Will Bridges

Yendis and I had a great time at this little retreat in Smithville, TN called Evins Mill. It was great. The food was gormet and the people were wonderful. Let me describe the experience a bit.

First, we drove about an hour from Nashville to Smithville. It’s small and kinda in the middle of what appears to be nowhere. We drove up this large hill that reveals a mill and a very old log built structure that houses the main office, the kitchen and the central hub for the retreat. We were greeted by the cook, who quicly took his apron off and asked if we needed any luggage taken to the room. We didn’t because we brought very little in the way of stuff to the retreat. It was a couple hours after lunch but they had our lunches prepared so we grabbed our lunches and the cook/bellboy showed us to our room which was quite nice for the middle of nowhere. It didn’t have a phone but we didn’t need one because I got cell reception (thanks Cingular). The room had a large vaulted ceiling, a view of the water pouring over the mill’s dam and a large and comfortable king sized bed. We ate our lunches and got ready for that evening’s four course dinner. Lunch was okaybut it was a boxed lunch so you could tell it had been in the fridge a while. We were told about the Carmac Falls (a 90 foot waterfall) which was about a 30 minute walk from the main lodge but we didn’t want to attempt it because of the rain and cold.

Anyways, we finally got ready for dinner and went to the main lodge. The dinner started with a Mushroom Strudel as a small appatizer. I nibbled on that for a while and they brought out some rolls for Yendis (she doesn’t eat mushrooms, her loss!). We chatted for a while amoungst the candle light and the wood/gas open fireplace. It was a very romantic scene. Only three couples were there for dinner. We chatted with one of the other couples while we relaxed. Then a soup came out that was ‘Ginger Carrot and Cocconut Milk’. Yes, it sounds strange but it was very delicious. After the soup came a wonderful fresh salad with bits of blue cheese and rasberry vingarette dressing. Then, finally the main course. They offered a choice of Hawiian Sea Bass, Ethiopian Coffee cooked Beef Tenderloin. Yendis had the tenderloin and I had the sea bass. Both were delicious. After dinner we had some fudge brownie cake of some kind that was very good. This was all included in the stay. They even gave Yendis an extra piece of cake!

The portions were just good enough to fill and not to overfill. So, after eating we talked with the waitress a while and drank a couple beers on the couch in front of the fireplace. After a couple hours we decided to go to the mill (which they turned in to a game room and conference center). We played pool, ping pong and listened to the radio till late in to the night. We then went back to the room and…. hung out… (that’s all you need to know) till much later in the night. We watched a movie (they had movies in the main lodge you could take to your room) and went to sleep. In the morning (kinda, 11am) we woke up and got dressed to go to the main lodge. We missed breakfast, but no worries, the cook still made us a fresh breakfast at 11:30am! We talked over breakfast (which was delicious) and then went back to the mill to play some more games. Yendis is much better than me at ping pong but I beat her a lot at pool so it kinda makes up for it. Anyways, we didn’t leave till about 3pm and nobody hastled us to hurry up and go. It was great! Will definately return. The price was about $250 a night with everything included.

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It’s important that after Yendis had our son I don’t get caught up my work too much to let her know how I feel about her. So, I think I’ve planned something really nice for V-Day. It involves a secluded spot about an hour or so from Nashville. She’s not big on the wilderness and it’s supposed to storm but I think it will still turn out to be great. It’s not like we are going to be roughing it at all. We have to celebrate tomorrow night because it’s the only time we can find someone to watch Juhlyun for the night. So, tomorrow will be our V-Day. Yendis doesn’t really like the holiday but I’ve been trying for the past couple years to get her to accept it as a great holiday. I know it’s been over-commercialized but that doesn’t stop us from celbrating Christmas. Anyways, I’ll post more about it when we get back. I don’t want to say to much in case she sees my post.

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In the search for a partner I have one person I am interested in and 3 backup people I will feel out given the first one decides not to come aboard. My strategy in business has always been to never put all your eggs in one basket. Make sure you have a backup and a backup backup and a backup backup backup if you can help it. One of my 3 backup people I find very unlikely to come aboard because I don’t think he takes me seriously. However, I still went ahead and told him that I was interested and told him I would make an offer to him at some point. Now, I probably should have waited till I was sure the first person didn’t accept but I feel that all of these people will come available pretty soon and I wanted to make my intentions known.

