EDITORS NOTE: This is the second time around. It hung, and while I copied and pasted to preserve the text, the HTML links died and I'm not inclined to go back and refresh them. Too bad, so sad.
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Scene: Peet's Coffee and Tea, William Hobby Airport, Houston TX
Time: After I was supposed to be on my way home after a Friday meeting for work
Mood: Salmon from Pappadeaux, some peppermint bark and a double espresso in my system.
Pacified. For now.
Kelly's pretty much dominated the space here (and does so with far greater talent than I ever could) and the quiet just gave me a chance to get a few things off my chest and mind that have been stewing for a while.
I've got the best wife and kids. Anywhere. Ever. Sure, you may think your spouse and/or significant other and/or birth or adopted offspring are the best. And out of the kindness of my heart, I'll leave your opinion alone and let you have it. But know that mine rock the rockiest. (Raspberry sound). Next.
Why is when I travel to Texas that I can't ever get the hell out of here on time? When I was last in Dallas, it was an ice storm that held me up for TWO DAYS while I suffered in a Ft. Worth hotel with Kelly ready-to-pop pregnant with Makenna. And it was made worse being trapped in a hotel with a cheerleading convention. Although I developed an intimate and torrid love affair with the linzer cookies at La Madeleine while stuck there, and it's about the only way I'll eat jam (shoved between two shortbread-style cookies, the top one of which has a hole cut in the middle).
I was really disappointed with how the election turned out. But the Democrats were really asking for it. Without graphing my tendencies, I've got a decent grip on right and wrong and denying civil liberties is bad, imprisoning without just cause is bad, anybody who wants to should be allowed to serve in the military openly and freely and health insurance shouldn't be so insanely expensive and we should help those less fortunate and without it, either because of loss of employment or inability to secure it. Capitulation is not bipartisanship and doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome is called insanity.
Add to the election disappointment, I was doing GOTV and on the LAST BLOCK stepped off a stoop wrong and turned my foot. At home that night it swelled up like a balloon and almost two weeks out from it, I'm not back to 100% yet. Monday I've got an appointment scheduled to get it looked at by an orthopaedic doctor.
It's been simultaneously a phenomenal and challenging year. Makenna and Rylan continue to get older (the advancement of time does that to all of us) and grow more fun and interactive. While I miss them terribly while at work or traveling, services like Skype and FaceTime (when the technology works), have been really great to let them see me and vice versa. Nowhere near the same as being there, but at least it's something. Work has just been crazy because of the economy and the capacity of some of our key business partners. The early part of the year (and continuing through the year) has been spent staying awake insanely late to transact business with my partners in Asia because we've had to micromanage lots of parts of things to keep our customers happy and their business fluid. Added a direct report at the end of May who needed to get up to speed and launch us in the social media space, and it's been a near-endless "to do" list.
This was a non-competition year. Thought it was going to when I threw down for a few races at midnight on January 1st, but it didn't happen. Bailey passed away in May, I screwed up my back at the end of April, WORK...they've all conspired against me, I'm telling you. But I knew that I had to get back to it because when I went to button a shirt that I had made in Bangkok in January, it wouldn't. Stuff happens gradually, but when it's staring you in the face, it makes for stark choices. So I chose to go the other direction and it feels great to be back at it. Twenty pounds put on with lots of bad food and late food, and it comes off the same way it went on, an ounce at a time. It's just a matter of going back to the good habits that were successful the last time around.
I've become an insanely proficient barista at home. Add some syrups from Monin and Torani, Black Cat espresso from Intelligentsia and I've been turning out Pumpkin Spice lattes, Pumpkin Spice Vanilla lattes...the works. Turn past Thanksgiving and the peppermint syrup and crushed candy canes are ready to roll.
I've found a new television show and I think it just really speaks to my inner geek. Anybody out there regularly watching The Big Bang Theory? Funny and cerebral full of all the stuff I was raised with in my formative years. The fact that the characters are snarky, bright and by-and-large unapologetic for being that way strikes a chord for me as well...wonder how that happens?
On a final note, I've got to give big props to Apple for something that happened this week. I'm a stockholder (who has seen my investment jump $100/share since I got in last summer...makes my IRA happy) and somebody who is "all in" with the brand. MacBook, iPad, two (not one, but TWO) Apple TV's (and they're fabulous, will talk about them more at a later date) and an iMac at the house.
Well, the home iMac (hereafter referred to as "Kelly's computer") had been acting up and slowing down and needing frequent reboots. Two kernel panics in three days led me to make an appointment to get it into the Genius Bar at the Apple Store in Naperville. After five days of really keystone cop activity trying to get it fixed and back to us, I went in personally to address the matter. Based on the problems I'd had, plus past issues with some other hardware, they extended the offer to me to fix the one they had in their care, or to just give us a new machine.
And we selected the latter. We got a faster machine with better graphics power, faster hard drive and they threw in equivalent Apple memory to the third party stuff I had bought (I went third party because it was about 30% the cost of AAPL's). All in, probably about $3K worth of stuff replacing what we bought. That's a solid by them, and we're very happy with how it turned out.
Don't even get me STARTED on Comcast...
I think it's about time to wrap this up. It's 7:10 and my 6:15 flight which was moved to 8:05 is now leaving earl(ier) at 8:00. Still almost two hours late getting home to everybody...ugh. And on a Friday night, can there really be anything better than being miserable in an airport? Although looking around, it appears I've got quite a bit of company tonight...
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