January 2006

Again I owe you all apologies! - That's right once again I'm late getting my journal in. Andy's had my pictures and a really cool video you'll see shortly for quite some time now, but with all the off-season house remodeling and dragging Sharon all over Florida for her shows, I just haven't had the time or motivation. So here I am, it's halfway through February and I'm typing this one weekend into Arizona. That has to be some kinda record for lateness! So as part of my penance I have included the blackmail pictures of me passed out at the Christmas party.

 

Snoozy the Pirate

Sleeping Beauty

New years started a little earlier than Christmas did. Anne, Sharon, Geoff and I decided to go to the Columbia Restaurant at the St. Pete Pier. The food was great but there was way too much of it. We all took home doggie bags. After dinner, we went to The Lobby. It's a cool little nightclub Anne sometimes works at. It's one of those neat little hangouts where we know everyone and rarely pay for a drink. At least that's how it feels. We stayed there for a while and then headed to our house to await the arrival of our late-night guests. Our core group for the evening was Anne and Geoff, Ted and Tracy, and Sharon and I, of course. As usual, the party kinda went in shifts. One group would leave; another would arrive, usually after they got out of work. Everyone had a great time and there was only a little drama. The problem you have with this kind of late night party is that someone always manages to bring someone nobody really knows. Now this usually works out fine, but occasionally you get someone weird or someone that just doesn't fit in. When you're the host and trying to have a good time, it really detracts when you have to "keep an eye on someone." Our friend Shannon brought this guy that no one knew. He just kept hovering around everyone without lending to the conversations. Not to mention the fact that he was kinda drunk or something. We finally had to ask him to leave. I felt bad and tried to give him a little time to sober up and even offered to call him a cab but my first priority was to my real guests and the safety of my home. Other than that little hiccup the night was great. The next day we got up to watch football and have mimosas and bloody marys. I think we all survived the night unscathed and were ready for round two!

 

New Year's Eve dinner

Late-night New Year's visitors

New Year's Dolls

Next on the calendar was Jimmie Palmers last leave from the service before he gets out in a few months. He was going on a cruise with his new girlfriend but was gonna hangout in Orlando for a couple of days before and needed a ride to the port. We decided to go up to Orlando to hit some of the theme parks with him before driving him to the port for his cruise. Since it was the off season and we didn't have a lot of money, I called in some favors. This is when it pays to be nice to people and have a network of friends that blankets the globe. I got tickets for The Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney/MGM Studios, Sea World, and Universal Studios... all for FREE!!! Wahooo!!! I love when a plan comes together!

Day one went well. We met my friend Ron Fox at the entrance to Disney/MGM studios where he hooked us up with our park hopper passes so we could go to all the Disney parks. We did all the cool rides at each park passing up the stuff that was boring, for kids, or we've done so many times before. We ended the night with dinner at the German Pavilion at EPCOT. It's restaurant is a replica of an Oktoberfest Biergarten. I pigged out. Seriously... I had like five plates of food. I'm not talking salad here. I had five full plates of sauerbraten, schnitzel, spaetzle, and pork loin all covered in gravy. I washed all that down with a giant liter of beer. I should have had a coronary on the spot. Thank god I don't do that very often. After that we were all spent, so we headed back to our hotel at Disney's Caribbean beach Resort. By the way, I also pulled some strings to get our hotels for half price. The "Jef Luck" gods were definitely smiling on me this week.

