Wasting Away in Miami

Not really but I thought the title was catchy. I have been in Miami since Saturday night. Not a lot to report but the heavy lifting is all done and now we are in wait-for-it-to-break mode. I am here with two co-workers supporting a one night block party. We also have an executive suite at the hotel where we are staying that we are responsible for. Basically, we are setting up printers and computers and wiring everything so that the planners and such can throw their party. We are working out of the Moore Building in Miami's Design District. This building has been used for art shows and the like. Much better digs than Detroit last year. Here is a shot of the interior atrium:



Because I want this post to have some humor and redeeming value, please follow this link and read Dave Barry's column from the Miami Herald where he welcomes you to Miami and gives you some tips to getting around town. It's all true and very accurate. Enjoy.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/dave_barry/16563709.htm

East Bound and Super Bowl Down

I am off this Saturday for 10 days in Miami to support events leading up to the Super Bowl. This year you can be a part of one those parties if you are in Miami and have $500.00 to burn. StubHub is offering a VIP package at this link:

http://www.stubhub.com/super-bowl-party-tickets/?event_id=363760

VIP Packages include:

* General Admittance to the main event Block Party
* Exclusive access to the Moore Building VIP Party
* Premium open bar and catered food compliments of Benihana Restaurant
* Red carpet walk
* Mingle among the hottest athletes and celebrities (last year's guest included Usher, Jessica Alba, Emmitt Smith and Snoop Dogg)

This is one of the many events that I will be supporting (ok, supporting the staff that puts the event on) while I am in Miami. No plans to attend the game and no connections to get tickets so don't even ask. Keep watching this space for updates and photos from Miami. Go Colts!

Huff and Puff

We have had some windy days recently that hit too close to home last week. I came home from work on Friday to find that a mini-twister had raced down my street and took out half of my neighbor's tree. As you can see the tree cracked at its base vertically.



Further examination shows dry rot or dead rot in the core of the trunk.


The tree came down into the street and snapped my cable TV line. It also stretched the phone and power lines all the way down to the pavement, ripping them from the house and scaring the hell out of Debby and the girls when they landed on our garden window on the side of the house.



DWP was out within two hours and shut off the power to our house so that they could throw the line over the fallen tree and then reattach it to the house. Total outage time was less than 30 minutes. Saturday, an emergency crew from the city came and cut up the fallen tree and cleared it out of the street, which was two-thirds blocked. They moved it all off to the side so that a reqular crew can come and clean it up at some point. An hour after that an AT&T technician arrived and re-hung and stretched the phone lines that the tree guys had freed up by sectioning up the tree. Total phone outage time was zero. And then came the wait for the Time Warner Cable technician.....

....the long, horrific wait. The wait that required me to find rabbit ears so that I could watch football. The wait that forced me to watch static covered NFL playoffs. The two day wait that endured for an additional tw0-and-a-half hours while the cable tech re-ran coxial from the power pole, down the line, across the street and to my house. Total cable TV outage time 51 hours. The horror....the horror...

Liquid Heaven

The girls got a chocolate fountain from Grandma for Xmas. We baptized it last night.


Results were delicious and messy.


Yes, we had to peel them off the ceiling at bedtime.