Truck Drivin' Man

Well it wasn't exactly a "trip" but the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series was in town last week and that meant I had the chance to meet up with driver Mike Skinner. Mike drove the BETonSPORTS Nextel Cup car for the last five races of the 2005 season last year and was a joy to work with from a sponsor's prospective.

It just so happened that the truck race was the same weekend of Mike's wife's b-day, so on Friday night Kelly and I treated them to dinner and then Saturday they hooked us up with pit passes for the day.

Below are the photos from the race. Mike was running great in the first 50-60 laps and was in contention to win until he blew a tire and hit the wall and was done for the day (you can see the extensive damage that was done to his truck in the photos as well.

To see the photos click here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/celticcommunications/album?.dir=/ced2scd&.src=ph

Playboy Pics Posted

Finally got the CD in the mail containing the high quality digital pics from the Playboy party, thanks to our photographer Bo Bridges (yes that is his real name, or at least the "real" name he does business by), for sending me the CD.
To check out all the photos (there are tons of them, but many of you wanted more of the painted lady, and they are up now, so enjoy), go here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/celticcommunications/slideshow?.dir=/241f&.src=ph

First Visit to "The Garden"

Well they call it the "world's most famous sports arena" and while I am not a big fan of any New York sports team I found myself back in the Big Apple for a day's worth of business meetings, and it just so happened that the Knicks were playing that night at Madison Square Garden against the Boston Celtics.
Another plus of working for an online sports betting company is that you can pretty much get tickets to any sporting event you want with 24 hours notice, so I was able to score two very good seats for the Knicks game (it probably had more to do with the fact both the Knicks and Celtics suck right now), but it was nice to get to sit in the Garden.
As both a sports fan and a sports history junkie, it was cool to sit in the garden and just think of all the historic moments and famous athletes that toiled in the old building. Louis, Ali, just to name a few. Probably would have rather seen a Rangers game there, but it was still cool to sit in the Garden and take it all in. To see a slideshow from my MSG visit click here (some of the photos are dark, but that was due to sucky lighting at MSG):
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/celticcommunications/slideshow2?.dir=fc90&.beg=3&.src=ph

Kickin It at the Mansion -- THE PLAYBOY MANSION

I've always been told that I am somewhat of a "playboy" (OK maybe not, but it sounds good doesn't it?), well once again this job has perks that don't come with most other jobs, and this week I was informed that I was needed in LA to help publicize a party BETonSPORTS was sponsoring at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills (yes that Playboy Mansion).
The party was held in conjunction with the first round of the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament and was complete with a poolside casino, sponsored by BoSCASINO. We had a large number of our top cusomters from the east coast as well as a handful of b-list celebrities.
It was a great time and all of our customers were blown away by the event. To be honest I was too, but I had to play it cool like it was old hat for me.
I did get to see the famous grotto as well as tons and tons of very good looking women.
What I didn't get to see, since everyone keeps asking me, is there was no sighting of Mr. Hefner, nor did we get to go inside the Mansion, but just the outside of the facility is something to behold.
I rubbed elbows with a guy from a band called Snow Patrol as well as Tyler Hicks (the gray haired dude on American Idol this season), some guy from CSI New York (a show I never watch), and some singer called Ryan Caberra.
BETonSPORTS made two great moves the night of the party: 1)we sponsored the body-painted playmate (pictures in the slideshow below), and she was clearly the most popular girl on hand and 2) arranged for a big screen TV to be wired outside near the casino, UCLA ended up beating Gonzoga in the Sweet 16, and the game came down to the wire so a huge crowd gathered around the TV as the game drew to a close. The TV was flanked with BETonSPORTS signage, so that was a big bonus for us.
To see a slideshow from the event (something tells me this link will get more hits than any other on my blog before), you can go here:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/celticcommunications/slideshow?.dir=/241f&.src=ph

Back in Costa Rica -- For a Week

Back to the BETonSPORTS campus in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Not sure if it is the 14-hour days, being confined to the Mall of San Pedro, or just knowing that there is so much more to this country to see that I am not getting to even scratch the service on, but for some reason I am dredding my time down here more and more, but at least this time I am only down here for a week, and considering all the upsides to this job, that is a small price to pay in the longrun, and I realize it.

Super Bowl XL

Well I can honestly say that my first visit to Detroit lived up to its expectations, considering that my expectations were about as low as they can go doesn't say much for the impression the city left on me.

Can't rip on it too much because I would imagine the city leaves probably the same impression on outsiders who visit STL and can't explore much more than what is within a 10-15 block radius of their hotel, as was my case with the Motor City.

Some of highlights included:
* Getting to see Joe Louis Arena, and getting to see the Blues play there none the less, even though they suck you-know-what right now it is always good to see the Note play on the road, and they hung with one of the league's best teams for two whole periods.
* Getting to see a ton of celebrities in my hotel and the greater hotel complex, the Marriott I was at was connected to the media center, where SportsCenter and every other media outlet was set up at, so there were celebrities always coming and going from doing interviews, among the highlights:
John Heder (Napoleon dynamite)
Joe Montana
Michael Irvin ("Make sure you hide the crack pipe" I yelled as I walked by a group mobbing him late and night, and yes, I was drunk!!)
And the list goes on and on.
To view a slideshow from my trip to the Motor City, click here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/celticcommunications/slideshow?.dir=/7d39&.src=ph

A Small Bite Out of the Big Apple

Back from a busy week of work (and one day of fun) from New York. This trip was a little more enjoyable though as instead of going back to an empty hotel room or trying to find things to keep me busy I had a great travel companion in my girlfriend Kelly.
The great thing about New York is that she was able to keep herself more than busy during the day while I was tending to business and then in the evening (and sometimes early afternoon) we were able to hook up and see some of the sites. I was able to work my schedule so that I didn't have any meetings on Thursday so we spent an extremely warm day throughout the city. We started with a long stroll through Central Park and saw most of the highlights of the famous area (the fountain, the dairy, the castle, the statues, it was very nice I must say). We then walked up and down 5th Ave, checked out diamond row, St. Patrick's cathedral, Rock Center, and then back to the hotel for a quick change before a stroll through So-Ho, the Village and a great dinner at Provence (French place in So-Ho, and I highly recommend it).
Other highlights of the week included:
Getting to see a live taping of the Late Show with David Letterman
A tour of the United Nations headquarters in New York
Walks through Times Square, Grand Central Station, Broadway, and 5th Ave.
Links to the photo album will be posted soon.
To view a slideshow from the NY trip click here (but be warned there are a ton of pics -- many taken by Kelly during the day while I was in meetings and so forth, but there are some good ones):
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/celticcommunications/slideshow?.dir=/e75b&.src=ph