A Year of Change

Before we get back to more details of the big day, here’s a quick update on yesterday. We woke up at 5:15 after getting to bed at 1:30 in the morning. Yes the misses is still sleeping! We made it to the Austin Airport on time and were in our first class seats (thankfully) for wheels up at 8:25 CST. When we landed it was about 10 degrees with light snow. We quickly jumped in the car and headed off to get the boys. The rest of the day was spent resting and more resting until we finally fell asleep around 7 or 8. Tonight there’s another show in Orlando and even though we’re not there, the misses has some coordination to do for some of our guests. Next is another show on Valentines Day in Ft. Lauderdale.

Now back to the big event. On Friday we showed up at the Frank Erwin Center which is part of the University of Texas. After getting through 3 layers of security, we made it in. We had a load of fresh flowers (red roses and black calla lillies) the misses had flown in. Upon arrival we met Rachel and she and the misses exchanged big hugs as they felt they knew each other from talking on the phone 10 times a day for 2 weeks. She was super helpful throughout the whole thing. We walked into the Lone Star Room which was a big sterile looking space that had to be transformed within 6 hours for the party. The misses went straight to work organizing the crew and rearranging the furniture with the help of the stadium staff. Meanwhile, Laura (our Brand girl) had Antonio and a few helpers wrapping the rest of the gifts for guests.  The gifts were wrapped in thick ivory paper printed with the black “August Wine Group” logo, red ribbon and topped with 2 hand painted, hand crafted truffles in cello wrap.  They ran out of red ribbon halfway through the gifts, but the misses had in her bag of tricks 60 yards of sheer black ribbon just in case it might be needed. To make a long story short, 6 hours later, the place looked like a completely different room. I took off around 2:30 to go meet Andrea and Alberto (his brother) at the Intercontinental Hotel about a mile away. Andrea always checks into his hotels under a funny nickname from when he was a child. (can’t tell you as he still uses it everywhere and I know some of you would tell someone, ha ha) We walked into the bar and soon Andrea came down with his helper who guides him around. He just holds onto his shoulder and walks with since he’s blind. He walked up to us and as soon as I could say Ciao, Doug, he said “ah Colorado”. You see he knows my voice well enough and when we first met and I told him where I live, so he jokingly calls me Doug Colorado. We exchanged a few hellos but he doesn’t talk much right before a show s he needs to save his voice. Then Alberto walks in and joins us and we spend the next 45 minutes telling him how the reception will go and what we need him and Andrea to say and do. We leave about the same time Andrea and his entourage comes back down and everyone gets into waiting black suburbans. It was like some surreal event you see in movies as the hotel had tons of plain clothes security guys all around us. We all made it back to the arena at the same time and I quickly grabbed the misses who’d been getting the photographer she hired, all set up. More on him later but what a great guy and talent. He’s taken photos of everyone from U2 to Angelina Jolie and was such a pro that every single picture he took was perfect. This was important because when we ushered 60 some people through a line later that night, he only had 1 shot to get each groups photo right, and they all were. We rushed back to the hotel to shower and change and then headed back to the arena.

The misses here, Mister went to the gym, lucky guy!

The Show.  Andrea Bocelli. Wow!!!  I have never heard such a pure, beautiful, touching voice in my entire life.  I had the chills with every note he sang.  There were so many tears in the crowd…I had a big lump in my throat, but I knew if I shed one tear… the gates would open and there would go my make up.  I would at that point look like I should be at a Barnum and Bailey Circus instead of the Opera.  There was a full blown orchestra and choir complete with a conductor in tux and tails. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to enjoy the whole show, because we had to check on the last minute details for the Artist’s Reception.

Good thing we went back…the Prosecco needed to be poured, the wines needed to be opened….the 130 votive candles needed to be lit…the hors d’ordourves needed to be placed and the microphone had yet to arrive.  We got everything handled and had a few minutes to spare before the guests arrived.

