World Premier: Survivor Jon Vs the Wild

Episode 1: The Arizona Desert

Final Jonapalooza Report

I don't have any more pictures to share. On Sunday we went to church, then relaxed outside. We had a birthday dinner for Ellie, and ate the cake. I packed my bags and went to bed so I could catch my 6:50 am flight. I got to the airport at about 6:15, and got through security just as my plane finished boarding,I got on, then we got to sit on the plane for an hour and a half because of snow in Denver. I finally arrived in Denver, and drove home. It is snowing with heavy winds, and temps in the 20's right now. It is still good to be home. I had a blast at Jonapalooza 2009. I hope to do it again, maybe even at another location.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Coming soon ...
The world Premiere of Survivor Jon Vs the Wild: Episode 1; the Arizona Desert.

Stay tuned to this blog to be the first to see it.

Jonapalooza Report day 3

I rested at home in the morning, then went to watch the cubs in spring training.
Then after we got home I was still hot from the ball game, so we jumped in the pool.
After Dinner Joshua and I decorated a tiger castle cake for Ellie's 7th birthday.





Then we went to bed.

Jonapalooza Report Day 2

We spent the morning making a film. I will share it with you after I finish the conversion and upload it. After that we had lunch at Mi Nidito. It is supposed to be a really good Mexican restaurant that lots of famous people visit. the food was pretty good, but could have been better. It was a good lunch. The place was very busy.

After Lunch we began film editing, then ate dinner.

We finished the evening with roller dancing ...

and homemade Cheesecake Ice Cream.

Jonapalooza report - Day 1

The first full day of Jonapalooza has come to an end. here are the pictures and report.

We started out enjoying the warm Arizona sun
Then we cooled off in the pool with a nice refreshing glass of homemade lemonade.
We then had to replenish the lemon supply to have more lemonade later, so we picked lemons.
Not all were as perfect as this one, but they are all just as refreshing.For dinner we went to In-N-Out, and enjoyed a burger and a shake.Jonapalooza day 1 ended with a guitar playing sing-a-long.
We all slept well, and are looking forward to Day 2!

Jonapalooza 2009 has begun.

I'm now in Tucson, AZ where it is nice and warm. I left snow on the ground and high winds. Check out the drift by my front door overhanging the ledge.
A view from underneath.
and was greeted in Tucson with this...

Now its time for lemonade by the pool, and warm sunny afternoons!

Taxes are done

I finally finished my taxes today. I would have done it long ago, but I've been waiting for my K1 from the company I owned last year. We finally finished the taxes for Tech Caddies, so now I've finished mine.

From the experience I can see why companies hire accountants to take care of that crap, and we were a very small company and not complex.

Two more days of work then it is off to Tucson for vacation. I'm looking forward to it.

sweet seats for cubs game

So the VIP Box seats went on sale and even though I already have a bleacher ticket for Thursday afternoon game (may 14th) I took a look at the box seats. I was able to get one right behind home plate row two, and I couldn't pass up the chance to sit that close, so I bought the ticket. I'll have to throw up the bleacher one on stub hub, or sell it at the game. Maybe it will be on a TV set near you, and I can be the guy acting dumb in the background.

March Madness is coming ...

I'm looking forward to the tourney starting next week. This week there are some good tourney games. Wyoming plays tonight at 9:30, and the MTN is finally broadcasting in HD for the MWC tourney. They need to go to HD permanently.

Go Pokes

More toys

So I finally decided to buy a guitar. I have been wanting to buy one for over 10 years really, but never wanted to spend the money, didn't know what to buy etc.

I ended up buy a relatively inexpensive fender acoustic guitar. Now I'm trying to memorize fingering positions for chords. I have a few down, but I need to get better calluses on my fingers, and be able to change chords faster. I hope that my time spent playing the piano, drums, trumpet, baritone, etc. will help with the other musical aspects of learning the guitar.

Wyoming has its final home game of the year this Saturday against New Mexico. Hopefully we can win and finish 19-11. We have come a long way this year.

Chicago and rancid booked

Well I have solidified some of my spring and summer plans. I booked a round trip flight to Chicago, and a Hotel downtown for May 13-15. Then today I bought a ticket to see Rancid on June 11th at red rocks. This will be my 6th time seeing rancid in concert. Rancid isn't headlining although they are much better than who they will play with (imo). Rise Against is the headlining act. I've heard some of their stuff, and it is ok, but a little whinny and all to similar to each other. I'll give them a shot. I don't plan on walking out early like I have with other crappy bands. Once my friend Kelly and I went and saw Eve6 and Goldfinger, then the last act was Good Charlotte. We made it through maybe two songs of theirs before we bolted. My only other concert that I missed some of was when I dozed off while Incubus was playing at fiddlers green - I was with my man Ross Dawg that time, and it was a long day and lots of fun.

The Sheep Sweep!

Once again the Cowboys have pulled off the sheep sweep beating CSU tonight 82-79. It was a great game to watch. Wyoming came through down the stretch.

In other happenings I finally set up my twitter feed. http://www.twitter.com/nirv117 if you want to follow.

Cubs Tickets

Well today is the day. The yearly race to buy cubs single game tickets.

So far I have bought 1 bleacher seat for May 13th vs the padres. I am trying to buy a ticket for the 14th also for a short two day trip to Chicago to watch the cubs. I've decided to wait on the September games and try another day for those.

In other news I am scheduling to have surgery on my back - most likely in Denver. I should know some details soon.

