Out of Office...

Amanda and I leave for our respective bachelor/ette parties tomorrow...I'm headed south below I-10 to the great state of Louisiana and Amanda is off to So Cal.

I will be here for the next few nights...

Eating a couple of these...


Trying and hopefully catching a few of these...
And hangin' with these guys...And a few more...

Cell phone only works for Amanda, so holler back Monday...

My Future Wife Makes Me Laugh...

Here's a recent telephone conversation my future bride had with a receptionist at a dermatologist...

Receptionist - Hi, thanks for calling Dr. so and so...

Amanda - I would like to make an appointment

Receptionist - Ok, for what?

Amanda - Huh?

Receptionist - For what part of the body?

Amanda - Ah....The skin....

Ayn Rand Owns Me...

About 8 months ago, my friend Valerie recommended that I read Atlas Shrugged. She said that it would change my outlook on a lot of things in life, especially business. Being somewhat of an avid reader, I was game. Well, I can officially say that I am finally done. 1168 pages, several plane flights and hotel stays later I am done.

Although it took me forever to finish, I will say it is a phenomenal book. It reads like drying paint in some areas, hence the time it took to read it. I would go into all the details of the book but I have forgot many of them. Maybe I should read it again? Na...At least not right now.

I will say that while reading it, I saw many similarities to the current political differences we hear everyday...And this book was written in 1957 and took place during the industrial revolution...

Read the Wiki entry here to gain some insight if you don't want to commit to reading the entire thing...

It's on to a bunch of other books I have in the queue...The World is Flat, Getting Things Done, For Men Only...These are going to be a breeze compared to this beast...

Green with Envy...

Check out my boys from Skeeter talkin' smack about my big win last week...Read here...

Random stuff while in Hotel Room....

I'm in Panama City...

Continuing my boat builder journey with my new Japanese friends. Century Boats

Nothing really cool to report on.

It's Spring Break down here so I'm holed up in a La Quinta because everything else was booked. I don't like La Quinta. I like Holiday Inn Express. Good breakfast.

I'm ready to be home in my bed for a few nights.

I'm ready to eat at my house.

I hate missing small group.

I hate not hanging out with Amanda.

Working out and eating decent while traveling is virtually impossible. I brought my workout clothes but they have remained in my bag.

The seafood down here is way better than Atlanta though. Had a crab cake sandwich this afternoon for lunch that would make you slap yo' momma.

That's it...I'm out...Lets hang out this weekend...

Oh What a Week...

Again, I want to wish everyone Happy Easter and hope everyone had a great day. I'm winding down the day here getting ready to take off again tomorrow to Panama City...But before I do, I wanted to tell a few stories from my travels last week...

A few months back, my bosses asked me if I could chauffeur a Japanese visitor who wanted to see our three boat companies. So last week we saw two of the three...Along with my new friend from Japan came another guy that just moved here from Japan to get some exposure to our companies.

Last Sunday night, I met the gents (Neil and TK - American nicknames) at the ATL for our flight to Springfield. Our flight got pushed back an hour so we headed to Chili's for a little grub. When we got back to the gate, Delta decided the flight was pulled back up and we were hosed on the flight. Last flight to Springfield. Great first impression huh??? Fortunately, there was a flight going to NW Arkansas that we could make but would have to drive to Springfield. Had to do it...So we booked through the airport and made it...After getting the rental car situated, we headed to Springfield. We were supposed to go all the way to Lebanon, MO where our boat builder resides but of course I can't pack light and checked my bag which was now in Springfield...So here's drive No. 1...Late night, early morning to get back at airport...

From there, we went to our boat builder (G3) in Lebanon. I love going to our boat builders because I have great respect for people that can build things. Watching things being bent, shaped and welded into a finished product is freakin' awesome to me. Great couple days of hanging out with the guys at G3. My guests were stoked on the processes in place and gave thumbs up...

Here's a shot of a guy that is laying down a perfect bead down on a pontoon log...I can't do this and probably never could, so this guy in my book is freakin' awesome...

On Tuesday, when we were done at the plant, we had a few hours to kill before our flight and decided it was necessary to go to Bass Pro in Springfield. For those of you that enjoy the outdoors have most likely at least heard of Bass Pro Shops. They are "The" place to get outdoor toys...Well, the Springfield location is the Mecca of all things outdoors as it is the original. It's huge, it's ridiculous, it's beautiful....

After a few hours in Bass Pro, I thought it may be a good idea to make sure our flight was on time since it had been raining all day and I heard there was going to be rain in Dallas as well. Good thing I did...Canceled flight...Re-booked for the next day...Boo bears...I really didn't feel like sitting around for the rest of the day in Springfield so I asked the boys if they were cool to drive down to Kilgore. They were all about it. More driving...

After switching up rental cars at the airport we made our quest down to Kilgore. Not a bad drive. Some conversation in broken English. Lots of rain...And one 200 yard puddle that caught me off guard that made everyone in the car scream like girls. It was funny after the fact but I thought the Ford Taurus was going to be scuba diving...Finally made it into Kilgore around 1:30am. Tired, but glad to be there...

I always love coming to Skeeter. Once again, I have great respect for the people that build the product. I also enjoy talking with all my old friends from my Skeeter days. Great stuff. Productive two days with my Japanese guests. I introduced them to Tex Mex and had to explain that the "J" doesn't get pronounced in jalapeño or fajitas...That was an interesting conversation...

Thursday night, I headed over to Tyler to see my buddies Austin, Lee and Travers. Watch some B-Ball and was gowned early...

Woke up at 4am on Friday to fish the Good Friday Skeeter Employee Tournament. This is an annual tournament for Skeeter employees that they let us fish in. There was all sorts of smack talk leading up to the tourney. I showed them...I was paired up with Terry Pitman (TP) and Dorian...5 Fish 11.54 lbs. Winners!!!! Each taking home $130...Boo yah suckas....Great day, got sunburned...

Here's a photo at take off in the morning...Had about 20 boats in the tourney with 50 or so anglers...It was a blast...

The winning team and our catch...Ahhh yeah....

After the tourney, Neil, TK and I had to head to Dallas for a next morning flight. I took a little back road way to introduce my new friends to crawfish...I had seen this place the day before and was cravin' some craw-diddies. Just a little road side place that needed to be patronized...

5 lbs. Crawfish
1 lb. Shrimp
6 Potatoes
4 Pieces of Corn
Burnt Lips

Here's TK and I showing off a couple of the diddies...They were good. I can't wait for more in a couple of weeks at the bachelor party...

After spending the night in Dallas, we were back into the ATL on Sat. afternoon. Good week. Long week. Although there was a language barrier, we managed. Both parties showed patience throughout the week. I realized how much slang I use. It was cool to teach some of it to my new friends...TK now knows what "This Sucks" means when you're sitting in traffic...

Sorry for the long post...I need to do a better job of keeping ya'll posted throughout the week. I'll try harder...Off to bed. Early flight to Panama City tomorrow morning...

Happy Easter...

Happy Easter To All!!!

I hope everyone is enjoying this incredible day. I'm personally so thankful for the incredible amounts of blessings God has poured out on me...Especially the blessing of our Savior, the reason we celebrate this awesome day...

We miss you guys...

A message from Jonathon and Amanda...