CRM

Friday night was the Salesforce.com Christmas Gala.  Dressed to the nines Erin and I headed into the city at 3:00 pm to beat the traffic, we were checked into the hotel room and lounged up by 4:15.  Per usual Benioff didn't dissapoint, providing the CRMers some kind of LSD induced trip down the rabbit hole, and calling it a Christmas Gala.  I don't think I saw a Christmas decoration.  Nonetheless the event was fantastic, few companies still throwdown like Benioff does.  A strange combination of live music, LED lights, Ms. Pacman and belgian waffles.  Yeah everything in between too.

Here are some pics from the evening.....

Champagne servers hung from the ceiling...

 The center bar was well lit.....

LSD

To the nines....

53.8

When Sean's parents gave him a new pair of Zeal Transcend snow googles they probably didn't think the whole thing through.  You see, we adrenaline junkies think differently than people who think watching Wheel of Fortune is exciting...  i.e. When gifted a helmet as a safety device Sean quickly learned that it no longer hurt when he hit his head which allowed him to amplify his risk taking on the mountain, since after all, he was being safe......


So what's special about the Transcend goggle?  Check them out below...
http://www.altrec.com/zeal-optics/transcend-sppx-goggle

They sport a heads up GPS display; visible from your right eye.  The display provides you important realtime information, like your location, the location of your buddies, your speed, and how long that last jump was....yep those last two; those are going to be problematic for Sean...and me.  A goggle with a speedometer....what were his parents thinking???


During a great night out in South Lake I precursed the ski day by commenting to Sean that I had predicted on my blog that we'd be ripping the shit out of the hill at 55 mph.  Sean responded with a quip about his cool new goggles and how surely 55 mph would be eclipsed.  Then we saw a little guy punch a big guy in the face.


Mid-winter I'd say that 55 mph would be a minor feat, but the conditions last Saturday were anything but mid-winter.  Kirkwood resort has uhhh run open, yeah uhhh run, if you call it that.  Imagine a ski run that is surrounded on all sides by trees, weeds, and rocks.  Now on the ski run place a bunch of beginners, two busloads of foreigners and two assholes with a pair of Transcend goggles sending it straight down the hill. 

Welcome to the white ribbon of death, cue the death metal theme music. 

We failed to hit 55 mph, but Sean and I hit 53.8 mph on that little blue run full of human obstacles.  My comment at the bottom of that run, "We are so gone, kicked off, passes pulled."  But two more laps we're completed without any interuption from Johnny Law.  Then quitting while ahead we found a table in the sun and enjoyed the deal of the day $2.00 IPAs.

It was a great first day, and weekend for that matter.  Tahoe is such a good way to disconnect from the grind. 

Final Note: If your in the south lake area, do not miss the Getaway Cafe.  The girls there will really knock your socks off (with the food).

http://www.yelp.com/biz/getaway-cafe-south-lake-tahoe

Coconut Crusted French Toast, Eggs Benedict, The Hangover Special, and a great selection of local coffees, Sean was a first timer and is a huge fan.

China. Skittles. Mullets.

It's snow season....or at least it supposed to be.  Last year at this time Mum Nature had delivered over 200" of snow to Kirkwood resort.  Tomorrow I will head there with Sean Reid to feel the near death sensation of chattering down the front face at 55 MPH.  You see the front face is virtually a sheet of ice because to date the 'wood' has only received 36" of snow, 0" in a month.  That's good for fence, but its no bueno for skiing & snowboarding.  More to come on my favorite past time in future posts....

Let's talk about Marketing and China.  Fuck yeah, didn't expect that combo did you?  OK snowboarding is a sport; target market, males aged 18-35; focused market, males aged 18-26.  Of course we are talking about white males here, maybe some asians too.

What are some characteristics of Males 18-26?  They are peacocks & show offs, whom utilize tattoos and other types of 'flair' to attract the opposite sex.  What else?  They don't have careers yet.  But they are white, or maybe asian; that means they don't have money, but of course they have enough money to snowboard.

Now let's look at the industry; snow sport companies want to sell the shit out of their shit to these white guys.  Here's a quick break down of a typical planning/market approach meeting IMO: What do these guys want?  They want to have sex.  How are they going to do it, by looking cool.  So the industry; specifically snowboarding, focuses 85% of their efforts on appearance; 'fashion' if you will and completely bypasses the quality and functionality factors.  Once the pattern is selected it's shipped off to CHINA to be produced just like the item was the year before, but with 'new' style for the 'new' year. 

STYLES: The styles hurt to look at; I love me some neon, but last year neon was back and giving it 115%.  Every guy out there on a snowboard 18-26 looked like some kind of thugged out skittle cruising down the hill.  I'm pretty sure last February the 1980's called because they we're offended with the flagarant misuse of neon.  This year I hate to say it, but I'm seeing a lot, and I mean a lot of denim.  Eat your heart out Dean.  2011-12 is the year of Denim.  WTF.

I swung by my buddies 'board' shop in Jackson, CA the other day and literally was disgusted by the poor quality and really the appearance of probably 85% of the gear in the place.  Literally its all low quality crap, and it's all made in CHINA.  Denim every where I look.  It's been at least 5-7 years since I've invested in quality gear and this year it's time to fork it over, but I cannot believe the transition the industry has made.  Every pair of flashy ass pants is priced between $165 and $230 and they are produced in China for maybe $22 a pair.  Fred even commented that he has more gear coming but it's on the slow boat from CHINA. 

