Hells yes for vacation week! This is the week that Stephanie and I chartered the sailboat in the British Virgin Islands. I must say…..it’s pretty frickin’ cool. I’m sure we will have more pics once her camera is plugged in to the Mac, but for now my camera phone shots will have to do. Just a select two. The first is our hotel room pre-cruise. The second is my bride as she gawks at Necker Island. No, Stephanie, I will never be able to buy you an island like Sir Richard Branson. You’re stuck with me though lol:

I’m pretty lucky to be in my family. Every one of my siblings is really exceptional at what they do. My little sister works with kids and has a passion for the young’uns. My brother Pat is a machinist who rebuilds and customizes AK-47s. My brother Rob is an amazing artist and musician, also the best salesman in the family. My brother Mike is CTO for a financial technology company. Finally, my brother Jon is an oceanographer (“wet physicist,” as I call him), aikido black belt (and dojo operator), and, as I’ve found out today, Jon is bilingual.

He’s currently in Kyoto. I’m not sure if it is for vacation or work…but when I saw this picture on Facebook today I realized my older brothers’ true genius. I didn’t know, but apparently he has had time to pursue another language in addition to being a world-class physicist and martial artist.

Jon by a sign.

I had no idea what he was doing until I had the sign translated. Wow:

Jon being a genius.

I have so much to look up to with him. Wow.

Today is a very important day for every citizen of the USA. Memorial Day is our day to honor those who have served in our armed forces and remember those who have given their lives protecting our country.

A few of my good friends have served in the Armed Forces. Here’s a quick shout out to ‘em.

I first met Octavius Ryan while he was working at Calamos Asset Management with my bro Corey. He’s a fantastic software developer. He served in the Navy and did something that involved him flying in planes that were quite close to the ocean. Thanks for your service bro.

In addition to being an online marketing yoda and fanatic fisherman, Scott Ford served our country by doing something he is not at liberty to disclose. All I know is that he is bilingual (Arabic), and despite his friendly demeanor it is apparent that he is a hard ass. Thanks for your service, my friend.

Chris Christenson is my father in law. He was also in the 101st Airborne in Vietnam. He’s the reason I am no longer fearful of firearms. He also did a hell of a great job helping his wife Sandy raise two daughters, Sloan and Stephanie. Thanks for your service Chris.

Ian Young and I first met at SellingSource. He’s the rhythm guitarist for Raising Craiger. He went to the Air Force Academy and later served our country as an analyst, doing fighter aircraft testing. Although I have no idea what the hell that means, I do know that Ian is great at math…so it probably involved that. Thanks for your service, my friend.

Alan Hamilton is one of my favorite people in the internet marketing space. He kept our country safe as a member of the Marine Corps. Thanks for your service, Alan.

Today is my 4th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, due to work I had to go to KC for the day today. My goal was to wake  her up with breakfast in bed and give her a fun surprise, but since I’m out of town I thought it would be fun to blog about it.

Stephanie and I were married on 5.26.07 in Sedona, AZ. It was a pretty fun, low stress wedding. She was a beautiful bride and I really enjoyed the whole day – we had a great wedding planner so Stephanie and I just got to hang out with our guests and drink. No drama at all. (Actually, that isn’t quite true. We had a trolley running people from the hotel to the wedding site and after the wedding my brothers tipped the driver a couple hundred to take them trolley bar hopping, at which time they proceeded to completely trash said trolley. Oh, and my Dad lost a pair of suspenders that my buddy Joe found later in a very strange place.)

Because of work schedules and budget, we did not take a honeymoon. We wanted to go to Parrot Cay but that is pretty spendy.  To make up for it, for our fourth anniversary I’m taking my sweetheart on the honeymoon that we didn’t have. But…we aren’t going to Parrot Cay. I think I found something better.

Before I get to that, though, I need to say some things to my hot, lovely, funny, awesome wife.

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Dear Stephanie,

Wow – I can’t believe it’s been 4 years already. You sure are hot, lovely, funny, and awesome. I’m sad that we’re spending today apart but I’m really happy to be celebrating another year with you. I couldn’t be more proud that you are Mrs. Lilly – to be more specific, MY Mrs. Lilly. I wake up every morning and feel fortunate for what we have built together over these last four years, and I can’t wait to see what the next 4 years hold. Or the next 7, 13, 25, or ….? (Can you guess the next number in the sequence?)

I really admire you – your love and passion for our critters, your commitment and loyalty to our families, your business genius, your craftiness, and your beauty. You’re the total package, baby.

