Vegas Baby!

I have been a little slow to post as my life has been quite hectic! I went to Las Vegas on Saturday the 20th for a work conference, and then Mike came out and joined me until Sunday the 28th! 8 DAYS in Vegas is a long time, but I actually was fine. I was worried it would be too long, but we really enjoyed it and didn't feel like it was too long. I did need sleep though!

We stayed at the Flamingo, and I was worried about it because it sounded not so nice. However, I have to say that I loved the Flamingo and would stay there again. No, it is not the Bellagio, Venetian, etc, but it was fun and plenty nice for me. The rooms were large, and even though I didn't have a remodeled room, my room was clean, large, and had decent furnishings. The casino was fun and lively, and they had a great little pizza place and a good deli with fantastic ham sandwiches. We watched football in the Bugsy's Cabaret (which is a topless place at night I guess but was a great place to watch football in the day - no dancers or anything - just a HUGE TV).

We ate the buffet at Harrah's, Paris, and the Mirage. I thought all of them are good but I would rate them as 1. Paris 2. Mirage 3. Harrah's. The 46 steakhouse at the Flamingo was fantastic, and the Les Artistes at Paris was very good as well. Rosemary's was good off strip as well.

We played Craps at the Flamingo, Harrah's, the Bellagio, Bill's and the Mirage. I liked the Flamino the best, but we also did well at the Mirage. Krishan and Mona were our lucky rollers this trip, and that was a lot of fun to have them there to play with. I do not ever want to play at the Bellagio as it was like a funeral home in there. The dealers don't even smile. No fun at the tables. You could die of thirst before getting a drink. Totally opposite at the Flamingo. The dealers were a riot, the people clapped and hi-5, and the drinks were brought often. We played at Bill's next to the Flamingo one night and ate dinner there. It is a $5 table and we did pretty well there. The dinner there as inexpensive and pretty good.

Mikeo was there for a couple of days, and I got to have drinks with him at the Four Seasons (remind me NOT to do that before a company cocktail party next time) and we played Craps at the Bellagio and went to a nightclub there. Mikeo is always fun to hang with, so it was great to see him.

Other than my Vols losing to Auburn (do they remember how to play football at Tennessee? I don't think so), we had a great time on Saturday at Bugsy's and then at Margaritaville at the Flamingo. We met some hilarious people from England, and we laughed and laughed and laughed. I hadn't ever eaten at a Margaritaville, and it was good.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip, and I really needed the downtime.

Fun at Margaritaville

Eclipsys to purchase MediNotes

I am excited to announce the Eclipsys is acquiring MediNotes! Two acquisitions in 6 months...what a year 2008 has turned out to be! For details, click here.

I leave for Vegas tomorrow for the business partner conference, so I would imagine I won't have much time to post for a while. Have a great week!

Never a Dull Moment

From afar, Misys feels like a soap opera sometimes. Just like watching the dead twin brother come back to life and marry the sister of his ex-wife who has moved on and married someone else while waiting for the dead brother to be found, Misys somehow continues to have these crazy storylines. The collapse of Lehman Brothers has postponed the deal and potentially could kill it. After over 6 months of people working on this deal, it seems insane that it would collapse. Only 6 days before the closing date...wow. Of course, all this is on the heals of the iMedica story which is on the heals of many 0ther crazy twists and turns. I hope that it goes through for all who have worked on this deal for so long. I know a lot of planning and painful decisions have occurred, and I for one am interested in seeing how they play out. I know a lot of people have been waiting to hear the outcome of the planning and what that will mean to them. I remember how painful that was when we were aquired. I hope that period is ended quickly for the people I know who have stayed at Misys or Allscripts. Lots of good people....

I won the Best Dressed Fan (ok, maybe it is really the most obnoxious fan) award from the Tampa tailgate. I am honored. We absolutely had a blast at the tailgate. Mike thought that his gator family should have won, but I guess that would have been the best dressed fans award. Plus, I am pretty sure it some kind of child abuse to dress your child up in gator clothes. You should always put pretty orange Tennessee outfits on them instead. My cousin, who also went to Tennesee, summed it up best in an email today. "I am glad you are making all those gators want to throw up orange. You definitely know how to take one for the team :)"

Morgan decided to put a penny into my lighter socket in the car yesterday. Of course, the lighter and the radio (and some other lights) went out. The very nice people at the Mazda dealership fixed it right away without even requiring an appointment. They are awesome. I love the dealership here. Zoom Zoom...

