The Hup and Steph Rashup

Last weekend Stephanie and I headed out the Mavericks Surf Contest in Half Moon Bay with some of our friends and had an awesome time. Little did we know, however, that we were going to be paying one heck of a price for that awesome time. We were going to get a rash.

At some point during the day we (or Frank) walked through something that we weren’t supposed to and by Saturday night I was already seeing a rash starting to move it’s way up my arm. The rash on Stephanie’s neck wasn’t too far behind mine and once our rashes started, they just seemed to take over more and more of our bodies. It wasn’t pretty and it’s taken us two trips to the doctor, three types of cream and oral steroids to get our itchy situation taken care of.

Although we have both been pretty miserable this past week due to our crazy rash attacks, we also somehow found some a lot of  humor in the situation. As we were moving into some more serious treatment, we both decided that we should document this hopefully rare moment in our relationship, so we did what we always do– we made a video about it. :)

I call the video the world’s first ‘rashup’, which is a play on words for a mashup, which have become very popular in the online video space these days. Take a look at the video and some pics that I took of our out-of-control rashes below and be sure to be careful the next time that you’re walking through a bunch of weeds. Believe me when I say that you definitely don’t want to get what we got, even if it was pretty funny.


This whole rash thing really freaked me out. And it itched…BAD.

It was looking bad and it was only spreading more and more. Not good.

A close-up of the nastiness.

I had to add like 15 minutes to my prep time just to put on Cortizone cream.

Another spot that magically appeared on my hip. Awesome.


Stephanie’s crazy neck-rash-thing. She wanted to scratch her neck off.

February 21, 2010 | Filed Under new/random experience, video

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Checking out the best surfers in the world at the 2010 Mavericks Surf Contest in Half Moon Bay

There are some really amazing things that can only be found out here in Northern California and one of them has to be the Mavericks Surf Contest. It’s one of the world’s most respected big wave competitions and is held every year that weather permits about 20 miles south of San Fransisco in Half Moon Bay. More specifically, the contest is held in an area that’s known as Mavericks that’s practically built to create massive size waves due to it’s unique ocean floor. Jeff Clark, a local born and raised in Half Moon Bay, was the first surfer to ever take on the once thought to-be-too-dangerous-to-surf waves that can sometimes top out at over 50 feet high.

Jeff Clark, having grown up near Half Moon Bay, learned about Maverick’s at an early age. At that time the location was deemed too dangerous to surf. He spent time watching the break, and conceived the possibility of riding Hawaii-sized waves in Northern California. One day in 1975, with the waves topping out at 10 to 12 feet (3.7 m), Clark paddled out alone to face Maverick’s. He was successful, catching a number of left-breaking waves, thereby becoming the first person to tackle Maverick’s head-on.

Well, today was the day that Mavericks came back to Half Moon Bay (due to lack of optimal weather conditions it was canceled last year) and Stephanie, our roomie Nic, Frank and myself (along with some other friends) all went to see what it was really all about. Although we weren’t able to get super-close views of the actual surfing the day was unbelievably beautiful and just being there to experience it was more than enough to guarantee that we’ll all be back there again the next time it comes around.

Here are a few pics and a video that I snapped at the event. They should give you a good idea of the popularity of Mavericks and just how beautiful Half Moon Bay is during this time of year.

A video and a pic of people who got caught in the aftermath of the 30+ foot waves that were swelling up at Mavericks this morning. Some of the people were actually swept out into the water and had to be rescued by medical staff. Some suffered broken bones and minor cuts, but most only had to suffer through being soaked for the rest of the day. We were literally just about to head into this area when the waves hit.

Can’t say that the people weren’t warned. These signs were posted everywhere on the beach.

What was left on the beach after the waves hit and cleared out a stage and several tents.

A view from a top the cliffs at the Mavericks in Half Moon Bay.

This was view from the opposite side of the beach where we were when the waves got the people wet. There were a ton of people watching the competition from over here. It was amazing to see how many people came out for the event considering that it was only announced a couple days before it happened. Also, most people weren’t at all scared of climbing all over the cliffs as long as it gave them a better view. I guess that they’re all used to hiking and aren’t too worried about falling hundreds of feet to their death, but for some reason it still worries me and Stephanie. Maybe we need to suck it up.

