And no, it’s not that we’re both athletes – far from it (he boasts a 6-pack; I boast a keg).

And it’s more than the fact that we’re both blogging (he is a regular contributor to the New York Times Olympics blog this month).

No, it’s the fact that he’s traveling for his career right now and the one thing he misses is his family and his 16-month-old son. In his most most recent blog post, he acknowledges that “a lot of things can happen in four weeks. When I come back he’s going to be a totally different person.”

By this time next week, I’ll be able to really relate. I’m taking Ink on the road to visit both our UK and German offices over the next two weeks and, although I’ll get to attend my cousin’s wedding in the middle of the trip (my 93-year-old Grandpa is going to be my date because my wife is too pregnant to travel), I’ll really miss my family while I’m gone.

Like Carmelo I’ll be taking a lot of technology with me to keep me going in between meetings and work. My iPod has 12,814 songs on it so I’m set there, and I’ll bring my portable DVD player with me so I can watch past episodes of Rescue Me when the jet lag kicks in.

It was the conclusion of his post though that made me chuckle:

But the best technology is Skype, which lets me call home and talk to my son. I think that’s the best thing that’s happened to me and some of the other players on this team. We have it set up with video here, and I had it set up back home. Right now, my son doesn’t really understand what’s going on. But he knows my voice and he hears my voice and he’s starting to put the picture and the voice together a little bit.

I’ve been spending the better part of this week when I get home from work, getting my wife up on Skype so we can chat more regularly when I’m working abroad. Will be interesting to see the results. If I don’t get my daily dose of “Hi Daddy!” from my daughter, it will feel a lot longer than two weeks!

Cheers,
RBH