4 hours and 37 minutes

What is 4 hours and 37 minutes? That is 4.6 hours, 277 minutes or 16,620 seconds.

A fairly long time, isn't it? There are a lot of things that one can do in 4 hours and 37 minutes to entertain themselves:
* Watch a great sports game (did I mention that the Sox are in the WS and the Patriots are 7 - 0?)
* Have a fabulous night of dinner and dancing (or other form of entertainment and pleasure) with your husband, your girlfriends or a random stranger if you so choose
* Make a fabulous dessert for your daughter or son's birthday
* If you run the same pace as I currently do, finish a marathon
* Take a wonderful hike outside or go for a bike ride or walk along the beach

Or if you were me TODAY, you could spend that amount of time in the car commuting back and forth to work. Yup, you read that correctly. I spent 4.6 hours, 277 minutes or 16620 seconds driving TO and FROM work today. Are you jealous?? I can see you turning green ...

So, how did I not kill myself or someone else today? Well, I called my husband about 4 times, spoke to one of my dear friends and screamed curse words as a way to vent, listened to the sexy voice of my favorite DJ (http://www.dc101.com/pages/rochedc101.html) who played some mighty Pearl Jam for me (Jeremy is such a GREAT song) and finally I played 2 of my favorite songs on the new Foo Fighters album (Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace -- such a great album) about 20 times. Thanks for those of you who kept me sane today.

What is 4 hours and 37 minutes? Way too fucking long to spend in the car, that's what.

Near perfect weekend

So, have you ever had a nearly perfect weekend? One that went so well that you almost cannot believe how good it was. I had one of those this past weekend and it was wonderful. Family was in town for the weekend and everyone was on their best behavior for all but 2 minutes; our kid got to hang out with her niece who is in love with our child and was fine as long as our niece did not touch any toys at all. Great at sharing at school, not so much at home.

Daughter had a birthday today -- it was wonderful. Made a few cakes for her that came out perfectly and the party was a lot of fun; everyone enjoyed themselves. And most importantly, she was on her best behavior which was great!!

And to end the day, my Pats beat the Cowboys and are now 6 - 0.

All in all, great food, great friends, great family, great times ... who could ask for anything more?

Feeling good about yourself

So a week or so ago, my husband presented at a conference and did a great job. When he came back, he had a new presence as if he had "grown up" not to suggest that he was immature before. It was more that he had finally arrived as a senior adviser, etc.

I had that sort of a moment today, kind of. I did a presentation for a former client for my new company and it just went really well. I looked very professional -- it sounds silly but I got lots of comments about my suit and how mature I looked. The senior person in the room apologize for not staying the whole time but commented to the group how I did a great presentation and I have a new lead from an even bigger fish.

Nothing is done until the deal is done but I just felt really good about myself ... I am starting to feel like people really appreciate me, value me and respect my opinion and see me as a SME.

Good times ...

Great colleagues

So, I had a business trip the other day which was fine. Very productive but long day. After the meetings were over, my colleague and I went out for the evening. We hit a great Brazilian barbeque which is AMAZING -- the amount of the food that we ate and the seasoning of the food was phenomenal. Then, we decided to hit the bar scene ... and hit a local joint with live music. It was good with a great cover band, I was very impressed.

More importantly, I got to hang out with my colleague. I have always liked and respected him as a colleague -- like me, he works really hard and is incredibly conscientious. But I found out that night that I also really liked him as a person. Lots of fun to hang out with, we shot the shit, drank a whole lot and just sang and danced. Great times ...

It is just nice to know that the people in my office (who I do not hang out with that much) are as cool outside of the office as inside.