Since I’ve gotten it (for Christmas) I’ve been constantly trying to get more steps, burn more calories, etc. I’ve even agreed to an early morning run tomorrow with an old friend.

It’s amazing how much more fun things are (even exercise) when turned into a competition.

Oh yeah- I know a great realtor, too – Liz Sampson!

The kids are already telling us they’re bored and have by estimate 19 more days left until school starts. Don’t even get me started on why they have such a long break…

Elizabeth just recently started doing the boot camp put on by Indy Adventure Boot Camp for Women as well as signed up for the SLAM B.A.M. Challenge. As part of her training she just got a BodyMedia Core Armband and it rocks.

Basically, it’s a device similar to the BodyBugg things they use on the “Biggest Loser”. It straps on your arm and monitors calorie burn, steps, and a bunch of other things. It also has a nice website and iPhone app to view your data. I covet it.

I have a Jawbone UP which is really pretty cool, but it doesn’t compare feature-wise to the BodyMedia device. Then again, it’s 1/2 the cost.

I may have to make a Costco run today to get one of the BodyMedia devices…

I met up with some friends downtown at about 10PM.  We had heard that they didn’t go on stage until close to 11PM, so we decided to skip the opening act.  This also let me attend my sons Christmas performance earlier in the evening that I was going to miss otherwise.

They sounded great!  At my count they played 29 songs / solos and played for almost 3 hours.  Axl sounded amazing!  Most rock singers that I have seen later in their careers seem to have a hard time hitting the higher notes and just don’t sound as good.  That didn’t seem to the case at all with Axl.  He wailed and screamed and didn’t seem to have any problems at all holding the notes or staying on pitch.  It was truly amazing.

I was also really impressed with the band.  Dj Ashba was an incredible showman and constantly running across the stage and playing on the rails close to the crowds.  He sounded great, too.  I didn’t really know much about Bumblefoot before the show, but was really impressed with his playing and his fretless guitar(s).  DJ, Bumblefoot, and Richard Fortus really seemed to complement each other quite well and all played great solos.

The other thing that really stood out to me was Axl’s attitude.  I was a huge fan in the 80′s and 90′s, but admittedly had not kept up most of the past decade.  But, all of the stereotypical “Axlisms” didn’t seem to be there.  They came on stage on time (even a few minutes early) of their 11PM start time.  Axl did not say any negative things about Indiana.  In fact, he mentioned several times that he was from Indiana and it was “good to be home”.  He also made it a point to mention the other 2 band/crew members that were from Indiana (a crew member and also DJ Ashba (from Monticello)).  Axl was very gracious with the crowd and mentioned his Hall of Fame nomination and upcoming induction and said that was, “all you guys”.

The only other thing that I had hoped was that maybe on and off again resident Izzy Stradlin would’ve joined them on stage.  Oh well… 

All in all a fantastic show.  I just wish I would’ve gone to see them either in Cincinnati or Chicago this tour as well…

1. Win-lose between the 2 major parties equals lose for the rest of us.
2. Just because one party doesn’t believe in or opposes an idea from the other party doesn’t mean they weren’t listening or considering it.
3. It’s not enough for both parties to just claim they have “open doors” to ideas from the other party. They need to pursue collaboration.
4. Fight for your idea and it’s merits. Just claiming another idea sucks doesn’t strengthen the merits of your idea. There are plenty of bad ideas out there. Just because yours is bad/worse doesn’t make mine better.

That’s it for this lunch break. More later…