Thanks for being so patient and understanding with my crazy work schedule. I love you.

-Joe

P.S. I couldn’t figure out a better way to surprise you with this gift, so I thought I’d post it on Facebook for everyone to see. I hope that’s ok.

P.P.S. I have more to tell you that I’m not going to put on the internet, but that will have to wait for tonight.

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On to Stephanie’s surprise….

See how fun cruises are?

We went on a really fun vacation last year with Stephanie’s family. Her folks took the fam on a cruise for their wedding anniversary. We had a great time and ever since then I’ve been looking around for other fun vacations in or around water. I thought about renting a house in Cabo or doing another cruise, but neither of those seemed fitting for an anniversary present for the best wife in the world.

I’ve been searching for the last year, but as of two weeks ago I had not found anything that really captured my interest.

Until I found the Rhapsody.

The Rhapsody!

The Rhapsody is a 72′ Irwin sailboat that sails out of the Virgin Islands. It’s not a cruise. It’s a private charter that specializes in couples and honeymooners. It’s all inclusive. There’s even a hot tub on deck.

They have the normal fun water sports equipment (fishing poles, snorkeling gear, a zodiac, wakeboards, water skis, etc.) and can also help us connect with deep sea fishing charters, dive boats, and the normal tropical touristy stuff.

They set the itinerary and menu based upon our requests. It’s a custom-built cruise for two. Since the 4th anniversary is traditionally the “fruit or flowers” year, they are going to have plenty of fresh fruit and flowers on board.

On December 4th, 2011, we are going to head for the Virgin Islands and spend 6 sun-filled days aboard our own private yacht. There are 6 staterooms, so at Stephanie’s option we can invite some friends or just have the boat to ourselves for an entire week.

We probably need to stock up on books and sunscreen.

Sounds fun huh?

Happy anniversary Stephanie. I love you.

My reflections on 2010:

Best Purchase: Gibson SG American. I bought this very early in 2010 to round out my guitar collection. Sounds great, plays very fast, and my hands have always been favorable to the fretboard gauging of Gibson over the longer Fender gauge. It’s also much lighter than any of my other guitars, making it really easy to play for very long periods of time without shoulder fatigue.

Worst: Every book ever written by Robert Dilts. Although he’s considered by many to be one of the creators of NLP, I find his writing very dry and difficult to get through. I do a lot of reading but I haven’t managed to get through any of his books yet.

Best Band I discovered: Although they didn’t debut in 2010, I only became aware of them about 4 months ago. I’m talking about the Zac Brown Band. These guys are infreakingcredible. Awesome musicians, great songwriters, and they seem to be pretty down to earth dudes. They’re more flannel shirt country than cowboy hat country, which totally appeals to me. (Close second is Micky and the Motorcars, who I was just turned on to a month ago by my buddy John at 9Seeds.)

Worst: Anything with the last name Beiber.

Best Movie: Although I was pretty well appalled by the heavy politics, Avatar was a beautiful movie to watch. I saw it in XD 7 times or so, stunned the amazing FX. Wow. Breathless.

Worst: Tron. Save your $.

Best Road Trip: This is tough, as I took quite a few trips this year, but I have to say the best was my 48 hour jaunt to Utah to go hog hunting. It was my first hunt and the group we put together was awesome…oh, and it doesn’t hurt that I have 100+ pounds of hog meat in my freezer to remember it by. (Christmas in Kern Valley was a close 2nd.)

Worst: Flying to Cedar Rapids, IA for the memorial service of one of my college professors.

Best Mac App purchased: Dragon Dictate. This mofo allows you to dictate into your computer. It does a phenomenal job. I type pretty fast (70-80 WPM) but with Dragon I can get upwards of 150WPM. Outstanding productivity tool. (Second place: Curio. Great for brainstorming, mind mapping, and light project management. Also good for information sharing. Well worth the $$$.)

Worst: Comic Life. Although it seems to be a great program for cartoon illustrators, I have very little use for it. It was an impulse buy because I thought it would be funny to make a cartoon of one of my friends calling himself a douchebag. 15 seconds of chuckles: $24.95.

Other cool happenings from 2010:

1. I lost 60 pounds on a medical weight loss program. I am currently in the process of launching a non-prescription program to help folks lose weight who can’t afford to spend the $100′s of dollars a month I did.

2. Ozzy (Osbourne Cox) came in to our lives. We rescued him after the passing of our beloved Sonny. Ozzy has been a great addition to our family.

