Last Weekend--How it was Okay After All

Just a few quick notes about last weekend that must be mentioned: 

I went into last weekend dreading it. My expectations were extremely low since I knew I had a lot of work to get done and it wasn't the kind of work that could be done in one day. Yuck. But, somehow the weekend worked out to be really nice. 

The beauty of it was this: There were times that I could not work because my co-worker needed the code to himself. Therefore, there were specific times when I had to put it down and not concern myself with any of it. During these times, I squeezed in working out, running, riding the trainer, dining with church friends, going to a crazy nightclub, celebrating my dad's birthday over breakfast, attending an especially lengthy (although particularly beautiful) mass and finishing the project to be demo'd to the company first thing Monday morning. 

When does all of this stuff ever all get done in such a short period of time? NEVER.  EVER.

Lesson learned here is that we shouldn't worry that which we are not currently working on. If everything is properly scheduled, though it may seem to add stress to schedule things, it actually alleviates it completely, if there is trust in the schedule. I will be trying this new method in the future...

Getting Things Done

I'm letting you in on a little secret...this is how to be efficient in any computer endeavor. Even though Circuit City is in a world of hurt right now, I tried very hard to buy a monitor from them, but they didn't have anything in stock. Nor was I allowed to take a floor model. And they had about 5 employees per shopper (two of them are very new hires). Think maybe they should think about how they're running their business? Best Buy came through for me, though. As a bonus, I picked up a tiny wireless keyboard for the MacBook. It's amazing! So tiny, light, the pleasure of a non-bulky keyboard. Life changing.

Winter's On Its Way

Yesterday morning the strangest thing happened. I got all ready for work and was walking out the door when I glanced outside. The scene was confusing...what is this? Ahhh, that's snow! (I had no idea it was going to snow.) It was a whiteout, too. Fortunately it didn't last very long but that is a sign that it's late enough in the year that such conditions can be expected. I'm happy it's almost time for skate ski season but I do miss the warmth and beauty of the fall.

Today was a nice ride from Boulder. It started off cold. Brrrr. It wasn't bad, though, helps to be properly dressed. By the time we got back to Boulder (noon), it was fairly warm and pleasant. And oh, the sun was bright and intense. It was fun to then watch the cross race next to the Louisville rec center. Yeah, it was nice to spectate and not race today, though it looked like an enjoyable course.

Since I neglected to post any pictures from the last few days of vacation, here's one taken on the last morning I was there (Wednesday, 11/5). I went on a ride prior to any of the conference activities starting.

Thank you, Veterans!

Every single day we should think about our veterans, as they are responsible for us having the freedoms that we tend to take for granted. If it weren't for these brave, dedicated, hard-working men and women, we would be living in a much, much different world. We also owe a debt of gratitude to all of the families of the veterans who empowered these people to do their work. It's awesome to see what people are capable of when they are faced with such challenges. And, through teamwork and love for each other, it's possible to overcome every kind of impossible obstacle. How can any of us possibly express our thanks adequately? Thank you.

Quick Update

Obviously, there's always more time to blog when out of town. I've been very busy at work (hey, look, I have so much more energy now!) and have gotten caught up on sleep, unpacking, cleaning... yeah, it feels great. I'm still on a high from the super fun vacation and I think the training-camp portion of the trip worked wonders.

I raced CX Sunday and, granted, my technical skills need a lot of work, but I can tell that my strength is returning. (Sorry, I was rushing around to get to the race so I didn't have my camera.) It was so fun and I had awesome support out there, too. That made a big difference.

Now with gas prices a bit lower and I'm getting into a rhythm at work, it is going to be possible to train this winter and I can't wait to race on the road again. Dirt is getting cooler, too, but I still have this built-in mechanism to slow down on it for no good reason at all.

Tonight is the maiden voyage of my new-to-me Cyclops fluid trainer. My old one is so loud I can't make the television loud enough to hear dialogue.

