Winters not over yet

We thought the winter was over and then a nor’easter came thru and dumped about 8-10 inches of snow and then 2-4 inches of ice on us. About 4am during the storm the power went out for a few minutes, which woke us up. On the way back from the bathroom Jimmy looked out the window expecting to see white snow but it was just black out there. Once he was able to focus in we realized that 2 trees had fallen on our truck. Too dark to do anything we went back to bed. When the sun comes up we go outside to asses the damage. It looks worse than it is.

We call Tony to bring up the chainsaw so we can get the tree off. He makes it up late morning as he has trees down too. We cut up and move all the trees. Since there was so much snow on the truck, it took the hit of the trees instead of the truck. Crisis averted…until we wake up on Tuesday. Tony comes up early to get something out of the basement only to discover about 3 feet of water. We get the sump pump going but it can only do so much. Tony has to run into Albany and get a mud sucker. We spend the rest of the day pumping out the basement. Jimmy and Tony about die from the fumes from the mud sucker engine. They stayed in the basement too long.

Tuesday evening we head down into Albany for the Billy Joel concert. It was the first time in almost 20 years where I was in the audience. Saw the weirdest thing. During the slow songs where you expect to see lighters, people open the face of their cell phones so that they light up. Only the old people had lighters. The show was awesome. Billy was just as good as I remembered. The last time I saw him was on the River of Dreams tour. After the ROD concert we all went back to the hotel where Billy played the piano in the bar. You don't get to do that everyday.

March marches into April

The rest of March and into April is a blur. A lot of quotes going out and business coming in. We are planning for the Christmas season already. I should be getting our holiday card catalogues in soon and we are working on the layout for our everyday catalogue. We have been planning on a new website and we finally have a shopping cart picked out. Jimmy is taking over the brunt of putting together the site this time. We worked on another big NAMM project (Happy Easter!) and had a great time putting it together. There were some really clever gifts. I worked with Jennifer from the office on this project. Enjoy your maternity leave. It is just about time for Vanessa and I to start talking about Summer Session NAMM in Austin, TX. We worked on a project for the LeParc Suite Hotel. They offer an American Girl package at the hotel and we are sourcing out the goodies that they give the girls on check in. We got the cutest little pink backpack for them and the logo looks great on the bag. As soon as we get a photo taken I will post it on the blog.

Rise and Shine in Toronto

Breakfast with Katherine at 8:30am in the hotel restaurant. They make a mean Eggs Benedict. We rehash stories from TourLink and have a great time. We can’t wait to come back and visit for a weekend. After breakfast we head out to Christie Lites to see our friend Martin Kelley. Off to the board room with Martin, Stephanie and Denis to talk about swag before we take a tour of their facility.

Holy cow! I have never seen such utter organization. Everything had its place. It was incredible how much equipment they had and anyone in the shop could tell you exactly where every cable or gel was. I knew I was in trouble. As soon as we walked out Jimmy says “That’s how I want our office and house”. Good Luck buddy, I’m not that organized. We are supposed to go out to lunch with Martin but we spent the whole time in the office and shop chewing the fat. We have to be at Pyrotek Special Effects by 2PM. We dash off to Wendy’s for a quick lunch and then back on the road to Pyrotek. We meet with Christina and Doug and talk about their swag and go over some new ideas. I was hoping they would let me blow something up but no such luck. After our meeting we head home before the next snow storm decides to blow through. What a whirlwind, we headed out to Toronto on a Tuesday morning and we were back in Albany on Wednesday evening. Jeter is at grandmas again and I get to pick him back up on Thursday. I think my mother wants me to leave town more often so she can play with her boy.

Work at Home

We spend the first couple of weeks of March battling the snow and cold and staying on top of our clients needs. We plan a trip to one of our favorite cities for mid-March, Toronto. On the road again. We take off out of Albany early on a Tuesday morning. We make a stop at Niagara Falls. I have never been there before. It is a beautiful place if you can get past the Vegas-esque quality of the downtown. It looks like every theme park threw up on Main Street.

Our next stop is the Metropolitan Hotel. We are having breakfast with our friend, Katherine Ross who is the Regional Sales Manager. We are staying at the hotel instead of our usual camping and Katherine has booked us into a beautiful suite. Lovely sitting room, comfy bed with a tv, vcr, dvd player and stereo system with surround sound. And 2 bathrooms, one with a spa tub. Just what I needed.
We settle in and relax for the night and we get a wonderful delivery of chocolate dipped strawberries and sparkling water compliments of Katherine. Nighty night.

