Showtime…

Here it is, the week of Memorial Day again, and I just checked into the Gaylord Palms Resort for the FABexpo.  The Gaylord is great as always, the service superb and the location just what we need.  Of course the entire week is about work and there isn’t any time to go to the pool, bars, restaurants and the other Orlando sites but it is a great place to work.

It is an interesting program.  A total of 22 staff attending the show to manage the CPE, exhibitors, FICPA booth and meetings galore for 800+ CPAs and 300+ exhibitors.  This year Lou Holtz, legendary football coach will be the keynote speaker.  Members and staff can’t wait to hear one of the best motivational speakers of our time address the group on achieving your maximum potential.

Monday, the first night only 5 of the staff are here so we will be ready to unload, setup, and meet with hotel early Tuesday morning (after the wonderful breakfast buffet Villa de Flora).  There is a lot more to tell about this event and if there is time, I will share stories and photos from the site.  Lisa, Mike, Michael, Brenda and me (plus Lisa) were all there to enjoy Sunset Sam’s for dinner on Memorial Day.

The rest of the week will be very busy with start times between 6 and 6:30 a.m. and ending each day after 11 p.m.  Registration should be much easier this year since we changed to electronic manuals and small booklets are distributed on-site instead of over a dozen manuals. It will be interesting to see what our members think of this change.  Many members have indicated that they like the new concept because it will allow them to search the manuals and therefore they will be more useful.  Only time will tell if the general membership takes to this new idea.

IFRS Standards accepted in the US

Today major changes in the accounting world were announced. See this video for more information.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1529569170/bclid1493222124/bctid1553183653

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-19-2008/0004816658&EDATE=

Wedding dress shopping – going where no guy has gone before…

Yesterday was a first, I joined a elite group of males in the world and I saw women as we guys never get to see them – wedding dress shopping.  My best friend Lisa was ready to look for a wedding dress and I was going with her.  As her honorary, though unofficial and unnamed, maid of honor it was something I had to do.  And since I’m standing on the groom’s side, it was my duty.

And, truth be told, it was a lot of fun.

I was there with my girlfriend (who set up the appointment), Lisa’s sister and her sister-in-law.  We started the day at David’s Bridal at 10:00 a.m. We arrived at about 9:57 a.m., 3 minutes before the store opened and we were amazed to see almost 30 women waiting outside the door and in their cars counting down the time until the store opened.

Thank goodness the love of my life made this appointment.

We went inside, filled out a form and were whisked away to a comfy couch (OK, it was a couch, but it wasn’t exactly comfy).  Being my first and probably only experience in a bridal shop, I decided to take it all in.

Dresses and more dresses exist for a single usage, not only for the bride, but for the brides maids, the flower girls and the junior bridesmaids.  It was a overwhelming, but for most of the women there, it was heaven.  Very few problems seem to exist in this world of dress up and make believe.  Family and friends gather round the bride-to-be and show their support!  Actually they express their own opinion and collectively provide more free advice than any bride can handle.  Everyone has an opinion and I saw more than one bride get lost in the shuffle of her friends and family trying to bend her will to their way.

The process if terrible for the bride…she leaves her friends and family on the couch while she goes to try on the umpteenth dress.  The friends and family are left behind to discuss their real thoughts about the bride, her figure and usually the groom while she is out of ear shot.  The carefully worded recommendation from the last dress is quickly replaced with the biting commentary of how the last dress really looked on the bride.

No matter how innocent the comments are intended to be, when you candidly discuss how these very expensive and beautiful outfits look on each part of the female body (butt, breasts, stomach, etc) any statement can be harmful if taken the wrong way.

I’m not sure that there is an equivalent event for guys.  We haven’t spent our entire life dreaming of our wedding.  In fact until we meet the right person we usually haven’t thought anything about a wedding at all.  Once we find her and we ask her to marry us, things begin to happen.  We are caught up in the tidal-wave of emotion and fun and basically we go along for the ride.  The bride to be and her friends know far more than we do and luckily have no problem telling us what we should be doing or more likely – what we should have already done. 

I truly enjoyed my field trip to David’s Bridal, our time there was productive and exciting and she had her dress picked out in record time.  She will certainly make a beautiful bride!

2008 Spring Dance Recital

It was a great night of watching our girls dance, teach and have fun.  Opperman Music Hall in Kuersteiner Music Building.  It was the 2008 Edge Spring Dance Recital.  Since the studio owner recently had twins there was a lot of repeated songs from the fall recital.  However, the new songs were great and all of the girls did a great job.

Lindsey appeared to adjust to her new role of less dancing and more teaching.  Appearing in only one song was very unusual for our girl who normally appears in 10+ songs.  Her babies class did great as they always do and she should be very proud of their success.

Kaitlyn was performing for her second semester and her first in tap.  She did GREAT.  She had a stage presence this time that she didn’t have last recital.  She did a great job and really looked good.

Lisa and I had a great time, seeing the girls together afterwards, presenting them with their roses and watching their smiling faces.

It was a great night for us and for them.

More Lake Tahoe Fun

We finished the team building phase of our meeting on Friday and then had the afternoon and evening on our own.  This was a great opportunity for us to spend time doing what we wanted to do.  The first thing we did was go over to Heavenly Village, buy tickets to ride the gondola up the Heavenly Valley to eat lunch.   It was a great trip to the top, we stopped at the midway point, walked around and looked at the lake and took lots of pictures.

At the top, we ate burgers (expensive but worth it when you consider the view). With a record 300+ inches of snow this year, the skiing was open very late (first weekend in May).

Eating in the snow in late April

After our lunch and the trip back down the mountain, we walked around The Shops at Heavenly then back to the hotel. For dinner that night we went to Kalani’s Restaurant in South Lake Tahoe with my friend Brent.

Saturday was our final day for the event and we spent most of the day in sessions, then the final night dinner was at the Chart House, high on the mountain side.