BIG NEWS Part 1: It just hit me

So on the way to the airport it hit me. Next week is going to be different, very different. I was thinking about my travel arrangement next week. I had to schedule new flights since I am on a new project and still planning a trip to Florida next week. But then I started thinking of what I would need; clothes for a nice dinner, clothes to take to a club, clothes for warm weather, and Zana’s ring. What! Holly molly!......

I’m going to propose next week…..

….

…. and I need to remember to carry the ring with me!

WOW

I’m going to propose in a week….

I know I’ve been planning this for months… But some how it still feels up in the air. What am I going to say?

Where exactly should I do it.

Wow… This is it.

So there you are. I know I normally write my posts after the fact. This one is written a head and will be posted later. Most likely as a series of posts. But right now I’m sitting in the airport in Milwaukee, I have no clue what I’m going to say, how I’m going to say it, and how I’m going to act normal for the next week. Crazy. Well I guess I’ll just have to deal with it.

Big News Part 2: The Proposal

Well, I did it and she said yes! Not that I was really concerned that she wouldn’t say yes, since she has been on my case for a long time that she wanted to get married. So as you will see in the next post (though I wrote it a while ago) I had several plans to ask. Really it was just a matter of watching for the best moment. First I think I will go over some of the details of our trip to Miami and then I will get to the where and the how. It was a short trip. We were in Miami from late Thursday night until Sunday evening. I flew in from Milwaukee and RB flew in from Minneapolis. We stayed at the Marriot Biscayne Bay just a few miles from South Beach and really an easy drive from all the places we wanted to visit. We had to get a car as there are really any trains and the buses are as good for getting around as they are in many places. Thursday night we didn’t really do anything but drive to the hotel and get settled; which is fine as we got in around midnight anyway.

The next day we got up mid morning and headed out toward a roadside attraction in a town south of Miami called Homestead. The attraction is called Coral Castle. It was built by a heart broken immigrant in the early part of the twentieth century. The man who built it was heart broken because at the age of 26, his 16 year old fiancé broke off their engagement the day before their marriage because he was too old and poor. So he came to America and built a strange monument to the family he never had. The site is quite large spanning the better part of an acre. It is all built using coral excavated from the surrounding land. The castle has about ten foot walls, a small living space, and dozens of sculptures. Many of these sculptures are functional, like the grill, the bath, a heart shaped table, and a rocking chair. It was pretty spectacular. What is more amazing is that he built alone with no help and no power tools. The man was only 5 foot tall weighting 100 lbs yet he moved coral components that weighted over 9 tons! This was actually the first place I thought of doing it, but I didn’t bring the ring because I thought the cheese factor was going to be too high. In reality it might have made a nice setting it was romantic in its own way.

That afternoon we headed to South Beach. It was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky and temperatures hanging around 80 degrees. It was a bit of work to find a place to park as the Food Network was putting on a cheese and wine festival on the beach. After driving the main strip once to see every thing though we did find open parking a few blocks away. So we walked back to the beach and had a nice lunch at a side walk bistro. Thought honestly, the Cuban sandwich I had wasn’t as good as the ones I get down the street back home. Then we walked up and down the streets looking at all the Art deco hotels and walked a long ways down the beach. Later we sat on the beach and watched the waves for a while. It would have been a perfect place to propose, but I still didn’t have the ring with me and there turned out to be some obnoxious girls just a few feet away the got loud and pretty much killed any atmosphere that had been there.

Our friends later told us that South Beach is its own world. That certainly was true. While we had lunch we saw many people go by. Most were not that note worthy but one man certainly was. He was in his late thirties I would guess and was wearing a jean skirt and gold bikini top with a baseball cap turned around. He also was listening to a 25 year old walkman while he strutted up and down the boulevard. On top of that he winked at man of the guys and gals he passed as he belted out in a deep gruff voice “You are the wind beneath my wing!” This all happened as people in BMWs, Farris, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, Porsches, and other exotic cars came and went. In driving and walking around south beach was almost like going to an exotic car show. In the two days we were in Miami we saw more expensive cars than I have seen in the last decade combined. It certainly is its own world.

