Creator’s Personal Blog (David) » 2007

April 30, 2007

World’s Apart

Filed under: Me have Children? — david @ 12:22 pm

My last connection to my ‘old life’ as an insurance agent franchisee just ended. In the insurance franchise world, if you make the head office enough money they send you on a free trip. I always appreciated these trips and this one was like all others, well organized, pleasant and a great chance to exchange ideas with my (ex) colleagues.

This brings me to my 2 worlds… Cooperators had us in the Fairmont San Francisco.

Beautiful hotel, fabulous service and amenities to die for… Price tag??? 300$/night. Sophie and I lounged around the gardens, had some drinks at the bar and had workouts in the state of the art facilities. Did I like it… of course…we were on top of the hill (literally). To fully appreciate… when I left they had a Ferrari and Audi exposition in the front parking! Dreamland ended at 1pm today…

I have a gala to attend in Sacramento this Friday (see previous post) so I will be staying in San Francisco for the next few days. Since Electronic Time Capsule is a new business, I will not spend my investors’ money on the Fairmont. So I went to hotels.com and booked the Edward II Inn. As the taxi drove down the hill, I thought of what I would get for $80/night.

Frankly, I got what I expected. When you purchase a service at a certain premium, there are expectations. Bellman in tuxedos, premium scotch and a piano player at 4pm. In beautiful Edward II Inn, I got a room without a bathroom a window to a stucco wall and a door lock that doesn’t work. Some people would freak out, well I paid 85$, I am happy there wasn’t a dead body in the room.

Here is what I really got! A great desk attendant (Monica) who also serves as the bartender to this tiny 10 seat pub (it’s like a premium basement bar). As I sat down, I understood she would be the one serving me and also answering the phone and probably folding my sheets. Well it turns out she is a 34 year old accountant from Italy who decided to act on her lifelong dream of making it in America. In a way, she is in the same position as me… following her dream. As she ran the front desk, I just ended up serving myself as I watched the hockey game.

So what did I get… a great front desk attendant, a self-serve pub and a room without a bathroom.

Funny… I fell like I will appreciate this hotel as much as the Fairmont.

Cheers to dream chasers and self serve pubs.

p.s. Alain, Pico, Dic, Cami, Ian… I could really use a partner in the self-serve area…. Cheap flights… www.hotels.com

Comments (1)

April 27, 2007

What happens when you let your man choose the activity

Filed under: Me have Children? — david @ 12:43 am

Sophie asked me to prepare and activity in San Francisco.

She was actually impressed (and scared) when she saw the vehicle. We roamed around the city with this gps 3-wheeler who spoke about the history of the city. I recommend it if your spouse is up to a bit of adventure. I felt like a bug on a windshield when passing by buses. At one red light, I was beside a brand spanking new Corvette with a guy and his spouse… I was giving it to my throttle and the guy understood…. My 50c.c. vs his 550 c.c….. as the light turned green he was following me slowly (my throttle was at it’s maximum)…. He smiled and floored it… Funny…it was ! I tooted my horn as I made my way to the next light and we both laughed!

San Fran has been good to me for the last 2 days. We watched the Senators Hockey game in a downtown bar with atrocious service but who cares? We met about 20 people from Ottawa and we cheered on as the game progressed.

GO Sens GO

Comments (1)

April 25, 2007

Golden Gate

Filed under: Me have Children? — david @ 1:16 am

I am writing this post at 1am in the morning… I am leaving for the airport at 4am… so there isn’t much value in catching some z’s.
Today has been the hardest day since I started the Electronic Time Capsule project. The site was down for 8 hours. As everything got back online around 9pm tonight I was expecting some no so nice emails from the downtime… Instead I was able to see we sold another account earlier in the day and that we signed up an ‘anniversary’ time capsule. An anniversary time capsule is a new service we were asked to create to celebrate an anniversary such as a school 20^th anniversary… I will elaborate later.

Conclusion??? I am exhausted, leaving for a vacation to San Francisco followed by a PR Extravaganza in Sacramento for the nominations I received for the Operation Homefront Gala http://www.operationhomefront.net/Chapter_root/chapter_index.asp?Chapter_ID=10 .

This involves the US military and could potentially open doors for further services. It has been clear the Military community is a possible niche for my services and it showed up even at the market study point. I am still unsure how to approach them as I am not from a military family and do not fully understand how and even why they choose to face the ultimate sacrifice so I can enjoy the benefits of democracy such as walking down the street with my daughter without an ounce of fear.

I will post often to let you know how it went.

Comments (2)

April 10, 2007

Oh Julie!

Filed under: Me have Children? — david @ 7:05 pm

I have spoken before about Julie and Marc our best friends… Well the best friends’ term got another twist last week.
My spouse took a week off and flew to the Dominican Republic to catch some sun with my sister in law. Well I was by myself with the kids on Saturday morning and decided to call Julie to go to Cosmic Adventures… a playland facility for kids.
We walked in with both our 2 kids and everything was fine and dandy until Julie started lying about our relationship! Here it goes…

I walk into the men’s room to change my little guy and the dad changing is daughter is swearing like a drunken sailor.

Me: Can I help with something

Him: My wife didn’t pack any clothes and look at these pants (full of pee!)
Me: Listen, One day I will be in the same situation, take these pants, if they fits, their yours and we shall never talk about this again.
Him: No I can’t… (as his daughter is trying to open to the door to go back to play… I just smile)
Him: Thanks (as he takes the pants and puts them on his daughter)
I go back into the playland and start talking to Julie and saying I am going to play with the guys in another spot. The guy from the bathroom comes to Julie and asks if we are ‘together’. Since she was too lazy to explain our ‘situation’ she said yes. The guy explained his wife was gone to buy some pants.

I come back 10 minutes after and ask Julie if she is ready to go and she nods. The guy comes back to me and says ‘ My wife is gone to buy some pants’ and I respond ‘Forget it man! I am gone and I will need this pants karma later in my life. The funny part is my wife is gone down south for a week and I am the one who actually made the kid’s bag today. I am here with my friend Julie and we really need to go’.

For a reason I couldn’t comprehend, he was looking at me in a dumfounded impressed way! I finally caught up with his look when Julie asked me what was the pants story all about!

Anyway, there is a guy out there thinking I am cheating on my wife with her best friend and that I even dare to take both of our kids to the playground! Even if I see him again and explain he won’t believe me!
I can’t wait for the day we go out for dinner, me, my spouse and Julie and her spouse and the exact same couple sit across from us…

I know it will happen!

My dear Julie…