If I was someone that did not like Winter...I would be permanently away from the white stuff...but I like Winter...so I have plopped myself in wonderful Upstate New York to take the good and the bad. But it has now been seven months of snow that has stuck to the ground...and I am ready for some change. The tulips I planted a few years ago are headed up towards the sun...unafraid of a little snow. The garlic that we planted last Fall is already about 8 inches high. Baseball practice for my youngest son has been going on for the past four weeks...his tryouts were today (inside in the gym) and my oldest son's tryouts are Monday after school. Baseball...that just screams Spring...well...bring it on.

I looked before I started writing this and the last time I posted to the blog was the night of the famed Syracuse six overtime game. A lot has transpired since then...Syracuse went all the way to the sweet sixteen before finally losing. I have been back to NYC for a bordeaux dinner at Restaurant Daniel (really great spot), I have started work in the garden...trying to make it about 2 1/2 times the size of last year's garden. By the way...follow this link and it will take you to pictures of last year's garden

http://www.empirebrew.com/garden.php

Last week I was in Las Vegas for the CTIA Wireless show...nice to visit a show in a town that you have an office in. I got a round of golf in at Rio Secco...a course I played several years ago and really looking forward to visiting again. Notice I am just mentioning that I played...not how well or poorly I played. I will leave that to your imagination. I put a couple of laps in around the show floor...had a few meetings with clients...some good, some great and one quite memorable. One client that we were waiting on news of how we would fare on an open bid...didn't tell us until dinner was over with that another company had won the bid. The door is still open...as they intend to award the work to another company or two as the work picks up...but memorable none-the-less. Nothing like finding out you lost the work just as you are picking up the tab. The weather was nice in Vegas...nothing like the crap we are dealing with today...I even managed to spend a few hours sitting by the pool on Thursday morning and got a bit of sun in the 80 degree warmth.

Work was slower than expected for the first quarter of the year as several customers put jobs on hold. They didn't cancel them...just pushed them out a bit...which means that now our second quarter is going to be a zoo. We never seem to get a peaceful transition from one mode of work to another...we are either balls-to-the-wall or treading water. I am looking into moving us to another building...we are out of space in our warehouses and there is a building in town that can allow us to consolidate our 4 buildings into one. I am dealing with the broker to try and negotiate a good price...who really wants to take a chance on commercial real estate in this market? But the rewards for taking risk in these types of environments are huge if you make the right decisions. One interesting wrinkle in the whole thing is that the Illinois based bank that I have used for years...(run by people that I have been banking with for almost 20 years now)...and a bank that I am a private shareholder in...has decided to curb their loan business out-of-state. That means new commercial projects like mine...ouch! Product of the tough times in the banking business. Thought that relationship would be solid for ever more...wish I had been a little nicer to the local bankers over the years...now I have to go to them for this project. Better make sure the office is all in jackets and ties when the banker shows up. Nothing like making a new, good, first impression.

Might have to go to work tomorrow...ATT employees may go on strike tonight at midnight. In that event...our office is scheduled to deploy almost 100 technicians to ATT to keep the phones working during the strike. Could be a crazy Sunday.

The kids start their Spring break near the end of next week and we are scheduled for a quick trip to Lake Placid to get some pre-May fly hiking in with some friends of ours. Climbing at this time of year is really muddy...so the kids should love it...not sure the Mirror Lake Inn is going to appreciate us when we get back from these hikes. We may even try to get in a little fly fishing for trout on the Ausable...depends on how cold it is and how fast the water is running...need it to be safe for the kids.

OK...better sign off now...need to work on details of a trip the wife and I are taking at the beginning of May. Headed to Gascony, France to a cooking school for a few days. Want to check it out...follow this link to the blog of Kate Hill... http://katehill.blogspot.com/

I will try harder to keep the blog up to date...it is not as easy as the entries to facebook. But facebook has its own problems. I am not sure I want to know what everyone (my listed friends) are doing at every minute of their day. This blog is just my little on-line diary...come by when you want...