Cali Trip.

We got back yesterday from our quick trip to California to film a couple of dramas for our 5-6 grade camps. We had a great time and hopefully got everything we need to make some nice videos for the kids.

We left at 4am on Monday morning and headed to Glamis to shoot on the dunes for our desert scenes. It was freaking hot and hard to walk around in that soft sand. One of our cameras fel over in the sand and not until later did we realize it wasn't working right. I hope we can salvage the footage from that camera or thats going to put a damper on our video. I think I have enough footage from the camera I was using so we'll see how it goes.


Heres Jarred jumping off a dune.



Here I am trying to be the "super cool director/camera guy". If you noticed I went with the thin long sleeve shirt matched with the white running shirt over the hat to protect me from the sun, it work wonderfully.


This pic was taken of on top of a dune, we call it "Digital Moses".

After we shot in the desert we hopped in the rental mini van (which was awesome for this trip) and drove to my new favorite place, San Diego. We got to the beach by late afternoon and scouted out our location for the next morning.

On Tuesday we left a little after 5 to get to the beach for a "fake evening/low light" shot. We were a little rushed at the beach because every minute that went by more people were walking by and ruining our "derserted beach" look. I was a job to keep all the condos and soccer moms out of the shot, but I think we did really well.


Heres J-rad and I walking down the beach.


Heres the dead seal that washed up on the shore while we were filming. I told a Parks and Rec guy and they came and scooped him up in a bull dozer and put him in the back of a dump truck.


Left to Right: Shellnut, J-Rad, Sexy Guy and Phoenis.



J-rad in the sand.

Chris

Today, Tomorrow, Whatever.

Ray and I spent the afternoon together and had a great time. We took the dogs back to the dog park, which is becoming a Sunday tradition, and we all seemed to enjoy it. Both the dogs pooped, I picked up Damar's and Ray picked up G's, if you were curious.

We decided to have a really unhealthy/fun dinner tonight. So we went with the Kraft Mac and Cheese/Oreo meal. We've been trying to eat as healthy as possible so tonight was a splurge. We were considering adding an appetizer of chips and queso, but opted out. While I was boiling the water for the Mac and Cheese and I burned the bag of chips. Thankfully I noticed before I burned down Prescott. Heres the bag and my "oh crap, I almost burned down the southwest".



I am off to Cali for few days for video shoots.



We are leaving at 4 in the morning to get to the desert by 8 and hopefully be able to get everything done in less than 5 hours. Then we shoot over to San Diego for a beach shoot on Tuesday. If we aren't too wiped out we will drive back to AZ, but if we are zonked we will come back on Wednesday, it would be nice to get home. Cheers.

Chris

Who knew?

My post Thursday was titled:

4 8 15 16 23 42

Since then I noticed that some people didn't know what that meant. I am a curious person, so I want to know if you knew what the numbers meant or not?

Please post a comment on this post whether or not you know what 4 8 15 16 23 42 is. I'll reveal for those who don't know later. Cheers.

Chris

4 8 15 16 23 42

Oh yeah.

Shoot.

We (me, Phoenis, J-Rad and Shellnut) went to Sedona today to shoot a video for our kids summer camp. Its a video that goes a long with the skits that were written for each session.

I think it went went well, we'll see when everything gets put together. We are shooting in Flagstaff in the snow on Thursday and then taking a trip to Cali to shoot in the desert and on the beach next week. We are going to be beat. Cheers.

Chris

Dog Park and Church.

Hey peeps,

Dog Park

Yesterday Ray and I went to Church and had a great time and then we decided to take the dogs to the dog park. I was a little worried about it, Guinness hasn't been known to be the most social dog in the world. So we show up and Ray and I are both nervous about what might happen, but she (Guinness) did great.


Heres Ray playing with the toys at the dog park.

There was only one incident when a young black Lab male tried to get a little friendly and she kind of attacked him. We hear this noise and Guinness was on top of him growling and protecting her innocence. I need to figure out how I can teach my daughters that trick, it works.

