Last Week Wrap Up, better late then never

About a week and a half ago Nate, Chris, and myself migrated out to Carlsbad for a Nixon Sales Meeting that was accompanied by a handful of other activities. Here is a photo documentary on what went on:

WEDNESDAY

The Eagle has landed

PCH in C-Bad

Bruns and Oden

We went to Andy's(Co-Founder of Nixon) for a little BBQ and some summer festivities. Bruns and Lou playing Boston Bean Bags. Its as lame as it looks.

THURSDAY

After meetings that lasted all morning and afternoon, we decided to let out a little of that pent up energy and head to K1 Speedway. Once we arrived I saw a car that was all too familiar. This is a car that I have nerded out on for the past year or so via the Internet but I had never laid my ojos on it in person. It also happens to be owned by one of our Nixon team riders. Here it is in all of its European beauty, Todd Richards' RS4 Avant.

K1 is not new to the Nixon crew. We have had one or two excursions to this facility in the past. Last time I was there I ended up in a fierce battle in the finals with our team manager at Nixon. It came down to the last lap and he beat me by about a 100Th of a second. Keep in mind we are talking about 40 or so people. Heat Races, Semi Finals, Finals. It gets intense. Needless to say I had to step up and bring home the title.

I had my "Game Face" on in the heat races and semi finals, I was killing it. There was only one person that had a lower lap time and I was ready to go head to head.

Dustin and Chris

Brunner getting ready to go out and take "Fastest Female" of the night. She crushed it!

Don't let this fool you, there are some high profile racers up on that board.

As the evening progressed, so did the drinking. We arrived in the finals. We were all lined up in the starting grid, I was sitting in the second spot before the green light was flashed. I got the inside corner running in first coming into the 1st hairpin turn, I got put into the wall and that was the end of the night for the Black Horse. Bummer, better luck next time I guess.

The Winners Podium: 1st(Top)Brandon Lillard - Team Manager/Reigning Champion, 2nd(Right) Bruns - Holding it down for CEI, 3rd(Left, obviously) Colin Anderson - Key Accounts Rep

Gloating Bro

FRIDAY/SATURDAY
Friday afternoon we spent the majority of the day meeting with the Big Boss Mans at Nixon and Electric. Nate left that afternoon but Chris and I had plans to stay for the weekend. We cruised back down to San Clemente to stay with our good friend Dan Mac and his wife. Dan is a super nerd, like Chris and myself, when it comes to cars and electronics. He had already planned an epic Saturday for us. We woke up around 7 and headed up to Irvine for the Cars and Coffee event that they have every Saturday morning in the parking lot of the FordMoCo building. It was fucking insane. Pretty much just a playground full of Super Cars, click this to get a little taste of what its like to be there.

New Skyline GT-R


This little horse happens to be parked in the garage of a fellow Sales Rep in the Action Sports industry, who will go un-named.

GT3-RS, Effing sick!!!

1971 Porsche LeMans car, straight piped, so loud

After looking at cars that will only be a fantasy, we took a short jaunt down to Laguna for some killer breakfast at the cantina and reminisced about the good ol days. Now that we were in a food coma we headed over to the mission viejo MAC store to get Dan and Chris dialed in on the new 3G. I was not planning on diving in, just trying to wait with my boys and be a supportive friend. This was the line we waited in.

After waiting in line to get in the store we thought we were home free, think again, a line within a line.

By the time we hit our third apple employee asking us the age old question of "which phone would you like and what color" I finally broke from all of the peer pressure, "16 gig white" was what came flying out of my mouth. Dan was stoked that this was his first picture on his new phone, "Instant Remorse" is the name of this piece.

We headed back to the McNamara compound and had a 3g geek out session. Around 4 we headed up to LA to see Ricky Gervais at the Kodak Theater. For those of you who have no idea who I am talking about, Ricky is the creator of the original OFFICE series that aired in Europe on the BBC before they created the Americanized version. He is awesome, and has a very dry style of delivering his material. I had never been to see a live performance from any comedian. I am really glad that this show took my comedic virginity, Gervais left us all laughing our asses off. Thanks again Bruns for the ticket, it was amazing.

SUNDAY

I left the crew after the show on Saturday night to meet up with Angel, Colby, and Chris Morris. We had a room at the Standard and went to a cool little Rockabilly show that night. My intention for staying up in LA was to go to the Rosebowl Flea Market on Sunday morning. When we got there the weather was perfect and we were able to spend about 4 hours carousing through a ton of Vintage stuff. Everything from furniture, to clothing, to trinkets, to pictures. It was a killer experience and I am stoked to go back in the fall when it cools down a bit.

After the flea market Angel and I headed over to Sunset to grab some killer pizza. Had to take this shot, if you look closely the Hollywood billboard is chillin in the background.

After some slices we headed home and hit a killer monsoon storm and 145K at the same time.

All in all one of the most fun and eventful weekends in a long time. Thanks to everyone who was involved.

We're off.....

to the real west side. Three integral parts to a successful WS Road Trip:

Rob & Big Replica UAV, check

Diet DP and best Jerky evs, check

Polite sign informing any unsuspecting toiletier that they will be going "Raw Dog" only, check

Just the beginning, more to come.....

Lagging....

I am super bummed that I have not updated this thing in 10 days. To be honest, I feel pathetic. I have been traveling for work and just have not set aside the time. I have some good content coming, I promise. I am going to try and update this "B" while I am on my way to SoCal for a quick 24 hour(or less) jaunt. If for some reason you are in the Mountain High area tomorrow I highly suggest you check out the Chopmeet. Brendan and I will be there and I am crossing my fingers that Landman and Dustin will be in tow. Peace

Welcome to the family.....

