Evening to you and I hope that you are doing well. It looks like there are only a couple of more days before we hit April and the warmer weather should be right behind that but we haven't seen much of that as of yet. And I don't have much to report as it was rather an uneventful weekend but I did get caught up on some much needed sleep but that is about it. I think that the trip to Los Angeles at the beginning of the week wore me right out but at least it was in the 80's for the two days that I was there.
I flew out to LA on Monday on the 7am flight which meant a 4am wake up call and then I got to the airport and my Virgin America flight was delayed by 30 minutes but that still put me in LA by close to 10am. Our meeting with Starwood started at 1pm and lasted the rest of the day and then we had a lovely reception after that that ended about 9pm and made for an extra long day. Then on Tuesday we began with a 7:15am breakfast and then our meetings went to about 1pm and then we were out of there and headed back home - I think my time flying was actually longer than the actual meeting that I attended. It was a good meeting and we try and do them every six months but hopefully the next one will be closer that this one was. And my American Airlines flight back here was a mess, LAX was a free for all and the lines went on for days, then our flight was delayed for an hour and then once we got on the plane they couldn't find anyone to push us out. So what was suppose to be a 10:30pm arrival into Dulles that turned into more like a midnight touch down and close to 1am by the time that I got home. I did go into work late on Wednesday but it still kind of messed me up for the rest of the week. I think that I'm ok now though and I don't think that I have any trips planned as of today for the entire month of April but we'll see how long that lasts.
I got a call on Friday from Verizon and they still think that they are coming to install my FIOS on Friday and I am so over them that I'm not even going to try and call to make sure that they cancel ....... and guess that they'll figure it out if they show up and there is no one here. I also have my sprinkler guys coming on Wednesday to turn on my sprinkler system again so I guess they assume the days of the hard freeze are behind us so I hope that they are right. I think that I can have them do that without me being here as long as they can get into the garage, I know they can even though I'll have to convince them of that but they did install the entire thing without me being here so I know they can do it.
I also think that I mentioned that my nephew decided to pass on going with me to Mexico in May as he didn't think that he would have enough time to get a passport so he's going to work on that and maybe go with me the next time around. I'm not sure when the next time is but I'm pretty sure that I'll be going back another time - that is unless I find a place that I like better in the meantime. And that's about a month away and I can't wait, actually I've been thinking about taking a week off before then and just hanging out around the house doing my "spring cleaning". I do need to look into it though and could really use it even if I'm working from home part of the time.
And my sonicare toothbrush finally died so I will have to look into buying another one, I think that I've had it for at least the last three or four years and it's been good to me. But it's slowly been loosing it's charge and has even been beeping at me in the middle of the night and I'm not even sure what that is suppose to mean. But I'll have to look at getting another one one of these days. I also bought a new pair of Nikes off of nike.com and I'm thinking that I am liking them but still trying to break them in.
I guess that is about it for today and all is well with me and it's back to work tomorrow for another week. I hope that you have a great week as well and try and not be too foolish on April Fools day.
And a friend sent me the following "eye test" but not sure that it will work on here ...... but maybe you can give it a try ........
1) Is This Possible??
2)
3)Are the purple lines straight or bent?
4) Do you see gray areas in between the squares?
5) You should see a man's face and also a word... Hint: Try tilting your head to the right, the world begins with 'L'
6) If you! take a look at the following picture, let me tell you .... it is not animated. Your eyes are making it move. To test this, stare at one spot for a couple seconds and everything will stop moving. Or look at the black center of each circle and it will stop moving. But move your eyes to the next black center and the previous will move after you take your eyes away from it Weird ?
