Weekend Fun

I was home this week for the first time in about 3 weeks. It was nice not to have to catch a plane or sit in a tree waiting for a Deer or Black Bear.

Anyway, I got to watch my oldest daughter play soccer. She is getting better, but sometimes she is poky on the field. I need to holler at her a little so she gets her but in gear. She does good on defense. To her credit, her game was at 9:00 am and it was around 85 degrees.

After that we went to an apple orchard and picked a bushel of apples. My youngest kid, JJ had a great time as we had a hay ride that was pulled by a tractor. JJ likes tractors. The kids all had fine picking and eating apples. JJ wanted me to pick him up to pick the largest apples. It was high noon and around 90 degrees by the time we were done.

It as nice to enjoy time with my kids. I don't get to do that to often lately.

Seatle, Washington

Views from the Space Needle

I got time to visit downtown Seattle, Washington. I got a few pictures while on the space needle. I was very impressed with Washington State in general. The views were awesome. It reminded me of the National Forest in Northern Wisconsin.

I have been traveling quite a bit lately. This is place I could live. The only bad thing I see is the traffic.

Picture of Me and someone from my marketing Group

Redmond Washington

I flew into Seattle, Washington Today. It was a nice day to fly (at least that is what the pilot said). It was about a 3-4 hour flight from Milwaukee. We flew over the Rockies and the view from the plane was incredible.

I rented a car and drove to Redmond. Redmond seems like a nice town. Washington State is beautiful. Numerous trees and a nice blue sky.

I am staying at a Marriott that is next to an outdoor mall. I walked around and found a toy store. I bought some webkinz charms. For those of you who do not know what webkinz are, it is stuffed animal that you buy and has a code on it. That code allows you to have a virtual pet on the Internet. You have to feed the pet and play games to make money. Anyway, the charms allow you to enter the charm forest. Well being the good Dad I am, I bought a few for my Kids. They are hard to find as they seem to be sold out in Milwaukee. I was surprised to find them.

I just have to find something for my 3 year old son. He likes Thomas the Train. I found a toy store that has that also.

I think I am going to check out a Mountain on Friday as I do not have anything to do.

Working to Much

I have been working way to much as of late. I run a small technology business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and have been in business over 5 years. The first 3 of those years, I was a one man band. In 2005, I brought a business partner and 2 additional employee's since then.

I must say I thought adding additional employee's would help. It has not worked out that way. It has just lead to more work. In addition to the clients that I provide consulting to, I have to also manage 2 of those employee's. Management is not one of the things that I enjoy. It is like having kids. This leads to add hours.

We have also added a bunch of new services this year and I have a bunch more kicking around in my head, but I want to make sure we put the finishing touches on what we rolled out.

I have also started marketing by sending out a monthly newsletter, post cards and sales letters. I am also buying google adwords to try and drive traffic to my site.

But I have realized that I have taken to much on and I don't do anything but work. I need to change that. When you work to much, you start losing touch with the outside world. I use to have numerous hobbies, but I have time for none of them. Anyway, after this month (I have every day booked with client appointments), I am going to take some time for myself and my family. My Kids are growing up fast and if I don't do this now, I am going to regret it for the rest of my life.

Washington DC

We recently went to Washington DC for a week. I had training and I thought it would be a good idea to bring my wife and 2 daughters along. We flew into Baltimore airport and had to take a cab to DC.

The Hotel we stayed at was nice. The Kids enjoyed the Pool. The only issue was a remodel that was going on the floor above us and woke us up at 6:30.

The Kids saw a sloth bear (I did not know such a thing existed). It sure looks Interesting. The Monkeys ran free in the Zoo and were all over. The Kids were also existed to see a HIPPO.

Since my training went from 9 to 5 every day, I did not get out much. But I did take a Saturday off (They were covering things I already had learned), and we went to see Capital Hill and all of the sites. It was very warm, (over 90 degrees) but the Kids handled it well. The Washington Monument is amazing. We also saw the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

The Kids had a good time even with the heat. The last night, we ate at a Japanese restaurant with authentic food. I had Susi and the Kids had some really good steak. Susan had Chicken that was really spicy.

The all-in-all it was a good vacation.