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Other than being generally unmotivated to do anything with EL out of town, I've been pretty busy with work. I flew into San Jose on Thursday morning for a sales conference that persisted through the weekend. I would like to say that it was wildly informative, but a lot of the material was already presented at our semi-monthly weekend training sessions (mandatory). Overall, I think the biggest advantage of the trip was meeting so many more of my colleagues in the company that previously had only been voices on the other end of the phone or text in an email header. It's good to put a face with a name. The conference schedule was tremendous and I largely would only find time for a couple hours sleep a night. Strict rules about no cell phone calls (in or out) and no laptop usage during the presentations made distance support of my existing customer base difficult, but I managed to find time during the break. I had just worked on a huge network cutover for one of my customers on Wednesday prior to my flight, so I was concerned they may run into issues and not be able to reach me. All went well over the weekend. Saturday was my birthday. There was a big outing planned Saturday night after things were winding down to take me down to Ruby Skye in the downtown district of San Francisco for a little birthday cheer. The party train was leaving at 10:00 for an 11:00 pee emm arrival. Here is how you know you are really 34 years old: I knew I had to get up at 3:30 aye emm to catch my shuttle to the airport for my return flight, so I didn't go. It was less about the lack of sleep and going to the airport drunk and more about not being in control of the return from the Bay. The guy driving was local, so he didn't have to go anywhere. I however, had to fly three and a half hours back to Houston and couldn't miss my flight. I think I would have been down in a heartbeat if I had a rental and could ensure my prompt departure for Santa Clara after the club closed. There were too many variables and I just had a bad feeling about it. Call me an old fuddy duddy... go ahead, see if I care. Getting out of bed at 3:30 took tremendous will. I can't remember the last time I was this exhausted. I am still recovering and it's been a couple of days. I have been really busy at work and the time has passed fairly quickly, so it helps to take my mind of how miserable I am without EL around. My mother and step-father house sat (read: Henry sat) while I was away on my business trip. They really worked their tails off fixing this and that around the house... I'm so grateful! Bob even pressure washed the cement on the back patio and made it look brand new. Amazing! It was great to see them both again as well... we don't visit enough for being so close. I'd like to think we can make our way down to visit more often before I find a way to fashion my career geographic relocation to Colorado. I purchased two giant (60") soft boxes for the studio so I can get better diffusion for glamour/beauty photography that the 48" shoot throughs that I've been using. They came in before I left for my trip, but lay on the floor of my studio until last night. I decided I'd put them together before bed and so Henry and I started piecing the bits together slowly. I was tired and it really was a struggle to stay up and do it, but I needed to get it done. When you are tired, you make mistakes. Point. I put the softbox on one of my strobes and found it to be a little top heavy, but didn't seem to need additional support ala boom or the like. When moving the air cushioned stand afterwards, my hand bumped the quick release on the mount and the softbox came tumbling off... taking my modeling lamp with it. The outer casing of the modeling lamp shattered and most of it stayed inside the box, but none the less, it was a mess. I ordered a replacement, but the bulbs are $25.00 each and that was an expensive, stupid mistake. It was a mistake I probably could have avoided if I wasn't so exhausted and just took my time to make sure I was holding the clamp shut when moving the stand. I felt like an idiot... an idiot that is now has $25.00 less dollars in his pocket. *sigh* Anyhoo, I need to get back to work. Sorry I've been aloof.