I just got back from Florida for Thanksgiving and I’d have to say that I’m not happy. It’s 31º outside right now. Twelve hours ago, I was in a jucuzzi sipping a Heineken with Iggie and now I’ve got my (electric = costly) heat running at full blast and my poor cat is burying himself under the covers of my bed (which is a good thing because otherwise, he’d be mangling my Christmas Tree).

While I was in Florida on holiday, or Floriday as I like to call it (don’t bother looking it up, it doesn’t exist), I got the opportunity to spend sometime with Sari’s family. I traditionally say that “Friends are God’s way of making up for Family,” but this wasn’t the case with the Altschuler clan. They’re actually so very inviting and friendly, it scares me to think that Sari will have to someday deal with my family in New York (especially if she’s used to that type of warmth)…both literally and figuratively.

On the flip-side of things, I also got to see Grandmere and Grandpere and spend some QT with my Mom’s side of the family, whom I absolutely adore.

Either way, things have been going extremely well, lately, on both the personal side of things and with my business. I just sent a 40-page designer booklet to bed for The Australian Trade Commission, as they’re having their first annual Australian Designers Collections here in New York. The event features 16 designers from down-under, parading the hottest new trends from the exact opposite side of the globe as me. And while it was frustrating to work with people who don’t understand the time difference (read: 2am phone calls on Sunday evening), it really got me excited to learn more about their culture and eventually tour the perimeters of their island/continent/country. You know their money is actually plastic, since they do so much swimming and water sports? That should tell you something about their culture.

We’ve got a number of other projects in the works and about a dozen agreements/proposals in the air for the first quarter of 2006. I actually am turning away more work now than I did when I begged Mike to come aboard a few years back. And the cool thing is that a lot of it is print work; which I somehow find more gratifying than web design. Either way, I certainly feel blessed.

By the way, if you haven’t yet tattoo’d the pickel barrel, you really should.