The life of Brett Rush

I moved my blog!

2009-06-03T22:54:00.004-04:00

I changed www.brettrush.com into a blog instead of a flash site that I never update with WAY old info on it! On my new site, I have Web2.0 info, Tampa news, the life of Brett Rush and fun stuff. Check it out and subscribe to my posts!

If you want to get to know more about Web2.0 stuff, my blog is a one-stop-shop of info that I collect from all over the world. I try to stay in tune with the latest and greatest in social media, eBay, other eCommerce, nerdy gadgets and other stuff I find awesome.

I am putting together a site called MeetTampa.com. On there, I am compiling all of the different things to do around Tampa - not movie times, concerts and sport events. It seems when I'm looking for things to do in Tampa, that's all I find out of other sites. I also have my own review on restaurants that I go to.

ToastyPrint.com is my first business where I am turning a profit. I am a print broker that works with different print companies in different regions to get you, the customer, the cheapest price, fastest turnaround and highest quality all while beating other prices if you were to go directly to a printing company. I also work with different aparrel companies too. So if you need shirts, bags, hats anything that can be inked, give ToastyPrint a shot!

Marlyse started two blogs herself (and I'm very proud of her for jumping into Web2.0!)
marlysie.wordpress.com is where she is doing a picture a day. Her and some friends are putting pictures on rollingwithmygnomies.wordpress.com also. These are your everyday photos, just with a gnome in it to spice up the image!

Keep in touch over at BrettRush.com! Later Blogger!

April update

2009-04-30T23:23:00.004-04:00

Since I got back from snowboarding, I have been incredibly crazy with a lot of things. I am lead support for two eBay/Craigslist softwares and in the process of starting my on-the-side project. As if I'm not already doing enough to fill my plate, let's add some more!

The thing is, I know I have the potential to learn new things. Right now, I am working on a site called MeetTampa.com. It is going to be a way to find great things to do that you've never heard of and excellent restaurants you would have never given them a shot. I will be videoing every place I go and thing I do, then posting a review on MeetTampa.com. To do this page, I have to learn a Content Management System called Joomla. I also have to learn more .php in order to make it work right. Down the road when I have enough content for the site and visitors, I'll charge for coupons and advertisement. But for now, it's my fun project.

I've been mountain biking more lately. Of course, I try to do a little more than I'm capable of. Two weeks in a row, I've wrecked my bike and they were on camera!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3XCblAr68U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT4InpN9h7Y - fastforward to 8:30, I fly off the trail!

I am going to make brettrush.com more web 2.0 rather than the flash site that it is. It has all old stuff anyway. I made that site before twitter, flickr and before updates on facebook and myspace.

I'm leaving for Branson, MO tomorrow. Marlyse and I are going to see some shows, go to Silver City amusement park and then travel back to St. Louis. More to come soon! I promise!

Day 5 and 6 of snowboarding in Colorado

2009-03-11T21:38:00.004-04:00

Day 5 is the last day of snowboarding. We went back to Breckenridge because it was beautiful and incredible snowboarding. We decided to go on the peak that we didn't have a chance to check out on the second day of boarding. When we got up there, we went off on this path that was about 6 feet wide and winded around tight curves and has steep drop offs. I didn't want to drop off the side so I was trying to take it easy and I kept falling down because I turn pretty wide.

We ended up going down this same trail 3 times. I was not having good luck on any of these runs, but I kept trying. On the third time, my legs were getting tired of the tight turns and I was trying to power up over an incline so I was going fast (for me in this tight spot!) and the lip of my board caught and slammed my face into the packed snow. I didn't realize till I got to the bottom that I busted my lip. Jimmie said, "Hey man, you have blood all over your teeth." My face was numb so I couldn't really feel it.

We were trying to film some of the runs on the main slope and some tree runs. After I busted my lip, I spent some time in the lodge warming up and trying to rest a bit. When the rest of the guys came to the lodge, Tim was holding his wrist. He hurt it while trying to film Jimmie. While he was filming, the lip of his board caught the snow and slammed him into the ground but he tried to catch himself. After going to the clinic and getting x-rays, Tim had fractured his wrist and had to get a splint.

After the lodge, I went down three more times. On the last run, my legs were tired but I was feeling more confident than when I was on the 6 foot wide trail. I was going pretty fast when the lip of my board caught the snow. I knew I was coming down hard! I ended up flipping 4 times and 3 of those times my head hit the ground. When my body finally stopped sliding down the slope, I realized that my hat and goggles had flown off pretty far back. Luckily, someone was nice enough to grab them and bring them to me. I laid in the snow a couple minutes longer!

Well, I was done for the day so I called Tim to see the progress. He needed his passport and wallet from the car. Took the bus out to the car, dropped off my board, came back to the clinic, got Tim from the clinic and then waited on the other guys.

Brian and Jimmie showed up and was telling us about the last tree run they did. Jimmie was in front and going pretty fast when a tree jumped out and caught his shoulder. This didn't stop him! After hitting this tree, it sent him into a spin into the next tree. He hit the second one, then a third one. The third one ejected him into the last tree that stopped him in his tracks. Brian's camera battery died so he didn't catch that on film. Brian and Jimmie also spent some time on the terrain park too.

Day 6, we woke up a couple hours later. The wind was blowing crazy and the thermometer read 0 degrees. We were packing all of our stuff and eating the rest of our food. We got on the road covered in snow and ice and we made it back to the airport. Flying through Dallas, we made it back to Tampa at midnight. I was at work at 8:30 the next morning. That's our trip!

Day 4 of snowboarding in Colorado

2009-03-09T20:33:00.004-04:00

On Day 4, we went over to Vail. It snowed 6 inches overnight. Vail is the largest ski resort in the US. It was 5 times the size of Loveland, the place we went to the first day. This place was like going from a 7-11 to a Super Walmart. I can't remember how many mountain tops you could venture up. We started out peak hopping to get all the way to the west side starting from the east side. When we got over to the peak that we wanted to be at, we ended up splitting up to get to the same destination. Trying to keep up with Brian and Jimmie was impossible and I got to the edge of the mountain. Peering over the edge of this mountain, I realized I had to conquer it on my own. I got down what seemed to be about 200 yards at about a 50-60 degree angle the whole way.

After getting to the bottom of this section, I saw that I wasn't done yet. I got lost and had no choice but to go down a set of mogals to get to a different lift. I got to the top of the peak and went into the lodge up there. Because we all carried out cell phones, we were able to make a meeting point up top there.

After a big lunch that we shouldn't have eaten, we drop into the Dragon's Layer - a black diamond run with deep powder. It was this massive bowl of different runs that all filter to the same lift. It was insane! We went down that then came back up to go further around the mountain. We went past the yellow tape to get in some fresh powder and we were flying around the edge of a mountain at probably a 60 degree angle. It was pretty awesome because my board was totally covered in snow and so were my boots. You could tell that Vail was set up for skiers because there were "catwalks" that were completely flat where there was a major disadvantage to having a snowboard.

The amount of powder was cool but it was definitely more difficult than Breckenridge. I'll update you on day 5 tomorrow!

Day 3 of snowboarding in Colorado

2009-03-08T09:10:00.002-04:00

We went to Breckenridge on Saturday. When we went to Loveland, yes it was like $48 but we found that you get what you pay for. Breck was $80 and everything was incredibly smooth. There were something like 9 mountain peaks and 32 lifts there!

So, I start out the morning not so hot. I'm headed down the mountain when I lose control and a little kid skier flies right into my board. Yes, I took out a little kid! His skis went flying off and he tumbled about 5 feet in front of me. He was alright, crying, but alright.