The sun was out in full force, which made for a beautiful day in Half Moon Bay. That weird looking tower with a ball on it in the upper right corner of this pic is part of the Pillar Point Air Force Base (which no one except press was allowed to enter today).

Frank loved hanging out at the beach, but we probably walked over 5 miles altogether, which is like running a marathon for a Pug. Here you can see him getting some much needed rest while we were checking out the surfers. He had no trouble getting up and down the cliffs and got to meet several other dogs that were also hanging out at Mavericks (including a few Pugs). People really love their dogs in the bay area, which makes is completely normal to bring them with you to outdoor events like this.

Here’s another view from the other side of the cliffs. The surfers were grabbing their waves right around the area to the right of cliff in this pic. Unless you had some binoculars or a serious camera lens (which several people had), you pretty much had to rely on people’s reactions to know whether or not someone had actually caught a wave.

This is a shot of the rest of the coastline, which I thought almost looked too beautiful to be real. If you look in the bottom right corner of this pic I snuck in a guy who was chilling on the side of the cliff. He was pretty high up there, but didn’t seem to be too worried about it. Like I said, it’s something that they’re used to.

After walking a couple of miles back to the car (part of which I carried Frank after he started panting like he was going to die) it didn’t take Frank too long to crash. He was so tired that he fell asleep on Stephanie’s 7-up bottle which was in our cup holder. I thought that this was way too funny (and cute) to pass up taking a picture of it. Frank’s just like us — he’ll go and go until he practically passes out, which he obviously did today.

February 13, 2010 | Filed Under Frank, events, great friends, new/random experience, roomie Nic, video

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Ice skating at Pan Am Plaza in Indianapolis, IN

It’s been about 10 years since I had been ice skating, so we felt like it was about time to give it shot. The video was taken at Pan Am Plaza in Indianapolis, IN and man, did it end being a lot of fun. Some of our friends and family came along with us, too which made it even more entertaining (as you’ll see).

Check out the video below or over here on YouTube when you get a chance and here’s to the beginning of an amazing 2010! Stephanie and I (and Frank as long as he can still fit on the plane) head back to San Francisco tomorrow, but it’s been so great to see all of our friends and family the past month while we’ve been home. We’re extremely blessed to have all of the amazing people that we have in our lives and we can’t wait to see you all again!

January 3, 2010 | Filed Under great friends, hangin' with the fam, local to indy, new/random experience, video

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Enjoying a beautiful (Satur)day with Stephanie, Zigs and the rest of the Peninsula Covenant Church crew

This past Saturday me, Stephanie and our weirdo (yet really fun) friend from Indiana, Molly Zigovits (her Facebook and Twitter for all of you lovely cyber-stalkers out there) decided to actually do something productive with our lives on a Saturday afternoon. So, instead of doing the normal laying on the couch watching college football while snuggling with the Frankster the 3 of us decided to head down to Redwood City to Fair Oaks Elementary School to help out with what our church calls Beautiful Day. Beautiful Day is an entire day (from 8am - 4pm) of selfless giving that was set up by a group of churches and the local Redwood City school system and it allows people like yours truly to help a great group of people (like a needy elementary school) who needs it, but may never really know who (or how) to ask for it.

The 3 of us ended up getting to Fair Oaks around noon and helped out with all kinds of stuff until around 3:30pm or so. Over 300 people ended up showing up throughout the day and let me tell you something — it’s pretty amazing what all can get done at an elementary school when there are a few hundred people willing to help.

After seeing all of the awesomeness of everyone helping I guess what the famous English writer and poet John Heywood said in 1546 is true: Many hands make light work.

Here are a few shots that Molly took of us all getting our giving on throughout the day. As you can see she’s pretty handy with the ol’ picture box and if you want to see some more of her stuff be sure to check out her blog over here.


There was a lot of painting going on (and I still have plenty of proof on my jeans).


Stephanie was working hard packing up these supplies that were headed to El Savador.


We helped organize and stock over 1,000 books that were donated to the school.


Everyone got involved in whatever way that they could. I thought this lady was cute.


One of the many murals that we painted for the school — the kids loved to help out with these.


We cleaned (most) of this stuff up — sometimes paint can get a little messy.


Most of the manly men chose to do some serious landscaping work (insert growl here)


This is one of my favorite shots of the day and the mural that’s being painted looks amazing!