End of Conference Day 2 & Day 3

I write this from sunny (but a bit chillier, Aurora, CO). The conference wrapped up yesterday, my flight landed at 11:30 last night and I just woke up (it's 9 am!) The end of Day 2 saw the election of Barack Obama to be our next president. In keeping with the style of this blog, I will not express my political feelings (as they are much too involved to put in a blog entry; a new blog might be appropriate just to capture them) about this major event. The excitement in the streets (at my hotel) was intense. I always love to see lots of happy, cheering people, but I don't love it when I feel that it could turn into a crushing crowd at any moment. My hotel (the Westin St. Francis) was the site of the No on 8 proposition party. The police had good control so the happy people stayed happy and I was able to come and go from my hotel without too much trouble.

Malcolm Gladwell was a keynote speaker and was, by far, the best speaker of the conference. He spoke on human capitalization and it appears to be the topic of his next book that's coming out in a couple of weeks. I think it's a must-read for our society. What a funny guy, but he does informed research and it gives one a lot to think about how we approach things that are so second nature to us in how we operate.

Yesterday morning I started with a beautiful road ride over the Golden Gate bridge. It had to be a quick ride due to packing and needing to be back for the first session at 9 am, but I couldn't leave town without one more adventure and some fresh air away from the too many people and confines of the conference.

Day 3 of the conference was fairly uneventful. A few speakers, a few more technical sessions and it was time to pack and get to the airport. Packing was tricky, I acquired a few things on this trip and with the bike, it was tough to make everything fit right. Worse yet, when I got to the airport, they weighed the bike and it has always passed, no matter how much I've loaded it down. Guess what? It was much too heavy so I had to unpack all of the clothes from the bag and put it in my already-full duffel bag. Somehow everything fit, but it was a very stressful situation.

Getting to the airport much too early & being unable to get on a wireless network, I had a chance to make some phone calls (I'm still far behind on them). But good chance to sit down and take a deep breath and think about coming back to real life.

San Francisco was such a treat. This was the best possible vacation, I wouldn't have changed any of it. I'm refreshed and ready to get back to life in Denver, but I also didn't get to the point of being sick of traveling. Perfect.

Conference Day 2

This morning I was determined to enjoy the morning (a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to the 8 am requirement of yesterday morning). The sun was shining, too, which has been a bit unusual (it was rainy and cloudy all day yesterday).

It was possible to get an hour run in prior to needing to meet up with my co-workers (at 9 am) and it's possible to cover quite a bit of ground in that period of time. I probably should have run west so as to see a completely new area than what I've seen thus far, but the water/bay was calling. Most of the run involved some kind of hill, straight up or down, but out by the water it was flat and I wouldn't have needed much more time to get close to the Golden Gate bridge. Alas, I did have to turn around and head back to not risk being late. But it was a marvelous way to begin the day and so far I've been much more awake today (and there's that fresh-after-a-shower-after-a-workout feeling).

The keynote speaker was a slew of Dell execs and Michael Dell. I didn't find it too riveting so stayed for part of it, then spent some time on the showroom floor talking with vendors and picking up swag.

Just a shout out to all you wonderful blog-reading people (and those of you who have called/emailed/commented). This is my substitute for writing post cards and it's great to feel the connection to everyone back home. Next session is beginning, bye for now.

Conference Day 1

Yesterday, the DreamForce conference got started early, I had to be at breakfast at 8. Ouch. Thank goodness for the time change. What was more painful than waking up early was finding only sweet pastries and boring oatmeal at breakfast. I opted for the oatmeal and, fortunately, had flattened bananas on me (purchased from Trader Joe's a few days back, in flattened form). But that was not too satisfying.

The keynote speech was good, Salesforce.com made a couple of exciting announcements about their product and Neil Young spoke about his Lincoln that he converted to a battery/cng (compressed natural gas) car. I sat right up front (due to my company's relationship with Salesforce.com). I have lots of great pics, but don't have time to upload anything. There's been almost no time to get on the internet since I've been in the city. The hotel doesn't have free wireless (seriously?!) And the conference hall has lots of dead spots.

After that, there were technical sessions all afternoon and by 6 pm, my co-workers and I were toast. There was a Foo Fighters concert last night for all of the attendees of this conference, but I passed. I went to the venue, but left fairly quickly. It had been a long day.