Really, I am loyal and also I feel my first choice for a partner is the best choice but I don’t really know if he’s going to accept. I have a feeling his spouse doesn’t think I’m for real or something of that nature. Oh, but I am so for real. Why some people don’t take me seriously I’ll never figure out. Maybe I don’t seem like the type of person that succeeds because I’m laid back and seem ‘aloof’ at times. Every goal I have set my mind to I have achieved in some way or fashion even if I didn’t hit it right on the nose. I’ve helped bring my friends up many times. I’ll admit to dragging my feet from time to time or appearing to be stubborn but these traits don’t define me. I truly am blessed and want to bless others as a result.

Finding a great programmer that is willing to be a partner is a hefty endeavor when people don’t really take you seriously. What’s funny is this is the only time in my life I have had people not take me seriously and this is the time I’m most serious. I guess I have to remember that most of the people I’m talking to don’t know me very well. I’m going to provide a good life for my new family and I don’t see anything that will stop me from achieving that goal. However, I do believe that everything falls in to place given you have enough ambition to set up the right pieces in life. So, I’m sure the right person will come forward at some point and make a commitment and that’s all I’ll need to drive my business to the next stage.

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I said in my last article that I incorporated my business but I was so busy I didn’t say much about this. Really, I’m very happy to create a new responsible corporate citizen. I have had so much business that I have had to slow down and almost stop accepting new projects. Though I haven’t completely cut off the amount of work I accept I have decided to not advertise for a couple weeks while I catch up. I have 5 other people helping me get some projects completed. Each person has a varying amount of time to give me. Most only have about 10-20 hours a week to provide. This may seem like a lot but it’s really not that much. Putting more people on a project doesn’t always make it go faster. So, I have to be very careful how I place my resources.

I subscribed to Quickbooks Online to manage finances. I also signed my business up to accept credit cards. Got a business account… did all the things I needed to do to have payroll. This was all very entertaining but tiresome. I started looking for a partner to lean more twords the programming end of the business so I can lean more to the business end of it. The hunt is still on to find someone to do that. It seems no matter how much business I have coming in it’s hard to get someone capable to make that move with me. But, I have high hopes for a couple options.

I’ve separated all my personal finances and corporate finances. This was strange because I’m used to having both in the same pool. Now, I have to think about my corporation as a separate person I am responsible for. I find myself asking questions like ‘If I were my corporation would I pay myself for what I just did and if so, how much, and when?’. Anyways, this is all going pretty well and it hasn’t been that painfull thus far. Just building away at my legacy.

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I haven’t written in my blog in a long time. I know, it’s a terrible thing. I went from almost every day to gaps of a week or more. So, I’m going to talk about several things in this entry to go over what’s happened in the past couple weeks.

First of all, January 14th was my birthday. We went to a club called ‘Love’ in DC. It had 4 levels. One of those super clubs. It was really great. Yendis made us late because she had a last minute change of mind about her outufit but it still turned out great. Most of my friends didn’t come. In fact, a client of mine came to party with us. He came with his wife. We had a great time. The next day we went to the water front in DC and ate at an ‘all you can eat’ seafood place that was the best. We ate till we just couldn’t any more. Then, we left DC.

When I got back to Tennessee I was swamped with too much work. It’s been so bad I had to quit biding on projects. I incorporated my business the first week I was back. So, I am now the president of Bluepaw Enterprises Inc. I started using some international programmers to help me get some of my projects off of the table. Work has been hectic. I’m still trying to find a great programmer to partner up with.

Juhlyun has been doing good. He got weighed and measured a week ago. He is 27 inches long (which is in the 97th precentile for his age, wow!) and 15 pounds 6 ounces. I have a feeling he is going to be very tall when he grows up. He enjoys throwing his arms in the air and making all kinds of noises and sounds. He’s very attentive and has now started eating cereal and fruit instead of just milk. All organic foods of course.

I’ll do another post in a couple days. Till then, enjoy the week.

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