A thousand words?

Nah. Here's some pictures and just a few words:

Here's that breakfast. It wasn't even a very big milkshake. When I find the receipt tomorrow, I'll post the actual retail price. So far it's Joseph and Theodore vying for the final showcase show down. Who will be the next contestant on The Price Is...Too Much!


The place was gorgeous...





Here's me and Master Chef Hugh McCauley.

It was his signature small batch barbecue sauce that broke.

Here's a car that I'm hoping somebody can tell me the make and model of...

It was very hot and humid, even at night...


That was me and Mark Bush. See, the humidity fogged up the camera lens. This is inside...

It was an expensive shot, but it's not every night the Red Sox win the ALCS. It was great to run in to him. We had some great conversation. Conversations? Oh, and he dropped what I think is a pretty witty story about a man who was so concerned about losing his synesthesia that he couldn't even hear himself stink. He's got this sense of humor that Paul would love if they ever met.

Here's the various and sundry chotchkey that I had to cram in to my suitcase.


Here's what TSA did to my backpack. I'm filing a claim. I'll let you know what comes of it. And since Southwest said it was TSA's fault, and TSA said it was Southwest's fault, I'll probably file a claim with them, too.

Here's what the inside of my backpack looked like. And speaking of synesthesia, I think you can almost imagine the smell just by looking at this. It's mustard based, rather than tomato based. It was a long stinky drive home.

And now that I've blogged it all out, I think I can let go of my frustration.

And here's the mark left by whatever hit my windshield. I've had three people say it was a bird.

And here's the sun setting on Houston as we took off in our substitute plane. This one flew fine. It's kind of a neat thing that I've only experienced a couple of times. Taking off as the sun is setting makes for a very long and beautiful sunset.

And finally, and this is fantastic news, while I was away, Rachel found my lucky project rock in the couch. It's been missing for months. And I looked everywhere. Even where she ended up finding it. She spilled a box of Whoppers in the couch and came across it while digging them out. I think maybe the rock wanted to be found and magically caused the Whoppers to spill. Or maybe not. The important thing is it is back. So, you know, I am confident things are going to get better.

I got this thing at the Discovery Channel store in Northbrook Illinois while working at Discover Card. That was almost ten years ago. I think Bill Walters was with me. I got it because it looked like the Voicetek (now Aspect) Generations (now I don't know what, but not Generations) logo. Projects always go better when I have it on me or on my desk. It has even been known to make jacked up servers mysteriously start working again. So I know my WPS project is going to get back on track.