nostatic at all...

Can you hear me now?

And not even mine. That is the total "accomplishment" for the day. I suppose that's why they call it vacation...

Wait...vacation is over?!?!?

Why is it when I'm about to travel I get sick? I'm not sure the reason, but it certainly is annoying. 0500 comes early tomorrow. And my head's gonna bust wide open...

Well, let's see. 0500 wake up, hustle to LAX, fly to Tucson, drive for an hour and a half, meetings all day, head cold raging, finally get dinner, get back to my room, and I've got a double chin (swollen lymph nodes?). To top it off, a call from the credit card company asking about some fraudulent charges. So the card is cancelled (3rd time in a year) and a new one will be issued. Always fun when you're on the road and were going to use that card...sigh.

Nose that it. A *very* long day that started at 0400 (actually 0300 PST but who's counting) with inability to continue sleeping followed by meetings and dog and pony until 1230 then a drive back to Tuscon then a very late lunch at the airport (yum - not) then flight back. All this amidst some firefighting due to my tardy proposal delivery. And non-stop nose running and sneezing due to the head cold. Always fun to travel when you're sick. Finally back to the office (but I didn't go in - horray for me) at 1730, a quick stop at Peets for the first decent coffee in 2 days, then pick up the boy from a friend's house, then dinner, then finishing the proposal. Now time to collapse. If my nose would stop running...the sudafed isn't working...

What do you do when you feel like crap but have work to do? Why, take a half sick day and work the other half from home. Sleep, work, sleep, work, etc. Thank you, dsl...

The bug lingers. Another 4 hours on, 4 hours off. Festive. So nice to head into a weekend off feeling like sleeping...

It's addicting...

...and les nessman. Now to record it...

After holiday break and a week traveling and out sick, finally back to class. It often is a struggle to haul my arse to class, but invariably by the end of class the chi is flowing and life is much better. If only I could remember that...

Well, the chi may have been flowing but this video project isn't. Time to beg my way out of the loop. Other things to do, and this one isn't moving forward. Nobody's perfect...

It is always tough to schedule a kick off meeting when waiting for the often interminable and indeterminate contracting processes to do their voodoo. At some point you pick a date and hope. What happens if the contract isn't in place? Ummm...let's not go there. Reschedule? Bad. Book travel with no budget in place? Bad. Other alternative? None.

You know you're in trouble when the email starts with, "I don't want this to be a beat down on you but..."

To quote Ian Dury - "hit me with your rhythm stick...hit me...hit me!"

Lesson one for the boy. And already reading charts. Hmm...

The royal sampler taken out to the desert. Let's see...12 gauge? Check. .357? Check. 9mm? Check. .223? Check. .22LR? Check, pistol and long rifle.

The bowling pin was not very happy...

The world is about to end - head for high ground and for gawd's sake please be well armed.

In other news, Jack Bauer is back. Nice fire ax!

With the increasing confluence of work and play (or work and work), it often gets tough to discern weekdays from weekends from holidays. Thankfully middle school rather forces the issue, so the day was spent at home (with gathering storm clouds - literal) and the last day of rather un-fettered gaming for the boy. Enjoy it while you can...

OK, I love a nice bit of weather as much as the next guy (perhaps more - rainfall is a decent insomnia treatment), but tornados in Long Beach?!?

So how can we use the wisdom of crowds in a game to actually do something productive and save lives? Well, I guess I have to figure that out...

The rains pass for the day but winter remains. A bit of fire and ice...

Lesson two for the boy. Some more complicated beats and charts, and a bit of Motown to boot. The boy could be really good if he chooses to be...just have to avoid the "p" word.

More projects, something old, something new, something borrowed but nothing blue. And more budgets to cipher. As they say in "A Bug's Life" - it's my lot in life...it isn't a lot but it's life.

Finally a stop to the rain and a bit of free time so onto two wheels and checking the surf from somewhat afar. I love two wheels. Of all kinds.

Some Calvin art from awhile back - long shutter and a laser pointer.

I have to wake up when?!? First flight out to AZ tomorrow. Fun times...

I'm in AZ, but my mind might be elsewhere...

Up early, meetings until 1230, drive through desert, flight at 1600, eat in between the time cracks, land at 1630, into work for impromptu meetings, drive home in time for the boy's drum lesson, send emails and write briefs, and...

back away from the laptop...no one has to get hurt here...

Literally. It is the end of the week. And I'm done. For the week that is...

An un-planned event, but sometimes you find something and it follows you home...

Back to an old haunt with some old friends and some old songs. But a new bass. Something's got to change (other than the amount of gray in my hair)