To celebrate the end of its first very successful year, Frank & Simon’s will be convening the First Annual Run With the Big Dogs hot dog eating contest on Friday, February 24, 2012 (doors open at 6:15 PM and competition begins at 7 PM). Entry fee is $25.

Whatever complete maniac can first eat fifteen hot dogs and buns will win a trophy AND a 3 day/ 2 night vacation for two. Additionally, all entrants will receive a T-shirt and also be entered into a random drawing for ANOTHER 3 day/ 2 night vacation for two.  Finally, for a $5 donation, there will be an accompanying “Best Dressed Dog Contest” in which participants will race to design an amazing hot dog. The best dressed dog contest will earn the winner a pogocard. 

This sounds like a lot of fun, and there will be generous amount of prizes. The contest will raise money for Best of Business local charity fund. Registration deadline for the contest is February 10.

Frank & Simon’s is open Monday through Saturday, and is located at 201 Capitol Beach Blvd.

This one was probably a bit on the easy side. It was indeed Pioneer’s Park, which was absolutely packed with people sledding yesterday. Specifically, it was the large slope not far from the middle of the park’s central parking lot and sled ramp. Good going George!

This means that if George is the first to correctly guess next week’s photo, we will get him a pogocard. 

My wife is a member of the Cooper Y (South 14th Street) and it’s frequently packed. Beyond that, its programs are packed. Signing up the kids for activities means being quick on the draw if we want to ensure they get a spot. There’s certainly demand for more YMCA services.

The location of the new Y is up in the air at this point. Will they choose Village Gardens, despite its relative proximity to the Cooper Y? How about the area around Walmart? Or perhaps something farther north, perhaps near St. Mark’s United Methodist on Pioneers Boulevard? At the rate their growing, maybe they’ll choose all three.

I’m curious how many of you readers are members of the Y or participate in Y programs in some capacity. How many of you might become a member if it moved in near you? Where would you put it?

Enough whining. Who among you tried to go to the grocery store yesterday only to find out that they were out of many of the staples? I didn’t go, but I heard that was a common complaint. Snowstorm or not, at least many folks’ cupboards will be full this weekend.

Parkhaus is, of course, an appropriate name. See, it has housing and parking. You can park where your house is. Get it?

OK, so I’m not completely sold on the name. That’s ok. At least the darn thing is getting built. The structure is even nearing completion. How awesome is that? Pretty soon you’ll be able to move in to a suite with a by-the-bed leasing option that won’t leave you on the hook if your roommate bails out mid-lease.

I’m excited to see what sorts of tenants they get lined up for the retail space on the first floor. Jeff Korbelik says that PepperJax is interested in opening a shop Downtown. That, to me, sounds like a match made in heaven.

What do you folks think about the name and the building? Sure, it’s not the 15-story building (or giant two-building complex) we once dreamed of. But it’s not too shabby overall, particularly considering it was planned and built on the tail end of a recession. I still miss Star Ship 9, but it’s hard to argue that Parkhaus leaves us worse off.

This week’s photo was pretty difficult because the location is relatively unknown. But it really shouldn’t be, because it is a shot of a very nice location to visit! It was the new Linh Quang temple south of Pioneers Park on West Pleasant Hill Road.

The quest for the pogo continues.

I say that despite being in a nervousness-induced coma for half the night. I was presenter #14 out of 16 so my tension had plenty of time to build. Still, I managed to pay attention to almost all of the speakers. (Sorry Hope and Collin, I pretty much missed yours!) Here’s a quick overview of the speakers:

• Steve Ramos: “Pinball: A Game Of Skill” (Website | Twitter)-- Steve did a great job starting things off. Going first is rough, but a relatively unusual topic like pinball was a nice way to break the ice on evening.


• Shane and Sunny Dwyer: “Great Pictures With Any Camera” (Website)—They kept it simple and relatively informal with some nice tips for basic photo composition.


• Jane Garrity: “The Startup Visa: Helping The World’s Entrepreneurs Create American Jobs”—Jane made an excellent, simple case for the importance of tearing down Visa hurdles as a way to boost the American economy.


• Calvin Pappas: “Silicon Valley To The Silicon Prairie” (Website | Twitter)—Calvin argued that Nebraska has plenty of resources to compete with Silicon Valley, and that we ought to do it our own way rather than stealing directly from their playbook.


• Julie Beno: “The Secret Life Of Librarians”—Julie was a hoot and she achieved her goal of demonstrating that librarians are about much more than just putting books on shelves.


• Steve Maly: “Get Real” (Website | Twitter)—Steve reminded us to be the real us, not a fake us. The crowd loved it.


