Monday, January 05, 2009

Daughters First Movie

Yes, she has watched movies before. But this past Saturday, I took my daughter to her first movie at a movie theater. Here in Traverse City, we have a theater downtown called "The State Theatre." It's a beautiful place that first opened in 1916. It closed for a while, but then Michael Moore started the Traverse City Film Festival and worked to get The State reopened after a number of years of it being closed.

Every Saturday morning, they have a kids matinee. They play some kids/family movie, and the best part is that they only charge 25 cents. That's what they charged for tickets in 1916. So the two of us saw a movie for 50 cents total! Sweet! We saw "Finding Nemo" and Kaitlin had a great time. She spent the rest of the day asking when we could go again. She seemed a bit overwhelmed when we first got there. Huge theater, lots of people, loud. She came around after a few minutes, and she was laughing right along with everyone in no time.

This place is plush. Nice huge foam seats that actually recline a bit. Lots of leg room. The building is beautifully restored in a very classic style. Before the movie, the screen is covered in a huge velvet curtain that goes up at showtime.

I think this place is one of the best things to happen to downtown TC in a long time. The first time I went there was on a team outing at work. We saw a mock documentary called "Kenny" about a guy who was in the porta-pottie rental business. Absolutely hilarious. Then Jen and I went to see "The Dark Knight" a few months later. Holy crap that was awesome. Comfy seats, huge screen and uber loud! Glorious.

Tickets for regular movies are about the same as a regular theater (pretty good considering how nice everything), and the pop and popcorn are considerably cheaper than a regular theater. I see many future trips there for me and the family.

These Guys are Nuts!

Wingsuits. About as close as you can get to human flight, minus a plane. Would it be fun? Sure, I'd give it a whirl in a heartbeat. Not as "extreme" as these guys maybe, but it could be cool. Check it out!


wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! January 1st 2009. Yep, it's that time again. Resolutions. Almost everyone makes them, and almost no one keeps them. Of course, I'm certainly included there! But as usual, I have a couple of resolutions for this year.

First is probably one of the most common resolutions ever. To lose weight and get in shape. I'm quite a bit over-weight, and really need to get it off not only for myself, but for my family as well. I have two young kids, 5 and almost 2, and I can't keep up with either of them. I want to be able to run around and play with them and have fun. Right now, after about 5 minutes, I'm done. I know I can lose the weight. I've done it before. About four years ago I was down almost 60 pounds. I wasn't quite at my target weight, but I was close. Looking at pictures of myself from then, I was looking pretty good! I want to get back to that. My wife is making the same resolution, so hopefully we can stick it out together and get in shape!

One thing I plan on doing to facilitate that first resolution is to sign up for the Iceman Cometh mountain bike race. I seem to do better when I have some motivation, and a 27 mile mountain bike race in November is certainly some motivation! I got up this morning with the full intention of getting on their website and registering first thing. The last couple of years, registration has filled up within just a day or two, so I didn't want to miss it. Of course, my luck, this year registration does not start until February 27th at 7PM. I'm still going to sign up, I just have to wait a couple of months now. LOL.

My second resolution isn't quite as big and important as the first. The second resolution is to just practice on my guitar more. Currently, I will pick it up and play fairly regularly for a while, and then sometimes I'll go a month or two and never touch it. I enjoy it, and I really want to get good at it. I took lessons for a long time, but the financial strain of kids finally took it's toll and I had to quit. Maybe we'll see how things look this year, and maybe I can start back up again. But, before I do that, I want to make the commitment, and follow through, with just practicing more on my own. I know a lot of basic stuff, but I really still need to work to get to the point where it's second nature. Then I can work on some of the more fancy stuff that I think would be a lot of fun. Who knows, maybe I might get to the point where I can actually play with people! That would be cool.

Here's to rocking it out and getting fit in 2009!