Band Night!

Still here!

the band night I mentioned before is happening.

This Sunday May 27th @ Rockfords Nightclub 88 St. Paul Street East, St. Catharines, Ontario.

Line Up:

Rockets!

Numbers & Figures

Holler, Wild Rose

Ragni

Cover: $4

Still here...

Still here! Just not much to report on right now. Some events are happening at the end of May and I have some things in motion for the summer. Updates will be sporadic for the time being but stay tuned!

Band Night Confirmed!!

The band night I had planned has now been confirmed.

It's Sunday May 27th at a local nightclub. The "featured" band will be Ragni (http://www.myspace.com/ragnimusic). I'm trying to get two other bands, Groovy Food (http://www.myspace.com/groovyfood) and In It's Wake (http://www.myspace.com/initswake) to play as well.

There will be a $3 cover charge with all the proceeds from that going towards my fund raising goal.

Rockfords Nightclub
88 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines, Ontario

Sunday May 27th @ 7:30pm

Hypnotist Show... awesome!

Great night tonight. Not as many people as we would have liked but for the short time Terry had to sell tickets it turned out damn well. The show was terrific as well and I was able to sell about half my KOC raffle tickets off. I still have about another month to sell the rest.

Also I might have my own hypnotist show as well! Hopefully those plans can come together!

Around the Bay Expo & Hypnotist show PLUS band night!

I was at Copps Coliseum today in Hamilton manning the Arthritis Society booth for awhile. The "Around the Bay" marathon type run is happening on Sunday. The expo was going on where participants could pick up their timing chips, shirts and registration mumbo jumbo. I was able to talk to people about the Joints in Motion program and tell them why I decided to join and what I'm doing. I also had my coin box and KOC raffles tickets with me. I sold 7 raffle tickets (I wasn't expecting to sell any).

I also had a booth beside me that was promoting a 5k and 10k run in my area in August! I told the man I'd sign up. I also went to some other booths and found more info on several other 5k and 10k runs. Probably won't do those but it was interesting to read up on them.

The hypnotist show is tomorrow so hopefully I can sell lots of KOC raffles tickets! I really hope it all goes well tomorrow night.

I also spoke to the owner of a local pub/night club and he's pretty much on board now to let me have a night. I'll be meeting with him sometime next week to sort out an exact date. I'm in the process of confirming with the bands a date that's good for them.

March 24th!

The hypnotist show for my Joints in Motion teammate is March 24th at 9pm.

Proceeds from the ticket sales will go to Terry's fundraising goal of $5,500!

Terry has run the Dublin, Ireland and New York City marathons in the past for the Arthritis Society and this year he plans on doing the Athens, Greece and possibly the Great of Wall of China in 2008.

So come out if you can as Knights of Columbus raffle tickets are being sold for $2 each or $10 for a book of 5. Prizes include trips, cars and cash!

Hope to see you there!

New running shoes!

I bought a new pair of running shoes. They're only going to be used just for running and nothing else. I'll most likely need to buy a new pair about a month or two before the marathon but thats no biggie.

5km run for local hospital and more fund raising!

I've registered to do a 5km for a local hospital. It takes place May 6th so I figure this will give me the boost I need to finally get out running. The roads are clearing up from the snow now so that's good. I'll most likely be buying a brand new pair of running shoes tomorrow. I'll use them just for that. Running.

Anyways, some more fund raising events are slowly coming together. It seems the hypnotist show at the Moose & Goose will be a great night. Hopefully my Knights of Columbus tickets sell good. The gym I work at is holding a "Big Swim" event in April for the Arthritis Society so I'm going to see if I can set up a table with info about the Joints in Motion program and the Arthritis Society. I'll sell KOC raffle tickets as well and have a coin box and pledge sheets.

Things are looking good. I'm confident I can reach my goal of $3,900.

Some BIG news...

Can't really speak to much of it right now but some things are in very slow motion right now for what could be a big event! I hope everything comes together because this could be wild! Stay tuned!

Hypnotist!

My fellow Joints in Motion teammate, Terry Fowler, is having a hypnotist show sometime soon. All the details are still being worked out but tickets will be $15 and the event will most likely be held at the Moose & Goose in Thorold, Ontario towards the end of the month.

Terry ran the New York City Marathon last year in support of the Arthritis Society and he ran the Dublin, Ireland Marathon the year before. This year he's competing in the Athens, Greece marathon and the Great Wall of China in 2008.

I'll be setting up a table at the hypnotist show to sell tickets for the annual Knights of Columbus charity raffle. Tickets are $2 each or $10 for a book of 5. There's 24 prizes worth over $400,000 that includes cars, trips and cash prizes. Roughly half of the proceeds of what I sell goes back to my fund raising.

