It's Good To Know Your Strengths And Important To Be Able To Laugh At Yourself

This was too good to let pass by. Watch the video...


I forgot to mention you should first rotate your monitor clockwise 90 degrees. Better yet, check out the location where the video was shot.

When We Left Black Squirrel Run, I Never Could Have Imagined...

"Youth has no age."
- Pablo Picasso

The one thing Hunter S. Thompson had that I always thought would be great to have myself, other than a book contract of course, is a fortified compound in the mountains.

Black Squirrel Run, where I hang my hat in the United States, is a century home, something quite different from La Alegría in Cartago, a home I designed with the help of an architect and TheSpecialOne. Neither has the mystique I'm looking for.


About a week ago TheSpecialOne and I, along with a few other couples, were invited to a poker party at the home of GreeningAmerica and his wife, TurnYourHead&Cough.

One of my favorite parts of these get togethers, which was actually a long, five-day, weekend, is that we all bring refreshments.

My contribution this time around was four cases of beer, two Moosehead and two Blue Moon, a bottle of Patron Tequila Gran Platinum, a quarter pound of K60 Bud, a tank of nitrous oxide and an ounce of peyote buttons.

Guess who the first couple was to arrive at the party? Ho Ho


What none of us knew was that we weren't there just to play poker, but to celebrate GreeningAmerica and TurnYourHead&Cough moving west.

That wasn't the biggest surprise of the long weekend.

There's a great golf course just about 15 minutes away, so one afternoon the guys hit the links while the ladies went into the city to shop.


Greening America and I shared a cart...and a half ounce of K60 Bud.

We got to talking about the university where he'll be teaching next fall and the preparations he and TurnYourHead&Cough are making to move.

Later that night TheSpecialOne surprised me with new lingerie she bought. I had a surprise for her as well, I'd bought GreeningAmerica and TurnYourHead&Cough's house!


I haven't come up with a name for the property yet. That will come in a few months when GreeningAmerica and TurnYourHead&Cough move out. For now it will remain, simply, the mountain retreat.

I've already begun to make arrangements to add a garage and to have a new security set-up installed, as I have at Black Squirrel Run, with an alarm system and security cameras. Of course I'll be adding a driveway gate...because what would a fortified compound be without that?


At this point I suspect, at least for awhile, my dog Damian will commute between Black Squirrel Run and the mountain retreat, accompanying me wherever I stay.

I suspect when I get settled in there, have the perimeter of the property fenced in and hire a suitable housekeeper that he'll remain at the mountain retreat.


The property is well wooded, which I like. Here, out the back window, we own all that you can see. What's best about the property, though, is the view that you have once you walk through the woods to the top of the hill....


I did mention that GreeningAmerica and TurnYourHead&Cough invited us to a poker party. That was, for me, a losing proposition. I won the money back playing golf, though, and even came out a bit ahead, thanks to a few long putts that dropped and a chip in on 18.


One thing I know I won't have to worry about is coordinating GreeningAmerica and TurnYourHead&Cough's move out and redecorating the mountain retreat. I'll leave those jobs to TheSpecialOne.

That was an easy decision to make, of course, since she started shopping before I had to ask. Another reason she's known simply as, TheSpecialOne.

Carnival of Cities Goes GONZO...AGAIN!!

In the news...

The blogosphere is abuzz with news of a blog carnival happening May 6th. That's because it brings together two of the best known and most successful carnivals going, The Gonzo Blog Carnival Series and Carnival of Cities.

...again!!

Yes, for the sixth Gonzo Blog Carnival this year I'm joining forces with Sheila at Family Travel Guide and hosting the carnival here on May 6th.

Submission guidelines...

---(-)-> One entry per blog {blogs only}
---(-)-> Posts featuring any aspect of a city, town or region
---(-)-> No posts that are advertisements

Recent posts are preferred, according to the Carnival of Citiesl guidelines. I'm open to consider posts regardless of when they were published. If there's a problem, I'll let you know.

The sort of posts we're looking for include...

• Comment on a local politician's latest blunders
• Share a favorite restaurant review
• present the city from a tourist's point of view

Entries are being accepted now at: kilroy60@gmail.com.

Submit your entry - with the submit line Carnival of Cities - including:

---(-)-> Your name as you would want it to appear
---(-)-> Name of Your Blog
---(-)-> URL of Your Blog
---(-)-> Title of Your Post
---(-)-> URL of Your Post

---(-)-> Note the City/Town/Region that is the subject of your post

---(-)-> Choose one of the following categories:

• General
• Local News
• Local Opinion
• Recreation
• Travel

The Deadline for Entries is 12 noon, Monday, 4 May. As always, the Gonzo Blog Carnival is sponsored by For Your Success.

I'm Not Wearing A Bunny Suit, But...

Happy Easter...

This is the one holiday of the year when I host TheSpecialOne's family.

We have a big Easter Egg Hunt for her nieces and nephews, spreading eggs in The Writer's Refuge and around the perimeter of the house.

Easter this year is going to be more festive than normal since we were at La Alegría for Christmas. You can tell that by the dinner menu which includes ham, roast goose and turducken.

One thing I like about Easter is it provides an opportunity to pay homage to Ronald Reagan...with Jelly Belly jelly beans. {I've long thought that one of President Reagan's greatest contributions was introducing America to Jelly Belly.} I picked up three pounds including assorted flavors, tropical and sour.

What I'm looking forward to most, of course, is the final round of The Masters. That makes for a rare day when I'd rather be watching golf than playing.

