Debanter

“Just don’t have kids.”

Yesterday was a long one. First thing in the morning, there’s nothing I like to do more than wrestle two cats to the ground and shove pills down their throats. Adam tried to help by suggesting that we “hide” the pills in tuna. I was tired enough that I didn’t think this one through at all and figured it was worth a shot. Oh, they enjoyed the tuna…but were careful to make sure the hot pink pill never touched their lips voluntarily. I may or may not have held this against him for at least an hour. Until common sense returned.

With the cats packed and our luggage stowed in the car, we set off to LAX a half hour later than I had hoped. Somehow the fact that it was Friday (which means that everyone and their mother is on the freeway) had also escaped our brains as well. Brilliant.

Didn’t matter - we got there in plenty of time and by then the kitties had started to doze a little…though they would continue to fight the sleepies until we landed. Much to my surprise, everyone was absolutely 100% kind and considerate about the fact that we were trucking through the airport with nearly forty pounds of feline.

At the security check, Adam was in charge of pulling laptops out while I readied Louie for him to carry through the metal detector. Yes, you have to pull them out so the carriers can go through. Not a big deal - they were both slow to react and not really fazed by the activity…and they each had harnesses/leashes on, just in case. Tucker came next, was noticeably unimpressed, but again - his ninja-like tendencies were curbed by the drugs.

Once we got through, it was smooth sailing until boarding. I’d hoped that since we were window/middle, we board early to get the cats settled. No go. So instead we had to wait until Group 4 was called, trudge down the aisle trying not to smack someone in the head with our bags and pounce on the poor soul in 19D who couldn’t have anticipated that four living things would end up beside him.

Luckily, another seat in an empty row a little further back came available. Relief all around in row 19.

The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. Nanny Diaries, some music, a little reading and plenty of hot tea. Adam and I had agreed ahead of time that we would wait for everyone to get off the plane first, then we’d get out. Being that person holding up the line sucks, even when it’s just difficulty getting a duffle bag out of the overhead bin. We didn’t know how hard it would be to get everything organized, and weren’t willing to risk a trampling by angry travellers.

When the coast was clear, we started to pull our bags down and I carefully worked on getting the boys out from under the seats (as you may have noticed, they were turned on their sides to fit). Out comes one of the flight attendants, bundled up in winter wear and looking impatient.

Flight Attendant (FA): Oh. You’re still here. <insert pursed lips and narrow eyes>
Me: Yep - just wanted to let everyone go ahead of us - getting all our stuff together.
FA: Uh-huh.

This is where we continued packign and tried to ignore her impatient staring.

FA: *snort*…all I can say is, Just don’t have kids - because you’d NEVER get out of here.

This is where I made a mental note that this blog post was going to be a long one.

FA: Oh God. Um…you’re probably trying to have kids, huh? Now that I say that…right?

This is where I started racking my brain for ideas on how the next words that came out her mouth COULD BE ANY MORE AWKWARD AND BEAUTIFULLY INAPPROPRIATE.

I love it. The look on her face when she realized what she’d said was priceless. On more sleep, I might have messed with her head a bit, but instead I assured her we weren’t offended, all was fine and to have a great night.

Lucky for me, we still have two more trips like this to go. Let’s hope they all go this well.

Posted in Cats, Photos, Traveling | 3 Comments »

So unsuspecting

I doubt he’ll have the same attitude in the morning. Le sigh.

Posted in Cats, Photos | No Comments »

Snow in Monrovia

I think it’s a sign.

Spooky…

Thanks to MaryJo for the pic!

Posted in L.A., Photos | No Comments »

Wrap. Pack. Tape. Repeat.

As planned for a little while now, but not “announced” until yesterday, Adam and I are moving back to Toronto in a few short weeks. A small handful of people knew and most people were surprised - I hate being secretive, but sometimes it’s better to be cautious until you know exactly what’s going to happen.

Now we’re here. Twenty boxes are neatly packed and stacked…ready for transport. And we haven’t even met with the moving company yet. You might be wondering why - seriously? three weeks…packing? seriously?

Yep. Heard that one. Multiple times, from many different people in a variety of time zones.

But here’s the thing - while I usually don’t start packing for a short trip or vacation until the last possible second, moving is a whole different thing for me. It requires planning. Strategy. And (fortunately for Adam) complete control over the process.

Each room gets a color. Each box gets a number. Contents are listed beside each number (and box size) on a sheet of paper.

Are you scared yet?

I take a tremendous amount of pride in knowing how to pack a box. The skill of semi-inconspicuously stuffing every last personal belonging owned by six year old me under my bed comes in handy during an international relocation.

So away we pack…the bitter cold of Toronto awaits us as we slowly start to say goodbye to the sunny south.

Some are taking extra precautions that they aren’t left behind.

(What is with this cat, laundry and being so cute I can’t help but take a photo?)

Posted in Life, Moving | 7 Comments »

After all the excitement, it’s time to…count. And recount.

What’s the first thing you want to do after a tradeshow?

Hibernate for a month? Spend a couple hundred bones at the spa? Intensive twenty-four hour therapy to hopefully repress the whole thing?

All good options…but if you pick one, you’re going to miss out on a big opportunity to make a difference in your marketing program. Because remember…CES 2009 is only twelve short months away.

Are you cringing/rolling your eyes yet?

Right - it feels like you’ve got tons of time. All spring…all summer…then you might need to work a teensy bit harder around October-November and you’ll be able to breeze into January…arms full of chatchkas, fresh piles of business cards, stacks of product sheets, and an army of perfectly trained booth babes by your side.

Excuse me while I take a minute to laugh so hard I fall off my chair.

Here’s a better idea, and a few simple measures that will make a big difference in keeping things on track. In order to actually have a holiday before CES, you’ve got to be committed to the show all year round…especially in the first few weeks that follow.

1. Booth traffic: you can guess who came by, or you could actually measure it. business cards aren’t enough - you need to measure what your visitors were interested in. This will help in your team’s followup and it will help you tweak and adjust how you attract visitors. If I’m a B2B company and I come back with only 10% of my cards interested in my enterprise offering, then we’ve got some work to do. But I wouldn’t even know that if I didn’t take the time to categorize and measure, measure, measure.
2. Count your paper: how many product sheets did you hand out? which ones were used the most? what about business cards - do you need to reorder more and how many should you plan on people having the following year?
3. Gather feedback: they’re just as tired as you are, but this is where you need your booth staff’s help the most. While you’re waiting to pack up the booth or having a “yay! we’re done!” dinner, take the time to ask questions. “What would you do differently next year?”, “What question did you hear the most?”, “What would have helped you in your demo?”…etc, etc. Ask these questions informally and scribble down the answers. When you get home, make sure you ask the same questions (and more) again in a more formal survey. Hopefully you’ve taken care of your team and they won’t mind helping you out and being honest in their feedback. You don’t want to hear “Everything went super fantastic! Wouldn’t change a thing!” You want ideas. Suggestions. These people were on the front lines and could see what worked and what didn’t work. Swallow your pride and listen.

Your metrics are your best friend, but they’re useless if you don’t start the tracking/brainstorming process right away. The memories and interesting ideas fade all too quickly. It may seem like overkill and is probably the last thing you want to think about…but in eleven months, you’ll thank yourself.

Posted in Work, tradeshows | No Comments »