That night we met up with a friend of mine and his girlfriend that live in the area and that I had worked with in Dayton, OH on a project. They met us in the hotel bar and we had some drinks and decided to go for sushi. RB had never had sushi before so we had to do it. The place we went was very nice. It was dark and comfortable and the tables were actually placed in sections of the floor that had been lowered from the main floor. This gave the impression that people were sitting on the floor at very low tables; when in reality we sitting normally on the edge of the main floor with our feet on the lowered floor. It was a fun way of setting up the seating. The food was great, the bottles of wine were great, and the company was a lot of fun. RB loved sushi which is great because I am actually a big fan of it myself. Hopefully when they visit Minnesota we can show them as good of a time.

The next day we slept in a little longer than I had originally wanted but that’s fine its vacation. It just meant that we didn’t get lunch until later. So the first stop today was Gator Park, a private attraction on the north side of Everglades National park. Here we took a fan boat tour of Everglades. Something I think everyone should try if the get down that way. We saw several gators in the wild, along with many birds, turtles, and native plants. The guild was very knowledgeable and friendly. Or tickets to the park also included access to a zoo with several gators, snakes, and other critters and tickets to a show. The show was almost as fun, at least for me, as the fan boat ride. The staff member giving the show wrestled a large (maybe 7ft long) gator and brought out a smaller one everyone could get up close too. RB didn’t like this because he kept dropping it so it would slap her arm or leg. Every time he did this she screamed. This of course just encouraged him and everyone –except RB- thought it was great fun. She did leave unharmed though a little angry.

Next I had planned to picnic in the national park then rent some bikes and take a nature trail to a lookout tower that is rumored to have a great view of the Everglades. Unfortunately we were too late to rent bikes, and there were no picnic tables. Now I had planned to propose at lunch. I had even brought a jacket because “it was so windy”, when really it was because “the ring was in the pocket”. So I was a little bummed things weren’t quite going my way. So we sat at the edge of the parking lot and had our lunch, without a proposal. Next we decided to go on a nature hike. Just incase I brought my jacket.

After a couple of hundred feet down the main trail there was a side board walk through the swamp. We decided to take this trail. It was perfect actually, no one else was on the trail, there were beautiful surroundings and it was nice and shaded by Florida’s version of the weeping willow tree. So I figured I should do it. It actually took a minute to slow RB down - sometimes she gets to moving and just keeps going. As I didn’t know what to say I actually started out with some playful teasing. Asking “how good of a trip would this be if I asked you to marry me?” She basically said do joke about that but it would make the trip better. So I joked a little more on a scale of 1 to 10 and she said 25. So then I got down on one knee, pulled the ring out, and asked her to marry me. She thought I was kidding until she saw the ring. She was totally unprepared, which is probably why she said yes. Actually she said UH-HUH. Which I took as a yes.

Later she would tell me she was actually on the verge of getting very angry for me teasing her until she figured out I wasn’t joking! After a few minutes we finished walking down the side trail and continued on the main path. I thought it went about as perfectly as possible. She was completely surprised, loved that I did it while we were traveling, and loved that it was a unique setting. We made sure of course to buy some souvenirs at the gift shop. The only thing that didn’t work out so well that day, is that I did not put any sunscreen on and my forehead got a little burnt. But believe it or not I’m not too concerned about it, it’s not that bad.

That night we had a late dinner and desert at an authentic Cuban restraint in Little Havana. Little Havana is similar to the rest of Miami except that a lot of Cuban refugees live there after fleeing Castro’s regime. The restaurant we went to is called Versailles like the French place in Europe but there is very little European flavor there. The food was amazing. The decor was certainly unique, having crystal chandeliers, high ceilings, and expensive woodwork paired up with dinner style tables and chairs along with a cheap tile floor and a drop ceiling. The service was adequate, the selection was extensive, and the atmosphere was unbeatable. There was a mix of Cuban ex-nationals along with people from all other walks of life. I wish I could go there once a week for the next six months just to try everything on the menu. A very memorable part of the night was watching my new Fiancé sneaking glances at her new ring ever few minutes.

