As a blogger, I have thought about writing a book. I actually started blogging because I realized that I did not have the time or patience to write a whole book. So I have to give kudos to those who do.
This time around it's my brother in law Shane. Last night was his Release/book signing party for his very first book, God of the Undead.
Here is the description from Amazon.com
Trying to stay alive in a world where the dead now live, Nathan is not only fighting to survive, but fighting to find the love he has lost. The world has been torn apart and brought to ruins by the war between the living and the dead, and now it seems Hell has unleashed an evil the likes of which humankind has never seen. Nathan knows that the only way to stop the horror is to find her and finish the journey they started together. In a time where nightmares become reality, and the dead feast upon the flesh of the living, finding her isn’t the only problem; staying alive each day to search, may prove more than any mortal man can handle. “...An amazing and original book! Dare I say groundbreaking?” Pete Turner , bestselling author of Whisper A Scream
Last night's party consisted of family and friends there to celebrate Shane's accomplishment. The ballrooms at the East Ky Expo were lit up with purple, red and orange lights. You know, the perfect Zombie colors.
photos by Kim Jackson
It was a great atmosphere for everyone to mingle and enjoy some yummy appetizers cooked up by the Expo's excellent food and beverage staff. Some of the guys supported Shane by showing up in God of the Undead shirts they had made themselves.
It was nice being able to catch up with Family from out of town like Shane and Tony's cousin Tonya from Tennessee.
Here she is pictured with our friend Louann. Both displaying there copies of the book.
Shane gave a speech thanking everyone.
Then got down to the business of signing books.
photo by Kim Jackson
Tony and Shane doing their transaction.
photo by Kim Jackson
It was definitely a fun night. It was exciting being part of someone's dream coming to life. Tony and I ended the night posing for pics with the author.
photo by Kim Jackson
If God of the Undead sounds like something you would be interested in reading, follow this link to Amazon to get your copy today.
Tony and I just recently returned from a seven night cruise aboard the Freedom of the Seas. It was our fifth cruise overall. I love cruising. I love the ocean and being out there in it. I love the port of calls and experiencing new things. I love the shows and the food. I love being taken care of by the staff. I just love everything about cruising. So I still get excited when I get to go back.
So hop aboard with Tony and I as we sail away to a few islands in the Caribbean!
This trip we sailed out of Port Canaveral again. We really like this port when we sailed out of it in August on the Enchantment. But this time we ended up staying all night at the Doubletree in Cocoa Beach.
For the first time we decided to wait
until after 1 to leave hotel. We decided we wanted to wait until
close to or after the rooms were open instead of schlepping our stuff
around waiting. One of the perks of our Silver level with Hilton is that we
were able to ask for a late check out. We left the hotel a little
after one, after putting on our luggage tags in the parking lot.
It was a 6 mile drive to the port.
First glimpse of ship:
I still get soooo excited when I first get to see the ship!
Last cruise we parked right in front of
where the porters were taking luggage. This time since it was a
larger sailing and we were a lot later than normal getting there, we
ended up parking on the third level of the garage. So we pulled
around dropped off our luggage with the porters then parked. The
check in process was a breeze as usual and we were walking on board
in about 15 minutes.
Here is where you drop off your luggage.
Check in was a breeze and before we knew it we were on the ship!
Here is a video of walking onto the ship from the terminal.
The rooms were ready and we headed
straight there to dump our stuff. The elevators were crazy
as expected so we decided to hoof it up the 5 flights to our cabin on
deck 9. We were quite winded after our trip. It might not have been
as bad but we decided to do it at a slight sprint for some reason. We
always try to use the stairs while on a cruise to help with all the
calories we end up consuming while cruising.
Our room 9280
This closet was awesome. I called it my dressing room.
Our soda cups were waiting on us. I was
hoping they would be different than the ones we got on the
Enchantment in August, but they were the same.
After getting a good feel of our room
we headed to the Windjammer for some lunch. It was busy as usual, but
waiting until close to 2 to go it was very manageable. We got a table
very easily and the buffet lines ran about 2 to 3 people deep.
My first plate of food in the
Windjammer.
I could not find Honey Stung Chicken. I
thought it was weird since this has always been available the first
day and seems to be the start of a cruise item. I looked at all food
bars , but it was a no go. If I missed it then it was hid pretty
good. I decided I would just order it at least once later so that
Honey Stung Chicken was ate at least once! But the food was pretty
good. A little better than Windjammer fair than I had before. I was
hoping this was a sign of good eats to come.
Tony was still in jeans and wanted to
change into shorts before we did any exploring. So we headed back to
the cabin in hopes our luggage might be there. Yeah! It was. So I
took the time to unpack. There was a ton of room for everything and
the suitcases fit nicely under the bed.
