First, let me say Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mothers that I've had the pleasure of speaking to and helping in business during this past year.  I personally think that being a mom must be the most difficult job in the World and if you're a working Mom...WOW!  Someone needs to take your shoes off and rub your feet this weekend, because you deserve it.  I'm personally one of the luckiest men alive to have my mom as a role model, a friend, and confidant in my life.  I love you Mom.

Second, I want to thank Jan Dover, one of the great Moms in the world, for being such a great influence around the office. So, be sure to take a moment to give your Mom a little extra love this Sunday.

One a side note, but no less important, I want to give a shout out to my father, who celebrated his birthday this past Thursday. You're the best, and I know how lucky I am to have you as my dad.

Okay, Nick, Thanks for sharing your softer side...
Well, enough of this mushy stuff, let's get down to brass tax. This week at Load, we saw the completion of a couple of projects that I'll be announcing later next week and we have a new LoadStats partner AND a new LoadMail Wholesale Partner that will enable Load to have greater reach in the e-mail market with a number of Universities.  Credit for these new deals definitely has to go to Paul Korol, our VP of Business Development, who has also been making a great push towards some of the restructuring of Load services which will be positive for both Load and our customers.

We also had a chance to do some major networking late this week and we identified a few new verticals that Load will be able to exploit.  Later this year, Load will be launching various service updates that will provide greater reach to our customers and greater growth potential to Load as a whole. All of these verticals will take advantage of our growing suite of services and what we're calling Load 2.0, since a lot of positive changes are on the horizon.  I'm sorry I don't have a major announcement, but I can assure you that everyone is slaving away, because I carry the whip. :)

Nick, I thought you said De La Hoya vs. Mayweather Would be the "Best Fight Ever"
Okay, first I have to admit that the fight was less that amazing and I've certainly gotten spoiled with Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).  I'm more of a football/baseball/basketball guy, but watching MMA has really brought out the barbarian in me and I have enjoyed many knockouts and knees to the face.  So, Pretty Boy Floyd dancing around the ring and being a tactician wasn't fun to watch.  Was Floyd Mayweather impressive from a technique standpoint? Absolutely.  Do I think he would have gotten his butt knocked out how he tried to fight straight up?  You betcha!

The New Michael Vick Experience
One of my all-time favorite Nike commercials was called The Michael Vick Experience, which depicted a young man strapping on a football helmet and riding a roller coaster ride that mimicked the speed and intensity of what Vick faces during a typical football game.  Just brilliant marketing as always by Nike. Vick, by the way, is the mercurial Atlanta Falcons quarterback dealing with a lot of negative press for things ranging from transporting illegal drug paraphenalia and dog fighting.  So, it is safe to say, that it is a good thing that God did not bless me with Steve Reed's talent, because I'd make a cartoon depicting the new Michael Vick Experience showing a great athlete making poor choices and being involved in dog fighting.  Actually, I'd be even more cold-blooded than that, so it really IS a good thing the power of Steve is not in my hands :)

Torii Hunter is Amazing
I've never written about Torii, but the man is my favorite outfielder on my favorite team.  Can you say 2 HRs and 7 RBIs on Mother's Day with a pink bat to support *** cancer awareness?  Not to mention that he climbs the outfield wall like Spiderman and makes amazing catches look routine.  What a champ!  Go Twins.

Golden State is Done
It breaks my heart to say it, but Golden State played their final home game of the season on Mother's Day and the Utah Jazz punched them in the mouth.  Sadly, Golden State decided to show their inexperience and youth by letting frustration set in and taking cheap shots to the visiting team.  That said, Baron Davis is amazing, Jason Richardson is fantastic and the NBA Playoffs will be worse off without their up-tempo style of play.

Sean O'Hair Has Guts and He May Have Just Become MY Favorite Golfer
If you didn't see it on Sunday, and my guess is you did NOT since Tiger wasn't in the final pairing, Sean O'Hair, a relative no-name to non-golf fanatics, was sitting pretty in 2nd Place behind Phil Mickelson.  He had a choice on the 17th Hole -- lay up and take the sure money by cruising to a second-place finish OR go for it and risk dropping out of the Top 10 (a difference of more than $750K) BUT possibly win the tournament.  Long story short, O'Hair didn't win and he dropped out of the Top 10 (and lost the $$$).  However, I love the fact that he took a shot and went for it.  The man has b*lls and he's going to win a major with a killer instinct like that.

This concludes my Mother's Day Blog entry, which happened to be published a day late due to server upgrades.  I'll try to be on point next week with a few updates and even more mindless sports knowledge.