Back Update...

I got some shots in my back on Friday, and they have relieved some of the pain. My left foot is still slightly numb and my leg still hurts a little. I'll give it some time, but if it doesn't heal soon surgery may be the answer.

Cubs Spring Training

Well It looks like I am going to go watch a cubs spring training game this year. I plan on flying down to Tucson to visit my brother and watch the Cubbies on the road against the rockies. They play on Saturday March 28th. I'll fly back home on Monday.

I've been thinking since I canceled my Egypt trip (Well postponed) I may go to Chicago twice this year. Maybe once in May (13-14), for just a game or two, then again late in the season like September 15 - 17. I may need to check some football schedules for home games to be safe first. Tickets go on-sale on the 20th, so I plan on buying then at least for May. I haven't decided if I want to do all the games in the bleachers, or maybe one a bit closer. I'm thinking bleachers, although If they offer the premium seats like they did last year I may try to do that In the middle of the season they sold the row 1 and 2 seats behind homeplate for a premium to help raise money for something or other. It would be fun to sit that close at least once. I'll keep my eyes and ears open for that.

Aug 7 - 10 the cubs play in Colorado, so I'll probably get some seats for at least the ones not on Sunday... Well I just looked and they are already on sale so I bought seats for Friday and Saturday. Good Box seats. Hopefully it will be a fun weekend including some golf.

Blown / ruptured disc

So I have a blown / ruptured disc in my back. I got to see my MRI. A bunch of gunk squirted out of my spine, and is causing increased pressure and pain on my nerve.

My foot is still weak and numb. I am on Oxycodone now instead of vicodin. It works OK. Our plan is to try some steroids (shot in the back) and see if that relieves enough to get rid of the numbness and weakness. If it doesn't then surgery is the plan. I'll probably have to go to Ft Collins or Denver for the surgery as they would have the table I would need to be on for it to be the safest.

In the mean time I am still working, and drugged up, and in pain.

Trip postponed ...

Well my fancy plans to go to Egypt look like they will have to be put on hold for another time. It is looking like I will need back surgery, and that will take a couple months to heal from, and I've decided that this spring won't be the best time to try and travel overseas, especially since I will be recovering with my back, and spending a bunch of money on doctors, tests, etc.

I'll have to plan for another time...

I had an MRI done today. I've seen them on TV, but never had one done. It would be horrible if you were claustrophobic. They shove you into a tube and your not supposed to move. You sit in the tube for 35 minutes or so. I just closed my eyes, and almost forgot that I couldn't move anywhere if I wanted to. For some reason when you can't move you get itches in places like your ear, or toes, and you can do nothing about it.

I don't know when I'll get the results. My left leg is really numb now, and it hurts pretty good.

I got my first birthday present ...

I got my first birthday present today ... Jury Duty

No not a dvd of that crappy 1995 pauly shore movie, Real jury duty. I have to appear on my birthday Wednesday February 4th at 8:00 am.

Luck Me

I think I like Driving ... well parts of it

I had the opportunity on Friday night to drive over to Cheyenne to pick up a friend from the airport. He had arrived in Denver late and missed the flight to Laramie, so he grabbed one to Cheyenne since it is closer. It isn't a real long drive, about an hour, but since I recently hurt my back I wasn't looking forward to sitting that long. As it turned out I took some drugs and my back did OK, and I decided there is something I really like about driving; listening to music. I put my i-pod on random, and cranked the volume very loud (I do have a nice stereo system), and it was a lot of fun. I ended up having to wait at the airport for almost 3 hours because of delays, but I kept myself entertained by sitting in the car with the music cranked. I think if I had a more comfortable front seat I could really enjoy taking long drives.

This got me thinking about something that I kind of enjoy, but never really get to do, and that is taking a Sunday drive to look at the mountains and listen to music - some might not think my music is Sunday appropriate, but sometimes I'm not Sunday appropriate, so I don't care what others think. I suppose you could go for a drive any day for that matter. The only problem I have now is I would like someone to go with who would enjoy the music as I do.

At times I wish I didn't have a TV, so I would spend more time playing music. To often I sit on the couch and watch crap for hours when I could have been listening to something good, and all this because I am to lazy to go put a record on. I need to play my records more. I especially like listening to some of the old records I have that I had never really heard of before. I enjoy the experience of playing vinyl because I feel more involved with the listening. I do listen to MP3's on my computer - usually anytime I sit down at it and do something - like right now as I am typing, but it just isn't the same; although I do have much more music on MP3 - I have about 15,000 songs on my computer. Now that I'm thinking I never really play CD's anymore except in my car. I have 200 - 300 or more CD's and I never touch most of them because they are digitally imprinted on my PC. I'm missing out on the insert art and strange writings you find.

Well it must be late because I'm kinda rambling now so I better be "Movin' On" (that is the song playing right now on my PC. "I'm Movin' On" by Ray Charles - and as I get ready to post this the song "Shut UP" by the bloodhound gang just started. Good advice.

... and there goes my back

So on Saturday I was putting away some dishes, and I grabbed a sauce pan and turned and bent down to put it on a lower shelf and hurt my back. It seems I may have torn a ligament or something. It really hurt to walk and move. I'm am a bit better now, I can walk some and it doesn't hurt as much. I finally got to see my doctor this morning and he gave me some muscle relaxers and pain killers. Hopefully they will help. It seems I have way to many pills to take now. It makes me look old, which maybe I am.