Honeymoon in Mexico

Hey there! Remember me? Sorry about the lack of updates recently. I have been spending so much of my free time over at www.TVFoodFan.com. It has been time well-spent, however, as I'm seeing great growth in traffic and lots of mentions on other sites. If you haven't seen the new site, be sure to swing by and check it out.

We do have an update on the wedding front! The picture over on the left shows the pool area at the Secrets Capri resort outside Cancun. We booked our reservations the other night and can't wait to go. They have lots of restaurants and bars(!), and plenty of activities. For some reason, I'm really looking forward to the ocean kayaks.

They also have a bunch of excursion trips, and we're going to take a look at those, too.

I give you....TVFoodFan.com!

OK...I've heard from exactly NONE of you about needing to know the big announcement. So, I'm going to take that to mean that you were too busy speculating about what it could be to comment or bring it up.

Well, wait no longer. I'd like to invite you to check out www.TVFoodFan.com.

I enjoy doing this blog, but I wanted to be able to blog on a topic that was of interest to me (no, the topic of "me" is not that interesting to me). I realized that the best thing for me to write about would be something that I spend waaaaay too much time thinking about and watching, TV cooking shows and personalities. Hence, TVFF.com.

I'm not sure how much this site will appeal to the "On the Mike" crowd, but you should feel free to check it out and subscribe to the feed if you are interested. Just a note on commenting...I love the fact that our comments here feature plenty of inside jokes and stuff like that, but I'm trying to make TVFF.com a "semi-professional" blog (notice the advertisements?), so feel free to comment, but do try to avoid being too "familiar." I want the site to be attractive to people who surf in and not seem like some kid's blog for his friends and family.

In case you were wondering, yes, I do promise to keep posting here as much as possible!

Thanks,
Mike

Something's Cooking

Been busy, hence fewer postings of late. But, rest assured, my time is being put to good use.

As I said above, something's cooking, and I hope to be able to share it with you soon. Right now, it's still a bit pink on the inside, but you'll be the first to know when it's time to dig in.

You'll be glad to hear that we're done with the church meetings and it's smooth sailing until the rehearsal dinner. All that is left is the tux and the honeymoon.

Less than six months!

You know I always rave about Picasa. I've put in a simple link over there on the right for you to go ahead and download it. (Be sure to use that link!!!) You'll thank me when you're making collages and sharing your pictures (with captions) in no time!

BzzAgent

Just wanted to take a minute to talk to you about Bzz Agent, a program that I’ve been doing that I have found (a) gets me some cool, free products and (b) gives me an opportunity to practice my ability tell others about what I like about those cool, free products. Being able to concisely and effectively be an advocate for something is a skill that comes in handy in my line of work, and probably in just about any job.

Bzz Agent sends you a product (usually with some samples and coupons) and gives you a set of ways to “Bzz” your friends and acquaintances. And they make sure that you do it in a “transparent” way and urge you to only tell people how you truly feel, not to be a “salesman” for the product unless you like it. Then, you just let them know how you’ve been Bzzing the product. (And, yes, you do have to spell it “Bzz.”)

Like I said, it’s a good exercise…having to remember the Bzz points that I should mention, then bring them up in a way that doesn’t make it sound like I’m getting a commission. If anyone has any interest in checking out Bzz Agent, let me know and I’ll send you an invite.

So…what am I Bzzing now? Glad you asked! Nivea for Men products. They sent me the Energizing Face Scrub and the After Shave Replenishing Balm. And, in all honesty, they’ve been really great. They leave my face feeling clean and they don’t irritate my skin. I’ve even gone out and picked up another Nivea for Men product.

Hang tight and I’m sure I’ll be Bzzing you about something else soon.

Mike

Photos of Boston

Well, I know that nothing in the world is more exciting than looking at other people's vacation photos. Here are mine.

Used to be that you had to sit while someone endlessly flipped through photo albums or unspooled countless hours of home movies. Well, the ever-onward movement of technology means I will bore you in a much more time-efficient manner.

Plus, I get to do it using the BRAND NEW feature, Picasa Web Albums. It just debuted today and I got the special invite, so I upgraded to the test version of Picasa which now is integrated with free image hosting from Google. I know I always harp on Google's apps, and Picasa in particular, but posting the images was incredibly easy. Be sure to click on the photo and you'll see my pics. Click on the individual photos for a quick caption or choose "Slideshow" to see them all. You'll swear you were there with us. 

El Toro - Great Adventure

Being so close to Great Adventure, we try to get over once or twice a year, particularly when there aren't a million rug rats around during the summer. Unfortunately, a busy spring and summer mean we might only get over there once, and probably not until some time in the early fall.

In the mean time, check out this pic I found at amusementpics.com showing how HUGE the new wooden coaster, El Toro (which just began test runs) is compared to Rolling Thunder and Kingda-Ka (the tallest coaster in the world).

Gonna' be fun...

El Toro, next to Rolling Thunder and Kingda-Ka (click to enlarge)

 

Totally Awesome

In an effort to add a little multimedia to "On the Mike," check out this astoundingly cool You Tube clip that I came across on Boing Boing.

Make sure you have the speakers on and click the "play" button in the middle of the video below.
Mike

Back from Boston

...and it was great. Rather than give too much of a recap now, I'll just say that the beer and food were great, the driving was not.

I promise a more in-depth review. I'm also going to see if "Hello," the add-on for Picasa (which you should be using!), works for posting pictures to this blog. If so, you'll probably want to set aside three or four hours in your schedule for the full, annotated slideshow.

Mike

Mr. Softee, R.I.P.

Bedazzled!: Mister Softee co-founder dead at 78

Say it ain't so! Unfortunately, it is true. Mr. Softee is no more. I know that those trucks (and that music -- did you know there are words to that song?!?!? Don't tell me "On the Mike" isn't chock full of info.) seem like they've been around forever, but I didn't know that it actually does go all the way back to 1958.

I also didn't know that their building in Runnemede (proud home of Tri-High) was actually their headquarters.

No word on whether or not Mr. Conway was killed when run over by someone who disregarded the "Stop for Our Children" signs on one of his trucks.