Back-blogging, last day of Official Vacation

Sunday was the last day of vacation and work realities began to set in, all at once. Sunday Lana and Rachel came down from SF so we could go on a super relaxing, totally chill two-hour ride. It was sunny, finally, after on-and-off raining during the morning (which was quite disconcerting since it was high-time for some riding time). The fog was low so it was a good reason not to climb. After the ride we packed it up and squeezed three of us, our bikes and the bike bag in a small car. Don't ask how we did it, but we did and we made our way back to SF. It was time for all of us to go back to our regular lives, sort of.

I checked into the hotel to find out that they didn't have a reservation for me so they generously offered the $400/night room. Thank goodness there was a room! With all of my stuff and bike, etc, it would have been a nightmare trying to find somewhere else to stay in SF. They said they'd honor the rate of the room if I could find proof that I had made the reservation. Fortunately, I did, so I have a super nice room with a chandelier as an over-head light, king-size bed with a poofy white comforter and a non-rectangular very pretty bathroom.

Immediately after checking in, it was time to visit the welcome reception, meet the 10,000 other attendees at this conference (ha, I was not in that much of a social mood). I caught up with my Denver friends and hung out there only until I was invited to a nice dinner at the Franciscan (great seafood, all good food) hosted by a company that Donovan, one of my friends, works for.

After that, he had to have an In-And-Out burger...he started talking about In-And-Out many months ago when we all first scheduled this trip. And when I say started talking about it, he can't stop. So we ventured over to In-And-Out and I took a bite of everything (and more than a sip of the milk shake). Yeah, I ate American cow. The burger was very, very different from a McDonald's burger, it was quite tasty. I guess I see the appeal, but it's not likely to make me take a second bite (more because if I did, then I'd have to miss it sort of how I miss Dark Horse burgers).

Halloween and rain in CA?

Oh dear, I'm back at the computer so soon. Halloween was such fun! I don't think I've done anything significant (like even think about dressing up) for Halloween in a long time.

The workout at the gym was great yesterday. The steam shower had echinacea in it and that was just the best way to conclude a good workout. (The gym was in San Mateo, not too far away.) I was a bit glad that it was drizzly since it's been awhile since I lifted and I wanted to be on track starting in November. Besides, no better place to build muscle than somewhere with more oxygen than Colorado.

Lana and I then headed to SF for the Halloween party. It was next to where the steepest/curviest road is. Fabulous location. Parking was really challenging, but we figured it out.My costume, I guess it's appropriate since Wonder Woman was my childhood idol (yeah, I'm finally admitting it out loud after all these years).
One of the hostesses, this is Christmas Tree, aka Rachael, Lana's cycling friend from college (Santa Barbara).Here is Flav O Flav, aka Lana. She was very entertaining throughout the evening.Of course there were many political costumes. These two don't need explanation.And a Superman showed up.

The cute couple of the evening (all the way from Ohio), per my vote, the SNL cheerleaders. There were quite a few people from out of state. Since I haven't been to a good Halloween party in Colorado since, uh, hum, ??? freshman year in college? Maybe it's worth traveling to Halloween again in the future, but I definitely want to participate again.

Thanks to rain that began late last night, Lana and I scrapped our plans to visit wine country. She and I stayed over in SF (where the party was) and slept in. The house needed some serious cleaning first thing this morning and then she, Rachel (Christmas Tree) and I went for a run. It was raining such that we were completely soaked not long after starting, but it wasn't cold out and it was so gorgeous to see the Golden Gate bridge with clouds sitting on the tops of the pillars and be next to sand and water, amongst other really cool parts of San Fran.

The rest of the day we spent hanging out, reading, watching stupid MTV shows, eating breakfast out, it was truly relaxing and enjoyable.

Tonight, I decided to come back to where I've been staying instead of going out (how can these crazy girls want to go out again after partying last night?) Unfortunately, the roof is leaking so now I've seen a bit more rain than I care to in a single day. What's up with this rain? It actually stopped this evening, but it's begun again and the dripping has started again, too.