• Solidified a new partnership today that could bring us 12 new clients this year. #
• 2 orders of General Tso’s chicken to go. #

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• Watching The Moment of Truth. Freaky show. #
• Up this morning at 3:30. Couldn’t sleep. Have to be downtown by 6:00. #
• 3rd starbucks trip today. #

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• Watching The Moment of Truth. Freaky show. #
• Up this morning at 3:30. Couldn’t sleep. Have to be downtown by 6:00. #
• 3rd starbucks trip today. #

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• Another day home sick. I think I might go crazy from being stuck in the house. #
• Just opened a fresh bag of italian roast and I’m grabbin the French Press. #
• Jacked up on coffee. I’m headed down to the convention center to set up for our event this weekend. #

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• Home today doin’ nothin’. Caught a cold traveling last week. #
• 15 toasted wheat thins = 120 calories. #
• But, it’s 60% less fat than regular fried potato chips. Hmmm…. #

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Always wanted to go here.

It’s been a busy week.

Joanna and I got home around 9:00 pm on Tuesday from California.

Seth and I drove over to Indianapolis at 5:30 am yesterday for a presentation to the nation’s largest dental financial services firm.

Now I’m back at CMH headed to Baltimore for a one day conference tomorrow.

By the way, two random thoughts.

It’s hard to find coffee in Napa Valley. There is one real Starbucks in Sonoma (the grocery store ones do not count… ever) and one in Napa. I missed my French Press desperately.

The Google Maps feature on the iPhone is one of its best features. That was all I used on our trip. No physical maps at all. And with the new software release, it is going to get even better.

Joanna and I arrived into Oakland a bit late on Saturday and ended up in about three hours of stopped traffic on the Bay Bridge. Which caused me to miss my first appointment and arrive late to my second.

Fortunately for us… ha, ha… this was the room we got to stay in Saturday night, courtesy of the Fairmont Sonoma Mission. This room sells for about $900 in off season.

.

Joanna and I are headed to California for the weekend. I am on a work trip to scout out properties in Napa Valley. We are hosting a week long trip there for our clients in September. I decided to take Jo when I found Skybus tickets for $150 and all my hotels were free - makes for a very inexpensive weekend away.

One of the things I am most excited about is taking a day trip down to L.A. My family grew up there and I haven’t been back since we left 18 years ago (or so). The downside is it’s about 7 hours of driving each way! That makes for a looooong day. But it will be fun for Jo and I to experience that together.

So here’s a map of the road trip starting in Sonoma. And here’s the location of the street I grew up on. Check it out…. it’s literally a few minutes from COMPTON.

Well, I never made it to Philly after all. Right before I walked on the plane, we ended up cancelling the meeting. We had clients from the area call and say that the storm was supposed to get pretty bad and they might not make the meeting.

So I spent the day getting some massively creative stuff done: A new web page and our 2008/2009 marketing strategy. So, not all is lost.

Got to the Columbus Airport this morning to find out that EVERYTHING going to Newark has been cancelled. EVERYTHING.

We have a seminar we are hosting tomorrow at the Newark Airport Hilton. I have to get there. My best best was to re-route through Philadelphia and catch a train up. It will add about 8 hours of travel time today, but it’s my best shot.

Here’s my only concern: Weather.com’s radar shows the winter storm hitting Newark and New York. All the airports there are closing. The storm is just missing Philly to the north. I hope it stays that way.

I spent the end of last week at our Year-End event at the Parker Meridien in Midtown Manhattan.

Seriously… I love New York.

I know some people don’t and could never live in the middle of a city like that. But I could. Get me a 65th-floor apartment overlooking Central Park. I would just have to figure out how to get the $4.5 million to pay for it.

The first picture is from the roof of the Parker Meridien looking north over central park. My business partner and I snuck up on the roof and he took this shot.

The next picture is from Times Square. We ran down there and spent about 10 minutes on Friday before we headed back to the airport.

I’m super stoked about hanging out with my brother on Saturday and taking a trip up to Cleveland to see this guy.

“Part anthropology, part history, part deconstruction - this is new material that Rob hasn’t taught before, exploring how humans invented religion to make themselves feel better.”

Caden and I try to hit Starbucks once a week or so for a little father-son snack time. He gets the Horizon Organic Vanilla Milk usually with some goldfish crackers and I get a regular coffee. We hang out for a bit, read some books, discuss the quality of beans coming out of the Rift Valley these days, those kinds of things.

Jo and I got to have a somewhat rare night out on the town last night.
I happened to get some tickets from a client to the Blue Jackets/Red Wings game. They were awesome seats; Only five rows back. The good news was that the game was really good and actually went into overtime. The bad news is that because the game was so close there were no fights. They were all on their best behavior. Sometimes hockey games are better when they are a blow out. Get the other team so hacked off that they start throwing punches.

Then we walked a few blocks to Marcella’s, Cameron Mitchell’s newest restaurant. Which, by the way, the Short North/Arena Area is my favorite place to eat in the city. It took a minute to get used to the menu because it is very much authentic italian and they are trying a new small plate ordering format (smaller portions, cheaper prices, but you order a lot of different stuff) - like a momma’s italian kitchen feel. It was good.

Don’t fool yourself. This is not a zit. An alien actually bored it’s way out of my face yesterday.

Man it hurts… And concealer ain’t workin.

Woke up this morning about 5 am with a little Kanye West in my head.

Went for a run in 34 degree weather and… snow. Crazy stuff.

Now I’m off to Dallas for the next three days. I’m hooking up with my good friend Dave tonight for dinner. It’s been about three years since we last saw each other.

Just so you know, I’ve switched my mobile number. If you need to give me a call, just email me and I’ll give it to you.

Now that the weather has gotten cold, I’m always looking for fun things to do inside with Caden. There’s nothing like a monster bubble bath in the jacuzzi tub.