So I probably should have posted last night about us coming down... but I didn't. So here it is!

Thursday we left SLC around 2pm to drive down to Vegas. I have never seen more Highway Patrol along I-15 than this trip down. Fortunately we spotted them quick, would yell "Cop!", then rolled down the windows. No problems.

We got here, and wow, our room is awesome! We're at the Marriott Grand Chateau, just a block off the strip, by the Harley Shop. It's a one bedroom condo, meaning we have a full kitchen in here. The bathroom is huge too! On our way up to our room we rode in the elevator with some other fans mostly in Jeff Gordon gear. We were getting off first. Since the only NASCAR clothes I had was a #55 Michael Waltrip hat, I was wearing that. The father commented to let us off first as it was the only time the 55 would be first all weekend. I tried to defend myself saying I was for Gordon all the way, and it was all I had, but I don't think they believed it.

So after getting settled, we went out to go eat. We are directly across from the Miracle Mile at Planet Hollywood. So we walked through that looking for a place to eat. Didn't see anything that sounded good. So we kept walking, and went over to the Forum at Caesars Palace, and wound our way down to The Cheesecake Factory. I had a huge bowl of bowtie pasta in a yummy cream sauce.

We made our way back to our condo and crashed.

Friday:
In order for our room to be free, Sarah had to do a tour in the morning. So after she finished that around 10 am, we left for the track. As soon as we got there we started going up and down the merchandise trailers. So many trailers. I splurged. Picked up a sweet Die-Cast, polo shirt, hat, sticker, lanyard, and jacket from the Jeff Gordon trailers. I'm pretty much set now. We didn't want to carry our stuff all day so we took it back to the car where we met up with Nick's parents. We went back in, I finished my purchases, and we went up to our seats. We were on row 41 in the Petty Terrace right at the end of Pit Road. Very cool. We can totally see the entire track from there! So we were chillin up there for a bit during the Nationwide Series practice. Then just before it ended Nick and I decided to go out into the garages.

Yes... We had Pit passes! The only downer is they were "Cold" passes, so when the Cup was qualifying we couldn't go back into the garages, but we did go through the Nationwide Series garages. If they were "Hot" passes we would have been able to go back into the Cup area while they were on the track. But we did get to go up and down pit road, and will be doing that tomorrow during the Nationwide race to watch the teams pit. That will be so awesome!

So we started at the north end of Pit Road, and made our way down to the south end (exit), then back up. Towards the entrance is where the cars would go after qualifying. We chilled and took some cool pictures. Then went to see the top cars. While we were there Carl Edwards took the Pole from Jeff Gordon. Boo! Seriously though he was lame! There were some fans lined up against the fence and he didn't even acknowledge them. It was so poor. Just after that though Kyle Busch took the pole from Edwards. While I hate the way the guy drives he was seriously cool to the fans. He came over and signed a ton of autographs for the fans, and was way cool about it. I got the back of my lanyard signed by him. A little while later I was also able to get David Reutimann's autograph from the same spot. Very impressed with Kyle though.

After qualifying was over we headed back out, and met up with Nick's parents at the Speed TV booth. Darrell Waltrip, Larry Macreynolds, Darrell Hammond and another guy were there doing the show. So I was on the background there. Kyle came up since he won the pole, and did some TV time. It took about an hour for us to get back to the condo (16 miles) after qualifying.

We went over to Von's grocery store and got some grub since we have the kitchen, then came back here to relax before tomorrow. I'll be uploading most of the pictures tonight, but I do have a panarama to stitch together before that goes up. That I'll do at home. Now tomorrow morning Nick and I are hitting the garage first thing, and hoping to get Jeff Gordon & Jeff Burton's autographs.

Check the gallery for the pics!

Yay! Today my ABS computer came back from being repaired. Lucky me it snowed right? Well to get it reinstalled I had to remove the wheel well liner. The same liner that just had tons of snow thrown on it during my drive home.

But it only took about 45 minutes, and I went out for a ride. ABS is definitely working again! Yay... I think...

I talked about getting a trainer a bit ago, well my mom brought up that my sister has one that she won't be able to use for a couple months, so I should borrow hers since I only need one for 2 months. She was awesome enough to let me borrow it and brought it up last night. So I went for my first session.

After 20 minutes my legs were jelly! :( But that is why I wanted to start working on one. Come April when I can ride on the roads I will be ready. Now that I've been able to start riding I'll try to do updates on the weight loss.

So it had been a while since I checked. Last night I got on the scale. This was not good. 30lbs since my surgery.

So time for diet and exercise. Not much aerobic exercise I can do right now, so next pay day I'm getting a trainer. I'm going to keep the exercise simple... lots of time on the bike. Plus some sit ups and a small amount of weights. Mostly though the bike. But diet... I'm thinking for me it would be easiest to basically cut out dinner. I'm not disciplined enough to eat well every 3 hours. I'll see if I can't get my intake down to 1000-1500 calories/day. Since I'm going to try cutting back I'm going to have to hit up a multi-vitamin, and I'll probably get on a fiber supplement as well since it helps burn fat. Maybe later I'll be able to change it up to every 3 hours.

