plans.....

This summer is about to go quick. Here is a calendar of my known plans...

Next Weekend: Virgin Festival
(work -- Las Vegas)
Following Week: No plans
(work -- maybe Cleveland 0r Montreal or Portland)
Following Weekend: Dave Matthews
(work -- who knows)
Then Sara's wedding.

Then finally a relaxing 5 days at my beach condo in Ocean City........can't hardly wait.

-ts

spelling bee

Disclaimer: the spelling in the post for my rivermen trip below is horrible as is the frequent and pointless overuse of the word "then." I swear I am literate.

-prof. stover.

Rivermen

The New River Gorge is located in Fayetteville, West Virginia and I am use to hearing it referred to as the "new" by all my climbing friends. Apparently this is one of the best locations for climbing near Maryland. I am not a climber but got the chance to visit the gorge with about 35 other people when I agreed to accompany Missy and Jason on a white water rafting excursion last weekend.

After a 5 hour car ride and some horrible food from Arby's we arrived at our camping ground.

Rivermen(www.rivermen.com) was the outfit we chose and after our experience I wouldn't chose anyone else. Not only were they incredibly knowledgeable of the river, geology and history of the area but they can also throw down. You see Friday night when we got there and Saturday night after we ate dinner we (the residents of our 5 campsites) partied like no other. We had all the other campers from neighboring campsites stopping by for dancing, beer pong (which I am championing of) and more late night grilling. Jason's friend Rick brought his DJ equipment and we had a block party in the woods.

A small piece about the guide who ran our boat. Her name is Ella, she is a senior guide, incredibly gifted, good at shouting orders and easy on the eyes. (Pictured below w/TS) She also has a daughter who is 21 and a son who is 18. She works the river on the weekends and resides with her husband in Dayton, OH. We learned all of this while she took us on several class 4-5 rapids (I think). Her dream was to run the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon which despite a long waiting list she will realize next year. She was also a former Florida cheerleader. (I am not a stalker, I just do my research). Ella and the rest of Rivermen's guides and staff were all amazing and I cannot wait to put together a trip next year.

Synopsis of Events: Friday: We arrived after a 5 hour car ride and set up camp. Then we went and bought beer and food and started grilling. Then Party #1. Then I went to bed sometime around 3:00am. I slept in a tent on some very unforgiving ground and got about 2 hours of actual sleep. I woke up at 6:00am on Saturday and changed for the day of river adventure. At around 7:30am (or so) we all piled into some schoolbuses after signing a waiver stating upon dying we had not right to sue. Very confident. Then when we got the the very crowded river's edge we split into groups (8 to a raft) and got int he water. After some quick instruction from the lovely Ella we were ready for our first rapid.........scene missing.

We ended the day and got back to camp, showered and got dinner at the main lodge area. Then after a quick rest (I basically lied on the hard-ass ground and tried with no luck to sleep for 26 minutes) we stared up the music and the grill and partied until the cops told us to kill the music. During that time I ruled the beer-pong table and danced next to the fire while campers and staff came to our camp site to see what the "cool kids" were up to.....
Sunday morning we woke up, took down the tents, packed the trailer and after some crucial

Burger King we hit the road. The end.

Note:
On the second night when our guides and the rivermen owner came by and partied with us. I think he told Jason that he's never seen a group like ours or a party like we threw in the backwoods of West Virgina and he appreciated having us there.

All I can say is this was one of the most fun experiences I've had in a while.

Here are some pictures and I look forward to going again next year.

Thanks Missy and Jason and all my new friends who didn't mind that I didn't shower for 72 hours.......stank.
Shout out to Missy, Jason, Jay, Rick, Jason's Dad, Monica and Craig, Cormick and Kevin, Rich, Julie, Cherokee, Ted, the rest of our 40 person party, The firefighters from Ohio who can't play beer-pong to save their lives, and everyone at rivermen outfitters.
-TS

remember these......

Back in the day when I was young, i'm not a kid anymore but some days I sit and wish I was a kid again.....

no energon cubes?

No cybertron, no grimlock, no sharks, no energon cubes but still Transformers the movie kicks major ass. As anyone who grew up on the cartoon would be frantic to tell any newbie, the movie was not really in line with the cartoon it's based off but it didn't matter. It stayed true enough and had all the action needed to do the franchise major justice.

I saw it today for the second time with my brother and our child-hood friend Josh at Muvico which on a beautiful sunny day was packed. Mostly with people seeing Harry Potter but our theatre was pretty full too.

