A Year of Change

First off, thanks Grandma Annette for the following comment from yesterday, she said;

The only time I had fresh bread was when Serena was a little girl and my mother-in-law made home made bread every Wed. We would go over to her house and wait for it to come out of the oven. She would make 6 loaves and we would eat 2. My Grandma Annette and my Mom never made homemade bread as my Grandpa ran general stores . We only had home baked goods at Moms when my Aunt Leona came down from Canada. She would make bread and the best sticky buns in the world. You guys better get real about making your own bread as you don’t have enough time for all the things you have going on now. Bread making is a long time consuming process and has to be done just right. What are you going to cook the bread in with no electricity or gas. You better build a brick oven in the backyard and stockpile a lot of wood or buy a generator and a lot of gas (don’t stockpile gas at the house). Gas here could be $5 a gallon by summer, maybe that will keep a certain someone out of the White House again. I hope Lori’s neck feels better, isn’t there something the doctor can do for it? Take care, love you all.

Now I had to call her and let her know, we already have stoves and ovens that run on kerosene and have about 200 gallons of fuel safely stored. Gas is too volatile to store on sight but we do have some close by that’s treated with “Satbil-ize”, a gas preservative. Grandma Annette is quite the gardner so we’ll be enlisting her help in a month or so when we begin Spring planting.

Yesterday started off with my run and then we were all off to Krav Maga, Israeli self defense classes for the boys. They were really excited as it’s lot of fun and they both broke multiple boards with side kicks at the end of class. Today they have swimming!

On the way home we dropped the youngest at d.i. (destination imagination) and went home. The misses went down the street for a massage while I started to clean up the basement. Next the oldest and I were off to pick the youngest up and then all three of us went back downstairs to go through stuffed animals and dvd’s. We came up with about 100 animals and 70 dvd’s to donate to Children’s Hospital. Meanwhile the misses was trying to stay still and get some relief on her neck. The afternoon went quick and we were supposed to go out to dinner way down south and then to a comedy show that started at 9:45. Now this would have put us home around midnight and we just couldn’t get up for it. We did have our favorite babysitter booked and felt we couldn’t cancel on her, so the misses and I were trying to find something to do.

A few days ago I had read about a new Scandinavian restaurant called Trillium. Since we couldn’t find any interesting movies, we decided to give it a try. Luckily we got a reservation for 7:30 and off we went. Long story short, it was a really great dinner. It’s fun to find a new place where the food lives up the the hype. It was also nice for the misses and I to just have some alone time. So after a great meal and adult conversation, we were home by 9. We were all in bed by 9:30 and fast asleep.

The misses just came down and her head is hurting really bad, we have to get this fixed. She has another massage today but we need to get to the root of the problem. We’ll be asking (telling) the workman’s compensation doctor to refer us to our physical therapy place of choice when she goes to the doctor tomorrow. These doctors don’t care, they rush you in and out as you’re just another name in the system. Time for me to jump in and take freakin charge. It’s supposed to be a bit warmer today, almost 50, so I’m going to try to finish the basement and get the garage done. 200 cases of wine will arrive by plane before we know it.

I’m going to finish my coffee and head to the gym and jump on the treadmill. I have to stick to my routine as I’m an all in or all out type of personality. Hope everyone is well. If you don’t know how to post a comment, just scroll to the bottom of the post and click on “leave a comment” and follow the instructions, it’s pretty simple.

Take care and God Bless,

If you scroll down to yesterday’s post, you can click on “1 comment” and see Aunt Robi’s reply from yesterdays post. Glad to hear she’s happy and in a good place. It’s so cute she actually thinks “she’s the favorite”. This argument has gone on a long time and I’ve come to the point where I just let Uncle T and Aunt Robi both think they’re Mom’s favorite as I know the real truth. Anyhow, back to yesterday.

