Is It April Already?

Where is the year going? It's going to be time for full-blown Christmas Eve operations before you know it.

I have been quite busy since the last time I wrote. I finished up my trip in China, attended an off-site with my direct reports, worked in a refugee camp in eastern Africa, held a board of directors meeting, took Mrs. Claus on a cruise, and even made a trip to Japan earlier today.

I am happy to report that our partners in China have implemented a very strict Quality Assurance process. Our goal is to have ZERO recalls for toys delivered by Santa in 2008.

Mrs. Claus and I did spend a week cruising the Mexican Riveria. Many of you may have seen us... we were on the Norwegian Star last week. What a fantastic cruise! Lots of kids but everyone was very nice and gave Mrs. Claus and I a lot of privacy. We really enjoyed the great weather, good food, the new friends we made, the entertainment (Second City had an "unscripted" performance and Murray put on a stunning - and funny - magic show), and the exciting ports. We both used those patches that you put behind your ear to keep from getting sea-sick. They work but my eyes were fully dialated the entire time and I definitely felt a lot more relaxed. Mrs. Claus said she preferred the medicated version of me. I have to tell you though... I'm proud of the fact that despite the incredible food -and trust me, I sampled it all - I didn't gain any weight. I hit the weight room 4x during the trip, ran around the top-side track every day, and twice swam in the lap pool. But the chocolate buffet just about did me in. On Saturday night, Mrs. Claus had gone to bed but I went out to have a nightcap at the Red Lion Pub as I had done several nights. There were several of us guys whose wives went to bed early and apparently we all had a similar idea to have a night cap on the second night of the cruise. The Red Lion was a natural place to meet as the other bars & night clubs on the ship all had spring-break inspired parties going and the quiet, very manly and English pub-like atomosphere of the Red Lion attracted us all. We ended up making it a nightly tradition for the remainder of the cruise. Anyway... I'm headed down to the pub when I notice a line forming outside the main dining room. I had to ask what was going on. "Chocolate Buffet" was the response. It was all I needed to hear. I must confess... I debated whether I should go get Mrs. Claus up from her slumber or not. The line was already long and the buffet was only going to last an hour longer. If I left, I may not get back in time. So... and I'm somewhat embarrased to admit it... I hopped in line and let Mrs. Claus snooze. And WOW! There was a buffet table 100 yards long just jam packed with chocolate in every form you could imagine. I piled two plates full of chocolate AND got a bowl of chocolate ice cream. I sat at a table and devoured it all. Not a crumb left. By the time I was done, I was too stuffed to go to the Red Lion so I stumbled back to the stateroom. Just as I laid down, the sugar kicked in. BING! Eyes wide open. I swear my toes were twitching from the sugar overload. I am not sure when I finally fell asleep but I do remember seeing 4:27am on the alarm clock and thinking I should just get up and walk around the ship. But it was worth it. The next morning I debated whether or not I should tell Mrs. Claus about the chocolate buffet or not. I mean... if she didn't know about it, she wouldn't feel bad about missing it, right? I was still debating at breakfast when the first person came up and exclaimed "How about that chocolate buffet last night?! Wasn't that incredible?" Mrs. Claus just smiled. I responded "It sure was." And then I realized they were talking to Mrs. Claus. Turns out she had been at the chocolate buffet earlier in the evening and didn't tell me because she knew the doctor wouldn't want me to have that much sugar. Oops.

Mrs. Claus and I also thought it would be fun to get Henna tattoos while we were in Mexico. The tattoo is not permanent... it lasts about 2 weeks... fortunately. I thought I had picked a Chinese character for "peace" to have tattoo'd just above my ankle. It looks great and was a huge hit with the kids on the ship. "Fierce looking" one kid on the ship said. Turns out though that when Twinkle (she is fluent in both Cantonese & Mandarin) saw it yesterday, she burst out laughing. She said it actually means "Fat Man". Great. At least 10 more days of wearing thigh-high socks for me.

I went to Tokyo today for a meeting with one of the gaming platform manufacturers. It was a good trip. All of you are going to be very pleasantly surprised by some of the new features you'll see in the 2008 hand-held video gaming platforms. The CEO was kind of enough to host me for lunch. Let me say I love Japan. And I love a good Kobe steak or shrimp tempura. But it was sushi. Raw fish rates somewhere above live eels and slightly above haggis, but definitely near the bottom, on my very, very long list of foods. I knew I had to be polite so I did not decline. I decided to cover it in wasabi. There was so much wasabi on it, it may have actually seared the meat. The wasabi worked... the inferno that shot up through my sinuses and made my ears tingle also served to completely distract me from the taste and texture of the fish. Then I had another brilliant idea. I decided to take some of the wasabi out to Blitzen (he loves spicy food!) when it was time to fly back home to the North Pole. He loved it. In fact, he made me stop and pick up some more before we left. One problem.... you really don't want to sit in a sleigh behind a reindeer that just consumed 6 or 7 heaping tablespoons of wasabi. It was a long ride home. Whew.

I am headed to the Final Four tomorrow! Keep an eye out for me. I'll be cheering for Memphis. By the way, did I mention that I'm winning the little pool we have going up at the North Pole (no gambling... that is strictly against company policy... for fun only)? Candy is in second and Jolly is in 3rd. If Kansas wins it all, Candy wins. Jolly can only win if UCLA beats North Carolina in the final.

Ok... I gotta go. I have several episodes of "Survivor" to catch up on. Good night.