Ten minutes with AT&T executives

My hard working husband did make it home last night from Miami. The business went excellent down there and although he is tired he is excited to see how well business is going. But the best news is that in a week and a half gets 10 minutes with AT&T executives. There is a conference in Las Vegas that he will be going to from March 31st to April 3rd and about a month ago found an application to spend 10 minutes with AT&T executives. He spent the time filling it out knowing it was a great opportunity. Well his time and energy were well spent because he found out that he got in. Here is the letter he received. I am so proud of him!

Dear Fast-Pitch Registrant,

Thank you for entering the AT&T Fast-Pitch Platinum Awards at CTIA Wireless 2009. Your entry has successfully passed the first round of review and you have been chosen to participate in the in-person Enterprise Fast-Pitch. This will be the semi-final and final round of reviews for the Enterprise Fast-Pitch Platinum Awards. In this email you will find all the information about your session. Please follow these guidelines to help ensure your best possible Fast-Pitch!

Your FastPitch Session has been scheduled for:

Day: Thursday, April 2, 2009
Time: ***omitted so no one else can steal it

Please come to the AT&T Meeting Room at least 15 minutes early to make sure you have everything in order and we start on time. Remember- you have only 10 minutes to pitch your application!

Guidelines for the FastPitch include:
You have 10 minutes for your entire session, so practice your actual pitch and keep it to 3 minutes.
Arrive with 1 completed copy of the attached Interview Form.
Have your application running on a mobile device so that we can see it in action.

Your FastPitch session will be segmented as follows:
The first 3 minutes will be spent reviewing the demo and collecting basic data (application type, vertical/horizontal targets, platforms and devices). (This will go faster with your Interview Form pre-filled.)
The second 3 minutes will be focused on collecting data about the current and projected demand for the application.
The third 3 minutes of questioning will be about ease of integration with AT&T systems.

Keep in mind that your application will be reviewed on a number of criteria, including but not limited to:
Market penetration and appeal
Vertical and horizontal market targets
Devices and platforms supported Ease of integration with AT&T systems


AT&T is a huge company and this opportunity means a lot for him and his business (winners get $5,000 cash and AT&T's approval to do business with their retailers). I know he is nervous about the presentation but I have great faith in him and I know he will do great! Congratulations Mr. Burke!

New Car Smell

We did it! We bought a Toyota Avalon! We decided it was time to move up a step and get rid of the 1997 Mercury Cougar (Bruce's car). So we have been browsing for the past month. Last Sunday while on a drive enjoying the beautiful sunny weather we stopped at the same dealership that we bought the Hyundai. In the very back row after looking at many was a silver 2003 Toyota Avalon. It was pretty enough that we took it for a test drive and then came the negotiations. Four days of negotiations and working the deal. My husband did great. He got us a great deal! See how proud he is of our new car...

So I met him at the car dealership today after work to sign all the papers and close the deal. 3 hours later we drove off the lot. Look how happy he is.
It is Silver with a gray interior, leather seats and dual air control. Spoiled!

Last picture of the back - just had to be sure you get all the views.

We had a great experience with Autoway Toyota and loved our salesman- Frank Schwartz. He was smart enough to remove the license plate from the old car and put it on the new one before he took it in to be washed - that way it was as clean as the new car. Plus he was patient and really worked the deal. Thank you Frank, Jose and the rest of the Autoway Toyota team.

This one goes out to the one I love.

To all I love and love me,
Thank you for your support and encouragement. Through the last year as I finally made up my mind to go back to school and chase the dream of getting my MBA - I couldn't have done this with out you. I know the next two years will be hard and sometimes I will wonder why I started this journey. If I do, will please remind me that I don't want to be a staff accountant for the rest of my life? That I do want to make a difference and have the chance to change something for the better.

Thank you for listening to me especially when I repeat myself or my choices over and over again. I am a Libra and we weigh our choices very carefully. I make lists of pros and cons and although it can come across as wishy washy when I do finally make up my mind I stick with it.

Mostly thank you for letting me share in your lives.

Now just a quick shout out to my man Bruce. Thank you for pushing me and my stubborness even if I don't want to be pushed. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for picking up my slack in the last month as I study - I can't count how many dishes of mine, stinky cat litter or other house cleaning you have done. But I do notice and I do appreciate it. Thank you for letting me be a part of your life and for sharing your dreams and deepest desires for me. Together we will make them all happen.

I love you! Happy Valentines Day!

February already?

