Day 145

I had quite the interesting work weekend in Dallas. I ended up flying out on the same flight with my key client, taking him and one of his co-workers out for lunch on the way to the conference, and listened to Howard Stern on Sirius with him on the 40 minute drive out. Its always good to be on the same page on a personal level with the key client. We hit a solid Mexican Restaurant (Abuelo's - they just opened one in Cleveland right off of the Harvard exit) and headed up to the conference. It was held at the Embassy Suites in Frisco, Texas. This was a pretty nice hotel with its own huge conference center and was attached to a brand new minor league ballpark, which was very cool. I set up my booth in a little over and hour and had some down time which meant a nap and some computer work. Thursday night I met my two co-workers for a dinner to map out our plan for the two days of rotations and then from 8:30-10 there was an open forum where the vendors had to be at the booths to discuss issues. Mostly it was us standing around watching the drunken Edward Don reps drink and have desert. Of course I had to entertain for a few hours afterwards at the hotel bar.

Friday was a long, long day. We had to be at breakfast by 7:45 to hear the motivational speaker, who turned out to be James Worthy, the former Lakers star. That was very cool though. The rotations were 8 minutes long and lasted all day with a vendor awards lunch in between. Unbeknowsnt to me, I was nominated for Vendor of the year for the California Distribution Center. I didn't win, but the fact that I was nominated in a DC at the opposite end of the country when I live in Chicago was solid. I made sure to add that into my weekly report to my boss. The rotations ended at 4:45 and I went straight for a nap before the evening dinner and reception. The dinner coicided with the Cavs/Wizards game 3, so I literally couldn't watch a second of it. Between my brother's text messages of both the Cavs and the Tribe scores, and my web browser on my phone, I was on top of things! When there was 30 seconds left, I skipped out "to go to the bathroom" and caught the end of the game in the bar. More client entertaining took us through the end of the evening. We had to start the booth rotations again at 8 am Saturday morning. Talk about a long day. I flew home Saturday night to a driving rain storm. Nice. Just glad that the work travel is over with for now. I've got nothing now until June.

Last night was again the epitome of a typical Cleveland sports night. So my brother is here for 36 hours because the Pistons are playing in Milwaukee tonight. Anyways, MD and I were jacked about the Cavs/Wizards game 4, Tribe/Rangers combo on TV last night. So we ordered some pizza and strapped it down. The Cavs jumped out big early and Lebron looked like he was going to go for 40. The Tribe jumped out 4-1 and Jake Westbrook was cruising. The next thing you know, the food is all gone, The Cavs stopped scoring, and Jason Davis was throwing gas on the fire out of the bullpen. The Cavs lost by 10 and the Rangers beat the Tribe 8-4. Classic Cleveland sports evening. Two teams, two big leads, two choke jobs. I am very concerned with this Tribe bullpen. We are scoring a tone of runs, and the bullpen is looking earily similar to the early 90's. The White Sox never lose and even The Tigers are on fire. We need to get this pen situation figured out soon.

I think the Cavs will be fine and win the series in 7. Wizards coach Eddie Jordan whined like a baby about the officiating after game three and go figure, Lebron got called for 4 offensive fouls and the Wizards shot 15 more free throws than the Cavs. I am 100% convinced that David Stern pulls the strings for tv on a lot of these playoffs series. Always has. Did you see the Suns choke away yesterday's game against the Lakers? The officiating down the stretch in that game was very suspect. Kobe hits two buzzer beaters and it is looking like a Lakers/Clippers Western Conference Semi-final. Davis Stern is salivating over this. That is why I know the Cavs will win. The NBA wants Lebron for a minimum of 2 more weeks for TV ratings. What would you rather watch? Lebron and the Cavs play Detroit or The Wizards? Its a no-brainer.

Song of the Day: "No Vaseline" By Ice Cube