On the second run, Brian is showing me step by step how to carve toeside. I end up feeling pretty comfortable with it and just realized that I'm not bending my knees. Now it seems simple but it feels like I pulled my left quad from carving heelside the entire day at Loveland. I never carved toeside so I never gave my quads a break. Imagine sitting in the squatting position for about 10 straight minutes...add bumps, terrain changes, and vibrations like when you hit a rumble strip in your car - from the machines that move the snow around.

So far, every night when we get back we go and jump in a hot tub to relax our muscles. We did a load of laundry and someone asked, "So, what are you guys doing on a Saturday night besides laundry?" Our response was, "Well us 4 guys are gonna go jump in a hot tub for a while." Yea, that made us decide to go out and enjoy a Sat night in Colorado.

Stupid day light savings time. We had to get up an hour early so we can hit the lifts at Vail before the crowd gets there. Pictures to come. Not using my computer so I can't get the pics off my small camera that I've taken on the slopes.

Day 1 and 2 of snowboarding in Colorado

2009-03-07T09:08:00.001-05:00

We decided to take a trip out to Colorado. The group that is here is Brian, Jimmie, Tim and I. We came in on Thursday, got settled in, then found an open mountain to practice snowboarding. Problem with that is it was nearly 4 feet of snow! If you fell, you sunk in and couldn't easily get back up.

Yesterday, we went to a smaller place than others out here called Loveland. I was able to get up on the board but I had a pretty difficult time during the day. Doesn't help that I was pushing myself to go further and do some difficult trails!

Brian and Jimmie went to the highest peak that the lifts would take them. They got to the top with the wind blowing probably around 50 mph. Where they were, they had to hike a bit to get to a good drop zone. Brian is getting ready to pull his camera out and take some video when Jimmie's board starts heading down the mountain!! He takes off running after it down a steep slope and in some parts was sliding on his butt because there was no way to run on that steep slope. The board makes it about 200 yards or so when it gets stuck on a bush. Jimmie has so much momentum going from running that when he tries to stop, he can't. Then he does 2 flips rolling in the snow to stop himself!

I have tender ankles, aching knees, hurting fingers and palms and a bruise on both butt cheeks from falling so much! I'm gonna stick with the beginner and advanced courses today. Somehow, I ended up on some steep slope with mogals and rough terrain.

Pictures and more updates will come soon!

Concert, Monster Trucks, Mountain Biking and new bike!

2009-02-22T19:55:00.003-05:00

What a jam packed weekend! It went by so quick too! Friday night, I drove a car load out to New Port Richey to see a friends band play. We get out there and the soundboard blew right before they went on stage! The sound guys were at least able to make sound come out of the monitors. So, the band didn't have monitors at all and we were hearing a pretty low quality coming from the monitors. It was all good, we were able to hang out till like 1 or so.

Saturday, Marlyse and I worked on the house a bit. Then, we went to the Monster Jam where our company had a Luxury Suite around the 30 yard line! Lots of kids were in there but it was still fun. My boss is a great boss!

Sunday, went to church and a huge group of us went mountain biking. We get out there and Trek is promoting their bikes and asking people to ride them on the trails! Heck yes! I rode a 4 grand bike and tried to do some damage! Not really, I was just trying to get use to such a crazy awesome bike. Then, my friend let me ride his bike the rest of the way (I only had 30 minutes on the Trek). After leaving the trails, I contacted a guy through www.swampclub.org to buy his bike. $140 from ToastyPrint sales went straight to this bike! Finally, ToastyPrint is paying off to buy me something!!

Sunny Florida

2009-02-09T20:54:00.004-05:00

See, this is more like the Florida that I'm talking about. Go away ice and frost! I'm ready to clean up my lagoon of a pool and go swimming!!

I took this in front of the mall the other day.

Ice on the ground

2009-02-06T11:46:00.004-05:00

This is Tampa, Florida. But the weather doesn't seem to understand that. I don't own an ice scraper for my windshield, nor have I ever used one. I started my car this morning, turned on the defroster and let it run about 15 minutes with the windshield wipers on. That's what you do, right? How am I suppose to know. I've only lived in Florida, or so I thought.

Super Bowl weekend

2009-02-02T10:31:00.003-05:00

Wow, what a weekend! Friday started out with having people over after work. Around 1am, we decided to go down to Ybor to try and see some celebrities. My friend and I drop off our wives in front of the Ritz where the Maxim party is going on. We think that we're just gonna be driving around all night until they get cold enough to wanna leave. Nope. We found a parking spot and I received a text, "We got into the Maxim Party!" Great. I'm dressed to just drive around, not even thinking I'd be seen, really. My friend has a connection with Czar so we pop in there to wait until our wives are done celeb spotting. About 3am we leave Ybor. Cuba Gooding Jr., some guy from NSync, T.I., and some others were in there.

Saturday, we went to 2 birthday parties and were out till around midnight. Sunday, I played acoustic guitar for our church and had an incredible time. I miss playing with a full band that knows what they're doing. I have to get back in the hang of it!

I was dropping someone off from church in the USF dorm area and I get pulled over. I wasn't paying attention to the speed limit and I was doing 40 in a 20, no bueno! He let me off with a warning - would have been $234 and 4 points! Totally my fault and gave me a warning. Thanks for being lenient Mr. Cop!

After that, our house church took some chili and brownies to the local Fire Station because we wanted to help out our local fire fighters with some good food since they were all on-call during the Super Bowl.

Then around 6, we get to our friends house in Riverview for a Super Bowl party. I need to watch the commercials online cuz I couldn't hear any of them! After the Super Bowl, we went to an after-party that was invitation only. Those invitations were at the Maxim party that Marlyse picked up! We get out to a mansion in Lutz around 1am and stay for about an hour. It was called the House of Hennessey. It was pretty neat to be at a huge mansion with a crazy pool - even a full size pirate ship was in the pool! Got home at around 2:30 and crawled outta bed around 6:30. Fun weekend! :o)

Tickets to the Super Bowl!

2009-01-28T10:43:00.003-05:00

I had the privilege today to hold in my hand 8 tickets to a luxury suite on the 50 yard line. Our company was able to get these tickets but I'm sure others are willing to pay more for them than us really wanting to go. If you have a few bucks you'd like to throw at these, feel free to bid for them on eBay! http://tinyurl.com/cpdwtl

Mountain Bike update: I sold it on Craigslist

2009-01-11T21:27:00.001-05:00

Right after I posted the previous blog, I posted the bike for sale on Craigslist. It took all of 10 minutes to receive an email that someone is interested in it. I am now $10 richer and got rid of the bike!

Wreck on Roller Coaster

2009-01-11T18:30:00.007-05:00

Yes, it's true. I wrecked on Roller Coaster. Meaning, I went mountain biking and the Black Diamond difficult trail was called Roller Coaster. I was having a great ride today too! Weather was perfect, sun shining with a cool breeze and the forecast changed to 0% chance of rain today.

Let me explain the trail that I went down. This section had about an 8' drop then a 9' incline. At the top of that incline was a hard left bank with about a 20' drop then you have to hit the brakes because you have to make another hard left without any incline to slow you down.

Going up the 9' incline, I made the hard turn to the left but I was still going too fast. I started going down this 20' decline not completely on the correct path. I was about 4" off to the right and I thought, "no problem, I'll just get right back on at the bottom of the dip. WRONG! Outside the trail was straight sugar sand. My front tire got stuck in it and threw me off the bike going pretty fast! I was ejected back onto the path that is rock solid with no give at all. I just slid across the hard trail without rolling and my elbows, knees and left shoulder taking a crazy hit!

Click on the pics for a closer look! :o)

I scream out, "Don't come down the drop! I'm in the trail!" The guy behind me stops at the top and the guy in front of me comes back to help. My bike ended up wrapped around the tree that I must have been inches from! I check out my bike to find that my chain is off the gears, handlebars are crooked and my seat is sideways. I straighten it all up, start pedaling, no problem. About 20' later my back wheel locks up. My chain started wrapping around itself all funny. Untangled it and started on my way again. It locks up again but this time the rear derailleur (gear shifter) is ripped off the frame! My sprocket must have been bent in the crash, so were both rims.