Heinz Six Pack Pays Tribute To Six-Time Super Bowl Champion Steelers

Heinz Field is one of the best known venues in all the sports world. That doesn't come as any surprise given that it's the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Super Bowl champions two of the past four years.

Some remember Heinz Field for a 2007 game played with what some consider among the worst field conditions in the history of the National Football League. That contributes to the aura of Heinz Field being a tough place to play for visiting teams.


What's certain is that the Steelers and Heinz are two of the best known names in the city of Pittsburgh. No wonder that Heinz Field is called "The Big Ketchup Bottle" by ESPN announcer Chris "The Schwam" Berman.


Up until now the six pack Pittsburgh was known for carried an Iron City Beer label. But, the H. J. Heinz Company is changing that, at least for the moment.

That's because Heinz has introduced a six pack of it's own...


Yes, that's right. The Heinz Six Pack pays tribute to the Pittsburgh Steelers being the first team in the National Football League to win six Super Bowls.

Heinz's Steelers Six Pack is only available for a limited time at a cost of $35. Individual bottles are available at a cost of $6.

You can order Heinz's Steelers Six Pack at MyHeinz.com.

So, It Turns Out, This Is A Small Business Blog

I was looking for an email today and found a message, that I'd forgotten about, from Blogged.com.

Amy Liu wrote to say, "Our editors recently reviewed your blog and have given it a 7.1 score out of 10 in the recreation category of Blogged.com."

She characterized this as, "quite an achievement."

As it turns out, though, Fear and Loathing - The Gonzo Papers isn't exactly listed in the "recreation" category, it appears in the directory under Business/Small Business.

The second category associated with this blog is Journalism, which is perfect for a site written in the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson. Speaking of which, how do you like the Yahoo! avatar I created?

It made me feel good, actually, that Blogged.com had difficulty "defining" what this blog is about, because that's always the most challenging thing when I want to register with a directory.

The message from Blogged.com went on to say the criteria for evaluation included:

• Frequency of Updates
• Relevance of Content
• Site Design
• Writing Style

Liu continued, "After carefully reviewing each of these criteria, your site was given its 7.1 score."

Based on it's evaluation, Blogged.com authorized me to display this badge...



To conclude her email, Liu wrote, "Please accept my congratulations on a blog well-done!!"

If You would like to Review Fear and Loathing - The Gonzo Papers you can do so here.

WebHostingGeeks.com Has Solutions For Small Businesses

It was good to get away for a week to recharge my battery, but I've had to pay a price for taking the time off.

I've been spending a lot of time at Widget Manufacturing so Thursday I devoted most of the day to conferring with my other clients; determining where we are on various projects, assessing what priority issues need to be addressed next and setting lists of action items both for me and personnel at the companies.

Occasionally I meet with the owner of a company in which GoIrish! has invested. This time it was a fabrication company that's setting up a new website.

Vendor sourcing becomes much easier when you can refer a client to an independent source of information to compare and contrast options. When it comes to web site hosting I use WebHostingGeeks.com.

What I like about WebHostingGeeks.com is that the site provides comprehensive information on what features and benefits individual hosting companies offer.

The reviews are excellent and, again, easy to understand. Issues like user friendliness, tech support, customer service, reliability & uptime, space and price are all rated on a five star scale.

Being able to look at reviews from individual users is especially valuable.

The fabrication company I was meeting with had GoDaddy.com selected to host it's new website, simply because it's a well known name. Once we checked out WebHostingGeeks.com my recommendation to look at other options carried more weight.

During the meeting the subject of free vs. paid hosting came up. That's understandable given the state of the economy. At the same time, there is validity to the axiom you get what you pay for.

A post on Free vs. Paid in the Web Hosting Geeks' Blog helped me address that issue.

This morning I got an email from GoIrish! saying he has investments in a few other companies who are having website issues and he's like me to meet with them. I'm setting up conference calls Tuesday and Wednesday.

Fear And Loathing In Key West

"A day without fun is a day
that eats shit."
- Hunter S. Thompson

Photograph by Kilroy_60

There wasn't much time for blogging in March. I spent an inordinate amount of time working with GoIrish! to put in place a crisis intervention plan at Widget Manufacturing.

Day-to-day operations in Widget Manufacturing's executive offices are dramatically different today than they were on 1 March and there's more change to come.

We succeeded in keeping all the hourly personnel working and no managers were cut. A number of managers were reassigned when we did some initial restructuring and their jobs look to be safe for the foreseeable future.

That's not to say everyone bought into the first round of changes without objection, or that managers who have different assignments today than they did a month ago transitioned smoothly.

In fact, there was one heated meeting that ended with me opening a window and shooting out the back tires on one Vice President's Porsche Carrera GT. Let's say I didn't take well to him bitching about taking a pay cut when I volunteered to waive my fee, partly to save his job.

About a week and a half ago GoIrish! asked TheSpecialOne and me to join him and his wife for dinner. It turned out they wanted to thank me for, what GoIrish! described as, going above and beyond the call at Widget Manufacturing.

My reward was a week for two at The Westin Key West Resort and Marina, a gift of cash equal to a fee for 40 billable hours with no discount applied and transportation there and back on his private jet.

Key West is known for it's celebration of sunsets and we had a front row seat. This was the view from our room...

Photograph by Kilroy_60

It was a great week to be sure and we're both looking forward to going back.

Another time I'll have to write more. Time now to close out, though, as I'm going to draw a bath for TheSpecialOne.

Cheers