To wrap up the trip we slept in even later the next day, took our time packing, called my parents to let them know the good news before leaving the hotel room. Then we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel restaurant. It was ok it had a great view of the bay but was a little expensive for eggs, toast, and ham for two. When we finally did get going we took another drive to the original expensive part of Miami called Coral Gables. There we planned on taking a free tour of a classy hotel called the Biltmore. While we did get to walk around the grounds quite a bit we were unable to take the tour because the tour guide never showed up. But it was a very nice relaxing morning/afternoon anyway. After that we took the car back, shuttled to the airport, had dinner at Chili’s and ended our trip. The whole experience was as good as it gets in my book.

BIG NEWS Part 3: The Plan

So this is actually the second post I am writing on this subject. The first was when the realization of what was going to happen (that I was going to propose to RB) hit me. This series is ordered in a way I thought we be most interesting to read so I am leaving room for the “What happened” part of the story. But I thought I would record some of my activities for the past few months as back information. I tend to like to plan and organize as much as possible. So this defiantly hasn’t been a spur of the moment development! In fact it was more of a gradual easing into the pool kind of a deal. Where I started out by gathering information; then I subtly put the pieces into place. I really did have a plan when I stated but ended up with one in the end.

Even before I was sure I wanted to pop the question so to speak I decided to do a little fact finding. Actually when MQ proposed to his Fiancée this whole ball kinda started to roll. First I was interested in the process of purchasing the ring. Not because I had any plans at the time, more because it was a foreign idea to me. So I was compelled to investigate. I started with probing the ole GF for some info on what she wanted, also with priming her on what I would do. I personally believe diamonds are over-rated and cause many problems for developing counties and the people that live there. I have believed this since my last year of college and the movie “Blood Diamonds” did not have anything to do with it. Anyway, luckily for me RB has no interest in Diamonds. In Russia they are not given for an engagement ring or for the wedding ring. In fact most people have simple gold bands and nothing more. Of course that would be to easy. What she wanted was a square cut platinum band with both of our birth stones in it. One sapphire flanked on either side by an amethyst.

Great… I thought she wants something no one makes… I may not be paying for a diamond but I will have to pay for the custom work. At least this is what I found after a few hours of research on the web. Well ok I have to find a custom jeweler. I could ask RB’s former employer who she uses for her custom pieces; the problem with this is she would most like tell RB I asked. So that is out and on to a new search on the web. Well it isn’t hard to find a place to purchase custom work; in fact you can walk into almost any place and ask them to create a custom piece. They will either sub it out of have someone in-house do it. I eventually found a great jeweler hidden in skyway level office in downtown Minneapolis. A place you would not find unless you were seeking it out or someone sent you there. The name of the place is Jeffery Jeweler’s. I wasn’t sure about it and checked out a couple others but then one afternoon in August. Yes all the way back in August. I decided to go check it out. Remember I wasn’t decided at this point I was just wondering about the process, timeline, and cost of such an item.

At Jeffery’s I met Tom. Tom is a great guy. His bio says he has traveled and he is certainly more interested in creating something unique than in getting the sale or adding services. I didn’t really know how this worked so Tom was very patient as I asked 112 questions about the process. Everything from design, to billing, to the length of time it would take. After awhile we finally got to design. I explained to him what I wanted. It was slightly different than what RB had come up with but it was close. I left and a few days later he called with two estimates using white gold and platinum. Quite honestly I was shocked. The price for the white gold piece was exactly where I expected it. The price for the Platinum piece was 2k more than I expected. The reason is that platinum is a lot harder than gold and take a lot more effort to work with (not to mention it is more for the raw materials. Well I didn’t have to make any decisions yet so I asked him to get some stones in for me to look at.

This had all been a new experience already and now I was thinking it would be more than I thought. RB was kinda set on Platinum and it wasn’t ridiculously priced. In fact I checked out a couple of other jewelers and they said it should cost more. Well by the time I met with Tom again it was mid September. I would go in the days I went to the office after work. We looked at some stones and then started to talk some more. At this point my design started to strike me as a little to large. We had designed a ring about 5 mm wide with decent size stones. It was pretty think because I had wanted it domed even though this was more than needed. But I started to think it was going to turn out to be to clunky. RB only wears a 7.5 or ring size (I borrowed without her knowledge a ring she had told me before fit well and brought it in to be sized) and I didn’t think it would look right. So we started taking and I said well what if we bring down a size. Before long Tom came up with a great idea. We could use a standard 4-4.5mm ring and mount the same jewels.

