IronMan Training: Week 17

Weigh In: 155 - getting fat from all this tapering/bumming around

S - 6 - Ride 37 (1:55), Run 5.5 (37:38), gym x 6, PU75, 960

M - 7 - [Ride 23 (1:08), Run 4.25 (31:49)], gym x 5, PU25, 800

T - 8 - Swim 1600m (35:00), [Run 6 (42:16), Ride 31 (1:45)], gym x 6, PU75, 960

W - 9 - Swim 600m (20:00), Ride 8 (30:00), 320

TR - 10 - WISCO!

F - 11 - Swim 1.2 (40:00), Ride 10 (40:00)

S - 12 - Swim 1.2 (40:00), Run 1.5 (12:00)


Summary: 10:14
Swim: 3.75 miles; 2:15
Bike: 109 miles; 6:00
Run: 17.25 miles; 2:04
Gym: x 17, PU175, 3240

IronMan Training: Week 16

Weigh In: 150

S - 30 - Chitown Tri - [Swim 1500m (26:370), T1 (1:44). Bike 24.8 (1:04), T2 (3:28), Run 6.1 (38:23)] = 2:14
- Age Group: 3/157
- Overall: 30/4243

M - 31 - Ride 42 (2:12), gym x 2, PU25, 320

T - 1 - Swim 3822m (1:25), [Ride 30 (1:29), Run 5.5 (39:30)]

W - 2 - Swim 2667m (1:00), [Run 2.7(18:43), Ride 42 (2:13)]

TR - 3 -
F - 4 - Taper/Rest/Columbus
S - 5 -

Summary: 11:29
Swim: 5 miles; 2:52
Bike: 139 miles; 7:00
Run: 14.3 miles; 1:37
Gym: x2, PU25, 320

Chicago Triathlon

Chicago Triathlon

August 30, 2009

Robbie Guy and I traveled to the windy city this past weekend to dust off our racing shoes and join 4000+ other triathletes in the largest triathlon in the nation. The expo was very good, the course turned out to be great, and the whole thing was pretty well organized.

I wasn't aware that I was babysitting this weekend until I had the privilege of introducing our newest member, Robbie Guy Layman to our sponsor Wild Turkey on friday night during our stop at ND. To say the least, he felt the powers of Turkey! But, like a true Pants Off Racer, he took it in stride and killed the triathlon on sunday.

Course:

Swim: 26:37

.9 miles - Lake Michigan never felt so suffocating. It was a water start so we all started in the water next to eachother in waves of 100+. Robbie and I were in the 20-24 age group with 155 other dudes. The swim course was right along the waterfront in the yacht club area near Navy Pier. I had been swimming a lot lately, but not like this. I got about 100 yards into the swim and couldn’t even breath. I was sucking in water like no other, my extra medium wetsuit was suffocating me, and I couldn’t even swim. I felt like Pronk out there doing frog strokes for the first 10 minutes of the swim. After I managed to overcome the panic attack of not being able to breath, I finally got into a groove to finish up the swim. It was a pretty demoralizing start to a race, but my time wasn’t nearly as bad as I had thought – wetsuits make a big difference I guess.

T1: 1:44

450 yards - I was just happy to get out of the water at this point. T1 was a nice run along the way to get to our bikes. Nothing special really happened here.

Bike: 1:04:12; 23.6 mph

24.8 miles - The bike course was great. It was right on Lake Shore Drive and was a 2 loop course going north. Going out on Lake Shore was straight out into the wind – serious wind. But, of course, coming back the wind was right behind us. Going out at 20 mph and coming back at 28 mph is never a bad day. I was expecting a lot out of this race, but after a pitiful swim I was pretty discouraged about the whole thing. The bike felt pretty good though, I just cranked out as hard as I could the entire ride thinking about all the training I have done this summer. 25 miles doesn't seem like much when your training rides last for hours - it was by far the best biking i have ever done in a race.

T2: 3:28

Robbie Guy had been talking some serious smack about this race ever since we signed up. As i remember him saying, and I quote, "I'm definitely a better swimmer than you, a little faster on the bike that you, and probably better at the transitions. Plus, I ran a 40 minute 10k. So, bascially D.R., your not going to beat me unless i die on the run." Thanks to Robbie's encouragement and the Wild Turkey babysitting I had been doing all weekend, I was really pissed. I passed Robbie on the turn-around on the bike and knew he wasn't gonna catch me on the run. So, basically, when I saw Robbie in T2, i was a little surprised and knew I had to put in a good run to cap off my dominance of Robbie Guy.

Run: 38:23; 6:11 pace

6.1 miles - The run course looped around the waterfront near the Shed Aquarium and came back to finish a block or two away from the swim start. Going out on the water we had the wind at our backs, but I didn’t really realize how much wind until I turned around to have it in my face. I did great when the wind was helping me along, but couldn’t keep up my pace once I made the turn. Overall, it was a good strong run and I felt fresh. I should have pushed it a little harder, especially miles 4 & 5. Mile times: 5:54, 6:02, 6:03, 6:19, 6:21, 6:36, and finished the last in 1:07. I really wanted to hit 36 minutes but I'll take those times for today.

Overall: 2:14:25; 30th/4243

I was happy with how I finished. It was my first triathlon in almost a year and I’m glad I got back to racing before Wisconsin. I was surprised to find out that I placed 3^rd and Robbie 5^th in our age group. It’s amazing actually considering the swim.

Official Results:

Robbie Guy:

Distance	Intermediate
Clock Time	02:17:01
Overall Place	47 / 4243
Gender Place	47 / 2951
Division Place	5 / 157
Swim	00:25:02
Trans1	00:01:56
Bike	01:06:39
Trans2	00:02:41
Run	00:40:42
Swimrank	110
Bikerank	123
Mph	22.8
Runrank	60
Pace	00:06:33

Amato:

Distance	Intermediate
Clock Time	02:14:25
Overall Place	30 / 4243
Gender Place	30 / 2951
Division Place	3 / 157
Swim	00:26:37
Trans1	00:01:44
Bike	01:04:12
Trans2	00:03:28
Run	00:38:23
Swimrank	241
Bikerank	51
Mph	23.6
Runrank	23
Pace	00:06:11

IronMan Training: Week 15

Weigh In: 156

S - 23 - Four movies with Rohn and Kat

M - 24 - [Ride 112 (5:35), Run 1 (6:43)], gym x 4, PU50, 640

T - 25 - Swim 2000m (45:00), Run 6 (42:56), Ride 43 (2:21), gym x 2, PU25, 320

W - 26 - Swim 3200m (1:15), Ride 16 (45:00)

TR - 27 - Swim 2000m (45:00), Run 2.2 (14:22), Ride 19 (1:02), gym x 6, PU75, 960

F - 28 - Swim 3200m (1:15), Run 5 (41:00), gym x 4, PU50, 640

S - 29 - Chitown

Summary: 15:28
Swim: 6.5 miles; 4:00
Bike: 190 miles; 9:43
Run: 14.2 miles; 1:45
Gym: x 16, PU200, 2600

IronMan Training: Week 14

Weigh In: 152

S - 16 - Dublin Half-Marathon 1:21

M - 17 - Swim 1600m (35:00), Run 5 (37:30), Swim 2400m (55:00), Ride 11 (37:00), gym x 6, PU75, 960

T - 18 - [Run 12 (1:29), Ride 41 (2:10)], gym x 6, PU75, 960

W - 19 - Run 2.2 (14:56), Swim 200m (45:00), gym x 6, PU75, 960

TR - 20 - gym x 4, PU50, 640

F - 21 - Run 10.75 (1:17), Ride 45 (2:20), Swim 200m (45:00)

S - 22 - Ride 26 (1:21), PU25, 320

Summary: 14:27

Swim: 5 miles; 3:00

Bike: 123 miles; 6:27

Run: 43:05 miles; 5:00

Gym: x 22, PU300, 3840

Dublin Half Marathon

Dublin, OH Half Marathon

My race season has finally begun! After what seems like forever, I finally got to participate in an organized race, the half marathon in Dublin, Ohio with fellow POR team members, Rohn & Kat Amato, Sprout, Jeff McClellan, and the Florian twins. It was great to finally have a race to compete in, and it was even better since we had such a good cast with us. It was Kat and Sprout's first half marathon, and it only took a short dinner at Panera to convince cousin Jeff that he should join us the next morning. Overall, we could not have asked for a better weekend. Kat and Sprout both finished under 2 hours, Rohn's knee didn't hold him back, and I had my first career victory.

I came into this race hoping to qualify for the NYC marathon. It's different from Boston because you can qualify for the marathon with a half marathon time of 1:23. I thought it would be perfect timing to get out and race hard with the all the training rohn and I have been doing together. Haha - i still think its funny that I got first place, with a time of 1:21. I started in the front because I wanted to push the first coupe miles as hard as I could because I knew I could just suffer throug

h the remaining 10 miles or so. I led the first 3 minutes of the race, and thought "well, at least I can say I was winning for 3 minutes of the race." At that point, some giant of a man passed me and was well ahead of me the whole race. I could see him most of the time about 300-400 yards ahead of me because he was about 7 feet tall. I ran with some 40 year old stranger for the first 8 miles. He said he was pushing it hard the first 7-8 miles before he fell back to run the rest of the race with the friends he brought along. I think he really helped me out, keeping me up on my pace and just having the luxury of running with someone makes a big difference. With about 2 miles left in the race I still felt pretty good. Given, I didn't feel amazing the whole day. I had my biggest week of training this summer leading up to this race, so I was just concerned about getting the time I wanted. But, once I saw that there was an outside chance of placing first, I just kept thinking about all the training i have been doing this summer and wouldn't let myself coast into the finish. I finally passed the golly green giant around mile 12. I really didn't want him to put up a fight the last mile because I was dead at this point, so I just pushed it even harder when I got next to him hoping he would be discouraged. Thankfully, he didn't chase and I had a clear lead over him going into the finish. It was weird being in the front. It wasn't a large race, and there weren't too many serious runners in the field. but still, I was more than excited about winning a race and getting my time I was shooting for. It was a hot day in Columbus, and I think all the Spartan training has finally paid off!

POR vs. Food: The Thurmanator

Before the race sunday, I stopped by Matt Tober's place as he explained to me a lovely place called "Thurman's." Man vs. Food visited this burger joint for one of his shows. After he explained to me the challenge, 1.5 lbs of burger, .5 lbs of bacon and ham, all the toppings, and fries - I could barely even concentrate on the race. Lately, I have become an eating machine. Rohn kinda just sits around the house and watches me eat all the time. I think he just watches for entertainment because I just have been devouring all kinds of food. So, once this idea was put into my head, I knew it was going down.

After a hard fought race by team POR, we headed straight to Thurman's for our victory laps. It was a monstrous meal. Rohn and I were the only members to order the Thurman-ator, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole darn thing. Rohn looked a little sick after he struggled through the last few bites, but it was as great an accomplishment as any that day.

IronMan Training: Week 13

Weigh In: 152

August:

S - 9 - Ride 59 (3:15), Run 12 (1:37), gym x 6, PU75, 960

M - 10 - Ride 30 (1:32), [Run 6 (42:46), Ride 30 (1:33)], Run 4.4 (29:25), gym x 3, PU75, 1100

T - 11 - Run 6 (44:48), [Ride 26 (1:21), Swim 3200m (1:15), Ride 23 (1:16)], PU25, 320

W - 12 - Swim 3200m (1:15), [Run 8.5 (1:00), Ride 93 (4:46)], gym x 4, PU50, 640

TR - 13 - Ride 42 (2:01)

F - 14 - Ride 44 (2:23), Swim 3200m (1:15), Run 2.2 (16:32), gym x 6, PU75, 960

S - 15 - Ride 60 (3:20)


Summary: 30:03!
Swim: 6 miles; 3:45
Bike: 407 miles; 21:27
Run: 39.1 miles; 4:51
Gym: x 22, PU300, 4120

IronMan Training: Week 12

Weigh In: 154

August:

S - 2 - Ride 57 (3:12), Run 10.75,

M - 3 - Swim 2000m (45:00), Run 4.25 (32:10), gym x 6, 320

T - 4 - Swim 2000m (45:00), [Run 4.19 (30:00), Swim 1600m (35:00)], [Run 7 (57:47), Open Water Swim ~ 1600m (35:00), Run 6.1 (50:49)], gym x 6, PU75, 960

W - 5 - Study

TR - 6 - [Run 5.5 (41:38), Swim 2000m (45:00)], Ride 23 (1:25), gym x 4, PU5o, 640

F - 7 - Sleep

S - 8 - Run 23 (3:10), gym x 2, PU25, 320

Summary: 16:19
Swim: 5.75 miles; 3:25
Bike: 80 miles; 4:37
Run: 60.8 miles; 8:17
Gym: x 16, PU150, 2220

IronMan Training: Week 11

Weigh In: 152! (gettin' small)

July:

S - 26 - Run 4.5 (36:37), 960

M - 27 - Swim 2000m (45:00), Ride 74 (4:00), Run 7 ( 46:52), gym x 2, PU25, 320

T - 28 - Swim 3200m (1:15), Run 12 (1:30), gym x 6, PU 75, 960

W - 29 - 320

TR - 30 - [Run 7 (51:050), Open Water Swim ~ 1600m (35:00), Run 7 (55:29)], gym x 1, PU50, 450

F - 31 - 100

S - 1 - Ride 100 (5:02), Run 6 (44:59)

• After a really slow, un-motivating week I reluctantly joined my 50 year-old friend (I think the average age of my friends has significantly increased this summer), Dave, on an organized century ride around Toledo. I think I ate 15 oatmeal raisin cookies. Either way, it completely got me out of my training rut. I felt great the whole time, and didn't let the old man dominate me like he did earlier in the summer. I'm finally realizing some substantial progress which it good. I've drop my weight too, which I can totally feel on the bike. After watching the tour de france the past couple days, and looking at these tiny stick figures on their bikes I now realize how much of a difference my weight makes when I'm on my bike. Hopefully I can continue this momentum into the next couple weeks before I start to taper.

Summary: 17:02
Swim: 4.5 miles; 2:35
Bike: 174 miles; 9:02
Run: 43.5 miles; 5:25
Gym: x 9, PU150, 3110

IronMan Training: Week 10

Weigh In: 154

S - Ride 71 (3:36), Run 8.5 (1:00), 100

M - Swim2000m (45:00), Ride 75 (3:55), Run 8 (1:03), gym x 4, PU50, 640

T - [Run 4.5 (32:00), Swim 1600m (35:00)], Run 3.6 (30:16), gym x 4, PU50, 640

W - Swim 2000m (45:00), [Run 4.5 (31:31), Swim 1600m (30:00)], [Ride 25 (1:12), Run 4.5 (33:50)], gym x 6, PU75, 960

TR - Swim 2000m (45:00), [Run 7 (51:43), Open Water Swim 1600m (35:00), Run 6.2 (47:59)], gym x 2, PU25, 640

F - Run 4.5 (34:15), Ride 35 (1:51), gym x 6, PU75, 960

S - Run 6 (46:29), Ride 20 (1:02), gym x 6, PU75, 960

Summary: 22:55
Swim: 6.5 miles; 3:55
Bike: 226 miles; 11:40
Run: 57.3 miles; 7:20
Gym: x 28, PU350, 4900

IronMan Training: Week 9

Weigh In: 155

S - Ride 45 (2:18), Run 4.5 (36:36), PU52, 520

M - Run 6 (42:17), Ride 20 (59:49), Swim 1600m (35:00), Run 4.5 (35:40), gym x 9, PU75, 960

T - Ride 75 (4:00), Run 2.2 (17:40), PU25, gym x 3, 670

W - Swim 1600m (35:00), Swim 1600m (35:00), LSD~15.25 (2:10), bi x 6, PU75, 960

TR - Swim 1600m (35:00), Ride 8 (28:00), gym x 6, PU75, 960

F - [Ride 31 (1:38), Run 4.5 (32:29)], Run 6 (51:51), gym x 6, PU75, 960

S - Ride 40 (2:07)

Summary: 18:15
Swim: 4 miles; 2:30
Bike: 219 miles; 10:00
Run: 43 miles; 5:45
Gym: x 30, PU377, 5030

IronMan Training: Week 8

Weigh In: 157

S - Ride 45 (2:16), Run 4 (28:15), gym x 6, PU75, 960

M - Ride 32 (1:48), Track 3.75 (30:00), Run 6 (48:24), gym x 6, PU75, 960

T - Run 4.5 (34:16), Run 4 (29:13), gym x 12, Ride 61 (3:14), PU75, 960

W - Swim 3200m (1:15), LSD ~ 14.25 (2:00), gym x 2, PU50, 640

TR - Swim 1600m (35:00), Run 6 (45:34)

F - Run 7 (53:07)

S - Study

Summary: 15:37
Swim: 3 miles; 1:50
Bike: 138 miles; 7:18
Run: 49.5 miles; 6:29
Gym: x 26, PU275, 3520

Holland Training Trip

Pronk came to town this week to finally get serious about training for this ironman we have in 2 months. I think it finally hit us that it is relatively soon. It was a good week of training, a lot different when you actually have someone next to you trying to do the same thing as you are.






Weigh In: 159

S - Run 8 (55:45), Ride 102 (4:38)

• The week started with an Amato family wedding in Chicago, always an interesting time when so many Amatos are in the same place. It was a lot of fun driving everyone around all weekend. On our way home, we stopped in ND for a nice trail run at St. Mary's and a heavy lunch at CJ's with Prof. Drevs. Once, we got to amish country Rohn and Kat dropped Pronk and I off so we could ride the rest of the way home. It ended up being 102 miles with plenty of wind in our favor.

M - Swim 3200m (1:15), Ride 22 (1:08), Run 7 (52:44), gym x 12, PU75, 960

• It was fun waking up at 4:20 in the morning time for our first swim of the week. Swimming in the dark is always my favorite. We pounded coffees the rest of the day, and then the rest of the week for that matter.

T - Ride 27 (1:33), Ride 24 (1:20), LSD ~ 13.5 (1:50), gym x 15, PU75, 960

• Pronk got to join Rohn and I on our weekly Long, Slow Distance run of the week at Oak Openings. Each week we run 10 more minutes and are up to 1:50 this week.
  

W - Swim 3200m (1:15), Speedwork: 6 Yasso 800s (2:52) - 4.75 miles (39:09), gym x 6, PU75, 960

• We tried out our first Yasso 800s workout today. Not fun at all, but I could definitely feel the effects of this track workout. Bart Yasso's theory of this workout is to run 10 x 800 with a 400 jog between and average your 800's time to simulate your marathon time.
  

