It’s one thing after another these days. I just got a message tonight that my dad is going in for gallbladder surgery tomorrow morning. I haven’t been able to get a hold of my mom, so I have no idea what that’s all about yet.

I had my final for Strategic Management this evening, and am kind of underwhelmed by my performance. I tried to do some good overview studying before the final, but in retrospect the only thing I did well was studying for the wrong things.

I should know my grade within a week or so. If I get a B, I’ll be happy.

I have a 7:00 a.m. conference call tomorrow morning for work. Note to self: If the world was truly flat, we wouldn’t have to suffer 12-hour work days to get meeting times lined up.

I’ve spent most of the day studying for my Strategic Management final, even going as far as missing most of today’s delightful Packers/Vikings game. Anyway, I wanted to pass along what I think are the greatest two sentences in Management Strategy by Alfred Marcus (a great book, by the way), which I’ll pass along without any context whatsoever:

Personalities now cross from MTV to CBS. The Janet Jackson Super Bowl fiasco showed the risks of this strategy.

For all practical purposes, this evening represents the first really open evening I’ve had in, oh, three weeks. That’s not to say I would’ve been writing if I’d had the time. My post about Kelly got indexed surprisingly quickly, and as a result this site became a bit of an unintentional gathering place. There were a couple of times I had things to write about, but felt bad about bumping the Kelly stuff down the page. In a way, I didn’t feel like this site was completely mine anymore, if that makes any sense.

I guess this is me taking it back. Kind of.

There’s not much to say about Kelly’s memorial service last week. It was a good celebration of his life, but also an indication of just how much was lost. It seems he made quite an impression, a very positive impression, on just about everyone who ever met him.

Lisa inherited his old office plant, a relatively-wide bamboo plant we’ve since named “7-Up.” The reason? Kelly fed it 7-Up because he thought it would be invigorating to the plant. (Seriously.) And Kelly didn’t even drink 7-Up, meaning he bought the soda specifically for the plant. So, there you have it, Kelly in a nutshell, sillyness and sadness sitting on the living room mantel.

School has been tough as of late. It’s not the coursework itself as much as the time constraints around everything. My performance on the midterm was mixed. I did very well on most of the tough questions, but made a number of stupid mistakes on a number of the easier ones. My grade suffered accordingly.

Today in class we spent a few minutes on a short business case on US financial companies trying to enter a Japanese market that would prove to be very different from the market the companies were used to at home. I only mention this because it may give a bit of an illustration as to how my brain works. When the case mentioned American products that bombed in Japan, my first thought was… Hiroshima.

It’s late, and I’m tired. More later.

I think I may have just hosed my midterm.

Well, I’m done with my first class.  The professor seems pretty cool, and the people I’ve been paired with for the class project seem pretty bright, so so far so good.

I have a lot to do, but I’m letting my brain rest for an evening.

Tuesday morning in Madison. This hasn’t been as much a visit as a rest stop on our way back from Indiana. Mathias was a good little baby on the trip down to Valparaiso, but driving all the way back to Minneapolis on Labor Day didn’t seem like that good of an idea.

Last night and much of this morning has been spent studying for my first class on Thursday. I only have about 60 pages of reading to do, but what my homework has lacked in length it has made up for in density. I got through about 25 pages last night and seem to be in good shape, but I wonder how things will be when I transition to a heavier courseload in the spring.

Picking up my books was kind of interesting. In retrospect, choosing freshman move-in day probably wasn’t the best day to head in to the U of M Bookstore, but I survived. It’s been almost a decade since I’ve been in Coffman, so this is was the first time I’ve seen it since the renovation. It still looks distinguished on the outside, but inside kind of feels like a shopping mall. (And if I had to pick a shopping mall, I’d say Southdale.) Granted, I remember it being a bit of a dump the last time I was there, so it is an improvement, but it’s just kind of sad they weren’t able to put together something a bit more collegiate in nature.

Well, back to studying. Next up, the challenges to Ben & Jerry’s in the mid-90s. I wonder if our field trip there a few years ago will help me with this. Hmmm…

Well, pretty quiet around here as of late. I’ve been busy, and this coming week looks like it’ll continue the trend.

Aside from me accidentally sabotaging a 150-person game of diversity bingo, orientation at Carlson went well. Due to baby, family and job, I’m starting with only one course my first semester, but hope to ramp things up as my education progresses.

Mathias has embarked upon quite a growth spurt over the past week. It’s amazing the amount of milk and formula he’s consuming. He’s grown quite a bit, too. Sometime over the past 10 days I’ve lost the ability to reach around his body with the ends of my fingers touching. He’s still a little baby, but not nearly as small as he used to be.

As of today, he’s also started grabbing things. That’s progress, of course, but may soon present us with additional challenges as well.

Well, I’m busy this evening, so back to work. I’m expecting to be tied up with work functions until at least 10:00 in the evening Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so I probably won’t be here again until the end of the week.

More later.