This idea was stellar for several reasons. First it brought the ring back to a more acceptable size. Second it was closer to what I think RB wants. Third it was easier for them to make. And Forth it would cut the price down, though he couldn’t tell me how much without working up another bid. Turns out the new design would be significantly cheaper and less then my original estimates for a platinum ring. I told Tom to go ahead with it in early October. By this time I was pretty sure I was going to pop the question. The ring was finished several weeks later. I paid cash for it in several installments (I actually had to come up with a third of the money to even begin) and picked it up in mid-December. It has been hidden in my house every since.

In late October (I guess this could have been the ‘I’m going to do it time’ but I still hadn’t committed to the idea) I also decided I wanted to do something nice for the proposal. Again I started pumping the GF for info. Here the information provided to me was much sparser then what kind of ring she would like. I wanted it to be a surprise, and I wanted it to not feel like it was pushed because of her having to leave the country for a while. So first I thought about the best “when” to get myself started. I thought how about Valentines. Nah that’s a little to cheesy for me. But February seemed like a good time several months away but long before she has to leave. I decided against my B-day weekend, even though then we could have both gotten presents and settled on the weekend of Feb 22 – 25. Now I had to figure out where. Well I thought it would be nice to do it out of town. Maybe somewhere warm. So I started to float the idea of a mid winter trip to Miami. Neither I nor she has ever been so it seemed to work fine. Some of the other ideas I had were a trip to DC, over Christmas, a trip to Maryland where some of her friends are, or possibly going out west. Miami seemed like the best idea so I ran with it.

So now I am down to the how. At this time I have 3 or 4 different Ideas on how to do it. I’m just not sure which to use. If read this blog in order you already know what I did, but right now… Well.. What ever. So one plan is to do it right away Friday morning, the only this is the place we are going is probably going to be cheesy. The next plan is to do it on a picnic in Everglades National Park. Should be a perfect day to be outside and the park is supposed to be spectacular. So that is a good one. The third Idea is to do it Saturday night. I thought a walk on the beach after dinner could be pretty cool. But it may rain that night, in which case I could just ask in the hotel on the balcony. The final plan, and I think back up, would be to do it Sunday when we tour an old historical hotel. I’ve tried to gauge what she would like with limited success so I will just have to pick something. Now, besides where I am more up the creek on what to say beyond six standard words or the two necessary phrases. I will probably be mulling that over for the next two days or so. It is a bit nerve racking, though exciting. If all goes well I will be writing an update to fill in the how very shortly!

Another side note about this whole plan is that I tried my best to keep all of this from her. This of course means that I have kept the secret from everyone else, but when engaged in clandestine activities the less people that know the better. I of course always act like I’m not even thinking about getting married when talking with RB – this of course drives her crazy – and of course I have told her many times to not bother me about it and said if I was going to do anything it would be during the summer. I also have mentioned several times that I had no clue how to get the ring, that it takes months to accomplish (this is true, I have already purchased it and know it takes time), and I will have to find a way to pay for it. I threw other red herrings out there but I don’t know if they ever really came to anything. One thing I tried was asking her former boss for the number of a custom jeweler a couple of weeks ago and asking if they could get me something by April. I hope she will be a bit of a gossip and let it slip. I timed it so it would look like I was gearing up to ask in April or May. RB further might buy this timeline because that is when her family is planning to visit. If all goes well this will be a complete surprise. I guess all of the pieces are in place we will have to see how it all works out….

The Harley Davidson Archives

History is important to most people. Many people keep photo albums and video tapes of major events in their family. The government keeps records of as many activities as possible. Academics try to record the history of the world, countries, counties, towns, and anything else that is notable. We have museums, libraries, and archives all over the world. All of these things let us look at what has happened and use that to try to gain an edge on what will happen. This happens within companies as well. Many large organizations celebrate their history; Disney, Coca Cola, Miller Brewing, and the Iconic Harley Davidson Motorcycles.