Upon entering the room, to the right was the check in table saturated with the gifts (red and black bows) after party credentials, (backstage passes), Bocelli wine information, rose petals and a giant 4 foot cylinder vase with 3 huge red roses staggered down inside.  In the center was a rectangular brushed chrome table with a lifted plexiglass top.  Under the plexiglass was shimmering ivory fabric with clear cylinder glasses  and four square bowls filled with black calla lillies  and strawberries for support.  On the top of the table were 30 flutes filled with Prosecco and 30 goblets of red wine.  The table was scattered with rose petals, beautiful Bocelli wine booklets another cylinder vase with red roses and black calla lillies and  a spot light shining down on it.  The table really was lovely.  The 17 cocktail tables were covered in black, tied with red satin bows, sprinkled with rose petals, 3 votives and in the center a 3 inch cylindrical vase….a.k.a….a round rocks glass, because the 3x3x3 square vases I ordered arrived as 1 1/2×1 1/2×1 1/2 much, much too small.  The rose heads were bigger than the vases and would topple out.  Thank goodness for “in-house” glassware.

Laura, the Brand Director for the Mr. and partner’s company had 20x 24 foam boards printed with beautiful Tuscan scenery and Bocelli family digital photos on them staggered throughout the room on easels…as well as two 6 foot screens of the Bocelli wine and Prosecco bottles printed.  The bottles were flanking the projector screen that had a giant image of Andrea, the company logo and a lovely sentimental text printed on it.

Rachel, my “Go to lady” at The Erwin Center gave me the heads up on Mr. Bocelli being “En Route” to the reception…..more to come….

Mister here, Ok, I’m back from the gym and the grocery store. Back to the actual event. As the misses just described, the room looked fantastic. She personally transformed this empty space into such a beautiful setting. About 15 minutes after the show, we got the word that Andrea was on the way. Right before he came in my partner Josh and I both spoke to the guests. We welcomed them and then I kindly gave them a set of rules that they had to abide by. These included no going up to him and touching or grabbing him and no unauthorized close up photos. I said how gracious he was in giving us some time and that I would try to get everyone a photo with him but couldn’t guarantee it. Everyone seemed to understand but people get funny when they meet or get close to a star and tend to forget how to behave.

As soon as I was through speaking I went over to talk with the promoters who I had met earlier and wanted to talk to me about working together later this year on events in NY, Chicago, Houston and a couple of more cities. While I was doing this I saw Andrea and Mark and Pete (from the production and management company) coming in. Mark looked at the misses and said “who’s going to introduce him?”. The misses seeing me talking with the promoters had no choice but to grab the wireless microphone and announce to the crowd, “Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Andrea and Alberto Bocelli”. The crowd was mesmerized and broke into applause. Andrea was still in his tux and walked to the misses make shift stage to address the crowd. he was so genuine and couldn’t have done a better job talking about his family and wine if we had wrote him a script. In short, he said how he remembered growing up with his grandfather making wine and how big a part of his life the family farm (vineyards) and wine is. He said he could never imagine that people here in America would be drinking his wine and this made him very happy and proud. After a few more minutes, Alberto began talking in Italian, with Antonio translating. Andrea stood to the side and was backing up when the misses noticed he was going to back right into one of the large photos on an easel. She rushed to his side and whispered to him who she was, “Lori from Colorado”, (which at least gave him some comfort knowing she was my wife) and told him the easel and photo were right behind him and he was close to backing into it. He asked her where Charlie (his bodyguard and assistant) was, and she said she’d find him right away. He (Charlie) walked in a minute later and I told him in my broken italian that Andrea needed help. Meanwhile the misses was patiently standing with him holding his arm until Charlie (his names really Carlo, there is no Charlie in Italian) got to his side. Next we immediately ushered him over to where we had our make shift photo studio set up. I grabbed our most important guests first and moved them to the front of the line to make sure they got a picture as we didn’t know how long Andrea would feel like staying. The misses and Mark (production manager) ushered groups from 2 to 4 in very quickly to stand next to Andrea and get a photo from our photographer. Meanwhile I decided who went when and how many had to be in each photo, oh what power, ha ha. Pete and I kept a careful watch on Andrea and how he was doing and were deciding if and when we needed to stop this insanity. For a moment, imagine if you can, being blind and having groups of 2 to 4 or even 6 people coming up to you, talking to you and putting their arms around you (only a few did this and I stopped it pretty quick) to get a photo. The misses and I could watch his expression go from one of happiness to one of “get me out of here”. To his credit, he said he let everyone get a photo and I think we buzzed almost 60 people through in less than 12 minutes. Andrea then said his goodbye, and left via a back door. At this time, our guests were thrilled beyond belief. Now came time for me and my partners to work the room developing relationship and selling containers of Bocelli wine! Alberto and his wife Cinzia and their daughter stayed the whole time until we left at 12:30. We have some fun photos of us and Alberto and Cinzia as Brian (the photographer) was getting us left and right.

