Glad to be home

It was a great trip but it’s always good to be home. I woke up at 5:30pm Saturday Denver time (4:30 in California!) and was on a plane by 10pm Denver time out of Rome. About 21 hours later I landed in Denver after layovers in Munich and Chicago. All in all the flight was good, just long. It was great to see the misses and the boys waiting at the curb for me about 7:15pm. We all made it home around 8 and after a quick shower to get rid of the plane “gunk” I was in bed and asleep before 9. It’s now 4am here, or noon in Italy, which is pretty good considering my body is still on Italian time. It usually takes a few days to get back on schedule.

On to my trip, where do I start. Lots of meetings and good food. Obviously the highlight was meeting with Andrea Bocelli. I could talk for hours here but suffice it to say, he’s a really normal, nice good guy. I have lots of pictures and even video taped him on my phone for a half an hour or so which is pretty interesting. He does a annual concert in his home town at an outdoor amphitheater (that his brother Alberto designed) each year since 2005. It is called Teatro di Silencio or theater of silence. He gave me a DVD of the show and the misses and the boys and I will go in July for the show. He’s really an amazing man who is quite like you and I. We met with a number of importers we interviewed to see if we wanted to use them in other countries to sell our wine. I had meetings with Japan, Brasil, Russia and Kazakhstan, China, and the UK. We stayed in an incredible hotel and spa in Pisa where we had our meetings and were treated like kings. It turned out that I had met the Japan importer 5 years ago in passing at Vinitaly and he remembered me. After he mentioned this I too remembered him too. It looks like soon I’ll be headed to Japan and probably Russia. Oh well at least my frequent flyer miles will be built up. The next day after meeting them and hearing their best pitches as to why they should be chosen to sell our Bocelli brands in their respective countries, we met them at the Bocelli estate and introduced them to Andrea, his brother Alberto (who I’ve known for years) and his wife Cinzia. Needless to say they were all like deer in the headlights meeting Andrea which I understand but boy can those Japanese take pictures! Andrea was very gracious letting them have all the photos they wanted and personally talking with each of them.

We all then headed off to a great lunch (all meals in Italy were of course great) where we all got a chance to talk more socially. Andrea excused himself after lunch and his man about town Piero (who drives him and takes care of him) left as some famous composer from New York was flying in to meet him at his house to go over some musical something or other. I’ll be with Andrea February 10th in Austin Texas for a concert and maybe February 14th in Ft. Lauderdale. We’ll host receptions backstage after the show and introduce key clients to Andrea. He constantly joked with me about how cold Denver is and says he’ll only come back in summer. I wish he was having a show here so I could take my Mom down not only to see him perform but also to meet him.

Now onto the rest of the trip. For the first three days I met with winemakers all day long each and every day. Of course each day was topped off with a huge, and I mean huge, meal. I really didn’t drink on the trip maybe having a total of 3 glasses of wine, as in some situations I had no choice. The misses by the way has not had a drop since December 28th, look out as she’s looking really really good, and that’s not just me being gone for 8 days! We’re trying to find something to train for like a triathlon. I did run a couple of mornings while in Italy after borrowing  brace for my knee which really helped. I’ve never been a runner because my right knee always hurt but it looks like I can  start running with the misses.

This week I have a lot of catching up to do as I’m off to New York for 3 nights next week. I’m making some changes around here that I’ll fill you in on as we go but first off is no tv. We’re starting with none, zero, zip, nadda Monday through Friday and we’ll then see about the weekend. They way I look at it is we are only lucky enough to have a few years with our kids and then their gone, so I’ve decided I want to make the most of them. Now Im a pretty good dad and a pretty good husband ( you should probably check with the misses!) but to me, that’s not enough, I want to be a really great dad and husband. You see, my sole purpose is raising and providing for my family and I had sort of an epiphany while away for a week to make some changes. When in Italy, or in Europe for that matter, no one watches tv much, while here it seems it’s on often. Also “over there”, famila or family IS the most important thing. We could learn a thing or two from the european way of life. Nobody has any hidden agenda. they all just want to do some good business, live life to the fullest and enjoy family. A few weeks ago after I wrote about the french zest for life, Uncle T asked if we were unhappy. The answer is no but we feel, we can always be happier and to do this, it means focusing more on doing things as a family. By the way, the kids are all in as far as turning off tv (surprise surprise) and playing more or doing more things together like reading, listening to music and just spending time together. So off we go, we’ll keep you posted.

This week I need to probably take a run up to the mountains depending on the snow as I’m (with help) building a mile long fence up on the ranch where the fence line was inadvertently moved about 10 years ago. I first noticed this when my dad couldn’t find the old indian tepee and I soon discovered our neighbors had fenced off 40 acres for a bull pasture. After pointing this out, and having it resurveyed, we (the neighbors and us) are splitting the cost of changing it back. Turns out to have a fence builder do this, it’s over $15,000! I think I can get it done for about $3500 each. I already bought some fence posts but now need some more and a bunch of barbed wire and connectors. The boys are excited to go up there and help which really just means run around in the hills. Hopefully I’ll have this done by late April so we can put some cows on there to graze until October. We’ll keep you “posted”, get it, ha ha.

I hope to see my Mom, Uncle T and Aunt B today and the youngest one’s birthday is tomorrow, whoo hoo! He’s really excited and has about 10 kids coming to his party. I’m sure he’ll haul in lots of loot. I think Grandma is taking us all to the Buckhorn which is a really old famous restaurant here in Denver, that should be fun! My back is somewhat out from 3 flights and walking a few miles with my carry on so I think I’ll skip the gym today and maybe try to rest it up. I have some laundry going now and both dogs are sleeping at my feet, it’s good to be home. Also I have music on instead of tv but the coffee here sure is weak. Maybe I’ll run to Starbucks for a doppio espresso (double espresso). Andrea and I were commiserating about how bad Starbucks is and how hard it is to get a good cup of coffee anywhere, even in Italy. Coming from a guy who can’t see, I’m sure this is true as  his other senses, like taste and smell have to be heightened. It’s good to be home and I promise I’ll let the misses write more as I’m sure you all enjoy reading her posts as much as I do. You can tell by the way she describes the color of the sky, she looks at the world and life in a happy healthy way, seeing the beautiful and not the bad. I need to try to do this more, in fact we all do.

PS, I was also right where that cruise ship went down and a bunch of survivors were sent to my hotel in Rome so tomorrow I’ll share some first hand accounts of the whole thing, pretty scary.

Have a blessed day, take care and hopefully we’ll talk soon.

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