Give me a U-C-F!

So It Begins....

Ricky & I from our seats in Section 118

Crappy Weather Prior, During, and After the game

Knightro!

Ricky & Robin during half time

UCF WINS SEASON OPENER AGAINST S.C. STATE:
17 - 0

If I had to pick 3 words to describe today's game, I would have to say:
WET, DEFENSE, & DISAPPOINTING

I know there are those of you that will say... "What do you mean disappointing? It was a shut out and UCF won." To this I say, "Yes we won, but the game was incredibly boring and didn't have that true UCF game feel." It kind of felt as though many people were just watching this game because they have to, but are really just waiting for next week for the game against USF. We didn't even score the spread they predicted (which was 27... we were 10 points off of that). Granted, the weather was not great. We got rained on multiple times, the field was so nasty that O'Leary didn't want the bands to perform at half time, and I am sure they were having trouble with the slippery conditions. Ricky's theory is that UCF is just playing the game as sparingly as possible so that we don't give away any of our good plays to USF. I want to believe that is true, but I must say that if we play the way we played tonight for next week's game, we might be in trouble. Our defense can only save us so much... we still need to score a few points. If nothing else, at least this game puts a 1 in the win column.

Pretty Interesting Clouds...

Aren't these cool? I took these photos of the clouds that were off in the distance over the swim meet last night. They were there the whole evening and once it got dark, there was heat lightning jumping between the clouds. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good picture of the lightning, but I still thought these were cool.

Swim Meets are Boring???

A Green Geek

Green Team: The Green Geeks

A White Lightning

White Team: The White Lightning

A race to the finish

Last night, Kenneth and I were reacquainted with the how truly boring a swim meet can be when you do not have a direct connection to it in some way or another. Since my mom is the varsity swim coach for SPHS, Kenneth and I typically create their end of the year video and their season yearbook. For the past couple of years, we have gotten photographs and video from the parents and the swimmers which we then use to compile the final products. This year we are changing it up a little bit. On top of the parent/swimmer provided material we are taking video and photos ourselves. Since Kenneth only has 3 classes this semester and I am still without a job, we are taking advantage of those opportunities in order to actually attend a good portion of the events this year.

Last night, SPHS held their Green & White Meet. This meet separates the team into 2 halves (one being green and the other white). They compete against each other in order to boost team spirit and to practice a meet-style setting. As Kenneth and I were there filming, we were reminded of our swim team days and could see a few little differences in the feel of the team. The main difference we noticed was the fact that swim meets are actually rather boring. Since we didn't personally know any of the swimmers, we weren't parents, and we weren't participating, the time seems to drag on quite a bit. For myself personally, never truly realized how long the 500 yard freestyle is during a duel meet, because I always swam that event. It went by very quickly for me while I was swimming it. When you have to watch it, that 6 minutes can seem like an eternity.

But, all in all, we managed to get some really great photos of the swimmers both in their themed garb as well as during their events. It was a beautiful evening, and a success overall.

See what a little ingenuity can lead to...

Tailgating Saturday!

If you are going to be at the UCF vs. SC State season opener on Saturday, you should drop by and say hello. We are going to be tailgating in the afternoon, so you can give Ricky or myself a call and we will let you know where we are set up at. It will most likely be relatively close to where we set up last year.

We hope to see you there!

GO KNIGHTS!

*Also... if you need a good t-shirt for the USF game, Game Day Sports in Waterford has the Smack T-shirts in stock. Ricky and I got ours last night.

Creative Memories Scrapbook Crop

So this past weekend, the girls (me, my mom, my aunt, and my cousin Sarah) all went to the big Creative Memories Scrapbook Crop that they held at the Fairgrounds. This was the first time I had ever really gone to a large cropping event, so I was excited.