 

Mimosas and Bloody Marys the next morning

Pigging out at EPCOT's Germany

We're obviously not the only drunks

Day two brought us to Sea world. We don't usually go to Sea world or Busch Gardens. "Why?" you ask... because they are owned by Anheiser/Busch, a beer company. They don't usually serve anything but beer "and that just don't fly with the little lady." She doesn't do beer, but we heard that there was a full liquor bar somewhere in the park so she decided she'd give it a shot. Anne and Amy joined Nicole, Jimmie, Sharon and I. We hit all the roller coasters they had and a couple of the attractions before looking for the bar. It's not just about the alcohol you know. Ah, who am I kidding, yeah it is. We found the bar next to the Shark Encounter. It was a really cool little bar with windows into the shark tank and a fish tank bar top. We all got pretty buzzed, but I drank less since I was driving. Anne had to leave early 'cuz she had a class to go to. What a trooper! On our way out we stumbled upon a couple that was passed out on benches next to each other. You know we took pictures! So, we left and decided to grab some grub at Hooters, that great American institution. We wanted to sober Amy up for her drive home. We went back to our room since we wanted to get some sleep for tomorrow's trip to Universal Studios. Jimmie was hammered! He didn't stop all day and when we got back to the room he just kept on drinking. I knew he was gonna pay for it the next day.

 

The gang at Sea World

At the bar at Sea World

A dork at the Cat-in-the-Hat ride

The next day Jimmie was soooooooo sick. So sick that he and Nicole decided to stay at the room while we met Geoff and Anne at Universal. We hit Dr. Seuss landing first and rode the cat in the hat. After that, we took off to ride "The Hulk." It's one of the best roller coasters I've ever been on. Of course, you know we hit the bar on the way. Universal is great because they have three full liquor bars all with different happy hours. So, if you time it right... well, you know.

I made a really cool little video of my ride on "The Hulk." I used my digital camera that shoots video to make it. They make you put all your loose articles in a locker, so I had to hide my camera until just before the ride started. Let me tell you, they really frown on objects on the ride so I had to be really sneaky. The worst part about it was that the first time I shot it the vibration kept turning off the camera. So, I had to ride it again. After that, I decided it would be cool to get a shot of myself as I rode it. Just so you know, I rode the coaster three times to get all the shots used in the video. [Watch the vid in Windows Media]   [Watch the vid in RealMedia]

After we left Universal we went back to the room to check on Jimmie and Nicole. They were fine. Jimmie wasn't 100% but was feeling good enough to make our 7:30 dinner reservation at Kobe Steakhouse. It's one of those cool teppanyaki grill restaurants where they cook your meal at your table. We told them we were in a bit of a hurry 'cuz we were going to see Cirque du Soleil at nine. (Another place I got discount tickets from a friend.) We made it through a nice meal and sped off to see the show. The show we saw was "La Nouba," it's the resident show at Downtown Disney. It was great! I'd seen it before but it had been quite a few years. After the show we went for one last drink before calling it a night. We had to get Jimmie to the port tomorrow after all. And, we were all pretty spent and ready to go home.

 

Jimmie springs a leak

At the bar with Geoff and Ann

Smooching by Cinderella's Castle

Dropping Jimmie off for his cruise

The next day we got up fresh and ready to go. We stopped at Bennigan's for lunch and headed to the port. We got to the port and dropped off Jimmie and Nicole for their cruise, it was great to see them but I was happy to see them go. At least, my liver was.

Later in the month Sharon started doing shows for her boss Ruth. I helped her set up and break down when I could. We also got a call to do a gig for the Wise Guys. I've done Bucs football games dressed as a pirate for them before. They needed people to stand on a corner and hold a sign to attract attention to a new housing development. He offered it to me and Sharon and it paid really well, fifty dollars/hr each! So, I said yes. I told him the only thing we had costumes for at that moment was My Jack Sparrow and Sharon as a wench. He said it was fine. It turned out to be way north of Orlando. What a drive! Thank god they decided to give us travel cash. It really helped with gas.

 

This sums up my time off

Dressed up for Lennar Homes gig

Our new living room

Well, that's about it for January in Florida and my time off. Arizona's right around the corner. Well actually, like I said, it's already here. There truly is no rest for the weary. Next month I'll write about my drive to Arizona and hopefully something else cool will happen between now and then. Otherwise it's gonna be the same old boring grind of entertaining the masses. Just kidding. I'm also working on finishing the Palooza 2 DVD. We want to have it done for the midway point in Arizona. Wish me luck!!!