different covers and changed up the order of their set, which made it feel like an entirely different show.

Overall it was an awesome weekend.  I'm still dripping from standing in the rain for so long, but it was worth being waterlogged to see the smile on Jen's face when Hootie took the stage.

Weekend in ATL, Georgia Aquarium, and Zoo Atlanta

Whale shark and a diver at the Georgia Aquarium

It pays to have friends in cool places.  Last weekend, Jen and I hopped into the car and took a trip to Atlanta to visit her friend Heather who works at the Georgia Aquarium with some of the freshwater fish.  We planned the trip a while ago so both Jen and Heather could take time off so we could have the whole weekend to explore the city and of course Zoo Atlanta and the Aquarium.

We left early Friday morning and got to Heather's in the early afternoon.  It only took about five and a half hours plus a little time to stop at Wendy's for lunch and try their new Wildberry Frosty (which was delicious btw).  We hung out at Heather's apartment for a while and then went for a walk around the neighborhood.  She lives in a very cool neighborhood that has plenty to do within walking distance.  It had almost a "main street" type feel with all of the bars, restaurants, and stores.  There were even some art studios and cool little niche stores that would be fun to explore.

Later that night we went out for sushi and then to a bar that had a ton of bar games like pool, darts, and shuffleboard.  It even had two huge bocci ball courts in the basement with a sign up board that took up the entire wall.  We played a few games of darts and had a few beers before calling it a night.  From all of the places we walked or drove by on our way to dinner and to the next bar, it looked like one could explore the city for years and not make it to all of the bars and restaurants.

Awesome sign at the Zoo Atlanta parakeet feeding exhibit.

The next day we hit Zoo Atlanta.  After actually getting charged to get in after showing our Association of Zoos and Aquariums membership cards (more on that in a minute) we headed straight for the cafe to grab a bite to eat, which was convieniently right next to the giant panda exhibit.  Giant pandas are one of the rarest of the "popular" zoo animals.  You can only see them in the United States at the San Diego Zoo, the National Zoo in Washington D.C., and Zoo Atlanta.  They also happen to be one of Jen's favorite animals. 

Giant panda munching on some bamboo.

We got lucky and they had just fed the pandas, so they were up moving around.  They have a pair of pandas and also a baby, who was sleeping in tree the entire time we were at the exhibit (and when we came back later in the day).  The only other time that I had seen giant pandas was on a trip to San Diego a long while back and the panda was sleeping the entire time, so it was an awesome treat to see them moving around and chowing down on some bamboo.

The rest of the day at the Zoo was a blast, even though it was pretty warm.  Midsummer is not exactly the best time to be doing much outside in the South, but we stuck it out.  It even rained a bit on us, which cooled things down.  Zoo Atlanta has some great exhibits and we especially enjoyed the primate areas.  We stayed at the gorilla and orangutan exhibit for a long time and watched a young organg show off for the crowds.

On our way out we wanted to talk with member services and get a refund for our admission.  They gave us the standard 50% discount for a reciprocal membership, but being a member of the AZA is an entirely different thing that having a membership at another zoo.  I've never had to pay to get into a zoo with my AZA membership and have gotten some good discounts at Shedd Aquarium (who doesn't participate in any other reciprocal program).  After some hemming and hawing, we finanally got them to refund our admission, which we appreciated.  We e-mailed the AZA membership department and told them of the difficulty we had at the entrance so if nothing else they could update their reciprocal list if Zoo Atlanta didn't want to participate anymore...I just checked AZA.org and Zoo Atlanta is still on the list, so hopefully they have their stories straight now.

Two lovely ladies ready for a night out.

After the Zoo, we hit the town and bounced around to a few different places and had a great time.  We hit a mexican place for dinner that had some good sangria, went to a salsa club, and hit an underground bar that was rather dead...but we still had a good time:)

The next day was our Aquarium trip.  Heather gave us a couple passes (our wallets thank you!) and we walked around amid the crowds of screaming children for a couple hours.  We grabbed lunch at the cafe and then Heather gave us a behind the scenes tour, which was awesome.  My favorite part of the Aquarium is the big tank, which has more than 3,000 fish in it including four whalesharks and manta rays, which I don't believe you can see anywhere else in the country.  They also have dolphins, belugas, sea otters, and a ton of awesome exhibits and tanks.  Here are some photos from the "guest view."