Once we got there on Saturday morning, we found our designated table and started to spread out our stuff. We had a decent amount of room to spread out in so we were able to get fairly comfortable. I planned on working on my Epcot Festivals album. For the past 3 years we have been going to the main festivals that Epcot holds each year (the Flower and Garden and the Food and Wine) Since I tend to take a lot of pictures when we go, I decided to dedicate an entire scrapbook to them. My goal was to catch up on all of the past festivals so I would be ready for this year's Food and Wine Festival starting at the end of September. I had about 19 pages I needed to do to get to that point and I was ready to accomplish my goal. As it turns out, I more than accomplished my goal and my album is ready for the last festival for this particular album. I will have to start a new album for next year. I was going to post some of the pages so that you could see them, but I need to get more batteries for my camera. Once I do, I will post them.

Throughout the course of the day (on every hour) they do drawings for prizes. Now last year my mom called me from the crop to tell me that she actually won a prize (this coming from the one who doesn't win anything). This year we figured that none of us were going to win anything. As we were chatting and they were drawing names, Sarah made the comment that if we do win something, it will probably be something we can't use. Wouldn't you know it, right after she said that, they call my mom's name again. She won again... and what did she win... something she can't use, page protectors for the wrong size album. We couldn't stop laughing. Fortunately, I actually asked for an album that size for Christmas so I have a feeling I will be appropriating them soon.

As the afternoon went on, we found out that they had a special drawing for people who had completed 25 pages or more. Since Sarah and I went above and beyond that number, we went up and picked out a number. We figured that there wouldn't be too many people who could finish that many pages so we thought we would have a good chance to at least win something pretty decent. So as the lady goes up on stage, she says that there are 57 people who completed 25 or more pages. Sarah and I looked at each other in disbelief. Our pages had been so detailed that there was no way 57 people could have the pages we had, but we kept our fingers crossed. The lady said if she read off your number you have won. So she begins reading numbers and neither of our numbers are chosen. She must have called 20 numbers at least, but neither of us won. Needless to say, we were not happy campers. We knew that there were several of the people that won who only used a tape runner and put 5 pictures on a page and they were done...no paper no stickers, no nothing. Sarah and I were kind of disappointed, but we figure we will get them next year.

By the end of the day, we could all tell that we were getting a little loopy. As we were trying to come up with little titles for some of our pages our true comedians were being released. The only problem was that they were our pun-driven bad comedians. We came up with some of the cheesiest things and at that point we knew it was time to hang up our photo splits and go. After all, we had cropped from 9am to 7PM.

After the crop we had a nice dinner and proceeded to head home and pass out. It was such a great day and I am definitely looking forward to doing it again next year!

Weigh in starts tomorrow...

So I managed to go rollerblading today with Ricky and I survived without a scratch. I have discovered that as long I avoid the downhill areas I am good to go.

And it is official... we are starting to jump back onto our diet tomorrow. We are going to be weighing in on Tuesdays in an attempt to get back on track. We have a schedule laid out for our exercise and we have agreed to attempt to budget out what we need for healthier food. Hopefully, we will be able to pick up where we left off and continue the success we were achieving prior to the move.

Tropical Storm Fay

Well, this is pretty much the sight from our house for the past 2 days. We get gusts of wind (stronger today than the past two days but still nothing to miserable) and we are getting rain in waves as well. To be honest, I think the weather sounds worse than it actually is because the wind is blowing. I would rank the weather at the same level that I would rank a heavier than normal afternoon storm. The only problem is... this one is lasting forever. Granted, Florida needs rain, but it doesn't do us any good if it floods for example in Brevard County. We have been fortunate that there isn't any flooding in our area, but the dreariness is a little draining.

Fortunately, I am headed to St. Pete this weekend for a huge scrapbooking day out at the Florida Fairgrounds. My mom and my aunt went last year, but unfortunately I missed it. So this year I made sure to put it on my calendar. I can't wait! It's going to be all the girls this time.. me, my mom, my aunt, and my cousin Sarah. I am very excited that Sarah will be there because I haven't seen her in awhile.

Well, I hope everyone dealing with this storm is staying safe and dry and our thoughts go out to those individuals in Brevard County.

Hey UCF, UF, and FSU Fans!

