CRAP HAPPENS

I am ready to leave the ET Surfboard shop ... when I spot the catch phrase on Kevin's T-Shirt ... CRAP HAPPENS ... I can't avoid to smile ... Keeevin ... What's up!? ... I point to his T-Shirt and I say ... This is my T-Shirt ... You mean my T-Shirt!? ... I mean ... your T-Shirt is just right for me today ... Why!? ... Did you see what is written on it!? ... Mmmm ... in a sequence ... he looks to his T-Shirts, me and my board ... and he says ... Aaaabsolutely ... crap happens! ... and we laugh together ... But you know what!? You are lucky I am here to fix it ... Agreed!! ... and I leave the shop with a smile on my face ... but going back to the story from the begin ... yesterday I was back home in LA ... and after a late wake up ... I decided to go out surfing ... waves were 2-3 feet ... but towards the breakwater they had a nice shape ... first wave is a good one ... I turn left ... I ride it really well ... paddle out ... the second one is a good ride as well ... I manage to put the toes on the nose (i.e. the toes of my left foot on the nose of the board) ... it is fun ... paddle out again ... there you go ... an other good wave ... I am going for it ... I catch it ... I turn right ... I am standing ... I move my left foot ... again toes on the nose ... but ... CRAP ... my foot slips away ... BANG ... I can hear the BANG ... something strange ... I get out of the water ... NOOOOOOOOOOO ... the board is broken ... how did it happen!? ... and now, why is my leg bleeding!? ... I can’t believe it ... I look to both of them ... there are pieces of skin in the board ... and pieces of fiberglass under my skin ... I seat on the board ... and in the water I try clean my wounds from the fiberglass ... and I think ... who cares!?!? ... I will continue to surf ... I decide to catch an other wave ... but while I am trying to catch it I decide to give up ... too stupid ... the board is cracked ... the water will go into it ... CRAP!!! ... better I go back home ... I am sooo pissed ... and while I am walking home ... I meet a couple of friends who are going to play beach volley ... they can't believe to my story ... I can't believe either ... I have never seen anything like this ... and on top of that I am bleeding all the way ... not a nice show ...... but what is more painful is to think to my craked board ...... but fortunately ... there are shops that are fixing boards ... I put the board in the car... and I drive it there ... it is less than one miles from where I live ...
... and there I meet KEVIN with his T-Shirt ... he is a funny guy ... as soon as he spots the crack on the board ... he laughs and he asks me if a shark tried to give me a bite ... :D ... fortunately I did everything by myself ... the estimated cost to fix the board is $100 ... but believe me ... they are very well spent ... no other sport gave me as much as fun as surfing ... if you will ever have the chance ... go for it ... it is really great ... just be aware ... sometimes CRAP HAPPENS ... but belive me ... it is a really great sport ... the best for me ... :D

THIS IS NOT BREAD

I bought it back in February ... I believe it was Saturday Febraury 4th ... I didn't manage to eat it all ... so I left few slices in its plastic bag in the kitchen storage ... the day after I went to the LAX ... from there I flew to Atlanta and DC and back to LA after 7 weeks ... and when I came back after 7 weeks 7 ... it was still fresh ... I laugh about it w/ my roommates and we decided to leave it there for some more time ... everytime I came back from my trips I did check it ... still fresh ... today after 176 days ... Leif and I have decided to take a couple of pictures to prove it ...

... probably from the pics you can't really appreciate it ... but believe me ... it is still fresh ... I mean ... to the touch it is like fresh bread ... it looks like freash bread ... if I can remember corretly, when I bought it, it did taste like bread ... it is cheap ... but believe me ... THIS IS NOT BREAD ... they sell this stuff as bread ... but THIS IS NOT BREAD ... not sure what it is ... I believe it is a mix of preservatives and powders ... but definitely ... IT IS NOT BREAD ... I believe there are copies of the same product around in all the American Supermarkets ... PLEASE DON'T BUY IT ... :D