I know I am about the fixtieth person to post this, but I dont care. Congratulations Seth and Julie, so stoked for you. World, please welcome Mason Huot. Future Pseudo Life Member and what the sport of snowboarding has to look forward to.

Shes Coming Out of Retirement.....

Road trippin to SoCal this week. Fresh clean/polish/wax job last night and she is ready to go. I cant wait to get in the sub-80 degree weather.

Arizona Advertising

Times get rough, the rough get going.

4th Recap

Didn't do anything special for the 4th. For the most part had a pretty stock holiday. Friday was filled with your stereotypical summer activities: Hit the pool over at the parents house, ate chili cheese dogs, spent time with the family. All three of these being teamed up with Keystone Light of course(Pops favorite and only beer in the house). However, we made Saturday a very eventful 24 hours:

Had some epic lunch at Pita Jungle. Probably my favorite spot in AZ to get a bite. Best part, the girls paid for lunch. Rare occasion

After a little shopping we navigated back to the house for a little Rockband session. Now, I know we are a few months behind the ball on this one, but this shit is so fun. It is now referred to as Crackband. Above is the whole crew. Dre - Lead Vocals, Angel - Guitar, Jen - Bass, Jake - Drums and backup vocals, Petra - Stage Tech/Roadie

Had to take a little intermission from the concert to watch the fight. Super bummed that Rampage lost, guy is my boy!

After a depressing fight we decided to get food. The best way to cure a bad mood is $1 Tecate's right? Thats what we were thinking.

After we got back, Angel and Jen decided to hit the bar with a few other friends. I couldn't leave my kit, so Dre and I pulled the weight of the whole band. I was singing lead vocals and on Drums.

All things considered, this turned out to be a pretty epic weekend!

July 25th couldn't come any sooner

This can be filed in the "Bitchin" folder

Bringing the Heat

For those of you who dont know, I have an obsession with the four rings family. Audi. Namely avants, and especially RS4 Avants. Here is one of the baddest cars that I have ever laid eyes on. Legit for sure.

Christmas in July

I know its only 112 here today, but Petra likes to be festive year round. Thought I would post this little treat from last year.

Sales Meeting Antics

My occupation has many pros and cons. On the upside: I can manage my own schedule, I have the opportunity to work with products and companies that I am passionate about, I get to travel to destinations that normally would not be within my grasp. The Flipside: I'm gone all the time, seems like work is 24/7, no time for vacation. All in all, these even out and are pretty good trade offs. I love my job and the people it has brought into my life.

There is a lot of grey area when it comes to describing my position as a sales rep to someone outside of our industry. When diving into the answer of "What exactly do you do?" there are a number of quick phrases that I drop. The one that prompts a red flag seems to be the "Sales Meeting" bomb. Its when the outside sales team, and in house squad, get together and meet as a group. When explaining this to an outsider it seems simple and straightforward, encompassed around our products and sales projections. When showing pictures to an outsider it seems like a huge blowout party. Well, its a little bit of both. I'm going with "Business in the front, party in the back." Sales Meetings usually involve traveling to a destination(sometimes glamorous, most times not), going over upcoming products, talking about a strategy of how we will meet our projections, then going out that evening to try and erase any recollection of talking about work. These adventures have been some of the best/worst times of my life. The most enjoyable part,the majority of my closest compadres are there to share in all of my glorious wins and shameful losses. Since I seem to chronicle all of these trips with my camera I figured its best to share some of the memories. I will try and post these on the regular, cause trust me, they are gooooood.

Welcome to our first installment: My Inaugural Sales Meeting

Company: Electric
Place: Las Gavioatas, Mexico
Time: July 23-27, 2004
Descriptive Word of the Trip: Gnarly, Dangerous

My first, and absolutely most gnarly meeting I have ever been to. I will give you the quick rundown. Arrived at Electric around 10AM, supposed to be departing at noon. There was a delay in getting our three 15 passenger vans from the rental company. The collaborative solution to kill time was beer. Within minutes about ten 30 packs arrive. That killed about a half an hour. Once the vans are packed and ready we head for the boarder. Another 60 beers per van are consumed before the Boarder in addition to a bottle of Patron per vehicle. One quick stop right before we cross to get spray paint. Wait, spray paint? For What? Well, to paint the vans of course. Before I had time to process this each van had been marked with "Electric." We cross the boarder get settled into our houses and head to dinner. About two and a half minutes into dinner I am so intoxicated that I have to move my chair back and lose my shit under the table. I literally threw up all over our New England Reps shoe's. A quick cheer from everyone at the table, and a clean up in the bathroom, and I was back in action. We get back to the house and I am passed out on the couch. Bruns and one of our Euro distributors thinks that it would be funny to put the couch I was sleeping on out in the patio. It was awesome to wake up to about 1500 mosquito bites. That was just about the first 12 hours of the trip, the rest was a blur. I do remember that when we left to head back to the states each of the vans was a masterpiece. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I was officially jumped into the crew. Here are a few pictures that highlight the trip.

All Time Fav

This shit is classic. See second vid for a mash up of Bubb Rubb and The Leprechaun, its like a "Twofer". This one goes out to DTCB.

FAIL Blog

For those of you who have yet to be educated on the FAIL Blog, get ready. Here are a few gems that I have chosen as a little "Sampler Platter". These should bring a smile to any person with a pulse.