Sunday, May 31, 2009

May was an extremely fun month

I've been super busy the last couple of weeks, and the next few weeks should be just as busy. It's like I blink and a week goes by.

Work has still continued to be awesome, had more new accounts. We're working on lots of little projects that will soon make it easier to "sell" to potential clients. Looking forward to that. One of the guys took some vacation time, so the office has been a little quieter than normal. I'm heading to Atlanta for a conference full of retailers, do some sales with a booth. The third week of June I'll be going to Boston for Internet Retailer doing the same thing but on a larger more serious scale. Internet Retailer is the conference I spoke at in Chicago last year.

I wasn't feeling too great last time I posted. I ended up going back to Kaiser and got an antibiotic that took care of things in a few days. Now we have Anthem/Blue Cross PPO so I'm really happy that I can go wherever I want.

Next Sunday is back to the races! Autox returns at Candlestick and I've got the car ready. I put on the more aggressive brake pads on the front, it makes a huge difference in stopping power. I've been looking at picking up new brake rotors that should be a little more durable and perform better under harder conditions. An un foreseen mod was a new cat back exhaust system. I found a Mazdaspeed3 (the turbo version of my car) stock exhaust for sale in LA so I picked it up on my way home the other week. Larger diameter exhaust tubing w/ less restrictive mufflers sounds good, although its a bit louder than stock. I've seen dyno graphs which show 6-10hp/ftlb torque on cars that have the same setup. I hope to get a dyno at the next group meet and I'll report back on my actual results. I pulled the roof rack off for my trip to socal and picked up some great gains on my gas mileage and the inside of the car was much quieter. I had one tank of gas last me 360 milees which may have been a new record for me.

I also went to the Festival of Speed at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway. WOW. I sat in awe of the cars passing by on the corkscrew turn. Rolex Grand Am cars, Koni Challenge cars and more. It was hot but not so bad in the shade. We saw Patrick Dempsey (aka McDreamy) with his RX8 racecar.

I spent a week down south over Memorial Day weekend. It was really good to hang out w/ my family and BBQ, stop by Mazfest, be a part of my friend Curtis' wedding, and go to Palm Springs for some relaxation by the pool.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Holy moley its already May?!

May 1st came and went, like sometime last week... My how quickly time flies as you get older. When you're little (like under 12) a week passes like eternity. You always ask how much longer until _____ and the days counting down to Halloween, Christmas or your birthday take what fees like forever. 6 months ago I moved up to San Francisco. It feels like it was less than 6 weeks ago. Days pass quickly and I feel like I'm accomplishing much in the limited time I have each day. I've been inside pretty much since Friday, it's been raining pretty much everyday and I haven't felt super great.

April was a great month for work, a real high client acquisition rate. I had a great pace for closing leads into accounts. Some days were more hectic than others, it seemed like everyone liked to call or email on Friday afternoons, leaving me to rush and push replies out before I started my weekend. We're busy planning the next couple of month's roadmap, a trip to Internet Retailer in Boston this June and perhaps a conference in Atlanta as well. Every day we have new challenges and find new areas of opportunity to thrive as a company and delight our merchants.

Autocross is taking some time off, our next event isn't until June 7. We had events on April 19 and April 26. It was great to have my little brother come visit the last weekend in April, he enjoyed several rides in some Subaru's during autox at Candlestick on the 26th. That was probably my most enjoyable event, and I even came in second! The weather was PERFECT and the course was really fun and fast. New tires helped but were also tough to drive with. New tires have lots of tread so taller tread blocks "squirm" and aren't as easy to feel the road with. So in the time off I've been tinkering on the car. I have new, more aggressive brake pads to install. I changed the oil. I replaced my engine coolant. I also painted my brake calipers gooooollllldddd for a nice aestheic appeal. The rear sway bar definitely makes the car handle much better and I'm looking forward for more advice and driving tips as I keep learning each event.

I had a super fun time the other week, my amazing girlfriend flew up as a surprise for the day to take me to a Giants game. Giants happened to be playing the Dodgers (who are in first place) and she scored some awesome seats just 7 rows up from the visitors on deck circle. I never had some awesome seats and the night was a memorable experience even though Pagie's Boys in Blue lost. I'm looking forward to spending some time with her at the end of this month when I visit Riverside.

The last few days have been rough. I haven't felt well at all. I rarely get sick, but when I do it usually takes me out for a few days. I'm no doctor but I believe I had a nasty sinus infection. I was in such pain I had 4 sleepless nights in a row. I went to Kaiser urgent care, which isn't urgent care at all, and they said to tough it out and use a "nasal rinse kit". Nasal rinse kits are so much fun that I think everyone should try it at least 10 times in their life. You basically have a squirt bottle that shoots water up one nostril and it pours out the other. It's gallons of fun. Anyways I'm feeling better now (not that the rinse thingy helped much). I'm looking forward to having a PPO health plan soon and no more Kaiser.

I'm looking forward to Curtis' wedding, some vacation time, and warm weather later this month. In the mean time I have lots of work to keep me busy.