First and foremost I would like to apologize for the lack of posts this week. It was due, in part, to technical difficulties posting on Monday/Tuesday and also because I unable to log on from South Bend. So with that being said I will get you all up to date on my week.
Tuesday night I went to the Knicks/Lakers game at the Garden. The only reason I want to spend a few sentences on that event is because I was able to hang with Walt Frazier for a few minutes before the game. (if you want to call it a game with the Lakers playing without Kobe Bryant, Luke Walton and Kwame Brown) I mentioned to Clyde that I was running out of descriptive words to use on the blog. He gave me quite a few new adjectives and was extremely enthusiastic in relaying the new phrases to me. I am looking forward to using them and getting a few more from him in the future.
On Wednesday I flew out to South Bend for a private signing with Charlie Weis. The signing was not until Thursday but the flights out there are limited. It had been snowing in Indiana for a few days so I was not surprised that both my flights (the one to Detroit and the connecting one to South Bend) were delayed. I eventually made it to a snow-buried South Bend late Wednesday evening.
I was slated to begin setting up for the signing at 9:00 Thursday morning. After waking up I put on my snow boots and treked out on foot across the snow Notre Dame campus. There was snow blowing eveywhere and , for some reason, I kept thinking about the Hoth scene at the beginning of "The Empire Strikes Back". I did make it there in time to set up and was ready to roll when Coach Weis walked in at noon. The signing with Weis take place in a closed-in loading dock adjacent at the Notre Dame Athletics Complex. It is really cool to walk in the building and see all the trophies. It took Charlie almost three hours to complete the signing. Over that time we talked about a million different things including the Super Bowl, NFL playoffs and about which of his players are entering the draft. I would be shocked if Brady Quinn did not go in the top three or four picks. We also talked a little about Super Bowl 25 where Weis was an assistant coach for the Giants. The reason the signing took so long is that we got some great inscriptions on so much of the product. I was able to get some splendiferous (Clyde word) web exclusive items such as footballs with the date Coach Weis took the program over.
Once we completed the signing everything got boxed up and prepped to ship back to New York. Coach Weis' staff has been incredible in helping me get through these signings quickly. They have been so helpful with the set-up as well as boxing up the items. When I finally left the complex I was pleasantly surprised to see the sun. It had stopped snowing which made the walk back a lot easier.
The following morning is when everything got interesting. The snow was back and my 8:00 flight to Detroit had been indefinitely delayed. I considered taking a bus to Chicago and attempting to fly to New York from there but instead stuck it out in South Bend. We eventually took off at about noon but, at that point, I had already missed two connecting flights to LaGuardia. To make a long story short I finally landed in New York last night with a pocket full of revised flight itineraries. It was quite an annoying struggle getting home (especially with a heavy bag full of supplies and 8x10 photos) but overall it was a successful trip. I really enjoyed spending time with Charlie and got some exquistie product signed for our inventory. I am already looking forward to our event with Coach Weis on March 16th. If any of you are interested in attending check it out on the site and feel free to email me on it.
Later today I doing a private signing with Yankees catcher Jorge Posada. Check back for a recap.