This week has been a blast. Catching up with great friends that I haven’t seen in years, meeting the people that have done business with us for years (and made it possible for the life I have now); I just have to be thankful for it all.

My dad always wanted a Mercedes Benz. Always. And he sacrificed his entire life for his family. On his 60th birthday, I handed him a note thanking him for all he’s done and that life is short and worth enjoying. Then I handed him the keys to the Benz I bought for him.

This year, being a proud father of a 2 year old and another on the way, I decided to take that advice myself. Some of what I do is not my thing and I really do not enjoy it – but I do it for my family and for the families of people we employ – but I shouldn’t be miserable doing it, right? So this year every business trip I take has a Vlad fun component.

Washington DC – July 14, 2010

Long day, fantastic dinner, amazing conversation and great friends. One chocolate bread pudding desert too many (and a quart-sized scoop of ice cream) made sleeping without exercise an unlikely option. I’ve never seen DC after hours and my buddy Paul Bonathan from Readycrest in UK really made it sound like something that shouldn’t be missed. So I dared/guilted my marketing guy Anthony thats out on the road with me for a jog from the capital to the Lincoln memorial and back.

Long story short, it started to rain. A lot. But we ran around the mall in true pimp style – with one hand in the pocket trying to keep the phone dry.

But we had a great time, found a new hot dog joint at the mall (found, used as a rain shelter), saw the entrance gates at the Smithsonian that you’d never quite appreciate unless you were pinned up against them like you were hanging off the cliff trying to stay dry. Great time though, and a nice wrap to a fantastic business trip to DC. This type of stuff really makes me miss my wife a ton and makes road work bearable.

In retrospect, we should have checked the weather radar before attempting the run. But how often do you get a chance to hang out around the Washington Monument in pouring rain? From our assessment, we were the only ones. And yes, there is an app for that

I am trying to get through a cold. Today I went and I bought a nasal spray that is supposedly going to stop mucus from forming in my sinuses. Fantastic! Except they put more hard plastic around this beast and completely enclosed it, to the extent that even Secret Service would consider extreme.

So here I am, drowsy, with a headache, sneezing my way around a kitchen with a knife fit to slaughter an elephant with, try to open a 3" nasal spray enclosure.

I guess they can only live up to the promise that they will make you feel better. When you break out an AK-47 and put 300 holes in the damn thing.

Angry, stuffy, Vlad.

I started training for the marathon season last week and have not really been pushing myself to do too much too quickly. Over the next three months my primary goal is just not to look like Homerball (from the Simpsons game, if you haven’t played it you are missing out)

I didn’t let anyone in on it either. I managed to make it through the morning meeting cycle very chipper, join in on a chat and a overseas conference call in a good and positive mood, wrote a fair amount of code, managed to take my wife and son out to dinner. It was a good day.

Yet, throughout the day I just could not help myself but wanting to punch every single person and thing I encountered in my way. I think I’ve gone so far in the "business sociopath" track that I am able to control my emotions and provide a very consistent interaction with people, face to face or virtually, and not let in on at all about whats going on.

But man, last night the Wii boxing paid for it big time. Also added more than 2 miles on the ‘mill running and feeling great today.

I guess marathon training is starting to wash out the bitter out of Vlad…

I can’t wait!!! I grew up on X-Files and I can’t wait to see it. I had no idea this was even in production, I guess over the years we have become far more accepting of paranormal fiction genre.

I recently decided to kick caffeine. Surprisingly, it has not killed me, though the first week of it was rough. I had a migraine and a near constant headache around the clock. But by the midpoint of last week it tapered off and I haven’t had a headache since. Interestingly enough, I was also able to kick the addiction to Tylenol which kind of went hand in hand with the caffeine induced headaches. So far, so good. I wouldn’t recommend doing it, it was a hell of a lot more painful than marathon running but I have not spent $ on Coke or Starbucks.

Now if I could just kick my addiction to sex and Internet, I might be considered normal! Unfortunately that would lead to castration and unemployment so don’t hold your breath on that one.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7055625.stm

Read, enjoy. If you laughed, I’ll save you a seat in hell.

I’m getting some work done on my blog, looking for some interface help with the new things I will be doing with the blog and my trusty pal Judy is there to nail me. So, here is how the conversation went. I gave her the specs, so she gave me this:

Ok, looks cool right… but not quite shiny, “web 2.0ish” enough. Soooo.. I say the following:

Vlad: It’s not gay enough.

Vlad: Web 2.0 me!

Vlad: I want it to be so gay that the guys on South Beach take a break from pounding each other in the ass long enough to vomit at the gayness that is Vladville Web 2.0 design.

So Judy, being the trooper that she is goes back in the lab and brings this one out:

Alright, now we’re flaming! But she tones it down a bit:

And then I said the words that make the artist sharpen their knife… “The other one looked better.”

What ensued is this, enjoy. NSFW, read the bright green rectangle to the right.

How’s that?

This Friday I went through a few local roads in Lake and Marion counties, US 27, which is supposedly the most scenic Florida road and US46 which cuts across all the major lakes in Lake County. Here is what I found.

From Ocala. You can usually find the best thought-through business plans attached to a gas station; Its kind of like admitting entreprenurial defeat: “I know my idea sucks, but lots of people buy gas and I’m just hoping for inertia (or they are too stupid and walk into the wrong door)”

So whats interesting about this photo? Well, the store is called “Asia Foods, and gifts, Italian Grocery.”

I figured I better take a second picture because nobody will believe me. The Italian Grocery subtitle has an Italian flag as the background so its hard to read, but they indeed sell Asian food inside.

How does that make sense? I am not sure. I guess they give you a meatball with your lo mein?

Not to fear though, there are plenty of dumb good ol’ American ideas too. This establishment is titled Bob’s Zippy Market, from Leesburg, FL. Note the Coca Cola sign, likely from the 1970’s.

One of my running jokes about people that live north of Orlando is “Located 20 miles north of orlando, stuck 50 years in the past.” This is apparently a local chain and they also have a liquor store brand.

And just in case the Meatball LoMein and 30 year old coke don’t float your boat, how about some Gator meat? Yep, if you can hit it, we can grill it! We’ll even make a souvenir out of it.

I don’t know why but this made me smile. I pulled up to a pickup truck on OBT for J&J Handyman Services Inc.

Their slogan, without the slightest bit of arrogance and pretension: “Perfection… at its best”

How humble of them.

So far so good. I lost about 6lb this week so I still have ways to go in that department but I’m able to jog 5mph and walk at 4mph… which is pathetic for a 28 year old male but it’s a start.