Yesterday, I had mentioned that Amy Jo Johnson (the original pink Power Ranger) recently did vocals on a remake of “Since You’re Gone” by The Cars.

After I got home, I had to hear it for myself. At first, I thought it was all right (I never really loved it as a Cars song actually). But after hearing it all the way through, it definitely grew on me. So now it’s found a home on my iPod.

Go give it a listen at Amy Jo Johnson’s MySpace page.

If the writers strike ends soon, there’s a chance they’ll do a few more episodes this season.

I just can’t believe a favorite show of mine finally does well in the ratings and only gets 9 out of 22 episodes made for the season. I sure hope when the show comes back after a long break, people keep watching it.

In the meantime, Bryan Fuller (the creator of the show) discusses how Pushing Daisies came to be and gives some vague hints of what’s to come in a recent two-part online interview…

Bryan Fuller interview – Part 1

Bryan Fuller interview – Part 2

My family and I sometimes joke about a “Demay Curse” when it comes to money. If there’s a circumstance or situation that can somehow limit us from getting ahead financially, you can bet on that happening. It used to bother me, but now I just accept that there are rich people, and then there are Demays.

Here’s a good example: our Niagara County taxes nearly tripled this year, so we refinanced and got a lower rate on our mortage to save some money. 3 weeks after closing, the Fed cut interest rates – TWICE. Now we’re locked in at our current rate, and by the time we can even think about another refi, the Fed will be raising interest rates again. Poof – there goes a couple of hundred dollars a month we could be saving.

Like sand through the hourglass, so goes the dollars of my life.

There are other examples, but I won’t bore you with them. Fact is, I really can’t complain; I love the house that we’re in, the family’s healthy, my job is challenging but rewarding, and despite a tanking economy and an endless war in the Middle East, there’s positive change in the air.

Random Thoughts

We’ll be going on vacation to my folks’ place near Sarasota in a few weeks, and we’re so looking forward to the sun and beach time. My brother and his wife will also be coming down, so a good time will definitely be had.
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Somehow Heather’s debit card was swiped this month, and whoever swiped it charged over $600 in liquor and sporting goods. They didn’t steal her card, they somehow swiped the magnetic strip and made a counterfeit card out of it. Thankfully Bank of America caught it, we blocked the account, and got a refund. Moral of the story: pay cash when dining out. (We think a waiter took Heather’s card and swiped it over lunch, although we’re not sure.)
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I really miss The Office on Thursday nights, but having Lost return helps a little. I’m ready for the premiere, despite having absolutely no idea what will happen next.

–Brian

I just got the season pass renewal e-mail from Darien Lake and it looks like it’s a new roller coaster for Darien Lake this year!

It’s called MotoCoaster. You’ll ride on motorbike-type seats, nothing at all like normal roller coaster cars. It’ll feel just like you’re riding a bike and should be especially fun when going around the 60-degree banked turns!

And to start the ride, a launch to 40mph in less than two seconds!

See a video of the MotoCoaster at the Darien Lake website and get set to ride it this May at Darien Lake!

Campbell All Star Travel Follow Up

I don’t know if the Sabres will win tonight, but they should. They are a much better team than Tampa. Especially if they have the attitude of Ryan Miller. While recording this weeks segment of the Brian Campbell Show (which will air Wednesday morning at 8:15 and Thursday at 6:40), I told him of Ryan’s “Shut Up, Make Plays” comment. Brian’s response was a very strong “Good for him, I have that attitude too,” making it clear that you’ll be able to tell who comes to play each night from here on out.

I won’t give away too much of the interview, except that you’ll hear how Brian may have been ONE SHOT away from being ALL STAR game MVP, getting a clothing care package from his brother, and having his sister-in-law fawn over David Boreanez.

Brian sounded incredibly happy and relaxed despite being only halfway through a long roadie. He’s handled the contract situation perfectly. It’s all on the Sabres now.

Fitness expert Kathy Smith will be joining us all this week on Star 102.5!

Hear her health tips every night during Cardio Radio and win her DVD “Tummy Trimmers” weeknights at 6:15pm with Who Said It.

And while you’re online, go visit her website at kathysmith.com. She blogs too – see that here.

UPDATE 2-1-08: If you missed any of Kathy’s health tips during Cardio Radio, hear them on my Star 102.5 audio page now…

Brian Campbell’s Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

The next Brian Campbell Show should be a funny one. I don’t have the full story yet, but it was a mess for the Sabres getting out of Dallas Thursday Night/ Friday morning. Apparently the charter plane had a mechanical problem. Guys were scrambling to get on flights back home for the All Star break. All except for Brian Campbell, who as he told us on-air last week was due to come home, sleep for about 5 hours, do some laundry, then head to Atlanta for All Star Weekend. In between he was going to try to call the morning show. Instead he had to:
1) Go back to the team hotel at 1am
2) Get back up at 6am
3) Fly direct to Atlanta WITHOUT any new clothes (remember he was going to come home, and pick clothes for the weekend AND the next leg of the road trip). With the Sabres in Tampa on Tuesday, then Florida and Atlanta later in the week, he will now spend about 15 days on the road and have to BUY clothes to get through it. The funny part is what Brian text on Friday. Here is the account straight from my cell:

9:33am This stinks. (He actually said something else but I cleaned it up). Stuck in Dallas with no clothes for the next weekend.

I text back asking about plans. Brian replies:

10:04am heading to ATL direct at 11. Never been so tired in my life. Plane broke down.

2:12pm Finally made it. So Tired. I will have some stories from Atlanta for u.

Hopefully we’ll get Brian on sometime next week to get the real story. Listen on Monday and I should have even more of an update by then.