Church

We live in a strange environment in the sense that we all work together and live on the camp together. However, one thing that is cool is that I think we get to live a little of what the church is supposed to look like. A bunch of people living life together in the name of Jesus, pretty cool.

Well, today I felt like crap. I felt (feel) feverish, pukey, sore, just pretty nasty and when Ray was leaving to go to work she realized we had a flat on the Jeep. So all day I was not looking forward to walking home and fixing the tire, but when I finally got to the Jeep I realized somebody fixed it for me. They took it to the shop and got it patched and everything. Thats church. Thanks to whoever fixed my tire, it saved me from taking care of it in a crappy state. Cheers.

Chris

Maiden Voyage.

I took the 29er out on a quick ride this morning before church. I got the bike Friday evening from UPS and the living room became a bike shop for while (there still a bike stand in the living room, which I think is a nice accessory, better than a plant). Yesterday, I fiddled with the brakes all day and haven't gotten then perfect yet, but good enough. What a dude thing to say "hey....the brakes don't really work......but, thats cool, I'll be alright.....".



So I threw the bike in the Jeep and headed up to Thumb Butte Park for a quick ride. I did the 392-326-367 route (which we only call 392, but for your sake I named all the trails and added little arrows on the map to show you how we ride it, your welcome).

On the map you will see where I parked and road up the road to catch the trail. The first half of the loop is pretty much all climbing, the snail marks the switchbacks that make you feel like you are going to have a heart attack. The new bike climbed well, but the sitting position is a bit different than what I am used to so that was a little strange plus the saddle was really digging into my downstairs/taint/tweenis/tweener/undercarriage really badly so I need to make a few adjustments.

At the top of 392 its all downhill and the bike handled great. I don't know if it was the bike or the lack of brakes, but I rode that section better than ever. Awesome.

So that was the first trip, it was fun and there will be plenty more fo' shizzle.
Cheers.

Chris

Obligation and Christmas.

Obligation


Sometimes in live you may not be overly enthusiastic about something, but you still have to do it. At times this will be your job, you don't want to go, but you have to in order to provide for your family. Other times it may be your marriage, you aren't stoked about it at that moment, but because of your commitment you work through it as a couple.

Well, this morning I had one of these moments, with going mountain biking. I had zero (0) desire to get out of bed, drag myself out in 30-something degree weather and pedal my (the camps) bike around on dirt and rocks in the hope of having fun and become thin. But, out of obligation to Coyne I did. See, we made plans last night to ride and I knew nobody else was going (Gregs running a marathon soon and has taken time off of riding, Kris is sick, the Jones are filming something for camp, Jarred's a puss, Mike doesn't ride unless its over 40 degrees, Fisher is racing this weekend and won't ride today) so I had to go.

We ended up having a good time. He took me on some trails I had never ridden and that was cool to learn some more of our trail system, in some case "trail" would be an over statement, it was more like "dried up creek full of rocks and branches that were washed down stream in the snow melt". So, I didn't end up riding very well, but it was still fun.

Christmas

Heres the latest news concerning my bike from UPS.

Your Tracking Information
Status: IN-TRANSIT
Last Scan: 4/18/2008 4:35:00 AM IN TRANSIT TO PRESCOTT VALLEY, AZ US
Carrier: UPS
Expected: 4/18/2008
UPS Tracking Number: 1Z30VR960336728809
Scan History:

4/18/2008 4:35:00 AM IN TRANSIT TO PRESCOTT VALLEY, AZ US
4/18/2008 4:34:00 AM DEPARTURE SCAN PHOENIX, AZ US
4/18/2008 12:26:00 AM LOCATION SCAN PHOENIX, AZ US
4/17/2008 8:19:00 PM ARRIVAL SCAN PHOENIX, AZ US
4/16/2008 12:46:00 AM DEPARTURE SCAN MESQUITE, TX US
4/15/2008 11:02:00 PM LOCATION SCAN MESQUITE, TX US
4/15/2008 9:44:00 PM ARRIVAL SCAN MESQUITE, TX US
4/15/2008 2:24:00 PM DEPARTURE SCAN JACKSON, MS US
4/15/2008 12:11:00 PM ARRIVAL SCAN JACKSON, MS US
4/15/2008 8:03:00 AM DEPARTURE SCAN MONTGOMERY, AL US
4/15/2008 2:27:00 AM LOCATION SCAN MONTGOMERY, AL US
4/15/2008 12:57:00 AM ARRIVAL SCAN MONTGOMERY, AL US
4/14/2008 9:00:00 PM DEPARTURE SCAN FT. WALTON, FL US
4/14/2008 8:09:00 PM ORIGIN SCAN FT. WALTON, FL US
4/14/2008 7:13:00 PM BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED US

NOTE: The times listed in the scan details are local time.

Status as of Friday, April 18, 2008 7:00:01 AM Pacific Standard Time

If you notice that its in transit to Prescott Valley, well Prescott Valley (PV as the locals call it) is our little sister town and that means I will get my bike today. Its like Christmas without the Bailey's. Cheers.

Chris

Live Performances.

I got to see a couple of live shows on TV tonight.

First, Ben Harper. I love Ben Harper. I want to see him in concert so badly.

Second, Justin Timberlake. I am not a huge JT fan, however I appreciate that he is a great performer and his live show looked awesome. I imagine if you were a young lady or Chad Brown it would have been a great event to be at. The mix of music, lights and dance was really amazing. Plus, I didn't know that he was a piano player, he was playing with the band at one point and was really good. Pretty cool.

I Love Music. Cheers.

Chris

The Bread and Wine.

My buddy Mynhardt started a project called The Bread and Wine. The idea is to get different people to contribute to a blog that posts everyday about the being a follower of Christ in today culture. My first post went up today. Check it out here. Cheers.

Chris

What Can Brown Do For Me?

Brown

I'm super stoked about getting my Gary Fisher 29er any day now. The guy I bought it from dropped it at the UPS a few days ago and the website says I should expect in on Friday, we'll see. Here is the tracking info I gathered off of upsstore.com.

4/15/2008 8:04:00 AM IN TRANSIT TO MESQUITE, TX US
4/15/2008 8:03:00 AM DEPARTURE SCAN MONTGOMERY, AL US
4/15/2008 2:27:00 AM LOCATION SCAN MONTGOMERY, AL US
4/15/2008 12:57:00 AM ARRIVAL SCAN MONTGOMERY, AL US
4/14/2008 9:00:00 PM DEPARTURE SCAN FT. WALTON, FL US
4/14/2008 8:09:00 PM ORIGIN SCAN FT. WALTON, FL US
4/14/2008 7:13:00 PM BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED US

So it was just outside of Dallas earlier this morning. (Side Note: When I was a kid I used to watch the rodeo on tv and they were located in Mesquite, TX. Don't know why I remember that. )
I think it could make it here before Friday.

Nerves

I was a bit nervous buying this bike for several reasons.

1. It was on eBay so I hope it wasn't stolen.

2. It's used so I hope it works right and I don't have to get the thing fixed before I even get a chance to break it.

3. I am not very good at spending money on myself. I wish I could enjoy getting stuff for myself, but I was raised to not buy stuff for myself because its selfish or something.

4. I've never ridden a 29er except once down the alley behind a bike shop, it was a good ride and the it was this particular bike, it felt a bit heavy, but the size was nice. Plus, I've done a ton of reading on the 29er issue and figured that worse case I could resell it. You can read a little about it here. Plus I think they look wicked cool.

But, it will be great having my own bike again. I haven't owned one since I gave my MTB and road bike away at a MARTA station in ATL, another story for another time.

So "Brown" (not Zoid, UPS) I look forward to you delivering my bike on or before Friday so I can (hopefully if the things not crap) ride Granite Basin on Saturday, perfect. Cheers.

Chris

Damar. The Store Not the Dog.