The frustrating thing about it is that I want some good shit that is going to last me 5-7 years and unless I'm buying Burton, I cannot get it from a snowboarding company.  Now here's the anomaly, Skiing.  There's a few ski companies that are moving in the right direction and producing high quality gear right here in the US of A.  I want that stuff.  Why should I support Volcom, when I can support a little company from Colorado called Fly Low?  Their logo found on the tag of every one of their products is "Drink cold beer."  Hello?!  Same story for Trew products of Oregon.  Watch out for the pure badassory when you get on their website.

Marshall wants to know if I'm going to be skier this year, or just look like one.  I dunno, I haven't bought anything yet.  But one thing I do know, I'm going to rip the shit out of that sheet of ice this weekend and I'd do it in an American flag before I did it in faux denim from China.  WORD.

NOTE: My comments about denim do NOT apply to the guy with the mullet skiing in 501's, you my man are a true American and your patriotism should be commended.  plus you look like some one's Dad.  And you're totally ready for the apres scene.....

The island.

The Stanley's and Minoux's tripped up to the Murray family cabin the day after Thanksgiving with a few simple goals:


1. Disconnect from work. Check.
2. Relax, cook good food, breathe fresh air. Check.
3. Install the kitchen island I'd been toiling over for the previous five evenings in my garage.  Che.....What's different about #3?  It has nothing in common with #'s 1 & 2.


Let's talk about the island.  That damn thing had been such a pain.  I'm proud of the finished product, but jeez what a time suck.  Luckily I had Marshall to help out.  Over the years Marshall has been more than willing to help me with anything I ask.  We've collaborated on a few projects together including a complete weekend of vuvuzela's on the radio as we tried to listen to the world cup while painting the cabin.  Perhaps its a part of manhood as we 'struggle' through repeated projects and learn together.  Nonetheless he has a pretty sharp mind, a helping hand, a lot of enthusiasm and brings plenty of parachute cord to the table and I appreciate it.


How do you square up a kitchen island to cabinets that are not square and are attached to walls that probably are not square either?  The trick is to maintain your flexibility.  We drew a rough layout of the island location in pencil and then mounted our 2 x 4's well inside the layout, about 1/2" per side all 4 ways around.  This allowed us to maneuver the island with a little 'play' until we got it where we wanted it using our eyeballs and then screwed it into the 2 x 4's.






There it is, just add trim and granite.  The pictures certainly do not do the thing justice though.  The doors are perfectly distressed, they just look a mute brown in these photos.

The rest of the weekend was a breeze, we kept the fire going in the cabin but didn't hesitate to venture out as the weather was chilly but beautiful.....

Rocky Mountain was looking stout.

The prego was getting her exercise.....

 Marshall and I finished off the day sharing a magnum of Anchor Steam holiday brew out of mason jars.....it was pretty awesome.  Can't wait to go back.



Have a mini project?

Hudson, mini-carpenter for hire...he has his own light.

Rum, Nog and Nutz

The night before Thanksgiving brought a few friends over to gather and kick off the Holiday season with a quirky cocktail party centered around the harvest of walnuts and consumption of rum and egg nog. It was a nice way to spend the evening, we enjoy the company of some great people. Erin organized a holiday themed trivia game complete with prizes. The review of the answers may have been the highlight of the night; What sound does a female turkey make?? Gabble, Gabble, Gabble???? What? Yeah.

MMMM....lots of walnut filled treats.








The house was looking like fall.....

Dumpty.

Here's the Dump Truck.

Here's the box out for the hydraulic boom that extends into the bed about 18"



You see the problem with that box out is that from a functional perspective, the dump bed is now 18" shorter.  Which means my tractor doesn't fit.  This wiped the smile right off snakeskin shoes' face.  I didn't buy the truck.  Now I'm in L.A., in a wind storm, with a guy in snakeskin shoes.  I need to get to Bakersfield.  Snakeskin shoes was nice enough to drive me to Enterprise Rent-A-Wreck...sort of.  You see due to the wind, the power was out, so were the streetlights.  45 minutes into a 2.2 mile drive I jumped out planning to hoof it the last quarter mile.  No problem.  Now I'm walking through a very industrial area of L.A. with a check for $42,000.00 in my pocket, OK, not one of my best decisions, I survived.  Enterprise rental car was next.  No power there either, so Veronica used her pink cell phone to manually call in my rental.  She also called my business visa account to run my credit card; Wells Fargo asked to speak with me, the rep explained the large amount of usage on my account, about $1600.00 in the last 12 hours, somebody was having a fun morning.  Account closed, I think I had gone emotionally numb.  I retreated to my Ford Focus and mapped out my route to Bakersfield and beyond.  In another 2 hours I made it to the grapevine, who rents a car to a customer with only 1/8 of a tank of gas?  Union 76 my savior.  The wind pushed my feeble transportation around at will but I eventually got home around 7:30 pm. 

The good news?  Mario jumped online and found a newly posted truck only a few miles from the office.  It's a 2005 with only 5,200 miles on it and today we bought it for $4,000 less than the truck in L.A.  Oh...the tractor fits in it too!