Of course, it wasn’t all work — me and my new buddy decide to take a break for some fun.


Then it was my turn — push faster!


He was actually pretty strong and after we finished him and his brother played for about another hour or so.


No, Stephanie wasn’t scolding this little boy, she was actually trying to find out his age.

Time to get down and dirty.


Don’t just stand there, get to work!


I love this shot, too — Stephanie was getting after it for an awesome cause.

November 17, 2009 | Filed Under great friends, new/random experience, you gotta have faith

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Reading Crazy Love And Still Being In Crazy Love After One Month Of Marriage

crazyloveThere are a couple of quick things that I wanted to talk about today in this super-awesome blog of ours (at least we think so). One thing that I want to give you all a little information about is the fact that Stephanie and I have joined a small group Bible study-esque type of group with some of our friends that we have met from our church. The group consists 3 other married couples and one of the couples is made up of the super blogging duo Matt and Christen Buman who I talked about over here in this post after we had our first dinner date with them. This is the first meet-up-and-have-a-Bible-study-and-talk-about-God type of thing that I have ever done before and after having just 2 meetings I feel like I’m getting a ton out of the experience.

One of the things that we’re doing that’s pretty cool is we’re all reading a book called Crazy Love together and playing along a DVD that the author, Francis Chan, put together in addition to writing the book. It’s a great way to read/interact through the book and we’re only through chapter 2, but I can already tell that the group, the DVD and the book are all going to spark plenty of interesting conversations around our faith and beliefs, which I guess is the point. Not all of the conversations are easy ones either, but the great thing is that we’re all in this group and this learning experience together, so there’s nothing that’s really considered off limits. I would say that it’s a situation that is pretty rare and hard to find these days, or at least it has for me. I’ll be sure to post some updates of what all Stephanie and I learn and experience in this small group as we move along, so this probably won’t be the last time that you’ll hear about it.

Besides announcing our involvement with the small group, I also wanted to let everyone out there know that Stephanie and I have officially been married for one full month and we are still as madly in love with each other as ever. It’s crazy to think that it’s been over 30 days since we met at the alter and had the best day of our lives together (and, of course, had one of the craziest receptions that anyone who attended has ever seen). So, tonight when I got home from work we had dinner together (stuffed peppers), celebrated our first month as husband and wife and made sure to let each other know how much we still are ridiculously in love. What a great night and what an awesome month. Here’s to many, many more of these to look forward to. :)

mestephwedding
yeah, that was a pretty awesome day…

September 29, 2009 | Filed Under 50 Goals For 2009, great friends, new/random experience, wedding stuff, you gotta have faith

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Frank’s first Pug Sunday at Alta Plaza Park in San Francisco

One day when I was walking Frank home from work I ran into a fellow Pug owner who filled me in on a monthly event called Pug Sunday. Pug Sunday is a meet up where all kinds of Pug owners bring out their pups so that they can hang out with each other on the first Sunday of each month in Alta Plaza park here in San Francisco. Well, Stephanie and I looked up the details and ended up heading out to our first Pug Sunday yesterday and let me tell you — it exceeded all expectations.

It was actually really funny because Stephanie and I were way more excited than Frank was, but once we got there I think that he realized just how awesome hanging with some more of his own kind really is.

There was a lot of snorting, pooping, running and sniffing going on there, but of course that’s wall Pug Sunday is all about. It’s a time to let your Pug off the leash so that he can go meet some new friends and of course Stephanie and I have made friends with a few Pug owners too (no sniffing involved, I promise).

Luckily we got some video of the sweet Pugtastic afternoon, so feel free to watch it below.

July 7, 2009 | Filed Under Frank, events, new/random experience, san francisco, video

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Hup teaches Frank a new trick

This is whatus guys end up doing while Stephanie is at an all-ladies wine night down in Palo Alto and Nic is out of town at a wedding. We do guys stuff like set up obstacle courses in the kitchen with random pieces of furniture. Hey, no one got hurt and it taught Frank a new trick, so no harm-no foul, right?