DOUBLE DOUBLE ANIMAL STYLE

So ... I am back home ... in LA ... I landed last night from DALLAS, TX ... I was hungry was really late ... so I decided to make a pilgrimage to my favorite burger place ... the beeeest ... the unique ... IN N OUT ... burgers are great ... really fresh ... the same for the FF ... they peel and dice the potatoes in the restaurant in front of you ... and the one in the picture is in INGLEWOOD BLVD which is on the way between the LAX airport and HERMOSA BEACH ...... my very strong suggestion is ... if you guys will ever come to visit CALIFORNIA, NEVADA or ARIZONA make sure to check if there is a IN N OUT close to where you are ... really they are the beeeeeeeeeeest ... and don't forget to check out their SECRET MENU (you can easily find it on INTERNET) ... basically there are orders that are not in the regular menu that is exposed in the restaurants ... but if you ask them you will get them ... w/o any problem ... they will appear also on your receipt ... last night I did order a DOUBLE DOUBLE ANIMAL STYLE w/ FF and SODA ... DOUBLE DOUBLE is in the menu ... but the ANIMAL STYLE addiction is only in the secret menu ... really good to know about it ... and don't forget that IN N OUT are the guys who invented the DRIVE THRU ... you can't miss it ... :O

MY J-BAY

I love it ... love it ... love it ... it is my new skateboard ... actually this is also my first skateboard ever ...

... and I love it even more because it is a present ... a present by my wonderful friend D ... it is for my birthday ... OK ... my bday was back on May ... but I didn't see D until then ... and I got it this week and believe me ... it is the best ... to see a friend ... get a gift ... and get such a great gift ... why a skateboard!? Mmmm ... back at the begin of the year I was supposed to relocate from LA to NY ... and immediately I thought I had to replace my passion for SURFING with something equally exciting ... so I thought to SKATEBOARDING ... I told to my friend about this idea ... but at the end to relocation to NY blew up (it is not clear yet ... but the likelihood is 99%) ... and the idea to buy the skateboard blew up as well ... but there you go ... D never forgets ... and here I have my new 4 wheel passion ... :D ... it is a SECTOR9 skateboard ... it is a longboard ... and the model is called J-BAY ... J-BAY in the surfing dictionary means only one thing ... JEFFREYS BAY, SOUTH AFRICA ... probably the most perfect reef break ever ... it is shot also in the movie ENDLESS SUMMER ... and as you can imagine ... the picture on the board is JBAY ... :D ... I have already funny stories about this board ... last night I tried it for the first time here in DALLAS, TX ... in the parking lot of my company ... completely empty ... a similar setup of when I learned to drive the car back in Italy ... anyways ... after 10-15 minutes that I was trying it ... it slipped away and I fell on the ground ... while I was taking care of my wrist ... I saw the board run away ... so far away ... that basically it ended up ... in a huge manhole (everything is big in Texas) ... anyways ... I almost lost it ... for a simple miracle the tail did stuck in the manhole entrance ... like a car on the cliff of a mountain in a Hollywood movie ... :O ... I almost had a heart attack ... let's imagine ... how can you logically explain something like this ... !?!? ... at the first ride I almost lost my new skateboard in an empty parking lot in TEXAS ... good that it didn't happen ... now it is a little bit scratched (on the other side ... you don;t see it in the picture) ... but who cares ... it is still with me ... today when I told the story to my colleagues ... they couldn't stop teasing me ... my friend Budi ... came out with the best catch phrase ... "Andrea yesterday tried to surf in a Texas sewer" ... definitely I need to go back to surf in LA ... most likely tomorrow night ... I will be there ... only for the weekend ... but better than nothing ... and I will check out the real waves ... :D

MOVE that SIGN to the UN!

I love to have fun of people ... tease people ... and to make jokes ... sometimes I really exaggerate ... since I have memories ... I can remember my dad telling sentence like Stop it! ... or ... Do you really want someone to break your legs, don't you!? ... or ... For sure you took all this from you mom! ... and again the best is ... Sooner or later you will find someone who will kick you ass ... I have to admit that so far I had been pretty lucky ... I had troubles only once in Israel ... when one of my jokes was misunderstood by a colleague ... but also in that case I managed to escape the hanging ... anyways ... yesterday at the BWI (Baltimore Washington International) airport when I saw this sign ......

... I thought immediately that I wanted to say something really stupid ... but I didn't ... that would have been too stupid even for me ... but at the same time I thought to all the politicians and prime ministers and presidents and dictators and fat asses ... and fat asses and all the gang around them ...... living in any continent of the world who are joking about this ... not knowing they are joking ... or probably yes ... do you remember this guy at the UN I guess ... and I guess you do remember the nice drawings he presented (one thing that I always wondered is if he personally did them or he asked to someone else to do them) ... and again POWELL is not the only one .... actually I like POWELL ... I always read with interest what he said and I am not sure why ... he presented this slide deck ...... did you realize that this slide deck is part of the cause of the biggest tragedy that the world has seen in the last decades ... searching on GOOGLE while I am writing this post I found this link ... http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ ... you can check by yourself ... some 43,000 people died up to July 7th 2006 ... what do you think ... should we propose a UN RESOLUTION? My proposal is this ... move that sign from the BWI CHECK IN area to the UN CHECK IN area ... I am just afraid that more than one permanent member of the UN SECURITY COUNCIL would VETO it ... :X ... mmmmm ... probably when they were kids their dad didn't convince them to stop joking on serious stuff ... OK ... I am done for today ... let me go to try my new skateboard now ... I need to relax ... :D

