(Check out the “About The Trip” page for more info)

Remind me.  Whose idea was this whole thing again?

 As you may have noticed, the Steelers did end up winning the Super Bowl…27-23.  Great for them.  Wonderful for the Steelers fans.  Just peachy for the city of Pittsburg.  A big bucket of warm spit though for anyone who needed the Steelers to win by more than 7 or else they are dropping into East Asia tomorrow sans $500.  After Fitzerald’s second TD effectively killed any chance I had, I felt like Springsteen at halftime when he overshot his knee slide and slammed groin-high into the cameraman.

 Buuuuuuuuuut…then again…

How much can a guy really complain?  I mean, tomorrow morning I’m on a plane to Japan for the first time in my life.  Not to mention Hong Kong right after.  For the first time in my life.  Then the Philippines.  For the first time in my life.  Followed by a whole lotta other first times in my life.  Not a bad silver lining, right?

And seeing as I’m in a silver lining kind of mood today, here are a couple other plusses to having lost my first bet:

-I just realized I cross the International dateline tomorrow….and thus, lose a day.  Which means I’m really only 4 days from my next bet, not 5.  I grant you, it’s a bit of technicality, so…all those in favor of my ruling?  Opposed?

-Not 3 minutes after the game ended, my friend Brad’s fiancee offered me a stay at her brother’s place in Tokyo.  I had only met Amy that day and here she was generously making the offer–how great is she?  In the spirit of repaying a favor, I’d like to plug Brad’s site, Bradgraiff.com.  He’s an excellent actor who’s done some work on The Office among other things–worth checking out.

-My plans to sport the postgame tab having gone up in flames, my buddy Travis spotted me my first post-loss beer.

-I serendipitously bumped into Hoover and Simon, (also in the picture above) two guys who had each spent long chunks travelling the world.  Nothing better than getting a grinning, “your life’s about to change, brother” to shake off the first bet funk.

-Big thanks to Labots, Adam and Laurie for putting me up for free in LA.  At least I think it was free–I’m sneaking out early tomorrow before they get up just in case.

-And thanks to everyone who has been checking in regularly and emailing the good mojo.  Keep on checking back and please (uh-oh, plug alert) pass the site on to your friends.  Thanks.

One more request–do something badass today.  It’s an easy thing to forget to do.  Or just never do.  I’ve gone years without doing anything even slightly adventurous.  It doesn’t have to be that big, but pick something…and blow it out for the day.

See you in Japan…