In the liquor business, these big accounts get wined and dined like you wouldn’t believe. $5000 dinners are common, Super Bowl tickets, trips around the World and so on. However, most if not all guests, personally told me they’ve never been to an event or experienced anything like this in their whole career or life. I was repeatedly complimented for being able to put something like this on. Now all I really did for the event, was take charge and put the misses in charge, then help approve the misses budget and make sure Andrea and Alberto knew what to say. The misses was really in charge of the whole thing and it came off without a hitch. And trust me, there were tons of things that could have gone wrong! So I have lots of phone calls and probably a trip or two to Texas but we’re all sure we nailed the thing and will sell tons of wine from this single event. I told my partner that we could have spent 10 times as much money and it still would have been a bargain. All in all, I think we spent maybe $25,000 or $30,000 on everything.

The rest 0f the evening was spent developing relationships with our guests and hanging out with Alberto and Cinzia and our friends. The too were very pleased. Oh, I almost forgot, when the misses gave them their chocolates and they realized they were made with one of their family wines, they were very very touched. Cinzia joked that she was not sharing any with anyone. Alberto, who I’ve known quite well for about 3 or 4 years now, had never met the misses. She, of course looked quite striking and stood out in the crowd and when Antonio told him that was my wife, he came up to me and said , “ah Doug, complimenti”, which loosely, as you’d imagine, translates to compliments. But in italian, it means so much more. Cinzia and Alberto were thrilled to hear we will be there for Teatro de Silencio, Andreas outdoor concert in his home town, this coming July. I’m sure we’ll be with them for a few days besides the concert. So, we finally made it out to our waiting black suburban (I love having a driver) about 12:30 and made it to our hotel and in bed by 1:30.

You all should be very proud of the misses as I am, and is everyone in my company. My partner and coworker both texted and called to say what a great job and event I and the misses put on and that they wish they could put into words what a great job we did. She definitely was key to making this entire launch hugely successful.

In closing, it looks like we’ll be starting an event company next week. She has already been asked (as I said earlier) to handle the upcoming events for Andrea later this year and in 2013. This morning she received an email from Rachel at the University of Texas who said she’d be referring her to various clients as well, so off we go. Of course this means I’ll need to come up with some money to get things up and running, so you’d better get in line to invest now!  But one things for sure, the misses is a natural and very talented and oh yea, was the most beautiful woman in the room. This was reinforced time and time again as everyone kept telling me all night long how lovely she was. In fact, I think I’ll tell her to look a little uglier and be a little meaner next time as she was too nice and cute!

We’ll try to send some pictures, we have about 50 that we brought home but the photographer will be sending us a bunch more.

Today is a movie for the boys and then winter swim (swim team practice) starts every Sunday to get the boys ready for the upcoming season. It’s always something.

For me, I’m on a strict diet of vegetables, egg whites, protein shakes, and chicken breasts. The misses and I also need to start an Italian immersion program right away as she needs some basic Italian language knowledge now that she’ll be doing all these Bocelli events. I too can always use more practice as I only speak enough to get by. So have a great day, glad we’re home and God Bless.

LLF

Well I don’t know where to start. The bottom line was it was (from what we were told by our guests and clients) the most successful, life changing event anyone has ever been to. And it was all thanks to the misses, and of course the Bocelli’s. My point is that without the misses, it would have been a total train wreck. Thankfully I stepped in a few weeks ago and put her 100% in charge.

We landed in Austin about 1pm on Thursday and headed over to our hotel. Upon arrival the staff was essentially lined up waiting to greet us (can you believe it) standing in a row like a bunch of servants. We were handed our keys to the only Executive Suite in the brand new Westin Domain Hotel. We opened the double doors to our room which was actually 2 rooms and 2 baths that went from one side of the hotel to the other. We had windows on 3 sides of our room. In the sitting room there was a gift basket of fresh fruit, cheeses, edamame, crackers, and a bottle of Vodka and Tequila with some Izzy sodas to mix with. It turns out, they did this for everyone in our group. What a nice touch, all because we know the owners, the Whites, who have the ranch in Wyoming.