60 lbs to go.

Hope your Christmas is as awesome as mine! Post up how your is and what ya got!

Yay! Finished Christmas shopping. I wasn't as fast as my sister in law, but my mom was hard. Finally figured out something for her though.

Of course I have tonight to figure out something for my office cow-orkers.

Confirmed!! There IS a Buy 1 get 1 free sale next week (12/16-12/22) on the following titles (Bold ones I really want! ;)):
The Bourne Ultimatum HD-DVD
Blades Of Glory HD-DVD
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry HD-DVD
Knocked Up: Unrated HD-DVD
Disturbia HD-DDVD
Mr. Bean’s Holiday HD-DVD
Shrek The Third HD-DVD
Evan Almighty HD-DVD (Already have)
Transformers HD-DVD (Already have)
Harry Potter & Order Of The Phoenix HD-DVD >>>> $32.99
The Departed HD-DVD >>>> $34.99
Shooter HD-DVD >>>> $34.99
Ocean’s Thirteen HD-DVD >>>> $34.99 (Already have)
300 HD-DVD >>>> $34.99 (Already have)

I started uploading pictures. It's definitely going to take a bit of time.

But I know I'm missing some pictures that some of you uploaded. If you want to re-upload them (and I hope you do especially if I was there) let me know and I will set up a new gallery account for you.

People I know off the top of my head who had uploaded stuff:
Matt
Holly
Jeff

The hard drive totally crashing. :(

Yup the old drive is now in the trash. I was able to get off most of my web site, but not the photo gallery. :(

So one of these days I'll re-install it and upload the pictures again.

The worst thing is that it was also my email server! :O So I now need to rebuild that part, and hope I can get it restored perfectly.

I'm also thinking I need to get me a RAID card. And put this OS on a RAID 1 Mirror. Yeah, that might be good.

Here I am... posting DVD deals again!

Amazon is having a sale on Universal Studios HD DVD's. $15.99 each, which is a pretty good price for HD DVD's.

To save ya time, the ones I would want are:
Waterworld
Meet the Parents
Van Helsing
Happy Gilmore
and Billy Madison

Shop away! :D

Over 6 months later, and my Dad's marker was placed today. It looks good. If you're ever in the neighborhood stop by and take a look.

Also of interest... the grass is greener in that spot than anywhere else in the cemetery.

DVDPlanet.com has 20% off with coupon: 20offsale and it IS reusable. Coupon good through November 21st. This is NOT usable on pre-orders. I've never ordered from these guys, so I can't say what their prices are like.

I also found a list of codes for DeepDiscount. Usually you can only use a code once, so if you need to do a second order these should work. Note this list is not verified! These are the usual codes, and they usually always work. But no guarantees!

DVDTALK
USATODAY
NYTIMES
SUPERSALE
PRICESEARCH
YAHOO
ESPN
XM
JIM
DEALNEWS
DD1109 - Confirmed code
LATIMES
WGN
WLS
PRICEGRABBER

This is mostly to my family, unless some of my friends want to buy me HD DVD's too. ;)

Usually Amazon has some of the best prices for HD DVD's, but for Warner Brothers movies there is usually a coupon to get them for cheap direct from WB!

For example you can get each of the Harry Potter movies for $17.21 using coupon code NVBM, which is good until November 30th. Great deal! (Please note the 1-5 giftset is not on my ideas list since they are all in cardboard sleeves, rather than plastic keep cases)

EDIT:
UPDATE! DeepDiscount is getting ready to hold their annual 20% off sale! It starts November 9th, and goes through November 25th. This will not work on pre-orders, but it will work on all DVD's and HD DVD's. (And books, CD's, Bookcases, etc.)

Last time it was 20% off one purchase, so be sure to put everything you want on one order!

The code for this sale is:DD1109

So it looks like the forum is kinda broken. I did an upgrade a couple days ago but I guess it didn't run very smooth. I'll look at fixing it tonight.

edit, 7pm... ok it's fixed. post away!

Today on the drive home I followed a Ferrari F430 down Wasatch. That was a pretty car.

Oh yeah, some ideas of Christmas gifts are posted for my family that wants to get their shopping done early.

Fall is the lamest season! From the snow not even lasting 24 hours and now we are in the 70's. Lame. Maybe we'll end up with snow again this weekend, and hopefully it will stick!

Yay! LET IT SNOW!
Fall is my least favorite season, but I always love Winter! Yay for snow! :D

So with my hiring as a 3M employee I've had to switch from weekly pay to monthly. 3 1/2 days until I get paid. I'm running low. On the edge of being completely broke. Only 3 1/2 more days.

It will be mine! Oh yes it will be mine! Then Movie night at my place!

(Hopefully at the beginning of December... if not then January)

The reasons for this one:
61"
1080p
LED Light engine (No bulb to replace every 5 years, no color wheel)
15 pin VGA input. (computer)

Man... I have a ton of junk! And I didn't have the time I wanted to go through it in advance. But now it's all moved downstairs. So I have tonight and tomorrow to go through the junk, and organize it before the movie night!