A Busy Pre-Season Weekend

I hope all of you had a great weekend. I certainly did, though it was very busy and exhausting. Since I only have a few weekends left before I am in the midst of Holiday season, I took this one as a personal weekend to have some fun. Mrs. Claus also took the weekend off but she did her own thing with her friends.

If you were following my tweets, you know it was a sports weekend for me. My sports passions are football (the global version) and American football. On Saturday, I went to the biggest college game of them all... the Alabama-LSU game. If you live in North America, you may have seen me on TV as the national network twice turned the camera toward me. I will never grow tired of the atmosphere & excitement of a big-time college football game. Sunday was particularly busy as I was in attendance at Stamford Bridge for the Manchester United-Chelsea match and then rushed to the Cowboys-Eagles NFL game in Philadelphia. I was really disappointed with the ManU result. Terry was clearly off-sides. The linesman and referee are both on my naughty list. Unfortunately, that won't change the fact that ManU is five points back and not looking nearly as strong as last year. At least the Cowboys game went the way I wanted it too and Dallas is in good position for early November.

My weekend really started on Friday with a very nice and unexpected surprise from a dear friend of mine. She showed up at the office with an extra-large decaf egg nog latte... the first of the season for me! And it was fantastic. It was from Dutch Brothers. As much as I love Starbucks, this was better. Right now, my only retail choice in North Pole Village is Starbucks but I am checking into acquiring a Dutch Brothers franchise for the North Pole. A little competition is good for everyone, right?

Saturday it was good to get down to Alabama. All of that heavy snow we had been getting at the North Pole turned to rain as a warm front came through. All the fresh clean powder turned to a gray slush. After I came in from my morning run, I was soaked head to foot and freezing. In fact, we had some minor flooding in parts of the village. Making matters worse, by the time I returned from the football game, the temperatures had dropped below freezing again and it all froze. Elves and reindeer were slipping and sliding everywhere. It wasn't even worth trying to take your sleigh out... it was best to just stay home if you were already there.

By Saturday night late and into early Sunday morning, the snow resumed. When I awoke Sunday morning, we had a good base of powder snow.. almost 0.5 meters... covering the ice and providing some traction. And that was good because I had to take a couple of my buddies to the airport in Oslo at 3:45a Sunday my time. As you can imagine, I didn't get much sleep the night before. And in case you are wondering... yes, my buddies flew back home from Oslo via commercial airlines. I did not fly them up or back in the sleigh. Reindeer and elves union rules are very strict about use of the sleighs for non-business flights. Mrs. Claus and I can use them for personal use but we have restrictions as to who & when we can take with us on non-business related matters.

Anyway, it was busy weekend and I am exhausted! I am going to hit the sack here soon but before I do, I want to make sure you check out the blog headlines. I am going to be sponsoring a contest in which you can win a sleigh ride with Rudolph! Keep checking in for details on how to win.

Have a good week. It's snooze time for me.