So stay tuned for more information! Last year this hypnotist show was a sellout and extremely popular with everyone who attended! Hope to see you there!

Bands!

Well sometime this week (hopefully tomorrow or Thursday) I will try and go speak with an owner of a local bar/pub to see if they would let me setup a band night. I have two bands on board. One is quite popular here in the region and the other is a start up one. I know most everyone involved in both bands and let me just say that they have some great talent involved. I'm confident that if they both played we'd have a packed house.

Also the winner of the 50/50 Oscar Pool at my moms work decided to donate her winnings back to my fund raising goal. I honestly wasn't expecting that so that was pretty cool.

Now I'm selling raffle tickets for the annual Knights of Columbus charity draw. They're allowing Joints in Motion members to sell tickets and 40% of the proceeds of what we sell goes back to our marathon. There's 24 prizes ranging from cars to trips to cash prizes. $2 a ticket and $10 for a book of 5. Why wouldn't you buy some?

Anyways, that's about it.

Funds Needed: $3,900!
Raised So Far: $443.50
Funds Left To Go: $3,456.50

Oscar Pool Was A Success!

Well the 50/50 Oscar Pool went better then expected. I managed to get $73 in total from my moms work so split that in half and the winner received $36.50 and I was able to put $36.50 towards my fund raising. The Oscar Pool at my work came together in the last days and I manged to get $67. So again split that in half and the winner gets $33.50 and I can put $33.50 towards the fund raising. I was definitely surprised by the outcome and in total I managed to put $70 towards my fund raising. I'm extremely happy with that.

Funds Needed: $3,900
Funds Raised: $406
Funds Left To Go: $3,494

Unexpected

So the Oscar Pool at work has come together quite nicely. I really wasn't expecting to raise as much as I did but between the one my mom did at her work and my work I'll probably be able to put around $75 into my fund raising. Which is good since running this pool cost me nothing. And the good thing is is that now a lot more people at work are aware of what I'm doing and what's it's for.

Anyways, there's some more fund raising plans in the works so hopefully they play out.

By the way the Oscars are this Sunday at 8pm EST on ABC! Should be a boringly long show like usual. Go Paul Greengrass! United 93 is a truly magnificent film by the way.

Things are in motion...

Well we had a meeting Tuesday night at the local Arthritis Society office to meet some of the staff and other runners. Unfortunately it was just myself and one other runner and four staff members. The downside is that I work with the other runner, Terry. He's run the Dublin Marathon and the New York City Marathon for the Joints in Motion program and he's the one who got me interested in it.

The meeting went well though. We work slightly differant hours so I don't really get a chance to talk to him all that much so it was good to be able to sit down and get ideas and bounce back and forth with everyone. I came home with a long list of ideas and hopefully we can team up for a few events.


Today I met with a lady who helped me plan out my fund raising goals and events and pick dates for events and get things going. It went very well. I would have been lost without some guidance and thank God for her.

I know have a garage sale planned (maybe two), a charity car wash (most likely a bikini car wash; and no I will not be in a bikini), and some band nights at some local pubs/bars. Those will be the hardest since I don't know any of the owners/managers.

I have also ordered some raffle tickets from the Knights of Columbus who sponsor the Arthritis Society. This year they're letting Joints in Motion participants sell raffle tickets and roughly half of what we sell goes into our fund raising. The gym I work at has partnered with the Arthritis Society to open their pool up for a day in April to be called "The Big Swim" and it's free to the public. So I will be, hopefully, setting a table up at the gym and have info and pledge sheets and raffle tickets set out for people to see.

So things are in motion and it's looking good now.

Still here!

Still here just not much has happened recently. Though there will be some updates coming so stay tuned!

fundrasing

Damn what a bitch this is. I have a meeting in a few weeks with someone from the Arthritis Society to see how it's all going and provide some assistance. Hopefully I can get some better ideas.

As for the Oscar Pool, well it seems to be going good. I have some people interested and some folks have mentioned they'll be buying more then one ballot, which is cool.

I'm also planning a garage sale in the summer time and I'll probably ask people if they wouldn't mind donating anything they don't need or want. Books, CD's, DVD's, VHS, toys etc. Whatever. If I get enough stuff and don't sell a lot of it, I'll just hold another one and then donate the rest to the Ontario Federation for Cerebral Palsy. They do house to house pickups and sell whatever it is you don't want. All the proceeds go back to them of course. So I'd be helping two charities out.

Anyways, that's about it for now.