There is a great new store in town that is owned and operated by UCF Alumni (Go Knights!). The store is called Game Day Sports and is located in the Waterford Lakes area right across from Firken & Kegglers. Its a nice quaint store and they have a nice selection of apparel and merchandise for UCF, UF and FSU fans. This means everything from formal long sleeve shirts, polos, quick dry shirts for those hot afternoon games and even things for babies such as sesame street and snoopy onesies and shirts, socks and pretty much everything else. They even have those little backpacks in the shape of a gator for all you UF fans out there.

For the UCF fans, this store is great. They have such a great selection that you just can't find anywhere else. They even have things for babies and toddlers which is usually hard to find. I just bought a quick dry shirt for myself so I can wear it tailgating this year. Plus they also told us tonight that they get new merchandise in every day! For example, after talking with them today, they mentioned that they will hopefully be getting in UCF Golf Bags in time for Christmas. Of course Ricky was very excited to hear that news. For those of you who are looking for witty shirts for some of the more anticipated games (cough cough UCF vs USF) they are getting shirts made by Smack... and trust me they are going to be great!

So if you are in the area and you are a fan of one of the above mentioned schools, you have to check out this local store and support UCF Alumni.

Here's their website and address:
http://www.gamedaystores.com/default.asp

12789 Waterford Lakes Parkway
Orlando, FL 32828

As I said, we have already purchased apparel and what not from them and plan on making many many more trips in the near future!

Migraine Wars

Sometimes being predictable is a good thing and sometimes its not. Today is one of those days where I can't decide which it is.

Prior to getting a true, full blown out migraine, my body gives me little hints that I should consider taking some Advil. In the corner of my right eye, I can usually start to see little squiggly lines. They start out small, but eventually cover my eye to the point that I can't see straight. They work across my eye and eventually go away. About 20 minutes after they have gone away, the pain begins. If I can take Advil while the squiggly lines are still there I can usually catch the migraine before it gets too bad.

Well, today in the middle of my workout at the gym, I saw the lines. Since Kenneth and I walk to the gym, I knew I had to get home to take something. I jumped off the machine I was on, told Kenneth I was leaving and got home as quickly as possible. Fortunately, I was able to catch the migraine before it got too bad and I only had a bit of pain for about an hour. On one side, I did miss half of my workout, but thanks to my body's predictability, I was able to thwart another evil migraine.

Let the Pre-Production Begin!!

My end of the pre production for A Man With No Enemies started today. I am so excited because I have a large amount of graphics work that I will be doing for Kenneth's latest piece. I am getting the opportunity to create not only the photographs and poster, but also a few new things such as cereal boxes, cigarettes, cleaning supplies, an even tattoos! The 3 tattoos I designed are below. This as been exciting already and I haven't even started the poster yet!

*Also my wedding veil is even making an appearance... aren't they cute??

Black Widow Tattoo

Butterfly Tattoo

Web Tattoo

Update on the fall...

Just a little update on the fall.. Well, although my bruises have gotten bigger and I have bruises in the shape of Hawaii on my arm (they seriously look like the Hawaiian Islands) I am still in pretty good shape. My neck is a little stiff because of the angle I had to sleep in last night, but all is well. I even went to the gym this morning.

What goes down the hill...

This morning, Kenneth and I decided to go out and get a little exercise. Kenneth was riding one of the bikes and I was on rollerblades. Since we have fairly smooth roads around here with little traffic, it makes it easy for a shaky rollerblader such as myself, to move pretty well. We were going around the different parts of the neighborhood when Kenneth introduced me to this path that connects 2 parts of our area. I didn't realize it was there, but I decided to give it a try. This is where the problem occurred. As we were riding and skating along, I started to pick up speed. The only problem was that the path was coming to an end directly into a street. Knowing that I can not stop on rollerblades, I started to try and grab at the plastic fence to my side. As I was trying to stop I came to the end of the fence in America's Funniest Home Videos fashion, I landed Goofy style into the fence with my body on one side and my legs and arms on the other.