• Jordan Pascale: “The Evolution Of Reporting” (Twitter)—Jordan is watching you. No, really. He and other Journal Star writers are keeping in touch with goings-on around Lincoln via Twitter, Facebook, and so forth. Got tips for how they can use social media better? Let ‘em know.


• Shauna Groenewold: “And They Lived Happily Ever After” (Facebook | Twitter)—Shauna told a nifty story about how social media (and Ross Nelson and Jon Miller) helped save a wedding.


• Tanner O’Dell: “Attraction of Awkwardness” (Website | Twitter)—One of two high schoolers, Tanner made the case that we should all embrace our awkwardness.


• Shane Farritor: “Becoming More Creative” (Website | Facebook)—Shane talked about creativity and the importance of taking small risks.


• Brenda Ealey: “Intellectual Freedom”—Brenda’s presentation focused on the importance of keeping information free, and she used Walter the Farting Dog as one of her case studies.


• Hope Edwards: “Serve To Lead”—Hope, the second of the two high schoolers, was behind last fall’s LPS Student Serve day. She talked about the day and about how if a couple high schoolers can kickstart an event involving 9,000 students doing good, then anybody can make a difference.


• Collin Caneva: “Turning A Headwind Into A Tailwind” (Website | Facebook)—Collin’s talk focused on using headwind (adversity) to your advantage and turning it into a boosting tailwind.


• Brent C. Wilson: “A Foster Family’s Tale” (Website | Twitter)—That’s me! I talked about our family’s two years as foster parents, culminating in the December 22nd adoption of Joey and Keishor.


• John Coffey: “Nebraska Sucks!” —John stole the show with his excellent tale of how Nebraska sucks ... people back after they’ve tried (and tried and tried) to leave.


• The Colonel Mustard: “Modern Representations of Expressionism: In Freedom of Thought and State of Being” (Website)—The folks behind “X Files: The Musical” and “Jurassic Park: The Musical” ended the show with a song and dance number.

Overall the mood of the evening was energetic and vibrant. Then I went and made folks cry. (Dammit, Wilson!) I’m a terrible crowd estimator but the theater was packed. I’ll guess there were ... I don’t know, 300-350 attendees? There were more people than there were seats.

The emcee for the night was Ross Brockley. Ross was ... well, not for everybody. Nathan Johnson summed it up pretty well: “Ross Brockley hit on all the important issues: politics, creeping on high school girls, and racism.” Any comedian is going to have some misses. That’s expected. But Ross at times forgot who was the focus of the night. For example, rather than building on the crescendo after John Coffey’s presentation and allowing The Colonel Mustard to finish the night with a bang, he completely deflated the energy in the room. It was tacky and uncomfortable.

But don’t let that give you the wrong impression. Before last night I was cautiously optimistic about Ignite Lincoln. Now, I’m 100% sold on it. It was fantastic. Thank you to the event organizers, all of whom are volunteers. Thank you to the presenters, each of whom did an excellent job. And thank you to sponsors Firespring and Turbine Flats for the financial support to make it happen.

I can’t say that I plan to be in the market for a gong any time soon, but this is a classic example of how there are all kinds of businesses in town that most of us aren’t aware of. And even the businesses we are aware of often do things we don’t know about.

The sidewalk has been up for rehabilitation for quite a while. Heck, portions of it were in sad shape back when I used to ride my bike to the park as a kid. I do some running at Pioneers Park and it’s generally much easier to run either on the streets or cross country rather than on the crumbling, unlevel sidewalk.

I see that a portion of the work will “level the trail to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act”. Leveling will be great, but I wonder if they’ll also modify some of the steep portions of the path. Those portions, though far from ideal for the casual user, are also kind of fun.

Speaking of Pioneers Park, I spent quite a bit of time running out there recently. I was running for mileage so I ran all over the park. I tell you what, people use every square inch of that park, and they do some unusual things in some of the less-accessible portions. I didn’t witness anything particularly naughty—except for the grinning fellow who probably wasn’t smoking tobacco—but boy, you’ve got to watch out that you don’t accidentally step on a napper’s head or interfere with a dog’s game of Smell Everything! when you come around just about every corner.

Admission to the event is free and doors open at 6:30pm.

My presentation is a very condensed version of my family’s experiences with foster parenting in 2010 and 2011. Yeah, that’s right, I’m going to smash two years into five minutes. How? Well ... I suppose you’ll have to show up to find out. While you’re there you’ll hear other speakers talk about pinball, Twitter, librarians, awkwardness, and Nebraska’s suckiness. I met most of the speakers last night and I can’t wait to see them in action.

Oh, and as for the title of this post? When I get in front of a group of people my shiny bald head tends to turn red. It doesn’t matter if I’m nervous or excited or mellow. So if nothing else, you can come make fun of me for that while sitting back and enjoying a beer. Sounds great, right?