The rest of the day was spent with people arriving from as far away as Kazakhstan. At 7pm we all went over to Maggiano’s Italian Restaurant for a family style dinner that I arranged ahead of time through their National Buyer. We were greeted by the manager who insisted that he be allowed to buy us some cocktails in the bar before dinner. I couldn’t say no, so by the time we made it to our table, everyone was feeling pretty happy. One of our guests was an investment banker from London that turned out to be quite a character as the evening went on. There were 8 of us for dinner and Josh and I were trying to figure out this “investment banker” guy during dinner. His friend, who wants to invest in China distribution, was arriving Friday and is a doctor in LA. More on him later. Anyhow as the evening went on and the wine flowed (I shipped in some really good bottles ahead of time) our banker friend was getting quite a buzz. At one moment we had our attention diverted to a discussion at the other end of the table and when we looked back, our friend Marco was slumped over asleep in his chair in the middle of the restaurant! We decided to carry on with dinner and just let him be. As we were finishing up dinner, he woke up and made a bee line for the other end of our table to sit next to Laura, our attractive 27 year old Brand Director who worked her way into the business with us right out of art school, 7 years ago. She now lives in Lausanne Switzerland and splits her time between here and there working for us. Anyhow, it seems Marco had awoken and decided he had taken quite a shine to her. We wrapped up dinner and as we were walking out, he decided he wanted to hug and kiss Laura! Now this was quite a shock and she turned her head at the last moment to avoid full lip on lip contact but did get a big wet sloppy one, right on the cheek. He was obviously totally hammered. The misses, Laura and I jumped in my car and drove the 3 blocks back to the Westin to head up to our suite before Mr Grabby Hands got back. We made it to our room around 11pm and sat around until around 12:30am talking about the next day and coming up with some captions for the photos that would be displayed the next night.

Tomorrow I will share the details of the day of preparation and the big event. We only had 4 hours sleep last night so I’m a bit tired to go on right now, plus the house needs a little cleaning. Just to give you some sense of the success, the misses was so impressive, that she and I were asked by the promoter and artist management company, to be the ones to work on all the upcoming dates in the future. We have New York, Chicago, Houston and a few other cities this fall and then more in 2013. They think we’ll have a Denver date early next year! Anyhow I don’t want to short change you on all the details of the event so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for more. The good news is it looks like the misses might have found her calling!

Hope everyone is well, sorry we missed yesterday and stay tuned for tomorrow.

Just in case we can’t find a computer tomorrow, we’re warning you we might miss tomorrow’s post. If so, we’ll make it up Saturday morning. Lots to do this morning to get ready. It’s 4:45am and everyone’s still sleeping. We’re trying to decide just how to get the misses chocolates through security. Last thing we want is to be going through the maze and have some 18 year old tell us they can’t be allowed through. We might just check them in a bag as we’re on a small plane going to Austin anyhow. We did get upgraded to first class both ways which is nice, but that has nothing to do with security.

Yesterday after school we headed out to the Pioneer Museum in Golden to film the oldest     one all dressed up in his finest mountain man garb, playing Jedediah Smith. He had on a coyote hat, a deer skin wrap or coat, a blackfoot indian belt and an apache pouch with a beaver skin draped over his shoulder and to him, the most important piece, a big knife. He did a great job playing the role of the famous mountain man and I’m sure he’ll be the only one in his entire class who did a short movie to make his case of why his person should be in the Hall of Fame. His teacher has never given out a 4 which is the highest grade you can get but we’re hoping for the best. He also made a collage that he’ll take in this morning. It was really special to see him standing next to a 150 year old cabin with a bear skin hanging next to him in the snow telling the story. His brother interrupted a few times so he and I had to go around the corner while Mom and he did another “take”. (that’s movie lingo!) We’ll make sure to email it to you all or get it to you somehow. He’s a natural born star!

I forgot to get my dry cleaning last night so I’ll have to be there at 7 sharp when they open. Other than that, I think we’re pretty much all packed. I going to run now so I can clean up a bit around here as we don’t want to come home to a mess. Hope everyone is well, we’ll make sure to post Saturday late morning with all the fun details.

Take care, stay safe and God Bless,

Today is the 400th post since we began on December 31st, 2010. I hope the kids enjoy reading them when they are older.

