Chipping in

6-26-06: Greetings! Another update...we're continuing to get closer and closer! Here are some pictures of the various crews at work to get us open.

The A/C guys are just about finished. All the duct work is done and just a few things with the units on top, but other than that, they're ready to be turned on!

Corey Knowlton (husband of GM Kim) and COO Joel inspect one of our new A/C units on top of the roof.

The restrooms are being tiled and are just about ready for the fixtures to be installed.

Since school has been out, Corey has been working like crazy over at the Zone. He's quite the handyman so can do just about any of the jobs needing to be done there. Here he's blowing in sound-deadening insulation into the underside of the stage in the multipurpose room so that it doesn't sound so loud when we're walking on it.

Even the staff are putting in time to get us open as fast as possible. Here Keri Medina (wife of CEO Ernie) is working on an Eye Toy pole with newphew Jake posing behind her.

Josh Knowlton is doing a great job giving that pole it's "brushed" looked.

Our youngest Jr Staff person, Javan Knowlton (red shirt) works behind his cousin Summer Medina and brother Jake.

CEO Ernie and daughter Summer pause from scratching up the poles.

Stay tuned for more late-breaking updates!

The sign of things to come

6-16-06: Here's COO Joel and his family, wife Judy, Cassie, and Cameron, in front of the newly finished sign, blazing away for all to see what has arrived in Redlands, CA. Someday, you will see this sign lit up around the country and the world, helping kids and adults find out that "working out can be all play!"

Sign up front!

6-15-06: Making progress! Here's a few shots of what's going on. The biggee is our sign up front. Will have a shot of the finished thing tonight. Here they are working on putting it up. Looks great!

Justin Lui Wren (right end) and the Knowlton boys cool themselves off after playing on the Sportwall while his parents were signing him up as a charter member.


A shot of the ceiling which will soon be tiled back up very soon. They're just about done up there!

This area--the relaxing/reading area--was just getting ready to be painted.


The bottom part of the front desk (this is the smoothie bar end) was put on--looks really nice with the curve!

Don Singh, our flooring guy (and friend from church) is prepping the employee bathroom for drywall waterproofing.

They're applying the pink rubber paint to the drywall to make it waterproof.

Here's what the men's restroom looks like, all waterproofed and ready for painting.

The plumber working on the drinking fountain in the hallway to the restrooms.

Here's the crew working on the electrical boxes in the ceiling. Soon they'll be tiling everything up!


Rob the pro painter prepping the retail area of the Cool Zone. Probably is already painted by today.

COO Joel checking out his office and new desk set-up. Love all that real estate for laying stuff out while we work!

Just talked to Joel just now and he met with the health inspector and everything is looking good! So we keep passing key inspections as we drive towards that final inspeciation for occupancy. Yeah!!!

Sportwall training; visitors

6-06-06: On what is being billed as an "omen" of a day, our Zone was blessed with a surprise visit by the pastoral staff of Azure Hills Church (Grand Terrace, CA)! That can only mean good things. ;-) Below, you see the back of our general contractor, Fred (who is also a member of their church and the one who led out in it's renovation) while he's talking to the pastors. (CEO Ernie, COO Joel, GM Kim, and a number of our investors are also members of Azure Hills Church.) Starting from the left are: Senior Pastor John Brunt, Pastor Alex, Executive Pastor Alger, Pastor Carmen, and Pastor Lamar.

Before the pastors arrived, I gave a tour to about 20 SB County Public Health nutritionists. They seemed excited to learn more about the Zone and exertainment in general, and are all eager to come back and try out the games when we open. (I'm sorry I wasn't able to get a picture of this group--next time!)

As you can see, the front is finally covered with our new siding to give it a high-tech look. Soon our sign will be attached on top.

Later that evening after work, several of us rec'd training on our Sportwall. It has a lot of cool games and applications, and we can't wait to get the kids playing on it. Works very well with both individuals and groups, cardio and strength training workouts. (It's covered in plastic to protect it from the dust from construction.)

Below, COO Joel and Corey listen intently as Tim explains the inner workings of the Sportwall.

Corey races against Cam in a relay game.

Cassie and Jake battle in a game using noodles.

We played a lot more games as part of our training using balls, medicine balls, bean bags, and tennis balls. It's a lot of fun and the kids are going to love this station!

Visitors from TX

6-04-06 Drs. Mark and Cynthia Carter were visiting from TX and dropped by the Zone to check it out. They are "special friends" of the XRtZ, and good friends with all of us, having lived here when they were in both school.

COO Joel is giving them on update on the construction.

GM Kim and Cynthia pose for a happy reunion picture.



Javan Knowlton checks out the smoothie bar's 3-compart- ment sink. Ice machine is also installed as well.

The glass is going into the multipurpose room windows.

COO Joel in the Men's restroom. It's finally all drywalled up--yeah!

Homeschool Fair on May 30

On Memorial Day, we were set up at this annual homeschool fair in Ontario, and we never had a let up of kids wanting to play our games (even if you had to exercise) from 9 AM till 4 PM. We'll be doing a special program for homschoolers so this was our first big marketing push to this specific population.

Here was our set-up, with great walk-thru traffic on the grass in front of us. Also had plenty of shade for those waiting to play.

CSUSB interns Kendall and April keep busy stuffing and sealing our mail. They did a great job with the kids as well!

CSUSB intern Alicia (standing behind clapping) was a big help as well.

The J-mat was a popular game, even though it was a virtual unknown. Several parents asked about how they could get one, it was that popular!

This boy gets some air on the Jackie Chan run through Hong Kong game.













Once we were able to set up the DDR pads (thx Cor for finding the cables!), kids were on it non-stop. There were some pretty good kids there, too.

The Cateye Gamebikes were also very popular, with a long line that didn't end till we unplugged the bikes!



Here was a character from Star Wars, racing on our bikes. All in all, a good day, spreading the word throughout the homeschool community!

Conference Hopping!

6-4-06: Over the previous 2 weeks, I attended 2 conferences: one in Ontario, CA, and the other in Denver, CO. The American College of Lifestyle Medicine's annual meeting was held in Ontario, CA. It was a very good conference with a lot of big name speakers, all focused on lifestyle intervention. I was able to set up a little booth with other vendors to promote exertainment.

Here's one of the vendors (and good friend), Carolla, who runs "Hands On Medical Massage", trying out the j-mat. She really got into it and kept doing it till she beat another friend's score, Dr. Andy Ng's 81!

Here she is, triumphant at last with an 88!




One of the biggest names in behavior modification was there, Dr. Prochaska (Stages of Change model). He gave a very good review of his model.

On Memorial Day, we spent the day at a homeschool fair held in Ontario (see next entry). The Tues. right after Memorial Day Monday, I was on a plane to Denver for my 2nd conference, the annual meeting for the American College of Sports Medicine. My picture of the Surgeon General Carmona didn't come out, but the picture below is of Rachel, a grad student from Univ. of Minn. who is doing her research on DDR and bone health. There was one other speaker, Dr. McInnis, from Univ. of Mass. who is also doing a study on exertainment. Hopefully, we'll have even more presentations next year!

Building Updates

6-4-06 Finally posting some updates! I've been away to 2 different conferences in the last week, so it's been crazy busy running here and there! Here's what transpired during these last 2 weeks, amid my 2 conferences.

The brown frame was finally taken out and the new silver frame and door was put in, minus the glass. This was a few weeks ago.




And here's out it now looks with the glass in place! It'll go very nice with the silver metal facing that will be covering up all the blue tile by 6-07-06.






The countertops in the Cool Zone have been going in; this is around the Toddler Zone.