Everybody was supposed to be onboard by
3:30 with muster being at 4. So I took this time to run up to the
pool deck to take some pics of the port and the ships there with us.
The Disney ship in port with us.
She really is a pretty ship. I would like to ride the tube thingy they have.
The Carnival ship.
I have mixed feelings about this ship. My first cruise was on this class of ship with Carnival. But they have cut and chopped and added pieces to this ship til now it just looks kinda weird. This is probably my least favorite Carnival ship in the fleet and I haven't even sailed on her.
I finished up my picture taking jaunt
at about 3:30 and I came back to the cabin to check on Tony. Right
after I got there our cabin steward Supri, came by to introduce
himself. He then told me that the Muster was at 3:45. I thought, hmm
they changed the time. But we ended up not leaving the room til 3:55
because I “kinda” dozed off on the couch and Supri had to knock
and remind us..lol.
This is where I was when Supri knocked.
Me with our wonderful room attendant Supri.
The first day tends to be a long one with lots of things going on, so I think I will stop here and continue Day 1 on my next blog.
Join me next time as we go through muster drill and, "Did the Captain just say we were going to be delayed?"
I had really wanted to start my review of the cruise by now. Tomorrow will make one week I have been home. But I literally went to work as soon as I stepped off the ship. I ended up answering phone calls, emails, sending invoices and trying to work on the week that loomed before us.
The week I was gone two big events happened, regional tournament and Monster Truck. I knew my crew was very capable of taking care of both of these events. They have for years now and could probably do it with their eyes closed. So I went on vacation knowing things would have been taken care of. But there was still things that I could only take care of and had to be addressed.
But the main reason I have been able to try to relive what could have been the best vacation I have ever been on was Hunter Hayes. Hunter Hayes chose Pikeville to launch his tour and spend two additional days here rehearsing. We were very honored to have him in our city and building for this special occasion. But it meant a long week of work for me and my crew.
Monday was a long day of playing catch up from the previous week and all the pre-show stuff for the rest of the week. On Tuesday we loaded in and started rehearsals.
Here is the stage about half way thru the day on Tuesday.
I am pleased to say that all went well and the crew was awesome. We all seemed to bond pretty quickly and everyone really enjoyed working together. Even tho it was a long day, it was a very pleasant day.
Wednesday was all about rehearsing. Hunter Hayes is a young fella, but is very talented. I was very impressed with him. Not only with his musical abilities but also his personality. He always took the time to speak to me and my guys. During lunch he was funny and spoke to everyone around him. He also held the elevator so that some of my crew could get on and not wait til the next one. He was very polite and just over all a super nice guy. I walked away from this show a big a Hunter Hayes fan.
During a break in the day the guitar player and the guitar techs decided they wanted to do some guitar shopping and ended up at Mountain Music Exchange. (our music store)
What was very cool was that I wasn't a factor in them going there. They asked on twitter and someone told them to go there. Don't get me wrong, I plug our music store every chance I can get, but I had not had a chance to tell them about it yet. So it was very cool they visited it on their own!
Wednesday night was more rehearsals but this time with the spot lights. Here is the stage that night.
Thursday was show day! Again, I could not have asked for a day to go smoother. I loved working with this show!!
Hunter put on a fantastic performance. The demographics for this show was young girls and man were they loud! He chose to go out into the crowd not once, but twice to other stages we had set up in the arena. My first thought was, "He is never going to make it out alive."
This pic is from the side of the stage where I usually sit.
Load out was another success for bt Event Services. The show was shooting for three hours. Being this was the VERY FIRST night of the show, things can take longer because some things will have to be re-figured. We did it in 2 and half. So hats off to yet another great show from my crew.
Friday was supposed to be all about blogging and reviewing. But things did not go as planned (of course). I did manage to start organizing my pictures from the cruise. But it is taking me quite awhile since we used three different cameras and I am trying to get everything back on my new laptop.
Oh yeah did I mention that my laptop decided it didn't like working anymore? The laptop with all my work stuff? Tony advised me not to touch it until he could get my stuff off of it because at any moment it could not start back up again. Thanks hard drive for the extra stress. But on the plus side I know own a brand new Dell that is honking!!!!
Its a monster. I can't wait til I can play some Minecraft on this thing...lol.
So there ya go folks! That's my week. I hope to be back very, very soon with some cruise reviewing. But in the mean time I will leave you with this.
I am sitting in my hotel room finishing up some work stuff before I head out on the Freedom of The Seas for our Caribbean Vacay. As I was sitting here eating my Doubletree cookie for breakfast (don't judge!) I thought I would jot down a short blog reviewing our trip to Fl.
OH Man! What a gorgeous day it was yesterday! Have we not all needed that Sunshine! We ended up leaving Pikeville around 10am, about an hour later than I had planned. Not too bad, considering the things I had forgot to pack and do on Friday night. I'll let you know when I get back what I discovered was left behind or undone..lol.