In fact Harley Davidson is currently building a new museum in downtown Milwaukee. The Museum will be in a great location with a lot of green-park space along a river. Interestingly enough Harley Davidson has been committed to keeping their legacy strong since the company was founded. Harley Davidson has kept an archive of records, documents, news media, and products for what is basically the existence of their company. In fact the Harley Davidson Archives located at their corporate headquarters in Milwaukee Wisconsin have at least one example of a production bike from every year they produced motorcycles. Not only do they keep bikes but other products as well. At one time or another they produced golf-karts, scooters, snowmobiles, and other motorized vehicles. They also keep examples of the apparel the have sold through the years. It is very complete collection. This collection will be the basis for the new museum, though the company is also going to bring in outside exhibits and purchase more pieces for display.

In the past Harley Davidson would open up these archives for a limited display to employees, suppliers, and contractors. I was able to visit this year during the last open archive they will have, as all of the items are going to be moved to the museum. It is a spectacular collection. They have bikes (though not the original) created from the first run of motorcycles to those that came off the line in 2006. While you are able to view most of the items in the collection the archive staff selects 10 bikes or so to emphasize. They put signs on them and hand out flyers with a more detailed history on the bike. There were literally a couple of hundred bikes in a single room. My favorites though were those from the first couple of years and then the monsters that were produced in the fifties. If you think today’s bikes are large you haven’t seen the Road Kings from the past! These things are 20% bigger and probably 30% heavier bikes - absolutely amazing.

Other notable bikes were a replica of the bike used in the movie Easy Rider, a bike that was customized by a couple that was covered from end to end in rhinestones, the old army bikes from WWII, bikes with stretched frames designed to climb mountains, drag bikes, some of the older police bikes, the Vespa style scooters, the many light bikes Harley produced in the 60’s, and again the monster’s the produced in the 50’s. They really have an amazing past and it is really interesting to see how bright the future is for this country. Especially when you consider they almost went out of business in the 1980’s. When the Museum opens it will be a must see, though not all of the bikes for exhibit when I went to see the archives will be on display. They will routinely rotate the collection so that every time you go there will be something different.

Crappy Choice

Well at the end of a project I have to go out and look for more work. We have staffing managers but they only get to the assignments that no one basically volunteered or asked to have. So I have a crappy choice. I can either A. hit the beach and kiss my good rating for the year goodbye, or I can B. take a role that doesn’t get me much experience and may keep from getting on the project I really want.

I don’t think this is a very good choice. I would like to get on the international project at my current client, but there is no more work on the project I am on and the new one doesn’t start until April (I don’t think it will really start until May though). So I have to find something to do. I was hoping for PRD (proposal or sales) work but instead I got tapped to help a project that went down the tubes months ago. But it is on the same client with the same partner. So it is good that they want to keep on board! And it is something I’m pretty sure I can handle.

Anyway before I could make a choice, it was basically made for me. Oh well. So after a two month assignment that started last July and will end the last week of February I am off to my 3^rd project. Ok so maybe my project was a bit longer than two months; It looks like my next assignment will be similar. Originally, it was only for a couple of weeks to get the set up. Now my role has expanded so that I am now executing and running a thread on my own. Also the latest version of the plan has me still here until possibly the end of May. Hopefully it takes and additional month to get the next project going and I can roll right on to it.

Wow that sucks!!! Well Kinda..

Ok so when you are a consultant you aren’t rated on the same things that you are in a normal occupation. You don’t have a set role and everything is in flux all the time. How well you deal with this is a big part of your rating. The other big part is a figure called utilization. This is the number of billable hours you have accumulated divided by the number of possible hours of work. So basically the more you work the higher your rating, though only if you work on client projects, or approved sales projects if you work on other firm initiatives it counts for zip. Anyway there is a large base number for the year that is the standard, it does not get discounted if you train, take vacation, are on jury duty, or any other rating. Also just like in a law firm these businesses are big pyramid schemes. So the more junior you are the more you need to work to get a good rating.

So we got a message from our PMO. It basically said to cap our hours at a certain point and go back and change our hours for the previous weeks to also be under that cap. Therefore we would be losing credit for hours we actually worked. This sucks! There is probably no worse thing you could do to an analyst or even a consultant. It’s not like it’s our fault that the project is over budget. Really it is the PMO’s they under sold it, they didn’t get the promised resources from the client, they let the scope slide, and they didn’t negotiate more funds from the client. All we did was work our tales of for months. We did not get to work the promised 3-4-5 for months, worked 12-14-16-18 hour days, didn’t get to participate in some of the more fun firm activities because the schedule was so tight, but I guess we should get screwed for it!