It was a cold day yesterday and even colder last night with temperatures at or below zero.   It’s supposed to warm up a bit today but then another system is headed in sometime this weekend. This morning the misses works at 7 so we woke up at 5. A few minutes later the youngest came down and just told me he’s making breakfast and it’s a surprise, I can hardly wait! Tomorrow we leave for Austin and will be gone 47 hours. Uncle T and Aunt B have come to the rescue again taking the boys while we’re gone. This morning after I drop the kiddos at school, I need to run up to Vail and back. If I leave at 8, I should be back by 11am. Tonight we are filming a family movie for the oldest ones school project. He will be playing Jedediah Smith, the famous Colorado mountain man, with his brother playing the supporting role of a bear, complete with bear skin, in the movie. We’re debating putting it on YouTube. If so, we’ll let you all know where to find it. In any case, we’ll be busy all night from about 5pm on. I also need to Fed Ex some more supplies to Texas today and then sometime late tonight, we’ll pack. Time to run right now but before I go, here’s a few items to chew on. 1. The Air Force is taking the word “God” out of their logo. Why??? Because Obama thinks it offends atheists. 2. The government is telling catholic hospitals they have to provide contraceptives free of charge to all patients even though they oppose abortion, why? And oh yeah, the health care law (you and me) have to pay for it. Now I’m pro choice but why force certain religions who oppose abortion to participate? You can go to any doctor and get birth control pills and go down to any pharmacy and get it filled. Also the Army has prohibited (ordered) all its chaplains from talking about this, hmmm. I could go on and on but in closing let me just say, Santa Claus, Jesus, God, the Bible, Christmas, I’m attracted to women, white heterosexual male! Hope I offended someone. We’re treading on dangerous ground as a society. I wonder what my grandparents would think if they were still alive, hmmm. Oh well, I’d better stop before I’m put on some list. Take care, have a great day and God Bless

Today is the 400th post since we began on December 31st, 2010. I hope the kids enjoy reading them when they are older.

It was a cold day yesterday and even colder last night with temperatures at or below zero.   It’s supposed to warm up a bit today but then another system is headed in sometime this weekend. This morning the misses works at 7 so we woke up at 5. A few minutes later the youngest came down and just told me he’s making breakfast and it’s a surprise, I can hardly wait! Tomorrow we leave for Austin and will be gone 47 hours. Uncle T and Aunt B have come to the rescue again taking the boys while we’re gone.

This morning after I drop the kiddos at school, I need to run up to Vail and back. If I leave at 8, I should be back by 11am. Tonight we are filming a family movie for the oldest ones school project. He will be playing Jedediah Smith, the famous Colorado mountain man, with his brother playing the supporting role of a bear, complete with bear skin, in the movie. We’re debating putting it on YouTube. If so, we’ll let you all know where to find it. In any case, we’ll be busy all night from about 5pm on.

I also need to Fed Ex some more supplies to Texas today and then sometime late tonight, we’ll pack.

Time to run right now but before I go, here’s a few items to chew on. 1. The Air Force is taking the word “God” out of their logo. Why??? Because Obama thinks it offends atheists. 2. The government is telling catholic hospitals they have to provide contraceptives free of charge to all patients even though they oppose abortion, why? And oh yeah, the health care law (you and me) have to pay for it. Now I’m pro choice but why force certain religions who oppose it, to participate. You can go to any doctor and get birth control pills and go down to any pharmacy and get it filled. Also the Army has prohibited (ordered) all its chaplains from talking about this, hmmm. I could go on and on but in closing let me just say, Santa Claus, Jesus, God, the Bible, Christmas, I’m attracted to women, white heterosexual male! Hope I offended someone. We’re treading on dangerous ground. I wonder what my grandparents would think if they were still alive, hmmm.

Oh well, I’d better stop before I’m put on some list. Take care, have a great day and God Bless

That’s right, we awoke to another 3 or 4 inches of the fluffy white stuff. I probably looked pretty funny in green polka dot boxers and a down coat shoveling the walk this morning. See what you all miss by sleeping in!

The misses works today and tomorrow and then we’re off Thursday for Austin. The oldest is working on his school project and I’m sure Mom and Dad will be helping as it’s due Friday and he’s running out of time. Meanwhile the youngest had D.I. yesterday and is reading really well these days. Both are still sleeping at 6:30 am.

I need to go brush off the snow from both cars. I guess I’d better put on pants as the sun’s coming up. I’ll have to go to the gym after I drop the kids at school. Hard to believe it’s almost Valentines Day and Spring and then Summer, will be here before we know it.

Not much else going on today to write about. Aunt B is recovering from her eye surgery and from what I know, everyone else is doing ok . Time to run, drop us a line (comment) or give us a call. Have a great day, and be thankful for what you have in life, we’re all very lucky! Think about it.

