This week I had the misfortune of being summoned to a training meeting in Houston for my company. By training, I mean that I had to give some training on our competitors to a group of salespeople whose roles are shifting to higher-level sales. I almost didn't make it. I was confused by the emails about the training, since it said it would be held in Houston, but I later was told Dallas. Turns out that there are 2 different training sessions, both attended by the same folks. By sheer coincidence, I happen to be the the only person giving training at both sessions. Anyway, I hurried and made reservations. My training module was only 2 hours long - seems a waste to fly for over 1000 miles for 2 hours. The schedule was complicated by the fact that I needed to attend a late-day meeting on Thursday before getting to Houston where my section started at 10am the next morning. I ended up flying out at 7:30, arriving in the lone star state at 2:30am. I rented my car, got lost, and found my hotel by 3:30am. Everything went smoothly with the session the next morning, except that my opinion of our Sales staff took a hit. About 1/3 of the way through, the group of about 20 started to trickle out - "gotta catch a flight" they said. In the end, there were 5 left. Salespeople are great - if nothing else, they have sold the heck out of our dated product line, and for that I'm grateful. However, the experience reminded me that 1 - you never want to be last on the schedule for an off-site meeting, and 2 - salespeople often behave like inconsiderate middle-schoolers. This last point was reinforced when I boarded the flight home at 3pm and ran into a sales guy who had excused himself and 2 buddies at 11:20am (gotta catch a flight).

The trip also reminded me how much I hate the Texas freeway frontage road set-up. This is one reasons why Texans are so religious - they must pray fervently that all their destinations lie to the right of them as they tool down the freeway. If they need to go somewhere that happens to be on the left side of the road, they must find a way to flip a u-turn and back-track, which invariably requires driving to Amarillo. The trip also reminded me how much I love Jimmy Johns. It is a chain/franchise sandwich joint. For the 16 months I worked at my last company, I conservatively estimate I ate 178 Jimmy Johns sandwiches. 175 of those were the "turkey tom, no mayo", which I was gleefully reunited with when I happened upon a Jimmy Johns on my way to the Airport in Houston. The bread is maybe 50 times better than subway, and the sandwiches are made in 15 seconds. It's really amazing. Anyway, some videos to upload. The first is of Kai "reading" his favorite book - of course he's not really reading, but it's kind of funny. The second is Asha doing tricks, but she's interrupted by Kai who has other ideas.