Manta ray playing in the bubbles from the diver.

Whale shark!

Now for the really cool stuff...behind the scenes!  Heather took us topside of the big tank, which was amazing.  One of the staff was feeding a whale shark and the manta rays kept coming up toward the surface to say "hi" to Jen.  We also got to take a peek at a pair of hammerhead sharks that they have in holding.

Feeding a whale shark.

Manta ray!

Hammerhead shark.  This is the first time I've ever seen one...they're very impressive animals!

One of the coolest exhibits that they have (IMO) is a coral reef exhibit that every two minutes simulates a big wave going over the top of the exhibit.  The glass is curved so that guests are standing right underneath where the wave starts, which makes for a cool effect.  Here are a couple videos of the wave machine at work from behind the scenes...

We packed a lot of fun into three days and I got to cross two more zoo/aquarium type places off my list!  I buy a magnet from each zoo/aquarium I visit and stick them on a filing cabinet at work.  I need to get around to counting them to see how many I've visisted so far...but that's a blog post for another day!



O.A.R. Concert!!!

Here's Jen posing in the front row with Kelley James (the opening act) freestyling in the back ground.

Every summer, O.A.R. makes a stop in Charleston to play a show at the Family Circle Cup tennis facility.  Once Jen told me about this concert, I knew we'd be there.  When the dates where announced, I drove over to Daniel Island and got our general admission tickets.  We showed up about an hour and a half early and scored a front row spot on the left side of the stage.  I'd never seen O.A.R. but have listened to their music for years.  I used to loop one of their live albums on my iPod when I would play poker at Soaring Eagle in Mount Pleasant, MI.  Crazy Game of Poker is also one of my favorite songs (surprising, I know).

Kelley James was the opening act and put on a great show.  The best part was when his band played a beat for him and he freestyled for like 5 minutes about the girls in the front row, green chili, the underage drunk guys in the cheap seats, and Miller Lite.  There weren't many people at the concert yet, which actually made it fun because Kelley was interacting with the crowd and came down and talked to everyone in the front row after his set. 

Jen and Kelley James, the opening act and our new favorite free stylin' white boy.

He even told us all his Twitter handle (YourBoyKJ) and asked us to tweet a picture at him, so I tweeted the pic of Jen with Kelley in the background.  He retweeted us the next day and accepted our Friend requests on Facebook.

I look like a tool in this but Jen looks great, so I figure I can share it with the world :)

I wasn't kidding when I said we were close, this is the lead singer and the sax player of Soja, the 2nd band to play.  They had a reggae feel that was pretty cool, but their lyrics were hard to understand.

After the second band played, the place started to really fill up and there was a buzz in the crowd (not to mention the smell of "smoke") while we waited for O.A.R. to take the stage.  We held out front row spots despite having to run to the concession stand multiple times for beer refills and bathroom breaks and were ready to go when the band finally took the stage.

They came out and played "Nightshift" first, which was great because the entire crowd sang along.  Throughout the show they mixed in some old favorites and some newer songs and even played a couple off their upcoming album that comes out in August.  My favorite songs were "City on Down," "Nightshift", "Hey Girl" and of course their finale, "Crazy Game of Poker."  They put on an awesome show and I absolutely loved the jam band feel.  In the middle of songs they would stop playing the song and just go off into musical interludes, solos, and duets that rocked the house.  Near the end, the saxophone player left the stage and showed up in the crowd and played from the 2nd deck balcony. 

It was dark, so I couldn't get very many good pictures of O.A.R. but to be honest I didn't try much, I was too busy singing and loving the show.  I'm already looking forward to next years' show!

Hitting the gym...