Just don’t tell Stephanie, OK? :)

June 24, 2009 | Filed Under Frank, SOMA Shack, new/random experience, video

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Some surgery fun: Hup fixes his AC Joint separation

Over 3 months ago I wrecked my bike like an idiot (only a block and a half away from my apartment) and jacked up my shoulder something fierce. I don’t get injured a whole lot, but whenever I do it usually happens at the most unexpected times like it did this time. It never happens when I’m do something really stupid like ramping something, dodging a car or racing a scooter down a major city street — it happens when I’m simply riding my bike home from work, just wanting to get home to see Stephanie. Since I wasn’t wearing a helmet (like a real idiot), I’m just happy that I got away with just an AC Joint separation and not some type of head injury. Even though I had the worst possible case of AC Joint separation, it’s still much, much better than landing on my noggin’ and doing some serious damage to that big brain of mine.

Well, like I said, it’s been nearly 3 months ago since my wacky accident happened and about 3 weeks ago I had surgery to fix the AC Joint separation that I unexpectedly gave myself during the first week that we lived up here in San Francisco. The surgery went great and I’m finally healed up enough to sit at a computer for longer than 20 minutes, which means that I can thankfully start making some videos again (they take a little bit o’ time to put together).

To celebrate the fact that I’m finally healing up and that I can start playing seriously on the interwebs again, I thought that it was only necessary to put together a video of my fun surgery experience that Stephanie snagged some clips of before and after I went under the knife.  Check out the video of my surgery fun below or over here on YouTube and be expecting more and more videos from us again now that my shoulder is officially on the mend (and now that we have Frank!).

June 22, 2009 | Filed Under Frank, adventures in bicycling, new/random experience, san francisco, video

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Holy Clavicle, I’m having shoulder surgery today!

Oh. My. Goodness. The time has come. The time to get patched up by a sugeon that I’ve only met once (I mean, he seems cool). It’s time to make right what went wrong just a couple of months ago when I somehow shoved my foot into the spokes of my roommates bike and flipping me over it’s handlebars all while riding the last block and a half to my spankin’ new San Francisco apartment. What a great way to welcome yourself into the big city, eh? Nothing says ‘this feels like home’ like a few torn ligaments in my shoulder. :)

Read all of the details of my accidental dare devil dive onto the streets on San Francisco over here in this post.

So, tomorrow at 7am I’ll be on the operating table with the goal being to fix my shoulder by drilling two holes through it and reattaching it with a cadaver’s (a dead dude’s) tendon. Yep, I’m going to have a dead man’s (or woman’s?) tendon in my shoulder from here on out, which really only makes me think about how I hope he or she had some great karma. I mean the well-being of my shoulder practically depends on it.

Ok, who am I kidding? This thing has Hanna Montana horror movie written all over it. My shoulder is going to turn into Jamie Lee Curtis and make me eat Activia yogurt so that my digestive system doesn’t act up (see video embed below).

All I really need is some sympathy, people. Is that too much to ask? I don’t think so.

Tomorrow I’ll be a whole new man. Well, a whole new man who’s going to be on some really strong pain killers. Wish me and my nurse Stephanie good luck and be sure to keep us in your prayers. May the force be with my clavicle.

More soon…

May 26, 2009 | Filed Under new/random experience

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Being responsible or just being lame? You decide. A tough GumBall 3000 decision.

gumball_logoMy life has truly been blessed with some of the most random and amazing opportunities. I’ve traveled to Europe with friends of friends, I’ve taken a 50-foot tour bus filled with 6 of my friends and 2 bus drivers across the entire country in 2 weeks, I’ve had the chance to be on live TV with Indianapolis’ most watched station, I’ve written a book that’s available around the world, I moved to California with the love of my life and many, many other things that I could go on and on about if I had more time before I had to go into the office.

I’m not trying to brag here, but the point I’m trying to get across is that I have somehow been able to do some truly awesome and amazing things that just seem to happen because I either meet the right people or I’m simply at the right places at the right times. These experiences have all helped me become the person that I am today and if I hadn’t been open to giving them a shot (by not freaking out), I probably wouldn’t be where I am and who I am today. They’ve somehow, someway helped shaped my personality and my outlook on life each and every time I’ve been able to do them.

With all of this in mind I wanted to ask you a question about something that happened yesterday while I was in the office. Around 11:30am or so an instant message popped up from my friend Alex, whom I have seen and chatted with here and there since I’ve lived out here on the West Coast. Alex is a tech-geek just like me and he’s an excitement junky just like me as well. He loves car racing and once I started chatting with him I realized just how much he actually did like the life of the fast and furious.