Well, one redeeming part of our firm is actually how seriously they take business ethics. In fact they have set up a hotline for the company run by a third party to investigate unethical behavior. One of their biggest pushes is for people to bill what they work! Haha. So no kidding with in days of the email going out that specifically stated that we needed to reverse our hours we had a conference call on a Friday specifically stating that they had ‘mis-worded’ the email. So what we are guessing is that one of the managers on the project called the hotline and told them about the email. So while we were all pretty torqued about it for a while in the end we just get to laugh. And more then likely the project manager got into trouble for it so hopefully he’ll think twice before screwing with the underlings!

Not up to the Hype

While I was still working for the phone company a co-worker told me about an amazing theme bar. It sounded completely fantastical. It was a spy themed speak-ease joint that had a ton of gadgets, secrets, and atmosphere. That was maybe five years ago and I since then I always wanted to go. When I heard some of my co-workers would be working in Milwaukee I told them they had to find the place. They went there and reported back that it was pretty cool. So when I got a project I really wanted to go to this place. Of course I didn’t want to go alone and with the project as busy as it was I just didn’t get a chance to go for the longest time. So I was actually pretty excited about going when I found out one of our team dinners would be at the Safe House. It was cool, but certainly not up to the hype I had heard.

The Good: If you have ever been a fan of either the 60’s kitsch TV show called Get Smart or a big fan of the Bond movies from this era you would certainly get the theme. The first thing that you notice or actually have to find out is that the bar is actually hidden. If you know the address you can find it but it has no sign or indication you are at the right place. In fact to get in you must know a pass phrase or they make you some embarrassing challenge to get in. In my case it was to act like I was riding a horse and roping cows, my project manager had to act like a bull in a bull fight. People all in the bar are watching on a close circuit TV btw. The entry is strange, there is a person sitting at an only phone operator’s desk and there is a wall with a fireplace, but no doors other than the one you come in through are visible. After you perform you task the fireplace actually slides back and reveals a walk way. Another wall opens in the walk way and now you are in the bar.

The bar is full of gadgets. You push buttons on the wall and secret messages are revealed. There is an ejector seat from the basement to the main floor. There is a back way out operated by punching a code into a public phone, there are secret routes from one side of the bar to the other, and the general decor is a pseudo-European post war bar. Thought it also is decorated with a lot of spy movie posters and munitions as well. Another fun thing about the bar is the bath room. Over a speaker in the men’s room they play a looped police scanner and have funny signs on the stall doors. I was also told that in the women’s bathroom one of the stalls has a naked male mannequin reading a newspaper (I didn’t check this out for myself!). The bar tenders are fun as well. One mixes martinis, put the drinks in a ball, and shoots them through a pneumatic tube that circles the whole bar. The ball has lights in it so you can see the drinks circling around. When they finally return to the bar they are very well stirred or mixed so when they are poured into the glass they are ready to drink. Finally the second bar in the back room is manned by a decent magician so you can drink while watching countless card trips. So there is a lot of fun to be had in the bar.

Also the drinks are cheap so that is always good. Plus you get a souvenir glass with most of the mixed drinks.

The Bad: The bar is well past its prime. The bar was established in 1966 and the interior has not been updated since. Therefore it is a bit one dimensional. Also it is not the trendy place, so the clientele is either out of towners (like myself) or people who usually don’t go out much and only came here because they had out of town company. There was not enough wait staff when we went so it was slow and the service sucked. Beyond that the menu was very sparse so it really isn’t worth going there to eat. Drink yes, eat no. Finally it just doesn’t live up to the hype. Possibly if the service was better, it had a better menu, the decor was updated – at least slightly, and you had a better crowd it still wouldn’t be the best place in town to go to in Milwaukee. Nor would it really be in the top 5.

Recommendation: If you go, and if you are in Milwaukee it is an interesting place to stop in, go later for drinks. Make it your 2^nd, 3^rd, or 4^th stop of the night. Go to a nice place for dinner. Then have a bunch of drinks and wander around the Safe House have some fun. Then move on after an hour or two to a good bar like Tangerine, Cubana, Bar Louis, or Elsa’s on the park.