But this first week has been lousy.  Sickness has gotten the best of me.

It’s funny.  My wife says I get sick a lot.  But I don’t think I do.  So, this next year or two, I’m going to blog about when I’m sick so I can look back and know the truth.

I’ll spare you the details.  But suffice it to say I was sick all last week.  Then, I flew to Massachusetts to visit the family for a long weekend.  I felt pretty good, but on Monday, the flight home was miserable.  By the time I got home, I spent the rest of the day sick in bed.  Same thing for Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday and Friday I went in to the office, but only for a little while each time before going back home to bed.

It’s the weekend and I’m still not 100%.

The worst part was that I had to cancel two speaking opportunities.  Sorry.

I hate being sick, especially this sick.

After watching a few games over the last few days, it’s pretty obvious that Dallas is unlikely to repeat with all the changes they’ve made.

Interestingly, Miami is actually quite a bit better since they played Dallas in the finals.  It’s hard to imagine Miami not taking it all this year – by a landslide.  The big three are working well together and the new guy Cole is amazing.

As for my team, the Celtics, it’s obvious they will make the playoffs.  But it’s hard to believe that they can win it all, especially against teams like Chicago and Miami.

On another note, it’s going to be a blast watching the Clippers play better than the Lakers.  That may happen unless the Lakers can get Dwight Howard somehow.  It’s not hard to imagine the Clippers possibly even making it to the finals.  They are going to be awesome with the new addition of Chis Paul.

Those are my initial thoughts.  I’ve still got to pick which Bobcats games I’ll go to.

The last two years I have spent on some special projects.  They have gone well and it’s time now to get back to blogging and writing my newsletter.   I’m thrilled.  Blogging consistently is one of the more challenging things I’ve ever done.  Writing is a skill learned best by constant effort and refinement.  It’s also one of the most rewarding.

This site will be for my random and personal writings, not necessarily related to my business of Internet marketing training.  Let’s get started.

A good friend of mine (Ryan Courteau) recently had a change in employment and was able to spend a day per week working with me.  He has a sales background, so he’s been acting as a consultant on contract with an eye toward helping us increase sales on our e-commerce business.

Things have been a little slow over here due to the economy, so we decided to spend most of December making a new e-commerce site.  It sells maid carts here.

Ryan and I worked our hearts out on this one.  It really is a lot of work to populate all the data into an e-commerce site.  Jason (my other co-worker) did a lot of the previous ones, so I had not done one in a while.  It’s very time intensive.

All in all, 2009 was a financially tough year for a lot of people.  Thankfully, by decreasing expenses, we were able to break even the last six months of 2009.  Making the new site opens up another potential revenue stream for 2010, even if it was a ton of work.

The flight up went smooth and although we stayed at my sister’s house, we needed to be very careful to not mention the surprise anniversary party we had planned for her that Saturday.

My nieces, my mother, and others worked very hard to make the party a huge success.  About 100 attended from all over the country and we surprised them pretty good.  My sister and her husband expected to have a dinner with family and friends.  So, they were in for quite a shock.

After a full dinner, we showed a slide show with video that my niece put together showing their 25 years of marriage.  She did a great job with it and I made comments while we showed it.  Then, the band that played at their wedding (25 years ago) played their wedding song again.  It was very nice.  My sister definitely got a little teary-eyed.

During the trip, I got to spend some time with my parents, my nieces, and my sister & her husband.  They are all good people and I’m thankful to have such a close family.

I also got together with my best friend and visited the Patriots Place for an afternoon.  That was fun.  (Even if they did lose by one point the previous Sunday.)

The weather in New England is straight up cold.  I don’t know why it feels so cold there compared to NC.  The temperature is only 10–15 degrees colder, but it always seems to feel a lot colder to me.  The sun goes down about an hour earlier there too.

Lastly, we got stuck on our plane for several hours while they “diagnosed a mechanical problem”.  At first, I had nothing to read & my wife was using the ipod touch.  But, once we finally got off the plane, I ran to buy a book and a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte.  I read about 150 pages by the time we landed.  Much better.  (I don’t do well with boredom.)

I love my family and friends, but it’s good to be home.

(No joke, we’re a little concerned. If anyone lives or works near him, please let him know we’re looking for him. I’ll try to keep the page updated and/or people can leave comments)

His most recent tweet was about 8:00 AM Thursday, Sep 3.
http://twitter.com/davidkyle/statuses/3736275628

Cara noticed that he was missing at the SEMCLT meeting that night.
http://twitter.com/Cara/statuses/3744802152

LesPorter mentioned around 8 AM that is he never checked in.
http://twitter.com/LesPorter/statuses/3755165263

…and that he is not returning voice mails.
http://twitter.com/LesPorter/statuses/3755182880

His voicemail is now full and no response still.
http://twitter.com/NC_SEO/status/3756475241

Belias21 is going to drive by his work and look for his car.
http://twitter.com/belias21/status/3756977232

Leave a comment below if you know anything else…

There were nine other friends of ours in our group, and we were with a tour group of about 80 people in two buses.  I did not take barely any pictures, but I did take almost 200 videos.  I’m currently trying to go through them all and post the stuff that is good.

We absolutely loved Vienna.  What a beautiful city.  The architecture and culture there is just amazing.  Our trip included plenty of time walking around the city, visiting the cafes and restaurants, and attending to the Vienna Symphony Orchestra one evening.

Athens was not quite as beautiful.  However, the history and sights were amazing.  We visited the Acropolis, the Areopagus (Mars hill), ancient Corinth, and other amazing locations.  We especially enjoyed the brand new Acropolis Museum.  It is the most amazing museum I have ever seen.  We also spent an entire day cruising a few Greek islands.

I’m going to do my best to go through my videos as soon as possible to share with you the highlights.  However, right now my body is still getting used to the 7–hour time difference.  Therefore, my evenings are not that productive.

Hospitalist is the term used for doctors who are specialized in the care of patients in the hospital.

In working with a new client, I’m starting to get to know more about hospitalist jobs.  PrimeDoc offers some very compelling options for hospitalist careers and hospitalist positions.

Their locations are in different places around the southeast.  They all offer hospitalist employment at each hospitalist group location.

If you’re thinking about getting a hospitalist job, check out the various pages that this post links to.

(Hopefully Google will too!)

Corey

FAMILY:  Both of my nieces visited my wife and I (from Massachusetts) over the last month or two.  The 20–year old stayed for one week, but the 18–year old stayed for an additional three weeks.  We loved having them both.  I’m so proud of my sister (who I constantly like to tease) and her husband for raising such wonderful girls.  We love having them.

Also, my parents are visiting next week.  I’m really excited about spending time with both of them.  My dad recently retired.  So we’re glad he can visit us and not have to rush back to work after.

TRIPS:  Last week we went to the US National Whitewater Center.  It’s only 30 minutes from home and we got to do whitewater rafting and a 1,000 foot zip line.

Sandy and I are especially looking forward to spending two weeks in Europe in July/August.  We will be visiting Austria and Greece.

WORK:  Work is going well.  The economy does not seem to be affecting our industry.  Since January I have only been working 4 to 4–1/2 days per week.  It’s been my goal for a long time.  I finally got there.