I have Returned

Well, after that teambuilding, it was really quite a rough morning for old Jimbo. Let's just say that I shall be detoxifying for a while. Nothing like my epic wipeouts of my earlier days, but I was a bit.... fuzzy.... By noon, I was back on track following two "new Starbucks" espressos and a bowl of Maggiano's spaghetti and meat balls. It worked wonders. The booth was a complete grind - all of our key contacts had come and gone, and it was just a bunch of vendors looking at other vendors, with the odd grad student or "independent businessman" dropping by to completely waste our time.

The last day of the conference was deemed optional for most of us, and I was lucky enough to have caught a late flight home Wednesday night... An exit seat in the 40th row, but at least I had legroom... even if I had to wait for 20 minutes to deplane.

The cab got me home and I was in bed by midnight. And Isaac got me up at 5:30... the look on his face when I walked in was priceless - he held me in a long hug, and kept breaking out of it to look up at me with a smile, then back into a hug, while singing "da da da da da!" Well, it wasn't going to be possible to get him back asleep after that, so I guess we were up!

Bella joined us around 7, and Pamela was up by 8, having the well deserved rest of a champion - she made it through my (almost) 6 day absence. Bella was elated to see me, and curled into a loooong hug - for minutes. I showered with the kids, helped get them dressed, and took them to school with Pamela... and then we got to go have breakfast together, which was just so nice!

No rest for the wicked... I had to go to the old client: Remember how we had that big meeting and everything was looking better? Well, in the past 30 days, they've missed every milestone they committed to, moved others out by months, and flat out decided they can't do a few. So I was called into an emergency meeting with the CIO and VPs to decide on action: Do we have another meeting? Do we throw the book at them?

We're going for the kill this time: We did diplomacy, they didn't live up to their end in any way. My favorite doctor ran into me in the hall - and he berated me for tempering his commentary in my official writeup. ("You did not quote me correctly - I said they were LIARS and that their product was INFERIOR") I reminded him that the gist of the story was intact and that the breadth of the audience meant I NEEDED to temper it... which he grudgingly agreed to. But upon hearing of the new situation, he pounced: IS THIS STRIKE THREE, JIM? TELL ME THIS IS STRIKE THREE.

Then to the new office to get my expenses for the week submitted. Ooooof. I am amazed at a simple bit of math: You go to a hotel that costs $130/night and you will usually get a king bed, free internet, a workout room, business center with printers, and a decent breakfast buffet (hot food for $10) Courtyard by Marriott are great examples. In Orlando I stayed at a "higher end" hotel very near the convention center, paid twice that much per night, and had incidental fees for internet, workout facilities, and business center use, and breakfast was always twice as expensive. So not only is the base rate higher, but they nickel and dime you... amazing.

The one saving grace was that the hotel bar stocked Lagavulin 16. Hmmm, the Chicago Courtyard had Lag too, so that's no advantage. Well, another saving grace is that I didn't actually have to pay for it, the company did (which is obviously how that hotel stays in business...)

I got to put the kids to bed tonight and it was full of cuddles. Bella and I only had time for one game of go fish, and I won by a large margin... so I thanked her profusely for ALLOWING me to win as a welcome home present, and resolved to return to sneakier ways for tomorrow's game... At least until Bella grows comfortable with the tyrannies of chance games (which Go Fish really is...)

There were a lot of great quotes from Bella today, and I'll put them in the next post.

It's great to be home.