It's HOT in the POULTRY HOUSE

I spent the last 2 days in WASHINGTON DC ... I visited two customers ... the first one was new ... very funny meeting ... but it went well ... I mean I screw the wedding party in Vail, CO to prepare the presentation ... but it was worthwhile ... the second customer wasn't new ... actually while I was working here back in April I started my blog ...... and about the office itself ... I wrote also a post ... I compared it to a POULTRY HOUSE ... and today coming back ... I found that the poultry house in summer gets really hot ... and of course ... it needs a serious A/C ... but look what kind of A/C ... :O ... honestly when I saw it today ... I thought it was a joke ... and I start laughing ... so loud ... you can't imagine it ... and from the pics probably you can understand how big it is ... it is taller than the cube and me w/ the shoes ... so it is more than 6.3 (i.e. ~ 1.90 meter)... simply huge ... and let's imagine the noise ... hilarious ... but I have to admit that it helps to keep down the temperature!

During the meeting I ask to the head of the office ... what was that ice cream maker in the corridor ... and her answer has been ... "Andrea, be nice ... don't let me go there" ... and she smiled .. like only she can do ... I simply love this office ... definitely ... the nicest and coldest Poultry House in the DC area ... :D

AMERICAN OLDLINES

Today I flew out from the BWI (Baltimore - Washington DC International) airport to come back to Dallas ... I had a window seat on my flight ... and look what I saw from the window at the gate beside our ...

... I think this is the oldest American Airline airplane still flying ... really a classic for the airplane lovers ... here some other pics in case you are interested ... mmmmm ... I am sure my friend and colleague Mauro will like them ... enjoy them dude ...

THE WEEKEND in VAIL, CO

So ... after I spent 3 days in VAIL, CO ... I want to share some pictures with you ... so ... Vail is a pretty small town ... so small that in 3 days I didn't manage to get lost ... which means a lot ...

...it looks like a small alpine Village with the difference that here everybody speak in English ... and of cooooourse there is Starbucks and all the other American chain restaurants ... it is pretty expensive and it is going thru a $1B renovation because apparently the UTAH sky resorts are now (i.e. after the 2000 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games) attracting more tourists ...

... and the entire village is populated of bronze statues of wild animals, kids playing winter sports ... and there is also a special bench where Albert Einstein is smiling 24/7 ...

... really nice ... but because I am not skying and I am always looking for new, exotic and exciting places ... I am not sure if I will ever come back here ... but again it was a nice weekend ... far from the DALLAS, TX heat ... and from the California WILDFIRES ... but speaking about HEAT and FIRE ... on the way back to DENVER, CO where I took the flight to DALLAS, TX ... o the I-70 there was a truck on fire ... I managed to take this poor picture ... really impressive to see ... not sure how it did happen, though ...

... and it created a huge traffic jam ... and I almost missed my flight ... which would have been really bad ... for my tight schedule ... and it would have caused a serious heart attack to my boss ... :D ... BTW ... I am here in WASHINGTON DC ... and the meeting went well ... :D

EXTRAVAGANZA WEDDING

Yesterday was the day ... the WEDDING ... the reason why I flew across the US, I got delayed 6 hours in Dallas, I asked to postpone a customer meeting, I had to work all this morning and on the plane on my way back to Dallas, I almost got killed by a psyco taxi driver in Dallas tonight ... yes ... all this for a wedding ... but it was definitely worthwhile ...... so let's start from my outfit ... all black suit without any tie ... I rarely see myself this elegant ... so I asked to a friend to take a picture to remember the moment ... :) ... but that is nothing compared with all the rest ... sooooo ... the wedding has been celebrated @ 11,570 something feet (i.e. 3,500 meters above the sea level) ... which is something really amazing to me ... good that we didn't have to hike ... we took the cable railway (there they called it GONDOLA) ... anyways here it is ...

... once we got on top of the mountain ... the signs were simple to follow also for a foreigner with a funny accent like me ...

