Psycho and I were invited to make a guest appearance on The Daily Buzz this morning. I woke up at about 4 am (Does that count as being the butt crack of dawn?) to shower and get ready.

Here is a little bit about the show, which I borrowed from wikipedia:

The Daily Buzz is a nationally syndicated morning news program produced in Orlando, Florida by ACME Communications shown mostly on The CW or MyNetwork TV affiliates. The show is one of the fastest growing syndicated shows in America. It started on September 16, 2002 with 10 stations and has grown to encompass 39% of American television audiences. The show is known for its informal atmosphere as opposed to its more conservative counterparts.

The three-hour program is broadcast every weekday morning. It is currently carried in 149 U.S. television markets, some of which only broadcast two hours of the program.

It’s also broadcasts on Full Sail University’s campus.

We had the absolute pleasure of meeting with, and being interviewed by Andy and Andrea. They seemed genuinely excited to sit with us; That’s always a plus!

Right now the whole show can be seen on Ustream. I’m working on getting a high res version which I’ll be sure to upload to our youtube channel. We appear twice, once at 00:47:00 and then again at 01:33:25.

It feels like I’ve been thinking about my Thank You cards forever. Do I make them look like the invitations? Use imagery of our spartans in Recon? a picture from the wedding? Well, after spending hours in photoshop with game images of us in Recon, and trying to incorporate invitation design elements, I gave up. I decided to go with something entirely different.

Out of all of our pre-wedding photos, the ones I enjoy the most include Augustus (affectionately named so by one of our bridesmaids.) Eventually I came up with the concept of photographing a romantic gaming scene with Augustus in the background while focusing on our wedding bands. Lacking equipment and photography skills, I called my good friend Tom Winn for help. The photos turned out great!

{ CLICK HERE to see pics }

Psycho and I were pretty torn about 3 different images. One showing Augustus, one with very focused wedding bands and blurred controllers, and lastly, an image of both our hands resting on a controller. After asking a few friends I decided to go with the last one. Our hands on the controller seemed like the most personal photo. We owe so much to our friends, family, and of course all the sponsors who helped make our wedding day possible. I’m hoping the Thank You card imagery helps convey our gratitude and sincerity.

As we’re rushing out of the house at around 10:30 am the phone starts to ring. It’s clear channel, they want to know if we’re still coming. What?!?! Apparently I missed when she said ‘We’re asking everyone to be here at 10 am so that we can start at 11.’

We rushed out the door and somehow still managed to get there just in time. We bumped into Supa Dave, Crash and Jenna the intern in the elevator. ‘The halo couple is here!’ she exclaimed. We rushed to fill out some forms and then patiently waited for the contest to begin.

At 11:30 we all picked a spot to stand and started smooching. It didn’t take long for my neck to start cramping and my feet to hurt. I started counting down the minutes until our first 5 minute break. We were told we’d get one every hour. When break time finally arrived Crash & LT went around the room interviewing the couples and which point John quickly rushed off to use the restroom. I surveyed the room. When he returned I pulled him aside and whispered to him. My exact words were “It’s going to be a draw between us and the Trailer Trash couple. They’re going to put our names in a hat and we’re going to win.” I don’t know what made me so sure. But from that moment on our goal was to make it till 8pm; the time which they’d officially declare a draw.

Note: They referred to themselves as “Trailer Trash Lot 420″ and proudly wore t-shirts that said the same. I believe it was the name of their band, not something I made up.

Couples dropped out of the game in almost every round, and often in pairs. The first two were disqualified for not returning from their smoke break in time. The next couple was quarreling and biting each other. The bickering escalated to the point where the guy was kneed in the privates. WTF? They broke apart and left cursing each other out the door. Another two couples lost because they misheard the DJ and pulled away from their partners 5 minutes early. At this point we’re heading into the 5th hour, losing another two couples because of a balloon pop. This one kind of cracks me up.

Apparently one of the guys thought he would be slick and eliminate other couples by scaring them. From what I understand he even told his girlfriend he was going to do it. Regardless, when the balloon finally popped he scared his own girlfriend and one other couple. Tsk…tsk…tsk. Thank god it wasn’t us. It definitely scared me. Thankfully though, I leaned closer to Psycho instead of away from him when I flinched.

Heading into the 6th hour, there are only 3 couples left. They started to bribe us with all sorts of gifts certificates and concert tickets. I must say a question mark rose above my head when I heard they were offering Slipknot tickets. But even still, Psycho and I were ‘in it to WIN it!’ and so we chose to pass up the bribe. The DJs eventually called ‘the banker’, adding more to the bribe. I can’t remember everything they were offering but the third couple just couldn’t resist. They took the bribe and headed out on their merry little way.

It was now only two hours left until 8 O’clock. It was us and the Trailer Trash couple. “You guys should just give up.” They said. “We’re pretty Lucky.” Oh… but they had no idea who they were dealing with.

“They let me pick…did I ever tell you that? …choose whichever spartan I wanted. You know me. I did my research… watched as you became the soldier we needed you to be. Like the others you were strong, and swift and brave, a natural leader. But you had something they didn’t. Something no one saw but me. Can you guess?… Luck.”

We both made it to 8. They put our names in a hat and… It was Halo Team FTW! It all happened exactly as I had predicted.

{ CLICK HERE to listen }

{ CLICK HERE for more pics }