What a treat last night. We left Mason at home (with some helpful neighbors), and I took Tricia out to her post-Mother’s Day present. We went to Culinary Classes at the Rosebud. Rosebud is by far our favorite Italian Restaurant(s) in Chicago. They open up their corporate kitchen and have their top chefs teach people how to cook their signature dishes. We watched them cook, then we ate the results. Oh my Gosh. I’ve never eaten so much in my life. We learned to make coconut shrimp, Louisiana chicken gumbo, crab cakes, steak au poivre with french fires and sesame Chinese green beans, and apple crisp. For $75 a person I’d recommend coming to Chicago for a cooking class and skipping the restaurant altogether. It’s just as much fun, you learn something, and you go home with t-shirts and other crap. Yummmmm…..

Thank God my brother-in-law keeps me up to date on geek world. I think I’ve found my future hobby. Packing computers into humidors, toasters and lunchboxes. This looks like so much fun. I’d love to have something far cooler on my desk than even the latest Mac enclosure. How about a vintage radio, or a model General Lee that is my computer. Anyone have any cool ideas? Walt?

So I’m sitting here bored, can’t sleep, thinking of what I want to do with my life, when it dawned on me. What am I doing going to volleyball nationals when I could be playing professional Air Hockey. As the site says “Many people have a misconception about Air Hockey as a sport.  Air Hockey involves strategy, conditioning, stamina, practice and for tournament success, the ability to perform under pressure.  These are exactly the qualities necessary for success at most sports involving athleticism.”

Much to my amazement, there are professional tournaments right here in Naperville. Since my wife bought me a regulation table a few years ago that proudly adorns my basement, I haven’t been taking the sport seriously. hmmm…I better reconsider. Better yet, I’ll start training the boy now to be an air hockey champion. Aim high Mason. Check out the videos on this page (2000 Texas State Championships). Riveting…

Thank God it’s over. For the past 6 months our team at TMP has been working to put together the Savoy Professional Networking Series. The first event was held last night at the W Hotel in Chicago. It brought together top African American professionals to network, while we sold our clients the ability to set up a table at the event and recruit from this talented pool of people. I’d say that the event was a huge success. There were many happy networkers, free drinks, groovy music, and a fascinating keynote speaker – George Fraser. The amount of work that went into this – building a website, coming up with sales sheets, inviting participants, stuffing folders, and helping the team just establish the ground rules for the event was daunting. Luckily, we get to do it all over again for June 5th in NY. For now I’ll revel in the nice party I attended, and the really cool people I met. Yawn… back to work.

Yesterday I turned 28 years old. I’m not yet ready to reveal what I want to have accomplished by the time I’m 30. I’m still working on that.

Pure genious. I promise, when I get a chip on my shoulder about something, I will make this blog into something that is more than my daily blitherings about my personal life. I really admire people that add value to Internet content. Tanya b at F*ckthatjob.com has spent her unemployed days rooting out the most demeaning, underpaying, slaveJobs for no money that are out there. I love how many of them are from the visual arts. And we all thought that by using Quark and Photoshop, we’d never be a starving artist. Here’s a sample: (And read the comments! Funny, funny, funny.)

Indentured Servitude
Mr. Lincoln can’t help us now. This almost seems too bad to be real. You think it’s just flame bait?
Well, let us know if you’ve interviewed for this exciting opportunity and what fabulous benefits they offer.

Reply to: job-9671437@craigslist.org (forwards to an @aol.com address)
Date: 2003-03-22, 11:38PM

Full time graphic/web designer wanted for design studio in lower manhattan. Two to three years experience, plus bachelor’s degree.
Must know HTML, Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark Xpress, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Flash.
Director, Premiere, PHP/SQL, Indesign, and 3D Studio Max a plus.

$6.50/hr to start. Mondays to Saturdays 8am to 6pm.

Send resume and cover letter in body of email, along with a link to your online portfolio (url) for consideration. all attachments will be deleted

Team Salvo took it to the team we kept losing to for 3 tournaments. Unfortunately I wasn’t there, so it would appear that maybe I was the problem…naw I don’t believe that. This was our first Tournament win, so things are looking up as we head toward Regionals and Nationals.