Last night I went over to Michelle's house to go rollerblading with her dog.  We barely get down the road to this light to cross the street and I start going with . . . Read More..

So tonight I went to a Chimes Movie night to go and see "Live Free or Die Hard" and my buddy Andy points out that Sean Casey from the Detroit Tigers and his family are up at the front booth buying movie tickets.

Andy takes a photo of his back and I call up Susan to tell he who I saw. 

I see him hand his tickets to the guy and he has a bunch of twenties he is putting away.  Of course he pays with hundreds.  He's Sean Casey!  He also went straight to the theater after ball practice to be with his family.  What a guy!

I go down to theater 14 where we were seated and I realize I have to go to the bathroom.

As I am walking down, Sean Casey is standing in line getting loads of popcorn and drinks for his family.

He leaves them at the counter and goes to the bathroom too.  As I am drying my hands he is drying his as well.

"So whatchu seeing tonight?" I ask.  We look at each other.

"Fantastic 4 and you?" Casey Replies.  "The New Die Hard.." I tell him.

We walk out and I follow him to his food. 

"So guess what, my Fiance is really mad that she missed seeing Inge as a Barista out in Ann Arbor yesterday..."  I explain.  "There was another player serving coffee too."  Darn it ... I cant even remember McCullens name!  I mean....Guillen!  Long story short... I thought I saw a guy named McCullen on the field when Susan was asking me who was at base ...  and she will always make fun of me now for it.

"What's a barista?" Casey Replies.  I thought this reply was totally a guy response... most guys dont pay attention to that kind of crap.

"Its like a starbucks."

We start walking toward our theaters and talk about how Die hard wouldnt be ideal for his family to go see.

The whole conversation was the most magical thing in the world cause I have never really talked to someone who is a major celebrity.

Sean Casey was the nicest most energetic person I can ever imagine.  You can tell he is just very humble, smart, proud and hard working.

I love the Tigers and any other MLB organization that really love their communities like the Tigers do.

I finish off our conversation with "I will see you in a few weeks at the game..."

I call up Susan again to brag.  I also surprise my work friends with who I just got done talking with.

Only I will randomly talk to celebs without even being nervous.  I wish I had a memorycrawler business card and would have thought to give it to him.

I love you Casey!  You are now my tiger!  Now we are pals!

;-)

So my company was soo cool and decided to celebrate becoming a new company by flying and inviting everyone out to Las Vegas for a fun filled weekend.

And they went all out. The flew us out there, gave us some new company swag, 50 dollars in gambling money, a hotel for two nights and an extravagant dinner.

So I get to Erica's house on friday and we drive to the airport. I hang with a few work friends at the airport for a few hours until boarding. matt V. missed his first flight and somehow we thought that others as well were going to miss the flight. But somehow everyone made it.

When we landed, Drew called and told me he would pick me up. So I waited for him to pick me up and we attempt to drive to Bellagio so I could check in, bu the traffic was kind of bad and we also veered away from the strip because we had food on our mind and were attempting to find the In-And-Out burger he thought was off of Tropicana. We didnt find it, so we just settled for Jimmy Johns. Drew had a . . . Read More..

Right now it is 5:30 AM in China. It is so easy to wake up this early here. I think I woke up at 4 AM and then I took a cab alone out to find an open internet cafe. The driver didn't know any English, but the hotel people helped him with what I wanted. The place is packed right now with people playing games and hanging out. The driver stopped in the middle of the road and asked for directions. It was interesting.

Anyway in regard to yesterday's activities, we started off the day by taking the bus to the bund river. On the drive over on this large freeway, I noticed many of the small apartment buildings (all owned by the government) had all of their laundry hung out to dry on bamboo sticks.

This is the huge river port that separates the old city from the new. And for those of you who don't know, there is a lot of European influence here because of the affects of the opium war and the occupation of France and England. When we arrived there were hundreds of Chinese tourists. . . . Read More..

Leaving the local online store, I returned to the front desk and the man gave me 15 out of 20 of my Yuan back. For an hours worth of internet surfing, I had to pay 5 Yuan or about 50 cents or so! Whereas while in the hotel I paid 80 Yuan for 30 minutes. Although I paid 30 Yuan in taxi rides to get there, I would rather support the local community and have an adventure. I easily found a cabbie to get home.

I got back about 6:30 and the wake up call came. I got home just in time. We had to get our luggage prepared and outside our door at 7:00 so the bell boys could get it. I told everyone about my little excursion and they thought I was crazy. I really enjoy going out by myself in China; it so much reminds me of my great experiences traveling alone in Europe. It is really interesting and relaxing, I feel it is safer than Detroit.

I had a nice breakfast and then headed out wandering again for 20 minutes. While walking, I met up with Liz and Mary who wanted to find the poor . . . Read More..