One week ago tomorrow, I decided to work on getting active again and lose a few pounds.  I joined a gym and have gone 6 out of the last 7 days.  It feels good to be active again.  I feel better already and am enjoying the daily routine of getting to the gym, lifting, running, and getting back to life.  Other than my "lose 5 pounds this month" goal, I'd like to get myself in shape enough to run a 5K this summer, so after another couple weeks I'll see where I'm at and start looking for one to do.  It's incredibly hot in the summer here, but I'm sure I'll be able to find one.

So far my workout routine consists of warming up on the treadmill, stretching, lifting, then finishing with running or biking.  I'm doing three days of upper body lifting (chest/triceps, biceps/back, shoulders) and then a day of lower body.  After I shed some pounds, I'll start throwing in some more ab stuff as well.

My overall goal is to get to between 175-180 pounds and feel healthier and have more energy.  Some days it has been tough to get out of bed and I think it's because I haven't been active and been stressed.  I'm not planning on going crazy and going to the gym every single day, but I want to at least be active everyday.  I haven't played disc golf as much as I would like, so that will be an option for getting outside.  Also, Jen and I have both been taking walks at lunch, which is beneficial on not just the physical level, but also gets me out of the office for a few minutes every day. 

I've never run a 5K, but in high school they always wanted me to do cross country and thought I'd be able to run a good time.  For my first one, depending on when it is, I want to run under 25 minutes, which is around 8 minutes a mile.

ESPN Streak for the Cash

I had a fun first two days of June.  For the first time, I was on the very top of one of the leaderboards in Streak for the Cash.  I went 8-0 to start the month and was tied with one other guy at the top for a few hours of both the longest streak and the most wins.

I have screenshots on my work computer of the 8-0 run, I'll post those on Monday since I won't be in the office until then.

Now I'm 9-3 after missing two picks yesterday and one today, but I'm still in the hunt for my goal of winning the overall wins.  My current pick is the Texas Rangers to beat the Cleveland Indians and I should be able to get one more pick in later tonight. 

Anyway, it was fun while it lasted to be at the top.  Hopefully I can keep it up and have an exciting end of the month too!

Goals for June

Since tomorrow is the start of a new month, I've decided to lay out a few goals for myself to achieve by the end of the month.  I'll come back at the end of the month this post and see how I did...

Goal #1: Lose 5 pounds. I just joined a gym and want to start making it a habit of working out again.  The idea is to be able to run a 5K sometime this summer and also shed a few pounds while toning up a bit. 

Goal #2: Win ESPN Streak for the Cash monthly picks.  Usually with Streak for the Cash I make a bunch of picks until I get a streak of 4 or 5 going, then slow down and be more careful.  What I want to do this month is try picking as many games as possible and give myself a shot at being on the leaderboard at the end of the month for total wins.

Goal #3:  Write 15 more Hubs and find new niches to blog/write about online.  Right now I have 20 Hubs (webpages that are articles on one specific topic) on hubpages.com and am getting some decent traffic to them.  I want to eventually get this number up to 100 Hubs that generate an extra $100 or so a month in passive income. 

That's not a bad start to the month, so hopefully I can achieve all of those goals and expand on them next month.

Who's Bad? Michael Jackson Cover Band

On Saturday night, Jen and I went to the Windjammer on Isle of Palms to see Who's Bad, a Michael Jackson coverband.  I have to admit, I was very impressed by the band, especially the horn/saxophone players.  The opening band was great too, but I can't seem to remember their name...If I find them, I'll post a link to their website.

Here's a photo of Jen enjoying her front row spot :)

Jen's Guru Hat

Earlier this year, Jen showed me and all of my so- called "NCAA guru" friends up by correctly picking 11 games in a row (against the spread) on Covers.com's Streak Survivor contest.  For her efforts, Covers sent her a baseball hat that we have dubbed the "Guru Hat." Eat your heart out Jensen.

Coca-Cola Cake makes it all worth it

To celebrate Historic Charleston Foundation winning a $25,000 donation through Chase Community Giving on Facebook, my boss made an awesome lunch for our office including this Coca-cola cake that tasted even better than it looks.  Life is good :)

Carolina Baseball Weekend

Here's a video I took of the baseball team coming out onto the field to 2001 on Sunday, May 15 2011.  Jen and I spent the weekend in Columbia going to baseball games where Gamecocks beat Arkansas on Saturday and Sunday, but lost on Friday night.  After this weekend, they are tied with Vandy and Florida at the top of the SEC East rankings with one weekend of play left.  Go Cocks!

