Disney World

I had a chance to visit Disney World & Resort for the first time, thanks for a client related speaking engagement I have to say. Epcot/Swan Resort and Magic Kingdom/Grand Floridian were the two places that I got to see for a few minutes outside of the busy meeting schedules. There was a little girl who is about 2 at most and her mom standing on the paved road in the massive backyard of the Grand Floridan compound, they caught my eye when I was just trying to rush to the conference room few feet away: they were whole-heartedly watching a mommy duck and 4 yellow furry ducklings crossing the road. The mommy duck cracked a little, as if to gently remind her babies to keep up with the pace, there are yummy food in sight, or simply just reminding them of her presence. And the little girl and her mommy held each other's hands and watched these cute creatures with such love and something I can't describe. That was the moment that I said to myself, I need to spend more time with Ellie, seriously. And of course she needs to visit Disney very soon :)

Water Heater

Our water heater has been rusting away, so we finally decided to devote the weekend to fix it. What thought to be a half day job quickly turned into a one day then two day, now looks like two day plus a long night kind of job. Let'see, Dan has made 5 trips to Home Depot in the past 36 hours, we have cut 4 long cooper pipes, sanded them down, and sweated 8 pipes (the pipes were certainly hot enough to sweat, so did us), 1-2 ugly and the rest a bit more presentable, I learned how to take off the fire extinguisher and be ready in case we need it, and watched Dan caulk the wall to prevent future leaking. Maybe we or more accurately, Dan, can open a plumbing shop next time around.

Let's see, what else. Ellie made her first camping trip over the memorial day weekend. We stayed in Coyote Lake campground for 3 nights and 4 days, Matt and Di brought their three little kids including baby Simone with them. Ellie stole all Simone's toys, or snatched them is the more accurate description. There was another time when we looked away for a minute and then found Ellie was sitting on Simone's back, and amazingly both babies were enjoying their relative position. Later on we found the same between Ellie and another kid who is 4 months older, except the position has changed and now Ellie became the pillow of that kid. One can't help drawing conclusion from these two data points that survival the fittest, truly.

Workwise, recently someone asked me an interesting question of "are you a change agent"? It made me think for a while. Consultants are in the business of persuation and influencing. And most importantly, we do it in the way that doesn't sound like we are persuading the clients, rather, it feels like the opposite done skillfully. The more I am in this business, the more I realize it is not just the quality of the work, it is how you communicate it, to whom, in what sequence and what are the key messages to different audience. It is an art, and I am still a very naive student in it.