Gifts for Baby Niece Alair...

I kinda fell for the skirt...it's cute, right?

..and the wee little one.

I owe an update..BIG update!

Hi everyone! This update won't be the big update I mentioned, simply because I need to get some sleep and leave home by 6:30am tomorrow, and the next day and the day after that as well.

Yup, I'm actually spending a week at the office. First time in two months I've been here, lol.

So what have I been up to in the last 20+ days? let's recap:

(from an email to my Dad:)

I was in Montreal for four and a half days last week, going out to visit tile & bath shops (We likely got our young company’s first order that isn’t coming through our mother co.—and it’s a VERY big company (+25 million in sales). BUT while all that was great and instructive, I was back at the hotel by 5:30 -6 with nothing to do for about SIX hours; my first night I went out to downtown and discovered the “ugly” Montreal (it was all strip clubs, bums and crappy restaurants---what was my friend thinking??!), in absolutely freezing conditions. I even had to go buy a scarf, and take the hottest shower once back “home”. I went out one more night only…so yea, I did my hotel-room time (hum, I believe next time I will be bringing DVDs), and read a good bit of The Pirate Coast [by Richard Zacks, a terrific and fascinating book by the way, about the barely twenty year's old United States sending out the first Marines on the country's first secret mission to the Barbary Coast.--And did I tell you it was fascinating?!).

--So that was last week, the same time I found out I can have my A.A. degree (Associate's) in Business by the end of the Fall session at Santa Monica College if I do four more courses after this semester. Finally!! It has taken since 2001, but the time in-between has been well-filled with great work experiences (as most of you know, running restaurant(s), being Marketing Director at an online company that rented audiobooks--Jiggerbug.com--and in-between producing several $100,000 real-estate seminars). The other neat thing, to give you another update fresh from last night, is that I was looking at my transcript and remarking how many humanities and social sciences type classes I've taken, and thought "Huh! What if...?" and lo and behold, I need two more classes after my AA in Biz and I can also have an Associate's in Liberal Arts!! Very exciting and hugely rewarding, especially.

What else, what else? --last weekend I had the utmost pleasure of shopping for birthday presents for my little soon-to-be two years old niece, Alair. Of course she's my twin brother's daughter, so that makes it very strange and very cool as well. I had a great time in The Children's Store picking among so many shades of pink in such small sizes (BTW, the recommended size for a 2 year-old is 3 Years. Who knew?), and I think she'll look just LOVELY in the little pink tutu outfit I picked for her, along with the boa imitation leather jacket (For after school..), and diamond earrings.

Kidding, of course, but I will post pictures above of my chosen little (literally, not just saying that) gifts.

Ok, much more to write, but I will leave that for tomorrow. I haven't been not posting for nothing, I promise.

Good night!

-Byron

View from my room--Capturing ships.

I don't know if it's because I miss sailing, or I just like these, but at home the mere sight of a tanker passing by will send me flying up the stairs to take a picture of it, or, worse, VIDEO footage. Am I crazy?

Am I going to the WINDY CITY soon?

Yesterday, I went to work at the office for the first time this week. Why? Had I not been working at all? Actually, the coolness of my job is that I still don't actually have to go to the office. I spent the better part of the week working from home, working on a PowerPoint presentation to replace a DVD we don't have yet (Those cost, humm, $35,000. My presentation costs, well, my time. Mostly.)--but we'll get there, at some point. So meanwhile I have been creating a PPT that's an Installation Guide as well as sales pitch of our product. It is in French and later in English too, with or without voice, but all animated. And it's only my second or third PowerPoint ever! Anyways, it is now done except that I have to replace the temp voice (my voice--gahhh..) with a professional, friendly Quebecois woman's. I will uploaded it when it's all done.

Ok, which brings me to today and my headline. I thought I was going to have to brave the minus-15 degrees we're currently enjoying by bus again this morning when I woke up at 6:30AM, but Philippe mentions I could instead, if I wanted to, go with him to visit his partners and present my PowerPoint guide--and if I mention that program again, Microsoft is going to owe me for advertising them so much! (Oh, did I mention it's the brand new 2007 version, with its patented "Ribbon" feature? ;) Ha ha...) . He also had to look at a big project that our competitors had and were losing, because, well, their system is so inefficient for large spaces, whereas ours is perfectly adaptable. So we came in and explained how it could be done, and then Philippe promised that I would have full floor plans with the installation descriptions drawn up for more than 5,575 square feet of offices and halls, by Monday. (Gulp.)

--So I said "Ok", and then he added, to drive the point home, that we would do the installation, with some help over there. "Over where", I asked, and he said "Chicago". We're probably going within the month, that's the time line! Of course it will not be for more than a few days--a marathon run, really--but I am SO very excited, especially given how much I've heard about Chicago in the past year, strangely enough.