Saturday, May 20th, returned from the Fractional Conference in San Diego...last Ragatz/RCI meeting; next year they'll compete against each other. No love lost?

Georgi Bohrod had a great party Thursday night complete with lotsa pals. The quality of deals there was amazing to me. Last year the deals were speculative, no money, no zoning, no permits and in most cases no sense. This week they were ready to go in almost all elements. What a statement for the business!

The Star team saw potential projects from the SoCal coast to the Florida Keys, up to the Hamptons and out to Idaho with a stop at Snowbird, UT. I have an appetite to move forward, but our execution "guys", Chris, Christine and Ron, have the hard slogging to make them work. So, we’ll see which we can do.

. How good to see the lawyers four: Art Spaulding and Scott Turner, Steve Peterson and Roger Burk all in the flesh and not on the phone. As usual wonderful to see Annette Ragatz and Marcia Fabian the dynamic focus group pair. John Sweeney charges on as usual, amazing fellow. Ed, Sr. equally, and the same for Dick Bass squared! Lani from Ritz/Marriott is probably the best presenter and savvy big company exec I know, save for Big Bob of course. Howard N. continues to 'rap' the real stuff for ARDA.

Then, Dick Ragatz his self who has always looked down right ‘power exec’ in his navy blue suit, hosted his biggest clam bake since exception. I’m with him next year; staking out my allegiances.

Most vivid message to me: resident poet Jamie Klein from St Regis, for comparison of a timeshare sale to a fractional sale; the former took 90 minutes and the latter 250,000 minutes! No far off.

Plane ride back to Oakland was the cherry on the top with Rick Hulbert and Len Silverfine…two fine gents.

So, as many speakers used the term ‘from soup to nuts’ I have always thought who wants nuts for desert, so went to Google:

“Meaning: the whole thing from beginning to end
Origin: For centuries, any foods served at the beginning or end of a meal stood for the entire thing: the start and finish and everything in between. This expression was "from eggs to apples" and "from pottage to cheese." In the United States in the middle of the 20th century, the expression developed into "from soup to nuts." At many meals, soup is often the first course and a dessert with nuts is sometimes the last. The expression does not have to refer to only to meals, however. It could be the selection of goods for sale or classes offered.”