TR - [Run 60 (~8), Ride 4:00 (81), Run 30 (~4)], 640

• Today was probably the most grueling workout i have ever done in my life. Thanks to Brandon del Campo, we tried one of his brick workouts he sent our way. We managed to finished it, and actually felt great on the last 30 minutes of the run. The bike was extremely long but it worked out great since Robbie joined us and we have a good line going the entire time.
  

F - Swim 3200m (1:15), Ride 16 (54:03)

• We couldn't really get ourselves to do a whole lot today, especially after 3 days of early morning swim workouts followed by breakfast dates each day. I did test out Pronk's new bike today, and its completely unfair. It is so light and quick that I finally realized why I was staring at Pronk's ass all week while we were riding.
  

S - Run 18 (2:37)

• Pronk and I drove north to Ann Arbor for the day and ended up at Sterling Lake State Park. We didn't really have anything specific planned until we arrived and they had a great 18 miles trail. Instead of riding today, we opted to run the trail instead. It was perfect though, a lot like oak openings with a lot more hills. Probably the breast part of the week was the 3 times I turned to look at Pat and he was doing ninja rolls in the dirt from tripping all over the place.
  

Summary: 25:42
Swim: 6 miles; 3:45
Bike: 272 miles; 13:30
Run: 63.25 (8:25)
Gym: x 33, PU225, 3520

IronMan Training: Week 6

Weigh In: 160

June:

21 - Ride 46 (2:26), Run 7 (48:51), gym x 6. PU 75, 960

22 - Swim 3200m (1:15), Ride 37 (2:06), Long Run ~12.5 (1:40), gym x 4. PU 50, 640

23 - Ride 31 (1:46)

24 - Swim 3200m (1:15), [Ride 41 (2:21), Run 6.5 (50:30)], gym x 6, PU 75, 960

25 - Run 1 (7:45)

26 - Chicago

27 - Run 4.5 (31:10)

Summary: 15:10

Swim: 4 miles; 2:30

Bike: 155 miles; 8:40

Run: 31.5 miles; 4:00

Gym: x 16; PU200, 2560

IronMan Training: Week 5

Weigh In: 160

June 14th Week:

S - Run 4.6 (33:45), Ride 45 (2:31), Gym x 15, PU75, 960

M - Swim 3200m (1:15), Ride 40 (2:14), Run 11.5 (1:30), Gym x 2

T - Ride 20 (1:11), [Ride 28 (1:32), Run 6 (43:02)], Gym x 3, PU75, 960

W - Ride 30 (1:43), Run 8.2 (1:12), Gym x 15, PU75, 960

TR - [Ride 18 (1:00), Run 4.2 (30:00)], Ride 12 (40:00), Open Water Swim ~ 3200m (60:00), Ride 11 (36:00), 320

F - [Ride 15 (44:17), Tempo Run 5.8 (43:58), Ride 8 (35:59)], Ride 7 (19:23), Open Water Swim ~ 1600m (30:00), Ride 7 (20:00), Run 3.6 (31:44), Gym x 2, PU75, 640

S - Ride 44 (2:30), Run 4.5 (34:41), Ride 28 (1:36), Run 4 (32:04)

Summary: 27:05
Swim: 5 miles; 2:45
Bike: 313 miles; 17:30
Run: 52.4 miles; 6:50
Gym: x 37; PU275; 3840

IronMan Training: Week 4

Weigh In: 163

June:

7 - Ride 62 (3:42), Run 6 (41:27), Gym x 15, PU75, 960

8 - Swim 3200m (1:15), Ride 21 (1:06), Long Run ~ 10.6 (1:20), Gym x 15, PU75, 960

9 - Ride 27 (1:31), Ride 30 (1:40), Run 4.6 (39:07), Gym x 6, PU75, 960

10 - Swimm 3200m (1:15), Bike 41 (2:15), Run 6 (45:11), Gym x 6, PU75, 960

11 - Ride 23 (1:25), Ride 23 (1:33), Open Water Swim ~ 3200m (1:00), Run 4.6 (36:39), Gym x 2, Pu25, 960

12 - Ride 19 (1:06), Tempo Run 7 (49:24), Ride 21 (1:10), Gym x 2, Pu25, 640

13 - Ride 77 (4:27), Gym x 2, Pu25, 320

Summary:
Swim: 6 miles; 3:30
Bike: 344 miles; 20:00
Run: 38.8 miles, 4:50
Gym: x48, PU375, 5760

IronMan Training: Week 3

Weigh In: 163

S - Ride 48 (2:42), Run 6 (46:12), bi x 3, tri x 3, PU75, 960

M - Run 4.6 (34:55), Ride 4 ( 14:53), bi x 2, tri x 2, PU5o, 640

T - Ride 41 (2:13), Long Run~9.3 (1:10), bi x 3, tri x 3, PU75, 960

W - Swim 3400m (1:15), Ride 25 (1:16), Run 3.6 (29:48), bi x 3, tri x 3, PU75, 960

TR - Run 6 ( 43:27), Ride 40 (2:22), Run 3.6 ( 29:39), bi x 3, tri x 3, PU75, 960

F - Swim 3200m (1:15), Ride 52 (2:52), Run 6.6 (49:54), bi x 2, tri x 2, PU50, 640

S - Ride 65 (3:25), Run 4.9 (39:43)

Summary: 23: 15
Swim: 4.125 miles; 2:30
Bike: 275 miles, 15:00
Run: 44.6 miles; 5:45

IronMan Training: Week 2

Weigh In: 167

May:

24 - Run 4.6 (33:42), Ride 51 (2:49), bi x 3, tri x 3, PU75, 960

25 - Swim 3200m (1:15), Long Run ~ 8 (60:00), Ride 23 (1:21), bi x 3, tri x 3, PU75, 960

26 - Run 4.6 (35:05), Ride 61 (3:21), Run 3.5 (30:20), bi x 3, tri x 3, PU75, 960

27 - Swim 3200m (1:15), Run 4.6 (35:41), Ride 22 (1:14), Run 3.6 (29:48), bi x 2, PU50, 640

28 - Ride 4 (15:00), 3 flat tires and a ho-ho, PU25, 320

29 - Swim 3200m (1:15), Run 6 (44:43), Ride 30 (1:49), Ride 45 (2:44), PU25, 320

30 - Ride 63 (3:48), Run 4.6, (36:25), Ride 20 (1:06), PU25, 320

Summary: 26:11

Swim - 6 miles; 3:45

Bike - 299 miles; 17:20

Run - 39.6 miles: 5:06

IronMan Training: Week 1

Weight In: 170

May:

17 - Graduation

18 - Run 4 (28:25), Ride 20 (1:09), Run 4.6 (37:41), bi x 3, tri x 3, PU75, 960

19 - Run 4 (29:40), Ride 25 (1:24), Run 4.6 (38:55), bi x 3, tri x 3, PU75, 960

20 - Swim 3200m (1:15), Ride 20 (1:09), Ride 28 (1:37), Run 3.6 (29:33), bi x 3, tri x 3, PU75, 960

21 - Run 4 ( 30:07), Ride 20 (1:13), bi x 3, tri x 3, PU75, 960

22 - Swim 3200m (1:15), Ride 40 (2:16), Run 4 (34:14), bi x 3, tri x 3, 960

23 - Ride 40 (2:11), Run 4 (30:46), bi x 3, tri x 3, PU75, 960

Summary: 17:50
Swim - 4 miles; 2:30
Bike - 193 miles; 11:00
Run - 32.6 miles; 4:20

Bookstore Basketball 2009

Its that time of year again at ND. Its time for spring break and the weathe starts getting bearable again. This year, my team is sponsored by our good friends at The Subway Alumni Show. It should be fun. So, stayed updated on our progess throughout the tournament.

5,000 Mile Photo Recap

Best Co-Pilot I know

Only in Cincinnati With Gym

Mr. Drew Updike

Doing the Doug Logsdon at The Dungeon

Our Mustaches Were Contagious

Kat Cold On Boat

Bringing Us Down The Home Stretch

2nd Graders

Surprising Miss Katie in the Goula

The Best Streetcar Ever

In-N-Out Trumps Sonic

Rohn Is Scared of Cattle

Kickoff 2009: Day 10

Our last day of road-tripping was short. We finally made it into our home land of Ohio. Natually, the weather was terrible and we couldn't even get the car up the drive way. We traveled over 5,000 miles and had one hell of a time. I think road-tripping has become one of my greatest abilities at this point - but you are only as good as your co-pilot. Hopefully, Rohn and I can continue this tradition into the next year.

Kickoff 2009: Day 9

Unfortunately, our trip was coming to an end. We had a long of driving left over the last two days but we still made our time worth it by stopping in Cincinnati to visit Gym Williams and Mogan David. We hit up a fun hockey games that had more fights than goals and feasted on $1 hot dogs. After we enjoyed many game of King's Corner with the guys.

Kickoff 2009: Day 9

After a short time in New Orleans, we surprised our sister and her 2nd graders in Pascagoula for some much needed exercise at recess. I don't remember recess being 2 hours long when I was that young. Again, the Goula treated us well and we met some great characters - John Lynn. After filling up with some po-boys and 40 ounces of Budweiser, we went on a nice boat ride with Joe "Bama Bangs" Williams. I love going to the Goula, and can't wait to return again over spring break.

Kickoff 2009: Day 8

Our triumphant return to New Orleans was everything we had imagined. We stayed with Fish, of course, and made sure to hit up all our favorite spots. We made it back to Camilia Grill to get some pecan pie, took the streetcar to Bourbon street, used the bathroom at The Dungeon (cherry bombs were delicious as well), went to an iMax movie, enjoyed some delicious Ruth Chris with Father Chambers (he baptized me), and celebrated the night watching Drew Updike the performer.

Kickoff 2009: Day 7

The morning after the game, we gather all the jim tressel sweater vest tshirts in AZ and headed south. Probably our most random fun-spot was our visit in El Paso as Sara-Ashley Hernandez's house. We made perfect time too - her mom was making tacos! We met the whole family and got a great tour of the place, they were great hosts. Against all wishes, we had to continue on to our next destination and face the great state of Texas through the night. Oh ya, we ate 14 of those delicious homemade tacos.The Tecas Backcountry was ridiculous! It was pitch-black, we went through security check-point (El Paso is basically Mexico), the speed limit was 80 mph, and there were flying deer all over the place. John and I were still a bit tramatized from our run in with the unlucky coyote we ran over, and I wasn't too sure that my car could suvive another hit. I don't think I blinked for two straight hours looking at dear and the blood stains all over the roads. Nonetheless, our road-tripping stamina was pretty impressive at this point and after 12 straight hours we finally cross the whole state of Texas. We celebrated with a trip to sonic (unfortunately, sonic does not compare to the In-n-Out we were use to).

Wild Cat

Kickoff 2009: Day 7

We packed up all our our sweater vest tshirts and we back on the road again - this time due east. We thought it would be a bright idea to drive straight across the entire state of Texas to visit our good friends in New Orleans and surprise Miss Katie's 2nd grade class in Pascagoula, MS. The most random fun spot of the trip for me was our pit stop in El Paso, TX. Here, we visited with Sash's family for a couple hours. We greatfully accepted some delicious, authentic Tacos - it was only fitting to eat tacos when you are visiting the Hernandez family (and El Paso is basically in Mexico). They were great hosts - feeding us 14 tacos and they loved our mustaches as well as Rohn's beautiful new Spaniard haircut. My mustache had even begun to curl at the sides by this point of the trip.

Kickoff 2009: Day 6

Today was the Fiesta Bowl between The University of Texas and The University of Ohio State. Although this was the only reason for us making this amazing roadtrip, it wasn't really our main priority. Regardless, it turned out to be a surprisingly great experience. We managed to scalp $20 tickets, which we a bargain in the very top row because we also got unlimited chips and salsa from the great people at Tostito's. We complemented our mustaches with our Jim Tressel T's for the fourth straight day.









We were pretty full from all the chips and salsa, but we could not pass up our second straight meal of In-In-Out burger.

Kickoff 2009: Day 3, 4, 5

Luckily we had 4 days to recooperate and rest in Scottsdale before we were on the move again. We stayed at the Sullivan Center's guest house - Rohn and I had our own pool, pool table, and some great beds to sleep in. Rohn was able to sell his shirts pretty easily, so our time was pretty stress-free in Scottsdale.

On our second day in the desert, we made our way to Humboldt, AS to go "Dude-Ranching" with our pal Buzz Fournier - a CCHS grad who moved our west to live his dream as a rancher. It was a lot of fun getting to tour his ranch in his pick-up truck feeding the herd and walking around the terrain. Dogs were chasing little kittens, fierce cattle were grazing, and other dude things surrounded us on this short trip.
On our way back to our temporary home, Rohn successfully killed a coyote in broad daylight by accelerating our car into the poor little guy. It was pretty amazing actually, I didnt even see the thing, I only heard the loud smash of my license plate and John wimpering. Rohn was pretty shook up after this experience, and I almost had to take our the pilot seat for the rest of the trip.

Kickoff 2009: Day 2

Today, the Smother Brothers and their mustaches made their way due west straight across the entire state of Kansas on their way to their next desination - Denver. The one great thing about this state is their amazing amount of museums. After nearly 20 wooden billboards advertising the "Worlds Largest Prairie Dog," we knew we had to stop. The anticipation and excitement was building with each mile, and we could not even imagine what kind of prairie dog would grow to be over 5 tons! Finally, we arrived. Unfortunately, our dreams were crushed. Apparently, the "World's Largest Prairie Dog" does not work on holidays - so we settled for a few pictures and some peeking over the tall fence. Eventually, we made our way to Denver in time to see the Rose Bowl with J. Lo and Lizzy. Once they fed us some KavSaa and made the first purchases of the trip, we decided we had had enough and venture onward to Scottsdale through the night.
The drive through the pitched-black desert was pretty entertaining. Along the way we picked up some postcards, sunglasses, and a couple new high speed records on our Garmin. We were pretty loopy by the time we made it to our beautiful home in the desert around 8 am the next day.

Kickoff 2009

Rohn and I celebrated the New Year at the Ryan's farm in Kansas City. It was our first successful day of driving on our way to Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl. It was a great start to our yearly epic roadtrip, and we were lucky enough to have Jack Stack BBQ waiting for our arrival in KC.This is Rohn on the very first day violating the golden rule of road tripping - "A good copilot never sleeps in the passenger seat."

You Be the Judge!

I have created this site in order to follow and remember my last semester at ND. I have enrolled in a special studies course with one of my professors, the man, the myth, the legend - Lou Berzai. I have taken 2 or 3 classes with him over the past two years, and this semester I have chosen to create this website for my semester project for his class.



I entered Lou's final exam with my hall of fame worthy mustache last semester and immediately got a good chuckle out of the man. I think he was just so impressed by my manliness that he felt a little self conscious about his own facial hair. So, now, I am leaving it up to you to decide whose facial hair is more impressive! Lou is quite the competitor in this category and has many years of experience in this sport as you can see. Please vote below.

Update

I wish I had something fun to write about, like a good old-fashion college story or two, but i really don't have anything very news worthy to share. I think part of the reason is because I still go to Notre Dame, and the other is that I really haven't done much since mine and Rohn's epic roadtrip over christmas break. Although I don't have anything very substantial to write about, I did make some pretty important decisions over the past month.

I have decided to apply to grad school for next year. I've been pretty busy applying to programs to get my Master's in Accounting. And, since i'm a finance major, it hasn't been very easy. My semester quickly went from the easiest course load of my college career, to the hardest. I was looking forward to just hanging and laying a lot more than I am right now. I ended up picking up two accounting classes for this semester, and plan on finishing 3 more over the summer so I can meet the prerequisites for the programs I am applying to. On top of that, all of the application deadlines are March 1, so my month has been packed with applications, studying for the GMAT, training, and my regular classes I still have to take.

I am pretty excited to have some sort of direction for next year. I have been trying to figure out what I want to do, or who will accept me to work for them. This decision kinda solves both of those problems. I applied to ND, BGSU, Texas, USC, Arizona State, and Tennessee. I'm really hoping I can get out of ND and the midwest in general for a year and have the experience of another college's campus, etc.

Besides the craziness of this whole career transformation, I have been getting back into my training regimen since getting back to school. Unfortunately, all this work has taken away a lot of training hours for me. I got pretty fat over the holidays, per usual, but I'm finally feeling pretty good about where I am at this point. Only 7 more months now to get ready for Wisconsin.

I've been so busy I haven't even gone to bowling. It's kinda sad - I don't even have any pictures to post or videos to share yet. But, spring break is only 3 weeks away and I plan on making up for lost time over that short week.

The Last Semester...or three please

So here I am in what is suppose to be my last semester of college...as an undergrad that is. Yes, I'm going to graduate. No, I do not have a job. I'm actually sick of the whole job and career searching thing at this point. I haven't totally given up on finding a job for next year, but I have come up with a better plan - one more year of school! I don't like studying, I never got very good grades, and I don't consider myself very intelligent. But, I have realized that over the past year, if i work hard enough, prepare enough for exams, and attend class - I get good grades.

Therefore, I have decided to forgo my incredibly easy schedule this semester that I work so hard for the past 3 semesters (by cramming in the extra hours) and try my hand at accounting. It was rather spur of the moment decision making, but I think it will pay off in the end. As a result, I have picked up 2 extra upper level accounting courses this semester and have started looking into MSA programs. The only unfortunately thing about this plan is that I would be in South Bend for another year (most likely). That is, if I can get better at this whole GMAT thing and finish the 3 other accounting courses this summer. None the less, I'm happy that I have a little direction in my life at this point.

So, maybe this isn't just my last semester. Maybe I can stay in college forever. Or, maybe I'm just waiting for that one intelligent person to finally hire me as their full-time life coach. That, or some bread winner to pick me up as their stay at home, mow the lawn trophy spouse.

Nothing Lasts

Over break I saw the movie, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" with my entire family, which is a rare event in itself. The holidays always seem to be filled with family time at the movies. I love my family more than anything, and I realize it most when we all have time to be at the same place at the same time. I feel that during the past two years a lot has changed, and a lot is about to change in my life. Change has really helped me realized how much my entire family means to me. I view each of them in their own individual light and they all have had a profound effect on me as a person - who I am, what I want to do, and where I want to be. Thanks to them I know I will always have someone beside me when I need them most, and its a great feeling to know that you have a family that is also a group of your best friends that will be by your side regardless of how successful or how miserable a person I may become.

