So who did I meet? None other than Zara’s Mama and Mom2Ashley. Okay maybe there was not that much scratching or sniffing. Don’t want Zara’s Daddy to kick my butt or my missus either. But there was much laughing, eating, and cajoling. And a fair amount of traveling.

These ladies travelled from the opposite side of the world and ZM wanted to see state parks. Course I have a different understanding of what a state park is so it became a bit more adventurous than they intended. They also brought along some other colleagues from work. Three gentleman visiting from Hong Kong, Shang Hai, and Australia joined us on our merry trip. We travelled three hours west of Houston to San Antonio. This city is a good hub for checking out the Hill Country of Texas.

We stayed at the Marriott Northwest and that is where I made first contact with ZM. She arrived a few moments after we checked into our room. ZM asked if she could come down and meet us. And what a lovely ambush. *wink* I opened the door and she captured the magic moment with the digital eye as displayed on her blog. And there she was. Such a cute lady and in time for first huggies too. For a bonus she gave me some white coffee, teh tarik, and some excellent curry. I am going to be experiencing some Fatt Hao days now thanks to ZM. 

In the morning I met the rest of her mates at breakfast. From there we departed for Enchanted Rock. This was my first visit, but I had always wanted to travel there. There is a lot of history in this area and I like history in case you don’t know or might have forgotten, since I have been blogging so infrequently. I will let some photos tell the rest of the story.

This is the safe side of Chinese women. If they cannot see you they cannot hurt you. This is walking along the trail below Enchanted Rock. ZM is on left, the missus in the middle and Mom2Ashley on the right.

Enchanted Rock. There is a lot of mysticism associated with this place, thus the name.

If you follow these signs you will reach the top. Really. Honest. Just follow ‘em.

Once you reach the top, you are permitted to dance around and act a fool. Then you may pass out from lack of oxygen from the walk up.

And from the top you can see Texas and more Texas.

All of that climbing around makes a soul hungry. We went to Fredericksburg for lunch. This town is originally a German settlement, so we tried a German restaurant and you can see my brat wurst with potato salad and red cabbage. I love the wurst but was not too wild about the rest of the meal.

After lunch and a bit of window shopping we headed to Perdanales Falls. This is a beautiful spot, I had visited once before. Wish you all could travel to this spot. WITH ME!!! 

We headed back to San Antonio and walked past the Alamo on the way to the Riverwalk.

We ate at Hooters and I think all of us were too tired to think of photographs. But the wings were scrumptious and the girls were delicious in their own way too. If you do not know what a Hooters girl is give it a google.

We regrouped at breakfast the following morning. The first objective was the Mercado or old Mexican market. This was a great place to find tourist souvenirs for folks back home.

We had lunch in the Mercado at La Margarita’s. The fajitas there were excellent and they had a lot of extra meat too which I enjoyed chomping upon. Sausage, chicken, and a stuffed pepper were quite tasty. Yum.

No one tried a Margarita, but the Pina Colada was a hit.

After lunch we bid San Antonio adios. Next stop was the outlet malls in San Marcos. They had made a trip here the previous weekend, but you can never get enough shopping in at these outlets. I followed ZM around like a puppy dog. I knew our time together was coming to an end soon and I wanted to enjoy her company as much as possible.

Once the shopping bug was cured (actually the stores closed), we left for Austin, the capital of Texas. And that is where we went. The capital building.

From there we had our final huggies for the trip. They returned to the north of Houston, while I headed to the southwest. Truly a wonderful trip in which I made four new friends and solidified ZM as a good friend. The memory banks in my mind are over-flowing in a good way. Thanks for letting me be your tour guide and hope we all meet again.

I now have to consider marketing to be a part of everything I do. Finding prospects. Introducing them to my services. Convincing the client  that I can improve their business. Making these folks aware that I have helped them as promised and hopefully more. I must constantly find new ways to help them. And get them to share me with others. Everyone I meet could be my next hot lead. I can ill afford to be caught off guard or act a fool in public.

Awareness is the key to my future. I must make others aware of my offerings. I need to know how I am doing this as well as where and when. I must continually maintain this effort. Marketing is a constant and can fail in the instant you slacken from the task. I must believe in the importance of marketing me, therefore I must believe in me. Beliefs become behavior and I must behave well.