The misses neck is so jacked up she actually broke down into tears a couple of times yesterday. I’m so pissed I’m thinking of getting a lawyer and suing the physical therapy place that caused this. We finally reached the doctor who called in some pain pills but they didn’t do much. I just took her up some frozen blueberries to put on her neck or forehead to try to sooth her pain. We’re supposed to go out to dinner tonight and then a comedy club but I don’t know, maybe we’ll have to cancel.

Yesterday afternoon, we took the boys and Jennifer to the movies. It was long overdue and they had a great time. We were planning on using Grandma Annette’s Christmas gift of movie passes but of course, when we arrived they told us we had to first book on line to use the passes. So out came the credit card as I couldn’t tell them no and leave, and into the movie we went. There’s always a catch.

Today I’m determined to get some deep cleaning done. I’ve kind of started on the basement but really only picked up so I can now start to clean. I was up at the shop (gun shop) with the guys yesterday, and we were all talking about that National Geographic show, Doomsday Preppers. You see, the gun shop around here is kind of like the local barber shop was in the old days, a bunch of us drop in on a regular basis to hang out. Some people go to Starbucks to meet, we go to the gun shop. There’s Dave, the Wheat Ridge cop, Bill, the FBI agent, Brian and Tom, ex military and so on. We all know each other well and have been friends for years. There’s always a few dogs lying around too. The tv show came up as Tom, the store owner said he couldn’t order any new guns from distributors on Wednesday as they we’re all sold out. We all wondered what was going on but as soon as I got home, the misses said, “it’s because of the show”. Turns out she was right. They had over 4 million people the first week and 5 million the second and it seems a lot of these people went out and bought guns causing an unexpected shortage, Wow!

Now we don’t need any more guns but we do need a Country Living grain mill. These are about $400 but allow us to mill our own flour and make bread for .70 cents a loaf instead of the $5 or $6 a loaf now costs! In the long run , it’ll pay off so we need to get one sometime soon. We’re always looking for ways to be more self sufficient and save money. Nobody makes their own bread anymore, in fact our kids have only had fresh bread, hot out of the oven, a few times, while I’m sure my Mom and Grandma Dixie and Annette had this all the time when they were kids. Wow how times have changed, and not always for the best. I have an idea, if anyone wants to buy us the grain mill, we’ll keep you in fresh bread! Remember, those that donate will be first in line to be taken in once the shit hits the fan, ha ha! (now don’t you Grandma’s get all serious as we know and appreciate all the donating you’ve done for us throughout our lives)

The boys played hard yesterday and are sleeping well. The oldest had so much popcorn at the movies, he had a stomach ache and had to go to bed early. I think he hit a turning point as he said “dad, from now on I’m eating no more junk, only good food”. They’re such good kids, we’re very lucky. In fact, we’re so lucky, I think we’ll win the lottery tonight, wouldn’t that be nice.

Alright, I’m going to run, literally, so I can get my exercise in for the day. It’s a holiday weekend so I hope everyone has some fun plans. Hard to believe it’s almost March, take care and God Bless.

No reactions from yesterdays post. I wrote that trying to see how you all felt about what’s going on. None, zip, zero, nada, reaction from any of you. My lovely wife responded but did so to me in person. What do you guys think about this year? Are you excited (going into Spring gets all humans and animals excited, it’s a scientific fact supported by numerous studies) are you depressed or are you kind of just stuck where you are. For us, it’s all attitude. Listen guys, life goes fast, you have to grab it by the cojones. If you don’t know what that means , call me.

