Yummmmmmmm

Dinner in High Point, NC tonight was wonderful. I'm here in North Carolina meeting with the National Home Furnishings Association and they treated for dinner at the Blue Water Grill.

I had a house salad (see below) and shrimp and scallop dinner. Very tasty and beautifully presented.

Busted

Driving back from the Chicago office this evening I passed an Indiana State Police car that was parked in the median trying to catch speeders. My backseat passenger (my boss) pointed out the cop and I assured him that I was driving the speed limit so there were no worries. Yes, I was driving in the passing lane, but that was only because the right lane was filled with semi trucks driving at their slower posted speed limit.

A couple of minutes later, I noticed a car right on my bumper. I thought he was being impatient because I was still driving the speed limit while passing all of the semis and he probably wanted to go faster. I told him (although he didn't hear me, I'm sure), "Hang on a second buddy, I'll get over as soon as I can." He wasn't very patient -- he flashed his headlights at me.

At the first opportunity, I moved back over to the right lane and as I did I could see my tailgater suddenly had red flashing lights.

I really couldn't imagine why I was getting pulled over. I know I was going exactly 70 mph.

Turns out I was driving without my headlights.

My excuses were:
1) It was light out when I started driving.
2) Wow, the dash is so lit up, I just assumed my headlights were on.
3) This is a rental car and I thought all new cars had headlights that turn on automatically.

Apparently one or more of these made sense because I was able to drive away with only a warning ticket.

Just before all of this happened, I had made a comment that this would be the time of day to expect to see deer running across the road. My front-seat passenger (a co-worker) said he could shut down his computer if the screen's light was distracting. I assured him that it wasn't a problem, that I could see the road just fine. How in the heck could I see the road so well with no headlights???

Free Electricity

Ever run out of power, on your cell phone or computer, at the airport?

It's nearly impossible to find an outlet. It's common to see people sitting on the floor, huddled around the airport's only publicly-accessible electric receptacle outlet, with others waiting in line for their turn to charge up.

If you've ever been in that predicament, you'll understand the excitement I felt in finding a Power Station in the Orlando airport.

I hope the Power Station company has an aggressive sales force because I want to see these in every airport.

Business Travel Nirvana

Coming home from my business trip today, on my flight from Memphis to Atlanta, my seat mate was talking to the stewardess about how he was coming down with a cold.

As I twisted away from him to breath air that was not previously in his lungs, I noticed there was nobody in the back of the plane.

I quickly moved back three rows and across the aisle.

This turned out to be my best business travel flight ever! No chatty people around me. No kids kicking the back of my chair. No babies crying.

Sights of Chicago

I traveled into Chicago today for a web marketing conference. As I was driving down Lake Shore Drive, I saw a low-flying plane, between the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building. Actually, I see this quite often, and it always sort of freaks me out. The only difference today was I had a camera.

After I took the plane picture, I thought I'd just capture a couple more shots along the way. My boss always used to challenge my logic in taking Lake Shore Drive to our Chicago office, rather than using the Dan Ryan. My thought is, if I'm going to get stuck in traffic, I'd much rather be enjoying the beauty along Lake Shore Drive.




A view of the boat docks in Lake Michigan near Navy Pier.
















Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park.








The Chicago River in front of the Sheraton Hotel (where I attended the conference.)