Good evening to you and I hope that you had a super Easter Sunday! Was the Little Easter Bunny good to you this year? Easter isn't real special around here and just seems to be another Sunday but with that and spring break it has certainly made an improvement on my daily commute. And last week was a pretty short on and was in Atlanta Sunday - Wednesday and then back in the office on Thursday and Friday so that made for a short week although it sure did seem like it lasted forever. We had a really good meeting and that kept us on the go just about every minute that we were there, we started out Sunday evening with a barbecue outside in the woods behind the hotel ...... it was a nice hotel that was in the burbs of Ravinia about 20 minutes north of downtown. We actually took the MARTA from the airport to the hotel and that took about 30 minutes but for $6.00 you can't beat it ..... especially when it's close to a $50 cab ride otherwise.
We then started the meetings on Monday morning with our president opening the meeting and then another guest speaker and then we spent most of the rest of the day doing breakouts, one was by discipline and the other was by brand. Then Monday night we went to a theater that was kind of Egyptian or something but it was a pretty cool building in downtown where we had a nice dinner and then watched a show. The entertainment was pretty cool and it was this husband and wife duo that could read your mind and could tell what you had in your hand even though the wife was blindfolded - we all pretty much knew there was a catch but we never did quite figure out how they did it. Then Tuesday morning we had a guest speaker from some of our hotels in the UK and he was pretty entertaining, then we had Jud Laipply talk for about an hour and a half and he was pretty funny - and while I've never heard of the guy I guess that he made a name for himself having the most viewed video on U-Tube and has been on all kinds of talk shows since. His message was great and it was basically to not sweat the things that you have no control over and to focus your energies on the things that you can change - plus he talked a lot about kids and how we all grew up and kind of like how we played on asphalt playgrounds when we were kids and now they are covered with down pillows ...... and that kids on average laugh 200 times a day and adults laugh 7 times ..... and laughter is good for the body in many ways. He then ended his talk with the Evolution of Dance which I didn't see coming but he was pretty good at it just the same. You can have a watch here if you have a couple of minutes -
And this weekend turned out to be half way decent even though it was suppose to rain all day yesterday but it never really did, it did sprinkle a few times and there was some sleet for a while but other than that the sun came out and again today was bright and sunny. It's still mighty cold out though as was down in the 30's the last couple of nights but has been in the upper 40's during the day. Yesterday I ended up raking my entire front lawn and then broke out the lawn mower and mowed the front part and then fertilized the whole thing and also filled in some of the spots with some grass seed. It's not looking too awfully bad out there though and I think that I might have a lawn this year as long as it rains a little bit. And I decided not to do the TruGreenChemlawn guys this year and I'll just try and do it myself ...... as long as I don't try and kill any crab grass I might be ok.
Oh, and I forgot that I was suppose to have my Verizon FIOS installed yesterday but they ended up calling me on Friday (the day before) to tell me that they were going to have to postpone it for another two weeks and rescheduled me for a Friday even though I waited six weeks for a Saturday. They have really gotten on my nerves and brought back memories of a year ago when I had them for phone and DSL and I hate that lady recording - plus they had to transfer me to five different people when I called as no one could help me. It all started in the beginning of January when I scheduled the installation on line for mid-February and then I called to confirm a few days before they were due to come only to be told that they had no record of my appointment and then had to rebook me. So that was another six week wait and then they cancel me and blame my old phone company saying they only transfer numbers during the week and there was nothing they could do about it. I ended up cancelling the entire thing and I'll keep what I've got - anything is better than having to have to deal with them again.
And I am off to LA this week staying at the Sheraton LAX and we are attending a Starwood Hotels focus group meeting but it's only like a half a day on Monday and then a half a day on Tuesday and then I turn around and fly home again. Sure is a long ways to go for such a short meeting - and think that the flight there and back is longer than our entire meeting lasts. But they usually treat us very well and I'm sure that we will eat pretty good, and if I'm lucky I might even learn a thing or two. I ended up having to book two one way tickets to get the times that I needed and almost ended up having to stay another day due to the limited flights coming back this way Tuesday afternoon. But I am flying my favorite Virgin America on the way out and then on United coming home and hopefully all will go well and I'll be back in the office come Wednesday morning. I guess that's about if for this day so until the next time I'll talk with you soon. Take it easy and have a great week!