We're only half way through this 30 minute trail. I have to walk this bike all the way back! Throwing this mangled bike in the bushes did enter my mind, but I didn't do it. I have it on Craigslist in case someone wants to take the time to repair it!

Starting out the new year with a bang!

2009-01-05T09:01:00.005-05:00

Happy New Year! Hello 2009! Last minute New Years Eve, a lot of people called us to see what we were doing. So, we decided that everyone can come over to our house. We had about 14 people over, crazy firework wars, cooking hot dogs on the back deck poolside chimney and playing some guitar hero.

New Years Day, I went mountain biking with my friend. No, there are no mountains in Florida but there are like 30 foot drops at Alafia State Park. There's plenty of rocks, stumps, inclines and declines. I was wore out after that!

Friday, I blew a tire on the way to work. I started changing the tire when the stud that the lug nut hangs on to broke off! Was at 4, now down to 3. I put the spare on to find that my spare is flat. Jack the car back up and go fill it up. Put the spare on and drive it at 20 mph home, on 3 lugs!

Saturday, I go paintballing with quite a few friends. We went out to a friends property and had to do some prep work - mowing, machete cutting, axe chopping, bunker building and block stacking. We had a good time, playing from 9am till 2pm.

After that, I go to AutoZone and pick up a new lug and stud. The guy there was like, "You don't need to take this to a shop! You could do it yourself and save some money!" I pull the tire off, go to YouTube and put in "how to...". While trying to take off the spare, another lug stud breaks off!! I'm now down to only 2!! I quit, I'm taking this to a mechanic. Driving 15 mph, I make it there. They say it's gonna be 30 minutes, turned into 2-1/2 hours and $120 - all for a stupid flat tire. Starting out the new year right! :op

2008 in review :: Brett Rush style

2008-12-31T09:03:00.006-05:00

This year seemed to blow by kind of quick but with a lot going on.

-Last New Years Eve, Marlyse broke two vertebrae when I decided that we needed to try mountain biking. She was in a neck brace for 2-3 weeks.
-We went from owning 1 dog to owning 2 and almost killed our fish twice.
-I went from being youth pastor and worship leader for the youth group of Bethel Assembly of God to having a house church, being the leader and worship leader to college age students for Element Church. I also started running the sound and recording the Podcasts for Element.
-Marlyse and I went to Italy for our 5 year anniversary.
-I started up ToastyPrint but costs me way too much money, so I'm throwing that idea down the drain.
-Marlyse went to Belize, Guatemala and Honduras over the summer.
-I went to eBay Live in Chicago.
-Our two dogs starred in three videos for Animal Planet
-I went to more concerts this year than I ever have - 6 to be exact.
-I took Marlyse on a surprise trip to Atlanta and Nashville.
-I learned how to solve the Rubik's cube in 50 seconds.
-Marlyse got Chicken pox, her work got broken in while she was there and our dog had to have surgery - all rolled into one, and all blogged.
-I went back to that same trail where Marlyse cracked her vertebrae and rode those trails. I'm fine. :o)
-My parents got us a new fence for the side that was crappin out the most. We installed it over Christmas break.

That's the year in a quick bullet-point nutshell. Seems like quite a bit for only 12 months. I work full time and Marlyse is in school full time so you think we wouldn't really have time for it all!

Christmas lights and presents for kids

2008-12-14T20:52:00.008-05:00

I got my Christmas lights up the day after Thanksgiving, just never got a chance to take any pictures of them. My roses in between the two windows are growing so tall, they attached themselves to my lights.

Today, our house church went down to Wimauma (little Mexico pretty much) and took presents to kids that the families couldn't afford it. When we got there, there was food for everyone. You could obviously tell who went to the church and who was visiting, because it was 99% Hispanic, most likely Mexican, and the majority of those visiting was Wonder Bread, the whitest bread on the shelf!

At first, it felt uncomfortable sitting with people I couldn't talk to because I don't speak enough Spanish to carry a conversation and most of the parents couldn't speak English. Marlyse broke the ice at our table, being fully fluent in Spanish she started asking questions to those at our table. At first glance, they appeared as if they were 16 or 17 when actually, they were close to our age of 26! They work at the Ruskin Tomato Packing company and came from Mexico recently. Marlyse had to ask all of the questions because they seemed pretty shy to talk, but she got them to laugh.

Time to give out the presents! Someone gets on the microphone and starts calling out kids names. Finally, the awkward uncomfortableness is broken by kids enjoying Christmas. I wait patiently until I see our wrapped gift given to the two year old's father. He carries the gift and his son back to the table. Marlyse and I are curious to see his expression so we go watch him unwrap his gift. With some help from his dad, he pulls out a bilingual Elmo! It says the Elmo phrase in English, then when you squeeze his tummy he says it again but in Spanish. Thank you Big Lots!

Just trying to make a difference, 1 Elmo at a time! :op

December update

2008-12-11T17:07:00.003-05:00

Yea, yea. Haven't posted anything in a month. I've been busy with work! So, my brother came into town from Tuscon, AZ last night. We had a chance to hang out and talk before we headed down to my parents house. We haven't really had a chance to just hang out like brothers one-on-one before. I'll see him a couple more times before he heads out on Sunday.

Last week I went to see Mixed Martial Arts - XFC. I took a camera to do some 30 video clips. If you're interested in seeing them check this link out:
http://www.youtube.com/mmaXFCdotcom

Marlyse is done with school for this semester so I get to see her finally. ToastyPrint can definitely be doing better, otherwise I might have to close it. If you need printing, go to http://www.toastyprint.com

A friend gave me a camcorder because I'm interested in getting into the Wedding Videography business. I'll be doing some probono videos to build my portfolio soon. That's everything in a quick nutshell. I recently made a Twitter account, not gonna use it from my phone though. http://www.twitter.com/brettrush add me yo!

Smoke Detector alarm in the middle of the night

2008-11-10T09:11:00.006-05:00

Why is it that smoke detector batteries go out at 3am? Do the people creating them have a light sensor on them that after so many hours it decides to beep?

From a deep sleep, I hear BEEP! "What the heck was that? Oh well." *five minutes later* BEEP! "Where's that coming from? I'll ignore it" BEEP!
"AHHH! dumb smoke detector shut up! "

I get up, grab a dining room chair and try to turn it to the left the way the instructions read through my squinting eyes. No luck. I try harder, nothing. BEEP! I grab some duct tape and cover that little speaker opening, walk in my room to see if I can hear it. BEEP! ggrrrr! I punch the detector and knock it loose from the wall. "I'll buy another one, this one's gonna stop beeping!" Trying to get to the battery I realize I need a screwdriver. BEEP! Smoke starts coming from my ears and this thing isn't detecting it because THE BATTERY IS LOW! After many jabs with the screwdriver and pieces of plastic coming off, I get the 9v out of it.

Whew, now that my adrenaline is up, I won't make it to sleep for another 30 minutes. Dosing...getting sleepy... finally calm.....BEEP! "What the $%&@*!" The detector in my bedroom got a low battery 30 minutes later!!! What are the freaking chances huh? I grab the chair, take it down, take the battery out with ease and set the detector on my nightstand.

Marlyse and I laugh about it. Start dosing...BEEP! "Are you kidding me? Is this a freaking joke?!" The detector still had built up electricity in it so I had to hit the test button twice to run all the juice out. 5:30 now. Alarm went off at 6:45 and I shut it off. I'm done with alarms!

