MrAndrewBradley

It's been more than a year in the making. The packing is complete (Thanks Cortney), my car miraculously fit in my parents three car garage (yes we got three cars in a three car garage) and we completed 24 hours of travel from Sacramento to Denver to Toronto to Frankfurt to Barcelona . We even figured out how to fit 10 bags and five people (plus the driver and a few more bags) into a taxi. Although we made it, United tried to make it difficult by delaying our check-in at the counter in Sacramento , delaying our flight out of Denver for an hour (due to weight, but their website said weather) and finally by failing to give us boarding passes for our connecting flight to Germany , they nearly got us stuck in Canada . Once we made it to Lufthansa we were happy travelers ... all the wine we could drink (for free), tasty food (for airplanes), bathrooms that were downstairs and a personal TV screen for movies, although I read for most of the flight.

Thursday was a day of business and networking. I started off at the Sacramento Convention Center hearing five amazing speakers, all with a different perspective at the Sacramento Metro Chamber's Perspectives 2012 . What did I learn from listening to Peter Sheahan , Arianna Huffington , Vicente Fox , Howie Long and Dick Cheney ? In a sentence, to continually innovate, ask questions and strive for change. Yes some focused on business, others on politics and their personal story, but it all broke down to looking at a situation from a new perspective and not settling for the status quo, even in the face of opposition. Perhaps the most inspirational quote of the day came from former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox ... "The American Dream is better termed a Dream of the Americas . We all share it." Arianna Huffington also had a good one, "Failure is not the opposite of success, it is a stepping stone to success." After Perspectives I headed back out to Rosevill...

Last night I had the opportunity to see Unconditional at a special screening presented by K-LOVE and Air 1 . The movie, with some spiritual undertones, was really good with high and lows, a storyline that was compelling and an ending that inspired action . If you're the movie going type, go out and see it . It's not an action thriller or a romantic comedy, it is a great movie with a few great lessons. Like them on Facebook , Follow them on Twitter .

It may have taken a week and a few trips to the gym in between, but I did treat myself (friends were along for company) to some delicious meals ... ice cream at Leatherby's , Papa Murphy's pizza with some wine from last weeks wine tasting ( peanut butter brownies for dessert) and a mushroom cheeseburger with salted caramel shake from Smashburger . I think I'm ready to eat on the cruise now.

It's a project with a simple mission ... getting neighbors to help neighbors. For the second year I was able to help Convoy of Hope Sacramento with media relations and once again the Sacramento media was hugely supportive of the event. From pre-event coverage in print, online, on TV and on the radio, plus day-of and post event coverage by everyone I couldn't have asked them to do any more. With their help and the help of thousands of volunteers thousands of people in need throughout the Sacramento region converged on Cal Expo to get free health screenings, dental checkups, haircuts, family portraits, tattoos removed, eyes checked and of course take home a few bags/boxes of groceries. It's also a great way for me to prove I can wake up at 2:45 a.m. and buy donuts for volunteers who I ask to be at early morning live shots. Check out Tweets (mainly from me) and pictures below.

As part of the marketing and communications team for the Placer Food Bank (which actually covers more than just Placer County) I got to attend an evening open house at the Food Bank. We wanted to showcase everything that the food bank does for those in need within the community and let people see the warehouse that helps feed thousands everyday. After that event I was able to head to Lincoln's Fresh&Easy to pick up four bottles of Big Kahuna wines for a " Taste & Tweet " party. The aim of the project for Fresh&Easy is to invite bloggers/Twitter users to share their experiences online in a group setting and also share their thoughts with their readers and followers. The theme of the night " Chuck the Chuck " ... all wines were just $1.99 and for the price point the four I tasted were all very good. I'm not a huge fan of whites, but at $1.99 I'll drink to just about anything and both the Crisp White and Chardonnay did the trick. The red...

Other than having an account on Pinterest , I'm not active on the site, but know enough about it to know that Trish and Ryan's Wedding would get a lot of " repins ." After driving up a dirt road to River Highlands Ranch we were greeted by vineyards, a beautiful barn, back lawn, pond and much more. Since the newly married couple will be traveling around the world for their honeymoon over the next year everything from the guestbook to party favor was travel themed and perfect. The food was great (I may have eaten too much), desserts (including red velvet cake and chocolate fountain ) were flavorful and everyone had an amazing time. I cannot wait to start reading their travel blog and then have drinks with Trish and Ryan in about a year and hear all about their once-in-a-lifetime trip . One speaker at the wedding said this and I thought it was worth noting ... "May your love be modern enough to survive the times and old fashioned enough to last forever....

The first Friday of the month we have our staff meeting and then we try to do something fun for team building. We've had a poker tournament, an office Olympics competition and this Friday we headed across the street to the Fountains and Dave and Busters . We enjoyed a tasty lunch and each for about $10 in game credits . Between arcade games, basketball, skee-ball and some others a group of us ended up with more than 2,400 tickets. Needless to say we got some amazing prizes, like hacky sacks.

With two major food truck events in the Roseville-Rocklin area in the last week, I had to check them out and try some great mobile food. Last week I had Drewski's , tonight I tried both OMG Burger and El Matador . All the meals were fabulous and I'm looking forward to SactoMoFo and Foodmob events coming back so I can try a few more of their trucks, including the CaliLoveTruck . Since there are not a lot of dessert options at food truck events, OMG Yogurt was a great option, once with a massive mixture of yogurts and toppings and another time a Dole Pineapple Whip/Float . There was also time with family and roommates. My cousins hosted a family BBQ for Labor Day, complete with some very tasty chicken. I made Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Brownies with a peanut butter ganache (probably not the most healthy of desserts, but they were amazing). My roommates and I also spent some time chatting, watching movies, drinking wine and finished up the brownies.