As my wife will enthusiastically support, I’m just not wired to remember special days that well.  Other people remember my birthday for me - so that one is no problem. I seem to do OK with our wedding anniversary, wife and kid birthdays - at least I can tell you the day they happen on.  Actually doing anything to celebrate it always seems to be just a bit beyond my grasp.  The local grocery stores have - at times - benefited from last-minute dashes in PJ’s and slippers to purchase cheesy flowers and cards.

I needed that time to catch up on sleep, re-connect with my family, and just sort of let the experience sink in before I could begin to gather my thoughts for this post. 

Even now I can’t quite figure out how to summarize, analyze or synthesize anything out of the weekend because all I keep doing is shaking my head and wondering - “Did that all really happen?  And in roughly 48 hours?”  Amazing!

What you see above is the scanned-in image of a postcard mailed by my grandparents to one of my grandmother’s sisters while they were traveling in 1957 (interesting to note the lack of a house address or zip code).  I scanned it in because it’s one of the few samples I have of my grandmother’s “voice” and handwriting and I wanted my kids to be able to see it.  Scanning it was a great way to both preserve it, back it up, and not have to worry about storing the physical postcard.

So - I’m happy to announce that along with the ElevatorUp folks I’m getting the ball rolling on hosting Startup Weekend in Grand Rapids on February 26th - 28th. 

What is it?

48 hours of pure business-building madness.

There’ll be speakers, food, whiteboarding, coffee, ideation, creation, bootstrapping, networking, learning, teaching - and overall just a loud buzz of activity that will hopefully burst forth with new businesses, new relationships and some positive press for the West Michigan area.

Encouraged to attend are: techhies, marketers, lawyers, business folks, designers, doctors, dentists, linemen, bowling alley managers—anyone with a passion for business and a chance to have a great time.  If your business would like to sponsor the event please contact me.  I’ll be calling you anyway…you might as well beat me to the punch..;)

Essentially I replaced this style of redirect:

with this style:

I’m sure I tested the former and had them working - why they stopped I don’t know.  It’s one of those things I don’t have the time to figure out—they seem to be working again and I’m moving on.