When Kris and I purchased my car six years ago, we made the beginner's mistake of walking into a dealership and buying a car off the showroom floor. Not the first time we've done that, but most certainly the last time.

After we had signed the documentation and handed them a check, the salesman handed us a set of keys. The first and second keys were black and could open all the locks on the car. The third key of the set was a grey key. He handed it to us, and told us it was the valet key: it unlocked the doors and started the engine, but wouldn't unlock the truck, nor the glove box.

Except, when he handed us the key, he pronounced the word, VUH-lay. He was handing us the vuh-lay key.

Kris and I looked at each other and cracked up. Since then, we've teased each other about the vuh-lay key. The mispronounciation humours us, much the way I use Intarweb to mock the Internet.

Tragically, the mocking can become an embarrassment, especially when the mispronounciation becomes ingrained in my normal speech.

I couldn't find my regular car key this morning, so I grabbed the valet key to drive my car to the dealership for the back window replacement. When I arrived to talk to the service manager, I asked him if "the vuh-, the vuh-, vuh..." Crap, I couldn't remember how to pronounce the word valet! Crap, crap, crap!

The service guy looked at me. "You mean the VAL-lay key? Yes, that's fine."

As Bella and I walked home, I kept repeating, "VAL-lay. VAL-lay. VAL-lay. The VAL-aaaa key."

I went to a new client today, the one I wrote my first statement of work for. I'm very excited about the project, and not quite sure why. It could be because I have the emotional investment of "my first project start to finish."

Heading over to the client's office, I wasn't particularly nervous, so much as worried that I had prepared well enough for the meeting. I detest wasted time, and meetings are a big waste of time for many people. I shudder to think of how many tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars some previous employers wasted in status update meetings where at any given time 95% of the engineers are just waiting for their turn to speak (schedule a different group to come in every ten to fifteen minutes, unless the rest of the engineers need to hear what the others are doing).

I was hoping to keep the meeting short, meet with the client, get my answers, and leave. Five of the client's employees were in the meeting, so they were as motivated as I to keep the meeting short. After an hour, I had what I needed. However, based on some of the conversations at the meeting, I messed up in a few places.

At least my mistakes were few in number: it could have been a lot worse.

My first mistake was, when bringing a list of questions to a client, not having my own answers to my question ready.

I asked for a few sites they liked, with the intent of asking what they liked about the site, which features they liked, which features they hated. The first answer was, "Let me ask you, what sites do you like and why?"

As soon as he asked that question, my thoughts were, aw, crap, I didn't prePARE! Dammit! Okay, start scrambling. Of course I had prepared, but not enough. I should have sent my questions to the client so that he could ponder the questions, also.

So, yeah, I started scrambling, and listing the sites whose design I wanted to emulate, should I ever get around to actually changing my site (such change is currently scheduled for next week, and I'm looking forward to it).

My second mistake was not sending the list of my questions to the client beforehand, so that they could prepare as much as I could. No reason everyone in the room couldn't have been fully engaged in the meeting, minimizing the amount of waste.

My third mistake was not installing and testing all the products I'm recommending for the client. I read up on a couple of modules that I was recommending for the client, but, in reality, I haven't installed them, I haven't played with them. If they don't work as advertised, I'll be eating the cost to bring them up to spec.

Even with these obvious mistakes, I think the meeting went well, and I'm looking forward to this project.

Mike: "Rarely do I meet someone as insane as Kitt."

Kitt: "What are you talking about? I'm perfectly sane."

pause

Kitt: "In my own world."

you start writing other people's blogs in your head.

Came home from dinner on Friday thinking, Kitt is totally going to write a post about Boggle. There are so many funny things she could say! She could write about SEAHAG and defensive 3-letter words and new words we learned (none of which I can remember right now) and Mark trying to throw in new rules to spoil the game and how no one really wanted to play but then we all played like 10 rounds because it's addictive and it was Kitt's virgin Boggle experience.

Then I started narrating the entire night in your voice.

I keep checking, but it's not up on your website yet. I know it's coming...

That from an email from Megan about yesterday's post. I love Megan. She's the best. She's already getting ready to write my blog for me! What a deal!

The organizers, Tiina and George, of the UCPC want biographies for the presenters, of which I'm one. My talk is called "Ultimate for the non-gifted athlete." It's full of tips, tricks, mantras and strategies I've learned over the years on how to overcome the worst of disadvantages when playing ultimate.

In case you were wondering, that disadvantage would be the genetic one, where you can't teach height, etc.

I'm definitely out of practice when it comes to writing auto-biographies, but I gave it a shot when it came clear I couldn't convince Kris to write one for me.

Kitt Hodsden was first introduced to ultimate in the mid 1990's on a Santa Monica beach by her coworkers. She fell in love with the sport the first time she went up in a hospital throw with four other players, and, more surprised than her opponents, came down with the disc. She started playing ultimate seriously several years later, playing on local Los Angeles women's teams, before moving to Northern California and switching to Mixed division play. Following a steady-improvement approach, Kitt played on successfully better teams throughout her career, with this past season resulting in a Mixed Division Club Championship with her current team, Mischief.

Kitt participated in track, cross country and fencing in school, but ultimate is both the first team sport Kitt has ever played, as well as her first sport that involved flying objects. As a result, her journey through the sport is familiar to a great many ultimate players: beginner to intermediate to solid player, but not a rock star. Compensating for this, Kitt worked hard, and gained insights into game of ultimate by absorbing knowledge of the great players, star coaches and amazing strategists around her, applying their wisdom to her game: she may not make the big play, but she will always be there open on the swing cut for the continuation.

Ultimate has been a consistent theme in Kitt's life since those early days of beach ultimate. In addition to being a player, she has been a driving force as a lead organizer in several Northern California ultimate leagues. She was also a volunteer, and later web developer, for the Ultimate Player's Association, leading the development of the organization's online rostering tool.

In the real world, Kitt is a co-owner of CodingClan, LLC, a small web development firm specializing in building dynamic community websites. She lives in Northern California with her ultimate playing husband, Kris McQueen. Her writings can be found on her website, http://kitthodsden.org/.

Another item off the list of things to do this weekend.