I was talking to a close friend yesterday, the brother of my partner, who’s going through a draining divorce. His relationship has been on and off again for years. I was actually at his wedding some 15+ years or so ago. He and his wife are very religious these days but weren’t always. Anyhow I finally got him on the phone yesterday as I need some computer help and he’s our software guy. When he called, I couldn’t even tell it was him. He confided in me that he’s a wreck, hasn’t been eating much or even drinking water! He said he’s dehydrated and losing weight and every day, and even though he prays, his wife seems to take a pound of flesh from him almost daily (his words). I tried to encourage him to get up and get out of the house, go work out, get on a plane and come visit, anything to move forward, but he wasn’t having any of it. He said he couldn’t help me with my computer problem until today so I said ok, told him to take care and we hung up. I called his brother, my partner, right away to tell him that his brother’s really in a dark place. So dark that he should go over and see him. He listened closely and thanked me saying his brother doesn’t always open up to him. The point here is, life throws a ton of crap at you and while you’re getting hit in the face with it, it’s hard to be positive and look ahead. But I think that’s the time when you need to summon up all the courage and inner strength you can to fight off the demons or whatever they are. Now it’s easy for me to say this today as I’m not going through what he is. I hope that when adversity strikes, and it always does, I can practice what I preach. Oh well, one day at a time.

Don’t get me wrong, things aren’t all rosy here, the misses neck is really jacked up. I’m short a bunch of cash on bills, and taxes are soon coming due. I have tons of challenges at work. I need to come up with $500 for the annual fee for the kids pool this summer, (they always want their money by March 1st even though they don’t open until May 31st!) the house is falling apart and I have a freakin dead brown tooth that needs veneers. So, there ya go, lots of crap here too. However if you look at the positive things, I have a great family, my wife and I love each other very much, she’s my best friend, we have two great, really great kids, I have a job, and we’re pretty healthy. So, is the glass half empty of half full. I think the good things in my life far outweigh the bad. How about you?

Ok, no more sermons, let’s talk about yesterday. The oldest stayed home from school and went down to Uncle T and Aunt B’s while we went to lunch with our friends from Iceland, Bogi and Sola. Sola’s sister is in town from Denmark for 2 months so she joined us and we all had a great time. They’re vey much like us, except from Europe with a whole lot more money, although you’d never know it. They followed us back to our house to get some wine to take up to the mountains and we made them stay outside for a few minutes so we could at least pick up the laundry strewed around the house. We also let Mojo in to divert their attention from our messy home. They of course, being polite, said “this isn’t messy at all!” The wife and I were talking and realized how much we like people from Europe. We know quite a few and none of them, at least the ones we know, have any hidden agendas. They’re all just living, embracing and enjoying life. We think that there’s something about being raised across the pond that gives them a different perspective than we have. Maybe it’s just the people we know, oh well, they’re really good nice people.

Meanwhile the oldest one was still at lunch with his Aunt and Uncle, (he was feeling much better) and soon we had to go get the youngest from school. The the little guy and I were off to get cleaning supplies for our total house makeover which starts today and hopefully ends in a few days. You see, our house is a freakin mess and we need to start in the basement and work our way up. All the furniture needs to be moved and floors need to be cleaned, baseboards, everything. Before we can do that though, we need to really look at everything closely and throw out anything we haven’t used in a couple of years unless it has sentimental value. Toys, clothes, old books and papers, everything. I’m sure we’ll have a big pile of stuff on the curb in the coming days. Part of our motivation is we have 200 cases of wine arriving on the 24th.

After we bought the cleaning supplies, I ran up to the gun shop to pick up my M4 (a military semi auto rifle) that I had a new competition trigger put in, for 3 Gun matches. (3 Gun is a program where you compete against other shooters on a course using a pistol, rifle and shotgun) To compete, you need to kind of trick out your weapons so they shoot faster and are more accurate. It’s just like any other sport except with bullets, you need the right equipment.

The wife has physical therapy this morning and we need to take the truck in for some work. We’re convinced the therapy is what jacked up her neck in the first place so she’s going to tell them not to touch it. We’re going to try to get the boys to the movies today in between our cleaning as we promised last week and ran out of time with swimming. Tomorrow we’re going downtown to Kava Maga (the whole family) which is a form of Israeli self defense and conditioning. (I can’t run everyday) The place is having its annual big open house and celebration. It’s lots of fun for the whole family and sure beats sitting around watching tv.

