January 2007 – Happy New Year

This month we do some remodeling, delve into another round of protein binging and jet off to Las Vegas for the NATPE convention.

First off, let me apologize for my lack of journals. I am gonna try to get the old ones caught up over the next few weeks. [This is a picture of me, not holding my breath... - AB]   Our world keeps getting smaller and smaller. With all our projects like: the comic book, the NATPE convention, the sketch comedy show, and all the fairs we work, it's getting harder to find time to have a life. I'm not complaining; I'm just stating fact. Anyway, I'm sorry and I'll try not to get that far behind again.

The holidays always mark time spent at my home in Florida. As any homeowner knows, houses are always ongoing projects. There's always something that needs work. And, when you're on the road a good portion of the year, the projects build up even faster. So whenever I'm home I try to get as much done as possible.

 

The bedroom - before, part I

The bedroom - before, part II

This year our housemate Amy moved out so it only made sense that we remodel the bedroom. Our beautiful furniture has been in storage for years and is ready to be used once again. Also, the parquet wood floor in the living room has seen its better day, so it was time for it to go too. Since the two rooms are connected we figured we'd do them both in new matching laminate wood.

We tore the old wallpaper down from the walls in the bedroom and painted instead. Little did I know that since there was never paint on those walls that I'd have to put a million coats of primer on it. The primer was a Pepto-Bismol pink and the wall color we chose would take even more coats to cover it. It turned out great, but boy was it a lot of work. The floors and the walls look fabulous and the furniture looks great. I just wish I was there to appreciate it.

 

Putting new flooring in the living room

The bedroom after paint and flooring

Traditionally, we have a big New Years party at our house every year. It's a wild late night extravaganza that's legendary in my neck of the woods. Since things were under construction and we were just plain tired... and Annie invited us to her place, we decided to scrap the party and head to Orlando and Ann's place. Our friends Omar and Theresa also came up from Miami to visit so we invited them to join us for dinner and the party.

 

Sharon and Theresa at New Years dinner

New Years at Ann's

Me and Omar at New Years dinner

 

Green means GO for more meat!

There's a new trend in steakhouses in the U.S. They're Brazilian style steakhouses where the gauchos bring skewers of meat to your table and then slice them right onto your plate. This is where we decided to have New Years dinner. There's one called Texas de Brazil in Orlando. It's beautiful! The way it works is, the guys walk around with the meat and check a little cardboard button each diner has. It's two sided, one red, and one green. Obviously, the red side is "no more meat", and the green "more meat please." They had, like, 13 cuts of meat walking around the room. I was in heaven! They also have an incredible salad bar. But, who wants to fill up on greens when you have all this meat! Dinner was awesome! I was stuffed and ready to go into a protein coma!

After dinner we headed to Ann and Geoff's. Ann is one of Sharon's best friends. She's in her wedding later this year. The party was a blast. A bunch of our friends from Orlando were there so it was nice to see them. Ann had just gotten a Jagerator. It's a machine that dispenses ice cold Jagermeister. In case you don't know, that's a liquor that's more like Nazi truth serum. It's Ann's favorite. Between that and a full bar we were in for a long night. Needless to say, we rang in the new year in style. We drank, we laughed, we loved, and we killed brain cells. All in a night.

 

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In mid January we attended the NATPE convention. It's the National Association of Television Programming Executives. We went to pimp out some of our DVDs and look for distributors for other projects we're thinking of. We really went for an education on what the industry is looking for and to make some contacts. The convention was at Mandalay Bay, a beautiful hotel I've always wanted to stay at. I got great room rates with my travel agent credentials. I felt bad ‘cuz Sharon always wanted to stay there too. It turned out that the rooms were ok, but nothing incredible. The hotel however is huge and has some really great restaurants.

 

Our NATPE booth

Ronn in front of our booth at NATPE

Me and 'The Crabman' Eddie Steeples

We flew in on Monday and set up our booth. The convention actually ran Tuesday to Thursday. I designed artwork for our booth with the convention display company to make an attractive display that would hopefully draw some interest in us. We got some emails and some calls from some interested parties. So, we set up meetings for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday morning we got a publication that showed what was happening that day. It said that in one of the hospitality suites 20^th Century Television was hosting a meet and greet with the cast of My name is Earl and How I met your mother. Me, being the hob-nobber that I am, had to go check it out. So, I packed up a satchel of Tortuga stuff and headed for the suite. I arrived to find a private suite only open to people in the industry with a badge like mine. It was great. It wasn't a fan / celebrity kind of set-up, it was an industry executive / celebrity kinda thing. So I wandered in to mingle a bit. After getting a feel for the room I struck up a conversation with Eddie Steeples. He plays Darnel - "Crabman" from "My name is Earl." I got a picture with him, gave him a couple Tortuga DVDs and moved on to the other side of the room to chat with the other cast. I asked the cast of "How I met your mother" if I could have one of the autographed pictures they were working on. They said, "As soon as we get everyone's signature it's yours." I told them I had some goodies for them and they all perked up. I guess they're not used to getting stuff at events like this. They are used to giving stuff out. After explaining who I was and handing out some DVDs I asked for a group shot and they were happy to oblige. I thanked them and started on my way when Jason Lee walked in. He's the star of "My name is Earl." I went through the same patter with him and he was happy to take a picture with me. I'd say him and Eddie (Crabman) were the nicest of the group. Don't get me wrong, they were all very accommodating. After that I headed back to the convention floor and sent Ronn up to check out the stars.

 

Me and the cast of "How I met your mother"

Me and "Earl's" Jason Lee

Nadine Velazquez (Catalina), Josh Radnor (Ted), and me

That night we found this place called the Burger Bar. They have the most amazing menu of burgers and toppings. It was so good we ended up eating there two more times before we left. The next day was much busier - there were a lot of buyers on the floor and we got to make some great contacts. That's also when we noticed the film crew from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. They were filming for a segment Jay was doing called Pitch to America. They give you 30-60 seconds to pitch your TV idea. We figured we'd do something for them tomorrow.

Minois sleeps on dad

That night after the convention we checked out the new Playboy Club at The Palms. It was cute but not so cool that I'd go back. After that we headed to the other tower to check out the "Ghostbar." It's one of the local popular bars the all the celebs hang out at. When Paris and Britney went out for their crazy night out it was one of their stops.

Thursday was a little slower and finished up pretty early. We made a lot of great contacts and learned plenty. We'll see what comes of this trip. We did end up recording a bit for Jay Leno and if you got word, we were supposed to be on the show. But, unfortunately minutes before air, they realized they were a few minutes over and our spot got cut. Well, that's showbiz. We had one last great meal at the Burger Bar and called it a night. Tomorrow we had to leave. Riki headed back to L.A. and Ronn headed back to Kansas City. I of course went back to my honey in Florida to prepare for the beginning of our season. There's no rest for the weary.

Next stop, Arizona.