Excuse me while I catch my breath…
And sip on my Boulevard Pale Ale…
And turn up #41…
By the way have I mentioned that #41 is in the lead for my favorite DMB tune? Well it is. How about yours?
Now let me take another swig of my brew…
I apologize for the lapse in writing. I know you all hang on every posting of the blog. It means so much to you and yet taking a week between postings totally mixes up your life. However I would like to welcome some new readers: Tear-ray from good ole’ Virginia and my cousin from Gumpland. Both recently posted comments and I was happy to hear from them.
I think of Terri often as “building value in a production product” slaps me in the face daily. I think of Eileen and her family often as “Moo and Poo” enter my mind daily. Heck, “mecca” appears in the header of this page. How can I not think of all the great people associated with this place?!
I traveled some last week – to Denver, a eerily familiar place. The highlight aside from productive discussions was seeing an old friend. Probably the most brillant person I know outside of Mr. Artley had a beer with me. Maria has gotten some press in her career but only those who interact with her daily truly know the superstar within. I’ve only seen glimpses and oh how I crave more. I truly feel fortunate to have one Buttface a year with her. It’s more than millions get to have in their lifetime and oh how we could cure cable disease if there were about 10 Maria’s working across the industry.
The MOVE happens this week. I hit good ole Virginia Tuesday night. The movers show up Thursday morning. We’re officialy Missouri residents come next Saturday. It pains me to type this and I have tears in my eyes. I look forward to future challenges but leaving Virginia, the many memories, and my adopted brother give me great pain. I have claimed myself to be a Virginian. I tell people when they ask me where I am from, “Virginia.” It’s the birthplace of America. It’s where the union was preserved. It’s where the good ole’ central region won “region of the year.” History. And now past history.
But I’m a proud ass monkey. Moving branch to branch. Tree to tree.
The house is almost ready. I plan another home tour once all is complete. We’re painting everything top to bottom. New trim. New carpet downstairs. New light fixtures. Everyday there’s some earth shattering decision (at least earth shattering to me) to make on the remodeling. For instance this weekend I’ve been back and forth on the bathrooms. The question has been to provide the children a more functional space by taking the cabinet with double vanity in the master bath and moving to their bathroom. I would install a new cabinet and double vanity in the master. This of course would also mean new trimmings in both bathrooms. Our decision was to leave them alone and do them in a month or so after we know what we want for certain.
The carpet was a sleep loser too. My contractor, bless his heart, only budgeted $5 a square yard. I didn’t realize that this was spit until I went to pick out the carpet. Then of course you have to have the pad, another expense not budgeted for, at least the quality wasn’t accounted for. So the carpet with pad is costing me about four times estimated. They say when you remodel expect to spend about 50% more than budgeted/estimated. I think so far I’m at about 15-20% more and I intend to keep it that way. Afterall the additional spending will come after Tracey parachutes in next week – curtains, blinds, and do-dads.
But I’m a proud, proud monkey.
Oh I almost forgot… The big announcement of the last week… dum dum da dummm…
I’m going back to school. I received my acceptance to Washington University’s EMBA program last week. I’m totally stoked. I start in the Fall. Classes will be every other week on weekend’s for 19-20 months. It will be the most challenging thing of my life. However as Tim commented “man, your going to be a somthin’ somthin'” (or somethin’ to that effect). Well the ultimate goal is to get me a ticket to the show. Then it’s up to me to make the most of it.
Check ya next time…. probably after the move.
Dude, be all you can be — and I don’t mean that as a joke. We’re as much as we want to be, a fact that confronts me this week as I am in NYC for a visit to the “Emerald City” to present our Web Strategy to our chief muckety muck. Well it only took a year, ah the sanity of the insane boggles the mind, right?
Wow, I must have written this when I got back to my room – barely remember writing this. At least I didn’t buzz you at 2am right? :~)
Hello from “Tear-ray from good ole’ Virginia!” Congrats on going back to school! It’s a dream of mine that I vow to make real when I eventually retire from the 9-to-5 rat race. I’m 56 now, so retirement is not that far in the future. One of the things I always liked about being in advertising was that I HAD to keep current with technology…and…I had to continue to learn “stuff” every day in order to write commercials about anything and everything. I’m officially out of the media now, but I am now a qualified makeup artist! I perform makeovers as a Clinique consultant. A few Saturdays ago, I completely made over 21 women!!! That’s 21 faces in one day! It was a blast.
Yep, I banked that and the interest will actually carry me through retirement. You never got your money because you failed to send me an address. The other two winners got their dough. Never the less if you can muster some energy to actually send an address, I’ll forward some cheese to go with the wine.