To the point - there was one line in this movie that really stuck with me. When Brad Pitt said, "Nothing Lasts," a lot of different emotions and thoughts ran through my head. First, it was kind of a sad and depressing moment in the movie so I immediately felt the deep feeling of sadness that was portrayed in the movie. I dont know why, but i really took heart to this line and it stuck with me for some time. It might be because so many things are changing around me - including my family, friends, and most significantly, my own personal direction. I've been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and I constantly feel the different pressures and anxieties of being a second semester senior with no definite course or action in my timetable. Of course I want to be successful, but its also been breed into me to be my own person - take my own actions towards my own true happiness and not to stress over the expectations others place on me. This is the struggle I have been dealing with while at Notre Dame. ND forces you to think that you have to have perfect grades, the perfect job, and the perfect salary. But honestly, I dont want to believe that is me. Regardless, I have been pushed and forced into this situation as a result of attending such a highly money motivated institution.

But, than again, nothing lasts. Your friends, your money, your happiness, your significant others...nothing really lasts at all moments in time. Ya, depressing huh? But once I got through thinking about all those things I looked at it in a different direction. One in which I want to take this line, "Nothing Lasts," and make sure I do everything in my personal power to make the most of what I have, right now. My senior year (the greatest year of my life thus far) is definitely flying by as I type, but I want to make sure I spend it with the best people I have found, having the best times of our lives...together...every single day. I want to make sure I remember this throughout this last semester of complete freedom. I want to take every opportunity, take every friendship, take all the advice, and do every road trip along the way. I don't see this depressing movie line as anything other than a motivation to make the most of what I have and take every day as its own, one at a time. It makes me want to push every day to the limit - no matter if I'm studying, working out, or trying to make someone else's life more rewarding.

Its dawned on me that there are so many little things in this world that try and bring us down. Mainly, its the people that we deal with on an everyday basis that have the greatest affect on us. But really, its our own responsibility to repressed those who don't want us to have a healthy, fun, and relaxing day. I've taken it upon myself to look in the mirror each and everyday and stand there for a second and realize this is the only day that really matters. - so push it to the limit. Block out those people that don't care about you, don't concern yourself with the things people say about you, and don't deal with those who don't make you a better person or don't stand by you when you struggle.

My goal this year is to do whatever it is that makes my family, my friends, and most importantly, what makes me happy. I want to be selfish and stubborn. I want to independently make my own decisions. I want to push the limits of my body. I want to go beyond any point of where I have been before.

Basically, none of the bad, sad, painful, emotional moments are going to last. It all passes by, and those who are able to get over the fact that its only a bad point in time are those that let the good times roll and keep them rolling. So, take each new day in itself. Accomplish something. Do something. Don't sit. Get up and move.

"Crazy, Cold, Idiot"

John did some work the other day and miraculously came up with a good find on Flickr. He found this picture in some random guys album...



http://flickr.com/photos/rabk/2687661396/



I guess this gives my account of the story a little more credibility. I dont feel like such a girl.

Follow Up

My gmail account has been pretty busy this week. I received this unfortunate email from the people at splish the other day...



Hi Dan:
Thank you for your interest in Splish. We have already decided our 2008 team, but we will keep you in mind for 2009.
Regards,
Dawn Heckman Splish Inc. 877-4SPLISH (323) 887-0757



I was pretty upset and have emailed Beautiful Dawn back twice since then. I should probably thank her for this anyway, I don't think I need to be wearing stinker suits anymore.



BUT....I also received news from my good friend, Ronald! The guy actually found my email and sent me the pictures he took of me, i'm not even mad! Thats amazing!



Hey Dan, This is Ronald, the Filipino guy you met at the Spirit of Racine Triathlon last Sunday. You won't believe how I got your e-mail address. It was sheer determination! I stayed until 2 PM waiting for you at the finish line but I did not catch you. When I went to check your bike at the transition area, it was gone so I presumed you already left. Here are your pictures I took. Hope you like them. Ronald



I actually used all his photos for my last post. Your a good man Ronald.

Spirit of Racine Half - Racine, WI

"I will finnnnnd you!" - Ronald

This was probably my most interesting triathlon experience of my life by far. I was pretty hesitant about signing up for two races on back-to-back weekends even before I realized I would be doing them alone. Regardless, I thought I would give it a shot and see if I could make a story out of it. At least I was able to convinced Mark and Jimmy to make the trip with me to Milwaukee.

The race was Sunday morning, so we left friday after work so Mark and Jim could spend as much time as possible at the breweries of Milwaukee. Nick Deprey was nice enough to let us sleep in his rommates bed and bathroom for the weekend as well as being our official Milwaukee tour guide. The weather was pretty pathetic. Im really not a big fan of Milwaukee in the first place - unless it involves milk at the state fair. One McGarry brother once described Milwaukee on the same depressing level as Toledo, which was really funny because I dont think he knew we were from Toledo at the time. I dont really remember the way he actually said it, but something to the effect of "don't ever go there." Anyway, all of Saturday was pretty gloomy and full of drizzle. Nick joined me to the weak expo Racine held while the meatheads visited all the breweries in town for the free beers. We eventually met up with them at the Miller brewery so we too could enjoy living the high life. I recommend going - great gift shop!

Sunday morning I woke up at my standard 3 hours pre-race and felt pretty good. I was not as mentally focused as I would have liked to be considering everything. The weather really gave me a bad feeling, and the travel and anxiety of races on back to back weekends wears on ya. But still, I was ready to go.

The weather all weekend was pretty bad for a race - it wasn't cold but it was muggy and very foggy. People weren't too happy when they kept delaying the start time because of the fog. I don't think they cared that you couldn't see a thing in the lake, and we more worried about their fragile triathlon diets. But this was just when I started to have a little fun. I didn't get the racing kit (triathlon top and bottom) in the mail like I was expecting, so I gave my stinker suit another run for its money.

Story time - the water temperature was 56 degrees, cold enough people were complaining about it even though they had full body wetsuits, head wetsuits, and even sock wetsuits! I was really just trying to ignore the water temperature and pretend that it really wasnt that cold, but it was pretty difficult when hundreds of people are staring, pointing, and talking about the idiot in the stinker suit. It didn't help that we had to wait on the beach for over an hour to start because of the fog, and the whole time people were getting in the water and talking. It was fun for me though - I made lots of friends. Even though none of my original friends were there, I met a nice filipino man, Ronald, who was just there to watch and take pictures. I mean, that sounded semi-normal, until he stood there in front of everyone and starting snapping away at me in my stinker suit when I was just standing there. Its kinda weird to have your picture taken when your not doing anything, when your the main focus, when lots of poeple are around staring, and especially strange when its another man and your only wearing a stinker suit.

--This guy didnt want to get anywhere near me.

After I escaped Ronald, I made my way to the start and kept running into more people who felt like telling me - "You're an idiot." So, I guess it was a bigger deal than I initially thought when I decided to wear a stinker suit in 56 degree water. But, it created a buzz all around the race so I was trying to let that carry me.

Finally, our wave was up and we hit the water and I immediately could not breath. It was pretty amzing how fast your body goes numb and how quickly the cold affects you. I had goosebumps the whole swim, had to do a lot of breast stroke to catch my breath, and had some gnarly leg cramps that were kinda worrying me. The swim was not smooth - it was crowded, cold, and I could barely get in a rhythm. It was longer than last week, so i was in the water for 38-39 minutes, and they zig-zagged the last buoy so I had to go back just when I thought I had finished.

The swim actually went faster than I thought. I was just glad I made it, and the swim finish line came sooner than expected. When you have several people come up to you and express their basic concern before the race, and hundreds more giving you worried attention, its hard to block it out and not think about all the things that could happen. My favorite part though was when we were running into the water and it was still too shallow to swim so we were running for a good 100 yards. From somewhere behind me in the water, i hear "WHERE'S THE GUY IN THE SPEEDO?" So i turn around and look at him and start yelling and cheering. Everyone was freezing and began yelling and slapping fives, so it was a pretty funny start to a serious triathlon.

When i exited the water I began to realize something wasn't quite right. I'm always a little dizzy when I run out of the water and loosen up, but this time I could barely run, and lost all coordination as I stumbled to transition. Apparently, I put on my bike stuff and got on my bike. I do remember not being able to click in my shoes and swerving so much on my bike I almost knocked over someone. I couldnt stop shivering, but figured I would warm up after 56 miles on the bike. Turns out, I only got about 2 miles on that bike before my tire exploded. I have never popped a tire while on my bike, not once. So, I didnt even have my saddle that held my extras and had to walk back to my car. I was done. It took too long to get back and I am not any good at changing tires, plus I wasnt interested in just finishing this race. I really wanted to do well, and I was racing for time, not to finish.

After i realized my tire popped and preceded to fall over on my bike because I couldn't get my feet off the pedals, I walked back to the transition. Soon, I was approached by volunteers that kept asking me if I was okay and that my lips were purple. I look at my hands and my hands are all blue and numb. My whole body was numb and shaking actually. That may have been the reason why two random women walked me back to the car and made me put on her husbands t-shirt and carried my shoes for me. haha - i felt like i was completely wasted drunk trying to talk sober, but it wasnt working. I could barely make words and the volunteers made me go to the medical tent - tempting me with blankets. When I picture a blanket I think of a wool, green sheet that I can wrap around my shoulders while sipping on some hot, soupy broth. Instead, they lay me down like a dead corpse, cover me in this tin foil looking things they called a blanket, and put hot pads in my arm pits. Their first two attempts at taking my temperature didnt register, but the third time was the charm - 96.4 i think it was. Anyway, an empty cup of delicious suop broth and the fear of them taking me into custody and performing more tests and leaving me to bake in this oven looking scenario prompted me to get the hell out of there, fast! Unfortunately, I had no time to say goodbye to Ronald.

Well, that was that. All the preparations, tapering, anxiety, not drinking, etc. all for a good 1.2 mile swim. Half of me was mad as hell, while the other half of me was just happy to get out of Milwaukee. I picked up Mark and Jimmy and we headed home to Melrose. Thankfully, the sun came out and warm up our spirits. We made it a couple hours before we stopped at Buffalo Phil's for some great Texas style food and some bowling. Bowling is the right answer to everything.

Looking back, I don't know what I was thinking really. I guess I should have invested in a wetsuit, but I really dont have the motivation to spend that much money on something I am only going to use a couple times a year, I dont even have proper racing clothes. I think Pants should buy me one so I don't die of hypothermia. That would just be sad.

Its stranger though, I really dont remember much of the race - maybe thats why the swim seemed to fly by. I don't remember the transition, and was pretty dilerious from the cold. I couldnt stand still and had lost all coordination. Unfortunately, I didnt get the chance to warm up on the bike and greet Ronald and my friends at the finish line. Im guessing everyone think the idiot in the stinker suit probably died during the swim.

Splish Sponsor Attempt

After my race this past weekend I decided it was time to get serious and convince someone to fund my addiction to triathlons. As a result, I turned to my speedo designers with this email...

dear splish,

I was wondering if you would like to be my official sponsor. I am a 22 year old triathlete who proudly wears my splish speedo,on average, once a day. I received my first splish speedo (stinker speedo) last year around this time and have been wearing it ever since i could fit in it. It has served me well, and since I have become very comfortable in it lately, I ended up wearing it to my race this past weekend. It was a big hit, especially since everyone else was wearing wet suits and being way uptight. I ended up qualifying for nationals, and I credit it all to my extreme aerodynamics. I think many people were impressed. Anyway, i compete in several races each year, and train every single day. I thought this might be a good opportunity for you to get some more exposure. Its kinda hard to miss a man running around a race in a stinker speedo.

Now that i have been using my stinker speedo so much, it is wearing thin these days. I thought it would be great if you would sponsor my triathlete needs so I wouldnt have to worry about my stinker speedo thinning to the point of no return. I would be more than willing to wear my splish gear to all my races and training of course, and hopefully get some cool tattoos for the races.

I hope you consider this opportunity for both of us. Im not expecting much, just a good fun way to team up with splish and spread the goods.

Sincerely,

Dan Amato
419.349.6085

...still hoping for the best.

Life Time Tri - Minneapolis, MN

Since my page has been seeing a great deal of activity lately, I have decided to get in a post or two - the ladies demand it!

I'm spending my time in Minneapolis, MN this summer working for Ryan Companies and have had a couple eventful weekends that I thought I might want to look back on in a few years. July 10th, I had the Life Time Fitness Triathlon in Minneapolis. This was my first race in almost a year, and its the first race in the Series - so its a big deal for pros (winners get $60,000). I ended up doing as well as I could have personally, I didn't place like I wanted to though. I raced a 2:20, got 6th in my age group, and ended up qualifying for nationals in Dallas at the end of the season. Overall, it was a great race and I pushed hard the entire time. The finish was pretty anti-climatic though because I didn't have any of my brothers there to go to the bar with and rehydrate with the Turkey.

The best thing about not knowing anyone there at all, was that I felt completely comfortable racing in my stinker speedo. My normal triathlon spandex wore a little thin this winter from all the chlorine - resulting in some serious dumpy butt action that isn't attractive or comfortable. So, instead of spending another $50 on something I could really live without, I thought my speedo was a viable option.

Wearing a speedo to race is not typical triathlon behavior, as most everyone swims in a wet suit to begin with. But, i figure the humor of my speedo, it does say "stinker" on the back and has a picture of a skunk on the front, would make light of the situation and pass without much problem.

Turns out - I raced the entire way in my speedo, accepting a few "Stinker" cheers on the way, and it went very smooth. No weird rashes or anything! I hope you enjoy the photos.

So i was just reading up on my last posts and realized that i just try way too hard to entertain you with my writing. Nate has given me more motivation to start blogging again, so i might give it a shot. But for now just forgive my terrible attempt at entertaining you with my writing.

Hey Pants

A little blast from the past.

Remember that one time the only thing i got for my birthday was a piece of gum. It was shaped like a hot dog. I was almost heart broken.
Since i was only a little guy at the time, I was expecting bigger things. So, when my doctor asked me what i got, i said nothing. Im still not letting Nancy Pants off the hook. It is almost as bad as Potts not wishing me happy birthday again.

So, this year there is no pressure on anyone to get me anything. If all you have is a piece of gum, ill take it. I love gum.

IronMan .5

Finished my first Half Ironman today. Took me, oh about 5 hours 15 minutes and 27 seconds, but really, what else is there to do on a Sunday morning? John thinks its kinda ridiculous anyone would want to do it, but i still think the joke was on him since he's the one who woke up at 4:30 this morning with me. Mark that one down in the calendar - John Amato awake at 4:30 in the am on June 10th, 2007. Good thing he was there though to cheer me on and offer me sandwiches during my transitions. Okay, back to the Race for Recovery. It was held in Monroe, Michigan. Geoff Myers was there and everyone there not named Amato wore a wetsuit. We first swam 1.2 miles in the Lake Erie, rode 54 miles around town, and then finished it up with a 13.1 mile run. Overall, i was pretty surprised at how i finished. This was my first one so i wasn't expecting much. I swallowed about a gallon of Lake Erie on the swim so i was pretty hydrated throughout the whole thing. The course was really flat so that helped my time a lot. But, it was the first time i was on my bike for 3 hours . I had to get off twice just to pee. Killer man. And once i survived the bike I finally got to run. This was one of those times i was actually looking forward to running. This was the only portion of the race that i felt i had trained well for, probably over-trained. And it proved true, i ran under 90 minutes and almost beat my Holy Half Marathon time which would have not made any sense at all. Anyway, its all said and done now, good times, good times. One good thing about this weekend is i can finally get my first tattoo! But only half of it! Next event on the calendar - the Chipotle Underwear Run!
The parents skipped town after the race and left the entire house for Rohn and I. After all the exercose, I decided to live the life of Rohn for a week. How nice. It was an amazing week. We just laid, and laid, ate chipotle, watched movies, and ate tubs of ice cream. It was so amazing i think VH1 is going to feature us on their Best Weeks Ever! television show. Or, they should at least. If only Chipotle delivered.

Manland

In preparations for July 8th i have assembled Manland. It is located in my basement and has everything a men needs. I will list them now: pool table, ping/beer pong table, darts, dart board, cable tv, speakers, ipod hook-up, poker table, dumbells, bench press, sump pump/man toilet, and a futon. Finding a fridge full of beer has been my most difficult task. Hopefully, one will turn up soon. Photos of this magical land will surely surface throughout the summer. Feel free to stop on by and hannnng out, and lay.

It's Wedding Season You Sandbaggin' Son of a Beotch

In true Amato form, we decided to take full advantage of things this weekend. First, we made a family vacation out of the Hanafin wedding, weaseled our way into a round of golf, ate our dinners at the happy hours, rented a clown car for seven, scalped Disney tickets off the black market, band topped it off by crashing the dang wedding.

Well, its wedding season everyone! John, Kat, and I crashed our first wedding of the year, showing up uninvited and ready to party. This is just a tune up for Rohn and I, we already have 1 planned for August as well. Throughout our stay in Orlando we hit up a couple of the Hollywood hot spots. A few things we learned this trip: Sam Snead's is delicious, Disney is for kids, Cougar dumps are the worst, Jenny had a CAKE not a KEG, Dan Burke is close to amazing, Smeagol is close to death, and Germany is the best country (as confirmed by EPCOT).

There were maybe 1549 pictures taken this weekend by the amato's alone, so there is really isnt a lot to say about this weekend. It was another fun family trip that goes way too fast. Rohn has put up all the pictures up on flickr, so check them out if your actually interested.

Summer '07: Holland, OH

Instead of heading out west again this summer and hanging out with one of my best friends, Jorge, I/my parents have decided it would be best to stay home this summer and hang out with Rohn. Well, shoot son, the summer of Rohn has officially started!

I will be spending my summer working at Savage & Associates, part-time only. Other than that ill be doing some landscaping, working out, and working out. This first weekend the fam headed back to ND to celebrate Kat's graduation. John and I were forced to sit through dinner together. Other than that, we just took a visit to the House to see Mo' Money Mo' still hard at work holding it down.
On our way back from the Bend we stopped at Blake George with the Haudan's. Played a couple games of bags, watched the preakness (Big Money!), caught up on old time with Mr. Trares, caps, shot fireworks at friends (video), and had a nice little bonfire with s'mores to cap it all off. Basically it was a great time relaxing. But, back to Holland we go!