It was a pretty good game. As the misses said yesterday, I’m glad the Giants won as I saw them as the underdog so that’s why I was cheering for them. The halftime show was a joke. I don’t know about you but to me, it was embarrassing to see Madonna lip synching (and she was according to NBC this morning) and whoever MIA is, giving us all the middle finger. Nice, I’m sure her mother is proud. (sad thing is her mother probably really is proud!) At least it gave me 15 minutes to go to the bathroom and replenish my snacks without missing anything. My favorite part, as always, was the commercials.

Well back to the daily grind today. The kids have school and the misses is getting her hair done and I have lots of work. It’s still cold, 13 degrees right now, with lots of snow on the ground. The boys made some igloos yesterday and played for most of the day outside. Earlier in the morning, the oldest one was melting down pretty good. Must be sugar or hormones.

I’ll be glad when this week and the big event are over so I can get back to my regular work. I feel pretty good about 2012 and where we’re going on a business level. On a personal level, I’m a bit worried about the economy and rising prices on everything from food to gas to electricity. Even the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) said unemployment is going up this year and next. Looks like we’re not out of the woods yet.

We have so much to do here to fix up our home. We have huge drafts where cold gets in and heat gets out. The kitchen needs a major overhaul and lots of other things to do cosmetically. We have to get new garage doors this year and fix the door opener as we’ve had one side that has been broken for a couple of years. Oh yea, then there’s the microwave that’s broke and dishwasher that doesn’t seem to clean as good as it used to. Throw in the bentonite soil under our house and the cracking driveway and basement floor and you’ve got quite a list. Oh well, at least our home has character. It would be much easier to just move but I don’t think we can afford it, we’ll keep you posted. If we do move, it would only be a mile or two. I’ll just make a master list and tackle things one at a time.

I just woke the misses so she can get ready for her day. Both boys are still sleeping, thankfully. Time to run, lots going on. February is always a bad month for bills. It starts with half of our property taxes due and then goes downhill from there. The misses is going to try to work some more (although I don’t know if that’s a good idea as she’s plenty busy as it is) but every penny counts. Time to finish up my coffee and get going for the day myself. Hope everyone is well, take care and have a good week.

Good morning.  The sky is beautiful and the snow is glistening with pink and purple hues.

The oldest was already downstairs when I came down and the Mister is at the gym.  The youngest is still asleep in our bed.  He kicked and twisted and turned most of the night.  I’m sure the Mister has multiple bruises on his legs.  When I went up last night (after finishing emails) both the mister and the munchkin were fast asleep.  I tried to pick up the munchkin to move him to his bed, but he was so far over that I couldn’t get a good angle to lift him.  So in our bed he stayed…that won’t be happening tonight….to many bruises and not enough sleep.

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?  The mister is cheering for the Giants, the rest of us will probably cheer with him.  We don’t have loyalty to either team and we tend to cheer for the “Under dog”.  Personally I’m only watching for the commercials.

I was painting the truffles yesterday…it’s much harder than it sounds.  If anyone out there has a suggestion on making the gold go on smoothly….please let me know.

The boys played outside in the snow most of the morning and then came with us to run some errands…super bowl food and more gold dust for the truffles.  When we got home they donned their snow clothes and went to a friends to build an igloo.  The kiddos were at their friends for an hour or so and then returned home for dinner and a movie.

I cleaned the youngest’s room yesterday…UGH!  I was going to make him do it, but the amounts of legos, knex and assorted toys were almost too overwhelming for me.  Needless to say I had him sort some of it yesterday, but the neighbor boys had pulled a great amount of the toys out. The youngest asked if once it was clean…if the kids  neighbor) could play in his brother’s room instead since they always mess his up.  Good point…I’ll try monitoring and implementing some clean as you go rules.  I could use some of those myself.

Well I am off to cook some breakfast and paint truffles.