The youngest is up with me, (5:30am) while everyone else is still sleeping. Time to run so I can get a jump on the basement while the good looking one is still sleeping. Hope you all are well, we’re looking forward to Spring (we’re humans) but seem to be stuck at 35 or 40 degrees everyday. Leave a comment or send and email or give us a call, or wait, do something you haven’t done in years, write us a letter! It’s so exciting to get some mail that isn’t a bill, if you know what I mean. God Bless.

I don’t know about you, but I definitely have a different outlook and feeling about 2012 than previous years. I can’t really put my finger on it but it’s just a combination of a bunch of things that has given me a more positive feeling about where we’re headed. Maybe 2012 is the actual “year of change” for us. Maybe it took all of 2011, and writing about it, to set ourselves up for the actual change. Let’s take a look at it, so far this year, we’re much healthier, the misses has an opportunity to get into something she really enjoys doing, I’ve basically changed (at least in my own mind which is the first step to implementing actual change) the whole structure of our Company and the way we do things, and most importantly, I now have this inner peace that everything is going to somehow work out and be ok. We still have lots of bills and our home has lots of things that need fixed and the World, well, it’s still a mess, maybe even more so than it was a year ago, but with all that said, somehow I feel like we’re headed in the right direction as a family and good things are on the horizon for us. Just a gut feeling, hope I’m right!

Yesterday the misses was off early and the oldest was not feeling well. He didn’t have a temperature so we sent him to school with the caveat that if he didn’t feel well, I’d come and get him. I had a bunch of errands to run in the morning as I needed to do some things to get some cash in the bank. By the time I got home, it was 1 in the afternoon and soon after, I received a call from the school as the oldest guy was in the clinic with a temperature. I went to pick him up and we stopped to pay a few thousand dollars worth of bills on the way home and picked up some udon soup to sooth his cold. Mom took off from work 30 minutes early to make it to the youngest ones teacher conference where all was good. I meanwhile stayed home with the sick guy cleaning the house. By 4 I had to jump back on the phone and was on until nearly 7pm. I missed dinner with the family (on the phone) so the misses brought it down to me in my office. Next up was all four of us in our bed for an hour and then it was time to go to sleep.

First thing in the morning after dropping the boys at school, I ran to get the oil changed (interesting huh?) and $200 later was back on the road on the way to the carwash. Exciting stuff!

Today I have a call at 8:45 am that’ll go until around 11 and then we’ll run downtown for lunch with our friends from Iceland (she’s a doctor and he sold some biotech business for a bunch) to discuss a joint sustainable food venture and raising some grass fed cows in Wyoming. Just one of the things we have going. In short, we have the connections and they have the money.  I also had a long conversation with my other “little sister”who’s now running a german wine import company and lives in Tucson. She’s also a Master Sommelier, one of 17 females in the World (it’s a big deal in the wine business) and a good friend for years. Her company is based in Carlsbad CA and she said she bought a condo there by the beach but only spent 10 days there last year. She told me that we should go out and use it but she doesn’t have any furniture. You think I travel a lot, she had 202,000 miles last year on United alone and more on Southwest and Jet Blue. That’s a lot of time in airplanes. I’m kind of her mentor so we talk often when she needs some advice but we’ve both been so busy and we haven’t spoke for a few months. My Mom will remember her (Laura) as we all had dinner a couple of years ago in Arizona. Anyhow, maybe we’ll go use the beach condo when it warms up!

It’s now a little after 5 and I need to go get my run in. Hope you all are doing well. Remember half of the battle is having a positive attitude. (it’s an up day for me, can you tell, ha ha) It’s not always easy to do with the problems we all face, but as my Mom says, try to keep your chin up. Take care and God Bless.

My back’s a little sore from running but I shouldn’t even mention it as the misses has had a headache for days, maybe weeks now. We think it’s from the physical therapy that she’s been going to from her injury at work. We have to get her out of retail. She just cannot stand on her feet for 8 hours at a time lifting heavy bags of groceries. We’ve been waiting for the offers to come in to finance her new event business but haven’t received any yet. Maybe your checks are in the mail!