ESPN Hardcourt Challenge

As many of you know, I am addicted to fantasy sports.  The last couple months have been dominated by ESPN Streak for the Cash and another streak game on Covers.com, but this weekend starts the best month of year for fantasy sports (other than the 5 months of the year where there is fantasy football).

I'm in 4 brackets this year and am doing a couple side games.  If you're interested in getting in my bracket, here's a link...just sign up and get your picks in and get me $5 by this weekend.

I'm also doing ESPN's Hardcourt Challenge, which is a contest where you pick a starting line-up of any 5  players from any team in the tournament and score points based on their stats during the first weekend.  So, if you pick a player on a team that loses its first game, you won't get any points for a second game because that player will be sitting at home watching on TV.

I feel like the first weekend is pretty straight forward...pick top players on teams that you are confident they will move on to play a second game.  Here's my line up...

You can also pick a TEAM.  The team scores points based on their seed and if they win.  If you pick a number one seed, they score two points per win.  If you pick a #13 seed (like I am), you will score 26 points per win.  So (seed x 2) = points per win.

I'm going big with this and picking Belmont.  They are a 13 seed and I thin have an opportunity to win two games.  This will pick either make or break m chances at beating everyone in the country and winning a $2,000 gift card to Best Buy..so Go Belmont!

Riverbanks Zoo

Last weekend, Jen and I were in Columbia again for a variety of reasons.  For starters, two of Jen's friends were getting married so I got to tag along as her +1 for that.  It also happened to be the South Carolina/Clemson baseball weekend series, but that's an entirely different post.  The wedding was on Saturday at 5, so we had some time to kill during the day and decided to head over to the Riverbanks Zoo and check things out.  We're both Association of Zoos and Aquariums members, so we got in free (after confusing the girl in the entrance booth, who had no idea what the AZA was). 

Statue at the entrance of Riverbanks Zoo.

I'd visited Riverbanks Zoo once before on a previous trip to SC, but we basically just buzzed through it, so I was excited to go back.  And I mean, it's a zoo...and I don't get my animal fix everyday anymore, so I was like a kid in a candy shop.  And Jen was more excited than I was to go to the zoo, which is saying a lot.  Did I mention that she's perfect for me? :)

Jen volunteered at Riverbanks when she was in college and worked with the fish and animals in the aquarium, so she was excited to see all of her old exhibits and show me her old stomping grounds.

A keeper cleaning the tree kangaroo exhibit while being supervised.

Probably the coolest/cutest thing we saw was a keeper cleaning the tree kangaroo exhibit and the tree kangaroo watching her intently.  The tree kangaroo watched the keeper's every move like a hawk and seemed genuinely interested in how things were going. 

Jen on the carousel (riding a panda of course)

We decided that we weren't too "big" to ride the carousel and hopped on.  It looked like it was made by the same company as the Binda Conservation Carousel at Binder Park Zoo, though I'm sure that the one at BPZ is newer. 

Lion at Riverbanks Zoo.

I just recently got a new Droid X phone and I'm still learning how to use it.  It has an 8 megapixel camera which I used to take all of these pictures.  When we got to the Lion exhibit, it was a mote style exhibit so they lions were too far away to get a good shot with my phone...until Jen pointed out that I could use the zoom.  I told her that it didn't have one, which I really didn't think it did.  After a minute of playing with it, I found the zoom and had to admit, not for the first time and definitely not the last, that she was right and I was...incorrect.

They had a lorikeet feeding area, which was a lot of fun.  You get a cup of nectar and the birds will come land on your hand and stick their face into the cup and drink the nectar.  I'm usually not a big bird fan but I love any kind of interactive experience with animals.  