3. My wife got to know my family better. We had a very fun trip out to Indiana in July, and the whole family came to Vegas for Turkey Day. Prior to 2010 she hadn’t spent a whole ton of time with any of them. I’m really happy that we’re all bonding.

4. I started my final tattoo. Right leg. Pics forthcoming.

Next Up: Resolutions!

Growing up sucks. Well, not really – I didn’t have a sweet job, big-ass boat, 4 awesome dogs or an incredible wife when I was 11. (That would’ve been weird.) What I did have was plenty of time to just be me – do the things that were important to me.

When we grow up, though, we get hit with “the grind.” These are the little things that we have to do in order to be productive adults, but aren’t necessarily things we identify with – they don’t complete us or make us happy, we just have to do them. They add up and wind up taking most of our time. And they snowball. Pretty soon, we’re only doing the things required by the grind and we aren’t doing anything that makes us happy any more.

(Good for you if you can’t relate to this – most adults that I know fit the bill though.)

I visited a client in Kansas City last week. After an awesome, fun night out with him and his executive team, I woke up the next morning not tired and hung over but alert and re-energized. I realized that I hadn’t relaxed, laughed, and enjoyed myself like that in months. So, the next morning before our meeting started, I thanked him. What he said will stick with me for years: “I live like that every day.” I asked him if he meant that he goes out until midnight and gets not-nearly-enough sleep the night before an important meeting (lol), and he said “No – I have an adventure or do something fun every single day. That’s how I want to live my life.”

Wow.

I haven’t thought that way since I was 14. Back then I just did whatever I wanted to do. I did fun stuff all the time. I walked or rode my bike to downtown Chicago or hopped a freight train to see where it took me. It was great. Why don’t I do that now?

I justify my behavior with ‘the grind’. “I’m just too busy to do (insert fun thing here),” I say. But before that morning of meetings in Kansas, I got schooled by a guy who operates half a dozen companies that do millions and millions of dollars of revenue a year. He is responsible for dozens of employees. He’s a single father. He travels 20 days a month for work. And he STILL makes time for fun every day.

Motivated partly by curiosity and largely by a desire to defend my own life choices, I made a list of how I spend my week. I divided the list as follows (in no particular order):

1. Essential work stuff.

2. Family/pet time.

3. Life-critical things (sleep, eat, exercise).

4. Non-essential work stuff. (Web browsing, industry blog reading, etc.)

5. Facebook and online game time, TV and other time wasters.

6. Music/guitar time (this is critical to keeping my head on straight).

7. Gambling (although I typically make a bit of money doing this each year it’s REALLY time intensive).

I quickly realized that I spend WAAAY too much time on non-critical work stuff and time wasters. My client is right. There is time for fun every day.

As a result, I’m eliminating everything that isn’t essential to my job and my relationships and replacing all that non-essential stuff with fun things. My goal for October is to not watch any tv (except Bears games) and substitute it with family/pet time, music, or something else fun – golf with friends, time putzing around on the boat, whatever.

What I’ve noticed in this first week is pretty amazing. Just by cutting out TV, non-essential work stuff, limiting my time on Facebook and not playing any stupid games (and not gambling), I’ve been able to:

1. Knock out 5 projects at home that my wife has been wanting us to get done for months,

2. Practice guitar 3-4 hours a night,

3. Increase productivity with clients,

4. Spend more time with family and pets.

The really interesting thing is that since I’m not just vegging out in front of TV and using that time on things that make me really happy and engage my brain (like music), I feel mentally refreshed and I actually require less sleep than normal – at least so far. I wake up really looking forward to what the day is going to bring.

It’s a pretty cool feeling. Now I just have to find a freight train to hitch a ride on….

P.S. Congrats to my good friend Steve Nixon on his marriage this weekend. He’s a great dude and his wife is a great woman. They’re gonna make some musical babies.

Had my first day without email in a long time. (Ok, it was most of a day.) While it felt great to be de-tethered, it was not intentional. I took the wife and our smallest dog on a hike to some little-known hot springs outside of Las Vegas. Two hours there, two and a half back. We were in a canyon and the cell service was spotty – hence being without email for a day.

It was amazing to be able to spend a day of uninterrupted time with my favorite girl – no rings to answer, text to reply to or SPAM to delete! I think I’m going to make it a regular thing.

Quick aside: We did some pretty intense scrambling up and down this rocky river bed. When the jump was too big, we’d just pick Ozzie up and chuck him to the next boulder. Had a scary moment when he tried to run up a 12 foot rock, slid down and damn near killed himself. I had to rope him to my chest and climb up supporting an extra 40 pounds of dog. Video forthcoming.