Yesterday was busy as usual. It started off with the oldest one in the clinic when we arrived home from the gym. I quickly ran over to school while the misses went down the the L.O.L. house to give Bunkie his shot for the 408th day since she started. Yes Bunkie is still around and the misses is still giving the shot but getting really tired of it. I mean come on, I don’t care what it is, try doing ANYTHING for almost 400 days in a row. Giving a bitting little dog a shot every day wasn’t meant to be a part of anyones daily routine. It’s right up there with taking a shower or brushing you teeth each and every day. Ok, I’ll stop venting but I feel her pain. But, she refuses to ask the neighbor (who sometimes does it when we’re out of town) to do it for awhile. That was my suggestion.

Anyhow, I heded right over to school and went to the oldest guys classroom to check on him. He was working away decorating his Valentines Day box with the rest of his class and even though he didn’t feel well, I could tell he wanted to stick it out as the big party (last one of the school year) was coming up in the afternoon. He thanked me for coming and told me he felt like throwing up but was ok now. Later in the day, this would catch up with him.

The misses and I made it through our day, me mostly on the phone and the misses running here and there. At 1:30 she headed over to the school to host the youngest ones classroom party. I made it there by 2 as I was supposed to help. When I walked in, she had everything handled. (of course she did, I mean she just pulled off a successful party for Andrea, what’s an 8 year old party!) So I went down the hall to join the oldest guy in his classroom. When I arrived they were having an impromptu dance party with the teacher and all the kids dancing to music while exchanging their Valentines. Soon it was 2:45 and school was out. We all jumped in the car and headed home and we could tell the oldest wasn’t feeling well. I had to run an errand and then we ran up to Grandma’s to say hi for Valentines Day. When we arrived up there, the oldest one was really dragging. We stayed for only a few minutes and went right home to get him some tylenol and dinner and send him to bed. Everyone feel asleep fast except me who stayed up switching the channels between National Geographic’s new hit show Doomsday Preppers and the Nuggets basketball game. Turns out 5 million people are watching this new show that shows regular people preparing to take care of their families as they don’t trust the system for various reasons, hmmm. They (the government ) says there are over 5 million people who are serious “preppers” in the country meaning they are learning how to grow their own food, and other skills in case things in our little hand out world don’t continue as is. Enough on this but if you have a chance, tune in to Nat Geo on Tuesday mights.

Now back to me, ha ha. I’m down 8 pounds since we arrived home. Egg whites, chicken breasts and vegetables only, plus running at least 2 miles (30 minutes) each day, seems to be working. I’m on a mission and am now afraid to even look at anything like a donut. Next time you see me, especially those of you out of town, you’ll see a new slimmer trimmer version. Ok ok, I’ll stop, at least until tomorrow!

Time to head to the gym. The misses works at 7:15 so I need to get there and get back quick. No time for weights today, only a 30 minute run. Take care and God Bless, have a great day.

In this day of texting, emails and everyone in a hurry, where has all the romance gone? Why are we all in such a hurry? I can’t remember the last time I received a letter that wasn’t a bill. Does anyone write letters anymore? Oh wait, Grandma Dixie does. When was the last time you went out to dinner as a couple, just to go out to dinner to be with each other? As we’ve advanced technologically, it seems we’ve forgotten how to interact on a personal level. We’re all in such a rush to get this or that done that we’re missing out on enjoying the moment. Well for today, take a breath and just stop. Take time to enjoy life and be with those you love and care about. Or do something for yourself, take an hour and read a book or go for a walk, anything, just step out of the fast lane of life for a moment. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. Happy Valentines Day!

Yesterday we were back to the grind. I spent most of the morning on the phone while the misses was running from here to there trying to get caught up. Today she has the youngest ones Valentines Day Party at school. Of course, as you might remember, she’s the room Mom because no one else volunteered. Thankfully she, as always, stepped up. I don’t understand why people don’t get involved with their children’s lives. Uncle T and Aunt B do more for our kids than some of those parents at school do for their kids, not cool.