Now I should reflect upon my hospitality background. The professors taught service is paramount. Service means the guest is satisfied. Well now I deal with clients and they too must be satisfied. Every effort must be geared toward their satisfaction. Anything less is failure. I must know the client’s needs, anticipate them, and fulfill them. No matter how tired I may become in these pursuits I must find the energy to carry on and persevere.

Ultimately, the toughest client is me. I too must be satisfied. There is no room for failure. Losing the marketing war is not even a consideration.

My goal is not to be rich or live a Fatt Hao life. The goal is to satisfy each and every client and know I have done the best I can do when I lay my head down to sleep each night.

Changing subjects. Shifting gears.

A little proud of my daughter. She has become a volunteer at the Lighthouse of the Blind in Houston. Last night she went to the orientation and is preparing to help with an Outreach camp this summer. This camp helps High School graduates make the transition from school to University or the job market. Girl can still make me proud between bouts of scaring the hell out of me. 

Miss writing here everyday as I used to do and reading the words of others. Looking at pictures, smiling at children’s antics, drooling over food, dropping my jaw, crossing my legs, and scratching my head.

Business was fair this tax season. It was my best ever, which is good, but I need more if I am going to survive. But considering I had only word of mouth marketing I cannot complain. Currently I am mailing out postcards to businesses that I selected from the Houston Business Journal’s Book of Lists. I also learned how to access the County’s database, which allows me to see businesses that register in Fort Bend county. Learned how to mail merge and soon I hope to be answering phone calls and emails. Otherwise the missus wants me to get back in the work force and earn a paycheck instead of spending her money on marketing materials. Cannot blame her. But I have no intention of kowtowing to a boss again.

My kids are winding down their school year.

My girl is looking at colleges to send applications to. Going to visit some universities here in Texas, Colorado, and maybe New York. Though the only way she can go to Cornel is if she gets a scholarship and I think she goofed off to much to be considered for a material gift. She has such a wonderful mind, but I think she has allowed herself to be distracted from the mark. And she sticks things in her ears, where her piercing is. Scared she shall have a permanent gouge or get infected as she puts all kinds of stuff there. Pencils, eyehooks, and plastic are just a few of the things I have seen. Really bugs the missus and me, and anything spoken on this subject goes in one ear and out the other. Bit frightened of what she may become. Even her scout leader told her that he would not hire a person with piercings and gougings. All I know is the first tattoo she gets or additional piercing and she can pay for her own college. I am not supporting that lifestyle.

My son is getting ready to graduate Middle School. Well I hope he can graduate Middle School. He simply does not do his assignments. This stems from a combination of inattentiveness and laziness. And once again teenage angst abounds when you try to talk sense to him (just like his sister). If he does graduate, he has been accepted at St Thomas High School in Houston. It is a probationary acceptqnce, but I am so glad that he is attending one of the better college prep schools. First he has to graduate from St Frances De Sales. I feel like I am going to crack the whip on him every day for the next four years. At least until he attains a decent study habit. Too much like me at that age. But no one was spending five figures in US dollars on me for education. Somedays I just want to spank his lazy ass, but he can look me in the eye almost. He might spank my ass instead.

Enough of the scarey urchins. They are good kids when they are asleep after all. And both are striving to advance in their scouting programs, which pleases me. Plus the girl is going to do some service projects for the Lighthouse For the Blind soon too. I can still get a little happiness from the wee bairns. And she is going to spend a week this summer at University of Texas, attending a girl’s only introduction to computer science.

The missus is working as hard as ever. I don’t know how she makes it without me though. Brewing coffee in the morning. Making sure she eats lunch and gets snacks. She starts working early and does not seem to stop until late in the evening. Chinese work ethic is damn scarey somedays. But appreciated.

My game publishing company is driving on and up too. We opened an internet shop to sell our books. Today I made some moves to open up some more markets too. We want to become the one stop shop for horror fans. Movies, posters, and books from that genre for example. I think it is exciting and there is a lot of potential. Might be enough to fall back on if the firm does not work out. We’ll  have to wait and see.

So what have you been up to. I miss you. Yes you!  And you too. Big hugs to everyone. It cheers me up to see you folks come by. Faceback is a nice place to gather and get poked, slapped, tickled and have a giggle. But the blog is where the heart is. Can you hear my heart beat? Breathe in. Breathe out. I can smell you near.