Homeward Bound

We are supposed to be going from Pensacola to Austin to pick up our stuff in storage but we just want to get home. With all the people we have seen in the last 2 months we have tons of business to get done and I need to be at my desk in my office. I drop the kids off at school and go back to the house to pack up and we get a call from the school. Daniela is upset that I am leaving. I assure her that we will be back.

We start heading north. We get through Alabama just hours ahead of a tornado that ends up going through a high school and killing a bunch of kids. Crazy. We drive until about midnight when Jimmy gets tired. We crash out in a truck rest area for the night. Up early the next morning and straight to New York. We head up the mountain and pull into the driveway and wouldn’t you know it but my little Texas boy ends up getting the truck and trailer stuck in the snow. Not really his fault, the driveway is just shale and it was really wet so basically a mud pit. We called my cousin to bring up the tractor. We pulled the truck out first and then the trailer. The house was a total mess when we got home. Tony did a bunch of work while we were gone. We got a new bathroom, the house was insulated (there was zero insulation before we left), new ceiling upstairs, electrical, plumbing and more. It ends up taking Jimmy over a week to clean to some sort of normalcy. I wanted to get home to see my sweet little Jeter. He’s been having a good time with his grandma. The day I go down to pick him up he has disappeared. My brother left the dryer door open and Jeter decided to take a little nap inside. My mother shut the dryer door and locked the little man in. Now Jeter wants to get into our dryer at home.

Nashville to Pensacola at last!

We depart Nashville on Saturday at around 11am and head off to Pensacola. I am so excited. I haven’t seen my niece (Daniela) and nephew (Zach) since we got married in 2003. Between touring and starting our business we were constantly working and I couldn’t make it to visit them. We pull in around 7 in the evening and I sneak into the house to surprise them. Of course 10 year old Zach tries to play it cool and say that he knew I was coming. Daniela squeals like the little girl she is. We hang out for the weekend playing games like Uno, checkers, Connect Four etc. I learn about Webkinz and get to go over to the kids school and meet their teachers. Zach is taking the FCAT’s. The test goes on all week and the grades determine how much money the schools get. Something about Every Child Left Behind. It is a short visit but it was great to see my family again. We will be back again in July when we take the road trip to Texas for NAMM.

Holy Recap, Batman!

Well wouldn’t you know it my computer got hit with a virus. Totally trashed my system. Took over a week to fix so I haven’t been able to post any blog entries or get work done. My system has been reloaded and updated and I actually got rid of a bunch of junk so my computer is running better. Can’t wait to get a Mac. Anyway back to our story…..

After a busy Valentine’s Day we met with Rich Booth from Vari-Lite. Had a great meeting there. Got to see part of the video from the 25^th Anniversary party and got a really cool Genesis concert poster from 25 years ago. After our meeting we head back towards the campsite and stop for a lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Good food and I have enough left over for dinner. As we are heading out from lunch we see a sign for Acupuncture and Herbs. We stop in to see if I can get my herbs that I have run out of. Turns out to be a front for a whore house. So no herbs there. We spend the night in Dallas and get up in the morning to head towards our next stop…..Nashville. During this ride is when I discover that the computer has issues (virus). We stay just outside of Nashville at the KOA in Buffalo. We are out of “rabbit ear” range so we rent some movies from the nice lady that runs the place. We were one of the few people camping there so it was nice and quiet. We watch Road to Perdition and The Talented Mr. Ripley. In the morning we head to the Millenium Maxwell House Hotel to stay for the week. I am training with Larry Smith at Tour Guide Magazine on advertising sales and getting my computer fixed. We are also meeting with a bunch of current and future clients and friends. Tour Guide is in the Soundcheck Studios complex. I love this place. We run into all sorts of people that I didn’t even know were there. As we were walking over Bruce Heard jumps out of a truck and comes running over. Haven’t seen Bruce since we did Motley together back in 99. We caught up and found out he is working for MooTV. And oddly enough as we are talking Bruce says I need to talk to Barry Otto at MooTV about swag. Well wouldn’t you know it, Barry and I did Power Rangers together back in 95. It was like old home week. The best thing about this business is you may not see people for years but when you see each other again it is like no time has passed. At the Studio we visit with Jan, Kyle from StageCall, Lance from Tour Supply. I head out to visit some bus companies. I stop in at Hemphill Brothers and then run across to harass Chip at Nitetrain and visit with Lisa and Kimberly. Kim introduces me to Lesley at Nashville Coach and she needs tshirts for her crew. Jimmy and I go to visit with Gary at Roberts Brothers Coach. Gary’s brother David joins us. We get a tour of the facility and buses and talk about the expansion of this rapidly growing company. They are currently expanding into another massive building . We saw some buses being built out for upcoming tours. We really enjoyed our visit with this family owned business and look forward to working with them.