Returned and recharged

There is a cliche' that says on vacation a person needs to "recharge their battery." Well, before my vacation my battery was like one from an old laptop that I still use that must remained tethered to the wall for power. But unlike that old machine I did the right thing on this trip, I threw out the old battery and put in a new one.

The trip was nearly flawless. The only exception was a small cut on the tip of my middle finger which I received when getting a bag off of the carousal at SFO. It stung a little for a couple of days but is all better now and didn't deter any activities. Afterall, it was just a little deeper than a paper cut.

We saw a lot of Union Square, the Financial District and the Warf on this trip. We also spent an afternoon in Saulsalito which was very pleasant. Without getting into particulars of the trip, as this is not really a travel blog, Tina and I did what we wanted to to do. We spent uninterupted time together. We weren't parents, I wasn't a sales manager, and we weren't worried about anything. And we did something we both really needed to do, we walked. We walked everywhere we could and we walked out our pace, not Amanda's. We stretched out our legs and on Wendsday alone we walked seven miles. We walked from east of Pier 1 to Pier 39 at one stretch. We made a loop around Saulsalito the same day and walked from our hotel on Powell and Market to 525 Market, back up four blocks and then down to the Ferry Building. In fact, if you reverse the order in which I just typed that was our actual Wednesday. The walking was something we both craved and we satisfied the need.

Really, the whole trip was revitalizing. Yesterday was the first day we spent apart in the past week and Tina said she just felt lonely. I missed her too but had a 75 line item quote to keep me busy.

The trip was what we both wanted and needed and while we didn't do everything we set out to do, everything we did was satisfying and memorable.

Updating

I've been pretty busy the past few days getting ready for an actual vacation. Tina and I are getting as far away from TXK as possible both physically and culturally by going to San Francisco for 4 nights to celebrate my 40th birthday. Amanda is looking forward to it as much as we are because she will be spoiled by my mother who to date has never said no to a female child. There is no telling what I will come home to other than a huge smile.

I had a long day yesterday. It was necessary for me to drive to Ft. Worth, protect the company from a contractor who does not believe he is capable of making a mistake. Actually that was redundant because I've never met a contractor who has admitted to a mistake. And then drive home. 430 miles isn't a hard day by any means, it was just the 4 hours in between where I had to channel my inner asshole that left me a little drained.

The swine flu has caused the Texas Special Olympics to cancel this weekend's regional event in Dallas so we didn't have to drive back to Dallas today. Amanda took the news very well. A lot of people, myself included, were concerned about this. Even recently Amanda was capable of a fit that would leave the a hole in a concrete slab. But she took the news well when Tina told her she could have a cherry icee and come into my office in the afternoon. Tina said there was a brief moment when she was terrified. Upon hearing the news the event was cancelled Amanda's nastagymus stopped. That is a very scarey moment for anyone who has ever seen it. Grown men, not me, have been known to crap themselves at the sight of this prelude to a China Syndrome meltdown. I may have exagerated that, but I know somebody farted once.

All that being said, I am so looking forward to my trip.