It was cool to see the different personalities that each bird had.  The more aggressive ones would fly up and land directly on your hand once you walked in the door while some of the slower ones would come up and land on your shoulder or your arm and wait their turn.  Lorikeets are very pretty birds and make for some great photo ops.  Kudos to Riverbanks Zoo for putting together a solid exhibit and guest experience!

This guy wanted every last drop.

Gamecock Weekend

Moving to South Carolina was not just change in my career, it was a change in my way of life...and by life, I mean how I look at sports.  Back home, sports culture consisted of Big Ten football and basketball, NFC North football, and maybe some Tigers baseball sprinkled in...if they were good.  By moving down here, I walked into the heart of the SEC.  Talk about a culture shock.  We have rivals back home...but down here, it's legitimate hatred between schools and fans.  Only thing that I can compare it to is my hatred of USC...I mean...Southern Cal (sorry Jen!). Let's just say that if I had any Clemson orange on this blog...I'd lose a few readers.

The University of South Carolina baseball stadium (Carolina Stadium) on a beautiful day on February 18, 2011

For my first Southern sports experience, Jen took me to spend the weekend in Columbia, SC for opening weekend of college baseball season.  Back home I'd gone to a few games to watch a friend, Zach Gentile, play for Western's team and there would be a few hundred people in the stands. Down here, there were over 8,000 to watch South Carolina play Santa Clara.  It felt like a Western home football game.

South Carolina won the college baseball World Series last year and is ranked in the top 5 this year so I picked a good time to start dating a die hard Gamecock fan :).  I was impressed at the level of play, the support from the fans, and especially the stadium and facilities.  They take this stuff seriously in the south.

We tailgated with Jen's crew and  I got all of the introductions, subsequent threats on my life, and advice that it is in my best interest to take care of Jen.  Definitely a group of good people and I'm looking forward to spending some more quality tailgate time with them.  Their tailgate spot is a row of 10 parking spaces right across the street from the stadium (which they rent out every year), which is a prime location with a great view of the stadium and also the perfect spot to catch opposing fans walking in and do a bit of heckling.  They had the grill out and cooked some awesome brats and had a great spread of food.  I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my Saturday.

Jen dancing with Bryce to "Baby Got Back"

 

Jen watching the game.  This may be my new favorite picture.

Windy Day on the Battery

25mph winds are making for some interesting scenes in the harbor today. Two to Three foot waves, fast moving sailboats, and a bunch of freezing southerners.

The New Digs

 I finally got around to taking some photos of my "new" apartment (that I moved into over two months ago).  It's a two bedroom townhouse that I found by stalking craigslist for a couple weeks while being a bum and staying at a friend's.  It's on James Island, which is only about a 10 minute drive to my office and  a 5 minute drive to Folly Beach.  For the first few weeks, I was in love with the short drive to work.  As the weather starts getting warmer, I'm getting more excited about being close to the beach.

I'm subleasing, so I'll be at this spot until the end of July.  After that, who knows.  I'll need to figure that out soon, but at this point things are still up in the air.  I have a roommate, but our work schedules are so different that we're almost never home at the same time.  We have a big living room, a small kitchen, and I have my own bathroom (selling point #1), so I can't complain.  It's about 3x as big as some of the places I looked downtown and 100x nicer.

I finally went to the South Carolina DMV the other day and transferred my Michigan registration over to SC...and paid a "you're a lazy ass procrastinator" fee for not showing up within 45 days of moving to the state.  Oh, I also had to pay a tax of $28 on my car just for owning it.  Not to mention the $1,500 that I've had to spend (or borrow from the rents) on fixing my car that is nearing the 150,000 miles mark.  Hopefully she'll last me a few more years before I have to break down and buy a car from Markey...

This is the first time I've lived in a townhouse style place and I'm liking it a lot more than a standard apartment.

Here's the living room (notice the poof chair!).  We have a small patio in the back but there is a treeline about 15 feet from the door, which doesn't leave a lot of room. 

I hung my bird feeder up after a few weeks and have attracted quite a few birds already.  So far I've seen a bunch of different kind sparrows, finches, and a few cardinals. 

So for now, this is home.  :)