Ray's dad used to have a photo store in Savannah called Damar (the inspiration for our dogs name). Well, we were watching Forces of Nature tonight (Ray was watching it, I was wishing that we were watching cagefighting) and there is a scene shot outside his shop and you can see the big Damar sign, pretty cool. Cheers.

Chris

The Last Straw.

Before you jump to conclusions, no, I was not fired.......yet.

A Little Background

The first morning that Ray and I were in AZ we were invited to the staff meeting at the camp to meet people and discuss the new health coverage. When the meeting started Greg Mengarelli, the big boss (being the new guy I have somewhere between 8 and 27 bosses), talked about how bad the economy was and that he hoped he would not have to lay anyone off. Thats a great thing to hear when you just sold everything (again) and spend thousands of dollars to move 12000 miles to a new job and have been living in your new home for around 13 hours. So since then every time something with the camp comes up I expect them to tell me that I'm fired.

To make matters worse, right after arriving, UCYC hired a consultant, Barry (B-Rock as I call him), to tell us how we can improve as a camp. If you have seen Office Space you know how this scenario is supposed to play out. B-Rock shows up, has lots of interviews with the staff and then "consults" Greg to go on a Trump like firing spree. Well, nobody, that I know of, has been fired. I hope that doesn't change.

The Straw That May Brake the Camels Back.

Within the contex of our working/living environment on the camp property we have a saying; God, Family, UCYC. Its a reminder to not ruin your family just to do well at work. However, for several of the staff there are 2 words that aren't included in the cute little phrase and perhaps should be, Mountain Biking. Its kind of an important thing here.

So I am new to this living/working/biking/cute phrase developing world and I'm trying my darndest to understand how everything works, but today I failed and I hope there is grace for me.

Every Tues and Fri we ride at 5:45 from Greg's house. Heres how it works, we wake up, get dressed, ride up to his place, pretend its not cold and continue to discuss whether its really cold or just mildly cold. (For anyone interested, its always cold, you can't always say its cold or you'll be called a puss or something, but believe me its always so freaking cold). We ride up to the trails, ride trails, laugh at me and how slow I am, ride home. Thats it.

Well, Yesterday, OB-K (Obese Kris) informed me that we were going to drive up to the mountain at 5:15 so we could do a longer bit of trail and ride with a guy named Joe. So I thought this meant that we were all informed of this change in routine. So later in the day David, another one of my bosses, asked if I was riding. I told him I was riding with OB-K at 5:15, assuming this was a UCYC sanctioned ride. Well as we pitch up to leave this morning I realized that Greg, the big boss, wasn't invited to ride.

There are only a handful of things that can get you fired around here, but not inviting the boss on a ride is up there.

So as we are driving everyone decides its my fault that Greg wasn't invited. So I hope I still have a job, we'll see.

Dear Mr Mengarelli,

Thank you again for the chance to work in such a beautiful environment with such a great group of people and an even more wonderful group of bosses. I appreciate the way my family and I were accepted into the UCYC family and you are an excellent example of what it means to be a leader and overall perfect man, thank you.

I would like to apologize for the misunderstanding this morning concerning the MTB ride that you were not invited to join. I completely understand if you are furious with me, a humble servant, but I would like to defend myself.

My only life of defense is this, I think the blame for this travesty should not lie on me, but on your brother, OB-K. I am new to The Way Of The Bikers and didn't know that OB-K will not always participate in the routine 5:45 morning rides and that he will venture off, like the prodigal son, to ride with other members of our Prescott community. This was one of those times.

I was approached by your brother not knowing that you were being left out of the picture (a picture that is incomplete without in it). If I had known, I would have contacted you via phone or text to inform you of our cycling plans.

Please accept this letter as an apology and a promise to inform of you of any further malicious actions of your brother. I am sorry from the very bottom of my heart, that deep part that aches only when puppies die.

Please don't fire me.

Your servant,
Christopher Brian Holohan

On a Brighter Note

I bought a bike yesterday. I have been riding one that I stole from the camps stash of bikes, but not for too much longer. It is being shipped today.