Well here it is the beginning of another week and it should fly right by as we are all attending our annual National Sales Meeting in Atlanta GA. It's actually Sunday around 1pm and we just took off from Dulles on a Delta flight and should be in Atlanta in another hour. All goes well so far and we took off on time and I should be at the hotel in plenty of time for the fun to begin this evening. The meetings start tomorrow morning and then end with an awards dinner Tuesday and then it's back home on Wednesday and back to the office on Thursday. We are staying at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia and was there a month or so ago and it hopefully will all go smoothly. We are doing an off site event tomorrow night which I'm not sure what that is and then again on Tuesday we all got to select an activity between bowling, go carting and a bus tour of Atlanta and I chose the tour as even though I've been there probably 100 times I've next actually seen what the city has to offer. That should be kind of cool as I guess that we visit the Coke place and also tour through the CNN building, but I'm not sure yet how much we'll be able to do with all of the storm damage that you hear about. I guess that we'll find out come Tuesday.
And yesterday was pretty much spent doing everything that I would normally do today and got my laundry done and the groceries shopped and also spent about two hours out in the yard raking up leaves as the weather was beautiful. And I had planted a bunch of grass seed on Thanksgiving day but didn't see that it did any good but that stuff is now starting to grow so the lawn might turn out ok. The lack of rain last year did do a toll on it but hopefully it will come back with all of the recent rains that we have been having. And the good news is that Loudoun County actually lifted their water ban and we are no longer listed as having a "drought emergency" and guess that they have the reservoir about 1/2 full now but they are hoping for much more. But at least I should be able to use my sprinklers at least a little but it will probably cost me a fortune to do that so I'll have to limit how much I run them. I also have Verizon coming next weekend to do their FIOS deal with the phone/cable/Internet and I am hoping that I like that as well.
And another thing that I've been trying out is my pillows on my bed, I ordered those Sealy foam contour things from Overstock and got them the other day but they definitely take some getting used to. I actually thought that they would be this spongy foam type thing but no, these things are actually pretty hard and not fluffy at all, but they do mold to your head (and neck) and bounce right back to the original shape when you move. I was thinking that it might help ease some of the tension in my neck but after sleeping on them for the past three nights I'm not sure that I feel any different at all. I think that I'll keep using them for a while and see if I see any improvements.
I have also been getting the "Jeep urge" again and with the warmer weather I am wanting to get a beat up old Jeep Wranger to cruise around in and it might even make the drive to work more fun with the convertible thing. I found one that I really liked on eBay Motors that I was keeping an eye on but then this morning found out that the listed had ended as someone used the Buy It Now deal. So I'll have to keep looking around and would prefer to find something local but guess that if I find one that's an hour or two away I just have to figure out how to get there to pick it up. I'm also wondering again about where I am going to store it but guess that I might be able to make room for it some day in the garage, otherwise I could fit both of my cars in my driveway if I had to.
Not too much else to discuss other than spring is definitely getting closer and things are even starting to green up and bloom all ready - the trees are pretty much on the verge of it and should only be a few more weeks until it is definitely underway. It is definitely my favorite season of them all, now I just need to take a little time off so that I can enjoy it. The days are getting longer and it's all ready light out until after 7:30pm - too bad that it doesn't get light in the morning before 7am yet. So I guess that's it for this day, I hope that you have a wonderful week and I will speak with you again sometime soon. Take care until then.
Good evening and how are you doing today? Not too much new with me but what's new, here it is another Sunday night and it's back to work in the morning. I think that I'm going to like the time change thing as it was almost 7:30pm tonight before it got dark and I don't think that loosing that one hour is going to hurt ....... the only downside for the moment is that it's going to be pitch black driving to work in the morning again. Today was a very nice day around here but only about in the 40's but definitely full of sun, however yesterday was crazy with winds up in the 50 mph range and some peltering rains. At least they called it and it came together just like the weather man said that it would. And it's back to winter for the week but slightly better than normal with the days in the 50's and the nights in the 30's ....... there is even one day that might make it up into the 60's!
