Sunday

I guess you could say that we have been a little neglectful of the blog this weekend.

Friday evening turned into a little longer night than anticipated, with a little more Tuscan red than necessary. I paid the price on Saturday morning when 2 and I did our scheduled five mile run. That last mile and a half was brutal. Still got done in under an hour, but it wasn't pretty. 2 did great. Her plans for a half marathon are very realistic.

Today was a recovery day. Not all that productive.

My buddy Pete's son, the walk-on, logged in 24 minutes in the Hawks' opener against DIII Buena Vista College. Seven assists. The starting guard is out with an injury, and they just signed two guards in their recruiting class for next year, but now is now, and he should get more playing time in the next few games. Good for him

The Irish beat up the USAFA yesterday. And moved up to sixth in the complicated BCS poll. ND goes for the Comander in Chief's trophy (just kidding, folks!) next week at home against Army, having now beaten Navy and AF. If they take care of business next week, they'll be 10-1 going into the USC game after Thanksgiving. There could be several mil on the table for a victory in that game.

I remember being at the USAFA stadium for my nephew's graduation. It's a very inspirational environment. The military acadamies definitely are the homes of the best and the brightest.

My partner Bill and spouse did a weekend getaway in San Antonio. Having been there a couple of times in recent years, I can attest that San Antonio is a very nice place to visit. The focal point of tourism is The River Walk, several downtown blocks of hotels, shops and restaurants that have been built on either side of a narrow channel of water that I think is now only there for show. The river is hardly as wide as a street. But they do boat cruises, and I remember at the NCAA regional how fans of competeing teams did cheers against each other from boat-to-boat. The Alamo obviously gets lots of attention too. With plenty of golf courses, event centers, and other tourist oriented development, San Antonio can be an interesting place to spend a few days. Although maybe not in the Summer. I think the only temperature there in the Summer is "hot".

I have a conference in Chicago on Tuesday at an O'Hare-area hotel. I've scheduled a dinner meeting after the conference and I may just stay the night, coming back early Wednesday. This is the prime time of the year for CPA continuing education programs. The state societies require each member to attend 40 hours of classes each year. That translates to a week of time. Most are one day programs, although the Florida event that I went to for several years was a 2 and 1/2 days. You have to send in class-by-class data every couple of years to the states to authenticate your attendance at the minimum number of classes. Every once in a while you read about someone who didn't get the CPE done, and that's not real good publicity.

This program is sponsored by the Illinois CPA society. Lots of programs are presented by other educational entities or just private firms in the educational business. All of the professions have these continuing education requirements, lawyers, doctors, etc., so there have been lots of businesses that have been formed to do these classes. Each day usually costs a minimum registration fee of $250-300, with some programs quite a bit higher. Hotels, meals and other travel expenses are all in addition to the registration fee.

Some of the more creative continuing education companies do programs on cruise ships, at ski resorts, or, surprise, Disney World! Actually, this is just a small segment of the convention business in the hospitality industry. There's no rule that says you can't host a meeting in Las Vegas or Aspen. But the class and the time devoted to it need to be legitimate. Some organizations got carried away. It got so bad that they had to come up with regulations that limited the number of foreign-based events that you could claim in any given year. (Those Investment Tax Credit workshops held in Tahiti were pretty popular.) The IRS cracked down on this industry in the '70's and '80's by placing strict requirements on the time devoted to educational activities versus the time to leisure. Now the deductibility of the travel and other expenses is much more closely monitored and the classic boondoggles are not as attractive.

Hope everyone is well and that y'all have a great week.

Be careful out there.