Day 113

It could not have been colder this weekend. Friday night was just bitter bother cold. My favorite was when I was dropping my car off at the shop Saturday morning and the temperature gauge in my car said it was -1 degree outside. I called my mom in Florida and she said how beautiful it was there and it was 83 degrees. I said "the crazy thing it, you are 84 degrees warmer than we are right now." Think about that. Crazy. Anyways, I am very much looking forward to being in that weather at the end of the week. We have never been to Naples before and my mom said the place we are staying is real sweet. I'll be breaking out the old Tennis Racquet to play with my mom and I'm going to play golf as well. My main focus is getting some sort of tan and not missing the big Kansas/Texas game Saturday night at 9 PM EST. Kidding about the KU game, well, kind of at least. I'm sure that we will be out for dinner Saturday night and I will probably miss part of or most of the first half. But its a 9 PM tip so I should be fine. Back to the tan - you know what this means - the beard is gone! Yes, I did shave the bear last week before I went to Cleveland for the wake and I look at myself now like I am 18 again. It is amazing how much older I looked with my beard. I was so used to it and I liked it a lot, but it was time to go.

In other developments, we took my car in this weekend to check on this sound that it makes everything I go over a bump. I don't know the first thing about cars, but I know this noise hasn't gone away even though everything I have them check it out, they never can fix it. The long and the short of it is that they think this could be a serious problem, and talking it over with my car advisor, my father in law Max, we are approaching the point where trading the car in and getting value for it is probably the best move. We wanted to go yesterday to test drive some SUV's, but all the dealerships were closed. So tonight I am meeting Leah over at the Nissan Dealership and I am going to test drive a Pathfinder. This is the first time I am going to get my own new car and I have wanted a Black Pathfinder since I was 16. We are going to give it a try and see how it drives.

We went to Joe's Stone Crab this weekend with Leah's cousin Jamie and her husband Darren. It is by far the best restaurant in the city and my favorite restaurant of all time. Everything they have is amazing, from their signature Stone crabs to the Bone-In Filet, all the way down to the best cheeseburgers in the city. Not to mention the deserts. You cannot have a bad meal there. It is impossible. Put that in my top 5 things I will miss the most when we move.

The months of March and April are going to be brutal with work travel. #1 on my agenda is my sit down with my boss when I get back from Florida next week to discuss my move. I am confident that he won't say know, but I'm still nervous about the actual conversation. The key is to tell him how much I love working there and how I plan on being at Prairie long term before I get into my schpeal about needing to be closer to my family. I have it all mapped out. After we get past that meeting, I've got trade shows in Detroit, Cleveland, and Louisville; a sales meeting in Iowa; two weddings; a trip to Las Vegas (3 days for work and 1 day fun). Add in the NCAA tournament which is always my top priority in March and we have a full schedule. That doesn't even take into account Jessica's Chicago shower and bachelorette party next weekend and Leah's trip to Cleveland for Jessica's Cleveland shower. Get me to May!

Song of the Day: "Rastaman Live Up" by Bob Marley