Hairypalooza Judgement Day

155.0 on the scale, 14.0 miles biking on the path, and 150/100.

Today's adventures mostly had to do with logistics (which were conquered), emergency evacuations (which I participated in), and beard pageantry (which was hairy - ba da bum!).

As for logistics, I had a pretty full day, with calendar events stacked back-to-back, including coffee with an employee, a conference call with Target, lunch with a friend and former employee, a new business meeting with Best Buy, and then the Hairypalooza Beer:30 first-round judging. I had to do some juggling and do the conference call from my cell in the car, and relocate lunch to somewhere closer to Best Buy headquarters, but managed to keep everything on the books and mostly on time. Well, aside from getting lost on the way back from the Best Buy meeting due to construction closings and detours.

Anyway, I had a very enjoyable lunch with Laura, our former office manager and friend and fellow Spring Hill School parent. We went to Tandoor for some Indian food, which I'd been craving, and she'd never tried. Man, I loves the naan. Just sayin'.

As we were leaving the restaurant, the skies grew dark and started spilling a few raindrops, while threatening to really open up. I drove across 494 in it to Best Buy's corporate campus, went in and got checked in, and then sat to wait for the rest of the HAM crew while I watched the skies outside turn an eerie shade of yellow-green and the wind pick up significantly. Seth dropped them all off at the door then went to park, and shortly after they got in, rather than being able to head up to the meeting we were supposed to be in, Best Buy's emergency system kicked in and prompted us all to evacuate to the emergency location specified, namely, the basement. Seth was stuck in the parking lot in heavy driving rain. So, I got to see parts of Best Buy's headquarters that I've never seen, thankyouverymuch.

After about 20-25 minutes down there, we were allowed to come back up and we crammed an hour-long meeting into the remaining time we had. Despite the adventure, the meeting seemed to go well, and hopefully we'll get the project.

So then, heading back, I got lost. The ramp for 35W north was closed, so I took the Lyndale exit and headed north on that, then ran into a stretch of Lyndale that was completely tore up, and that's when I went astray. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 45th and Lyndale, my adventure started, one that led me into relatively unknown territory weaving around Lake Harriet and neighborhoods unknown to me. I finally hit a major thoroughfare, which I knew would take me back to Lyndale, and from there I knew how to get back downtown, but by then I was already late for Hairypalooza.

They waited for me to start the festivities, thankfully. The judges (Tiffany, Alexis, Anna and Pete) closely inspected all of our beards to judge for "longest" (Stephen), "fullest" (Matt), "most celebrity resemblance" (Kevin), "most natural" (Brad) and "sexiest" (Eric). I was not named winner in any of them, and so did not come away with a prized wife-beater tank top, like the winners received. Funniest moment was when Kevin won the "most celebrity resemblance" category for looking like Burl Ives.

Anyway, the rest of the day, we played some Wii, and I responded to a couple of emails, then headed home.