Emily and I drove to Florida on Friday for a vacation. The drive was easy; it took about 12.5 hours each way. We stayed at my parent's house in Orlando for the first couple nights. Saturday I went to the gun range with my dad, while Emily went to the mall with my mom. That night we had a great dinner at a Lebanese restaurant for Emily's birthday. Afterward, Diane came over with her dog. We had playtime for all the dogs in the backyard.

Sunday we had breakfast at First Watch before driving to the beach. Our friends Serena and Brad came with their daughter Bella. We hung out on the beach all day and burnt ourselves to a crisp. Emily and I wanted to take them to our favorite pizza place, Shroomers, for dinner. It was all boarded up when we arrived. Too bad. I have been eating there every time I visited the beach for the past 12 years. We tried a middle eastern place off International Speedway. It was also closed. We drove up the road looking for a restaurant, but everyone we tried was closed. Finally we ended up at a horrible Chinese buffet which made everyone nauseas.

Monday Emily and I spent the day on the beach reading and working on our sunburns. It was just what we needed after working hard for the last few months. We saw the Dark Night in the evening. It was great. I usually don't like comic book films, but this one played like a real movie, with just enough campiness, but not too much.

Tuesday we went to dog beach with Turtle and Piggy. They had a great time playing and digging holes. They kept going in the water, rolling in the sand, then jumping on us and making a big mess. Wednesday we drove home and got caught in the rain for 7 hours.

Why can't we be more like the Swiss?

Ever wonder what my job looks like? Here is a short video with my footage from the recent Lulac convention attended by Barack Obama and John McCain. We had two cameras at the event. One on the riser and another for cutaways. I found myself on a shot from the second camera. Take a look.

I love going to mid-day events. Most think tanks and NGOs will feed the audience and press a free lunch. I've gotten a free lunch every day this week! I tell people that I go to these events for the food, not because I have to film them. Today's lunch was the most ironic. If you can call lunch ironic. I was at a conference about the global food crisis and they had a huge spread. Chicken, beef, salmon, orzo with vegetables, salad, bread, cookies and two tables of drinks.