February was so busy. Trying to get the marketing plan moving. I have a website up at “W” cubed dot geraldblakemorecpapc dot com if you wanna take a peek. It is not looking the way I want either. For some reason the site does not fill the browser. Working on that issue. I am hoping to create a niche by installing and supporting QuickBooks, an accounting software package. I would accept tax work too, and consider that a cash boost when I get those opportunities. But the majority of my marketing shall be aimed at local businesses. If things go well I may have to hire bookkeepers to help me keep pace. A couple of Indian companies have contacted me offering these kinds of service support, but I am thinking why not see if there is not the same company in Malaysia or Singapore. I like this area more and then I would have a valid business reason to visit Makan Makan land. Sounds good, ya?

Kids are keeping me busy too. My son is really challenging his school. Not doing his work, or completing it and not turning the work in when done. Problem is he is a perfectionist and he refuses to turn in the work that makes him feel uncomfortable. He also refuses to speak in speech, which is not good. Spent a few hundred dollars on high school admissions tests and application fees and fear that he may not even pass the eighth grade. I hope he opens his eyes. When I mention that he better like the seventh graders a lot as he will join them next year, he thinks I am just teasing him. I wish that was the case.

My daughter is doing well in school. She sat for the SAT last Saturday and we are isolating the schools she shall apply for. She intends to apply for all of the major Texas universities and she also likes a couple of schools in Colorado and Cornel in New York. Currently, she has expressed an interest in studying architectural engineering.

She and I went library hunting on Saturday. First we went and got a Houston Public Library card. That took an hour as they were very busy. Then we went to the University of Houston Downtown campus and they would not accept that library card. My daughter looked at the info wrong online. And I needed an alumni card to get any access to that library branch. So we drove over to the main campus and parked in the visitor’s parking garage. Very nice for a parking lot and there is a Welcome Center (which is closed on Saturday) and we found the Information Booth was also closed. From there we walked across the street to the University Center which had an open information center. I asked for directions to the new Alumni Center, which is located on the other side of campus. A little over a mile (couple of kilmoters) from the UC. When asked if that location was opened, the young man assured me it was. So the girl and I walked over passing the begging squirrels, dodging student joggers and inhaling second hand smoke from brainiacs that understand science, but not health. A beautiful day, a slight breeze and lots of sunshine to cheer our merry jaunt. And when we arrived at the Alumni Center it was open, allowing us to enter, but closed in regards to getting an alumni card.

So we walked back. We chose a different return route and I showed my daughter the Underground, also closed, and told how some jerk made her mom cry there once. A rude fellow that did not want to do a survey and was more than blunt in refusing. Surprised my daughter, as she has never seen her mother tear up. We stopped by the library so I could get the policy for checking out books. They said alumni card or Texshare card would do the trick.

So that is my task today. Go to my local Fort Bend library and get a Texshare card. Then I will get an alumni card and go visit some of the faculty at the Hilton College. Drop off a few business cards and offer to give some accounting chats for the students if they like. And make myself known a bit to any restaurants that might need my services. Also want to see if there are any new books on managing that I should get add to my library.

The missus is doing well. Saturday with my daughter took a lot longer than I planned, so I had to stand her up for “Hello Dolly” that evening. She went with her friend and they had a nice time. The kids and I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Five. Really was a sad season with Buffy’s mom and all. *snif snif* Sunday her brother invited us to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and we had a nice time. Honestly, I thought they were going to pull a surprise party for me, but no go. She still has until tomorrow to pull a rabbit out of the hat. But then the hat may not exist either.

And I am so glad the primary is tomorrow. After the voting is finished, I can get a break from all the political commercials for a few months. Please!!!

I better find some clients soon or I am going to have to get a real job.

The vacation was nice. We stopped over in New Orleans and I got ill once again. This time it was a head flu that turned into a nasty cough and all the time burning like a candle. My head was too numb to blog for the week I was ill. My daughter was official vacation photographer and I am waiting to get a disc from her so I can share more of Disney with you all.

Once the vacation finished I looked at my finances closely and realized I needed to bring in some cash. Fortunately, some ebay auctions ended and that brought in a nice sum just in the nick of time. I am going to post some more auctions this weekend to see about capturing a few more dollarinoes.

