...I used my supreme navigational skills to get to work on time today.

I totally bypassed this today.

It always happens like this. I have to absolutely be somewhere for work at a certain time. Today it was 8am. When things like this happen, there is always one thing I can count on. Traffic. It never fails. I get up on time, everything is running great. I love the day and the birds are chirping and the sun is shining. Then it happens. I hit the curve and there is a sea of red lights staring back at me.

Many times this happens I am in between exits and I'm stuck for a couple of miles waiting for the next exit that everyone else is taking. I lucked out today. I got off the exit and got to the office only 4 minutes later than I was supposed to be there. My boss understood. It was no big deal to him. We just had a 9am meeting in another town and had to haul ass out there for it.

I'm glad I had my experience that I did when I worked for the ice factory. I learned the roads in three counties and I can get to anywhere just from people telling me landmarks. I'm trying to get someone else I know a bit better with her navigation as well. Knowing what exits are where, what the main streets are, that whole thing. I rarely get lost. I used to try to get lost. I couldn't. I would always end up somewhere that I recognized soon enough and then I just headed home again. 

At least I didn't have to sit and wait in that mess this morning.

...I got to sleep in my own bed.

I stayed at a hotel down in Chicago this weekend, I'm not going to say which one. But the bed that was there really beat me up. It was way too soft, no support for my body and when I woke up it felt like someone stepped on my head or repeatedly kicked me in the upper back all night.

I go to sleep in my bed last night though, that has really worked out a lot of the pain that I had from that.

So, with that being said, Chicago was a blast this past weekend. The lady and I went down just to get away for the weekend. We had a deal that we bought online a while ago and we needed to use it. This was the ONLY weekend we could. So, we went down there, got settled in at the hotel and just bummed around for a while. Then we wanted to eat. Eventually we ended up at Chicago Diner. As always, awesome food! The Karma Burger is fantastic. Love that place. The chili almost killed me though. Super spicy, couldn't finish the damn thing.

When we got back, we just kicked back and watched Airplane 2 through the wonders of using my phone as a wifi hotspot and connecting my computer to the hotel's TV. I'm way happy it worked. I didn't think it was going to.

The next morning, we woke up late, had to rush out the door and get our stuff to the car so we could head down Michigan Ave. and do some window shopping. I actually ended up getting a couple shirts for work, and the lady, well.... she didn't buy anything. She really wanted to though.

Side note, we were looking for a place to eat, and started going down Rush St. We're walking by this Italian place across from Giordano's and she goes "heh, Rod Stewart"... I stopped, looked at her and said "No, honey, that IS Rod Stewart." Sure as shit, there he was with his woman and what could only be their baby and some other younger girl. It was kinda funny.

After that, we went to the Sushi bar just past there called "Friends Sushi". It's a really nice place. Very clean looking, custom wood chop sticks. Very nice decor. I really like that place. They make their sushi differently than I am used to (they GRILL they asparagus for the asparagus rolls!) but it was all very well done. The presentation was nice and the staff was quite kind.

After shopping a little bit more, we started to make our way back to the car. It was at this time I was suckered in to a shoe shine. It just all happened so fast. The guy was lucky that I had cash on me. I didn't want to be that guy who gets pulled in to something like that and then not be able to pay. But, my shoes look better now than they did when I bought them.

Once we got back we cooked a simple dinner, I did some homework, and we started our venture back in to the Matrix.

But, the highlight was that I got to sleep in my bed last night and wake up in it with my lady again.

...I can't stop laughing at this.

Seriously, watch this video. Oh my god. Then watch all their other ones as well. I can't stop laughing at these. This is genius.

...things are looking up.

A few months ago, I couldn't say that. I had all sorts of things that would get me down on a daily basis. Work, not seeing the kids, not having time for anything fun, my house, bills. All of that was a huge stress pile of blah.

Home of the World Champion Green Bay Packers.

Now things are looking a lot better. April is quite a nice month for me right now as it stands. Homework and school aside, I know it will be good.

Tonight will be my 4th hockey game of the year, the third one with the lady. I really like that she can go to sporting events with me and enjoy them. We've been to three Brewer games, a Packer game in the luxury box, and three Admirals games just this year. It is a perk working where I work and getting free tickets to these things!

Work seems to be heading in the right direction now as well. The plan is slowly coming in to place. One more week and the whole building will be calling one spot for help. Just the way we want it.

This weekend is a trip to the big city, and what do we plan on doing? Whatever we want. Most of it will be spent in the hotel because it's a very nice one. We're going to just kick back, relax, watch movies, do our homework, and not think about life at home.

...I know I still got it.

We ran across an issue at work that could have been catastrophic. I seem to have this knack for being able to solve tech problems. I will work and research until I think I find the best possible solution, test it, then present it to the people who wanted the solution in the first place.

It's good to know I can still do the tech work after being put in to a manager role so many years ago.