Have a great day and God Bless,

LLF

It’s still snowing, but just a little. It’s been snowing pretty much non stop since 5pm on Thursday night. We have just a touch over 2 feet here at the house. It was like deja-vu when I shoveled at 6 this morning as I’ve done the same thing about 3 times in the past 36 hours. I don’t know why anyone should be surprised, we knew the snow would come, it always does. The funny thing is the mountains and all the ski areas got less than an inch! Weird weather patterns here and all over the World. In Italy and most of Europe, they were hit hard. Rome had their first snow in 26 years and in Eastern Europe (Hungary, Germany and other similar countries) people are freezing to death. In Moscow Russia, the government has put out over 3000 heaters for the public to go stand by, outside, and get warm as many of the buildings are without heat. Imagine if you had no heat or power, how well would you have faired the past few days. For us, it would have required extra work but we would have been ok. Anyhow, what a storm, we usually don’t get this much snow until March.

Yesterday the misses and Judy finished making the truffles for the party and the final tally was 159 handmade chocolate masterpieces. Today she’ll be hand painting a bunch of them for special guests. The boys had a blast in the snow. We finally had to make them come in around 6:30 as it was too dark. The youngest had crawled into Mojo’s dog house and then the oldest filled the front up with snow trapping him in. Kids huh.

The wife is patiently (not really) waiting for the computer so I’d better sign off. Lots to do today and the Super Bowl is tomorrow. I really don’t care who wins and frankly am not that excited for it. I am looking forward to the commercials, they’re always the best part anyhow as most games are not very good games. Time to clean off the car and head out to the gym. Have a great weekend.

It started with Grandma calling last night around 7pm telling us the kids would have no school today. She had seen the announcement across the bottom of the tv screen. Not two minutes later, the phone rang again with a robo call from the school district confirming Grandma’s message. At this time (7ish on Thursday night) it was snowing lightly but they must have a better weatherman then we do because they were spot on. It’s now 5am and so far we have about 8 inches here at the house and it’s coming down pretty darn good. It’s supposed to snow all day long and into tomorrow which means the snow totals will add up. They say we’ll get somewhere around 18 inches, so it’ll be quite a mess around here for a few days.

Yesterday at 3pm the misses and our neighbor Judy began the process of making 200 handmade truffles for the big event next week. There were a number of steps involved in the process and they finished up with stage 1 by about 7pm. We now have half finished candy in our refrigerator and out in the garage. They still need to dip the soft truffle centers in the hard candy shell that they have yet to make. Then the misses will hand paint (are you kidding me) all 200 with edible gold paint. It’s a very special treat I’m sure everyone will enjoy. We also had a conference call yesterday to go through the final details of everything else and it looks like we’re all set. She made her best case for a photographer she found, who has worked with the likes of the band U2 and on many major campaigns all over the World. She negotiated with him to reduce his fee and take some free wine as partial payment and convinced our CFO to sign off on the expense. It’s probably the single biggest expense we have next week but the guy is a pro and guests will leave the reception with a finished print of a photo of them with Andrea. There’s tons of other details too numerous to mention but she’s done a great job. I told her she should start her own event company since she loves doing this kind of thing so much.

Aunt B is home recovering from eye surgery due to a detached retina. I’m not sure how you “detach” your retina but she did it. Hope she’s well soon. The boys think it’s pretty cool that she gets to wear a pirate patch.

The oldest and I were going  to go to the baseball tryouts in Golden tomorrow but I’m sure they will be cancelled. We just found out about them earlier this week from his flag football coach whose boys are playing. We sneaked in a few days of throwing and catching and one of hitting but that’s all. It’d be great if we had another week of practice but he’s playing pretty well. We’ll keep you posted on what we do. I think it’s like 4 days a week and he’s swimming for sure which is 6 days a week so we need to make sure we don’t take on too much. They just said on the news that the winter storm warning goes on until 11pm tonight. Looks like we’ll be doing lots of shoveling all day. Maybe Uncle T will make it up here with his snow blower, it’s times like these I wish I had one! Oh oh, they just said more snow on Tuesday. I told you it would come.

I left my snow boots in the car from snow boarding with the kids last week so I’m going to have to shovel my way to my boots. The misses was supposed to work for 1 hour this morning, (some kind of training thing) but called last night when she found out the boys would be home. She actually thought it was yesterday she was supposed to be there as she went in at 9am only to find out it was today, not yesterday, whoops.

I’ll have to dig my way out today as I need to go to the bank. I hope they’re open. It’s days like these we’re glad we have 4 wheel drive vehicles. I’m sure the boys will be bugging us to go sledding or snow boarding somewhere.

Well time to get after it. I think I’ll get dressed and start digging out the driveway, at least far enough to get the paper, if it’s there. Hope everyone is doing well, take care, stay warm and safe and God Bless.