sniff sniff

Well this is just great: At the end of a whirlwind week with a full schedule awaiting me tonight through the weekend, and I might just have a full blown cold. I'm amping up the fluids, teas, and vitamins, I got a good night's sleep, and will snooze on the plane today, but I have doubts about how effective I might be as a fitness instructor tonight. I'm less worried about having my scotch buddies over: I can happily abstain and enjoy their company as we watch a crazy movie (Speed Racer). Unless the Ant brings some legendary dram, as he did last time (that Glenmorangie 25 was the stuff of fairy tales).

Denver has been good: I visited the grandparents for a bit: Grandma is well, Grandpa is looking ashen - he has bronchitis again and his back is hurting... and his memory is flickering a bit: He asked the same question to me twice, but I did see him correct himself on a few other things - you can see him trying. Grandma said that he's been asking for key background info at times - "Did you come from Bismark?" was one question asked in the middle of the night. Grandma is weathering it well, but I can't imagine how hard it would be to watch Pamela slip away like that.

On to the REASON I was in Denver: Our big "rebranding meeting" - my company will no longer be what it was. And since this blog is googleable, I won't go into the new or old names here. The new name is predictable, but the new LOGO is way better than I expected - it's very compelling. New to the organization (and brought in by the acquisition of our company, where the personal touch was paramount) was the concept of bringing all your people together for big announcements: Previously this sort of thing would have been an email. Ted, the CEO, said that the past 3 weeks with these town hall meetings were the most rewarding he's had in the last 3 years with the company, which was pretty nice to hear - if we at 80 people have influence the culture of a thousand person firm to that extent, that's amazing.

On a purely personal note, it is nice to be standing in a reception and have the CEO holler out my name as he walks in the room. To have identity like that in a big company is not bad at all.

This AM, I was chagrined to have not remembered the lesson I learned back in July at this hotel: They have the worst breakfast on the planet: Omelets made to order, but they cook the eggs completely, then toss the "add ins" in (cold) and fold it over like an egg taco. I watched them make my waffle, and he picked it out of the iron with his FINGERS. The tray of bacon on the buffet was at best medium-rare, and I never got a warm up on my coffee... yes, this will not be a breakfast I repeat.

Well it's time to pack up and head back to the airport. I have two fresh "killer sudokus" to do on the flight home: Killer is were you not only have to not repeat numbers in a 3x3 box, row, or column, but you also need to make the numbers ADD UP to sums all over the board. Whereas I can usually chew through a half dozen sudokus on a usual flight, a Killer will last the whole flight.