RS Annual Meeting - Day Two

Day two was very tiring. We started the day around 8:30 this morning with presentations from the CEO, CFO, CMO, etcetera, etcetera. As the day went on more jibber jabber, oops, presentations from AT&T, T-Mobile, Apple, Sandisk, HTC, Cisco and others about how great their products are. They showed us slides of endless numbers and marketing research that made the whole day very confusing and mundane. Our CEO painted a pretty good picture of the "state of the economy" of RadioShack and I feel more confident.

I had dinner tonight with some very good friends from North Carolina. They are Boyd and Lynda Sosserman from Sylva and Tony and Monica Curtis from Franklin. These are some seriously good people and they were good company for the evening. We had a really nice dinner but, of course, we talked RS all night. I'm the guy with hair.

Lance Armstrong was our guest speaker. I took this picture of the screen since we were pretty far back. He explained the details of the Livestrong foundation for cancer research. It was very interesting and all the women swooned. (Some of you may have to Google "swooned").

They are having a silent auction for merchandise to benefit the Livestrong foundation. One of the items up for auction, believe it or not, is two tickets to the Final Four in Houston in 2011. I just told Sue last week that I wanted to go. I am high bidder at the moment. I'll remain silent about how much I am willing to spend. That would be awesome to win and is the highest priced item on the tables. They are also auctioning a brick from the old Yankee stadium, a jersey signed by Lance, tickets to a Dallas Cowboys home game, two iPads, high end cell phones & a Tony Stewart autographed NASCAR drivers helmet. But, I'm after the Final Four tickets.

RS Annual Meeting - Day One!

I just finished up day one of the meeting. Today began with a council meeting at 8:30 and finished up with a general session than ended at 6:30pm. It is very tiring to sit around all day.

I had the opportunity to sit across the table from all the RS executives and we all had an opportunity to put our 2 cents worth in. Will it make a difference? I don't know but it seems they are trying to make RS a first class operation.

The hotel is sponsoring an Alice in Wonderland theme for the month. I went around and took some pictures of the grounds during an afternoon break. I thought you'd like to see the place. It is similar (but smaller) to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. Luke and Nicklas would have a good time here! Look at the model train.

Go Jackets!

BTW.....they have a nice spa and gym here. I made it to the gym this morning for a 45min workout before my first meeting.

Also, I really wish Sue had come with me. This is a great place but not much fun by yourself. I have a lot to do to keep me busy, though.

Sue...Boyd and Lynda said they miss you!

RS Annual Meeting - Arrival

I just arrive at the Gaylord Texan hotel for a 4 day meeting with RS staff and vendors. Looks like a rough place to hang out. Right?

The flight only took 2 hours and getting out of the airport just about as long. I forget just how confusing the DFW airport and roads can me. Jennifer knows what I'm talking about.

I got to the Atlanta airport around dinner time (6pm). Every resturaunt was packed so I resorted to eating at Burger King. Mistake! I will be hitting the gym shortly to try and work off that crummy meal.

Here is a view from my balcony! You can see the place is huge. This picture is of the inside of the hotel area. I have an advisory council meeting starting at 8:30am and I'll finish day one about 7pm. I really don't like sitting around all day but hopefully we can all be productive and iron out some issues. There's lots of vendors here for the week and lots of prize drawings.

Here is a view of my room. Darn it. No mints on the pillow!

RS Annual Meeting -

P90 Day 45

Well there are a couple of things I am surprised at:
1) I've done this for 45 days.
2) I've done this for 45 days and now I enjoy and have to do it.

Actually, I am 4 days behind in my daily exercises (I should be at dat 49) but I did finish the 45th day today. Can I tell a difference? Sure can! I could barely do 3 pushups when I started and I did 30 in a row tonight. I was so winded when doing the cardio the first night I had to pause the DVD. Now I run straight thru (level 2). I would say that I am a solid level 2 (out of 4). I put in the level 3 sculpting DVD last night and completed most of the exercises but I think I'll wait another week before moving up to level 3. The 100 crunches every other night are a breeze now. It was hard for me to even lay on the floor to begin with. Level 3 moves to 200 crunches and I'm actually looking forward to that. I can no longer wear my size 40 pants. These are my newest pants, too. If this keeps up I'll be in a size 36 by the 90th day. My 38s are actually too big for me right now. Wohooooo!

I mentioned earlier that I have to do these excercises. I used to poo poo other people saying they were addicted to exercise. I am a long way from addicted but I get restless at night if I don't exercise. Also, I find myself stretching and doing table pushups while at work. I keep getting restless and the exercise is a way to release all that tension.

In other news...............
Robert and Jennifer threw a birthday party last Saturday for Nicklas. He had a big blast. Look on my FB page for a link to the video or go to Youtube and search for "Jungle Jumpers Nicklas" and you'll see it. It was so funny that he started crying when we all sang "Happy Birthday". Jennifer used to do the same thing. The only thing that would have made it better was if Luke was there to jump on all the "blow-ups". He would have had so much fun. Maybe we can find some place in Moscow to take him on our visit. We plan on spoiling him in a big way!

Jonas, Melissa & Luke made it to Moscow this weekend. Last message from Jonas was that the apartment was GREAT and they were excited about moving in. It will be good for them to have their own place for a while.

Thanks for reading.

-Randy

Day 30 P90

Okay....just finished another sculpting workout with the P90 and I have to say it is getting better. If you can count you can see I'm a couple of days behind in the program. There are some days that work and commitments take up more time than I can afford. I checked in the forums online and this seems to be a common problem. I feel fortunate to only being down a couple days.

I use the iPod and turn down the volume on the TV so I don't hear the same thing over and over.....much better now. On their scale of 1-4 I would say I'm a 1 1/2 right now. The exercises are much much easier for me now but I really don't think I'm at level 2 and certainly not ready to tackle level 3. Anyway, I've been substituting two things: 1) 2 hours of volleyball on Wednesday nights for the cardio. I am making up the crunches on Thursday nights. 2) I substitute the Fat Burning CD for one night of cardio. It has a lot of the same routines but it is a bit higher level of workout.

I am down to 218lbs as of this morning (remember, I started at 234.5). I can actually see my ribs now....LOL. BTW, the Yoga is still very very hard for me but I'm getting there.

One thing I've learned. DO THE STRETCHES! I didn't put much stock into the stretches but it really does make a difference in the quality of the workout. It's like "how low can you go". Lower with the stretches...definitely!

This is new territory for me. I joined a gym three and they enjoyed my money while I went home and sat around and ate the wrong foods. This has been fun and I am even amazing myself. I actually sprinted about 200 yards on a power walk this week. I mean sprinted. That's probably not a big thing for you? But for me? That is huge and it felt great.

On another note:
I miss my son. I miss my daughter-in-law. I miss Luke! There's no two ways about it. Being a dad and grandfather is both rewarding AND difficult at times. They are on my mind constantly and I'm so looking forward to seeing them (and Noah) in October.