Wednesday

This was another of those days that just got away from me. Busy all day, but not sure what I got done.

Today is the 6th anniversary of Mother's death. Lots of water under the bridge since then.

Today is Ash Wednesday. Yesterday being Fat Tuesday. I've never been one to celebrate Mardi Gras, although I think my high school girlfriend and I attended a formal dance around this time of year that may have been a Mardi Gras theme. There were four social sororities for high school girls in Ottumwa and each one had an annual formal dance, that was usually attended by the girls from all the sororities (and their dates!). Very high brow for a country boy.

Levi continues to lead the race in California. Lance was in attendance today. He still owns part of the Discovery team. The Gubinator was on the podium in Sacramento yesterday making the presentations to the daily winners.

I guess one of the reasons I like cycling is that the cycling crowd is slightly more appealing than, say, the NBA or Super Bowl glitz. While you do have super stars in this week's race, you also have a lot of domestiques on the big teams, and whole teams of unknowns on several US-based squads who are very common guys. Drug use aside.

Looks like it's a go on the bathroom rehab. I've got to go out and get the new stuff (fixtures, vanity, lighting, etc.) so that the carpenter can start next week. He was in the office today to finish some maintenance here and I think he sees my project as a nice little thing to do between bigger jobs.

Glad 3 gives the fam some props. We'd like to see more of her. I think.

My pal Bill is literally fighting City Hall tonight. After they built their very high-end villa last year, the developer proposed a commercial development right out their back door. The city is always anxious for development so as to increase the tax rolls, and the Planning and Zoning staff have recommended that the City Council accept the developer's proposal (which calls for a zoning variance from the current use designation). So Bill and the neighbor's are up in arms at what they perceive as a "bait and switch" move by the agent who sold them their lots (since he also is connected to the developer). It isn't easy getting City Hall off track once they are headed in a direction. We'll see on this one.

I met with a radio guy today who will be doing the spots for me on his early show over the next 3-4 months to market our sponsorship of the Quad Cities Criterium. You can't say a lot in 60 seconds. Try it. I told him that I wanted to use the old Presentations for Dummy's system of first, telling them what you're going to say, second, actually saying it, and third, reviewing for them what you just said. My goal is to get name recognition, and actually explaining what it is that we do in a radio spot will cause a lot of people to change stations.

I'm headed out to have a cocktail with a client. And I suppose watch the Hawks. But we're meeting on the Illinois side so we may watch the Fightin' Illini. And that Chief Illiniwek story is just too much to go past a notation on the blog. Are there any Irish people out there who want to protest the leprechaun?

Be careful out there.