Rat-a-Tat

On Saturday, Papabam came up to spend the week with us. Papa and Bella immediately went into project mode, and took over the dining room table with all sorts of little crafts. By Sunday, Bella was wearing a pair of eyeglasses made out of twigs and string, and there was a full size drawing of Isaac with butterfly wings on the floor. It's simply wonderful.

Sunday AM we went to the Arboretum for their annual pancake breakfast and maple syrup tour. We ate huge stacks of very good flapjacks and sausages, and even though the weather was brisk, we enjoyed touring the maple syrup fields... I was impressed with the latest technology: while they still use bags/buckets for some trees, they also run loooooong tubes down hills connecting a dozen trees in series, leading directly to the collection vat.

Our neighbors upgraded their couch, so we scrounged their old one and turned it into a "Mobile Recreation Unit" - we recovered it in scrap fabrics (fake fur, vinyl, animal print, flannel, it's frankly hideous in a good way) and bolted casters to the bottom. This beast will live in our garage and get wheeled out on nice days for hobnobbing on the sidewalk. We're going to carpe a lot of diems.

I'm in Portland today: We finally got a meeting with a client that I'd been desperately trying to get into for over a year. And when they made time, they MADE TIME: I got 90 minutes with them, including 30 minutes with their CIO, plus their director joined us for dinner as well. It was actually fabulous.

But more than the schmooze: When the CIO arrived, he had some very specific questions - how would we solve problem X? How would we design project team to do Y? For 30 min, it was a rapid fire conversation with just the two of us, and the rest of the people at the table sat back and tried to keep up. I gave him some free consulting, and he took copious notes. Enough to establish credibility, not enough to do the full job, of course. It's not like I read him the Colonel's secret spices recipe or anything. I got a good email back from him today thanking me for my time and looking forward to working more in the future.

I really liked yesterday because it didn't feel like sales. It felt like consulting: Talking about problems, and brainstorming solutions. And that just further cements my conviction - I need to be consulting again. And do I even need to mention that there's not a single other person in my company who could have answered his questions, nor is there anyone who could actually do the work I was describing that needs doing? Of course I don't. You know what I gotta do.

Dinner at the Heathman was divine, and I always love the fact that they have Ardbeg at the bar - long live the smoke! The Heathmans in Portland and Seattle are just such amazing places.

So shhhhhhh don't tell anyone but I'm not actually going home from Portland - I'm headed out to an east coast city to talk to another group about solutions - on my own behalf. I bought my own ticket, got my own hotel... and it's another "who could do this but me?" sort of gig. I'll be home Thursday and will probably have some news...

Then it's off to Chicago for the big HIMSS trade conference. Mucho schmoozo. But I'm still bringing my A-Game to the job I actually HAVE. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, doncha know.

Pamela, the kids, and Papabam will drive down to Palatine over the weekend and I'll meet up with them Wednesday for family fun time. We'll come back home after Easter. The kids get two whole weeks with their grandparents.