The Speed of Sound

Lately I feel like things are moving at the speed of sound. I am adjusting to my new commute which is via BART. Door to Door it is about an hour. This includes driving to Milbrae which only takes about 10 minutes.
On Thursday I was in LA for the day. I am working on some pretty big deals lately making this past week felt like a month. On top of moving, adjusting, traveling, and working on the new house my stress level is through the roof. Tomorrow (Sunday) I fly out on the red eye to NYC. I'll be there till Thursday. I am primarily flying our for a large 200+ user deal, but since I give that about a 5% chance of closing I am really going out for the experience. The good news is that my NY AccountExecutive is lining up a bunch of visits including Rolling Stone Magazine. My AE tells me that it is the coolest office he has ever been in. We are also staying at the Hudson Hotel which I hear is really cool (see pic above).

Today I Jodi and I started off breakfast right at Nini's in San Mateo. This is your classic greasy spoon with old loyal all-timers who look like they have been going there for 40 years. We went with Becca and Chris (Jodi's best friend and Chris...Think handlebar mustache). I used to go here when I was on my project for the US Postal Service. Soooooo Good!

After that I spent about 1.5 hours at Home Depot. I bought 2 new clothes rods, roundup, edge trimers, a saw, paintbrush, a drain snake, and a 6 foot step ladder. Nothing I would call exciting just necessary. What I really have my eye on is a new propane BBQ(Webber of course) and a flat screen tv.

P.S. The sewer is backed up an I could not unclog it today. Rooter man where are you? You will be at my house tomorrow. RoTooooooooo-Roooo-Terrrrrrrr get you a$$ over here before 439 Wisnon smells like the monkey exhibit at the zoo!

Thursday in Mexico

Today is our first day in Mexico with nothing planned. Vic is quite the planner when it comes to vacations. We have been all over this place. 2 days ago we went to the town center. There you can find the main church and the main market. The market has been the center of town since the late 1800's. There you can find everything from clothes, snake skin belts, fish, pig heads, and half cows (as if someone took a ban saw down the length of the cow).

So far I give Mazatlan 2 thumbs up. It is a little dirty and everyone throws their trash on the beach, but it is way cheaper than Cabo and people are really friendly. Off to catch a cup of Joe and soak in some sun.

"If you want to find me I'll be in old Mexico"

It was one hell of a week at work. Many people make the analogy that sales people are like athletes. They are competitive, they like to win, and when they don't they are cranky. Well that analogy could not be more spot on. My former boss put it to me this way yesterday. "Your sales person is like a quarterback, he/she is ultimately responsible for calling the right plays. If they call the wrong play down after down they are going to seriously piss some people off." Personally I like to think of myself as a running back. When my quarterback throws me under the bus, either in a play or to the coach, you can bet your sweet fanny that I won't run the ball for them any more. In extremely vague comparisons and analogies that was my week.

The great news is that Jodi and I are off to Mazatlan for a week starting tomorrow. "If you want to find me I'll be in old Mexico." I guess it did not hit me till today that this is real and that I'm going to the home of Pacifico. Dad, I'll be thinking of you.

Likes & Dislikes of the Week

Likes:

• Film: Walk the Line
• Response to people who ask "if we close the borders who will do the jobs that we don't want to do" Response: "Someone, No one, or a machine" Armstrong and Getty
• Work: My Review and Raise
• Weather: The sun that broke for 3 hours on Wednesday so I could take a bike ride
• Restaurant: House of Nanking: They took away our menus away when we sat down and said "we'll take care of you." They did and it was great.
• Coffee: The woman I saw at starbucks who poured (no joke) 15+ Splendas' and 8 Sweet'n'Lows' into her latte...FREAK!
  

Dislikes:

• People: A$$ holes in my neigborhood that yell and wake me up at 2 am (this will change soon)
• Problem: The young couple I saw shooting up Heroin in their beat up Bronco II outside my house
  
• Wine: Sweet chardonnay...yuk
• Weather: 30+ days of strait rain: Are we in Seattle or SF?
• Cat Box: Cleaning the cat box with 30+ tootsie rolls and holes in the liner from Mandy scratching the sides....that cat has my number
• Server To Busy Error: This has everything to do with my crappy week at work. Basically this is what you get when a website goes down.
  

Oysters, a Raven , and Chicken

Yesterday kicked off the festival season in San Francisco with the Oreilly's Beer and Oyster Festival at Fort Mason. I saw a ton of people that I knew and had a really good time. Before going to the festival I met up with Raven and Mona for some lunch at our favorite North Beach hang out, Mario's. Yesterday was also April Fools day, or as the nuts in SF call it "Saint Stupids Day." We watched all the freaks walk though North Beach on a quest to do something, who knows what. Mona snapped some great photos of Trail Mix day. After lunch we jumped on bus 30 and headed towards Fort Mason. We met up with Dan Davis and the stories began. Dan is simply entertainment in a box, just add people. The routine for the day looked something like this: "2 Harps please," sip-sip-drink, sprint for the porto-potty line, wait in the mud, run back to the Harp line, "2 Harps please," etc. Mona however was on a different course. When she wasn't shooting people with her hand cannon of a camera she was sampling the festivals shell fish and fish. With her recent discovery of being allergic to the potato family, her fries made her a new friend....Dan. The picture above from left to right is Raven, myself, Dan, and Dans friend Mike. Mike is Irish and knows his way around a beer festival. He, like Dan is full of interesting stories.

I took the second picture after the festival on our way to Bar None. I like this picture for a couple of reasons, my favorite caption would go something like this. "Dan Davis, SF newly elected mayor is intent on restoring respect and dignity back to the Marina Safeway (aka Dateway) though projects like this." Ok, it's not that funny to you as it is me.

After Bar None (which was like a Cal Poly class reunion) we jumped in a cab and headed for the North Beach Safeway. We got some chicken, corn, and bread and headed back to my place to BBQ. We watched Chapelle Show and stuffed ourselves like little piggies. Not bad for a days work.