There is actually a lot to look forward to this summer. We hit a little bump in the road when John recently has gotten grounded from going to the bar with the softball team, the rest of us are still allowed to go. But softball is still our main focus. Its big time - Nick Boyle even decided to skip summer school just so he could play. So, every Wednesday we wear our bike shorts and head to John's Corner Bar afterward. We got it worked out. Outer Broke is coming up, my favorite holiday July 4th, I turn legal, NYC tri, more weddings, and so on. The summer is taking form, so make sure if you want to book mine our Rohn's time, please notify us early.

Yeeeeah! Yeeeeah! I'm Baaaaaack!

Its been a while, a long while since the last time i posted, but i figure a summer at home with the 'Boy of Destiny', aka Rohn, is worth rememebering. But before i start with the latest summer news, i should probably provide an update of the past year.
Its pretty hard to remember all of the great times ND provides, but ill do my best. Here is goes...
The biggest news of the year was definitely the hardest to deal with. That is, when Nancy Pants got news about her pancreatic cancer. This kinda news changes a lot, especially since our family is so close. Thankfully Pants was able to deal with it and stay as positive as she could throughout the whole thing. Im just glad to say we have made it through this far and now only have to worry about keeping it away. On the lighter news of the year..
We pulled the 6-man for the year, Zahm House is official now, Zeb and friends made new friends that became our friends in Sted's, and I lived the sober life until that one night Aiden came barrelling through town with a keg strapped to his back and put it in our room. Which is just another reason we are know as the greatest room in the greatest dorm. Anyway, we tried to make some money this year with our "Fear the 'Hawk" shirts. It really only provided me with a whole new wardrobe of new tshirts and led the way for The Boy of Destiny to copy it for his FUPA shirt. So life was pretty standard up until Thanksgiving Break when all hell broke loose for the USC game.
So, i finally made my triumphant return to my summer couch out in LA with Pat and Tron. Rohn, Kat, Smeagol, McGarry, Cousin Meagan, Tea Pot, Diesel, and basically every other person i have ever met was there. Uncle Kelly provided the Turkey (Deep Fried gets the nod). I became a K-Fed fan after seeing him in concert, we went to the Kinko guys martini bar with Rohn and got to wear some cool jackets in the vodbox,. This was just our warm-up for the tailgate. John smashed a watermelon on his head, things were getting lit on fire and smashed on john's head (not really, but maybe next time), and everyone and their grandma (literally) had to do keg stands in order to get any beer from pat. The tailgate was crazy ridiculous. It was so good i dont think anyone cared about how bad we got beat, at least i know thats true for at least Kat and Dre since they just cuddled and slept the whole game. Anyway, greatest tailgate ever really capped off a great trip. And then i got to drive teh UHAUL home with everyone in the back...smeagol was there. Enough said really.
Welp, Christmas couldn't come fast enough after all this, and during that time i got tricked into dating a girl. Her name is Potts. So, thats kinda a big deal i would say, for any Amato that is. At least she's tall, right?
Christmas break was a good one. P-Dog flew into town with Dre, and Potts too for the Pant's Party. Timmy from the real world spent the night, and the first Dan Amato Shooting Camp went smoothly. This all happened withing about a week. The brothers spent New Years in Chicago with Smeagol and McGarry which was a good time. I also bought my first bike and got pretty bored with life and started working out for NYC tri coming this summer.
One random thursday night Zeb, Hops, and I were able to convince Mckernan to drive us to Canada. Zeb made big money and then spent it wisely at the skating rink, Hops was dead to the world after not being able to sleep and Mckernan...ya, Mckernan. After that, i dont think anything else happened besides Zeb and I getting rejected to go to Greece next year only to be offered a spot in Chingy Jingle's homeland of Austria. Given, we learn German. So, once we get our "B" in German, start planning your Eurotrip '08 plans, bigger and better than '06. Zeb and i also signed our lease to live off campus and out of the House next year. Good news for you guys, whoever that is so you have a place to stay next football season. All Smeagol's welcome. Spring Break was spent hanging around Holland takin care of Pants, getting a summer job, and layin and crankin with Rohn and Gramma.
Coop slept in Zahm, had his first Zaaaa, Zebapalooza happened, highlighted by Poz puking on a girl and her running out of the room screaming. Needless to say, we got shut down and banned from having partied. On the topic of the Death of Zahm, Father Dan is leaving. But before he left he announced that the Bun Run was canceled. Good man he is. But, in true Zahmbie fashion, just with less support than usually. Get it?
Easter was held in Holland this year. Hummer and Bulfin came again, while Zeb replaced Ghostdog as that weird kid we randomly bring home to entertain us. Bulfin was the man of the weekend for sure, especially after stumbling through Mike and Pant's room late one night on his way to use their bathroom...at least he had good aim. Coop is still alive and peeing all of the driveway. Yes Rohn, we know Coop is a beast.
To top off the year...Kat got into ACE, so she will be in ND this summer. Gonna be weird without her at ND anymore. So with Kat gone, it has been declared the Summer of Rohn. Its gonna be a good one, so ill try and keep you updated.

Notre Dame 21, Michigan 47

Notre Dame 41, Penn State 17

So what was hyped up to one of the games of the year turned out to be just a big ND gathering for P-Dog's friends for the first home game. Don't get me wrong, we all appreciate a little entertainment on our campus, so it was great. Nice weather and all. After touching all the tailgates we could, especially the Poz hot dog stand, we eventually made it to our seats, your seats, everyone's seats basically - section 34, row 24. By everyone's seats, i mean everyone we know sits in our row, no matter where their real tickets may be - Rohn included of course! So, we spent the rest of the day dog piling, sending Gay to health services, letting horses little our area with poo, and throwing little Bulfin into the air (Nuts in face!). Hummer was reminscent of the St. Patty's Day Massacre, and Fuzz was the disappointment of the day - bowing out after a fight with a supposed heat exaustion battle. Good excuse Fuzz! So the game was over after the first drive of the 2nd half. Form there John passed out on our futon and Hummer smelled up the room with permanent marker all over him.

Notre Dame 14, Georgia Tech 10

Bulfin hosted the first Dis-O in 13 years on this Friday in order to get the year started out with a bang. And ever since, Father Dan hasn't stopped sniffy our butts. But, besides the usual dog hounding us, Saturday was the main focus as the much anticipated first game of the season was on this night. KT ditched town in the last minute to head to Atlanta with Gramma to watch the real game while the rest of us waited all day for the first game watch in the 6-man. With so much expectation for this year's team, it wasnt too surprising that we came out slow and flat. It was a rather scary first half until we finally scored a touchdown right before halftime. But, from there, it was simply a boring game. At least we had Keddie's horn to lead cheers.

Sophomore Year

Bulfin, Hummer, Gay, Fuzz, and Jordan. We got the room. We got the TV. We got the speakers. Now all we have to do is remember to study. And the year of the 6-man begins...

One Last Week

So, theres only one week left in this summer, so Pat and I decided to quit wasting our time with sleeping and eating and just live the dream for one last week. Pat even paid EY just so he wouldnt have to work. Anyway, we spent our first two days haning around Hermosa with the Amato crew painting fences, buzzing more heads, and visiting Venice Beach. Our next stop was Santa Barbara to meet up with Wild Turkey and the softball team. We had a double header tonight. I started in center field. The next day we decided to pick it up a little and continue the week by going to Lake Mead with Dirty and his roommate Blake. In which case, one of the funniest random moments of my life happened on the ride. So, we stopped to get gas about an hour away from the Lake and Pat drives into the Jack In the Box drive through for some tacos. It takes about 15 minutes for the seniorita to take our order. I wasn't even mad though. So, we dont think much of it and we are waiting for our food at the window. Its been a while since we ordered and the guy behing us started getting a little ticked off because the ladies dont even know english, French, or how to use the credit card machine. So, as we sit there this guy just keeps getting hungrier and hungrier until finally he gets out of his car and just power strides right next to our truck by the drive through window and starts yelling and cussing at the women behind the counter. Hes pretty mad, kinda impatient, reaks of alcohol, and hasn't eaten for houuurrrrs. It was super intense. He then calmly returned to his car leaving all of usrather surprised and scared as we burst into unbelievable laughter. Anyway, we finally got our food, and someone else's food, and someone else's orange pop, and the double order of tacos we didnt order - all for $3.20. To top it all off though, the clincher - Blake takes a look in the bag and just throws his arms up in disgust acting like they screwed up our order. As if it was scripted, Blake provokes the man enough to act quick and sprint directly to the order window. Now hes mad. He's pissed actually. "Helloooo? Is there a manager herreee!!!?? Hellooooo?" and the points at the little Mexican ladies and says, "You guys suck!" and caps it off with a nice fbomb. And thats when we peeled out and drove as fast as we could away from him. You should probably check out the youtube video of it for a better laugh.
We made it to Blake's trailer around bedtime and read eachother some stories. The next two days we spent in the middle of nowhere. But it was absolutely amazing. We were in 100 degree whether surrounded by red rocks and huge catfish. There were a total of 2 other people on the whole lake and im pretty sure they left too after Dirty's monkey butt hangs. So, with no one left to worry about around us, Pat and I spent our time watching Blake and Mark wake board as we failed miserably. But, our wake boarding entertainment didnt last long because a crazy 3 inch break covered the lake. Instead we took a much needed rest on the beach and played some horse shoes and hung out in our life jackets. So basically, our two days of Blake Mead consisted of relaxing on the boat, relaxing in the trailer, relaxing turkey burgers, and some intense card playing. We also had Dirty Mark Dancing, diving off the boat, and high speed reading sessions.
Two and a half days on Blake Mead led us straight to our second hometown - Las Vegas! Without Jingle's around to tour us of the city, we took it onto ourselves to head straight to the Hard Rock pool and put on our very own cannonball show. They didnt like us. But they let us stay and relax some more, pounded some now famous hater-ade, caught a fashion show with Fobolous, and a very interesting meal at Pink Taco.
We finally made a return to our hotel room to find Blake napping, Dirty running around naked for some reason, and our favorite Smeagol. Smeagol came to town to re-energize the group and show us how to bring down the house Bulfin-style at the casino.
So, i guess nothing has changed over the past 4 years since these old men were in college. P-Dog and Smeagol are still getting kicked out of bars, and then sneeking back in, Mark still tells girls they have cute ears, and Pat forgetting our room number and almost breaking down someone elses door before Blake saved him. Good timing.
Welp, it had to come to an end sometime, and that time was right about now. We returned to Tron and the bachelor pad in one piece. This marked my summer down to 12 hours. 12 hours! A sad thought. And soon enough it was time to say goodbye to all that was summer. It was actually a sad moment when i realized i would never get to the entertainment of Jorge running on the treadmill, my couch friend mouse, meathead quote master Tron8000i, and all the adventures of Dirty, Pelner, UK, and P-Dog. Goodbye summer of fun.
Instead of returning to my life long home on Bexton Drive, I returned to Ohio to find out that we actually did move. Hmm. Well, its a big house and Coop hasnt died yet, so thats good enough for me. So, for the next five days i just puttered around the house until i was told to go to school.

Deep Sea Fishing

Traveled down to Crazy Uncle Tim's place for the fourth, and most definitely the final time this summer. As planned, we were scheduled to go deep sea fishing in Ensenade, Mexico Saturday night, so we made the trip a little easier by staying Friday night in San Diego.
Tim was still out of town so he didn't mind us staying at his place as long as we watched over the pool and took care of the dogs. Im pretty sure Tim meant Chili and Mocha though, not Mad Dogs! This only led to a night of full of cannon balls, pole vaulting, and hair cuts. This weird combination of events led to a very large pile of hair on the floor, and 5 fresh buzz cuts. And during this haircutting processs when Pat was touching things up, he decided to let the clip fall off and just use the buzzer. Therefore, i was well on my way to having a sun burned skull. After touching up everyone else's hair, i handed the clippers over to Pelner and watched him as he cut his own hair. And a few racing stripes later, i look back to see how Pelner is doing and he too forgot to use the buzzer clip and shaved his own head. So, i was pretty excited to see i wasn't the only crazy looking one.

As many people know already, its always pretty dangerous to sleep in the same bed as Dirty, especially after a night of going out. For obvious reasons, most people don't risk sleeping next to him. But others, like Juan and I on this night, wake up to Dirty sleeping with us without permission. So, after a good night like Dirty had, Juan can unfortunately say that he has officially been Dirty Mark'd. I can't really say that myself though, Juan and Dirty were almost cuddling when i woke up; i would have to say i was more of a witness. But this was only half of it. Due to Tim's intense ant farm that has been living in his house lately, ants were everywhere! Especially right around Dirty's right ear. I noticed this when i would wake up from ants crawling on me but had no idea why and there were about a hundred ants building an ant pile right around Dirty's head. Apparently, Dirty forgot he had stuck his gum behind his ear and forgot to do something with it before the ants got to it.

After a poor attempt of cleaning the house, we went right back to the swimming pool, even fitting in a little home run derby session. Since we were having so much fun playing with all of Grace's toys, we just couldn't keep track of time and ended up being pretty rushed when Tim arrrived at the airport. So, a quick sweep throughout the house and we were gone - forever!
During this time, Tron arrived as well as the two girls that Pat must have tricked to get to pay for this trip - worst girls ever!

Anyway, i had the priviledge of driving down to Mexico - the worst place to ever drive when you are trying to following a crazy man in a white SUV. I actually think Uncle Tim was trying to lose us and let us get lost because he was so mad at Pat for forgetting everything he was suppose to do for the fishing portion of the trip. So, we super mario carted all the way down to Ensenada and sprinted straight to the local taco mart and pharmacy - stopping only for essentials like extra large sombreros. Good buy though.

We weren't scheduled to board the ship until 2 am so we had a few hours to kill before we had anything to do. So, we took a seat at the local bar and waited for the greatest human being in all of Mexico to show up - David. It was as if someone had raised this kid to be our best friend, because he was completely toasted but still rocking out harder than anyone i have ever seen. And if it wasn't for Uncle Tim's strick fishing rules, we were more than willing to take him on the boat with us; and definitely ready to kick the girls off the trip for sure. Unfortunately though, we had to leave him behind and out of our lives forever.

Around 2, we boarded the boat with our captain, whose name i never caught, and our shipmate Corge. Both Spanish speakers. And if it was for Juan, or native Mexican and interpreter, we wouldn't have understood one word the whole day. After some mullet wearing, pull up acrobats, and seals, the boys were sent to bed. Tron and I were already cuddling in our own bed, but from what i hear, Juan and Pat officially got sent to bed by the Captain. And because this "sleeps 6 comfortably" boat really only sleeps 2 1/2 Trons, Juan was stuck on the deck of the boat asTron and I couln't move because we were stuck to eachother.

After a rather bumpy couple hours of sleep and the over rated fear of motion sickness rather suppressed, it was time for the fish to show up. It took a while, but we did end up catching some fish and even some big seaweed bush Pat tried tricking me into reeling in. I did finally catch a a real fish though. The sun finally came out just in time to burn my entire skull and we even got our very own dolphin show. Maybe the Barcelona aquarium can take some notes from this and realize they need a dolphin show if they ever expect me to come back. It was awesome, there were about 30 total dolphins and when you try to run over them with your big boat, they just stay right there and start swimming with the boat.

So, everyone ended up catching a fishy or two (excluding all girls who sleep the entire trip and suck) and we were headed back to the home land after 18 hours of ocean waves. We finally ditched the girls, but then ran into some serious bad luck. Once we got to the border, they closed off the exit right after Tron's car. So, we had a slight 3 hour detour just so we could leave the country. It was a pretty long 6 hour ride home, ut Mark and I slept most of the way so we didn't really care. And to top it all off, Tim arrived home before us and quickly determined that we are all "banished" to never return.

Triathlon 1.0

So, a month and a half of real training and i was thrown in for my first triathlon with Pat and Tron. Only one 67 year old beat me, even though he was the only one who was 67 years old. But still, after finishing the race i felt pretty good. Only 3 and half minutes behind half iron man Pat. But then, i checked the final results i realized that didnt mean a whole lot on the grand scale of things.
First was the swim. And at this time, i was really wishing i would have practiced this portion of the race. But i didn't drown or get stung by a sting ray, but it was still pretty difficult. So, after what seemed like a maze of a course in the water, in which my goggles kept fogging up and I kept swimming the wrong way; i probably swam well over the 1.5k course due to all the zig zagging i was doing. And when i felt some little baby cramps as i was running out of the water i got a little worried.
The bike was a whole different story. Since i had only practiced this part of the race 2 times before, i wasnt really expecting a stellar performance. And i was exactly right. I made sure that i kept track of all the people i passed on the ride - one! It was a rather humbling bike ride. I just kept telling myself that the 43, 47, and 52 year olds that kept passing me most likely were on steroids. Or, maybe they just practiced this whole biking thing more than me. And the whole ride i was pretty worried, since i didn't see Pat once. And then, after 40k of biking, he too passed me, the last one. And i thought i had a chance.
And then the run - 10k. I was ready for this portion of the race. I could see Pat the entire time as he taunted me from 50 yards away, and Tron as he passed on the other side of the road. But, after plenty of water cups and near cramps, we all finished - Tron a little sooner than other.
And as it turned out, Tron ended up beating me by a full 10 minutes on the bike alone. And that was the difference in the whole race. Pat very well could have done the doggy paddle the entire swim, because he may have come close to the slowest swim of the day. But that didnt stop him from catching up to me on the bike - like most people.
Its official though. Tron took over the #1 seed. Here are the results.

