Posts from — June 2004

If ending the 2nd quarter with a huge bang & starting the 3rd quarter like a snowball headed down the mountain weren't enough, I got an email today from the President of my company. Not a generic, "we're doing this & that" email but a personal email - written to me, for me, and copied to the regional VP.

In a nutshell, it was a personal thank you. Last month, I had one of the 10 largest signed contracts in the company. It meant a lot to him - especially given the nature of my property (ie small resort).

That put a pretty big smile on my face. My reply went like this:

Geoff,
Thanks for the mad props. I'm feeling the love, bro. I'm gonna cost you a wheelbarrow in bonus ca$h, but it's cool - I'm using the dough to buy spinners on the Taurus. Kev Out

And then I hit backspace 179 times and typed a very gracious (reply all) thanks.

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DAMN! I can't believe I forgot. Now you watch, someone's going to win this week. I was going to getmy numbers tonight, but then I heard the raptors in the neighbor's backyard and…welll…my Zebutaran brain went offline.

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It's been said that America loves a man that admits he's wrong and fesses up. Well, I hope they're right.

A while back, a new Dallas-Fort Worth blog was launched. You may remember me being pretty excited. You may also remember me denying that I was involved in a substantial way. Welll….that's not exactly true.

Yallblog is my baby. My creation. I am DFW Blogger from Yallblog.com. I wanted a chance to create a D/FW blog (~~ignore the obvious google-fodder~~) and to have an outlet to comment on things anonymously. Well, someone is thinking about calling my bluff, so I need to come clean here. I wasn't trying to hide anything and I'm sorry if I mislead you.

So, when I said "no", I meant "yes".

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I'm so blessed to have found someone who loves me completely. I married my best friend. We've been together for ten years and I couldn't be happier. I know I don't tell her enough, but I really am the luckiest man ever.

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Terrorists in Iraq have kidnapped a US Marine and are threatening to kill him.

Note to Terrorists: It's a really bad idea to kidnap Americans. It pisses us off big time. Worse, it's a really bad idea to kidnap US soldiers. It pisses us off & our soldiers. But you had to take it one step further - you kidnapped a Marine. That was a really, really, really bad idea. American Marines are the bravest, baddest SOBs on the planet. They will hunt you down and kill you in ways that even you cannot imagine. For your families' sake, I would suggest you release the Marine.

We'll pray for his release, but I won't hold my breath. Stuff like this really makes me wonder what we're waiting for.

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So what's a parent to do when your teen breaks all the rules?

Via BrykMantra

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Well, I'm almost finished with my landscaping project. All the old shrubs are gone. The most Charlie Brown branches from the Charlie Brown Tree are gone. The old landscaping borders are gone. In it's place is a really nice looking landscaping bed bordered by a brick-reddish retaining wall. I've also gone ahead and installed some landscape lighting that will silohette the house at night. Should be nice.

A light rain (combined with many, many beers) this weekend threatened to push this project well into next week, but I think we're at a good place so far. All that's left is to add a yard or so of topsoil and install the as of yet unpurchased trees/bushes/flowers. In the meantime, I've put down some weedstop to try to fight off any seeds/spores I may have unearthed in this process.

The weedstop will get a day or so to do it's thing and I'll try to put down the topsoil tomorrow, as well as give the yard a good mow & edge. Tuesday-ish will be the plant install, assuming Merrin & I can come up with our selections. When we're done, I'll try to post a couple before & after shots.

Tonight I'll try out the lighting a la Christmas Vacation to see if we have enough, too much, or not enough. Hopefully nothing will catch on fire.

Merrin seems to be really happy with the outcome, which is all I care about. I just want her to have something a little nicer.

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Well, here I go again. I've embarked on another (overly) ambitious project to try to give my wife something nice. This time it's the front yard and new landscaping.

This afternoon when I got home I began digging up all the plants in our front yard to install a new flower bed/plant area. It turned out to be a very physical project. Uprooting 10 year old shrubs turned out to be a little harder than I thought it would be, until Josh showed up.