Ellie is back from surgery - doing fine

2008-10-25T10:26:00.005-04:00

Marlyse and I have had a crazy two months now! From her getting chicken pox at the age of 26, to her work being broke in This week has been so stressful I didn't really want to talk about it until now. Sunday, we took the dogs to Davis Island, let them swim and run around. Monday, Ellie looks at her food and doesn't want to eat. On top of that, she starts vomiting with an empty stomach.

Tuesday, we take her to the vet to get a check up. They give us an antibiotic, say it's an infection and send us home. Ellie continues vomiting, still doesn't eat and now she doesn't want to touch her water. We squirt water into her mouth and when she got anything down she would just vomit it back up.

Wednesday, we take her back to the vet where they weigh her in 5 Lbs less than yesterday and give her an x-ray to see what's going on. They don't really find anything but they are very concerned with her health. They instruct us to take her to an overnight hospital. There, they had a catheter in her to give her fluids and vitamins.

Thursday, we go pick her up and bring her home. She's looking skinny like a greyhound now. Still no food and no water. We take her back to the vet where they do some extensive testing. They gave her some barium so they can see a better x-ray scan of what's going on inside her. The doctor found that there was something she had swallowed. From the scan, it looks like a tennis ball or rag possibly. They want to do surgery on her tomorrow which would run around $1,600! The alternative is for FVS to take a camera, shove it down her throat and pull out whatever is inside. After talking to a doc at FVS, they want to charge $3,000 for that procedure! Back to surgery option. Marlyse finds this info out while I'm running home church and she's texting me updates while we're discussing a Nooma video and talking about how rich Americans are! In the back of my head, I'm thinking, "yea, rich enough to spend money for surgery on my dog! But Ellie is worth it."
Before surgery, we need to have her stay at the overnight hospital again. Ellie is tired of this entire scenario that she starts to snap at the workers here. They just want to take her temperature but she's done with this!

Friday, I pick her up at 6:30am and take her back to the vet so they can prep her for surgery. 7am I leave her in hopes that I'll see her again. Off to work I go. Friday's I work all day and so does Marlyse. 4:30 I get a call and they say that they found the culprit. She had eaten either a green rag or part of a green stuffed animal over a week ago. We saw green threads in her stool but didn't know what it was coming from; figured she would pass whatever it was. This green cloth was blocking her small intestine and there was no way she could throw it up or pass it through. It was completely stuck in limbo, blocking the flow of things. They tell us to take her to the overnight hospital again and we decide that we will give her fluids at home to save us another $200. To keep an eye on her, Marlyse and ellie sleep in the guest bed.

Saturday, the day to tell if this worked or not. First thing in the morning we try to give her water and she doesn't want it. We got kind of discouraged but we can't allow ourselves to. Finally she eats some food and drinks water. Throughout the morning she finishes a can of dog food. Way more than she's eatin in the past 5 days. All we have to do is take her back to the vet, one last check-up and remove the cathiter. That's the cost of love! When you don't have kids, animals become your kids.

UnderOATH, The Devil Wears Prada, Saosin, POS

2008-10-16T10:15:00.006-04:00

Crap. The alarm is going off for the third time. I better get up, it's 7am. I don't wanna get up! But, I got to get to work. Man, I'm dehydrated. I just didn't drink a lot of water last night. I went to the UnderOath, The Devil Wears Prada, Saosin, POS concert at the House of Blues in Orlando (Buena Vista) last night. It was a great concert!

I left work at 4, headed over to the church to meet up with others going. Actually hit 80 on the way over cuz there wasn't any traffic. When we show up to the House of Blues, the line didn't look that long but then we were trying to find the end which was wrapped around the building! It actually moved pretty quickly.

We're inside! I decided to wear a yellow shirt so people in our group would recognize me but that backfired. There were quite a few guys probably with the same thought, wearing yellow shirts! Didn't want to jump in the pit just yet because a hip-hop artist was first.

I personally like hip-hop that has some kind of a meaning behind it besides sex, drugs and money (which is very minimal). The majority of his rhymes were on politics. I don't share the same viewpoint that he does but I respect his work. I don't envy him performing at a metal concert though. During his songs, people were completely disrespecting him to the point that it seemed he was just trying to get through his song set. When anyone is on stage, I don't believe in disrespecting them just because you don't like their style of music so I didn't like the way the crowd was treating him.

POS leaves the stage and a lot of people begin moving forward from the balcony and bar area and going to the pit area. The Devil Wears Prada takes the stage. They are a hard metal band that has an incredible stage presence. From the bass player swinging his guitar around to the keyboard player thrashing around when not playing. I didn't really like them listening to the cd's but now I probably will. I was still standing back, outside the pit during their performance.

Saosin is up next and now I'm ready for the pit. I think it took between 20-30 minutes to change out the instruments. The curtains open and they start playing. Completely surrounded by sweaty stank dudes that were in the TDWP pit, I try to keep my distance but it isn't really working! I don't know the words to their songs but I recognize the beats. A small pit starts to form then grew pretty large. I realized it was forming around me so I pushed my way back and became "border patrol" by keeping the pit in the pit and not taking out inocent bystandards. While slightly slipping on spilled drinks or sweat or a combo of both, I feel it's necessary to use my elbows on certain people in the pit! Some guys in front of me were complaining that Saosin is too soft even though they were belting out high-pitch lyrics and screaming some lines. After about 6 songs, it's time for some food before UnderOATH comes on stage.

Decided to go grab some chicken fingers during the stage-change and taking a break away from the body odor. I don't even want to attempt the pit now because everybody wants to be on the floor during UnderOATH. There was standing room only on the floor, not even enough room to start a moshpit. Standing next to the soundboard admiring the techs job (I want to learn more about sound!) we stand watching the headlining band. UnderOATH just released a new CD about a month prior, therefore, I knew the beats of the songs but still none of the words. My bad, I knew they'd be playing a lot from that CD although my favorite CD by them is "They're Only Chasing Safety". I was only able to scream along with three of the songs but enjoyed their stage presence.

At the end of the show, the lead singer stated that they stand here in the name of Jesus Christ. He further explained that other bands are here to stand for their political opinions or represent straight edge, but they are here to stand for Jesus. His awesome explaination of what Jesus has done for him lasted for maybe 3 minutes between songs. I thought that was pretty cool that 3/4 of the crowd was cheering. Here's someone's video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOhoUSjJhgY But then I started to think about how this same crowd was booing POS off the stage. How does that portray the Christian faith to POS besides fake? I nearly wanted to talk to him an apologize. Maybe I'll catch up with him on Myspace.

Leaving the HOB wasn't too hard. It's now midnight and we're all beat from standing so long with minimal food and water in our system. I finally get home around 1am and it seems my 3pm Rockstar Energy Drink has still yet to wear off! I woke up numerous times in my sleep with UnderOATH songs playing in my head! That is the reason for hitting snooze a few times.

Getting back to normal

2008-10-15T10:30:00.003-04:00

Things were a little rough from the most recent post here. We're getting back to the swing of things now. Tonight is the Saosin, UnderOATH concert in Orlando at the House of Blues. I've been anticipating this concert for months now.

This weekend is the AST Dew Tour with biking, skating and motocross and I didn't take the time to look at the schedule to see that the biking (my favorite) is during the DAY on Friday. There's no way I can make it to Orlando by 4pm, I work till 5:30. Drat. Missing the AST another year. Maybe next October.

I am in the middle of writing some music. I have only written worship music but I want to start into hard rock, not metal, just rock. I was writting a little bit last night. I just want to jam out with some great instrumentalists. It has been awhile since I've played with people that aren't just starting out on the instrument. Talk to me if you want to jam.

Arriving at a crime scene

2008-10-08T09:21:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was a crazy day. I'm gonna tell the story from my point of view, then from my wife's point of view.