I can't believe how fast 2009 is going. I made it through the first week of February and I am very proud of it. My schedule at work the first week of the month is always the hardest because I am closing 15 stores and doing financial statements for all 15 of them. It is a lot of work but there were a lot of things that went right this month to make it smoother. So instead of pulling 14 hours days for 5 days, I only had to pull 12 hours 2 days and then 10 hours 2 days and a simple 8 hours the last day. Of course most of those days I then had to come home and do homework but it really wasn't so bad. I am now studying finance on my saturday classes till February the 14th and then I change subjects again. The nice thing about this class is that although there are 7 quizzes and 7 tests, I get to take them at home in my PJ's with an open book. The first two chapters were really boring to me but on the third chapter we started applying it more to business and I am finding it interesting so it is much easier. I am done with four of the quizzes and tests and right now my average is 85 so I just have three more to go and I am done.
On Friday, Bruce and I went to Roy's for sushi. I had this craving for it and Bruce had taken me to work so that he could use my car to go to a business meeting. Since he had to come over to Tampa to pick me up we decided to turn it into a date night. We decided to eat at the sushi bar so that we could watch the kitchen.
Yesterday was filled with school, homework and catching up on Top Chef, Scrubs and finally getting to watch Loving Leah (Mike thanks so much for letting me know about it, of course I cried with in the first five minutes! You are truly the best brother. Now you can roll your eyes. Don't worry I didn't make Bruce watch it. He fell asleep on the couch while we were watching something else and so while he slept I enjoyed it.)
Today it is more homework, housework, grocery shopping and then preparing some meals for the week. I am going to try a sweet potato and garlic soup so if it turns out good I will be sharing that!

My famous husband

My husband got quoted in a magazine article... pretty cool!

Memories of Key West

Finally I have time to blog about our great vacation to the Key's.

First of all, I highly recommend driving to the key's at least once in your life. Yes it is one lane of traffic so you have to just go with the flow. But to start in Key Largo where the water is a deep almost purple blue on both sides of the highway and to end in Key West where the water becomes a light blue green is a beautiful journey. Also, there are plenty of great places to stop along the way and shop, eat, or relax. Below is a picture of our stop at the Veteran's Memorial Park just south of the seven mile bridge on the ocean side. The bridge is behind me. We stopped here to take a break and put our feet in the water.



Key West is definitely a place to hang out and have fun. Our first walk down Duval street, we had to wet our whistles at Fat Tuesday. I enjoyed my official vacation drink - a Miami Vice. It is 1/2 strawberry daquiri and 1/2 pina colada. Yes I enjoyed it.



Sunsets are the highlight of the day in Key West. Enjoying a sunset at mallory square is the main event. Every night there are different street performers, musicians and entertainment to enjoy. But I have a feeling that the sunset always steals the spotlight. How can you not feel God's love when you see something like this?

There are many things to do in Key West - from visiting the southernmost point in the US to Hemmingways house. Here is one of my favorite pictures of Bruce. He is such a handsome husband.
After Key West we traveled back North to Islamorada. I enjoyed Key West but I loved Islamorada. Why? Well first of all Key West is very touristy even in the slowest month September. There were cruise ships that came to port and with all the crowds and not a lot of space it wouldn't be a place that I want to stay for longer then two or three days. But Islamorada didn't have crowds and we stayed right on the water. I am standing on our front porch taking this picture. I could live with this view and be a very happy person.
The place in Islamorada where we stayed is called Pines and Palms. They are small cottages that are so charming inside and out. We really enjoyed California the great white heron that has a broken toe and hangs around Pines and Palms. He really enjoyed hanging with Shirley. This is a snap shot that I took of her visiting with California while she waited for us to pick her up for dinner. According to legend, California loves steak especially T-bones so you have to watch your food around him. He does not like crackers but loves cheese -guess he is a bird with great taste.
Bruce and I had planned on going to swim with dolphins and renting a boat for a day to explore the water. Due to rainy days, we missed those plans but I don't really mind. First of all the relaxing did us a lot of good but also because now I get to plan another visit next year back to Islamorada for us to do those things. I can't wait! Hopefully we can stay three or four days if not a week here next time.

Happy Birthday Bruce!

September 11th was Bruce's birthday. I didn't make it to blogging about how wonderful he is as I had a hectic week. But I do want to tell him I love him. I can't imagine going through this crazy life without him. He is the first person I call when my check engine light comes on (which it did this week) and the first person I call when I rock at a test (Go GMAT).

Thank you for supporting me and loving me!

To celebrate his birthday and my rocking the GMAT, we went to a movie - The Dark Knight -yes i think we were the only 2 people in the world who hadn't seen it yet - and had dinner at Roy's. We love their sushi - the Lakanilau Roll is the best with Kobe beef... They also had a special pineapple upside down cake last night that was really really good. Sorry no pics!