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.