Overall though it was a pretty quiet weekend, the weather yesterday was so crappy that I decided to go and get a massage - although trying to find a place same day was rather difficult but I did end up finding a place ...... just not the best massage that I've had in my day though. I am actually waiting until I get to Mexico for an awesome massage and guess that I am only about six more weeks away. I heard back from my nephew and it doesn't sound like he is going to make it as he has gotten no where with his plans and hasn't gotten the time off yet nor worked on getting his passport. But either way I'm headed south for the week and I'm starting to really look forward to it. I also found out that I am going to the GM's meeting which is being held in La Jolla Mexico and we will be there for that meeting starting on the 14th of May, so I get back here on the 10th and then head back down four days later - so half of my month of May will be spent in Mexico.
Not too much else to report though, I'm starting to get a little antsy about getting out in the yard and am going to need to take a day or two off just to work around the yard, I also need to schedule getting my sprinklers turned back on but hope that we'll be able to use them this year. We are still under a drought emergency however but I am hoping that some day we might be able to use a hose again.The stupid thing has been going on since October so you'd think that we saved enough to at least run water outside again. I guess that the county is also working on adding a huge pipe from Fairfax County to add to the supply but who knows how many years in the making that project is going to take.
I guess that's about it for this fine day, I'm doing well and hope that you are too and I will talk with you on another day. Have a great week ahead!
Happy days of March and how are things with you? And in the spirit of spring I broke out the shorts today and wore them instead of long pants and I'm hoping that more days will be coming soon. Tomorrow is suppose to be in the high 60's with nothing but sunshine so that should be great ....... but why are those days always during the week? Not too much going on with me and was in the office all last week but I guess that the time flew right by but I know that by the time Friday rolled around I was certainly ready for the weekend. And I think that I'm here for the next two weeks and then we are off to Atlanta for our National Sales meeting for a few days. I ended up getting my new laptop on Wednesday and got an IBM Thinkpad T61 which is smaller and lighter than my old one but other than that the thing is pretty much the exact same thing.
I did get a chance to meet up and have lunch with Megan my niece yesterday as she had this big ole American Tourister suitcase that broke the handle off - and the repair place was in Sterling so she brought it here to try and get fixed. But it was kind of lame as they told her that they didn't think that it would be covered under warranty as they only covered "defects" so she probably could have taken it anywhere since the only reason she brought it here was they were an authorized dealer. But while she was taking hers in I ended up taking my garment bag that blew out the zipper in two places and had them try and fix that as well - who knows how long it's going to take them or how much it's going to cost but I guess that I'll find out once they call me. And then after that we ended up going to lunch at Olive Garden which is always good and we just got the soup, salad and bread sticks thing and that was enough for us. Once we got back to my house she showed me a bunch of her vacation photos from the family trip to Cancun for John's birthday ....... I think that it was last week and looks like they had a great time.
I can't remember if I mentioned it before but I planned my trip to Maya and booked a room and a flight the first week of May and can't wait, guess that it's just about two months away to the day. I am trying to take my nephew Tim with me if he can work out his stuff, he needs to try and get the time off and if he's going get a passport so he'd better get to it if he can make it and let me know so that I can firm up the plans. I'm going either way but it might be fun spending time with him ..... but we might get on each others nerves after seven days and nights.
Other than that there isn't too much going on here, I ended up renewing my website for another year but I had to delete a bunch of my photos to get the size of the thing down so that I didn't have to buy a bunch of storage space. I really need to revamp the thing at some point or just get rid of it and think that my six years of blogs takes up half of my site. But just know that if you click on some of the pics and they don't work don't worry and I am aware of the situation. I also just got done baking some chocolate chip cookies that I plan to take to work, but that probably wasn't really necessary as it was girl scout delivery week last week and everyone has boxes of them! So I guess that's about it for this fine day - I hope that you have a great week ahead and I will talk with you soon.