My plans were to leave in time to have lunch in Asheville, NC at Tupelo Honey Cafe. This is a restaurant Brett and Blair introduced us to a few years back and we loved it! We love it so much the last time the four of us spent a weekend in Asheville we ate breakfast there both mornings. Tony and I always try to work it out to stop there if we are driving anywhere near it.
After taking your order THC (see what I did there) starts you off with biscuits as an appetizer. These biscuits-
And they are soooooo yummy. You have your choice of slathering them with either honey or blueberry jam. My mode of choice is to slice the biscuit in half and do honey on one side and blueberry on the other. Tony manages to get his in thirds! I am also a fan of Fiesta dinnerware and I love that our food is served on these dishes. I was very excited that the downtown location use vintage Fiesta. Or at least it looked vintage. (It could actually be very used..lol)
They serve breakfast all day, so I chose to have their breakfast pie with a side of grits and bacon for lunch.
The grits are a goat cheese grits, and are the best cheese grits I have ever tasted. It's mainly the reason I love coming here. The breakfast pie was outstanding too. It had ham, onions, roasted red peppers and cheese. They also have a veggie version too. The bacon was billed as maple peppered bacon. It was very good but I was unable to taste any Maple. But hey it's bacon..and it was yummy!
See the Fiesta dishes? Aren't they cute?
Tony ordered their chicken BLT and tomato soup. In which I forgot to take a pic! What's wrong with me, I must get into blogger mode. I have a lot of stuff that has to be wrote down..haha.
I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone going to be near one.
The rest of our trip went pretty smooth. We had one little hiccup around Jacksonville. Well more of me getting frustrated ..lol. At around 10pm we decided to grab something quick to eat and keep on trucking since we still had about 2 1/2 hours left to drive. We came upon an exit sign that had a Firehouse subs at that exit. So we opted for that. At this point in the trip my contacts were melted to my eyes and seeing wasn't as easy. When we finally found it, of course it was closed. Anyway to make a loooonggg story short. I ended up pulling over taking out my contacts and we ended up at Burger King....lol. There is a lot more in between all that, but you don't need to witness all that frustration.
Well, its time for me to head to the big ship! I will see everyone when I get back! I will have tons of pics and a detailed review!
My plans were to write one post about Disney the weekend afterwards. I took a bunch of pics all with this blog in mind. But I'll be honest, I was emotionally exhausted and really didn't have the heart to relive it in my blog. I just pushed it far out of mind. But now I am back and ready to talk a little bit about it. But just a little.
Sadly my problems weren't all were Disney and their higher ups like it usually is. The production crew actually ended up being great. By the time we got to the show in Pikeville they all but left me alone and I never heard a peep from any of them. My problems came from "other" areas, and I am sure I either argued or had a serious conversation with every department in the building that day.
The show itself was good and I do recommend seeing if you have children or just a fan. My wounds have healed enough to share some pics from that weekend.
You never know what you will end up doing for a show. Here the guys are changing a lot of batteries.
We had some down time again for the show in Corbin. So we grabbed some and lunch and spent our usual time hanging out at Starbucks.
Jamie, Ashley and Shane during lunch.
Then it was showtime.
I have zero pictures from the shows in Pikeville and was just glad to get the day over with.
A couple weekends after this we worked with The Band Perry. I was pretty nervous about this show because we had not done a show this large at this arena in a long time. So I had to bring in crew there that hadn't worked a lot or at all. I did have a lot of the hiccups ;ike I expected. Thankfully nothing large and nothing that I couldn't take care of. We did end the night on a up note tho. The stage manager came to tell me that it was one of the smoothest load outs he had done in long time. So I guess I must of have got the kicks worked out by the end of the night.
A view from our van that morning.
This is the arena security-patrol dude, ironically his name is Perry.
The stage right before we started the night.
The bands intro surprised me a little. I was standing right there expecting them to show up and it was just like they appeared out of no where out of the smoke. Good job to the light and smoke guys. Yes Brennen I know you were the one pushing the smoke button.
Speaking of Brennen he didnt fail to keep me entertained the trip home.
I have spent this week preparing for my upcoming cruise.....HOLLER! Tony and I also took the time to acutally attend a show instead of working one. The show you ask? Well that would have been the one and only Chris Stapleton. If you unfamiliar with Chris do yourself a HUGE,HUGE favor and look him up. Hands down the best male singer I have ever heard.
I promise not to wait so long to write about stuff because I realize that at my advanced age of 42 I do tend to forget details. I am always telling myself, "remember that, it will be good for the blog." But then I forget it.
I may be back this week before I leave for the sunny beaches of the Caribbean and let you in on some of my trip planning. But if not I will see everyone when I get back with all my stories of how I thawed out from all this snow!
