My stache...

We had our European regional company meeting this week in Dublin and last night was our party, which was an 80s themed event....They gave out mustaches and I gotta say that i am pretty certain that based on some of the feedback i got on mine, i'll be growing one of these out asap....

Consensus was that it allowed me to cultivate a look similar to Ron Jeremy or Cal Naughton Jr (John C Reilly's character from talladega nights), or even a bit of Rollie Fingers, so you can see why i'd be so enthusiastic about growing my own.

My son's future business

Passed this shop on the streets of dublin last night, could it be foreshadowing of my son sam's career....

Cue Sunrise,Sunset...She's Walking!

One of my first rapping proteges - sort of

Back in the 90s, I worked at William Morris Agency, a 100 year old talent agency that represented authors, directors, musicians and other entertainers.....I worked in the music department for a while, and spent time working for a legendary music agent named jonny podell...

Jonny asked me a favor - could i record a rap demo of his son for one of his school projects....so jonny and his son cassidy came out to my house (i still lived at home at that time - ahh, to be rent/mortgage free), and we proceeded to record an anti-drug rap called 'drugs are lots of bull'...

anyway, i was eventually dropped by jonny and cassidy - replaced by MC Serch from Third Bass who i think was the act at Cassidy's Bar Mitzvah, and I got over it pretty quick.....

Cassidy has gone on to make a career in music, thanks to/in spite of my early influence.
You can see more about cassidy here...The picture above is cassidy with Puff/P/Diddy/Puff Daddy/P-Diddy

Scratching

A few of my teams at DoubleClick had planning meetings in New York this week, and as part of those meetings, they organized a team building event at "Scratch", a school (founded by Jam Master Jay) that teaches you how to be a DJ....Gina from my team captured this picture as I lived out my rap/dj fantasies....we had an amazing time...madision and luke have a birthday coming up, and expect they will want a set of turntables for their 1st birthday.

The Pilot - Honda - Pretty good so far....

Finally leased a 2nd car over the holidays....Opted for the honda pilot which is fine to get me to and from the train station, and more importantly, big enough to hold the 5-deep-posse....while i did have a used honda civic in the 80s, i never had an experience with leasing a new one....It was great...really terrific customer service....

once i got over the fact that they were playing contemporary christian music in the showroom (apparently an XM station mix up), it was all up hill....they were incredibly flexible, and the follow up since the purchase was great....they called 2 or 3 times to make sure i was happy with the car, they gave me some flowers congratulating me on the purchase (which i subsequently tried to pass on to allison, claiming i had purchased on my own - no dice), and they introduced me to showroom manager who also congratulated me on my new car....all in, a really solid, no pressure sales process....and while i miss hicksville taxi terribly - i am finding a way to cope - and drive myself the 2 or 3 miles to and from the railroad each day...

Holiday Project Update

Cause I know you've been on the edge of your seats, here's the rundown....

hanging the flat panel tv -- Chance of completion: 10%
Complete! Got some advice from my coworkers and a lot of help from my dad, but the tv is up, and so far, has stayed up

exercise--Chance of completion: 10%
complete, sort of
i actually went to the gym last week, and spent a half hour on the treadmill and lifting some weights....

clean out the basement closets--Chance of completion: 5%
not done - but i did clean out my own closet and a drawer that had about 15 pounds of crap in it....i should get some bonus points for this one, cause i actually fixed the drawer as well, breaking out the under-used tube of gorilla glue i bought last year

2 plumbing projects--Chance of completion: 25%
almost complete - bought the sink for the kitchen, and was actually ready to get this one checked off, but my contractor went to san antonio for vacation so wont be done til next week

Buy a 2nd Car -- Chance of completion: 10%
complete - leased a honda pilot last week - will really miss the 2nd hand smoke from hicksville taxis, not to mention the great philosophy and politics discussions with the drivers

Take Sam to the City to see my office--Chance of completion: 1%
not even close to complete - just too much work to get this one done - will have to aim to do it this year

all in all, i was pleasantly surprised with how much i got done...