I am a frequent traveler.  I don’t necessarily like to be, but it is needed considering my regular work is 700 miles away from home!  As a result, there are many opportunities for me to encounter pet peeves while traveling.  Some of these things I shrug off, but others really test my patience.  Here are 3 pet peeves of mine that will guarantee you are off my Christmas card list this year:

1) Put both of your bags in the overhead bin – When you put both of your bags in the bin, you ensure a slower boarding process.  Just because you have a right to do it, doesn’t make it right.  Use the space below your feet!

2) Let your backpack swing wildly as you walk up the aisle – I like an aisle seat.  But, when you  are boarding with your backpacks, must you allow it to bang off of my shoulder when you walk by?

3) Block the moving sidewalk so that walkers cannot pass – 8 words people — Walk to the left and stand to the RIGHT!

What travel pet peeves do you encounter?

1) The first Monday morning - Are you kidding?  Isn’t a great feeling to wake up on a Monday morning of a vacation week and exclaim with joy:  “No work today or this week. Back to sleep!”

2) Time with family - My current job requires me to do a significant amount of travel.  Prior to this week, I was on the road at least part of 11 straight weeks.  It is great to get to spend focused time with family.  Here is a shot of us enjoying lunch one day:

3) The Food!!! - I just love to eat well when I am on vacation.  Down at Myrtle Beach, there are ALL KINDS of great spots we hit each time we are here.  Here is a shot of a dozen oysters I dusted off and washed her down with an ice cold beer.

4) Early morning quiet time - Aside from Monday mornings, I like to get up early each day.  It is time for me to do some reading, work on my blog, or simply sit out on the porch with a cup of coffee and listen to the uh-uh birds while my family is still sleeping.

5) Afternoon naps - Oh, how I LOVE that afternoon nap while on vacation.  They should be a requirement of the work week, too!

What are some favorite things YOU like to do to re-charge during a week’s vacation?

It has been nearly 2 years that I have been blogging and I thought it was time to upgrade the content and design. I did this for a few reasons:
1) I wanted to make the design more personalized to my leadership style
2) I wanted to add more information (you will see a new multi-tab format with Pocket Change, About, Resume, and Contact tabs to go along with the Home page)
3) I wanted to have the ability to add more customizable content to the sidebars.
4) I wanted to develop better tracking mechanisms
5) I wanted to make it easier for you, the reader, to provide your comments, so that we can have more than a dialogue and learn from each other.
6) I wanted an easier to remember domain. The new domain is www.johngallagherblog.com . To me, much easier than john-gallagher.blogspot.com

I believe this design does that AND MORE. Special thanks to Ryan Lang for putting the design together and fielding all of the questions I had about tweaking. He was very patient with me!

Look for some more posts upcoming explaining the features in more detail. I am excited about this ‘facelift’ and hope that I can continue to add more value to you with this blog. Let me know what you think!!

John

I have been wanting to write about this for a while.  I recall sitting in my office early this year and drawing on a napkin a picture of a helium balloon with the sandbags on the side.  The science of a gas balloon is such that to fly higher,” the pilot throws out ballast

Another disappointing loss for ND tonight. The tough part is listening to some of the prognosticators say that ND is not prestigious anymore…Does any other TEAM basically have their own national television contract? Can any other TEAM say that every one of their games is televised…every year? Can any other TEAM say that the biggest game their opponent plays EVERY year is the Notre Dame game? Notre Dame IS prestigious and Robert Smith (ESPN studio analyst) doesn’t understand what he is saying when he says that Notre Dame can’t afford a prestigious coach since Weis’ buyout is so large.

Now, I do believe that Weis should forego a majority of the buyout since I believe he should be fired for ’cause’. Even HE said when he was hired that 6-5 just wasn’t good enough! He’s right. 6-6 isn’t good enough, either.