Vegas Vacation

Instead of traveling across the border to Canada this year, we decided it would be easier if we just headed to the middle of the desert to celebrate my 20 years of life. So, we did that, in Las Vegas.
Since it was only my 20th birthday, not to be confused with my 21th birthday which will happen next year, i was limited to hanging out at the pool, and..well, hanging out at the pool. But, during those long adult swim sessions i kept busy supervising Pat's gambling and making sure Jingle's was misbehaving (thats tough to do). So, other than the fact that i was too young to do anything, it was a good time in Vegas. And after spending the 8th of July all day at the Hard Rock pool, which is ridiculous by the way, watching Brian shame every woman at the pool with his Stifler dance-off moves, Nate arrive for his one day of glory per week. And once freak thrity arrive, i was surprised he would every make it to his bed. I love Nate. Especially after i realized he was too tired to drive home on Sunday so he took a nap in his car with the air conditioner on. I'm glad he woke up.
So, i spent most of my nights with Jingle's. Or, some of you may know him as Jingle-Berry, SnowFlake, or any rendition of the above. But, i met his dog Lola and experience my first episode of Law & Order with him. And also got to spend my birthday night with Jingle's and his friends trying to travel the strip to The Wynn. Didnt happen. After celebrating in our rooms, and many amazing/surprising performances, the new challenge was just keeping them awake past midnight. Didnt happen.
And so, we made it back safely (im not positive as to whether or not Nate ever made it home) and realized we actually had to work this week, bummer. Anyway, im staying at Uncle Kelly's place this week making sure Lucky gets plenty of exercise and I get plenty of practice doing old man chores around the yard. So, when i was sitting in the kitchen one night, i realize something is burning in the toaster. But no, there is nothing in the toaster and notice Lucky scraping his head back and forth on the carpet going nuts. So, after a minute or two Merlin and I realize that Lucky had been sprayed by a skunk. It was actually a baby skunk. So, to help Lucky out, I gladly threw ketchup on her and saved her life. True story. The End.

July 4, 2006

Before we could start celebrating in Vegas, we had to finish up the weekend with the real reason to eat lots of hot dogs - the actual 4th of July. Woke up to Pat taking notes while watching the official Nathan's Eating Contest that was on TV. I pretty sure thats the reason i was dreaming of hot dogs, oh well.
Not long after, Nathan Weaver shows up for some early morning Turkey Burgers before we headed to the beach with our 8 1/2 pairs of flippers. Today was the third part of our 4th of July events (Eating contest, Yucka, Flipper Soccer) - Flipper Soccer. And, it went over so well that it may happen more than once a year, but i doubt it. So, after another trip to Hermosa and lots of Code Red, Nate led the attack in a very aggressive game of Flipper Soccer. Pelner, of all people, was the MVP though. I'm not sure how it happened, but he seemed more coordinated playing flipper soccer than anyone since Claudia Reyna.
So, after tearing up our feet, and Nate bleeding through his flippers, we decided it was time for an end even though the people watching and taking pictures of us were rather disappointed. So, it was another day spent at the Poop Deck for the team.
Briney and I spent a lovely afternoon together walking the strand and eating pizza together - talking...about things. So, once Nate and the team were completely 68'ed from the Poop Deck, just around freak thirty, we headed back to Kelly's with Nate Weaver. You would love Nate Weaver. I'm not even going to try and explain - just know!
So, before we actually left Hermosa, we were hanging out with Merlin in the front yard when Mark and Briney show up in a taxi. Mark gets out with a bloody nose and tells us how he got sucker punched in the face. And, in order to get it over with, he asks us to re-set his nose for him instead of waiting to go to the hospitol. Hmm...
The only one we trusted for this was Pat. So, Pat moved it pretty good i guess (claiming he has done it before). So, Briney takes Mark to the hospitol and gets it checked out. When asked if he broke his nose, the doctor said, "After looking at the x-rays, your nose isn't broken. But, someone may have re-set it for you."
And there it is. True story. Lesson of the day: Pat should follow in Bike's foot steps and become a doctor, not an accountant.


We also watched fire works this night - from 25 miles away. gaaaay.

The Art WhippleCheck Power Eating Contest brought to you by Danimal

What's the perfect way to celebrate the 4th of July? Hot dogs. Lots of them.
And so, thats how The Art WhippleCheck Power Eating Contest sponsored by Danimal came about. That, and the fact that Tron is unbelievably talented at eating, and so is the man and the legend Art WhippleCheck. And since I have only heard of the man who eats Tron under the table, it was time that I witness, firsthand, the legend of Art WhippleCheck.
So, the week before was full of preparations - t-shirts, flyers, etc. The menu for Saturday was originally set as pizza, then changed to peanut butter and jelly, and finally we settled for the classic and most practical measure - hot dogs. We went through a string of mini diets in hopes we could prepare our stomachs as best we could. Even conducting a mini test run with Tron, Pat, and I on Tuesday, trying to gauge ourselves with our own XL pizza.
On game day, Pat and I warmed up our stomachs with another early morning ride. Meaning only one thing - an early night. Anyway, after all the hot dogs were cooked, and Art finally showing up with his homemade BBQ sauce, we were ready for a good 12 minutes of hot dog. Or, in Juan's case, these little plastic things called veggie dogs. He deserved to be disqualified from this man sport. So, after about 5 minutes of hard eating, i was done, with 5! Whereas, Art just kept on going to 9 hot dogs filling his stomach. And for runner-up, it was a tie - Briney and Tron both ate 8 hot dogs. Tron definitely fell in the standings after today.
After 12 minutes of hot dogs followed by about 30 minutes of puking by the group, we enjoyed the rest of the day on our Indo Boards. And, thats about it. An early morning = an early night for dr.
The only real disappointments of the day were Jorge and Danimal - both no shows! Jorge is my wonderful boss at work who was going to make us a cake and roller blade over for the event. Instead, we bought our own cake. And as for Danimal..."Danimal?! Wanna come to our eating contest? Your sponsoring it!"....."No! I have kids. I have a life." Basically, he was scared.
And so there it is..the first Art WhippleCheck Power Eating Contest brough to you by Danimal - a great start.


After a good showing from Art, and a super long night of sleep, we were all ready to go Sunday as well. And to celebrate in honor of Zahm - cake and Yucka. So, we got our things together and headed to Hermosa for the day.
We spent the day playing games with the neighborhood kids, spraying the hose, keeping kelly and pants company, and made sure Pelner kept his visor on so we wouldn't mix him up with Lucky. Another hot day in the sun led to another fun weekend at Kelly's - with Russ in tow. But without any eating contests scheduled, only random little events like wrestling in the front yard, Briney's favorite PoopDeck, and Pat waking up the next day with scratches all over his body summed up our day.

San Diego, California

With nothing serious on our schedule for this weekend, Pat and I went on a little late night rendezvous to the city of San Diego to visit crazy Uncle Tim and little Grace for the weekend. And Saturday morning i was lucky enough to wake up to Grace waiting for me banging pots and pans. That woke me up. Anyway, we started with a nice ride through the area checking out all the gated communities that would let us in before we spent the afternoon tye dying, picking blackberries, making orange juice, and plenty of CandyLand. So, after falling asleep and a nice pool shower, we headed to the Angels game..plenty of peanuts there.
And after a long Saturday, we woke up early to play some tennis and swim before we rushed home so we wouldnt miss Lunch's with Briney!

Mud Run

Well, my first week in LA turned out to be just an extension of EuropeTrip, thanks to Captain Kevin Downs that is! Kevin (House!) is the captain of our Mud Run team and flew in to LA the first day we were back so we could prepare ourselves for our race on June 11th. We officially had one week to show the Captain everything there is to do in LA. Throughout the week, the race team (Downs, Dirty, Pat, and I) endured some heavy training while the captain was in town, including the most rigorous pong games and beer bongs i have ever endured. But between games of poker, we managed to hurt ourselves more than helping our chances of even being able to participate in the race. And as it turned out it seemed we did everything we could to make sure we wouldn't make the race - one infected foot, one twisted ankle, Dirty Mark, and a day at Dragon would hurt the chances of any team.
Anyway, this probably means nothing to anyone except the team (Pant's ninjas) because our weekend was too long to explain. But to make things short and to the point - Kevin's arrival killed any chances we had to running this race respectably. After the first two days of training, i was unbelievably sore from not running in a full month, but i was well trained for all the drinking Kevin had us doing.
But still, Saturday (the day before the race), was a day none should forget. After an early morning start for the rest of the team, i drove us down to ATP tournament at Hermosa. So, we parked it up at Kelly and Pant's place and, to my surprise, skipped the volleyball and headed straight to...Dragon? Mark's friends Richard Jefferson, Luke Walton, and Brian Cook met us there. As a team, we perfected our cheers in the bar as usual, pounding just enough to have P-Dog and Dirty get asked to leave, and as a true captain, Kevin followed and ate five pieces of pizza, one for all of us.
And after wandering around the trails, and Aunt Pants refusing Pat and friends to go into the house, Kelly and Uncle Dan rounded us up in the truck and took us to the beach. How nice of them. Then, burritos magically appeared, and we ate them! So, it was a good thing Kelly was there to watch over us on the eve of our race, otherwise we may not have had the energy we needed to finish.
But we did eventually make it down to Camp Pendleton, home of GymNasium, for the Mud Run the very next day after staying the night at Crazy Tim's place. And after Tron8000 twisted my ankle in a game of basketball, Kevin's foot was twice its normal size from a strange bug bite, a fire alarm fiasco, we still managed to make our 7 am wake up. And once again, we defied all odds and made it to the race site...and finished!
The Mud Run was actually really cool. It's a 10k run at the marine corpes base near San Diego and even though the trail wasn't too big (hence, the slow time) they had plenty of obstacle to test the health of the team. There were plenty of mud pits, walls, ponds, and steep declines to test our ankles. And then again, Dirty was there trying to make it even harder for us by throwing huge chucks of mud. But, we did finally finish..in a dismal 1:09. But it was still good for 10th best out of the mens teams and 38th overall. Not bad considering our circumstances. Now...only 365 days until we win it..

Summer 2006: Los Angeles, California

After what seemed like an extremely long vacation in Europe, which it was, i now get to start my summer vacation - perfect. I am pretty excited to be spending my summer outside of Ohio, especially with the regular antics of Dirty Mark and the classic meathead moments Tron 8000 provides. Luckily though, Uncle Kelly and Nance were nice enough to give Pat some furniture in his apartment so i wouldnt have to sleep on the floor all year, even though it does takes away from Tron's workout area. Anyway, the only way i could come to Cali this summer was if i could score myself a summer job. So, after returning to the states, we had a few days before we had to start working and tried our best to motivate ourselves to sweat the alcohol out of our systems and prepare ourselves for the much anticipated Mud Run on Sunday.
So i though my first day of work, real work, would be like my first day of school every year. Maybe a little nervous and maybe not sleep too long. But really, i wasnt really worried this time. Pat cheered me up by surprising me with a new lunch box and was ready for Pelner to take me to work.
Once Pelner safely dropped me off for my first day, i was informed we were having a fire drill, in which they told me i was really good at. So i was off to a good start. And after passing the fire drill, they handed me the newest important persons piece of paper, updated of course. And prompty handed them out to everyone else in the office. As you can see, i have a lot of potential, and only have room to improve. So, im really excited for this!...and then, for the next 6 hours or so, i typed names into a computer to make labels. Not too bad really. I get an hour lunch and we have a pretty gnarly gym i just work out at instead of eating. So, its not too bad getting paid to type names with no other real expectations.
But besides having a stress free job, the best part is that they give me a cubicle, they leave me alone, and i get to go on the internet and do things like blog. Plus i have my own telephone number. So give me a call sometime, ill be answering 310.765.2404. But right now i need to get back to work because im extremely busy and have to type more names into the computer.

Day 21: London, England ----> Los Angeles, California

Woke up full of Doner, and completely distgusted. Couldn't sleep because Smeagol kept waking us up with him Doner gas. After five straight meals of Doner, and the thought of it haunting us all day long, we finally realize that we would no longer miss anything at all about Europe. So, it was a successful diet in my mind.
After a long and sweaty trip to the airport, we were informed that our plane had been delayed. Usually, this is bad. And it was for us because we had to transfer flights in Chicago and drop off Smeagol there on our way to LA. But then we got the good news - they booked us on a direct flight to LA. So it was perfect, except we had to say goodbye to Smeagol and his MVP trophy for the trip. It was sad to see him go, but the new flight saved us a lot of time and effort even though 12 hours on a plane is a reallly long time. But this still wasnt even the best news of the day. The best news of the day was that they were featuring the movie "Failure to Launch"' on the flight home. And it was good. Im pretty sure Pelner didn't even watch it for free this time.

We officially survived EuroTrip '06 - everyone. At times i wasnt sure if we would. Whether it was the riots in Barcelona when Bulfin got set on fire, John trying to steal sandwiches from a little China Man, the John Kelly head butt, Nic falling out of his bed after peeing on Jess' bag, canyoning, Smeagol riding his Moped, and a number of other little things that could have been potential dangerous. And even though John's bread and cheese diet didn't work for Smeagol and his EuroTrip diet, i think we all had a good enough time - but happy to be back.

Day 20: London, England

Okay, so i woke up with one thing on my mind today - Doner! And, since it is basically the best food i have had all trip, i realized today was my last day to enjoy its deliciousness. Therefore, our diet would consist only of Doner in hopes that we would be able to leave it behind peacefully.
We had nothing to do today since we toured the whole city yesterday. Plus, we were just sick of Europeans and the weird things they do to bother with any Pelner tours. Basically, we were ready to be back. So, we filled our day doing things we havent done all trip - like sleeping, bowling, cookies, a movie, and lots of Doner.
So we slept in just enough to make sure we were well rested for our big day in London - doing things no one else does in London. We started our Doner Diet bright and early on our way to the bowling alley and then spent about what seemed like 20 minutes bowling. P-Dog and Pelner didnt even break the century mark, but at least they beat the muslim girls that were bowling next to us. Although, we did get a good laugh when one of the girls didn't let go of her bowling ball and fell straight to the ground. I think she bowled a 12.
After bowling, we really had nothing to do. And since our previous London tour guide, Frosty, had since returned to the USA - we were on our own this time! And thats when we had an idea. To do as Frosty would do, we ate cookies! If anyone really wants to get me a present, just order me a large batch of Ben's cookies! Thanks.
Although we were nowhere near the cookie shop, we thought it couldn't hurt to spend the afternoon searching for cookies. And thats exactly what we did. So, after an hour of walking, a very smart pit stop to pick up some milk - we somehow made it! P-Dog and i dominated the event by getting 14 cookies. In which we would only finish 2 before we were full. But we have plenty for our friends back home who would really appreciate them.
With nothing else scheduled on this busy day, we headed to the movie theatre. And after a short speech by Pelner, we were on our way to see "Things to do Before Your 30." I actually wanted to see "Failure to Launch." But, Pelner said no.
We ended up taking the subway back to the hostel so Smeagol could get some extra napping in. And once he woke up - we began our night as we always did - with a few games of cards. And after an early and hard start to our night, we headed out to find Doner #2. And it was good.
P-Dog apparently made a date with that Swiss couple we met last night. And as it turned out, they were there waiting for us - even though we were an hour late!
Our new hair styles we a big hit - thanks to the new rules put into place after our card games. And once we got bored with the Europeans, we headed to our favorite Doner stand for Doner #3. And after being completely full, Pelner ordered us Doner #4. And we were happy.
And i can officially say i will no longer miss Doner after this day. I was more full that i have ever been in my entire life...and actually wanted to kill Doner.
And oh yeah, this was the night P-Dog felt like reading. So after trying to read with the light on, and Smeagol yelling at him, P-Dog ended up reading his book out in the hall while the rest of us went to sleep.

Day 19: Paris, France ----> London, England

So, after many consecutive days of waking up before most people..i developed this technique called sleep walking. And, i did this all the way to the metro and found myself at the airport about an hour later, and it was only 6:45. Took another classic EasyJet - always a good experience. Arrive at the hostel around noon, and it already felt like it was time to get some sleep. But once again, P-Dog refused to give into sleep. So, as professional tour guides, we took to the city of London...and 3 hours later we were finished. We saw it all in three hours.
And after, we slept...for four hours.
So, after a good recovery we used all the glasses I had collected throughout Europe and entertained ourselves in our neat little room before we headed out. P-Dog made friends with this weird old Swiss couple who we kept seeing everywhere we went. I got carded at the one bar, which is something i didnt even think was possible in Europe. But the night was getting old - so we resorted to Doner - something that always brightens our nights.
After a nice feast, we headed back to look for Smeagol in the hostel and noticed that our hostel bar was still going strong. So, after attempting to wax Smeagol's chest hair (he woke up before we could finish), we all went down to the bar for some one-on-one Bike Mike basketball moves and green fairy dancing.
Not too much to report today. That four hour really did it to the man.

Day 18: Paris, France

The lady at the front desk was so pissed at P-Dog this morning because of Smeagol. P-Dog had no idea what had happened...but, he did luck out when she was too busy yelling to realize Pat was showering for free(which i found it really strange that they make you actually pay to shower). And better yet, they make you pay to go to the bathroom in half of these cities too. But, P-Dog is too smart for that! Instead, he just doesn't go..just holds it all in. Most of us resort to a monkey butt hang every city or two, but not P-Dog. Since P-Dog's last monkey butt hand (Day 11: Rome, Italy), he has stored the following somewhere in his body:

1. Mulitple pizzas
2. Three Doner Kebab sandwiches
3. Countless servings of baguettes and cheese
4. Lasagna
5. Two Big Macs
6. Oatmeal
7. Two Freedom Fries
8. Banana
9. Twenty Hooter's wings
10. Cheeseburger and Fries
11. Curly fries, candy bars
12. Bruschetta Chips
13. Roast Duck
14. Escargo

This is most likely a small version of his diet, but it gets the majority of his new diet. And on Day 18, he decided to let it all go, finally. And since this was such a major part of our entertainment, kinda weird, but i had to include it.
But back to Smeagol from last night. So when P-Dog was getting yelled at because of Smeagol, she mentioned how she wanted to kick us out because people left (50% to be exact) the hostel because of all the noise, but then she couldn't because they wouldn't have any money. But we escaped the lady, and still got to stay one more night.
Today, we took a little train to Versailles. Spent the day there looking at the palace there. Pretty rough day though. I smell.
After we returned to our welcoming hostel, we took a nice nap and showered up. Tonight was Pants, Jack, Nic, and Kat's last night in Europe, and the last time we would have the priviledge to see Rohn. So, we did the usual - gathered together for a romantic meal. But this time Rohn invided one of his bozo friends who was actually out of his mind. But it turned out Rohn's old man friend was one of the brothers who started Kinko's. So we let him stay and eat with us. After our incredibly long 3.5 hour meal, the singing of the French national anthem, and 12 toasts and speeches, we said our goodbyes to the fam. And soon after it was just the four of us, Smeagol, P-Dog, Pels, and I sleeping in our hostel. Getting ready to wake up early.