Change of State

Wow...I was just settling in for the night, and I saw the HIStalk update. What an interesting deal between iMedica and Misys. At first glance from HIStalk, it sounded like Misys wasn't going to have anything to do with it anymore. However, after reading the actual announcement, it sounds more like Misys is getting a copy of the source code to do whatever they want with in the future while iMedica continues on its path. I still can't figure out this Misys-Allscripts strategy. I originally thought it would be Touchworks and Vision for the above 25 market and Healthmatics and Ntierprise for the under 25 market. Now, I am wondering where MyWay fits. Whenever people talk about it, they say it is made for the 10 and under market. I haven't ever seen iMedica, so I am just going off of what others say. So, maybe Misys-Allscripts (can't wait to see what name they will be) will use MyWay for 10 and under OR maybe it will replace Healthmatics? It will be interesting to see. Like I have said before, it is challenging to bring together two small companies into one. I cannot imagine the complexities that the Misys-Allscripts merger has involved. If you have ideas or thoughts, post a comment!

I also read the very, very long (did I say very long?) interview of Todd Park on HIStalk. I have only briefly met him, and my impression of him was that he was grounded, passionate, and very intelligent. I loved the interview. I am not sure you could come off better in an interview than he did, and I get the feeling that it is all genuine. I really liked where he was talking about the Yin and Yang that he and Jonathan have. I really think you have to have this in a growing company as you have to push the boundaries of each other in order to grow. Nice job to Tim and Todd

Today was a typical Monday. It seemed that everyone was stepping into areas that were a little unknown to them today, so it was both exciting and strange. Travis always says that change of state is difficult, so Mondays are hard because they are a change of state. I used to think Travis was just being wacky with this statement, but I have come to appreciate it. Morgan has been studying the states of matter in science, and it made me think of it. Solids don't change their form as the particles move. I am pretty sure today I was a solid and everything else was as well. :) Maybe tomorrow I will be a liquid or a gas and will be able to change form when the particles move. :)

I have been trying to watch out to see what is happening to Galveston and Houston. I hope Missy and Johnny are hanging ok along with Joan and John and Ethan and Haley. If there is anything we can do for you, please let us know.

Tailgate and Weekend

Remotes, we missed you at the tailgate!

Millie and Heather trying to convince Rob to fix their computer




Support, IT, PST

Dev, QA, Implementation (We miss you Mad Dog and Mark!)

Can you believe I actually posted a picture of a Gator family???? The kids were just too cute....:)

The GRILLMASTER (poor Lee ended up cooking and didn't get to relax but he did a fantastic job!)

Krishan has to be the only one who actually WANTS to get pelted with a water balloon (he wanted to cool off - it WAS hot but...)

Heather and I showing our best GRRRRRRR

Travis checking on the Iowa-Iowa State Odds (if you know Travis, you know what a sports fan he is...NOT).

On Friday, we had the first annual tailgate extravaganza in Tampa (it is a MediNotes tradition the Friday before the Iowa-Iowa State game). We set up in the grassy area of the parking lot and had a tailgate. Lee was the grillmaster, and each department brought side items, drinks, or deserts. MediNotes picked up the main course (hotdogs, hamburgers). The Iowa group unfortunately had rain, but we were blessed with a beautiful day (HOT HOT HOT outside at 11:30am). We had the pop-up tents, cars decorated, and team wear everywhere. Milie and Heather C dressed as football players with big shoulder pads. Luke wore a soccer jersey. Abhi wore a Mumbai Indians shirt. Banu briefly wore a Tennessee Vols shirt. Mark wore Dawgs gear, and Rob had Bucs decorations everywhere. Heather V had Florida State, and Sidney had Ohio State. Of course, I had orange on every part of me and played Rocky Top blasting from the car. I had really bad kidney stone issues on Thursday, so I didn't really have time to plan. Friday morning, I quickly grabbed my checkerboard hat, my orange and white Tennessee Mardi Gras beads, my Tennessee Hawaiian shirt, my Tennessee shoes, my Tennessee flag (the one that was on the plane in the infamous crash landing), my Tennessee poncho, Tennessee coozie, Vol bobblehead, and my orange and white shakers. :) I also had temporary T tattoos for my face. WOW...I have a lot of Tennessee stuff! :) I didn't even have to try hard for all of that. :) We also had games of ladder ball (ladder golf, bolo toss ladder ball, whatever name you use), football, etc to play. The food and the company was outstanding, and I even got to talk about Ohio State being 0-9 vs the SEC. :)

When I left, I completely forgot that I was in all of that Tennessee garb, and I walked into the cheerleading gym. I started getting odd stares, and I quickly remembered that the rest of the world didn't have a tailgate party. :) Morgan is getting really, really close to getting her full back, so I watched that for a while.