Its a Gary Fisher Cobia 29er. Its used so hopefully everything works well on it, we'll see. Cheers.

Chris

Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

Ray's out tonight with some of her girlfriends. I am so excited that she is making good friends out here. So I'm baching it tonight, a couple of danes, a couple of homemade tacos, a Guinness and some cagefighting on tv, not that bad. Cheers.

Chris

Great Weekend.

This was such a great weekend for me. I feel ready for work this next week and I also feel like I didn't just bum around the house and waste a couple of days.

This morning we went to church and really enjoyed it. We are loving getting to go to church.

When we got home from church and a lot of the staff ate in the dining all for lunch today so it was cool hanging out with friends.

After lunch I came home and just chilled for a bit. Ray had her first piano lesson today with Kris' daughter Karis. Ray really enjoyed teaching her, we are thinking that when we have children this could be something she could do as a job until the kids are out of the house, we'll see.

Once I was sufficiently "chilled" I went for a long uphill bike ride. I posted a while back about driving the Jeep up to the Prieta overlook in the snow, well I rode the same route today on my bike. It's steep and tough. It took an hour to make it up to the overlook. I had to make a few rest stops on the way up and I also realized I really need some cycling shorts, they offer much needed padding in your undercarriage, if you know what I mean.

Then after relaxing for a few minutes I flew back down the road, the descent only took 14 minutes and change. It was a great workout on a Sunday afternoon.

Great weekend. Cheers.

Chris

Date Day.

Ray and I have been working conflicting schedules with work so we haven't had a bunch of time to hang/chill/kick it so we had a date day.

The day started off with us driving to a very romantic location, Wells Fargo, so Ray could finish up something she didn't finish on Friday. OK not romantic, but at least together and thats what matters.

So after the trip to the bank, I asked Ray what she wanted for lunch and she said Baskin Robins. You know shes a health nut.



Here's Ray with her lunch, a milkshake half the length of her torso.

After the milkshake incident we headed over to the Freedom Station for a round of mini golf. We tied.

We took a moment from the heated competition for classic mini golf photos.



Here's Ray Ray doing the old "swing the golf club like a baseball bat", perfect.


And here I am using the golf club as a pimp cane while showing what color ball I'm playing with, classic.

After the golf we walked over to the Harkin and watched 21, a new movie about black jack. I like it, any movie shot in Vegas is fun.



So it was a good day.

Now we are just hanging at the house waiting for supper in the dining hall here at camp, a great perk. Cheers.

Chris

Day on the Trail.

Pictured above: Phoenis, Shellnut and Reuben.

One new thing that we are working on is building a mountain bike/hiking/whatever trail.

We thinking that it will end up being a few miles long when we are done and it will follow around the perimeter of the property. We as a staff we are working on it on Friday afternoons and will be getting groups to help us work on it.

Its gonna be cool this summer for camp not having to drive the students off campus to mountain bike. That will save us a bunch of gas money and time. Stoked. Cheers.

Chris

In A Funk.

I am in a creative funk and the timing couldn't be worse. We are in "crunch time" for summer camp and I am writing scripts for morning videos and I am struggling to think of anything. I don't know whats wrong with me.

On a better note, this afternoon I went riding with my neighbor Mike and we had a good time. We climbed up a technical rocky section, which is tough to climb, but awesome to fly back down. It was a fun quick ride.

Speaking of bikes, I am still riding one of the bikes that belongs to the camp and searching for a killer deal on a bike. I really want a good quality bike, but don't have a fortune to spend on it. Hopefully something good will pop up and I can find a steal. Cheers.

Chris

Bags.

I carry a bag.
I love my bag.
I hate having a bunch of crap in my pockets.
I can carry a book with me wherever I go.
I always have change in the bottom of my bag.
I don't mind that people make fun of me because I know they hate crap in their pockets too.
I can keep a tube of chap stick more than 3 days without losing it.

Cheers.

Chris