Day 17: Paris, France

P-Dog woke us up nice and early today because he was too excited to sleep. Todays plans: Roland Garros - the French Open, tennis! As usual, Rohn disappeared to use the internet, and Pelner refused to spend his day in Paris watching tennis and toured the city instead.
We ended up getting tickets to Court 1, which is actually only the 3rd best court...very deceiving those Frenchies! But anyway, since Smeagol's empty promise of crepes fell through, we started the day with some amazing hot dogs in baguettes that i will never forget. We watched Tommy Haas play first (who is an absolute beast), then watched Smeagol's girlfriend Kirilenko, and finally got to see Lleyton Hewitt play the last match on our court. The whole time it was really cold, yet Smeagol still managed to get sun burned. Either way though, Nic may or may not have understood one thing about the whole day. I doubt he has or ever will watch tennis again in his life. After another foot long hot dog baguette and 8 hours of tennis later, we returned back to our room to find John trimming his mustache over my toothbrush. And from there we played our card games and headed to the bars. Kat managed to pick some fights and started trying to beat up these "fat girls" she didn't like for some reason by elbowing them, I collected some quality glasses, and Smeagol retreated early suffering from sleepiness (surprise, surprise).
And as the story goes, Smeagol managed to make it back to the hostel by himself, stumble inside and grab the keys to the room. He then managed to make it to his door and preceded to start banging and yelling to wake up Pelner and Nic so they could open the door for him. Slight problem - Pelner and Nic were still out, and even better - Smeagol had the only key to the room in his hand, so they couln't possibly be inside. So, anyway, after who knows how long after he woke up the entire hostel, the man from the front desk appeared, took the key from Smeagols hand and opened the door. And Smeagol finally slept.

Day 16: InterLaken, Switzerland ----> Paris, France

After a long night with Nic, i was actually scared for him and whether he was going to make it the rest of the trip - or if we were just going to leave him in Switzerland forever. Our very shaky trip to the train station caused a very stressful mood. And for a moment, i almost felt like someone might "punch Nic in the face." hha! Anyway, its a lot funnier now than it was then.
So we had 4 trains to get on today, the last trains of the trip - our first one starting at 8:45..Cheese and bread...cheese and bread. A delicious staple food that we shared on nearly every train...one thing i might actually miss about Europe. And while eating the delicious 4 baguettes and wheels of cheese, we managed 2 hours of Gin Rummy. So, 4 trains and 10 hours later P-Dog, Kat, Rohn, and I were in Chartes visiting the Charpentiers - the family that took care of Rohn when he was just beginning his transformation. And as advertised, Phillipe is quite the beast and got along with Jack very well. So much so that they sang the French national anthem for us! And lucky us, we got to share another 3 hour romantic dinner (the Dickerrindfleishsteak was terrible) with them. These Europeans are pretty homo when it comes to speed eating. I kept trying to convince them that Doner is just as good as any dinner in all of Europe, so why waste our time? So instead of enjoying a delicious Doner, i filled up on bread as usual, because everything else in Europe is a struggle. Our escape from Chartes ended up being in the parents car because the the trains decided to randomly go on strike. Mean joke. John drove pretty well too. We only stalled once and did a very good job of dodging many sure accidents. And so, after a whole entire day of traveling we went straight to bed.

Day 15: InterLaken, Switzerland

After warming up for our extreme adventure stay at Balmer's by renting MoPeds and eating Hooter's wings yesterday, we were prepared for our half day of canyoning. As most normal people, i had no idea what to expect, and didn't even know such thing as canyoning existed until a couple weeks ago. But basically, its hiking, jumping, repelling, and floating through river valleys in the mountains in very shallow water with sharp rocks and strong currents. Just what black Nic was trained for!
Typical Rohn chickened out at the thought of money. I could tell was scared though. But even without Rohn, it was a ground-breaking day. Smeagol was self-diagnosed with killer bird flu, Nic experienced his first time being in water, and Pelner, who's work doesnt allow him to canyon anything, also came along. Even Capri Pants was there! Maybe next time, Rohn.
And as we found out later, 21 people died while canyoning during 2001. Surprisingly, none of us made that statistic this year even though Penler and Nic kept trying to pencil dive into the rocks! They even let us show off our dive team expertise with some nice flips off the waterfalls - it was scored a 10! It was an awesome time, too! Probably one of the coolest things we did all trip. And afterwards they served us some nice clam diggers.
But now we had a real challenge - finding Rohn! After looking in the obvious places a man with a mullet and mustache would be, we still couldnt find him. So, in order to fix our pizza withdrawal after so much in Italy, we began our walk to the nearest pizza joint. And, to our surprise, we found Rohn! There he was, reading his book, eating a baguette and cheese in the park! We should have known! So, Rohn tagged along, refusing to eat off the menu, and instead saved his money for very large Toblerone candy bars!..CAnndyy BARS!!
After a nice nap we made it to the underground happy hour. Cheapest and most crowded place in all of Europe i believe! And after a bit of boredom, we left Nic and P-Dog to spend their money while the rest of us went to bed. Bad idea. Nic fell pretty hard off his bunk this time trying to get to the bathroom, making it to the trash can at least, much farther than the girls bags that were underneath us! This is also the night i almost killed Nic. Most likely because our beds were so close that they were touching, and Nic spits, yells, and does stupid things in his sleep. But then again, he made up for it when we found him wearing his undershirt as shorts in the morning!

Day 14: Florence, Italy ----> InterLaken, Switzerland

Bright and early train ride again. This time a very miserable 6 hours without being able to sleep. I did win my first poker game though, much to Smeagol's distaste. But still, Switzerland is definitely the best looking country we have been to - and its clean! We stayed at the hostel Balmer's and soon realized that our hostel was the fixture of the entire city, but really cool none-the-less. First of all, InterLaken is very much about outdoors activities, surrounded by mountains and rivers and all sorts of fun stuff such as sky-diving, bungy jumping, canyoning, etc.
So, our first day we couldnt get into our room until the late afternoon, which we would share with this girl, which we will call Jess, and my second real-life Korean friend (behind Danny Phatom), Chai! Resisting the urge to nap once again, P-Dog rallied the troops and headed next door to rent some MoPeds - every teenager's dream. So, without Rohn, who was too busy to play because he was sleeping and saving money, we rented 4 MoPeds and an ATV for Kat! And after almost getting run over by all the MoPeds in Rome, we figured it would be nice to give it a try in the mountains of Switzerland. Smeagol almost wiped out of the first street. And the second we reached the next town and started to turn around, it started pouring down rain. But somehow, we made it back without even having to fill up our gas tanks, except Smeagol that is. We returned to our hostel to find Rohn gently snoring in his bunk.
As a result of a spectacular Coop run earlier in the day, we had no reason to leave our room early. Therefore, with Chai's instruction, we enjoyed a Bulfin-less game of Kings followed by Korean hockey. And after the funds ran out, we headed to the only place we thought would let us in - Hooter's! And since we had been looking forward to our meal at Hooter's all day long, we brought Chai and Jess with us to help devour our wings and curly fries, barely even feeling it.
So, after a nice sprint back to Balmer's, we quickly realized that the only thing that happens in this city is the underground bar at our hostel. So, I took one walk through and retreated safely to my bed for a much needed sleep, only waking up to find Nic sleeping in my bed, never realizing Nic was sleeping with "5 cows, 4 horses, and 1 rooster" in his bed. Nic did manage to fall out of his bed though.

Day 13: Florence, Italy ----> Venice, Italy ----> Florence, Italy

Instead of spending another day in Florence, and looking to use a leftover days worth of EuroRail, we made a road trip to the city of love - Venice! And, amazingly enough, we all fell in love on this day.
So, we made it, checked out all the gondola's floating around, and even attempted to get one until they told us they cost money. So, instead we got sucked into a bar that was advertising pitchers of Absinthe. A choice we would later regret. And for the next 3 hours, we stayed in this bar. John fell in love with our Italian waitress. Smeagol danced for us, learned some euchre, and also performed a trip favorite many times throughout our stay - the monkey butt!
And as time passed, John's mustache grew a little longer, and the waitress got more and more creeped out, so we had to leave. John was heart-broken, yes, but we had other things on our minds - Doner!
So, after spending in the worlds most expensive city, we hopped on the train back to our hostel in Florence and happily ate our Doner in 10 minutes, and retired to our beds with extreme headaches.

Day 12: Rome, Italy ----> Florence, Italy

We missed our first train this morning. And considering we didnt even go out last night, its completely Pelner's fault. But we made it to Florence by noon anyway. And after a couple wrong bus trips, we finally got on the right one and made it to our hostel. Then, straight up 465 steps up the Duomo, this massive church they let us climb to the top. A trip Smeagol will most likely not forget for some time. Smeagol turned white and almost had a panic attack looking down. Anyway, after Smeagol almost passed out from the heights, we headed back down those same steps to the world's largest flee market, where Jack did all of his Christmas shopping for next year.
Another funny moment of Europe involving Smeagol: Smeagol bought a leather jacket.
Coming into this trip, no one realized that Smeagol was actually a professional shopper. And this flee market really allowed him to show us his true talent. His leather jacket and the tshirt he bought for his girlfriend proved to be the two best purchases made by anyone on the entire trip. And then, once he realized that it was actually a childrens shirt he bought, Smeagol demanded his body shot footage be erased! But, no! The bet was made, and Smeagol lost. Smeagol had a bet with P-Dog that resulted in Smeagol having to give the shirt to his girlfriend regardless of how incredibly small it was, as her only birthday gift...hmm!
But today was even more special than this - today was the first day we got to do our wash! And it was good. So, after feeling clean for the first time all trip, Nic showed us his amazing poker skills and then sent us all to bed!

Day 11: Rome, Italy - Vatican City

Woke up a little later today for once and got some much needed rest, but only because the watch dog (Pelner) was busy out planning the day for us. So, we started today by going back to the Vatican, this time to go through the museum. Lots of stuff in this one, including the Sistine Chapel. So, after spending most of our morning waiting in line for this museum, we decided to eat our 4th meal of pizza in a row before we headed back to the Colosseum, again! Since Pelner and Smeagol weren't satisfied with our visit yesterday, we made a return to the old gladiator stadium to take a tour - except for Rohn, who chose to spend his time on FaceBook.
Anyway, so we have been in Rome for two full days - kinda weird, but very nice to have some time to relax without worrying about catching our next train. But then again, we leave tomorrow morning early. But, its a good thing we spent time in Rome because it is definitely the best city for Pelner to see things. Time well spent.
But we still had one more night left, and this time it was without our night life tour guide John Kelly. So, we took it easy for the first night of this trip and decided a good 3 hour dinner with the parents would be better for us than going out. It was nice though to have the fam altogether for the first time in a long time. Anyway, nothing more here..

Day 10: Rome, Italy

Today started out like most, with me almost killing poor little Frommer's for waiting me up this morning. And i think that goes for everyone on this morning - especially Smeagol. It was a long night, and i dont think any of us were ready to tour the entire city of Rome - except Frommers that is.
It was John Kelly's last day in Rome, and lucky him, he got to spend it giving us a grand tour of the city! So, we first hit all the big spots and learned all about the Forum, the Colosseum, and the Vatican. But none of these places really compared to the many random water fountains placed throughout the city. It was nice for once to have nice, cold, free water coming straight out of some fancy fountain for us to drink. Amazing! It was quite the day for us considering no one even felt like moving. And John was definitely the best tour guide ever - always knowing things! Hmm, and he always made sure we had some wine and had a place to go out..
But before dinner we had permission from the elders to go ahead an fall asleep before our regular 2 hour romantic dinners we all shared each night. After dinner we checked out the really cool Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. And, after doing this, we realized we pretty much saw everything worth-while in the city of Rome. Definitely the coolest sites we saw all trip...but maybe just because we had the expert, John, with us.
So, John had been in Rome the entire year studying, and tonight was his last night, so we had a lot of people and places to see! Throughout the night, P-Dog lunged through the city of Rome, we said our goodbyes to our boy Mickey, Smeagol and John formed a pretty cool dance team, Nic disappeared, Kat was there, and the lights went out at the last bar we were at. Kinda shady. So thats when we decided it was time to go. Plus it was almost 4, and John had to caught his flight at 6! I really don't know how he did it considering the condition he was in. And if it wasnt for trusty old Pelner, there was no way he could have fit all of his luggage in that brown paper bag!
So, it was a night. Nic spent his night away from the crowd - choosing to hang out with his Italian friends at the hot dog stand instead of us, P-Dog bought at least 5 really cool disposable cameras for us to share, we bought some really cool Popener's blessed by the Pope, and still havent done any wash. We smell awesome.

Day 9: Cinque Terre, Italy ----> Pisa, Italy ----> Rome, Italy

Woke up early for the one hundredth time in a row today, and I'm not even mad! Left the village of Cinque Terre and jumped on the one hour train to Pisa, the city with nothing to show for itself but a silly leaning tower. As tour guide champion of the world, Pelner strategically planned this stop into our train schedule, as most master tour super heros would. So Pelner provided us with 2 hours in Pisa before we had to get on our real train to go to Rome. So, we spent those two hours sweating through our underwear carrying our bags around so we could see the leaning tower. It was okay.
Our next train led us to Rome. Pelner forgot to reserve seats for us so we ended up seated throughout the entire train. Eventually though, Pat, Smeagol, Nic, and I made our way to the bar car and started up our own fun in games - gin rummy style! Meanwhile, Kat was passed out surrounded by foreign strangers (John counting as one of those foreigners), and John ate his staple food - bread and cheese. Anyway, we finally made it to Rome in search of a new tour guide, John Kelly - the perfect man. We were staying with John so he showed us around the city a bit, basically everything interesting and important someone would ever want to know about Rome. And then he took us out to his favorites bars, showing us the effects of too many "multi forte" drinks. Which only resulted in John getting a good head butt (typical P-Dog move), Pants telling great stories at about the time her nose got stuck in her glass, Mickey's bar, Smeagol and Pat staying up til 6 the next morning playing cards, and us almost getting kicked out of another hostel for being too loud. Oh well, you can only drink black russians with certain people..

Day 8: Cinque Terre, Italy

For the second time on this trip. and much to my surprise, i woke up to John's whiskers on my face. And after a long night of celebrating Nic's birthday with P-Dog and Nic, it was a rough morning, especially for Nic. But, the rest of us didn't have time to be girls, we had a lot of hiking to do. So, John led the way in his american flag Chucks (also known as mocassins - quiet feet) as Pelner mapped out the course, and Pat, Smeagol, and I just followed. But first, to explain a little, Cinque Terre is basically 5 small villages, located on the water and on some baby mountains in the forests of Italy. And they have this trail through the hills and such that connect the 5 villages. We decided to hike the 8 clicks and 10,000 steps of mountainous terrain. We made it there, but we took the train back.
So, after an exhausting morning, we decided to head to our favorite place (no, not the bar) - the beach. And this is when i realized something. If y0u actually take some time and looked at John for a little bit, you most likely start to laugh, and can't really think of one thing that would make him look like more of a slob. But then, as we were on the beach, he fell asleep on his Sports Illustrated, started drooling, and when he woke up, he had half of the page printed on his face. And thats when i realized Rohn just has a nack for looking beautiful.
After tracking down the rest of the group and eating our nightly dinner together, another night at the bar turned into John almost falling off his chair from his first dip and Nic and I playing war in the party room while Smeagol and Pelsner went to bed.

Day 7: Nice, France ----> Cinque Terre, Italy

So after less than 24 hours of France, we escaped the gay hostel and continue our trip to Italy. And on our way made sure to waste enough time buying Doner so we could run right onto the train. But, anyway, in order to celebrate Nic's birthday properly, we made sure we had plenty of Jack for the 9 hours we were going to be on the train. We got a cool little room on this train, a perfect place to open Kat's bar, as it seemed like we would need it to keep us entertained throughout the poker games. And as usual, Kat's bar always seems to end the same way - this time Nic was there to join her.
We made it to Cinque Terre late and met up with the parents and had nowhere to stay. After dinner, P-Dog, Nic, and I put the children to bed (Smeagol, John, Kat, and Pelsner), and headed out to the only bar we could find. We ended up playing euros at the bar with our new friends as Nic taught the whole bar the Jup lingo and cheers. And after a few hours, we were lucky to have Pelner waiting up for us so he could safely place us in our beds.

Day 6: Barcelona, Spain ----> Nice, France

Bulfin made it a lot easier to say goodbye to him after waking up to his dinner all of the floor, mostly on Pat's jeans and Smeagol's shorts though. Haha, way to go Bulfin, thats what happens when you play one on one kings with a true european. Oh well, it was Bulfin's day of departure, so everyone except Pat and Smeagol said a nice little goodbye to the little fella and wished him luck getting back to the states. Smeagol woke up in the same clothes and shoes that he wore out that night, and after trying to finish his lovely Black Bush (so he wouldnt have to carry it anymore) he could barely function on his way to the train station. But we did make it, with time to spare.
We sweated the whole train ride with screaming children, Smeagol passed out the entire ride, and everyone started speaking French - worst language ever.
Anyway, after a second train today, we finally arrived in Nice - a whole 12 hours later. And it took us a while to realize why the bell boy was so chippy and the reason behind the rainbow flag outside of our hostle. Actually, it only took a 60 year old, story-telling creep for us to figure out that it was a gay hostel! And the fact that he was asking us to cuddle with him. Hmm, creepy - just Rohn's type.
Ever since we lost the town idiot this morning when Bulfin left, we were happy to see Nic show up with the rest of the family. Birthday boy Nic showed up with Kat and the parents to join in on the rest of the trip with us. So, the first thing we showed them was the wonderful Doner stand we had been looking for all night.

Day 5: Barcelona, Spain

After an unbelievable night, and a much needed full nights rest, we started our day with some more Pelner led tours. This time, we visited a huge church in the middle of the city. Pretty cool, but not cool enough to trick John, Bulfin, and I into paying 8 euros to see. Instead we played caught in the park while we waited for the real tourists to get back. And by the time Pelner, Smeagol, and Pat came out, we had already steaked out the one of our best decisions of our trip - all you can eat and drink buffet! Good decision, even though Bulfin kept drinking the non-alcoholic beer they had. And with nothing left on Pelner's schedule, we headed back to the beach so John could show off his cool speedo and work on his beeter tan again.
John cooked us another pasta dinner tonight as Smeagol took the rest of our euros in poker. Bulfin and John opted out of the civilized games with the rest of us, and resorted to a one on one games of kings "in my ass." Very inappropriate. This was way before our schedule drinking time - as both John and Bulfin both found out later.
So, tonight we planned a pub crawl. John and Bulfin led the way to the first pub, showing the whole town their cool "Weekend at Bernie's" walk. Bulfin made it to the first bar where he passed out on the table for the second time this trip. And surprisingly, John made it to the second bar before both he and Bulfin retreated to the room for the night.
The rest of us made it through the night. And, as it turned out, i discovered the greatness in what is called "Doner Kebab." The most delicious foreign food i have ever had even though it is basically dog or cat meat rolled up into a delicious wrap or pita and served with some spicy red sauce or this white sauce. Its like the CrunchWrap of Europe. So i had two.

