JenLeoLIVE!

Birthday Boot Camp! Birthday poker!

Well, word is getting out about birthday poker tomorrow night. I got a request today that one of my #1 fans wants to read about the party, so somebody make sure I follow through. Or blog about it so I don't have to. We're having drinks and apps at Isla, the shmancy Tequila bar at TI then chasing it with a poker tourney, $60 + $5. I was in over the weekend a couple of times (bubbled dammit!) and let them know I was bringing in about 10 players. Michelle, the boss who won't be there tomorrow night was still excited about it. She gave me a hat. Look out. Between that and some WPT cop-style sunglasses, I'll look like a bad-ass.

But the two best presents I could ask for came today. First, Andrew gave me the day off blogging. Woohoo! Then my trainer called and said that I could choose the work out tomorrow and then have everyone else do them but me. What?! No way. I haven't been to Boot Camp since before the Bay to Breakers so I chose for us to do beach volleyball again. But I'm also going to ask for ab crunches, boxing moves, some planks, and the reach for your ankles from a horizontal position one. Good for the inches.

Even though I still have to work on other freelance assignments, it's going to be a great day. I mean, come on, there's no way I could have as bad of a day as Miss USA had yesterday. Ooops!

Anyway, come on out to Vegas. Surprise me tomorrow. Just show up at the TI poker room at 6:50pm. Come on...what else do you have to do? Bring it!

CURRENT: LAS VEGAS
NEXT: Somewhere....seats around California are only $39 each way on SWA in June and July

I can't move and other things like Britney and Li-Lo

For the record, I will not be jalking 7.2 miles the week before the wedding. Your heroine just had to do Bay to Breakers and nearly busted her cheek smiling so much from the pure joy of being out amongst the people on Sunday. Yesterday after the race I walked a little funny, but today I'm full on hobbling around. What a wimp, eh? I ran the full first mile, then when it came to cross every mile marker, and then a good half of the rest of the way after we got to Golden Gate Park which was about three miles.

I'm momentarily hanging out in the lobby of the Millennium Biltmore in L.A.. This morning I spoke on a panel with the Managing Editor of AOL travel at a PRSA Travel & Tourism Conference. Man oh man do I love speaking on panels. Its pure juice to teach someone something. Especially when they appreciate it. I wonder if that's what it's like to be a teacher. One of the things we talked about was how to go about pitching us. I'd like to think that was helpful and I'll be chuffed if all the biz card exchanging we did results in some good Daily Travel Deal Blog leads. I've been having fun lately with posts about Britney and Lindsay.

As for our hero, he got out his cape for the tour d'fiancee in San Francisco. First off was the Brady's kicking cocktail party. More than 30 people turned out to meet John and give us some congrats. It was really fun, good practice for the reception, and yummalicious. The hit was Susan's wild boar sausages, followed closely by her own homemade sausage. And, the cake. Mmmm. Huge thanks, Bradys! The rest of the weekend was non stop hangage and more meetups with friends. John had almost as much fun as I did, not that it's a competition, and we moved on to separate cities.

Until the next time,

CURRENT: Los Angeles waiting for Limo
NEXT: Las Vegas waiting for Hyundai ;-)

From Boot Camp to Personal Trainer

I survived another day of Boot Camp. I'm totally loving it. I would've never thought to do 50 ab crunches—twice! Monday was the hardest day of their month (so the other participants said) after we jogged, sprinted, and found Chichen Itza next to the football field at Anthem Park. We scampered up those steps as fast as we could, came back down again and did five push ups. Then, more sprinting, jogging, what not, and back up the steps again. Friday is the tail end of the session that I came in on. They take a week off, and then start back up again Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

I've booked some one on one time with the trainer for Monday. Kick my butt, Carrie!

My big epiphany this week:
Like men, some sports bras are a great accessory, and others you cant wait to get rid of.

In other news, we're headed back to L.A. next week for John's meetings. That'll be a nice change of pace. I'm finding myself kept up in the apt too much on the computer, and not having much else to do in Vegas but go out to eat, or gamble. Every day I want to go to play in the TI tourney. Gambling alert ORANGE!!

Feel free to tell me what movie I should go see....

That reminds me, we're going to the local premiere of Lucky You tomorrow night at Red Rock.

CURRENT: Las Vegas, NV
NEXT: Los Angeles, CA (May 8-10)

Weigh in - setting the line

Monday morning means Boot Camp, Baby! I was sore all weekend, and clutched my aching gut every time I laughed or coughed. Sometimes I even asked John for a little help getting up - out of a car or the bed. But there was no way I was going to miss today. Back in the saddle as they say. Last night might've been my last night of extravagance. We went to pizza with Pauly and Change. They all had lovely micro-beer and as I was nursing my bottle of Coors Light, we set the line for the over under.

John set the line at me losing 16.5 pounds by the time of the wedding. But the wimp refused to bet.
Pauly took the over. I can't remember what Change did, and I don't even know what the cost is. That's what we should figure out next.

Today, after what the rest of the boot campers were calling the hardest morning of their entire boot camp, I weighed in. Here's what Kerri, my trainer, came to:

Weight: 184
Height: 5'7''
Body fat: 38% (which she said was actually 34% due to the scale - we need to get it to 25%)
Water: 44% (low)

Those will be the official numbers for the bets. I told them I'm more concerned about inches that pounds. It's all about paying that $400 to alter the dress, and of course to get my body into shape for making those babies.

I'm supposed to eat 5-6 times a day and drink half my body weight in ounces of water. Fruit should be had in the morning rather than the afternoon and I have to read the rest of my sheet for other rules. I'll be writing down what I eat these next few days and turning it in on Wednesday. I'll tell you about the tough work out we had today later. I know it's only been two sessions, but this could be the best thing I've done for myself in a long time.

CURRENT: Las Vegas
NEXT: San Francisco (May 18 - 20)

I DID get my ass kicked

Oh, man am I sore. Only in my middle. I think they call those abs. I'll hit the jacuzzi later, maybe that will help. And I ain't no John Mellencamp or anything but this is a good hurt. I'm still excited about the class. Monday is the next one, and I tell you what, I'll need every bit of that recovery time before I can do a sit up a gain.

VLOG: I didn't have any time to think about vlogging while I was crunching and doing push ups, but I've been trying to think about it since. I've always seen it sort of as a morning cafe show. Sharing all the good stuff that comes across my desk which usually runs the gamut of quality blogs, web 69.0, marketing tips and examples, travel deals, Vegas happenings, poker news, and still a fair amount of info that travel writers like to hear about. But as much as I think about this, my Inbox isn't general enough to appeal to a larger audience. I could be a Vegas concierge and just talk about Sin City as it pertains to travelers. I could easily do that. But talking heads are out. The question is, do I want to run around town shooting and editing and all that.

Did you see the movie Smoke? I loved how Auggie (played by Harvey Keitel) took a picture out the front of his store, at the same time in the morning every day. I've always wanted to emulate that project.

Then again, I could just put a camera on my ole self while I drive over to the TI breakfast tourney and tell people how if they play in that, they can get a line pass to the cafe and avoid the line. Breakfast at the TI cafe is surprisingly good, and quick. And there's no way I could open my mouth about TI without talking about how great Social House is, or that the poker tourneys there have so many fish that I've started calling it Tourist Island. Would that make good video? Because everywhere I go, I have something to say.

CURRENT: Las Vegas
NEXT: San Francisco May 18-20