7:35: I received a text message from Marlyse asking if I'm coming in to the Chiropractor's office where she works to get adjusted. I replied, "I still have to feed the dogs and I'm already running late. I'll do it next week." I hurry up and jump in the car and right before I turn to the onramp of 275, I see it's incredibly backed up. I thought, "Since that's not even moving, I'll stop in the Dr.s office, get cracked and head down Dale Mabry to work; maybe I'll only be a few minutes late.

8:00: I drive up the the Chiropractors office and I see the front door is open. "Oh great, the A/C is out again. Marlyse is gonna have a long day sweating in the office." As I get closer, I notice that the front door which is 90% glass has been shattered all over the floor. I walk into the office stepping on a lot of glass to see a patient shook up sitting to the left, the Dr. holding his arm that has blood all over it and Marlyse with a quivering lip, scared for her life, getting up from being underneath her desk!

Marlyse's point of view:
7:55: A patient walks in to get adjusted. "Good morning mam. Can you please sign in? The Dr. will be with you shortly." The lady has a seat and waits for the Dr. to come out. Marlyse grabs the patients file and looks up to see a silhouette of another person in the door but then turns away. Odd, she thought.

Seconds later, there's a loud sound of shattering glass. Marlyse screams and then yells for the Dr. The man broke the glass door and walked through it. He turns towards the patient and says, "Give me your car keys!" The Dr. came out of his office and tackled the man. The man had a screwdriver in his right hand and tried to stab the Dr. as he's wrestling with him. During the scuffle, the patients purse falls to the ground with her keys falling out.

The man grabs the keys, busts through the broken door and steals the patients car. About a minute later, I walk in the door to see the situation.

Both mine and Marlyse's point of view now:
I see the doctor bleeding through his torn shirt so I walk over to him as he takes his shirt off. My first impression was that the hole in him arm was a bullet wound. I tried to tie a towel around his arm but that wasn't working, the towel was too thick. Marlyse cut one of the sleeves off his shirt and as I was tying it around his arm, it squirted out quite a bit of blood. I got it around his arm on the wound and had him sit down in the chair. The cops finally came about five minutes later that seemed like 30 minutes.

The cops asked each one of us what happened to try to get a valid description of the man and a detailed play-by-play of the situation. After a few hours of being questioned, we find out that this man stayed the night at a bank and when someone came in to work, he held her up with a fake gun, got some money and fled. The Dr.s office was nearly the only thing open in this area and had 4 cars in front of it. The man possibly thought the door was locked due to being before 8am, therefore, just busted through the glass door.

After the man took off with the patients car, he got about a mile down the road when the dye pack went off in the bag of cash. When it got all over the car, he left the car and started running on foot. By the time the cops found the car, the man was already gone so they had bloodhounds sniff out the car and start on their trail. These dogs were able to smell the man all the way back to his house! I'm not sure how far away that was, maybe 1/2 a mile to a mile, but the dogs smelled him all the way back to his house!

11:30: By now, two news crews have been out to talk to us and Marlyse has been calling appointments and canceling them for the rest of the day and all of tomorrow. The Dr. comes back from the hospital with a sling on and there were more news crews there to talk. It was time for me to leave because I still haven't made it to work yet. What a morning!

Surprise trip to Atlanta and Nashville

2008-09-09T12:56:00.014-04:00

This trip took place Labor Day weekend.

Thursday, Marlyse and I hosted home church. We had all had a great time then when we were finishing up I stopped and said, “So, Marlyse and I are leaving at 5am tomorrow morning to go on a trip that she knows nothing about!” With a complete look of surprise and excitement she says, “What about the dogs and the house? What about my jobs?!” “It’s all taken care of. Don’t worry about it. Just know that we are leaving in a short bit!” She replies, “Where are we going?” “I’m not telling you! You’ll find out when we get there.”

We went to bed at 1:30am, got up at 4:30am and packed the car with a tired and adventurous spirit. We pet the dogs goodbye and bid the house adieu. On the road with a Rockstar Energy Drink in my hand, Marlyse asks, “So where are we going?” I just give her a smile and keep on trucking! We get to the Georgia/Florida border and hand her a travel book that has info on Georgia/North Carolina/South Carolina. I told her that we are going to one of these. 4 more hours go by and we pass Atlanta. Now we’re in the country and I say, “We’re about 10 minutes away.” She says, “Are you serious? Where are you taking me!!” Then we pass a sign that says the city name. Instantly she remembers where that Kangaroo Farm is that she sent me a link to. She says, “I smell Kangaroo poop!”

Indeed, we get to the Kangaroo Farm and spend sometime looking at these oddly shaped animals. You have to be patient for them to come to the fence otherwise they never make their way to you. After that, we head back south towards Atlanta and we show up at our friend’s house! We all go out, see the city and stay the night at her house.

On the road again! We keep driving north. We get to the Tennessee boarder and I hand Marlyse another travel book. This time it’s Tennessee/Kentucky and I tell her we’re staying in one of these states. She thought we would be heading towards Myrtle Beach, SC. We get to Chattanooga and go left. Marlyse is taking care of her homework and not really paying attention to the signs we’re passing (luckily!). Nashville – 50 miles, 25 miles, 10 miles, 5 miles, she still hasn’t seen any of these signs. So, I hand her my directions that I’ve kept hidden from her and I ask her to help me out with the rest of the directions. “We’re going to Nashville?!” I reply, “Yep, and we’re meeting another friend here too!”

To save on money, Marlyse and I have gone to the timeshare presentations, listen to their stuff, tell them no and get a cheap hotel stay along with a gift. We’re fine with it! So, that’s what we did. We also got a chance to see the Grand Ole Opry, Broadway with all the country bars, the Parthenon, Belmont University, Loveless Café, Percy-Warner Park and some other stuff in the surrounding area. It was fun having everything planned out for a month and also meeting up with people that we know.

Monday morning, we have breakfast and get on the road again. Back through Chattanooga and down towards Atlanta. We meet up with my cousin and his wife for lunch in Atlanta. Then we continue on south getting home around 9:30pm. Mar had to be at work at 6:30am the next day! But it was all worth it.

Adventures with a free boat!

2008-08-06T11:37:00.002-04:00

My friend Brian was given a boat from his family but it needed some work on it. Brian and I went over to lakeland and picked it up, driving in the rain all the way back. Since it was free, we decided to split all costs and sell it 50/50 when the time comes. We take a look at it and try to assess what it will take to revive it. This 19' boat has a massive V8 engine in the back of it!

The next day, Brian replaced the ignition, worked on the carburetor and we decided to see if it floats. Took it down to the dock and we got it in the water fine. Cranked it up and let it set for five minutes. Decided, "Well, let's try to take it for a spin!" I'm still on the dock while Brian is working the engine. I push us off a little, Brian throws it in gear and the engine stops. Shouldn't have gotten off the dock!

Now, we're sitting in the middle of the water with no paddle and the current is taking us under a bridge. I catch the bridge pilings while Brian is still trying to work the motor to start. Now it's not even cranking! He helps me maneuver the boat upstream by hugging the pilings to get us closer to the dock. I start throwing the anchor and pulling us towards the dock but the current is too strong. Finally, Brian decides to swim to the dock and pull the boat in. Luckily, the anchor rope was long enough to reach the dock.

An hour and a half later, we load the boat up on the trailer and pull it out of the water when I realize the prop is still down, dragging across the concrete! We got the prop up and we're on our way home.

Day 3, Brian cleans out the carb again, we check the wiring throughout the boat and get the lights working again and I empty out the tank full of old gas. We take the carb up to AutoZone to see how much a new one would be and it's about $285. So, Brian is gonna take it to a carb shop and see if there some kind of a rebuild we can do instead. We'll get there! I'll keep updates on when we have a working boat.