Josh noticed my efforts on his way home from work and stopped by to snicker observe my progress. I think he was pretty impressed that my gray shirt was mostly drenched with sweat (which always looks cool on pro athletes). I explained I was cutting the roots with a root saw and then digging the plants out. That was, as I would soon learn, one way of getting the job done.

Josh talked me into trying a different tack and it saved me…oh…six hours. Instead of cutting & digging, we hooked the remaining shrubs up to his truck and ripped them out. Not only was it exceptionally efficient (and cool!), but it was quite a scene for the neighbors to enjoy. I think we can make some serious coin going door to door and uprooting plants with Josh's truck. We'll see.

When we finished, Josh helped me trim up my Charlie Brown Tree™. Later, I tore out most of the concrete walk. I'm seriously considering busting up all the concrete and replacing it with a brick paver to the front door. It would really match the house and look nice.

Tomorrow, after a trip to the dump with Josh (Hard hats rule!), I'm off to Lowe's to begin my landscaping. I think I'm going with edger blocks that match the brick to create a real nice plant bed. It's an edger block vs. retaining wall block debate at my house. Anyway, I rather suspect I'll decide to bust the concrete and put in matching brick pavers. I want to try to finish all that - along with the new topsoil & such tomorrow so that I can get everything planted on Sunday.

Knowing me, I'll still be at it come Wednesday. With a little luck, though, I just might finish this project this weekend. Wish me luck and keep the ER on speed dial.

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A client introduced me to this jewel this morning. They were on property last year and looking to our resort this year. Awww, man! C'mon, that ain't even right! Granted, we do have quite a stunner just next door. And then that got me thinking, why the hell aren't I in Dana Point?! Don't get me wrong, I'm exceptionally lucky to be where I am, it's just…the cliffs…the ocean…wow. Maybe I can call my Ritz Carlton buddy and steal Merrin away for a little Pacific R&R.

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Looking for a new Spint PCS phone? Not sure which mobile phone to buy? Here's an insiders rundown on the Spint phones from a Spint salesperson. Rather revealing. I've looked at several of these models before, but I'm glad I found this review.

I had originally titled this post "The Inside Scoop" and then changed it to "poop". It made me laugh. Poop!

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So I'm walking through the resort parking lot into the office (note to self - request comp valet during next performance review) and as I walk between cars, one caught my eye. This rather nice, rather new, rather expensive convertible Jag had a breathalizer device on the ignition.

Don't see that everyday.

PS - I know that comments have been a little funky recently. I'm going to look at my settings and see why it's timing out. Comments are going through - despite any messages you may see.

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Seems like there are more & more people getting Gmail and more & more Gmail tools popping up on the web. Some of them are pretty handy, so here's a quick list of some that I might try:
[Read more →]

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((start Bud Light song))
Real American Heroes….This one's for your Mr. Funny Talking Phonetic Man…Mr. Funny Talking Phonetic Man…you may have a real name, but you didn't mind when I called you 'schmed' at work…called you 'schmed' at work. You stopped by and gave us number 2,500, and that's nothing to sneeze at…no achoo, no gazoontite…. For all you do Mr. Funny Talking Phonetic Man, you voice is welcome here any day…come on back now, Mr. Funny Talking Phonetic Man.
((end Bud Light song))

A 10 minute nap does me up fine, but I'm forced by cultural convention to keep Juan Valdez in burros.

[interestingobservationmode]
Nobody in the corporate world seems to think twice about a 15-20 minute coffee break (or seventeen 5 minute nicaddict breaks outside), but try to catch 40 winks one afternoon and they'll burn a trail in the carpet getting to HR for a "sleepin' on duty" writeup.

It's a dirty world, ain't it?

Comment #2500 - schmed

Thanks, schmed, and everyone. Reading your comments is the best part of blogging. You guys rock.

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I don't know about you, but I could really, really use a nap. It's just 2pm and I'm about ready to curl up under my desk. Think anyone would notice mind?

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