My business needs to get the marketing going. But my marketing hinges around being able to consult for a popular accounting software package. So I focused on certification for this product and that took me ten days to get done. But I am now certified and I putting that information on my biz cards and web site. The web site is still a work in process as I refine my message. Better refine it damn quick or I am gonna miss the tax season and that is where a large amount of my income has to come from this year. At least that is the way things shall go until I develop the bookkeeping side of my firm. Today I created a pair of press releases, but I want to confirm my message before I deliver them. Again I must get this message refined and quick or the missus is going to mail out my resume’.

The kids are keeping me busy too. Girl scouts is taking up a fair amount of the girl’s time. She goes for a leadership event this weekend. SAT prep is under way next month and then she sits for the test. Busy girl. We are in the middle of High School admissions for the lad. We visited one campus last night and by this time next week we shall attend four more open houses. Another reason to get some ebay auctions opened. Registration and testing fees are due and most do not take credit cards. The boy is also on the prep bowl team, where he is a substitute. They had meets last Saturday and another this coming Saturday.

I hope to get some time to peek at your blogs. So many of you sent me lovely Christmas cards. And there was so much love sent via Facebook too. Big hugs and thanks to all of you. Dawn really surprised me with a huge box of Malaysia. I’m serious. Snacks, spices, coffee, and a cute refrigerator magnet from Malaysia. Honestly, she gave me everything but tropical weather. Thank you so much Dawn.

Hope to blog more soon. There shall be less blog ads in the future. I looked at the cost of posting ads versus my fees and I lose money with blog ads from that point of view. There are some I have to do because of products recieved. But any other blog ads I do shall be because I like the product a lot or want to see the movie. I intend to write a lot more articles off blog, though I may link them here or on my firm’s site. Hoping to make some money that way, and there is a potential for better payouts. Plus writing for hobby or professionally is going to keep me sharp on those kinds of topics. After tax season is done I plan on making a third blog for the Writer’s Journey. This blog is going to be limited in readership. I have to know you before I let you in there, as I shall be working on saleable works. Hope they sale. We shall see, what we shall see, ya?

Look for Hug Hug updates too. I have added a table addon so hopefully I can produce the numbers easier. Really hated that I could not paste Excel onto the page. We’ll see if this table thingie is the fix or not.

Missed you all. Sorry for leaving without a word. Will try to be the annoying old me again.  Happy, uh, New Year.

Amway Arena as seen from my room on the 15th floor.

A look at our room and all of our baggage. No light travelling here.

Rugrats watching the cartoon channel. The hotel also had a lovely breakfast buffet. We pigged out the two mornings we stayed there.

For the first day we went to EPCOT. I always have enjoyed this park. When we went to pay for the tickets we learned that you can add on to your tickets within two weeks of the purchase. This is nice as it provides the visitor a lot of flexibility. And as you add more days the price is much cheaper. Once you get beyond four days the addtional days only cost two bucks a day. Another thing to do when purchasing tickets is make sure they know if you have a special celebration. Our anniversary is near and they gave the missus and I both button to wear announcing our celebration. This has been nice as the staff often greets us with a congratulations. When we visited the American area in the Nations area of EPCOT they actually gave us a certificate to commemorate the day. They also had us call a special number where Mickey and the gang wished us a happy anniversary too. Really was a cute gretting. And then we were given premium seating for the show.

Here is the cert they gave us. Made us feel really special.

On Sunday we visited Universal Studios’ City Streets. The missus wanted to meet a pair of her work mates from IBM. We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. The food was fair, but I loved the atmosphere and all of the rock and roll items on display. After lunch we moved to the Hilton Grand Vacations Club resort on International Drive.

This resort provides us a lovely suite. The kids loved the extra space and the opportunity to not hear my snores at night.

The dining room table is a lovely place to have breakfast and dinner. Behind it there is a full kitchen with the utensils we need for cooking. And they have Starbucks coffee for us as well. I like this place.

Beyond this door lay the bedroom for the missus and I. The kids had a sofa bed to rest upon.

There was a huge tub with whirl pool and a walk in shower that allowed me to stretch my arms out fully without touching the sides. I enjoy this bathroom a great deal.

And there are two sinks to speed things up in the morning. Quite nice marble upon these counters here.

The kids discovered they could hook up the X-Box here. After spending a bit too much time at lunch with out excellent companies we decided to chill out in the room rather than go to MGM Studios. Later in the evening we visted Disney Downtown. There are many shops located here. They have the best Disney store located here. If you should come this way, you really owe it to yourself to visit the Disney Downtown. There is no fee to enter this area and you should not miss it.