16 million dollar photo of Jesus

2008-07-23T17:15:00.002-04:00

All I have to say is, wow. People really do think their stuff's gonna sell like the Jesus Toast! Click "View & Bid" to check out the auction. I will start adding crazy eBay listings on my Blog here.

Mar Home, Chainsaw Pic, Animal Planet, Home Church

2008-07-12T14:21:00.008-04:00

Marlyse got home late last Sunday! yay! This picture is of her and Brooke during long bus rides through Guatemala, trying to get down to Honduras. The next picture down is a shot from Honduras. I wish I was able to go! The next trip Marlyse and I do, we decided we are going to backpack through some countries.

OK, so the cut on my hand didn't look that bad. Sorry it wasn't a bloody mess in the pictures for some of you that want the gore!!! It was bleeding everywhere but I was more concerned with stopping it than taking pictures of it! :op

We received our Animal Planet video!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoPFTSvdjAY

Our home church has been going really well. We have a steady 7-8 and we've had about 12 others filter through and check it out. We host it every other week and we have themed nights for the type of food to bring. This upcoming week is "Cookout/Pool Party"! We're going to have hot dogs on the grill and go swimming for a bit before we have church on the back deck.

This is the first time I've been a part of a home church, let alone led a home church. It's different than a youth group completely! In the youth group I was a role model where in the home church I have to be fully open and transparent about my life in order for others to open up so we can create a closer bond. Quite the switch but I think it's good for Marlyse and I.

Rusty Chainsaw on that limb

2008-06-28T17:16:00.004-04:00

Earlier, I was cutting up that limb that fell in my yard (pictured below in a previous blog). The only tool I have to cut it up is an old, dull electric chainsaw that I got from my grandpa. I haven't had any use for a chainsaw yet so I never had the need to go out and get one.

I'm cutting away when I had to reposition the electric cord and the branch I'm cutting (of course while the chainsaw is on) and the branch comes towards the chainsaw but my hand is still holding onto it. My hand bounced off the chainsaw blade and my first reaction was, "Oh, it must have bounced off the branch." I stopped the chainsaw to find my hand was pouring blood everywhere! Woops!

When I get into rush mode, I think a lot. I actually unplugged the chainsaw because it's starting to rain and I brought it inside because it didn't want it to get wet! Heeellloooo!! My hand it bleeding! Take care of that you idiot!

Due to me not dealing well with blood, I couldn't take a picture of that while it was making a fountain from my hand! It didn't end up being a bad cut but both cuts are on my knuckles on my left hand. I'm left handing so the bandaids making my fingers stick straight out will make typing interesting for the next few days!

Marlyse in Belize and Honduras

2008-06-27T22:24:00.003-04:00

Marlyse has been in Belize for the past week and a half now and it's starting to him home. During summertime, Marlyse leads mission trips in either Belize or Mexico. This trip they've really been focusing on the youth hostel in Belize. Nearly everyday the group of around 25 spent quality time with kids that never receive any kind of attention for the most part.

They took the youth on a field trip to the cave where there were huge swarms of mosquitoes eating everyone alive! Since the group was mostly Chinese, they also spent time working with the Asian church in Belize which was a change for them due to the fact that there aren't a whole lot of Chinese running around Belize!

Marlyse is now on her way to Honduras, not for missions but for resting from the trip. She's on a bus to the Guatemala Border. She'll be spending time (and my paycheck!) in cities on the way to Honduras, finally landing in San Pedro Sula, Honduras in about 3-4 days. She can't send pics back to me because the internet connection is pretty slow everywhere she's been. Marlyse will finally make it back July 6th. She said she's so tan she looks like a dark Mexican (she's Ecuadorian and Cuban so she already has a darker complexion). I can't wait till she gets back!!

Timber!

2008-06-27T22:13:00.007-04:00

I came home today to find a huge part of a tree draped over my fence. Time to pull out the chainsaw. This thing is so heavy that I can't even budge it. I've been having issues with the neighbors not keeping their stuff from growing over my fence. The tree this was attach to is completely dead and is around 50 feet tall, if not taller. I'm afraid that thing actually rots at the base and falls on my house! Currently, no one lives there and I have no idea who the owner is. Anyone have any ideas what I should do about that?

Just cuz I like hanging out here, here's a pic of my backyard.

eBay Live 2008 breezing through Chicago

2008-06-24T20:09:00.007-04:00

I've been asking my boss for the last year if we can go to eBay Live 2008. I work for an eBay Software company called AuctionSound, it just makes sense to show up. My idea was shut down and I saw the highlighted date on my calendar coming closer and I just knew I wasn't going. Thursday, June 19th was the opening day of eBay Live and my phone wasn't ringing so much at work, due to all of my clients were probably there!

Thursday at 5pm, my boss asks if I think it would be worth it to go to eBay Live. I gave an ecstatic, "Um, yea!!" The head of development, Matthew Naso, as well as myself, the head of support would represent AuctionSound there. He asked if we would be prepared to leave in the morning. "Just send us! We will take care of everything!" I still had to go home knowing that I was going to have a house full of people in 30 minutes! I host a house church every other Thursday.

My thought is that I'm going to have to leave my own house in the middle of the house church and someone is going to have to lock up while I'm at the airport! Luckily, my flight isn't until 6am Friday.

9am, we show up at the convention center in Chicago with just enough time to sit and listen to the CEO and the President of eBay speak about some changes. Afterwards, we take a stroll through the booths where we were going to showing AuctionSound if it were my decision. We make our way around all of the booths and leave us questioning, "So, where's the rest? This can't be it!"

Good thing we didn't pay that kind of money to have a 10x10 booth! We even had people telling us how smart we were to NOT have a booth there! We made incredible connections with other companies to be integrated into our software. I can't disclose anything here but after we integrate with the companies we spoke to, our software will be a one-of-a-kind that can't be matched.

Saturday wasn't too necessary because we spent around 8 hours Friday connecting with everyone we had intentions on connecting with. Got back Saturday night and skipped the final ceremonies which others reported that we didn't miss a thing.

eBay has made changes to benefit the buyers and give security to the buyers. In the meanwhile, a lot of sellers feel they've been left out to dry. There have been some sellers that left eBay due to the changes. Some of the classes were full of tension due to the conversation being about feedback, seller ratings and some other topics that are a little on-edge right now.

Overall, the trip was necessary and we accomplished exactly what we went for. We have some work ahead of us now!

New Stuff

2008-06-19T12:01:00.004-04:00

Marlyse left on Monday for Belize to lead a missions trip. She'll be there for 2 weeks and then traveling to Honduras for 1 week, for vacation. I'm working on spicing up my off-to-the-side businesses.

I own www.ToastyPrint.com and I sell some items on eBay.

If you need something on eBay, click here! It costs you nothing and it makes me money!

Animal Planet stars!

2008-06-04T20:57:00.005-04:00

So, a couple weeks ago Marlyse and I had the opportunity to take our dogs ellie and rhino to a Petco training video shoot staring them! We get there and wait about 2-1/2 hours but then they use me as a veterinarian, Marlyse as the customer and rhino as the patient. Unfortunately, ellie went but didn't make a cameo appearance.
My job was to show future Petco workers how to swab a dogs mouth to see the doggie DNA to tell what different breeds each dog consists of. Luckily, we were able to do it for free for both dogs when it's typically $100 each! When the video comes out, I'll post the address.

So today, we went and did another spot for Animal Planet. They needed someone with a Honda Element. Hmm. We'll do it! They wanted ellie for this shoot. She gets to be a star! We went to the Westchase park and did a camping scene. The video is for PetFinder.com, sponsored by Honda, showing how you can take a dog camping with you. It's going to be a 2 minute internet video, I think on the front page of PetFinder.com. When this comes out, I'll post it as well!
Didn't get any pictures of either of the events. But I can take still shots of the videos when we have access!