... when I got there I almost forgot about the wedding and I did enjoy the wonderful scenery ...

... but of course all our focus went back to the couple ... especially to Erika, the wonderful bride ...

... everything was prepared to perfection ... the musicians, the cameraman with a 60mm professional camera ... and I like the picture I took of him ... it reminds me of the cameraman of the Tour de France in the '50 ... waiting for the yellow jersey to show up ... really a classic ...

... and of course the groom and the bride and the priest ... mmm ... not sure if I can call him priest ... a Native American wise old man ... who celebrated the wedding ...

... and his assistant ... I believe they are themselves married ... but I didn;t have the chance to speak with them ... too much going during the wedding to stop them and ask them more details ... I just loved their outfits ... I can't remember exactly what he said ... but everything made pretty much sense ... kind of funny in a way ... but also very original ... I liked it ... here the final blessing ...

... and loaded with some glass of good champagne we headed to the dinner and the party ...

... I was expecting some dance ... but I didn't find anything like that ... and at midnight I had to go back to my hotel room to finish the work which I didn't finish in the previous working week ... I guess ... the best conclusion the most extravagant wedding I have been in ... really cool ... I don't think I will never get married ... but yes ... if I will do it ... I will think about the option to have it in Vail, CO ... with Sitting Bull (this is the inappropriate nickname that I gave to the "priest") ...

... for sure I will call an other cameraman ... in the middle of the wedding ... here run out of battery ... and the spare one was not charged properly ...

... not a good performance ... and his girlfriend run out of batteries in the digital camera ... of course I gave her a couple of mine rechargable ones ... and I din't see them anymore ... definitely a couple with low batteries ... :O ... anyways ... really a great wedding!

THE BRIDE

So ... I am here in Vail, CO for the wedding ... and yesterday we had the Rehearsal dinner ... here some pictures ... I did drink a little bit too much to take any picture standing ... so all of my pictures are taken from the same position ... the wonderful bride is Erika ... the blondest girl in the pictures ... I have to say that she reminds me a lot of Uma Thurman in Kill Bill ... I hope that we won't have a shooting also in this wedding ...

FEW HOURS IN DENVER, CO

Even if I had 5 hours delay I finally got to DENVER, Colorado ... I didn't sleep much ... but I have the chance to see a little bit of downtown ... definitely a nice and alternative town ... here some pictures I took during my few hours staying there ... first one is the view from my hotel room in downtown ... the others are from the small walk in downtown ... really cool ... a lot of people walking around ... not the usual US downtown ... the 16th Street reminded me a lot of 3rd Street Promenade in SANTA MONICA, CA

... today the sky wasn't that clear in town ... so the Rockies were not visible ... or at least I didn't see them ... :o ... but definitely all the way to VAIL, CO on the I-70 has been really amazing ... Gold mines, blue sky and wonderful woods ...

I GUESS I AM LUCKY

It is 7PM here in DALLAS ... and at this time I should be on my UNITED flight 743 on my way to DENVER, CO ... this time I am not flying for business ... this time is a personal trip ... on SATURDAY I am supposed to attend to a friend wedding in VAILE, CO ... but again that's only the plan ... the truth is that my flight was supposed to take off at 6.50PM and it is now scheduled at 11.50PM ... and I am still here in the DFW airport ... this is the "business lounge" from where I am posting ...

... trying to avoid to hear what the TV is broadcasting and and trying to have some work done ... I have an important presentation on Monday in WASHINGTON DC and my boss wasn't particularly happy that today I left the office at 5PM without any draft version of the presentation ... when I left the office and I tried to tease him telling him ... "You are getting worried, aren't you?" ... his answer has been "No. I am already worried!" ... at that point I told him ... "Mmmm ... don't worry ... I am Italian ... we are used to win the matches either in the overtime or at the penalties" ... but he didn't laugh ... I guess that if things won't go in the right way on Monday in DC ... I will get in trouble ... so ... I think these 5 hours delay are just a blessing ... I can work here ... prepare my slides ... work other 3 hours on the plane ... and there you go ... I managed to have an other 8 hours working day ... yep ... I guess I am a lucky guy ... :S

LOVE and HATE IT

Delivery pizza in the office for dinner ... this is exactly the dinner that I hate and I love at the same time ...

... of course I hate it because mean that I have spent in the office more than 12 hours ... and I love it because I know that these are the challenging times where things get really done ... and it is nice to share the workload in a team of people like we did tonight ... how do you guys say here is English!? ... no pain no gain ... unfortunately I guess it is true ...