Day 4: Madrid, Spain ----> Barcelona, Spain

Woke up nice and early so we could finally get off this train after 9 hours and realized we had no idea where we were at. But finally, we found our hostel, a nice 10 bed room - by far the best hostel we stayed in. And good thing we finally got some decent sleep because we had things to do!
First, in order to please Pelner and Smeagol, we did some sight seeing and walked through the Picasso Museum. And really, we just walked through. Definitely the first over rated sight of the trip. But, we did end up finding the most amazing piece of art ever created, one that fit Bulfin's taste perfectly, the "el Punto." And after 30 minutes of a rather disappointing trip, our spirits rose at the thought of our next visit, the world famous aquarium. Everyone loves aquariums!
But, as Europe would have it - we were disappointed once again. It took a whole 30 more minutes to walk through the entire place! And there wasnt even a dolphin show! We should have just went to Chicago. The one good thing about the trip to the aquarium is the cool picture Smeagol took of us. Well, its actually a picture of a picture. And since the lady working saw Smeagol, she quickly removed our picture and told us to leave. Smeagol's first moment of Eurotrip value.
But, these two short trips only meant one thing for us - more time for the topless beach! So, over the next 6 hours Smeagol developed a really special tan and John just kept surprising us with his brilliance, although we didn't need 6 hours of looking at John in his speedo. John did provide us with lots of entertainment though, sharing the bread, cheese, and 40's that he has learned to always keep in his bookbag when in Europe. Soon though, we got sick of throwing the football, looking at John in his speedo, and then when Smeagol's back started turning purple, we knew it was time to leave.
John, the sophisticated cheap european, decided to save us some money and cooked us dinner tonight at the hostel. Definitely the best food i had in all of Spain!
Tonight Barcelona played Arsenal in the European Cup finals - soccer that is. Supposedly its a pretty big deal. So, in search of some real life soccer hooligans, we came across the only bar we could fit into, one that ended up being way too full of europeans. And believe it or not, we were the biggest hooligans in the whole bar. What really set us apart from the rest of the crowd was probably the multiple "Zahm's Gay" and "We Had Your Mom" chants. Us six americans stayed tightly together in the very middle of the bar, standing the entire night making sure none of us fell asleep. But after two consecutive "cups of life," courtesy of P-Dog, and 2 late second half goals for the home town team (Barcelona), things got dangerous. Barcelona ended up winning with a late goal and the whole city went absolutely nuts. We filtered to the streets where people were climbing street signs and setting off fire works all night. The streets were packed and while John was dancing and running line drills, he got lost. P-Dog and Bulfin ended up getting lit of fire, Smeagol was really busy the whole time assisting Bulfin get on Pats shoulders, and we didn't see Rohn again until we made it back to the hostel. So, for what seemed like hours in the streets, although it was only midnight, we retired back to our hostel to find John cheering "Barca" in his bed eating his KFC twisters.
P-Dog was up to no good either, using his scandals as weapons picking fights. One that woke up half the hostel and nearly had us sleeping in the rioting streets of Barcelona. Smeagol spent the night on the balcony charming the ladies across the alley, while the rest of us spent our night sleeping.
And its continues...this morning i realized i had left my wallet on the train. Running score: Europe 2, D.R. 0.

Day 3: Madrid, Spain ----> Barcelona, Spain

Woke up to the door wide open and the cleaning lady banging on our door today - strange. We then prepared ourselves for a tour of Madrid given by Pelner. Pelner likes seeing touristy stuff and likes to take lots of pictures of them. I was close to stealing his camera.
Anyway, we spent our day walking around Madrid sweating our balls off looking for a place to let us take a nap because we still haven't really slept. So, after a long day of walking, we were ready to sleep anywhere. Yet, no one was friendly enough to let us borrow their beds. I think it was because we had John with us - and most people either laugh, take pictures, or get scared by his appearance. Plus, he hadn't showered in days and forgot to change his underwear.
We visited Madrid's really big park, checked out the cool train station with the rainforest in it, and then made our way to some big palace that we just looked at from the front door. So, basically we just walked a lot and saw some Spanish things. And after all of this, Pelner finally let us go back to the hostel and pass out.
After a good 3 hour nap and a 2 hour game of poker, our time in Madrid was over. So, we headed to the train station.
Another random funny moment of EuroTrip involving Smeagol - Smeagol got his water weaseled away from him by some smelly bum before we got on our 9 hour overnight trip to Barcelona.
Our first train ride we reserved a six person cabin figuring it would be nice to sleep. And it was because we could have slept anywhere that night. But really, it was rather close quarters. John's feet we preventing most of us from falling asleep, and since we had been sweating for days without a shower, it was rather uncomfortable. But then again...when in europe, do as Rohn does! And then we fell asleep.

Day 2: London, England ----> Madrid, Spain

In order to maximize our time Europe, we scheduled everything nice and early so we wouldn't even have to worry about sleeping. We woke up at 4:45 to catch our flight to Madrid today, and even got to walk on the plane at 8:30. The first leg of our Spain trip started in Madrid - much better weather than London, sunny and hot. But then again, we still had to make our way through the smelly underground rails of the city before we could make any assumption. And once we did, we were welcomed to our spooky hostel by some of Bulfin's closest friends - a nice pack of 'stutes.
After a nice ten minute nap, I woke up to these whiskers on my face. No, im not talking about Pelner's chest hair either, but Rohn's new and improve Paul Walker mustache. And after not seeing John in 7 months, i could tell he had really worked hard to adapt to the european lifestyle - growing the nastiest mustache and mullet combination i have ever seen! John really went overboard on the whole Eurotrash Mulletude competition and much deserved the victory in this contest. But what do you really expect from a slob like Rohn?
So, we managed to shrug off the temptations of finishing our napping and headed to our scheduled bull fight. I was thinking that the bull fight would be really exciting and fun, but i didn't even understand what was going on - except, of course that they killed the bulls. But thats about it. So, when people were cheering, booing, or throwing their seat cushions into the stadium, i was still totally lost. But i got the basic jist of it - cramming 50,000 people into a rock stadium to watch 6 bulls run around and eventully get stabbed to death. Pretty simple. Although it is a rather predictable event - believe it or not, all 6 bulls lost. Except for the bull who tossed the matador into the air a couple of times - some consolation points.
After the bull fight, i found another hair in my dinner - for the third straight meal! And after an exhausting heat stricken day, we had a very serious decision to make - should we try to nap for an hour or two and risk wasting the night completely, or should we just go out regardless of sleep? We chose option two of course and tried to find some nightlife. Well, we didnt find much, but we did have Rohn to look at throughout the night and keep us entertained. My night ended early in the middle of the streets of Madrid, along with everything else i ate that night. Smeagol gratefully walked me back to the hostel, as he was looking for any excuse to get some sleep. But for the other 4 people on this trip, the night was just getting started. Bulfin and John really hit it off while P-Dog was off doing his own thing. As usual, they were up to no good. John and Bulfin made friends with the 'stutes outside the hostel...or rather, they were as rude and as obnoxious as they possibly could be. And as a result, Bulfin got backhanded by one, and the other stole my camera right out of his shorts. That is why Bulfin and i are no longer friends and why none of these pictures are actually mine. But back to the night. Pelner safely made it back to the room, most likely because he had memorized the whole map of Madrid by this time, and John and Bulfin were trying to steal sub sandwiches from a little china man when they realized someone was chasing them. Some spanish form of hide and seek i believe. This eventually led them back to our room safely...somehow.

Day 1: Chicago, Illinois ----> London, England

As one would imagine, our trip began on just a little rocky start. Before we even left the country we almost lost our first travel partner - Pat. And if it wasnt for pelner's extreme parenting skills, we would have left Pat in LA. After a night of Wild Turkey, Pat forgot one minor detail - the waking up part. No Pat didn't die, he just ended up sleeping though his alarm and 17 missed called by Pelner. And thats when Pelner's dog instincts kicked in. Pelner went and woke Pat up. And at that time, Pat threw his pile of clothes into his bags - also the moment Pelner realized that he would be babysitting us for the next three weeks. Good start thought, PAt!
Anyway, the four of us (Smeagol, Pelsner, P-Dog, and I) met up in Chicago, Pelner with his tour guide hat on, and the rest of us with our new Chuck's...and after a quick 8 hours of plane, we finally made it to London. So, we made our way to customs and little Bulfin decides to pop up out of nowhere. Turns out Bulfin was there for 3 hours trying to get the water fountain to work.
Somehow, they let us through customs and into the country. And for the day, we headed over to Frosty's place, a nice Zahm single in the the city of London. Frosty gave us the grand tour of the city, taking us to all of his favorite bars for Mother's Day...i think. So,we did that, ate some delicious cookies and after a long day of walking around the foreign land, we sat down for our first european pizza. Well, everyone besides Bulfin that is. Bulfin decided to take a nap on the table and wait until we all left before the waiter woke him up to leave. Bulfin doesn't have a problem passing out in public.So our first night in Europe was spent pounding Fanta Fanta in Frosty's room before heading over to the nearest casino. Bulfin showed us how to beat Roulette, kinda, whil e the rest of us participated in the "no fun" casino floor. This "no fun" rule includes, mostly, not having any fun. Which we quickly realized when they yelled at us for cheering, made us pay for our drinks, and said no to our jeans and Chuck's. Too bad Smeagol wouldn't let us wear our mullets out tonight, they would have really liked those! But, after staying up for too many hours, and making a dress out of Bulfin' s jeans, we decided to call it a night and get some sleep for the rest of the trip.

EuroTrip '06: Let's Try and Remember This

The long awaited European Vacation has arrived - finally! And because of the list of characters that have reserved themselves a spot on this three week tour of foreign land, I am seriously scared for someone's life - not necessarily mine - but someone on this trip may never come back (thhhiiinnnnnnkkkk......Bulfin!).
Due to the seriousness of this trip and the affect it will most likely have on the rest of my life, it is my duty to myself, and to this blog to document every event of this trip. Yet, this also means i must remember the events of this trip, which may prove to be an even bigger challenge. So, over the next three weeks, I hope to journal every day of Europtrip with the Amato family and a few Amato family substitutes (Bulfin, Nic, Smeagol, Pelner). The odds are really against me on this one though, so wish me luck!

Mullet Watch III

While everyone was out having fun chasing Easter bunnies and finding their baskets over Easter break, i decided it was time to get serious! I said to myself, "EuroTrip is only a month away - no more messin' around, D.R.!" So, in order to get a little boost before the big trip, I scheduled a mullet appointment with Dori, and showed up with specific instructions and a watchful eye...I didnt want Nance Pants to pull a fast one on me and tell Dori to cut it. And 20 minutes later....VOILA!! Over the past three weeks of proper care, my mullet is better than ever - ready to take on anything Europe can throw at it!
ps...i ordered the team Chuck Taylor's last night

Weekend at McDreamy's

As most weekends go, this weekend was full of unexpected fun. Our plans for this weekend: go to Chicago and watch IPFW vs. Loyola men's volleyball. After that, we couldn't really tell you what we were going to do. But, after talking to the one and only Patrick McGarry, and getting his permission to have a sleepover with him, we at least knew we weren't going to spend the night on the L. On top of minor planning, we decided to change things up a little bit by leaving Hummer behind and bringing along his kid sister Katie, our token 'bout it for the weekend with the guys.

After a mandatory Chicago pizza binge and then watching Bulfin's friend CJ play volleyball, we ventured our way to the McGarry household for the night. Nothing really happened at McGarry's though. Except, one thing you may not understand is that when you are around Bulfin for an extended period of time, weird things begin to happen. And then when you mix Bulfin with someone like Hops, things get dangerous - such as Hops' game of Frommel. We don't speak of Frommel though.

Although Hops was only awake for a little over an hour, he spent plenty of time bonding with the little Bulfin. These two were unseparable. And as JJ and i both know...these two guys are much closer than anyone would ever believe. By the end of the weekend, Bulfin was pretty worn out.

Potts' big day in the big city was just that - big! At first, Bulfin and i were a little worried because she was the only girl on the trip, and she practically shit herself riding the L, but by the time we got to McGarry's, she was ready to go! After a few gifts courtesy of Mr. McGarry, Potts did typical Potts things. Even taking the liberty to shower after everyone else went to sleep. And the next day, while executing our flawless plan, Potts almost blew our cover by knocking over a post when we were trying not to make any distractions while sneaking into the aquarium. But, its okay Potts...aww grumpy little Potts! No problem though, Potts cheered right up at the sight of a free pink hat at the Cub's game. But then again, everytime i begin to think Potts isn't some lame girl, she does something like trying to take a nap at a Cub's game...classic girl move! But she did redeem herself by ordering her first CrunchWrap after the game..but shhh, don't tell Mrs. Potts!

But, since it was Katie's first trip to the big city, it was our job (Bulfin and I) to make sure Katie made good decisions. But with so much on our minds, like sea otters and penguins, how were we suppose to keep an eye on katie? And who are we to interfere with Katie's new love interest...you are assuming I mean McDreamy aren't you?..But, no your wrong...tryyyy Jingle-Berry!

Hops is an absolute beast! For those of you who don't know Mike Hopkinson, you may never fully understand, but he showed up to McGarry's after getting directions using a cab driver's cell phone with his book bag and party vest on (special note: party vest). And from that moment of this trip, all objectives changed to filling our schedule with anything that would delay our return the South Bend.

So, to begin, we woke up on Sunday bright and early to make sure the Black Pearl didn't get towed, and headed to Hops' guaranteed best pizza in Chicago. The pizza only Chicagoans know of! The best pizza in Chicago by far. The trump card of Chicago pizza. And after hearing all of this, i was pretty darn excited. But in a classic Hops' story, there's no way this could be true. And as we somehow expected it to be...it was shut down. But we settled for a great meal at PotBelly's instead. From there, we were headed back to The Bend. But instead we took a little detour at the site of the Shedd Aquarium. With it raining all weekend, and a little help from Nance Pant's closet, Hops put on his new party vest and somehow managed to get us into the aquarium and any exhibit without spending a single dollar. But seriously, when you tell the staff that we are a group from Notre Dame on a field trip, who wouldn't believe a guy like Hops. I'm surprise he didn't just feed them lines like this, "I'm Professor McGonagall, and these are my students. We're here by way of broomstick." Props to Hops.

After we finally got to see the dolphin show at the aquarium, we decided to head back to Wrigleyville in search of some more fun. We parked illegally, found 4 tickets to the Cub's game, and found ourselves sitting behind the Cub's dugout, out of the rain of course. Hops got yelled at by the usher, sported the rally cap the majority of the game, and kept most of the dip in his mouth until it covered the outsides of his lips...yumm.
Once, the game ended and the dip ran out, we knew it was time to get back to school. We had delayed long enough. So, after a good weekend in Chicago, we had to return. Darn.

Caged Badger's Fall in Heartbreaker

After a narrow escape in the round of 32, we knew we had to do something extra to prepare for our next round. So, we had a team dinner and walk through before our meeting with our next opponent. We ate spaghetti while watching our motivational videos at Ben and Beck's place before heading over to Rolf's for our walk through. But, what we didn't expect on this night was the beast of a man in Hal Muner Jr.
The Caged Badgers met there biggest challenge yet in Hal. Seriously, most humans don't grow to be 6'8 and 250 lbs like Hal, product of Strose in Perrysburg, Ohio (snap! respect!). So, in the round of 16 we ran into Hal and his four smaller basketball friends, and simply, we had no answer for the beast. Even at halftime, down 8-11, our token coaches could not establish an effective gameplan for the second half. And without the support of our superfans, we didn't stand a chance. But, with Jack in attendence snapping photos, i felt right at home and finally started hitting some shots. We tied it up at 19-19 with the ball, but even under Jack's watchful eye, the Caged Badgers fell 21-19. With Marcus, Ben, and Beck all retiring from the Caged Badgers and Bookstore Basketball, it is now up to Scott Smith and I to step it up next year.

EuroTrip '06...Get Your Head Right!

Well, its only a month away, so i figured i should update/warn all of you on the 5th wheel of this trip..Mike Bulfin.

As you can see, Mike is 5 feet 7 inches tall, 140 pounds, like to wear speedos, and most impressively, with can effectively teach you how to use the word "fag" in any circumstance in less than five minutes. But as you can see...he is a professional diver.
So this past weekend, we had a Eurotrip prevew. With Bulfin swinging around in his speedo all night, i got to test out my Euro head gear i received from Kat and Rohn...which proved to be a perfect fit to my Euro attire - mullet plus Chuck Taylors. But anyway, i figure you guys will figure Bulfin out once we get to Europe...but here he is for now...prepare yourself for this little guy.

The Caged Badgers

Bookstore Backetball! My first ever time to play some organized 5 on 5 basketball in a while...and got pretty lucky already. Formed a team with Scott Smith and former walk-on Ben Nickol and ended up getting seeded #3...yeah number 3 out of all 568 teams..not too bad, eh? The Caged Badgers sponsored by DomerTravel.com is our name, not really sure why?..Ben did it, and hes good. So now its time for you to come watch us play some ball...check out the schedule at nd.edu/~bkstr! I will inform you when we win...then you can have a team picture or something fun like that..

Mullet Watch II

Well, with so much pressure from Jack, i decided to turn it up a notch in mullet race. You know what that means - ya, i washed my hair again! Therefore, after measuring my hair this morning, it grew an unheard of five inches overnight!! Be scared competitors!
Initially, i was not aware that Jack was part of this competition. Which is entirely so unfair because he has such a natural mullet. I mean, how can you not have a mullet when the only hair you have on your head is in the back and on the sides? Seriously? And to top it off, when he wears a hat his hair gets this nasty flip in the back that even I can't help but be jealous of.

