One Big Crazy Ass Week

Last Monday I started off with a bang and headed out from Lincoln to the TC 40 conference. I left about 330 AM from my house to get to Omaha for a 6am flight (monday morning flights out of omaha are crazy so i got there 1.5 hours early). I had a lay over in Denver but that went smooth and we took off on time. This is when the fun started. There was bad fog in San Fran so we kept circling for like over an hour.... then they diverted us to San Jose airport... Now its like 8am Pacific time and the conference is starting soon... They made us chill in San Jose while they refueld... said it was a 1.5 hour delay... then we flew to SFO. (that was weird). So once in San Francisco I got my bags and busted it to the conference. The conference was great. I will have a wrap up post when I get back in the country). Tuesday morning about 10am I found out one of my best friends was found dead in a hotel room back in my home area of the quad cities ... that sucked... Weds morning I flew out of SFO to go back home. We were delayed getting out and I missed my connection in Denver. The only flight they had was to Lincoln (which is my home) but my car and bags were going to Omaha.... I took that flight to Lincoln cause I had a TON of work to catch up on and figured I could just get my car the next day. Weds night I worked until 4am. Caught up on about 250 emails. Thursday morning my 15 month old daughter woke me up at 7:30 am. I hung out with her until our nanny came at 9am then I started working. My friends funeral service was at 11am Friday morning and since my Hummer and bags were already in Omaha I booked a flight from Omaha to Moline (via Minneapolis). Its only a 7 hour drive but its 2 quick 1 hour flights and also I can work the whole time. I hitched a ride back to Omaha, got my bag... swapped clothes quick in my bag and got ready for my 7PM flight. We boarded the plane and sat on the runway.... and sat....... and sat... then they made the announcement that the Minneapolis airport had been closed for weather and it was going to be a minimum 2 hour delay... this meant I was going to miss my connection in Minneapolis if I was even able to get there... also there were no more flights going to Moline. There was never a doubt in my mind what had to be done. I had to drive. I got the h2 out of the parking garage and was on my way. It was just shy of 8:30PM at this point. Keep in mind I was once again without my bag as I had checked it through to Moline. I also had NO change of clothes, razor or anything. My friend who passed away was very important to me and I was god damned if I was not going to be there to pay my last respects to him. Being up so long and only going on about 3 hours sleep I made it to Des Moines before deciding to call my friend George Schaeffer and ask if I could crash at his place. It was about midnight and I was fading very fast. He was cool with it and I crashed there. Friday morning I left Des Moines about 7am and headed the rest of the leg to the quad cities. On the way there I stopped at a mall and picked up a nice shirt + pants + belt and changed in the parking lot (no joke). After all the funeral stuff it was about 2pm or so and I had meetings scheduled all day on that day. I knew some I would miss and some I could make but it was what it was. I went to the moline Airport and picked up my bag. It was there (yay) and started the 7 hour journey back to my home of Lincoln Nebraska. I fired up my laptop with EVDO and had it going in the passenger seat. I also had my phone bluetoothed through my stereo so I could do hands free conference calls all the way home. While I had some issues at times with my laptop it worked well for the most part. I love EVDO and am always impressed how well the network connection works even at 80-90 mph on the highway. I got home about 8pm. Turned my cell phone off, disconnected the house phone and just played with my daughter until she went to sleep. Then I spent some quality time with my wife until she went to bed.... Then I got up and worked. Today (saturday) I got up with my daughter and have been taking care of her all day. Later tonight we are having a UFC party. Tomorrow I am leaving the country with my wife until the 30th. I am very buried in email and its only going to get worse. I have not taken a vacation with my wife strictly for pleasure since our honeymoon 6 years ago. Its just us 2 going also. So I apologize that things have not been normal here. No free shirt friday this week.. BUT Rebecca and Neil have done a KICKASS job doing posts this week! Next week I have more guest posters lined up. John Chow did a great job with Net Income/Shoemoney show podcast/radio show last week. I might ask him to do it again next week if he is interested. I just want to thank everyone for there nice emails and support. ShoeMoney has some really interesting things cooking and when I get back from vacation its full speed ahead for me and Dave