Friday night, we anxiously watched Ike hit Galveston and Houston. My cousin and her family lives in Houston, and my aunt and uncle live in Galveston. Thankfully, my aunt and uncle decided to evacuate on Friday, so they were staying in Houston with my cousin's family. We don't know how their house in Galveston fared yet, but my cousin's house did pretty well (satellite down, part of the fence down, a small tree uprooted). Of course, they have no electricity. My cousin's husband (not sure what that makes him to me...I never can get that right) stepped on a nail and had to go get a tetanus shot. While he was out, he rescued some women who were stuck. We are so glad to know that they are ok. We hope they get power back soon. I know how hard it must be in the heat with no entertainment for the kids. We also hope that my Aunt and Uncle's house and belongings made it through the storm.

Saturday, her cheer gym had its annual beach picnic at Fort Desoto Park. We went and got the boat to drive it there so we could take people tubing. We had watched the weather, read the surf info on the net, asked the marina, and everyone said the water should be fine as long as you don't go "offshore." So, Mike decides to go the Gulf way as he knows that way, and as we get a little ways out, the water was pretty rough. There were big white breakers all over the place. I ask Mike if he is scared, and he says no. So, I chill. I can easily get freaked but Mike is more experienced at this stuff than I am. Of course, he could just be lying so that I don't freak, but I ask anyway. :)

We took some Moms out tubing, and it was pretty rough. We all got our monthly salt intake from the water in our faces, but we had fun. We were getting bounced pretty hard and I was almost vertical (as in a handstand) on the tube at one point and then flopped back down on the tube. That was enough for me and I fell off and swam back in.

Later, we took a bunch of Morgan's friends, and they had a great time on the tube. They all wanted to go again, but it was getting late. We took the coaches out next. They were hysterical. Mike swung them around when he turned and they were really bouncing around. They were crossing the wake, and at times the rope was under the water. They all did great though, and I think everyone had a great time.

On the way home, Mike said he wanted to go to the Olive Garden for the never ending pasta bowl (we never have room for more than one bowl so we wonder if others do??). Morgan loves the Olive Garden, so we went there. She tried Alfredo sauce, but she did not like it. Mike and I learned that hugging is the first step in a relationship from Morgan, and she also wanted to know about kissing hands. We giggled hysterically and had a great time.

Mara had asked us to come over on the way home, and we were SOOO tired that I didn't think we would. The sun took it all out of us. However, we didn't want to not go at all, so we decided to stop in for a few minutes. We had said that we would leave by 9. At 11:15, Morgan says, "I thought we were leaving at 9." Gotta love it. We had a great time (as always) with Mara, Kraig, Denise, Damian, and Tori.

Sunday, we stayed home and chilled. I was upstairs trying to make my kidney stop revolting for part of the day, and Mike actually called my upstairs on my cell phone. Man, it is pitiful when you talk from upstairs to the downstairs. :) Morgan and Mike made me dinner and brought it up to me. Morgan was so sweet and wanted it to be just right.

Of course, the night had to end with Mike's ex being difficult (SHOCKER). Birthday season is difficult every year. I am never sure where the imaginary world she lives in exists, but I hope I never have to find out.

I am way behind on pictures, so I will try to get some posted!

Palin, Palin, Palin

The more I see of Governor Palin, the more I like. At first, I was not so sure about the choice mainly because I didn't know much about her. I was worried that McCain just picked a female to try to combat the Hillary factor. Then, I heard about her daughter who is pregnant. I thought, oh man, what has he done? Then, I heard her speak for the first time, and I was amazed. The more I have learned about Palin, the more impressed I become. I especially liked the way she challenged the systems, elimintated waste, and took time to ask the people how it was going. I read that she had a jar on her desk with the citizens in it, and she would draw a name every day and call that person to see what they thought. I love that. I am thrilled that Morgan has a female in politics who so far can be admired. This picture cracked me up this week (mainly because I get the nickname hurricane Amy when I am trying to get things done and progress isn't being made as quickly as I would like). :)





I absolutely loved Inga's quote on Histalk today, "Governors with five kids simply don't have time for Botox." I am not loving the bangs either, but I think she probably doesn't have time to get them cut either. :) I do have to say that it just has to really suck for her daughter and her significant other. Nothing like the whole world finding out about your situation...

As for all of the commotion around Obama today and his "lipstick on a pig" comment, I have to say that I see nothing wrong with the common phrase. In fact, I think that is the most commonly used phrase when referring to Misys Tiger...:)

11,144 Cigarettes NOT smoked, $2,005 not spent on Cigarettes

I have a statcounter that sits on my desktop that is kind of like the one across the top of this blog. It is nice enough to tell me that I have not smoked 11, 144 cigarettes, and I have not spent $2,005 on cigarettes. Isnt' that amazing? I have supposedly saved 5 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, and 30 minutes of my life. Pretty interesting. When I first quit, I made fun of the life saved part as it seemed soooo slow to add up. You hear all of the bad things and how it is taking years off your life, but as you see after a year and almost 4 months, it is just 5 weeks of time. However, today I started thinking that 5 weeks is longer than a month. It is longer than I get in vacation in a year. It is longer than Morgan is out for Christmas in school. Soon, it will be a whole summer. :) I still can't believe how hard it is to stop smoking. For anyone thinking of quitting or trying to quit, it really does get easier and it really is worth it. It is all mental. Trick yourself through the first few weeks and then really believe that you won't ever have another one. One day, you will believe it and it will seem odd to think that you didn't believe it before. :) Mike used to say things like that to me, but I always believed that was for people who didn't smoke like I did. Trust me, I was as bad as they came. YOU can do it!

