Just got back from Lisbon, Portugal this morning where I attended our annual MD's conference. The bad news was that traveling long distances has become a real nightmare. I flew Delta to Paris and then hung around Charles DeGaulle for several hours before connecting to an Air France flight to Lisbon. I guess it was about 17 hours door to door and I'm absolutely convinced that Delta squeezed more passengers into the mail cabin than the designers of that plane ever imagined possible. Yes, I fly economy even though I'm the Managing Director of my firm. Call it good financial sense given the difference in price was about $6,000 and when you run a P&L center you watch the bucks everyday. The good news was that we got a lot done in two days of very long meetings and I got to hang out with the other MD's, all of whom are based in Europe. Our firm is headquartered in London and it's nice to get back there from time to time, especially since my wife is British. Ellie was born in Holland by the way. Did I tell you that she landed the roll of Toto in the Wizard of Oz? Not a real speaking part mind you, but lots of work nevertheless. She's very proud because she was determined not to be a muchkin this year. Anyway, a really good conference..........A couple of very nice dinners couple with some excellent wine and port. Got back last evening about 6 p.m. and took MARTA back into the city to avoid the traffic. (Tell me, why don't more folks take MARTA given the traffic on I85?) Up early this morning and back to the office for a conference call on the Georgia Technology Summit (I'm the committee chair for the Feb '07 event) and a meeting with sales. Good day so far................Hope yours is going as well.