Canadian Rockies

Went to the Canadian Rockies this summer to celebrate Lisa and my ten year wedding anniversary. The Candian Rockies are Spectacular. If you have been - you know what I mean. If you haven't been - start planning a trip there.

Pictures don't really do this place justice. It is 100X better than the picture looks. The mountains are huge, the lakes are deep blue, and the activities are endless. Trust me - you need to go here.

Let me plan your 7 day - 6 night trip for you. This itinerary is close to what we did, but improved just for you. Here is the itinerary:

Spend 3 nights in Lake Louise and 3 night in Banff.

Day 1: Lake Louise. White Water Raft on the Kicking Horse River. Go with Wild Water Adventures and ask for Billy as your raft guide. He will make sure you get soaked in 38 degree water, but love every minute of it.

Day 2: Lake Louise. Hike on the Athabasca Glacier and experience the magnificence of a huge piece of Ice. (also see the effects of global warming first hand)

Day 3: Lake Louise. Hike around Lake Louise up to the Lake Agnes Tea House (for tea and muffins) and out to the Plain of Six Glaciers. DO it early in the morning, before the tourists show up hiking in high heels, taking pictures of every chipmunk they come across (don't they have Chipmunks in Japan???)

Day 4: Head to Banff. Rent Bikes and mountain bike or even spend the day on the town recreation paths. You will see waterfalls, wildlife, and should even stop for lunch at The Sushi House. Neat place that has a train running through the restaurant with different sushi dishes on each of the cars. When you see one you want - you just take it off the car. At the end of the meal - they add up the number of plates and pay.

Day 5: Banff. Spend the whole day at Willow Stream Spa. Take a Yoga Class in the morning (did it for the first time and it was hard), play a little tennis, hit the cold/hot/mineral baths. Take a whirlpool, sauna, steam. Shower and use loads of the fancy soap, shampoo and warm shaving cream. Get an hour sports massage ( I prefer female). Hang out in your bathrobe and read the paper in the "Co-Ed Relaxation Lounge". Go back and re-do everything again. Try and spend at least 6 hours in this place and get your money's worth. It is expensive, but well worth it.

Day 6: Banff. Open to do what ever else you like or just hang out in the town of Banff.

Head home knowing you have been to one of the greatest places on earth.

If I missed something special on my itinerary - let me know, we plan on going back....

Outsourcing

(Sorry to everyone about not posting in a long time, but summer has kept me off the computer. I will be back blogging more often, now that fall is here....)

Lots and lots of news these days on Outsouring US jobs to India, China, Philippines and other countries. There is a great book: The World is Flat that describes how more and more jobs get outsourced each day due to globalization. For Example: You bring your tax return to HR Block thinking that some Accountant in their office will do your tax return for $150. Wrong. They scan all your paperwork in and ship it off electronically to India, where an accountant trained in US tax laws does your return. The reason? In India, the accountant does it for a couple bucks and hour vs. fifty bucks an hour in the US.

There are many other jobs that get outsourced, assembly line jobs, technical support jobs, etc... Basically, anything that can be done competently by someone in another country is getting outsourced, all in the name of productivity and cost savings.

So, I was thinking about this recently and was wondering when all this outsourcing will benefit me??? HR Block's use of offshore accountants helps them make money. How can I take advantage of all this outsourcing....Hmmmmm.

Top 5 things I am planning on outsourcing:

1. Technical Support to family members - Yes, I work in high tech - but my time is more valuable than to help Lisa, my wife, figure out how to download 32 pictures from some 4 year old's birthday party, put them on line and share them.

Or nothing worse than sitting down to watch the Red Sox on TV and hearing "The computer is not working, please come help". This is usually a quicker fix - after taking a quick look at the hung state - I reboot everything. But these 5 minutes away from game, usually end up in a David Ortiz walk off home run...

From now on, when any family member needs help with basic computing tasks - I will give them a 1-800 number that connects them to someone in India who will be much more willing to help than me and I will happily pay the support rep $3 per hour to help with these tasks.

2. Sunday night trash and Recycling duty: Whoever made trash pickup in my town on a Monday morning was not thinking straight. Sunday night should be spent relaxing - not running around the house collecting trash and filling up the recycling bins. I would like to outsource this task. Can't you see the help wanted ad in the local paper?

Job Opening: Sanitation Engineer - Looking for someone to come into my house every Sunday night to collect and separate trash/recycling items. No need to speak english. Basic knowledge of plastic, paper, glass, and aluminum required. Pay: 1$ per bag or bin. Bonus Plan- Keep any bottle deposit money from beer and soda cans. Please send resume if you have 5+ years experience.

3. Bedtime routine with kids: Ok, not all the time but occasionally it would be nice to outsouce the bath, brush teeth, comb hair, read books nightly routine. How great would it be after a really long day to hang out with a glass of wine, while a trained professional ran my kids through a hyper efficient bedtime routine. The trained professional could type up a status report of any problems and email it to me.

4. Filling up the car with gasoline: What a pain this can be. I am always running on E at the worst possible times, like stuck in traffic or late to a meeting. Getting off an exit, standing at the self serve gas pump and getting back on the highway can take 20 minutes per fill up. I probably fill up once every week, sometimes more. That adds up to a couple hours per month wasted standing at the Mobil station.

Imagine if a gas fill up service came to ME every time my gas tank dropped below 1/2 full. All I need is a signal sent from my car and GPS. Gas could be delivered from some mobile gas station truck thing. Maybe even do an oil change, fill up my ashtray with quarters (so I have tolls or parking meter currency), and fill up my Altoids tin.

5. I am keeping Outsourcing idea #5 to myself. It is too good an idea to let out into public and have someone steal it and make the cover of Business Week. If High Tech tanks again - I am starting up a business based on idea #5.

Let the real Outsourcing revolution begin!