For those that don’t know, Michele is out of town. This presents certain opportunities, such as making this breakfast for my children on Halloween.
Life’s been barreling along here at full speed. After my third day of meetings today in Anaheim, I stopped by a local market to pick up some groceries. I don’t normally shop there, but due to the supermarket strike, I went in. I was pleased to find this.
I’m home.
Yesterday, my training finished up around 11 AM and we were under strict orders not to return to work. Michele plucked the girls out of school and they meet me down at the Grand Californian around lunch time.
We scooted into Disneyland and went straight to the Hanuted Mansion. The Haunted Mansion has been redecorated by Jack Skellington in his Nightmare Before Christmas motiff. The place is a sight to behold. If you can get anywhere near Disneyland before the end of the year, stop by. It’s well worth it.
Michele was excited to find an entire store devoted to selling Nightmare stuff and picked up a great commemorative plate. She also filled up on squished pennies and quarters.
The girls pushed us to hit a lot of the rides. Let’s see, we rode: Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tarzan’s Treehouse, Indian Jones, Jungle Cruise, Storybook Boat, Dumbo, Tea Cups and Saucers, Toontown Coaster, and the Matterhorn.
The girls were getting a little tired and wanted to be carried everywhere. This was the sign to wind down the day. We walked back to the hotel and had dinner at the Storyteller’s Cafe. A little more souvenir shopping and we headed home.
Tons of mail and email waiting for me in neat little stacks. My copy of Quicksilver had arrived and I hefted the considerable weight, savoring the upcoming enjoyment.
I just started my first load of laundry in the new washer. The washer has more options that a Chinese restauraunt. I need to read the manual.
Soccer starts in an hour, gotta run.
I’m down in Anaheim for a Leadership Training seminar. It’s been and interesting two days, but the work is piling up. There’s no wifi down here at the hotel so I’m reduced to dial-up access. It’s painful.
Michele is home with the kids and today wash supposed to be the arrival of the new washer. The old washer died on Monday and we bought a new front loader.
I don’t have much time for the internet with all the meeting here. Hopefully when I get home, my copy of Quicksilver will have arrived. I ordered it on my phone when I was in the airport on Sunday waiting for my luggage.
I’m sure that there are lots of interesting linsk floating about the blogosphere, but I don’t have any of them for you.
Time to go to diiner.
I’m in Troy and having a good time.
Don’t tell Michele, but here’s been my diet while in town.
Dinner: Montecristo sandwich (I could only finish half), fries and Pumpkin Ale
Late night snack – 1 AM: Beer & buffalo wings
Late night – 2:30 AM: Slice of sausage pizza
Lunch: Two tacos and a scoop of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
Life is good.
Currently, I’m in a Boeing 777 flying over the western US towards Chicago for my connection. This weekend I’m heading out to Troy, New York for my Alumni Weekend. My fraternity brothers are assembling from all over to hang out for a few days and relive the fun and freedom of our college days.
The plane is huge and filled to the brim with USC people. Somehow I’m the the specific flight that all the USC boosters decided to take to go see USC play Notre Dame.
Of course, I hope USC loses miserably to Notre Dame and these people are sorely disappointed. I haven’t mentioned my support of UCLA or Notre Dame for fear of being strangled by the unthinking SC hordes. I have laid my secret curse upon them and their team WILL LOSE.
In other news, my stress level is high. Hopefully this break will reduce it. This month has a lot going on for the family. Michele has her trip to Houston planned in a couple weeks and it is causing her much stress. The more she gets into business, the more tough things she encounters. I feel for her.
My work is full of change. Nothing terrible, just lots of change on several fronts. The work is piling up and the number of issues to deal with is growing. The trouble is that most of my work consists of dealing with people, not solitary efforts I can simply do on my own. I have to talk with many people and both understand their viewpoints and try to express mine. This isn’t easy. Contrary to popular belief, just because you are the boss, you can’t simply order people to do what you want. Sure, it may work in the short run for a bit, but in the long term is would be disasterous. People need to agree wth what I want done and I have to be willing to change what I want based on the advice of others.
Changing my mind isn’t always easy. Having faith that someone else knows better doesn’t come naturally to me. I tend to make a snap decision and act to defend it from ‘attack’. So I have to force myself to let my staff do thei jobs and not try to second guess them. Things aren’t always done they way aI would do them, but in general the job gets done and I hope people feel they had the freedom to use their own judgement.
Working with people in this way takes time and drains your energy. I’m running low on that energy and I hope this trip recharges me.
Back to the mundane
The movie on the flight was Legally Blonde 2. Like a piece of cotton candy, it taste good for a moment and then disappears. The humor had me chuckling and I was suprised to see Bob Newhart with a big role in the film. Newhart is one funny dude and I wish he did more films.
Last night the Cubs lost the pennant race. I really, REALLY< wanted them to win. They didn't lose due to luck, bad umpires, or a clueles fan in the stands. They lost because they got outplayed and outmanaged by the Marlins. Dusty Baker is a great coach (and a former Dodger) but he sucked in the last three games. Manging in the playoffs is an all or nothing proposition. His reluctance to bring in relief pitches was the biggest cause of the Cubs failure. The pitcher is going to understand if you pull him out of a jam. It's the frigging Pennant on the line. Now isn't the time to show your loyalty.
I can only hope that the Yankees lose tonight. I hate the damn Yankees. Every American west of the Hudson hates the Yankees. My hopes of a Cubs/Red Sox World Series are gone, but things will be better if the smary Yankees are sent home losers.
Gaming
I’ve been playing a lot of Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory lately. I have been getting frustrated with playing n the public servers and dealing with the people that don’t play the game ‘right’. It may be time for me to try a clan. I know the level of play would be better but I’m unfamiliar with the clan ‘ways’ of doing things.
What I really need is a new game. Halo and Planetside are fun, but I just aren’t findng them sticky and wanting to play them regularly. I don’t really know what’s on the horizon that will suck me in. I’m hoping that Unreal Warfare or UT 2004 or Half-life will be the ticket. Half-life has the potential to be an excellentmultiplayer game, but I haven’t heard much about Team Fortress 2 lately.
China has launched Yang Liwei into orbit.
When you go to the post office, have your shit together.
Everything should be ready to mail. Don’t walk up to the counter with a pile of papers asking questions about how to mail you stack of crap.
This morning I was about to start screaming at a lady who was mailing some things directly from the shopping bag. Morons…