If you missed any of the interview with Bill McDaniel (The Mole on season two of the show back in 2001 / 2002), check out my audio page for the interview both as it aired & in its entirety.

And go buy Bill’s book, “Reflections of the Mole“! It’s an excellent read and I highly recommend it for anyone who even vaguely remembers watching the show.

Then, get psyched up for a new season of The Mole, coming possibly as early as this summer on ABC.

After hearing Bill talk about all the fun he had, do you want to try out for it? Go to molecasting.com and fill out an application (do it quick, the deadline is February 8th).

And I should also mention, there’s a reason Bill’s book is coming out 5 years after the show aired. He had to wait until his contract expired with ABC before releasing the book. It just expired, thus the book has been released. Read more about this (and see some incredible behind-the-scenes pictures) at his website.

The Mole (my favorite of all the reality shows) will finally be coming back to ABC, possibly as soon as this summer.

The only changes for the new season: Anderson Cooper (now at CNN) won’t be returning as host and neither will Ahmad Rashad. Also, the quiz will be a little shorter at the end of the episodes.

And one other change – the new Mole will be going in with a major advantage. He or she will have the benefit of reading a new book detailing everything that went on in season two of The Mole – a book written by that season’s Mole!

It’s been awhile since the show aired, so let me refresh your memory on who The Mole was. Here’s a picture from my favorite episode of season two (taken with permission from Bill’s website). From left to right: Dorothy, Al, Heather, and Bill McDaniel, MD (The Mole) in the “Tiny Bubbles” fun house.

Bill’s new book is titled “Reflections of the Mole“. The first few chapters tells you all about Bill, then the bulk of the book is everything that went on behind the scenes and in front of the cameras on season two of The Mole.

I’ll be interviewing Bill tomorrow night (January 24th) at 9:15pm on Star 102.5.

If you’re a Mole-in-training or just a fan of the show anxiously awaiting its return, you’ll definitely want to hear what he has to say. Then go put together an application to be on the new season of The Mole!

For no reason whatsoever, some retro 80’s video game clips…

This is the first ever Nintendo commercial. Everyone I knew had the early video game systems, but NO ONE ever bothered with the robot.

I always wanted the games to be identical to the arcade versions. So I had ColecoVision, which the world for the most part forgot about soon after it came out. Oh well.

Here’s another retro clip – some cool sports game bloopers from the early games.

Enjoy…

So I just found out that Gary Coleman’s pants were up for sale on eBay.

I’m not sad that I missed the auction, as I wouldn’t have any use for Gary Coleman’s pants (and if I did, I’ve apparently hit my head really hard and am in immediate need of a psychiatrist and possibly a surgeon).

No, I’m sad that his pants sold for $400,000! And the person that bought them has bought a bunch of things on eBay in the past and has 100% feedback, meaning they’re probably serious about wanting these pants. See the expired auction page here.

I’d gladly give the pants I’m wearing for 1/20th of that! Of course, I wasn’t on Diff’rent Strokes, but still – $400,000?! Come on…

Heather and I went to the Niagara Ice Wine Festival this weekend with a great group of people, who are as interested and excited about wine as we are. We haven’t been in that kind of rare company since Virginia, where our appreciation for viticulture was born. It felt good, and I hope you enjoy the goofy pictures of our experience below.

After a wonderful weekend, we came home, and over dinner decided to open the last bottle of Virginia wine we had in our collection. It was a Jefferson Meritage from 1999 that had survived our move from Charlottesville to Fredericksburg – as well as the long trek from Virginia to New York nearly 2 years ago. We had taken good care of it, but you never know with changes in temperature and location how a wine will fare.

After letting it breathe for a while, I’m happy to say it was one of the finest bottles of red wine we had ever tasted. Smooth and mellow after nearly 10 years in the bottle, it was everything we hoped it would be. Now bear with me, as I attempt to explain what wine-lovers take for granted, and what Heather and I experienced again this weekend:

Only in a very few areas could a person blog about “The Perfect Casual Snow Boot” and have readers be interested. Buffalo is one such area, which prompts me to tell you about The Gore-Tex XCR Mid Adrenaline boot from The North Face.

I was looking for boots that were good for wearing to work on a snowy morning. The kind that looked good, went well with casual dress work clothes, protected you from getting wet feet, but weren’t super heavy snow boots like you would use snow blowing or shoveling. These are the BEST!

Thanks to the very informative woman at DICK’s who helped me out I learned a lot. She explained the difference between these and other name boots I was looking at. The biggest was these having Gore-Tex. Gore-Tex is a phrase you hear all the time, but it does mean so much! It is an inner shield of Teflon that they stretch inside the boot to completely seal your foot away from moisture. This is much different than footwear that claim to be “Waterproof.” As explained to me by the DICK’S customer rep, just because something says it is “waterproof” doesn’t at all mean that it will keep you dry. It just means that the shoe or jacket won’t break down or fall part when hit with water. Gore-Tex keeps you dry inside the jacket or shoe. HUGE difference.

The North Face Adrenaline mid-boots are incredible. They can also be used for heavy snows, but I think are best for those days when we get 2–6 inches overnight and you just wanna get to work and clear the driveway when you get home. They run about about $100, but when taken care of these boots should last a long time. You may have to get them on-line though, as many stores are now stocking spring footwear. They run exact size. I wear a 10 1/2 sneaker, and a 10 1/2 in this boot. Available in Men’s and Women’s. Here’s where to order:

http://www.thenorthface.com/opencms/opencms/tnf/gear.jsp?site=NA&model=ABF8&dc=58J,57X

What a freebie commercial for NORTH FACE and DICKS! Maybe I’ll get a free pair for the endorsement!