That’s definitely what we’re going through here. Not sure this is really a “Road Trip” entry but moving and a new child are an adventure so I figured I’d throw it up here. About 2 weeks ago Missy and I moved to a new neighborhood that she had been ‘stalking’ for almost 2 years. Finally, a good listing came up but the timing wasn’t perfect for our move because Missy was also scheduled to deliver via scheduled C-section on July 6th. And that’s exactly what happened — so in the span of 2 weeks we have a new house and a new baby. Yikes!
Like I said before, Missy was supposed to have her C-section at 9:30 AM but Zoe was just too eager to make her appearance. Missy and I headed to the hospital at 3 o’clock because she was having terrible contractions and out came Zoe at 5:35, AM. She’s a little firecracker topping the scales at 5 lb, 15.5 oz (nearly 6 lb).
Zak met his little sister for the first time on Saturday and he started barking at her, “Arf…Arf!” I guess he thought she was some sort of tiny doggie. I’m not so sure Zak’s going to be excited to know the baby is coming to live with us 24/7.
The little dude isn’t old enough yet to understand his world is about to get rocked and he won’t be the only game in town anymore. Here’s Zak enjoying his summer at the Splashpark, blissfully unaware of what’s coming up:
And Zak again….
Hmmm…what do I see here? Blatant “product placement” for InternetLifestyle.com that’s coming soon.
And here’s a snapshot of the new place:
Missy was like a general contractor making sure we got a ton of work done to the place and remodeled before we moved in. New floors, new carpets, new appliances, painting, bathrooms remodeled…the list keeps going. My addition is having a 750-1000 bottle cellar built into the basement.
And I’m happy to report I am no longer relegated to the freezing basement. I have my own office now which I’ve painted an “interesting” color. It’s called Shadow and my painter joked it was “Barney-like”. Ha!
I like it and I have a new Mark T. Smith painting that will look perfect on the wall. (If he sounds familar you might remember his Absolut Vodka ads.)
So I guess when my friends ask “What’s new?” - I’ll have a whole lot to tell them.
A few weeks ago I wired over my deposit to officially claim my “Pioneer” reservation spot of #53 on Virgin Galactic. Here are my welcome letters:
That actually makes me #153 because there are 100 fully paid “Founders” who each put in $200k to hold their spots. I actually got a little push from one of these founders, Loretta Hidalgo-Whitesides, who was my coach during the Zero G flight we did in Florida in January with the MasterMind members.
She got me hooked up with the Virgin Galactic group and told them I was serious about signing up. Missy had some big-time reservations about me going up (or more importantly coming down safely) and spending the money for this. I can’t control the safety part but I told her we’d do a promotion or create a product to pay for it. I was really on the fence about if I wanted to put up a $175k deposit as a Pioneer or just $20k and go after #1000. Well, I talked to my friend, Cindy Cashman, and she inspired me. Cindy and her new fiance, Mitch, are planning on being the first couple wedded in space on a different company other than Virgin. She’s such a fun person to talk to about this kind of stuff. (She told me about his idea for a space wedding before she even had a guy in her life)
Since my marketing brain doesn’t turn off - I wanted to point out how Virgin does a real nice job of their first contact after the sale. Check out this unique package I get after my confirmation. The box is like 4 feet x 5 feet (disregard Zak’s books in the corner of pic).
And inside is a huge book filled with awe-inspiring photos of the space flight experience. It’s pretty cool. Actually it reminds me of 21st century version of Robert Ringer’s famous “Earth” business card/brochure he talked about in his best-seller “Winning Through Intimidation”. To give you an idea of the book size I placed one of my magazines next to it. This is an over-sized magazine so it gives you a little perspective.
On the front cover of the book is an intricate history of flight, aviation and space flight, almost making you feel like you are part of a legacy.
A little brief background in case you haven’t followed the story of Virgin Galactic…they’ve licensed the design of “SpaceShipOne” from Burt Rutan, who won the “Ansari X Prize” in 2004. The prize of $10,000,000.00 was for a spaceship to complete 2 flights within 2 weeks. If “Ansari” rings a bell with you it’s because Anousheh Ansari was the first female private citizen to go up in space. Hopefully, if all goes well, I should go up in the first year Virgin Galactic operates in 2009. Here’s a video that shows what the flight experience on Virgin will be like. I showed this on DVD to my Father-in-law and he gave me his typical reply to my trips, “You know something - you’re nuts!”. I’m sure lots of people agree but I’m incredibly excited.
As a Pioneer we are invited to special functions with other Virgin flyers and I’ll keep you guys posted on the events and what happens. As some of you know, Richard Branson, is really one of my biggest business heroes because of his sucess and the his sense of adventure.
On Monday night your Rockville Chiefs took home
the league championship. We soundly trounced our
opposition 9-2. We had to beat them twice since we came out of the losers bracket.
We went on an end of the season tear winning 16
of our last 18 games.
And for those of you keeping stats - #12 contributed
for 1 goal and 3 assists in the championship game. Here
is the winning team victory pic:
If you’ve ever seen the classic hockey movie “Slap Shot”
with Paul Newman - you’ll recognize the jerseys.
And here’s the very coveted Hockey North America Championship
trophy that our captain, Jim Senker, dropped in the parking lot
on the way to our post-game beers in the parking lot.
Yeah I know - it’s not quite the same as the Stanley Cup
Growing up playing hockey I dreamed of drinking from the
Stanley Cup - but I guess this will have to do until I own
my own NHL hockey team. Hey, if Ted Leonsis can have it on his “101 list” -
I’m sticking it on my list too. I just need a couple mil more from
online biz.
It’s been 4 years since we won the “cup” and it’s pretty cool since
we’re definitely not the youngest bunch of guys in the league. At
33 I’m in the middle and I remember when I was one of the young guns
brought in to score some goals.
I performed my first Stand-up set at the DC Improv last Tuesday.
It’s always good to have a fall-back career in case the Internet
thing doesn’t really work out!
Here I am in front of the famous brick wall and IMPROV sign.
I figured I’d throw up part of the video from last night’s show
for you guys!
The video is a little choppy at the beginning because Missy was
literally running from the bathroom to catch my spot. So you don’t
hear my opening line - which is..
“I own my own Internet business and work by myself in the basement…”
Anyway, one other funny thing is one audience member came up to
me afterwards and said, “Are you ‘THE’ Yanik Silver?”
I told her there probably weren’t too many of us.
She came to see one of the other comics but explained she had
my CD in her car because she was a Dan Kennedy
newsletter member. She couldn’t believe it was me when the MC
said my name. She had been listening to me the whole way
down to the show. Funny!
Side note: Do me a favor and vote for my Stand Up teacher, Matt Kazam
He’s in the finals for FameCast Comedy competition this Saturday in Austin, TX. If you are around Saturday night at 9pm EST you can logon and watch him perform live. Go onto www.famecast.com and find him on the comedy stage 6. If you miss it no worries the show will be up on the site until April 21st.
He’s pretty funny and he’s got a great bit about kids in car seats - which Missy and I loved!
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