Hello everyone. It's Monday night and it's about 10:20. I have a bunch of work to do tonight and I am only getting to it in a little while (after I finish this blog that is). I got home from Florida last night around 10:00 and must say that I had a fantastic time. I was just north of West Palm Beach for most of the week at the Ultrasound Sales Meeting. When we weren't in meetings and team building activities, we had time to just chill out by the pool, in the hot tub, on the golf course and by the beach. So - it was pretty awesome. My golf game was pretty good. The lessons are slowly starting to pay off - I just gotta practice and I'll be the man soon enough.

On Friday afternoon, I left the hotel around 2:00, picked up my rental car, had some great sushi (as an aside - I really like beef in sushi) and then made my way to Tampa. The drive took just under 3 hours but I was told it would take close to 4.5 so that was great. I was going pretty fast in my Tauras though so I guess I pushed the limits a bit. I arrived in Tampa and met my friend Bina at the airport. It was so excellent to see her and hang out so that was great. We chilled out for a bit on Friday night and then went out for dinner to this restaurant called the Bahama Breeze. The food was good and the "Bahama-rita" beverage was yummy as well. Got home, talked and chilled somemore and then we were off to bed. The next day - we went to this parade in downtown Tampa in honour of the Gasparilla (which is basically about the pirates that invaded Tampa Bay back in the day). I never knew it but there is quite a pirate culture in this part of Florida. So the parade we were at was absolutely hilarious. It was the "kids" parade and the "adult" parade is being held next week. Not sure what will be happening at the adult paratde next week but hopefully it'll be better than the one we witnessed. I must tell you that this kids parade we saw on Saturday was definitely one of the weirdest parades I've ever seen. There was no one in any floats. It was so random. At one point, there were just clumps of people walking down the parade route. It was like "Mr. Smith, his wife and three kids" were out for an afternoon stroll and accidentally stumbled upon a parade route. Very very strange. Finally - some floats began so that made it interesting. The mood quickly changed once it was apparent that everyone wanted one and only one thing. BEADS. That's right - everybody within the parade was throwing beads out to everyone on the sidelines and it was such a phenomenon. People were lunging for beads and really coveting them. At one point, Bina got clocked right above her left eye with some beads...she's fine and after the fact - we were both laughing. This whole bead thing is definitely a southern U.S. phenomenon. I think that the parade next weekend in Tampa is considered "adult" cause it'll take on more of a New Orleans Mardi Gras atmosphere when it comes to beads.

The Superbowl last night was good. My new favourite team - the Bucs were victorious in a very commanding fashion. The kicked the Raiders ass 48 - 21. It was really cool to be down in Tampa Bay this past weekend - everyone in the city was so excited about the game and going nuts. All I saw everywhere was Black and Red for the Bucs. I was embarassing Bina all the time as well because I asked about 4 or 5 different "obvious" Bucs fans...what the big commotion was and who their team was in the big game once I found out about it. Most people just chuckled and didn't really get my joke but I think that a couple did. It was fun nonetheless.

Well, I gotta get to that work I was referring to a little while ago. Can't wait to talk to ya'll soon.