Funds Needed: $3,900
Funds Raised: $328

updates

Haven't posted in a few days.

I have a new workout routine going. Still four days a week but I felt like changing it up since I was getting bored with my old one. Still planning it out a little but I should be comfortable with it by next week.

I've handed out plenty of Oscar Pool ballots around work so hopefully I get some interest. It'd be nice to turn a good profit but time will tell. I've run off more ballots and next week I'll pimp it up some more.

I won $500 from a Super Bowl pool this past weekend so some of that is being put towards to the marathon. I'll be making another trip to Sport Nutrition Depot soon so this win came along just in time.

Oscar Pool...

Damn.

Went into work today with 30 copies and came home with two leftover. I'm making more and revising the letter on the front. I had some people quite interested so hopefully it goes well! The more people at work who about my marathon run the better.

It's a 50/50 draw and it's $3 for one ballot or $5 for two ballots and you can enter as many times as you want. I passed some ballots around and told people they can drop them off to me or my manager. I had a lot of interest so know it's time to make some more copies!

Funds Needed: $3,900
Current Funds Raised: $218

5x5's

So this week is consisting of upping my weights so that I can only do five reps. So I do five sets of five reps. I've gone for some long walks as well to get my legs used to the motions and get them stretched and such.

Next week I'll be starting a new workout routine which will still be four days a week. I still have to sort it out. Add and subtract some things from it. It should be a good one. Then I'll make my monthly trek to Sports Nutrition Depot in Oakville to get my health supplement products.

The Oscar Pool should be starting up soon. Hopefully it goes well. I'm selling one ballot for $3 and two for $5. So if someone wants to enter four or five times I'll let them. It's a 50/50 draw so the winner will get half the earnings. I also have a "tie breaker" question ready just in case:

Who is receiving the Honorary Oscar this year? (circle one)

- Clint Eastwood

- Ennio Morricone

- Jerry Goldsmith

- Warren Beatty

- Robert De Niro

I figure most people won't know. Haha, so much for a tie breaker. The other tie breaker is whomever returns their ballot first will win. Which is why I've asked them to date it.

Funds Needed: $3,900
Current Funds Raised: $203

Damn you weather!

Well we got hit with some good snow fall lately which has hindered the running. Yes, yes, I shouldn't care but I don't know what's soft snow and what's ice. So rather then potentially slipping and hurting myself (which could hinder the marathon) I've cut back the running to a freaking treadmill. Ugh. I hate treadmills. Sure the ones at the gym have LCD TV's and a built in fan but I can't stand it. As much as I love Anderson Cooper 360 I can only handle so much.

I like running outside. The fresh air (or whatever it is we breathe nowadays) , the differences in terrain. Going from the sidewalk, to the road, to a grassy park then back to the sidewalk is pretty fun. Plus I love running in the summer time since I can last longer and I a lot of girls are out then. Good times!

As for fund raising some band things are still in the works and I'm probably going to hold a Oscar Pool at work. 50/50 of course.

running in the snow

So yesterday I worked out my legs at the gym. Nothing to big just light weights. I more or less just need to strengthen and tone them up. I then went in the hot tub at the gym after words. Since I haven't worked my legs out in awhile they've been killing me ever since last week and when I went running on Wednesday. All's good now.

Today I did my upper body workout. Chest, back, biceps, triceps and shoudlers. Then I went for another run and what a run. Started off fine then it started snowing then it REALLY started snowing. Good times!

No exercises planned for the weekend but I am working so I'll keep myself moving doing that.

Later!

running outside for the first time...

Finally busted out the running shoes and through on some sweaters and headed out into the cold for a nice run. 15 minutes. Damn. Probably could have went longer but I didn't want to push it. Baby steps! I can't wait for the summer.

I visited Sports Nutrition Depot in Oakville yesterday and got my protein powders, glutamine powder and some nutrition bars. I'll add on some more supplements down the road maybe. Right now this all I need. The staff there were nice and spoke to me about the different kinds of protein powders and such. They were also interested to hear that I'm participating in a marathon after being a coach potato for so long. Heading there will become a monthly ritual starting in February.

Current Funds Raised: $110 ($3,900 needed)

Unofficial training has begun....

Unofficial training has begun on my marathon.

Last night I did my usual weight lifting (chest, triceps and shoulders) with some running added in. Tonight it's the back and biceps. Official training doesn't begin until the summer where I will meet with a Joints in Motion trainer. Until then I 'm running on my own . I'm going to try and work my way up to an hour for at least three days a week.

The Training Begins...

The training begins on Monday January 15th, 2007. Mainly it will consist of going for a light run as long as I can and then building from there.

Good times ahead!