august

i am woefully behind.  i'll just acknowledge that and move on.

this is what my august looked like:

me finally getting to try cotton candy grapes .  yes. i said cotton candy grapes.  grapes that taste like cotton candy! they are only in season for about two weeks each year, distributed by only one grape grower, in california, and they are hard to find! i’d learned about them last year after they were already out of season, and have been waiting to try them. they were delicious! i still have 4 pounds sitting in my freezer so that i can continue to enjoy them.

this collage is from my work trip to kansas city. melissa, her husband nick, and another colleague, david, went to see the MLS soccer team, sporting kc play dc united.  dc united totally beat them!  and what made it an even better night is that the team was staying in our hotel and we ended up spending a little time with the head coach (the guy in the white shirt in the bottom right photo).  but of course, the highlight is just always getting to see melissa.:)

august also saw my 38^th birthday. yowser!  i am usually traveling on my birthday and was excited to be home this year.  i invited a small group of friends and the donahoo cousins to join me at the iconic (lots of movies have shot here) griffith observatory in los angeles.  they were hosting a public star party so many many local astronomers brought their telescopes to share with the rest of us peons.  i love the observatory and it was a great way to celebrate with some of my favorite people!

luck of the irish

the first show day went smoothly, if slowly.  i wasn't feeling that great (cold getting worse) so i partly planned on hiding out in my hotel room for the evening.  but when tania, my friend and co-worker, invited me to join her at dinner with a potential partner company, i agreed.  you see, this company is owned/managed by a pair of brothers. a pair of really attractive brothers. a pair of really attractive really irish brothers.  or so i'd heard.

in fact, i'd been hearing about them around the office since january and i'll admit that i was curious to see if they lived up to the hype.

they did.

we met them for dinner in the freight district (blah bbq), followed by dessert at power and light, and it was one of those rare evenings where the group dynamic was just exactly right.  for the record, both are attached (married/ long term girlfriend) much to tania's chagrin, but the eye candy was delicious and the conversational chemistry was spot on.  looking forward to seeing these guys at a few more conferences.

kansas city was delivering a lot of pleasant surprises. and there were more to come. 

after opening the booth the following morning, i skipped out to play a little hooky with melissa.  she had mentioned wanting to show me the shuttle cocks (and i only vaguely knew what she was referring to). we started with brunch at westside local (yum, but i think mascarpone is supposed to be sweeter than that!) before she took me to the nelson-atkins museum.  

i'll be honest in saying that i was struggling a little.  i wasn't feeling awesome and the heat exasperated my low-energy.  that being said, i always enjoy my melissa time, even if i'm not holding up my end of the conversational bargain.  and i appreciated the opportunity to get a little taste of kansas city culture...including the shuttle cocks, and the traveling rodin 'thinker' sculpture.

we finished up at the museum and melissa dropped me back at the hotel where i tried to refresh a little before heading over to the marriott to check-in on the set-up for a reception we were hosting.  

fortunately, most of the logistics were being handled by the conference, so i actually got to eat and talk! i had already spent some time with my work crush (i know, i'm using that word a lot lately) on the exhibit hall floor, but had hoped he would be at the reception.  it wasn't until later that i realized he probably hadn't been invited (targeted at a different set of attendees), so when the reception wrapped and i was about to head out, i was pleasantly surprised to see that he had stopped in.  

he left his conversation to come over and say hello, and offered to buy my (much older) co-worker and i a drink at the bar/restaurant. she declined, i accepted, and he bought me a lot of fresh squeezed orange juice!  he also bought me dinner and reminded me what a gentleman looks like, unexpectedly offering his jacket when i mentioned that i was freezing in the air conditioned room, and insisting that i allow him to walk me back to my hotel when i was ready to call it a night (six hours later). chivalry is not dead!

hot country nights

woo hoo! the annual birthday trip -- i mean, work trip -- to kansas city was hot for a number of reasons, and the mid 90's temps and high humidity were just the start.

arriving early always gives me a little extra potential time to spend with my friend melissa, and this year she mentioned that craig morgan would be playing a free concert at the power & light district.  since booth setup was going smoothly, i was able to join her and her husband.

after a quick bite at chipotle, a recap of my east coast trip, and a little girl talk about my relatively new work crush (i thought she'd be shocked at my confession. she wasn't.) who i expected to see during the trip, we headed over to p&l.

since we were early, we decided to hang back a bit where we could sit for the next couple of hours--which turned out to be a great choice.  not only did we manage to remain mostly sweat and foot-pain free, but when craig finally took the stage, we stood on some platform benches and had a perfect view.

and it got better when a few songs in, i noticed a flurry of activity about 10 feet in front of me. took me a second to realize that craig had come out to perform a song in the audience.  and he had just happened to wind up where we were hanging out.

when i relayed the story to my boss after the fact, his response was 'of course he did.'  i guess i've developed a reputation for having good (mostly random) things happen to me, and the truth in that makes me continually grateful.

after he finished singing from his audience stool, melissa, nick, and i decided it wouldn't get better than that and made our exit.

since melissa isn't traveling as much these days, i have to take advantage of every opportunity to spend time with her, so we said our farewells for the evening, and confirmed plans to see each other again in the next couple of days.

the following morning booth setup continued, mostly, smoothly. there was one new piece (a rotating hanging sign) that wasn't working (not rotating) and while it was a great disappointment, it wasn't the end of the world. (meaning, it WILL be fixed for the next show).  what was most surprising though, is that unlike previous years wheen we had been finishing up at midnight or 1am, we were actually done by 2pm.

i almost didn't know what to do with myself, but since i was on day 3 of a rotten summer cold, i headed back to the hotel room for a nap and a shower before meeting the rest of the gang for team-building bowling.

the most interesting new team member was my friend shannon's 3 month old baby, marcus.  i confirmed that he had not yet had a self-portrait, so i got to be the first once again!

while the rest of the team bowled, i opted to play it low(er) key and enjoyed some dinner and conversation with the non-bowlers. and, after a couple of games the group dispersed.

Julie, chris, mike and i decided to head to one of our favorite joints-- howl-at-the-moon, the dueling piano bar chain--where we sang along and judged the crowd.

at midnight i turned into a pumpkin and headed back to the hotel to be ready for the exhibit hall opening the following day.and  little did i know, things were just starting to heat up.