Fortunately, I was able to get right up and continue skating. I have a couple small bruises, but nothing overly bad. I didn't even get too scraped up. So after the fall, we continued around the neighborhood for awhile and then headed home. It was a nice little morning trip (no pun intended) and definitely does not qualify as the worst rollerblading fall I have ever had.

Aquatica at Night.. well almost at night..

Yesterday the 4 of us went to Aquatica. Since we have annual passes we have ventured out there a couple of times, but this was the first time we went in the evening. We had gotten a tip from a friend of Ricky's that Aquatica starts to clear out around 5PM (dinnertime). So we decided to see how true that was.

To be honest, there were still a great number of people in the park, but we really didn't have to wait too long for any of the rides we went on. One of the things that I found funny was the fact that Kenneth decided to put on a life vest after Kristine decided she wanted one. As we were going down the faster moving river, I started laughing at how ridiculous it was that Kenneth was actually wearing the life vest. His response, "Its actually much better this way." He made a good point. In the faster of the 2 rivers you aren't aloud to have tubes so you are on your own to float. With a life vest on, you are able to float much easier.

Sadly, we had to cut our evening a little short because the typical evening showers of central Florida did not disappoint. In came the lightning, but fortunately we were able to get out just in time. Although the crowds we not as small as we would have liked, we enjoyed our afternoon outing all the same.

More Unemployment?

So apparently, President Bush recently passed a Pubic Law that is reinstating unemployment for certain individuals. This law.. the Emergency Unemployment Compensation.. states that if you have had unemployment after a certain date, you have exhausted your resources, and are still unemployed, you qualify to receive up to 13 additional weeks of unemployment pay. I didn't even know this law was in existence until I received a letter stating that I was eligible for this particular program. Unlike regular unemployment, this particular program is funded by the federal government. So I signed up for my compensation and will hopefully be receiving funds in the next couple of weeks. Although, until I actually start receiving the money, I am not going to hold my breath that it will actually be paid out... we shall see.

Besides.. to be honest, I would much rather get a teaching job than have to worry about unemployment any more.

Good-Bye Pilot Testing

As most of you know, I have been taking pilot tests for the past few months to make a couple extra bucks. Although, the checks come at random (and pretty slowly... usually around the 8 week mark) it has seemed to be more of pain rather than a blessing. BUT.. as time rolls down, I have only 2 tests left to take and to be honest, I might actually miss taking them. Granted, they were a pest, but all of the people that work at the testing center have been very nice and for the most part the tests only take me about an hour and a half to complete two tests ($100 for 1.5 hours... not o shabby). But all of this fun must come to an end. Tomorrow I finish up taking these pilot tests and move onto different adventures.

It was fun while it lasted...

Only how many steps?

Only 203 Steps to the Top!

Yesterday, a group of us wet to visit the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. There were 6 of us all together: Me, Ricky, my mom, my aunt, Tammy, and Ricky's mom. Although, I have seen the lighthouse several times in the past from the road or from the beach, I hadn't actually gone into the lighthouse or onto the grounds. Also we figured it was a nice little trip to take that was relatively close to home and not very expensive ($5.00 a person)

The group of us decided to climb up the lighthouse, but as I was considering this, I remembered back to the near heart attack I almost had climbing the 219 stairs at the St. Augustine Lighthouse when Ricky and I went for our anniversary. But, since I have been working out recently, I decided to give it a try, after all, this lighthouse only has 203 steps. So I climbed... and you know something, I actually made it with out too much trouble. Granted, after the trip down my knees felt like jello, but the view was gorgeous!

Me & my Aunt Carol (Nanu) at the top of the lighthouse

The view from the top

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

The rest of the property was very nice too. After climbing the lighthouse, we walked around the museum looking at old artifacts including the original crystal light signals and actual Cuban rafts that had washed ashore at miscellaneous times throughout the lighthouse's history. It was a very nice little set up they had and it made for a very nice afternoon outing. As Tammy called it, a "Staycation" and I think that is a great description. We stayed close to home, but we were still able to see something interesting and new. I like it.

Ricky & I at the top of the lighthouse