I talked to Ivan today and he went to Iowa this week. He said that it was 53 degrees when he got off the plane. That seems insane for anyone in Florida. How could it be 53? It is September the 8th! It is so funny how your brain just can't understand that kind of stuff after living here.

I also talked to Phil today. He did a 100 mile bike race in the mountains over Labor Day weekend (with a new baby at home!!!!!!!). Amazing stuff. He always motivates me to get moving after talking to him. What strong mental and physical determination is required for such a feat. Congrats Phil! Also, congrats to Ashley and Phil on their new baby boy!

This Friday we are having a tailgate picnic at lunch at work. I am excited. Each department is decorating a table and tailgate. It should be lots of fun. I need to start recruiting Tennessee fans now. :)

Morgan bought Rock Band for the Wii tonight with her birthday money. After playing with Michael's, she was ready to fork over the money. She is so funny about spending money that is hers. She will spend mine in a second, but she will think long and hard about hers. :) So, tonight, I played guitar and Morgan sang. What fun that game is!!!!!!!

Survived Another Week

Other than the subway nightmare, the rest of the week was pretty good. I am still battling my kidney stone, and I am struggling with what to do since I really don't think I can handle getting a stent right now. If anyone has suggestions on how they handle kidney stones, please leave a comment.

I leave for Vegas 2 weeks from today for a conference. I am excited. Of course, that will also be the weekend Tennessee plays Florida. I don't think I will bet much on that game. :) I am hoping that they have figured out that strange part of football called points by then. :) Thankfully, the Vols were off today. Hopefully, they can recover from that UCLA game and do great in the next several. The rest of the family teams did well (well, not South Carolina but my mom doesn't seem to crushed). 

We went to PF Chang's for the Michael and Mike Birthday dinner last night. Morgan got to go because her choreography camp was cancelled last night due to the choreographer packing up his things in case hurricane IKE came before he got back. I could do without Dana and her parents at any meal, but they were pleasant and it was fine. Today, Michael had a party at the Ice Forum (although it was a laser tag party - not ice skating). It was the same place Morgan had her party, and it was kind of funny to see the look of confusion on the party host's face when she saw me walk in.  I think they had fun. Happy Birthday Mike! Happy Birthday Michael!

Morgan had choreography camp today for about 8 hours. That is a LONG time to have 9, 10, and 11 year olds be quiet. :) They were remarkably quiet, and I said something to Morgan. She said that they told them that they would have a crappy routine if the choreographer couldn't concentrate. :) 

Michael bough Rock Band today for his PS2/PS3. The kids have had a blast playing guitar, drums, and singing.  Now Morgan wants to get it for the Wii. :)

I didn't get to watch McCain's speech, but I did get to watch Palin's speech. She was AMAZING. I wasn't so sure about her as a choice at first, especially after hearing of the pregnant teen daughter and the trooper investigation, but I have to say that I think she did a FANTASTIC job in her speech. She is a great speaker, and she has a great delivery method. Some of the lines in her speech cracked me up. I especially loved the hockey mom/pig line, the putting the jet on eBay line, and the getting rid of the chef at the governor's mansion story.  She seems like she will buck the system, but she seems like she will be classy about it.

Speaking of VP speeches, Morgan decided to run for VP of her student council. For anyone who knows her, you can imagine how far my jaw dropped to the floor when I heard this. Speaking in front of crowds (ok, speaking in front of people she doesn't know well in general) isn't exactly Morgan's strength. However, she gave her speech many times, and she won her class and her pod and now goes to the school election. WOO HOO! I am very, very proud of her. Her speech is awesome, and I am happy that she is wanting to get involved. I will try to post a video of her speech.

It looks like Ike is going to miss us, but I keep hearing these possible tracks that could still bring it our way. So, I think I will be cautiously optomistic right now.  I hope that poor New Orleans is spared. 

I downloaded Google Chrome. So far, it seems pretty cool. I can't figure out how to hide the address bar in an application (like Clinician) yet, but I have enjoyed playing around in it. 

Aren't you jealous?? 1 stop left

Remind me to get my own rental car next time

Solitaire entertains

It is very hot on this train. Wish I had a rental car right now

A Million Stops To Go...

Rental car? Not for you

Travis standing in the 90+ degree weather waiting for the subway