I had an early afternoon appointment at the dentist to get my dead tooth checked out. It looks like insurance will cover a couple of thousand dollars of the expense but the rest I’ll have to come up with if I want to fix it. We’ll see. I had bought some crab the other day when it was on sale and the misses and I cleaned it up and had a crab omelette for dinner while the boys had pasta and sauce. Then we worked on their Valentines for them to take to school today. I think we were all asleep by a little after 8.

The youngest is up with me right now and has been since about 5, as had a runny nose that woke him. It’s now 5:45 and I’m debating whether to go to the gym now or wait until after we take the boys to school. It’s still cold outside, around the mid 30’s with no end in sight. The youngest just told me my hair is getting a ‘little grayish”  and asked if he has an armpit hair? Too funny. I was supposed to go to NY next week but I think I’ll pass as I have about 200 cases of wine arriving via air freight. I will be in Italy again around the end of March and who knows where else before then. I’m somewhere around 20,000 miles so far this year.

Time to run and decide what to do this morning. We hope everyone has a great Valentines Day. Take time to smell the roses as they say, enjoy.

Wow, I didn’t realize I wrote 2500+ words yesterday, sorry for the long post. Grandma Annette commented that it sounds like we both did a great job but once again, all the credit goes to the misses. For me, I just did what I normally do which is basically develop relationships and sell stuff. It was my beautiful wife who made it all come together. Ok, I’ll stop now as I’m sure your all getting sick of the love fest and show details. We’re very lucky to get to do some of the things we get to do and we know it.

Yesterday it was back to reality. We spent most of the day cleaning the house. Tons of stuff is broken around here, faucets upstairs, big drafts in the doors that needed to be plugged for the cold temps, and so on. Winter swim also started yesterday at 4pm and will go on every Sunday until Spring when Spring swim starts. I cannot believe how all those kids just jumped in the pool and swam laps non stop for an hour! The wife and I joked that we would haven’t have made it 10 minutes. They both swam great but the oldest one really has a fluid smooth, almost effortless stroke. He must get that from his Mom. His long lean frame is really built for swimming. The youngest one is still half in play mode but has a real strong kick. They finished up at 5pm and then it was off to pick up Chinese food for them as a reward. The misses and I had chicken breast and cauliflower. After showers we were all off to be before 8pm.

Today I need to come up with some extra cash for some extra bills, some things never change. I also am going to get my front teeth finally fixed. I have this dead brown front tooth that I’ve had since I injured it playing basketball when I was about 18 years old. I’ve kind of forgot about it but 3 people literally asked me what happened to my tooth when I was in Texas. That’s it, I’m not that vain but time to get that damn thing fixed. I think they shave it down and put some kind of veneer on it. Another unexpected expense I’ll have to find the cash for. I should have taken my Mom up on her offer a few years ago when she said, “I’ll pay to have your front teeth fixed!”. Bad decision to pass. We’ll keep you posted.

Time to run as it’s a little after 5 and I have to get my 2 mile run in. I’m on a freakin mission, 100% committed. (some of you are thinking maybe I should be committed!) We have dinner tonight with our friends from Iceland at 6pm and still don’t have a sitter, anyone available???

Take care, have a great day and I was so wrapped up in telling everyone about what we did that I forgot to send out a HUGE thank you to Uncle T and Aunt B for letting the boys stay with them while we were gone. Nothing would have happened without their help! They’re the real heros. We were talking when In Texas about what a great Aunt and Uncle they are and how they’ve saved our lives many times in the past year. Plus they’re really good to the kids and it’s good for them to stay with them. Sure they give the kids candy, big deal, but they also make them shower, brush their teeth, and keep them in line teaching them right from wrong. You guys would have made good parents.

Ok, take care, God Bless and bring on the warm weather.

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,