And I did attend with the missus, my son, and his friend. Saturday night was freezing cold with light spray in the air. No snow as this is Houston, but this is about the most Christmassy weather I can expect. We ran late as I did not go to Joe’s Crab Shack with them for dinner. The smell of food just affected my stomach and I wanted to enjoy the evening. And every theater must have had a venue that night. The streets were slow and the parking garage was packed. Parked the truck close to a mile away from Jones Hall. Walking the streets was chilly and the wind almost knocked me down a couple of times.

We dashed into the hall, thankful for the warmth it offered. We were late and I could hear the sounds of Deck the Halls being performed. By the time we reached the balcony they had started playing Holiday Moods Suite No. 1. They projected the symphony on the side wall, which allowed us late comers to see a bit. But viewing that is not the same, especially with the sounds muffled by the walls.

Hard to tell from this picture but that is the Houston Symphony with the Houston Symphony Choir set up on stage behind them. We also had a lovely view of the Jones Hall Christmas tree.

They went right into the Hanukkah Festival Overture without delay leaving us standing outside a bit longer. Finally, the conductor, Michael Krajewski paused, allowing us to try and find our seats. We failed in the dark so I told the missus and boys to stand and wait for the next pause so we did not block anyone’s view while The Prayer was performed. An usher came by and pointed out where our seats should be. When the song ended we hastened to our spots and sat down in time to hear the Little Bolero Boy. You know I should have been happy to have a seat, but I heard this loud tapping. I looked at the boys and I was close to quieting them when I realized the sound came from behind me. A grown man tapping so loudly, oh, and off beat. At one point he started to clap out the beat, though remember, he has no rhythm. Just kill me. And then the candy wrapper brigade started crinkling their papers. Why can’t you people be quiet? Open candy and cough drops between songs please.

Will Maker, a local who gained some notoriety by appearing on American Idol, then accompanied the Symphony for O Holy Night. He has a splendid voice. Next the Symphony performed the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah. This brought most folks to their feet in respect for Jesus Christ without with there would be no Very Merry Pops performed. It was beautifully done and my hats off to the Houston Symphony Chorus. Bravisimo!

The intermission came and we went to the washroom. Then the lads and I found a quiet corner and discussed World of Warcraft. Three pretty little teen girls walked by and I felt like come on boys give ‘em a look at least. LOL! Oh well they are just young teen lads. Those check out the girls genes just have not kicked in yet.

We returned to sit and the missus told us we had been in the wrong seats. Stupid usher. But it was perfect. The people in this section were well mannered. No tapping, inappropriate off beat clapping, or crinkling wrappers for the rest of the evening. Just my son asking questions. Well that’s what duct tape is for.

The program returned with the Christmas Waltz, which even had a three pairs of waltzers on stage. That was followed by We Need a Little Christmas from Mame. The next selection was quite unusual. They had the bassoon section come up front and the three bassoonists were featured as they played Bassoon It Will Be Christmas. They put on a delightful performance and I enjoyed this a great deal. This reminds me. PY, the Houston Symphony, had six double bassists performing on stage Saturday night.

The program even became more fun as the songs moved to old favorites like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The dancers returned to the stage and performed a comedic routine as the music played. The next tune was Sleigh Ride, very much a song full of memories for me. We played this tune in High School band and the percussion section is quite busy during this tune. There are jingle bells too jangle, and wood blocks for clopping, and don’t forget the whip for cracking. We used to fight over who got to crack the whip.

Will Maker returned to the stage and sang Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Beautiful voice, if I was a woman I would love to have him sing to me. I’m not, therefore I am just damn jealous. LOL!  The orchestra then played a medley of songs, giving the audience a turn to stand and sing along. The program then ended with a performance of Feliz Navidad. The conductor returned to play an encore and I cannot remember the tune. I still had a little fever okay. Lost my mind that second.

But I really enjoyed the evening. Felt so good to leave the house after being stuck in bed. I felt so good I could eat a house. How about this one?

Hey but I am 100% today. Eating as normal. Sorry I am not out visiting blogs that much. So much to do as I prepare to go on vacation. Trying to list a bunch of eBay auctions so they can run while I travel. And time it so I can ship them when I get home and my winning bidders do not have to wait. I am using the eBay Turbo Lister 2 for the first time and I like it so far.

Merry Christmas to all of you and may God bless you and your family too.