Seattle is miserable.

It’s rainy and cold and the meetings drag endlessly, another boring board of directors, and another boring meaningless round of chatter. Something I’ve learned working in my new role is how much businessmen like to set up meetings to discuss nothing much at all and will take several sessions to conclude on something minor.

The hotel is like every other we have stayed in and, as usual, we have a penthouse suite, grand, opulent, and modern. Jake insists that we have rooms in the same suite when we travel, so I can be at his beck and call as we usually work late in them. I spent...