Gainesville - Florida vs Tennessee

Here are some pictures from our weekend. I will post stories later.

Wow, this month is FLYING by. Morgan got sick on Labor Day weekend, so we were homebound for almost a week. Then, we were in St. Pete for the weekend before I headed to Orlando at the Gaylord for a conference, and then to Monterey, CA/San Fransciso for a client visit. This week, I am working from home, and I am so glad to not be going anywhere near Atlanta since they are having flooding. I hope everyone is doing well there and staying away from the water.

In St Pete, we stayed in the Vinoy Hotel. It is an older hotel, but it was very cool. We ate at Gratzzi, and it was really good. I had some shrimp and scallops. Saturday night, we ate at the Columbia Restaurant. I had heard abou tit for a long time, but I hadn't ever eaten there. I had some steak, and it was really good. LOVED the Sangria. It was the best I have ever had. The resort was really nice, but it rained a LOT. We did go swimming, and I got to swim some laps. Also, the gym was amazing. It had lots of great cardio gear, and it had weights. Yeah!

From St. Pete, I drove to Orlando to the Gaylord Hotel.

I love the Gaylord Hotels. I was in a kind of funky room though, and it was not close to anything. I did absolutely LOVE that you just swipe your room key to get a drink. LOVE IT. No more searching for coins. :)

From Orlando, I drove to Tampa and flew to DETROIT and then to San Francisco. Yes, you read that correctly. I went to Detroit to go to San Fran. Love it. I did at least get upgraded on both legs. Thank you Delta! I was on the same plane as Krishan, and we met up in San Fran with Surj. We then wandered aimlessly through the airport and rental car garage before we FINALLY found the car. It was a station wagon. The grief for Krishan began. :)

We arrived in Monterey around 1:00 am. We went to Denny's, and Krishan had his very first pecan pie. He is hooked. :) The hotel was a Hilton Garden Inn, and you could tell it was a very old hotel that had been bought by Hilton. The hallways were very weird and you had to go our doors and through other doors after being outside to get to the rooms. I felt like i didn't need to go to the gym after making it to my room. It was a haul.

The gym was fantastic though. It had Lifestyle machines for cardio and for weights. I was impressed. :) I used them both mornings. What a good girl I am. :)

We had a great few days at the client, and we drove hte 17 mile drive after work on Wednesday. We also ate at the Sardine Factory. I actually tried a sardine. I am not sure I ever will again, but I did try one. The calamari was fantastic. I also had calamari steak with shrimp and scallops for diner. At first, it was kind of weird, but it grew on me. I enjoyed it a lot.

On Thursday, we drove to San Francisco after work. We all had early morning flights on Friday. We had a very, very difficult time finding our hotel which was the Hilton by the San Francisco Airport. We finally gave up and went to meet my brother Mike and Tracy for dinner. We met at Puccini & Pinetti. It was fantastic. Loved the bruchetta and the veal saltimbocca was so fantastic. YUMMMMMMM. We then went to a cool bar around the corner with Mike and Tracy. it was great to see them.

We again had a terrible time finding the hotel, and it ended up being after midnight before we FINALLY found it. 3 GPS systems and 4 phone calls later, we found it. UGH. We checked in, and when I got to my room, the door was ajar. Hmm...It was the middle of the night, and it kind of freaked me out. After calling the desk to come help (they thought I was locked out somehow - not sure HOW since I called FROM THE ROOM but anyway), they checked in the closet, under the bed, and in the shower with me. They verified that nobody else had the room in the computer, and then they left. The coke machine didn't take dollars (boy I sure did miss that Gaylord machine), so I had to go BACK downstairs to get change. The rooms did have a FANTASTIC flat screen TV, but I was too tired to watch it. We met at 6am to go to the airport. The fun never stops.

I was in a middle seat for the entire flight to Detroit. It actually didn't turn out to be too bad thankfully. I had two nice people who didn't take up the arm rests. Whew. Mona and Krishan took me to Big Boy to get lunch since I had over 3 hours until my flight. It was great to get out of the airport and to hang with them. I haven't seen Mona in a while. Big Boy didn't have pecan pie though. Those silly yankees. :)

Happy Birthday Mike and Michael!

Today is Mike's birthday and Micahel's birthday. It is always fun to have both of them celebrating at the same time. This year has given a lot of biking presents since we have been doing more bike riding. We also had a cake for Chris since his boating party last weekend didn't involve cake. It was fun singing to all three of them and slicing up the cakes. Now, if they can just be eaten already to stop tempting me. :)

In the afternoon, we went on a bike ride at Flatwoods, the 11 mile traile. Everyone went. Morgan and Katie hadn't been before, and it was fun to get us all out there. A storm was rolling in, and I was getting nervous that Morgan and I were going to get caught in it, but we just got a little rain until I was putting the bikes in the car. THEN, it POURED. :) It was a fun ride though. We saw turtles, turkeys, and lot of huge crickets. Katie, Mike, Chris, and Michael saw a deer but Morgan and I missed it but saw more turkeys.

After the bike ride, we went to the Rays game. The lost to evil Detroit, but we still had a great time. We were on the third base side of the field. After the game, it was the Rays Summer Concert Series and the Beach Boys were the band. SO many people stayed for the concert. It was amazing. They were good, and I had never seen them before.

Katie had her toe stepped on at the game and was struggling to walk back to the car. So, we rode a rickshaw by bike back to the car. That poor guy had some serious BO. I had to plug my nose the whole ride, but he did get us back without Katie having to walk. The boys walked (well ran really) to the car. Chris was going faster than the bike for a while. :)

Happy Birthday Mike and Michael! Hope you had a great day!

Friday!

I was so ready for Friday. I had a great week, but I was tired. I did get a Kindle today, and I have already started reading the Tuned In book by Pragmatic Marketing.

I have to say that Amazon has it down. I got an email telling me what I could do while the Kindle was in route to be ready to use it. It had nice packaging and the place you tear off said, "Once upon a time..." It was very easy to get started using, and the name of the way you get books is called WhisperNet which tells is such a great name.

Morgan had a team laser tag party with her youth cheer team. It was fun watching them run around like crazy. It is a new place, Extreme Adventures. It was well run, clean, and fun. Mike got the kids while we were gone, and Morgan spent the night at a friend's house for her birthday party. I fell asleep on the couch as the Soloist movie was one. Looked good but I was just too tired.

Pragmatic Marketing Class in Atlanta

This week, I have been in Atlanta in a Pragmatic Marketing class. It has been fantastic. I love Pragmatic. We have been learning all kinds of tools to help me do my job better and with less stress. I can't wait to try some of what I have learned.

The weather has actually felt like fall here. Amazing. It is so odd to walk outside and not feel the immediate heat! I head home tomorrow for the big birthday weekend! Morgan kicked off birthday season, then Chris turned 16 last week, and Mike and Michael both have birthdays on Saturday. Katie's birthday is also in September, so it is a busy time for us!