After we got through the normal hellos and what-not Alex wasted no time in getting to the point. I could tell that he was all excited and in a hurry about something. One of the first questions he asked me was “Hey man, you know about the GumBall 3000?“. To which I quickly answered “Of course!”. You see, the GumBall 3000 is one of the craziest, high-profile, out-of-control car rallys there is in the entire world. It’s basically a bunch of millionaires, entertainers and race car crazies who pay a ton of money to drive 3,000 miles in 8 days in their super-expensive Lamborghinis, Maseratis, Jags, Bentleys and just about any other type of 6-figured, exotic sports car that your pretty, little head can imagine. Here’s a quick video of the start of 2007s GumBall 3000 to help you get a feel for what I’m talking about:

Yeah, that’s the GumBall 3000. Pretty sweet, eh?

Well, Alex continued to chat with me about how we worked on the crew for one of the drivers last year and that he actually has a chance to get a seat in one of the cars this year for the rally of all rallys. I was pretty amazed at this point, as I have been watching the GumBall 3000 ever since I saw the Jackass crew take part in it a few years ago. He then continues to tell me how he can only ride for half of the rally due to some work stuff that he has to be back in town for and he wanted to know if I could hop in the care for the other half (and pay for half of the seat). Whoa.

Honestly, this was one of those times that I get the chills even at the thought of being part of something like the GumBall 3000, but the price was just enough to make me question whether or not this opportunity was worth jumping on. It wasn’t so much money that it would completely break the bank, but enough to probably put Stephanie and I in a situation where we’d really have to watch what we spend for the next several months. But, it is a once in a lifetime type of thing so I still considered it and I told a super-excited and somewhat desperate Alex that I would call Stephanie and ask her about it.

Well, I called Stephanie and she was all about me going and thought that it sounded like an amazing opportunity, so I officially had her stamp of approval (and you wonder why I love this woman?). After getting Stephanie’s OK I asked my boss about taking the crazy trip and he was totally cool with it, too (I just wouldn’t get paid for my time off work). At this point I called Alex and I told him that I was good to go and that I could do this thing. It was crazy and probably not the best decision, but hey — it was an amazing opportunity that I might never have the chance to do again. I was going to be riding in the GumBall 3000 and that was that.

After I called Alex (and made his year), I went and grabbed something to eat, which allowed me to gather some thoughts about the decision that I just made. As I ate my delicious Toaster Over sandwich a million different thoughts started running through my head about some of the possible issues that could arise now that I’ve said I would shell out the cash needed to snag a seat for half of the GumBall 3000. Thoughts such as: my shoulder needing surgery, Stephanie and I getting married this summer, living in one of the most expensive places in the world, the awesome weekends that Stephanie and I love to have, the dog (Frank) that we want to get, the new furniture that we would like to buy and other things that we would probably be all stressed about if I decided to make the somewhat expensive investment that I just agreed to go in on with Alex.

With all of this in mind I started feeling like I made the wrong decision and that I didn’t think the whole thing through, which could be best described as a really weird grinding feeling in the bottom of my guts each time I realized that I had probably made the wrong decision. It’s a feeling that we’ve all had before and every single time it doesn’t feel good.

After I finished up eating I had officially decided that I made the wrong decision and that I didn’t think the whole thing through (which I normally don’t do) and that I needed to call Alex back and turn my best news into my worst news by telling him that I changed my mind and that I can’t do the GumBall 3000 with him, even though I know that it’s going to be A-MA-ZING.

I made the tough call back, explained what I had decided and told him that I wasn’t going to be able to go on the trip of a lifetime. It wasn’t easy, but I felt like it was the right decision to make and I was completely honest with him when I told him why I had made the decision. Needless to say, he was a little upset, but he understood my situation and he appreciated that I called him back when I did and told him the truth.

It wasn’t easy to do, but I decided to ditch the potential trip of a lifetime. Now I’m wondering if this is just a sign of becoming more responsible or simply just a sign of becoming lame. What do you think? Did I make the right decision?

April 28, 2009 | Filed Under great friends, new/random experience, random thoughts, relationship stuff, video

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