Hello.

Well I successfully drove from Chicago to DC to NYC to Forest, ON and caught a train home from Detroit. All within a week. The craziest part of the adventure had to be the drive from my hotel in Newark, actually Elizabeth, NJ (one of the dumpiest cities I've ever seen) to the Brooklyn cruise terminal to pick up my mom and brother. It started with me happening to see my muted phone was ringing at 8 a.m. and it was my brother. Turns out they had been calling since 7:30 a.m. waiting out in the rain. I jumped in the car to begin the 20 mile drive. I was excited to see the Manhattan skyline for the first time. Well, 3.5 hours later I arrived at the terminal exhausted and in dire need of the john. In addition, it was too foggy to see the Manhattan skyline. The drive took so long because of the incredible rain and flooding in NYC that day. It was the same day the steam main broke in Manhattan. I saw a city bus up to its headlights in water. There were expressways and side streets closed. It was mayhem. It took us about 30 minutes to back-track to Newark from Brooklyn. Something else to keep in mind if you ever decide to drive from Chicago to DC. It cost about $30 in tolls to get there. Another $15 to get from DC to NYC and I skipped the toll road around Philly. And it cost $6 to cross the Goethals Bridge from Newark to Staten Island and $9 to cross the Verazzano Bridge from Brooklyn to Staten Island. One good thing is that the gas was considerably cheaper out east than it is here.

Business is going well for Waterford. I think I have six contracts signed so I'm very busy bringing everything up to speed for those clients. It doesn't seem like there are enough hours in the day right now. But once everything is up and running and I stop traveling it should calm down.

I went to see "Punks Not Dead" at the Siskel Theatre on State St. last night. It is a documentary about the history of punk music. It was pretty interesting and funny too. It seems like it has changed a lot in thirty years. The old men from bands started in the 70s that still play hard today was hilarious.

I have relatives coming to town tomorrow for the finale of the Tigers-White Sox so that should be a good time. Oh yeah, it is interesting to see the 10 year treasury yield take a dive over the past month while mortgage rates are going up. Not exactly what I expected. The low treasury should keep the market and private equity fairly healthy but the real estate market can ill afford a continued increase in mortgage rate.

Nos vemos!