Flo is created

So what has Joe been doing and why hasn't he been posting? Excellent question. It's my bi-monthly visit from my personal version of "Aunt Flo" called ESDNM. Actually, while he does make me tired, ornery and I'm usually bloated (from eating) after he leaves, there doesn't seem to be a hormonal change or a migraine. Pretty similar though huh?

This particular trip included an 8:00 a.m. breakfast meeting with a lawyer where we discussed ESOPs and their potential tax benefits. Yeahhhhh, that's not a great topic first thing in the morning....or even later in the day. We powered through though and went directly to a client meeting afterwards before going into the office for group work.

Tuesday night was the Blackhawks game, so LL and I got together with Markakis, Sausage and Skweres in a nearby bar where we had celebrated while the Hawks won the Stanley Cup a few years back. The game went into overtime and they ended up losing. They lost tonight as well, also in overtime (only the second time in NHL history that the first four games of a playoff series have gone into overtime). So our good vibe didn't help them win as planned.

Fortunately the next day was a late start (10:30) downtown, so I slept in. After two client meetings with a lunch at a previous clients' establishment, it was the end of the day....almost. ESDNM's daughter, A in A (see link to her blog on this page), happened to be in town from Amsterdam for work, so we went to dinner at Sapori. Once again they treated us wonderfully there not only in service with a smile, but a free glass of moscato for everyone and two free desserts. Fantastic. When we left I couldn't be more full and we had leftovers that made a whole other meal!!




Here we are in our "room" at Sapori. This is a great little area in which we like to sit if there's more than just the two of us as it is very conducive to conversation with few distractions and low noise level. Only maybe 6 other people can sit in the room, so normally I'm the loudest person (see Sunday's post).






Catching A in A with her wine glass and oh so much food. See the big bowl to her left? That was a big part of our dinner tonight! Oh, so was the rest of that bottle of wine. Ha!






So that's what's been keeping me busy and Flo's trip ended with a trip to the airport during rush hour this morning. It was an hour and a half there and back, but other than being tired, it wasn't awful. I was hoping that I would be able to get a nap in later in the day, but that never happened as I started to get caught up with everything else I've missed over the last few days.

This is a birthday gift from Joisey Ken! It's a huge Bears flag with my name on it. To give you some sense of scale, that's a sofa it is laying on! Awesome. Now I need to find a telescoping pole and I'm all set for the Bears games this fall. The schedule is out already and I'm thinking the can go 9-7 or 10-6. They play three times on Monday night, once on Sunday night and everyone plays once on Thursday night. Should be great fun!