When it rains, it pours!

2008-05-13T21:35:00.008-04:00

This weekend was pretty cool. Marlyse and I played putt-putt with my family then we went to a restaurant in Plant City. Afterwards, our friends threw a surprise birthday party for her (belated on purpose!). Sunday, we went to the beach with her family. We get home from the beach and we're hungry.

Marlyse is cooking chicken and rice, letting the oven and microwave do its magic. Both of us are on our computers when she gets a whiff of something not too pleasant. The rice! It caught fire in the microwave! All of the water evaporated and the rice heated up! I ran out to the kitchen, grabbed the glass turntable from the microwave and sprinted outside to get the smoke from the house. As you can see, our rice cooker is done.

While I am outside, Marlyse gets a call from her friend that is in Haiti. She is a US Citizen that went to Haiti, fell in love with a Haitian guy, got married and now has twins on the way! Our friend has been having a hard time getting her husband's visa expedited so he can be here for the birth of his twins. While our friend is spilling her troubles, Marlyse finds that we have a crazy amount of ants in our pantry! I peek in the pantry door only to jump back and say, "Woah! That's a bunch of ants!"

I go to the garage to look for some ant killer, nothing. I grab the next best - wasp killer! This stuff shoots in a straight line, is made for 10' shooting outside and will kill brain cells in the process of killing ants!

While Marlyse is still on the phone, trying to ease our friends concerns, we are pulling as much food from the pantry as possible while shaking ants into the garbage! Pulling, shaking, spraying, repeat. We get nearly everything out when I knock over a box of cereal. No scurrying to the food.

What's my point? I have two dogs that usually are eager to vacuum up any leftover scraps. The cereal remained untouched for 30 seconds. Something isn't right. We had to open the doors to let the smoke billow out but we closed the fence. Unfortunately, our dogs are notorious for becoming escape artists! I run outside only to find them gnawing on some sticks.

Whew! I almost wanted to find them run away! Would have added to the story! Plus, all of what we just went through in 15 minutes still doesn't compare to what our friend in Haiti is experiencing. So, I walk up to the fence and let them out. No! Just kidding.

I enjoyed that bit of rush. Reminded me of when we led mission trips. Only that same rush was 3 straight months, not 15 minutes!

April Update

2008-05-02T08:38:00.003-04:00

I know, I haven't blogged since we got back from Italy. Good things are in place for our family. After attending the Element "What's Next?" Meeting, we got better direction on where the church is headed. Marlyse and I announced that we are going to start a home church and we already have people that want to come!

This home church will start at the end of the month and I let the Pastor of the other church know that I will have to leave the youth group. I've enjoyed working there, getting to know the students, helping the students see a different view of life, but now God has called me to work again closely with my wife in ministry. That's something I do miss. When we were in the Dream Center, we worked next to each other. Because of school, she hasn't been able to work with the youth. Now, she will be able to invite people from school to the home church!

Also, my boss pulled me in his office and said that there is a software that we are in the process of building and he wants me to be over the development of it. The techs will be in India so hopefully he has to send me there! If so, I would have to pack my wife in a suitcase!

Our Anniversary in Italy

2008-04-15T14:10:00.002-04:00

Marlyse and I are home from Italy now. We had an incredible time.

For pictures, go to: http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c134/djadrinalin/Italy/
When it asks for a password, type: brettrush.

We couldn't have packed more into our trip! Here is a QUICK overview of everything we saw.

We flew into Rome and instantly drove to Sorrento, about 4 hours away. We got there at dark so we couldn't really see it much.
We got on a ferry and went over to the Island of Capri. Unfortunately, it started to rain while we were there, and it was like 40-50 degrees.
The third day, we drove from 9-5 to get down to Sicily. We got on another Ferry and got to our hotel.
We saw Taormina (which was really cool!) then we walked down a mountain to Giardini-Naxos - where NOTHING was open because it was a Sunday.
Then we went to Siracusa which was OK, not the best of places to see.
One of the coolest things we was was Pompeii. This city was covered by ash from Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It was rediscovered 1700 years later and a lot of the walls are still up.
The last day in Sicily, we went to their large city, Palermo. It seemed like a scaled down version of New York.
Straight from Palermo, we get on a huge ferry that takes us over night back up to Rome.
The next day, we cram all of Rome into one day - Vatican City, the Colosseum, Pantheon and all of the crazy drivers on scooters.
Last, we woke up at 3am and started our trek to get home. Marlyse and I finally went to be at 11pm our time (5am equivalent to Rome)

Oh possum!

2008-03-28T09:21:00.003-04:00

Last Saturday, we had a possum try to get under our fence from the neighbors yard. I woke up to the dogs going insane outside. I thought it was our neighbors dogs because I've never heard them bark like that.
I get outside and see that they found this possum stuck under our fence. I get the dogs inside and check the possum out. Looked like ellie (the big brown dog) got hold of his arm and messed it up or he got it caught on the fence. Then I checked out ellie and saw that she had a scratch under her left eye and in the corner of her eye too.

Called Animal Services and they got the possum out. ellie's eye is fine. She went to the vet yesterday and everything checked out alright.

5 year milestone

2008-03-27T16:53:00.003-04:00

Gotta big week coming up. My 26th birthday is on Monday, we leave Tuesday for Italy and get back the next Friday (11th) then the 12th is mine and Marlyse's 5th Anniversary.

Looking back when Marlyse and I first got married, I thought we would have kids around 24. I figured we would be living in a different country doing ministry (we were currently working for a non-profit inner city ministry). I never would have thought that I would be working a desk job. I never thought Marlyse would be going back to college.

Fast forwarding to now, I'm glad everything has happened the way it has. We worked in a ministry for 5 years and then I found a great job that I've been working in since '04. I went from $8 an hour to more than double that now. Because of this job that I'm at now, I know how to sell on eBay, train eBay stores, source products from China, navigate around Hong Kong and Guangzhou, buy and resell sold out concert/sport tickets, invest in stocks and start my own business.
I've been working with a youth group since '05 and I'll be working with Element Church when it starts up soon.

We currently have 2 dogs, a fish and periodically we have bees in the attic that I usually have to get rid of. I'm glad that we don't have any kids right now because I enjoy what Marlyse and I have done. A lot of our friends had kids RIGHT after getting married. We felt pressure from those friends to have kids "so they could all grow up together". I'm glad I didn't cave into the peer pressure, though we thought about it. If we had kids now, I don't think Marlyse would be able to take the classes at USF to finish her degree.

5 years from now. Where will we be? Let me try to get closer to this one than my last 5 year milestone.
I think we might have 2 kids in '10-'12. With Marlyse's degree and my internet knowledge we can successfully move to another country, work for a ministry but not be completely lost when it comes to money. I think whatever country we live in, I'll own a house and a business while we work for the ministry. I've visited South America, Asia and Europe so I want to visit Australia and Africa. I'll hold Antarctica off until it melts down a little. :o)

Random Pictures from March '08

2008-03-27T16:22:00.007-04:00

Us at Czar in Ybor at the Heart Show (Hair Art Show)

Fleamarket at the FunLan drive-in.

Marlyse's boss gave us some free tickets to the Yankees spring training. He's the Chiropractor for the team.

For all your printing needs

2008-03-16T18:27:00.003-04:00

I started working with a printing company that offers me below wholesale pricing in order to pass on the savings to me as well as resell their product to others to make money.

I now own ToastyPrint.com! It is going to be lower pricing than retail print companies and it's done here in Tampa.

I created a website but they uploaded their own "website" (it's not good at all yet) in place for now. So, if you need double sided high UV gloss business cards, they're cheap here! 1,000 cards is under $40. If you want to advertise your business and do a direct mailing, we can print and mail 4x6 postcards under $0.50 each.

