Eric and I had an awesome time in St. Louis at HiBearNation this past weekend! It was great to see a bunch of you LJ folks again too! My fav experience outside of the bar was a trip to Jilly's Cupcake Bar. They had some amazing food. You'll see some of their offerings in my pics from the trip...

This past weekend, my buddies JohnJohn, Gregg, and I headed to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, TN for some backwoods good times. The park really impressed me. It's more of a theme park than an amusement park, and 90% of it is done-up exceptionally well. As for thrills, I think Thunderhead has taken the #1 spot on my list of wooden coasters...that thing seriously rocks. The new Mystery Mine ride was loads of fun as well. Oh, and there was lots of good eye candy!

The last month has been a l-o-n-g stretch. Not a day went by when I wasn't in the office or at least perched in front of my laptop, pounding away at work's big project. I was stuck in my own little world of work/twitter/eat/sleep for the last month...totally detached from just about everything non-work related (I did manage to catch a sneak preview of Ratatouille last weekend - cute, cute, CUTE!) We finally hit our beta milestone last week, so I got to enjoy a free weekend hanging out at the family farm, playing Wii with my youngest niece most of the time.

Tucked into the crazy month, a promotion and salary bump came my way - Associate Creative Director, Web & Media. Wooohooo! To celebrate, I'm planning to make my way out to San Francisco for the iPhoneDevCamp event. Any other LJ geeks attending?

Also, I currently use a pair of Sony MDR-EX51 headphones. They're great for complete isolation, but it's too easy for people to sneak up on me (a fav. pastime of cow-orkers.) I'm looking for a good monitor-style set. Recommendations?

Sheesh. Has it been a week since I was having a great time at Bear Pride? I guess it so. Talk about a wonderful time with old friends, new friends, and a few complete strangers! This was my first big bear run, and I had a really great time. I had some preconceived ideas on what to expect, but the real thing blew those notions out of the water.

The Sunday night dance at Vision gave me flashbacks. You see, over the summer of '93, after graduating from college and before starting my career, I spent many a night getting my groove on at that place. It was known as The Dome Room back then and played more industrial than anything else.

It was great to see some of you LJ folks in the flesh again, and to meet a few of you for the first time! Strangely, most of you eluded my camera. Hmmm. Anyway, PICTURES...

Headed up to Cedar Point this past weekend with buddies JohnJohn, Brian, Eric, and Scott. I booked this trip back in October, expecting the new coaster, Maverick, to be up and running. We knew last week that it wouldn't be ready, but decided to go anyway. (Rumor has it that the heartline roll was throwing too many G’s, so it's being replaced with some curves.) Glad we did - good times had by all! Pics from the trip

I'm totally looking forward to Bear Pride in Chicago this coming weekend and can't wait to see a bunch of you there!

Last year we had Rachel Ray as the Grand Marshal for the 500 Festival Parade...and, boy, did "Queens Corner" go crazy when she went by! (Almost as crazy as when the royal court of the parade passes and a couple hundred of us chant "elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist" at the betches on the floats.)

This year, among others, we get Sylar from Heroes. He's not Grand Marshal (that'd be Peyton Manning), but kind of exciting. Too bad it's not Claire.

Oh, hold on. I'll be in Chicago that weekend for Bear Pride so I'll be missing the parade. I'm OK with that!

In March '06, I got to attend my very first SXSW Interactive conference...a huge confab of web geeks, digital creatives, visionaries, etc. In other words, my professional peeps. Saying the event was an amazing experience would be selling it short.

The bargain I'd made with my boss was that one of the guys from my team and I would hit SXSW in '06, followed by the other half of my team in '07. After having such a great time there, I was bummed that I'd miss the '07 event. I was considering paying my own way, since I really, really didn't want to miss it (yeah, it was THAT good!) Guess I did a good job of conveying all the great stuff we experienced to the boss. Today, he gave thumbs-up for the entire team, plus our two remote folks, to go in '07! w00t!

Austin's an awesome city and I fully intend to enjoy more of it on this next trip (and I am so craving some Rudy's BBQ right now!) Plus, I'm totally looking forward to seeing my buddy Andy (pupcubtx2k) again! March won't come soon enough!

Anyone else hitting SXSW Interactive in '07?

Time to start an adventure (just one of many, if I have my way.) This past weekend was Pride Night at Kings Island. My usual gang of travelers and I have been on several road trips over the last month, and most decided to skip Pride Night. But not me! I didn't make nearly enough visits to amusement parks this summer and was totally jonesing for a few rides. And, I've been chatting with Mark (kybearfuzz) on Bear411 for the last several weeks and was looking forward to meeting him there. I decided to venture out on my own.

Turns out I wasn't really alone. Four of my close buddies (Allan, Daryl Anne, Mike, and Don) arrived at the park just before I did — met them just inside the gate. If this little adventure turned out to be a bust, at least I'd have backup. LOL!

I met up with Mark and his posse under the Eiffel Tower at 7 PM — Mike (mikiedoggie), Derek (_decibel_), Chris, Bo (demcub), Brian (cincycub), Eric (truebrixon), Dan (book_of_daniel), and Jay. I have to admit I was a little nervous...it's been a while since I've met someone in person after chatting with them online. Turns out I had nothing to fear. The gang was a blast to hang out with! Thanks guys for making my adventure a good one!

I didn't have my camera with me (damnit!) but others did:
Mark's photos
Mike's photos

Mix for the trip (links to iTunes):

• Seabound - Beyond Flatline
• The Crüxshadows - Sophia (EP) and Shadowbox
• Covenant - Northern Light
• Assemblage 23 - Storm
• Apoptygma Berzerk - Until the End of the World (Single)