Upside Down

WE'RE GOING TO ESPN ZONE!!!! Well, every trip has to start somewhere, and ours started with a grand tour of the entire city of Chicago. If you have never been to Chicago before, it is a rather large city with lots of hidden pizza places. So, if you are lucky enough to run into one, make sure you go inside and eat pizza. Anyway, Scott Smith (a real life celebrity) and HumDog decided to join me on my trip to chicago the weekend before spring break. Our initially plans were to drop off Hummer at the airport and then take my car to my uncle's for the weekend. But, instead we thought it would be a good idea to drive around the city of Chicago, basically the whole city, in search of real Chicago pizza. And you would think if you were from Chicago, like Scott Smith is, you would know where to find some pizza. But, that is actually not true. So, after fasting for the first 15 hours of our day(it is lent), we finally ran into Pizzeria Due. And delicious it was..
So, this spring break started out as well as i could have imagined. The trip to Chicago was fun. I got to teach the Chicago cousins how to skateboard (i am a skater boy), hung out with Patrick "dirt ball" McGarry, and then of course our 6:45 plane ride Fort Lauderdale. The trip was a success for sure, but i did make one major mistake this week - the lack of pictures, obviously!

Most of our time in Fort Lauderdale was spent on the beach, of course! But still, we did a lot of other things. Our tour guide Mike Shea showed us the ropes, doing things like...trying to be mexican again, cruising along A1A with our BooBox, babysitting Hummer, practicing for the Mike Bulfin Swim Team, picking up hot babes (Mrs. Bulfin was enough for us), listening to Jack Johnson over and over while being stranded on the beach, and in our free time we just watched Hummer's life go down the drain.

We did form the first, and best ever umm...ah..Mike Bulfin..ah..Dive Team! Showing off our action packed 10 meter tower dives! On tuesday we got to spend the day with Grandpa Spittler and shoot a round of golf. And after we warmed up the first six holes, im pretty sure i was tied with gramps for first place. Only if Hummer wasnt so serious the whole time. But throughout the week, we proved to ourselves that we aren't really the golfing type (escpecially Bulfin). After spilling our cooler over A1A in broad daylight in front of speeding traffic, you would think we would take that as a warning to the day, but we decided not to. Hummer was in true form. Ending the day with no phone, a black eye, and a toilet seat as a pillow...only to be moved to the blow-up mattress by Mrs. Bulfin. Jordan showed us his spectacular sun bathing technique. It starts by not putting on any sun screeen, and then preceding to fall asleep on the beach for a couple hours. I guess they don't get much sun in Effingham because he spent the rest of the week covered in Aloe. But, still, it wasn't all playfor us over break. We had some serious conversations every once and a while. But none as serious as the time Ming called to discuss little Bulfins midterm exam. "You can take a walk too, Dad!" I guess thats what happens when you are about to fail out of school...
Blake Haudan showed up for a visit...only for the day though! It was well worth it too, because he is finally worthy of making the blog! About time, Blake!

This is Bulfin getting into his first car accident!
Most likely because he looks like a complete idiot..

Sums up our week pretty well!

Mullet Watch I

For this newest year, 2006 i have decided to improve all aspects of my life. So, instead of taking the easy way out and doing something like changing my name like old man Jack, i have decided this year needs to honor something special...like the mullet, of course!
In memory of Pat's long lost mullet wig, in which Pat unfortunately left in Sun Devil Stadium on January 3rd, i have decided to honor all that is good by growing a real live mullet. So, stayed tuned to the mullet watch because as soon as i start washing my hair again, im positive this undeveloped mullet of mine will blossom. And hopefully by the time i get my Chuck Taylor's, we can all return to mullet wig glory on Eurotrip. So, start growing your today...we only have 2 more months!!! Can't you see..this is urgent..

Double Secret Probation

Well, as you can see this "incident" in which the Men of Zahm were a part of this past weekend created quite the buzz around campus. And, for some reason, made quite a few people pretty upset. So the latest to unfold from this story ran in The Observer today....here.

Your Grounded!

Yeah, thats right...i'm grounded. And so are the 200 other guys that live in Zahm. And heres the funny part - we got grounded for puking on Keenan (Keenan is our neighbor dorm who we despies for all existence). Well, first of all, this day was a Saturday in South Bend and that can mean only one thing...nothing. So, we had to make our on fun around the neighborhood, and who else to take our creative energy out on other than the filthy Keenanites? So, the men of Zahm celebrated our manliness by having a dorm dinner in South Dining Hall, which is a about 500 yards away i would say. And the theme of this dorm dinner was "Puke on Keenan." So thats what we did! After eating a huge cheeseburger and chips and french fries we were coaxed into chugging large quantities of milk. This means a lot of milk. Meaning more than the usual stomach can hold. So after scarfing down all of these things in the 5 minutes we spent at the dining hall, it was planned that we sprint all the way back to Keenan, place our hands on our knees, and puke all over the side of Keenan. And after a good 5 minutes of emptying my stomach, i came away 3 pounds light and one popped blood vessel in my left eye. But then came the kicker. Since we weren't thinking clearly, or we were, maybe i don't know...we ended up puking right outside Keenan's rectors room. And for some reason he was not too appreceiative of this activity. And, close to one hour later we received this email from our rector informing us that we were grounded!

Date:	Sat, 28 Jan 2006 20:06:27 -0500
From:	"Fr. Dan Parrish, C.S.C."
To:	"Mark Thesing, C.S.C."
Subject:	Social gatherings suspended indefinitely

Brothers,

I received a report today that a group of Zahm men, wearing red
shirts, threw fruit at Keenan Hall and vomited on and near Keenan's
southern wall. The majority of the fruit and vomit fell directly at
or below the windows of Keenan's rector, Fr. Mark. Needless to say,
he was very upset, as I would be too.

This is not true Zahm spirit - the spirit of There Are Children Here,
Project Warmth and Winter Carnival. Because of this act of
disrespect, all social gatherings are indefinitely suspended in Zahm
until we get to the bottom of the incident. "All social gatherings"
means that hall staff does not expect to hear any loud music in Zahm
nor see anything that remotely resembles a party or get-together
where alcohol is being consumed.

The hall staff is very upset about this event, as I hope most of you
are too. Any further acts of disrespect - of Keenan or of Keenan
Hall Staff - will result in further sanctions.

I have spoken with our hall president, Kevin Gimber, and he has
agreed to devote time during Tuesday's hall government meeting to
begin discussing not only this evening's events and our response, but
to look at Zahm-Keenan relations from a broader angle. I will
personally be present, as I hope many of you will be too.

I expect that the mess outside of Keenan will be completely cleaned
up before Fr. Mark returns from tonight's basketball game.
Fr. Dan

----------------------------
Fr. Dan Parrish, C.S.C.
Rector, Zahm Hall - 574-631-ZAHM (9246)
Director, Freshman Retreat - 574-631-6633

Mailing address:
124 Corby Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556

I can't really think of something more creative than this bonding experience. Nearly 50 guys chugging milk and sprinting across campus just to puke it up. Well, whoever thought of this must be a genius. And those who actually did it...well you can decide what adjective to put next to them. But to me...they are all heroes!


*Pictures to be added at a later date

Go Mow Your Own Lawn!!

Why? Because i'm not doing it anymore!! I QUIT!!!

Check out that sick mullet i was rockin'

Well, that's not exactly true, but i won't be mowing many lawns this summer season unless i drop out of school and start living out of the truck of my 22' simplicity and weed eater. But honestly, i dont think thats going to happen either, especially if i keep getting these bogus requirement classes they keep giving me. Well, anyway, to abide by Nancy Pant's constant bickering about my lawn business, i finally sold the damn thing! So, techniqually, i do not own Jupiter anymore! Which is a very sad thing to me.
So, after realizing it was time to give up my first love, just as my brothers did, rather than selling it on eBay, i passed it down the family tree once more to little Nic. So, all of you with Jupiter Pro Lawn Care memorabilia, make sure you hold on to it, because who knows how much longer this company is going to last with Nic calling the shots. But anyway, help a brother out and give him a call (419.704.5669) the next time you go on vacation...or at least the next time your having trouble figuring out what to wear.
Well, i guess this only means one thing to me, either get a real job in the real world, or move my Jupiter Pro Lawn Care out west this summer. Either way, i'm sure i will we wishing i was still mowing lawns with my 48' Bunton making sure black Nic doesn't screw up...or for that matter, talk to too many Perrysburg clients.

Windsor, Windsor, Windsor!!!

There's this reocurring theme with this blog that never really gets old for me. That is, the time and tales of Windsor, Canada of course! What a city, what a place! I would have never thought Canada would have so much to offer. And for that reason...we decided to get ready for Canada this time by putting on our Sunday's best, because Canada deserves our best's. Well, this time Nic was there, Jack, Pants, and Mini Pants brought her friend Wade and his skateboard. This started out just like any other trip to Canada, Pants starting out the night by having Nic retrieve her a glass of wine, Jack scouting the slot machines, and the rest of us eating a free meal at the casino restaurant. And from one table to the next, my next stop was at the Craps Table...a much nicer table i must add. So over the next two hours i won $200. And in a Canadian bar, i guess that doesn't go very far. Because when i returned to the casino i didn't have any left (You all owe me Nic, Kat, Wade, and Wade's skateboard). But once i gloriously returned to my favorite table, i preceded to win, and then lose $500 over the next 6 hours. But it was a darn good 6 hours of fun i shared with little Nic as he almost got kicked out for falling asleep on the table, ordering food, getting bored and leaving, and finally showing up for breakfast with Pants and the gang in the same clothes we were wearing the whole night. Needless to say, Pants was not too happy with us, and therefore, would not let us eat breakfast. Pretty harsh i would say, but worth it. But we finally did that great nation called Canada to go sleep in our own beds...thanks for the offer though Canada.

Fiesta Bowl!!

We may not have gotten any presents from under the tree this year, but Pat and I still may have gotten the best presents since those roller blades we got when i was in 1st grade. So, instead of getting a new pair of roller blades, the parents decided to send us to the Fiesta Bowl. Well darn, i was really hoping i wouldn't have to. Not! So, i flew into LA after a night at the Windsor Casino with the parents, and hung out with Pat and the gang for the next week. hmmm....

As usual, the week started off pretty solid with a nice 5.5 hour drive through the desert to Tempe for the game. We made it about 1 hour into the trip before our first detour pulled us to the side of the road just in the nic of time before Pelner had to let one loose. Good thing we were in Pat's little silver race car he uses to fly around Cali in. It was almost as good as Pelner's dance moves he showed us the night before.
After ditching Pelner, Jingles, and his twin, Pat and I finally made it into the stadium with our new shag. And before the game could even start, we had to overcome the harsh acceptance when that old OSU lady flipped me off when i had to kick her out of our seats. She must not have liked Joe Dirt. But thats all the real excitement i got out of the game. It was an awesome time, even though we lost. Which, by the way, i am still devastated by the fact that we left this brillant design of a mullet inside Sun Devil Stadium. So, if anyone comes across a mullet this clean, please notify me asap. But still, Pat and I stayed in the Wonder Bread guest house and played pool until the wee hours of the mornings as Kobe and his other lizard friends scattered around the desert. What else could you really ask for? Too bad my camera wasn't working by this time.Well, once the dip starting to dry and the car freshners started kicking in, we were back in LA, with another 6 days to waste together at Maloney's with Tron 8000 (the gentle giant). Well, besides meeting with Dennis Keane, visiting Kyle Dagan's family, hanging out with MelonHead, working with Uncle Kelly, going to our hostel meeting with Pelner, working out in Pat's make shift weight room, and pounding sushi, and destroying girls in tennis there wasn't really much going on. After spending these days in LA i am pretty sure that i want to transfer to the beach and just be a bum. Seeing on how all these fun people are stuck up in offices all day just don't seem so fun. But, i guess thats what has to happen to maintain the stripper lifestyle of Dirty Mark. But, when all the dip ran dry and the tin emptied, i knew it was time to board that plane, and soon enough i was back in the Dirty D with Jack on my way back to start planning my next trip away from the cold.

Christmas 2005

Unfortunately Santa didn't come this year, and neither did brothers John and Pat. Instead Santa sent two little elves, Han-Sol Park and Sundep to exchange our gifts with. The Westhovens came over to see the elves since John was busy running around Europe with his friends and Pat is too busy swimming, riding his bike, and running to come home and see Coop and friends. So, since no on was really around the house this holiday season, minus Coach Braggs and his vacuums, all we really had to do was plan for our next trip or two to Windsor, Canada.
Overall though it was a good holiday season. Santa may not have come and John and Pat might have been to good to visit us this year, but we still had Josh around to entertain us. I mean i think EuroTrip 2006 will make us forget that we didn't get any presents this year.

Back to Perrysville

Well, i survived my first ever finals week as an actually college student...and boy, did it suck. I have never studied more in my life, or for that matter, spent more time pretending to study. I pulled my first all-nighter of my career, which actually turned into an all-two-nighter since i got basically 3 hours of sleep from sunday night to wednesday. But, in the end i can say it was worth that splendid 2.876 i got. Wait...I take that back, well, let me think, no it wasn't...not at all.
But there is a bright side to this whole ordeal. I do get to go home for a solid month and spend time with people who don't get perfect SAT scores or spend their free time hanging out in the library. So, start planning your trips to Canada and Tempe, because im sure ill be spending time in both place.

Euroblitz...only 6 more months!!

Welp, its time to start preparing...Euro style. I just booked my ticket for my first EuroTrip and couldn't be any more pumped. This is a trip everyone should considering joining in on. This is your invitation to join in on this once and a lifetime opportunity to tour the European terrain with Pat, Corey Ryan, Pelner, and myself for three grueling weeks of traveling and many other illegal things. So book your ticket today, we leave May 13th out of Chicago into London...Be There!!! And we are planning to return sometime in June...hopefully.


And for added motivation just imagine 3 weeks on trains and drinking with this guy....

Bun Run 2005

My first Bun Run of my career...an absolute success. This night, starting around 11:45 the Sunday night of exams week, is regarded as one of the most fun nights of my life thus far. And the strange part is...i spent it with a bunch of naked guys. Well, lets not get ahead of ourselves and start this at the beginning of the story. So, to kick off exam week, and to get everyone pumped up and ready for a week of study, Zahm holds their traditional Bun Run (girls screaming in the background). At midnight, the beautiful men of Zahm remove their clothes and streak through the campus and student center (girls screaming). And as a result, girls fill the buildings, waiting in long lines waiting for their chance to catch a glimpse of these beautiful beasts...taking pictures, videos, and the lucky ones, even receiving a hug. And the jealous Keenanites, what would they do? They would play their cowardous games and throw rocks at the men of Zahm. But would that stop such tradition? Never. So, we coninuted on, never wishing to disappoint the women at Notre Dame.
I left this battle with a flesh wound...but they still threw like a bunch of girls.

All I Want For Christmas...

..is a CrunchWrap. I ate one CrunchWrap last night.

Notre Dame 38, Stanford 31

Well, we pulled off a good one this time...saving ourselves $14.5 million. Good.

Notre Dame 34, Syracuse 10

Well, after plenty of random midshipmen showing up all over the place last weekend, two were left stranded and came over for the Syracuse game- dan ball and chris wagner all the way from Perrysburg. After sitting with them at the table for an hour, it finally hit me that i actually knew these strangers, and from that moment they became our most favorite guests of the year. And good thing too, because after playing 1-10 Syracuse, we needed to finish up the home season strong.

Notre Dame, 42, Navy 21

* I apologize for the lack of productivity of this blog. I have been very busy...and lazy. But i will continue with the events of my life i may one day want to look back at! Tu'chey!

I know its kind of routine by now...another week, another game, another guest only means one thing...another post! Yeah, its pretty lame and pesonally im getting a little bored of it, but what else really happens on this campus? Especially since the Poz's never come and tailgate anymore? Well, whether or not you wanted another game day post or not, here it is...
Well, this week we played the Midshipman from Navy, and i think every one of them showed up, they were all over the place!
This weekend proved be a vital part of our tailgating lives for the year. Iit was the grand opening of Kat's Bar! As you would suspect, Kat's ingenious skills help save our tailgating lives and provide great service to all, even the pizza man! But this weekend was more than that. It was also one of the last time's section 34, row 9, yeah row 9, would ever be able sit together and enjoy the fact that we have a very good football team. So, we took full advantage! And yeah, thats George and more of his stupid antics while the rest of us are trying to enjoy the game.
Willy brought the ninja to the game so he would have a little guy around to play with, Navy's golf team stayed at Katie's, all of John's friends were acting like themselves, John was in France, and Jingle's even came to celebrate. I don't really remember any good information about the weekend because it was about a month ago, but i remember i had a lot of fun.
And after looking at the pictures i took, i remember it was one of my favorite weekends, i miss football weekends..
Oh yeah, i almost forgot! How about when our door handle fell off? How could i forget about how our door handle fell off from the outside...a real dilemma in 3B! You could never imagine how hard it is to open a door without a handle on it. Well, good thing Sam's uncle, the locksmith came by and fixed it for us just in time before parietals...phew.

I really wish i had more to write about this weekend so i could share more pictures with you, but as you can see there is never enough room for that...so check out these other pictures here, enjoy!

Recap Time!!! Remember That...

I am sure for most of you, that you don't actually take the time to read my beautiful blog entries, and you just look right through this thing like it's some kind of picture book. Well, your wrong! But to accomodate my lazy viewers I have provided here a little highlight reel for you!!(don't say i never did anything for you.) So...here it is!! But, wait!...Remember that one time...

..when Coop beat cancer, but cancer took his toe...

..or when John was home for the summer, and thus, completed the other half of the Eiffel Tower and the Scorpian...along with many other classic dance moves (remeber Willy's paint brush move? haha)....

..remember when I once dominated the world of blogging...and then Joe Payne came along....

..or how John and I hung out all summer long and everyone got tired of hearing about it so they stopped reading my blog....

..Or when professional golfer Matt Tober guaranteed a 60 foot putt...and made it!! His only successful putt of the round....

..and that week when we had to teach Tober how to dive....

..or when I had to take over the dance floor while Rohn peed on the wall in Windsor....

..and when I went on my CrunchWrap diet....

..Or when Diesel and Nic made the trip to Canada for my 19th birthday...and Diesel got stopped by the immigration authorities...

Remember when...John went to France...even though he's never taken a French class in his life...

..and that summer when John and I hung out all the time...

..hey!..Remember when John graduated from college and worked for Jupiter Pro Lawn Care....and I was his boss!!..

..and then when I went to college and left John home alone to live with Willy, Pants, and Coop...and John went into depression....

..and that one time Coop got full, which resulted in a months worth of napping...

..or when i got smart and started putting pictures of good-looking people on my blog so you would keep checking it.....

..and when...the blogging revolution sparked...(and yes, of course I own this shirt....and yes, of course I bought two, one for John...)