Highlights were fast cars, explosions, gun fights and the beautiful Megan Fox.....

The movie left it wide open for a sequel which I'm sure it in pre-production.


I did however have a huge urge to join the military after seeing this movie and due to some nice product placement, buy a chevy and a my-little-pony.

Word. -- Roll Out.

8 miles from Locust Point to Canton

Keeping in tune with me and my brothers need to make use of our expensive mountian bikes me and willie took a trip around the harbor last saturday and despite a little rain and a lot of chipolte (which isn't the best thing to refuel yourself with while biking) we had a blast. Our trip took us down key highway around the inner harbor and along the water until we ended up in canton. We turned around and came back but cut through otterbien and federal hill then riverside park and down around ft. mchenry and back to my house. Here are some pictures I took during our trip....

some day i'll step up.......congratulations pat.

I met my friend pat when we were very young and he's probably the friend I've known the longest. He got married on my birthday and last saturday night (sunday morning to be exact) at around 1:00am he became the proud new father of a beautiful baby boy. Ryan Patrick is about 8lbs and 19 inches long and is a wonderful bundle of joy. Hopefully i'll meet the new baby tomorrow. Both new dad and mom and baby are doing well and I just want to say congratulations.

A few weeks ago was fathers day and I meant to write a post about it. I am not a father but I hope to be one day. Thinking of the responsability involved scares me to death. Now not taking anything away from mothers because I have one of the best but being a father is a very important job. I hope one day to step up....as have a few of my friends.

The picture below is taken on one of the many family vacations my parents took us as kids to ocean city, MD.

Thanks for everything dad.

-TS

pictures below...............

these pictures are 2 from college world series and 1 of better than ezra.

To Recap

Ok, to recap I have been working in Omaha for the past month. A lot has happened and rather than having 5 different posts I'm going to write one to encompass all that I've been up to. First of all lemme say that I've put off writing for a while because I wanted it to be perfect and there is no way what you (whoever you are) are about to read lives up to the last month.

GOODBYE OMAHA and BASEBALL
It all starts my last week in Omaha. I got to know my Nebraska co-workers and they invited me to what should be every sports fans dream. Or at least little leaguers dream. The 2007 College World Series. Apparently this is the biggest thing that happens in Omaha. We cut out of work early and I caught a ride with some girls. We tailgated for a while and then around the 4th inning I went in to the game. The Beavers of Oregon State where beating the crap out of the Anteaters of UC Irvine. I think. I was sitting in the heart of "beaver nation" and was mildly amused. For the record I don't really care for baseball. But it was a great experience and I'm glad I went.

FUTILITY
On my last day (which was a Friday) I caught my flight out after a sad goodbye to my new friends and began a journey which would turn out to be largely futile. I was under a time crunch because I was suppose to go to a concert (Tool) in Baltimore at 8:00pm. With no delays my flight should have gotten me back at 7:00pm so it was going to be close anyway. My flight left late from Omaha and we had to connect through Chicago so it was already not looking good. When I got to Chicago my gate was the next gate over and I figured if we left on time I'd be good to go. Stupid, stupid Tom. I rushed to my gate and the flight was delayed. After the initial shock I realized that I couldn't control the situation so I just stood there dumbfounded. My dreams of seeing my 2nd favorite band of all time were slipping away. But as with everything a silver lining presented itself. And her name is Jin. Jin is a girl I met at College Park and randomly she was sitting at my gate waiting to get on my flight. I hadn't seen her in about 6 years. We drowned our sorrows at the airport bar and 3 hours later my flight departed. That’s it for Omaha.

DESPERATLEY WANTING
Fast forward one week. Me and some friends (alex, spada, mindy and a few others) went to see a band that was never really that big but reminiscent of my high school days....Better than Ezra. This is one of those bands that you might not think you know, then you'll hear a song and think, oh they sing that? I know that song. Setlist is courtesy of Brian Spada. Free concert, good music, good friends, and they played powerplant live so it was easy to get to. All in all, a good night.

Better than Ezra Setlist.
BurnedGoodPullSincerely MeA LifetimeExtra Ordinary (w/ What I Got)King of New OrleansSouthern ThingAt the StarsLaid (James)Miss You (Rolling Stones) (w/ Juicy)Desperately WantingEncore:Jolene (Dolly Parton)Girl of the North Country (Bob Dylan)MisunderstoodIn the Blood

Please see pictures below.

-TS