Rare week at home

I had the rare opportunity to spend the entire week in Houston this week -- and I treasure every minute of it! I spent quite a bit of time doing non-project stuff, geared towards getting new business; but had plenty of project items to keep me busy as well. I even had a chance to attend a compliance seminar, which keeps the juices flowing...

Family was a huge part of the week, of course, and I truly enjoyed spending so much extra time with Jackson and Porter. We're working with Jackson to be better in school -- make choices that are 'nicer' and to follow directions, instead of just doing what he wants. Of course, I'm the worst to have to tell someone to listen to authority....

Porter spent lots of time this weekend playing with his cousin Tommy and spending the night with Nanna, and that gave Katie and I a chance to spend a little one-on-one time with Jackson.

We saw Mom and Row this weekend when we all went to the Rodeo parade, then out for burgers for lunch. We're trying to find a weekend that makes sense for us to go up to Conroe and spend more than just a few hours together.

Finally, I spent some time with an old friend Jimmy playing a bit of guitar. We've decided to make it a Friday habit to jam together, at least as much as we can. My new Strat came in this week, and I've been playing it as much as I can... Glad to finally get the electric I always wanted -- rounds out my collection: 2 great acoustics that I play most of the time, and a sweet classic Fender for when I want to get that Texas blues sound.

Very nice week, all around --

One more day

Staying overnight one more day. Jusst feel that I need to be around tomorrow morning, put the cap on the week. Long day of meetings and presentations meant no lunch. I'm heading out to grab a bit to eat. Early night tonight -- I'm tired.

Busy work week

I spent the day in Houston on Monday in honor of Valentine's, but Tuesday found me road-bound to Dallas again. Strangest thing about heading to Dallas was running into my neighbor Patti from across the street at the boarding area! Surprise!!

Had a busy day yesterday and spent some time after work with Mike and Hung (our sales guys for the project) at a place called Cool River in Irving (right around the corner from the hotel), catching up and playing a little pool with the team.

Today I had a very early con-call that I had to make at the office, so I had to be sure to get up early. I made it, but as usual, when I have something like that, it means that I don't get jack for sleep the night before. I was so worried I'd over sleep that I woke up every hour and a half or so all night. We had a 'town hall' meeting at our Dallas office today to go over our 2005 corporate strategy, which I think was really good -- informative. Also spent some time finishing up a presentation on ECM (enterprise content management) for a bank prospect in Tulsa. Presentation dry-run with their IT guys is tomorrow; then a full-go first week of March with the business folks.

Tonight was relaxing -- had a little chinese food and worked my way through the paper. I'm scheduled to stay here until Friday, but depending on how busy things are tomorrow, I may head out tomorrow night.

Mardi Gras / Ash Wednesday

Since yesterday was officially Mardi Gras, I decided to take the guys out for some beer and wings. There were 5 of us, and we split about 60 wings, a pound of crawfish, and a couple of pitchers of Shiner Bock. After that, some of us went down to lower Greenville here in Dallas for a few more beers and an evening of pool. We got in late, but it was worth it to blow off a little steam.

Now it's Ash Wednesday, though, and time to slow things down a little -- prepare for Easter. I decided that I'd make a point to study the saints that would have relevance to my life (like St. Joe for fathers; St. Christopher for travelers, etc) and try to keep in mind the examples from their lives that would help me be a better person. So that's my big Lent thing this year. Not sure if I'll give up beer, or something else, or whatever, but I've never thought that the 'giving up' part really helped me as much as the 'doing something positive and lasting' part does.

Ian and I attended mass today at lunch at St. Michaels parish down the street in Bedford. Really close to the office here. This is the 4th Ash Wednesday we've celebrated together on the road in 5 years. Hard to believe that it was already a year ago that we went to see 'The Passion' on Ash Wed night.

Anyway, one more day in Dallas, then it's home for a bit. Looking forward to going to Jackson's school on Friday morning for his class' Donuts with Dad.

Family trip to Disney

Back home from a fantastic trip to Walt Disney World -- best time I've had in a long time, and well worth the effort to take two small boys that far for fun! We left dark and early on Friday morning and the long nap to Orlando that I had envisioned for us all didn't pan out.

We got there with no problem and quickly made our way to the All Star Movies resort, checked in, grabbed our park tickets and headed to Downtown Disney for an afternoon of hanging out at Disney Quest, riding the little train and carousel, and dinner at Rainforest Cafe.

We woke up early the next morning for breakfast with Donald, Pluto, Goofy and Mickey himself at the Animal Kingdom's Resturant-asorus. That was a little too much, too quick for the boys, though, and they played 'hide under the table' when the characters came by. The rest of the day we played around Animal Kingdom, then hit the rides at Magic Kingdom before ending up back at the hotel for dinner and bedtime stories.

Sunday was Porter's birthday and that found us at the Magic Kingdom again for a full day of rides (Jackson even went on Space Mountain with me!), shows, parades and dinner at Crystal Palace with Pooh and the gang. We even saw the fireworks that night as we took the ferry back to the trams and our car.

Monday was Disney/MGM and then Epcot for dinner -- we had started to go to the pub in England, but didn't think they had a kids menu. Jackson wanted chips and queso; Porter wanted beans and rice, so that meant off to Mexico! On the way, the boys saw the Viking boat in Norway and they had fun playing on it while we waited for our table. I was really impressed with Mexico, by the way -- I'd always just walked by and not stopped in, but inside the Mayan pyramid, there's a lot of cool stuff, including a market and a river ride.

We didn't stay for Illuminations since the kids (big kids too) were whipped -- so we hit the road to the hotel right at showtime. Boat ride back to the Boardwalk, and had the boat all to ourselves.

Tuesday was our last day and we spent it well -- little time in Magic Kingdom riding Pooh's Honey Pots and the Tomorrowland Motor Speedway, then the rest of the day at Animal Kingdom. The boys loved playing in the Dino-Dig area, and at the end of the day we saw the parade. When the park closed at 5, we headed to Downtown Disney to let the boys shop for some treats, then headed for the airport. We made it home around 10 with the boys sound asleep.

Fantastic vacation -- I want to do it again every chance we get!