Please go to my site if you have any print needs here in the future. Let me know you heard about it on BlogSpot, I'll give you a discount! Here's the complete pricing chart.

Thank you for your future business and let me know how we can network!

Sleep Much? Not me.

2008-03-11T08:55:00.003-04:00

To start, we don't live in the best of neighborhood, not the worst but we do have some late night walkers around and we have had people knock on our door early hours in the morning looking for a phone, thinking it was around 9pm.

At 4am, our big brown dog ellie starts barking. Typically it's from waking herself up and has to bark it out for about 30 seconds. She wouldn't stop after 5 minutes. So I go outside and look around, nothing. I look in the front, nothing. She's just barking. I discipline her and she usually stops. Not this time.

I try to go back to bed but my head starts to think about the "what if" worst case scenarios. I start thinking, "What if someone broke in my house? What would my reaction be? What actions would I take?" Then I start creating even more detailed scenarios in my head. I look at the clock - 5:20. Great.

Marlyse's alarm goes off at 5:30 and she starts getting ready for work in the bathroom, not making a sound so I can sleep. But sleeping is what I wish I was doing the past 2 hours. I actually start to dose off. Here is what my dream was about:

Marlyse was in the kitchen eating breakfast and I was still in bed. My dream was in real time. Then, some dirty undercover police officers break into the house. They have pistols with silencer barrels and instantly shoot Marlyse. I wake up, still laying in bed and hear what's going on. My first thought was, "They've got the wrong house! What are they here! What should I do? Should I try to stop them?"

It's 6am, still dark in the house. I grab the knife by my bed and hide in the closet. When the first cop came in, I lunged out and start wrestling with him. Then I get shot from the other cop. As soon as I was shot, time rewinded and I was back as soon as Marlyse got shot and I'm laying in bed. This time I thought why go out wrestling?

As I lay there, a cop comes into my room and walks around the room. He still assumes that I'm asleep as he radios a partner outside. "Bring in 2 body bags. We're done here." After he said that, the bridge from Leeland - Yes You Have, starts to play.

"This is all for You
Yes, this is all for You
You’re the King of the world
You’re the King of the world"

It starts getting louder and louder. The cop points the gun to the back of my head, then in a second my dream goes silent and black.

I woke up completely sore all over. 6:20, time to get ready for work.

XFC Cage Fighting

2008-03-03T14:54:00.003-05:00

I was able to see cage fighting on Sunday. Definitely different than boxing! I took some video shots of it. If you are interested, I uploaded these to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/djadrinalin

Disclaimer: It's fighting so it's graphic. Also, there are some drunk idiots that use profanity like crazy all around me while I'm videoing.

Eclipse

2008-02-25T09:12:00.003-05:00

I like space stuff - wish I was up there flyin around. Here's a shot from last Wednesday that I took. I don't have a tripod so it took quite awhile to get a shot that wasn't blurry! This one's not crystal clear but it's pretty good without a tripod!

Saving Wilson

2008-02-21T16:49:00.003-05:00

On Saturday, Marlyse and I are cleaning up the house and doing little things, since the air is still out. We spend 20 minutes cleaning the fish bowl, washing the rocks and putting all of the chemicals back in the bowl.
Every now and then I put Wilson the fish out on the front porch to get some sun. He's cranky if he doesn't go outside at least once a week!
I take the bowl outside and set it down. Somehow, the bowl must have been on a perfect angle and it shattered with the water quickly emptying onto the porch and into the grass/weeds. I'm looking everywhere for Wilson and can't find him. On my hands and knees gently moving the weeds around, not caring about broken glass because I have to get this fish back in the water! Marlyse heard the crash and came outside, broke into tears and started helping me search. She pulls back some weeds and finds our beautiful fish completely black from being covered in the dirt.
Marlyse, seemingly paralyzed, is holding the weeds back, crying and just says, "There he is." Wilson's body was lifeless. Without any doubt that he's already dead, I scoop him up, jump over all of the broken glass, run through the house and quickly flip on the kitchen sink. It's already been a minute now. The thoughts are running through my mind, "Brett, you're too late" but I'm not listening.
I pull out a large flower vase, add the chemicals to it and scoop Wilson's lifeless body into it. I kinda swirl around the water, thinking that will bring him back to life. Wow, it actually did! He started flopping! First thought was that he was only flopping due to the body twitching after death. After 3 hours of nursing this $2.50 fish, he's back to life, acting normal and wasn't injured.
This entire incident reminded me of myself and God. If I didn't believe in God and trust him with my life, who is going to save me when I'm in a life or death situation? I know that I've been in situations that I KNOW I should have died, but God was on my side. And I also know that when I was working in the inner city that there were sometimes that if God weren't on my side then I would possibly have been jumped, stabbed or possibly killed.
There's only one way to get God on your side though. You have to accept him as your personal Savior and declare that He is God and there is no other God.

When you least expect it

2008-02-10T19:44:00.001-05:00

Our A/C unit went out. Luckily, the weather has been good. As soon as it went out I searched on Google for a Do It Yourself site to fix the issue. I found someone with the same unit and the same problem! Because of this forum, I was able to find out terminology and not sound like a complete idiot when I was talking with the techs.

So, the techs came out and I'm all like, "So, is it the capacitor and the contactor?" Indeed that was the issue! The main problem was the fact that we left the unit on while we were at work all day. So, the motor got red hot and welded the fan blades to the shaft! The sticker on the side completely melted!

Now the price went from $150 to $650. Not exactly what I was thinking when I called the tech guy. To pay for this junk, I started selling personal stuff on eBay. One auction that is blowing my mind is all of my OLD Christian CD's. They are from 1999-2002. Really they aren't any newer and a lot of 120 CD's is already up to $90! I really didn't think it would go over $40. I also put my Ramp Bike on there, a digital camera and some other random stuff.

Christianity - noun, not an adjective

2008-02-04T14:18:00.000-05:00

I'm reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell right now. He's an incredible speaker, writer, person. For awhile I've floated in my Christianity and never thought about asking questions.

He makes you want to ask questions and get out of that "Christianity Bubble". Something he quotes in his book is "Christian is a noun, not an adjective. Nowhere in the Bible does it use Christian as a adjective. Why do we use it to describe things - Christian Band, Christian Book, etc."

Between reading this and listening to Rise Against, it made me want to start the old band back up, Christian's doing some rock music, not a Christian band. Thinking about it...

Where we are at now

2008-01-27T21:02:00.000-05:00

Here it is. My first blog. Here's an update on Marlyse and I:

Marlyse is a full-time student at USF (graduating Dec. '09). She works part time at a Chiropractor, still puts in about 6 hours a month at Bath & Body Works, and also works for a catering company around once a month. She helps me take care of our 2 dogs - ellie and rhino. She likes to keep things interesting!

I work full-time for an eBay software company - AuctionSound. I am the software support guy for around 250 stores worldwide. In the same company, I manage and sell event tickets - concerts, sports, theater, etc. In one week, I was in charge of selling 736 Monster Truck tickets!

I'm also working at Revolt Youth in Bethel Assembly of God. I've been there since November '06. After the Dream Center, God lead me there to work with the youth.

Since then, God opened Marlyse and my eyes to Revolution (www.revo813.com). It's a 20somethings meeting on Monday nights that is incredible! The room is packed with around 150-200 people that love and crave God. The motto behind the church is BE the church, don't think you should just SIT in the church. Pastor Bobby Triplett (bobbytriplett.blogspot.com) is an incredible worship leader and a transparent, open speaker.

Bobby is starting up his own church called Element Church, where it's going to be focused on community and not so much on the Sunday service. Don't get me wrong, the service is necessary. But, community and doing God's work is more important than sitting back and getting fat on God's Word without putting it into action. Marlyse and I are excited to join Bobby in his endeavor with starting Element Church!