We went to the MIM (Musical Instrument Museum) to support our friends, Wes and Jon, and their photographer and fellow ukulelist, Anne, as they taught some basic Ukulele to the masses! They have a great approach to teaching and by the end they had the whole room singing and strumming!
Right after the event, we went across the hall for another event. In the concert hall at the MIM, there was a discussion on Hawaiian music with Daniel, Tia, and Uncle George.
I’ve been doing Filipino Martial Arts since February, and Kada Anan Martial Arts Association (K.A.M.A.) put on an Open Martial Arts Gathering. It was really interesting learning some new techniques from other styles from Eskrima DeCuerdas, Lima Lama, some Fencing/Sabre fighting, Hung Gar Wing Chun, and we finished strong with some more Filipino Martial Arts… It was kinda cool remembering how to do some things I did many years ago. What I learned going to Hong Kung Fu Sil Lum Hung Gar was again useful today. The potluck and the people were awesome too.
For our friend Jeff‘s 50th, we went camping and turned it into a long weekend. The weather was gorgeous and also very frightening at times, which always makes for a memorable trip. What really made it memorable was all the wildlife that we encountered. It’s too bad I wasn’t quick enough with the iPhone on capturing it all, but there was bats (okay, a bat), a family of raccoons, a couple of skunks, some ducks, and vultures. Oh, let’s not forget some of the dogs that were with our party.
We secured our spot with 3 RVs and numerous vehicles and enjoyed just doing whatever… or nothing at all. We even got the boat out there! While it didn’t get much use, I did get to give lots of people a ride. Because we staggered our times we tried to communicate with our friends but unfortunately, not the best coverage out there. IOS did have an update so that we could satellite text. which wasn’t the greatest, but still worked.
We’ve been fans of this local band for about 20 years! Its weird seeing time go by and how things change and how some things stay the same. Like the couple that introduced us to the music of the band are now split and with new partners and were there, and how we’re all still good friends with them and the band, and also seeing the children of the band members all grown up now. It’s a trip!
If you haven’t heard of them, check them out, all their links to their socials and music streaming platforms are on https://fredgreen.com/
Some time ago, probably in 2024, I got invited to get on the executive track for .conf called .conf+, which is probably 10 times cooler than just going to .conf.
Better food, nicer chairs, guided everything, and the focus is where I need it to be, on the money and the value of the product.
Because I had a lot of time before going to Boston, I invited my wife and some of her friends to visit the area and check out some of the wonderful things to do in Massachusetts; like Boston Tea party, ghost tours, and of course, Salem and the witchy stuff there.
I traveled in on Sunday but the conference didn’t start until Monday evening, so I worked most of the day and then when it was time to meet it was a nice keynote with founders. I then met up with our rep for dinner with some other Centene folks. The next day, it was a little early for me, but there was executive breakfast then guided walk over to our seats in the front of the conference for the next day’s keynotes and talks. We then had lunch and went to the .conf+ area with the big comfy chairs and listened to talks for the rest of the day. It ended with Tom Brady and we got to take pictures with him.
It was pretty cool listening to Tom Brady and Jeetu led him to some serious questions about leadership and drive. I thought it was really neat and I’m now a Tom Brady fan to an extent. Doesn’t mean I’ll start tuning into his Fox Sports show. To wrap things up, I had dinner with the Centene team again with our Splunk rep.
Jaime flew in that night and I was very happy to see her! I didn’t have any more conference commitments to deal with.
I skipped my workout the next morning and I’m glad I did, we went everywhere in Boston, and my step count was very large!
The next day we went to Harvard and visited their museum, ate at Quincy market, checked out some of the city, and then went on a night tour of some graveyards and talked about ghosts!
I was really impressed with Harvard’s little museum, it was packed with all sorts of things I didn’t expect, like full size dinosaurs and whales.
We of course, as per tradition, went to Tucson for their Comic-con and had a great time! There was a lot of focus on Ninja Turtles because Kevin Eastman and the original actors who wore the turtle outfits were going to be there. One of them wasn’t able to make it and dropped out last minute. The line for Kevin was just too long, so I opted to not.
I did get a lot of photos though.
First thing I did, was get photos with a Taun-taun! This thing was life-size!
We helped pose our friend Allysen so she would look good in photos. She was a Kyoshi Warrior and got lots of compliments. Maybe we’ll do an Avatar cosplay next year to make it a group thing!
I got some photos with the non-star turtles and the Party Wagon/Turtle Assault Van
I picked up the glasses my buddy made for me, they match my tattoo!
The next day Jaime and I dressed up, sorta. She mostly did, I was pretty casual.
Here’s some random photos from that day
We finished the day going out for Ethiopian food, which is now one of our traditions of going to Tucson.
I did get to have a GI Joe Stand-off, Storm Shadow vs Sgt Slaughter!
Our last day was mostly shopping and painting. We painted some mini figures. I only took pictures of mine.
The last day, we checked out of the hotel. I ran into Kevin Eastman in the lobby. No phone on me, just told him I appreciated his work and have been buying his comics since the 80s. He shook my hand and thanked me.
We ran into him again as I loaded the car. He asked me about my lightsaber! LOL
We met up with our friend Sam from the Phoenix Ukulele Group, who moved to Tucson, its been our thing now to meet up with him and his wife.
After eating, we went to an antique store to check some stuff out. I found a cool turtle shell lute (lots about turtles this weekend) and no kidding, we ran into Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, who we didn’t believe was actually him. No photos with him. Just kind of ignored him thinking it was a look alike. We heard some commotion and found out all the cashiers took a photo with him. It was actually him. Who runs into a famous rock star while Antiquing in Tucson on Labor day? We do!
Fun times with friends old and new at the “Monsters of Swamp Madness” party last night! Check out Jaime’s super cool hat she made from scratch!
The night was still pretty hot so we spent most of the time in the pool. We got to socialize with some new friends too.
Our friend Melissa wanted her birthday spent at the MIM, the Musical Instrument Museum. Jaime and I haven’t been in years so we were excited about it. They had a violin exhibit all about the stradivarius.
There was really so much cool stuff to look at, of course I got stuck on the Ukuleles and the Philippines sections and the Martin guitar section was pretty cool too!
We were asked by Riders USA to come play for the veterans at the Arizona State Veterans Home and though the show was very short… shorter than we anticipated, we had some fun and so did our audience.
I found out a Marine brother of mine was in town and my ukulele night didn’t last as long as it could have been, so I got to get out and meet up. To my surprise, but I guess not that surprised, my other Marine brothers from around AZ were also there.
I met a 99 year old Iwo Jima veteran and another Marine who happens to live around the corner from me.
We chatted about the dumb shit we did in the 90s and how life has changed 30 years later.
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