I know, I know... it's been way too long since I've posted! Let me tell you what I've been up to. I finished catching up on client orders and decided to celebrate by going surfing last Thursday during a pretty significant swell. I went to a secret spot that is supposed to be really good during a big swell. I was in the water shortly after sunrise with my friends Ben and Joel. I caught a few waves and was starting to have fun. Then, just after kicking out after riding this one wave, I was under water and my board came along and cracked me in the head. I ended up with a nice gash that needed some stitches. I was taken care of at a local walk-in clinic and made it out of there just in time for a meeting with a bride at my office. Luckily I have a shower at my office so I could rinse all the blood out of my wetsuit and get cleaned up before the meeting. Now get this... in the middle of my meeting I felt some warm liquid running down my neck and behind my ear. I excused myself to the restroom to find that my head was bleeding all over and I had like 3 streams of blood coming down through my hair. Just like MacGyver I used hairspray and stick of gum to fix the situation and continued with my meeting.

So you're thinking... Mike, that's a pretty rough day. It gets worse... I was in a second meeting with another bride and I get a phone call from my wife at home telling me that my son Aidan just fell down the stairs! He seemed to be ok other than some scratches and bumps, but my wife was pretty much traumatized and I had to cut my meeting short to go home. Thank God he's ok! What a day! So the Colón boys were locked in a Nerf room for a few days and that's why I took so long to post.

I found out from my accountant just a few days ago that I owe waaaay more than I thought in taxes this year. She said I need to either dump a ton of money into my pension plan, buy some equipment, or buy a new SUV. So I bought an SUV (see photo above). I'm a sucker for a good excuse to spend money on things with 4 wheel drive. Especially when snowboarding season is starting up! So, I guess to make this legal, I'm going back to shooting extreme sports in the mountains. I need to ask my accountant if I can write off a new snowboard this year too! I think I might go up to Big White in B.C. to hang with Gary Fong in his ski in/ski out chalets! Hmmm.. can I write that off too? I hope the IRS doesn't read blogs! Well, I'm sure there is a good reason to do some photo reconnaissancee work up in British Columbia on my new snowboard and so it's 100% legitimate right? I think Nikon is making a digital wifi helmet cam for just this type of work! (I should clarify that I'm joking about this stuff so I don't lead anyone astray - I am a firm believer in keeping everything 100% legit in my business, and that includes paying taxes. I know that God's blessing has been on my business because I do my best to honor Him in every decision I make.)

Oh yeah.. I switched the dates on my March workshop to the 20-23 and there are 12 seats left. So if you were wanting to do my workshop and go to WPPI, now there's some room to relax in between!

Happy New Year Everyone!! May God richly bless you, your family, and your business in 2006!

Mike

p.s. I forgot to tell you that my brave wife took my stitches all by herself last night and it didn't even hurt! What a great wife!