We took our granddaughter Abby, who's now 6 and lost her first tooth (so terribly excited) on a short vacation to Estes Park, CO. It was her first plane trip, but that's another story.

The Whispering Pines Cottages were very nice - clean, roomy, and ours was right on the Big Thompson River which gurgled by not fifteen feet away. On a few occasions, we noticed fly fishermen working the cold, rushing waters in search of trout. They would cast...pull back...flit the line out again...pull back...set the fly in a slightly different spot...let it float downstream a bit...reel in...and go through the process again. You've seen the process many times, I'm sure. I never saw any of these folks actually catch a fish, but they went at it for hours on the hope of a strike.

It seems like a perfect metaphor for anything we strive to accomplish. Success rarely comes on the first cast. We try a little something, and it's not quite right. We try it a little differently, and maybe that's not quite it either. But we keep nuancing, setting the fly here and there, trying little technique tweaks as we wade along. And if we are perseverant and hit the right spots, success comes with a big splash.

Here's to success, one cast at a time.

I have been reluctant to start a blog, primarily because throughout my life I've been trained to work behind the scenes. Unless I'm extremely experienced and comfortable in an area, I listen, consider, but am generally not one to speak up. At least not at first.

Then I started thinking about it.

I have been married to the same beautiful Monica for 33 years, have two exceptional grown children who work with me, a delightful 5-year-old grandaughter and another due in December.

I have almost 30 years experience in the meetings industry, both as a planner and as a supplier for the past 13 years.

I have a pretty good reputation in the industry as a geek who gets it. I speak and write on meetings technology frequently.

I'm a small business owner.

I have been a city councilmember in our town for 5 years.

I garden.

I'm a crossword puzzle fanatic.

Maybe there is something I can bring to the blogversation.