Recap of the last 2 several months.

February

• It was cold
• Went to Mardi Gras (in St. Louis, still almost counts)
• Carlie's Birthday, wow she's getting old.

March

• Still cold
• Saw Jim Gaffigan in Chicago - he was hilarious
• Sushi in DSM - a surprisingly positive experience
• Hosted an office visit - I'm sure none of the candidates wanted to come join the firm after having to listen to me talk about it all day
• Community meeting at ESPNZone, can't go wrong with free booze.

April

• Getting warmer
• Easter in IA
• First Project all-hands I've missed in my career, although there was no alcohol, so I'm not sure if that really counts.
• Jazz Fest (in New Orleans - great now I have that Bon Jovi song in my head) - A great time, a much more fun than Mardi Gras, not nearly as crowded, and I have to admit the 2hr wait for hamburgers at Port of Call was well worth it.  Great trip!

May

• Warm!
• Mother's Day in IA, , from Chicago to IA back to Chicago in the same day, so I could get on a flight the next day to fly to DSM, wait, what?

June

• Split a week between CMH and DSM, if you think flying on Mon and Thurs is bad, try flying Mon, Wed, and Thur, it's brutal!
• Viva Las Vegas Baby, Yea!  So this was the first time I'd ever been to Vegas.  Imagine my horror when I found out that United doesn't fly there, only Ted (that means no free first class upgrade, and no free cocktails, well there was first class from DSM to DEN, but from DEN to LAS I had to use drink tickets, so all was not lost).  It was hot!  It was a fun experience, the cocktail waitresses were the most attentive at Caesar's in my experience.  At Mandalay Bay where we were staying, I only got 1 maybe 2 free drinks, at Caesar's she was by every 10-20 minutes.  We saw Ka at the MGM Grand, it was amazing if you're in Vegas I highly recommend it.  I spent the bulk of the days in the pool because it was so hot.  Unfortunately since I grabbed someone else's sunscreen and it was SPF 800 I didn't get much of a tan to speak of.  The Bellagio fountain show was great.  It was as good trip, but not high on my list of places to return, not much of a gambler.  If you want a drunken weekend it can be had much more easily and for much less $$$ in NOLA, of course I'm probably partial to NOLA since that's where the French Wench corrupted me and turned me to the joys of vodka, another story for another time.
• Sponsored drinking in the loop the following weekend, can't  beat that.

July

• Carlie was in town the entire week of the 4th, good times.  I'm sure we did something interesting other than spending my cash, it probably involved drinking.
• Spend the second thru fourth weeks in St. Charles teaching New Analysts how to act like consultants.  The first week was prep with other faculty, it was awesome a fantastic group of "blokes" to talk like my friends from across the pond.  Weeks 2 and 3 were teaching the new kids.  The first Sat, the group of faculty when into Chicago, played laser tag, and blew some serious coin on booze in Wrigleyville.  The second Saturday, everyone got to experience the best pizza in the world Gino's East!  The 3 weeks in a row at Cadillac Ranch, combined with hitting the social center every night, combined with teaching from 8-6, combined with prepping every night for the next day, my liver was never in better shape.  It was awesome!

Returned to the project desperately needing a vacation, but having to dig out of 3 weeks worth of backlog, and having to get my hands dirty fixing things that had gotten severely off track with out someone closely monitoring them every day.

August

• Hot!
• Still trying to fix things on the project
• State Fair!  - Pork Chop on a stick, corn on the cob, fried Oreos, butter Harry Potter, and ginormous boar testicles!  What could be better.
• Project outings 2 Wednesdays in a row, leaving the office at 1 in the afternoon was great, until you returned the next morning to discover you didn't get any work done.
• Tornado in Chicago, so we went to the casino.  After several text messages and e-mails from my manager to my Career Counselor she called with good news.
• I got promoted - and a year early!  When I started this job I had another offer from another company in Kansas City, that job offer was for about 15% more money than the one I ended up accepting in Chicago.  From an opportunity standpoint I think I made the correct choice, from working in Europe, to free travel around the world, to the roles I've had.  From a people standpoint it's been awesome the people I've been able to meet and work with from around the world have been amazing.  And since my salary has increased by almost 250% since I started 4 years ago I can't complain about that too much either (no Dad you can't retire).
• After the announcement the group went to the bar, where we witnessed one of the best bar fights, lesbians, cigarettes put out on arms, thrown beer bottles, and people escorted out of every door in the bar.
• Friday morning flight, landed, went home, changed, and went into the office to try to brainwash more folks.
• Sponsored happy hour in Friday.  Martinis from 4pm-10pm with only appetizers to eat, dicey.  We won't even talk about the promotion shots.

Talk to you again in 6 months!

Kidding, I'm thinking the next post will be summer movie synopsis, there were some great ones, and some snores too.

Happy Tuesday!