Birthday Dinner

I'm a little bit behind in posting to the blog, and I appologize for that. But after heading up to Winston-Salem, the next big thing I was looking forward to was a visit from my best buddy (now) from Texas. He had to make a visit to Charlotte for business and we were able to get together for a couple of nights. Although there was some problems during my birthday, we were able to work those out and it was the highlight of a very busy week.

Saturday saw the Chairman and CEO of the company pay a visit to the hotel. The visit went really well and he actually didn't have any negative comments or recommendations to make about the hotel. On Sunday, I facilitated a training class, that should have had about 15 attendees, and only 2 showed up - but we still held the class and it was good because it was very hands on for the attendees. On Monday the Health Inspector showed up to inspect the hotel's food and beverage outlets - they passed with a score of 98 (in NC they post the actual score in the establishment) which is very good. Then later on Monday, the corporate auditor checked into the hotel - she was expected but it still is a very stressful time in the hotel. The audit takes place on the night of check-in and then during the following day. You get the score before the auditor leaves the building - and we improved over last year's score by 4 points! Small steps lead to greater things!

Right from getting the score I ran to the airort to pick up my buddy! His flight was running early so I headed out and sent a text message to call me when they touched down. The Charlotte Douglas Airport has a "Cell Lot" which is a lot you can park in while waiting for a plane to land to pick someone up. In the past at Newark, I've had to circle the airport over and over waiting for friends to get off the plane and pick up luggage. After a short wait he was ready and we headed back toward the SouthPark area. He was in town for two nights, and we planned to do a nice dinner for my birthday on the second night. So we checked him into the hotel and headed over to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner (even though i didn't have pizza). During dinner we looked over my reservations for next year's birthday trip - places ranging from Anchorage, Palm Desert and Orlando to Prague, Munich and Edinburgh - oh yeah, was also able to find some associate rates in Australia! My buddy seemed most interested in seeing what Anchorage would be like in June. So maybe I'll be returning to Alaska! It was great to spend some time with my buddy - after dinner it was back to the hotel to hang out for a while.

The following evening a bottle of wine, cheese and crackers were delivered to the room, which made for a nice warm up for dinner. Sitting on the balcony enjoying a little wine and a lot of cheese and crackers! Then after a little nap it was off to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. This was my first time going to a "real" steakhouse - and I enjoyed it! I'm not a big steak person because I'm very picky when it comes to meat. I have a problem with fat and grizzle and my Mom used to hate serving steak to me as a kid because I used to surgically disect the piece of meat cutting all the fat and grizzle off the steak before I'd eat it. But the difference here is that the steak is prime and I ordered filet mignon. But I get ahead here. The meal began with a bottle of Newcastle with Cesaer Salad - both were very good. Then another bottle of Newcastle and the Petite Filet with Shrimp, with sides of mashed potatoes and their famous creamed spinach - YUMMMMMMM! The only thing better than the meal was the company across the table! The steak was cooked just the way I liked it and just outright delicious. For desert it was a glass of port and Creme Brulee - which really is my favorite desert. Overall - this was a great birthday meal and it made up for some of the trials of the week of my actual birthday week.

Unfortunately the next day we had to say goodbye and not sure when we will see each other next. I'm hoping to make a trip down to Dallas/Fort Worth for the Labor Day weekend - I've booked a hotel and have the weekend off. Hopefully the trip will happen because with all the changes happening in both of our lives, we are sort of holding each other up - even with such a distance between us. It is always a very special time when we get together and I don't want either of us to miss out on it as often as we can.

Well, big news coming in the next post (hopefully tomorrow) and as always - thanks for reading and have a good night!