Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Hangin’ in San Antone and Catchin’ Up

I got a bit of a night off tonight.  I’m visiting a customer in San Antonio all week.  When I’m out of Charlotte like this, I usually have a lot of research or writing to do.  But tonight, I’ve decided to take some time for myself.  I got in a good run in the hotel fitness center and then a nice meal at a nearby chinese  buffet. For the balance of the night I’ve enjoyed working on a special project that I’m not talking about much at the moment.  There’ll be no problem picking up work in the morning. 

I have been meaning to update some recent adventures on this blog.  I took a big chunk of September off from blogging.  I was always too busy or tired or just not in the mood to blog. 

So what happened while I was away?  Well, I was away.  After returning from Iraq I took Dr. K on a vacation down to Punta Cana.  We went there earlier this year and liked it so much we decided to try another resort on the same island.  We got a great deal that included airfare on US Airways.  That may not sound like a positive, but considering that I’m Platinum Preferred, it is a big plus.  See, we got bumped up the 1st class both ways on our $166 tickets.  We also like Punta Cana because it is a direct flight from the hometown of Charlotte.  We leave the house and arrive at the resort in just about 5 hours.

We had a great time swimming and sunning and eating and drinking and whatever else came to mind.  here are some of the very few pictures I took:

That’s a pretty cool feature of Windows Live Writer that I just discovered (photo album).  Sweet.

Back to the story.  About a week after we got back, it was time for my next business trip.  This time Mannheim, Germany was the destination.  The weather was better this time than during my December trip.  It was still cloudy the whole time, but it was still a nice trip.  I got to hang with my buddy Trace as I trained him to present a class while I taught a bunch of Army contractors to use our database software a little better.  They had good things to say about the class and I had good things to say about them.  Can’t beat that.  I even got in some sightseeing before heading home.  Here are a few more pics:

Now another week has gone by and I’m on the road again.  I’ll get to take a little break from traveling after next week (Pennsylvania) and I’m really looking forward to that.

Oh, yea.  Did I mention that Dr. K and I are swimming/biking/running a triathlon this weekend?  It’s true except in my case (out of shape) it will more of a try-athlon. It’s really is all fun and I have no complaints.  Chao.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Luecke, Texas

I had an early morning flight today.  Charlotte to Dulles to San Antonio.  It was bad that the flight left at 6:00 AM, but was very smooth otherwise.  I had a window seat on the DC to SA leg and I saw something that reminded me of why I still like window seats.  Now you can see it for yourself.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=austin,+tx&btnG=Search&t=k&ll=30.083058,-97.143688&spn=0.065951,0.173035&t=k

This is not a photoshop or any kind of fake.  This guy cut the trees on his property to form the pattern with .25 mile high letters.  Actually, it is just his name, but it well may be the biggest name in the world.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Poker Saturday Night

Saturday night saw the return of the Falstaff home game.  With all my travels, I’ve not played at this location since before going to Iraq.  T, the Knife, Nate the Elder, and Brian R joined us for the short-handed poker action.

It was a night of rivers.  I don’t remember seeing some many 2 and 3 outers on the river to reverse the flow of chips.  Nate built a huge stack early.  Jim went into his roll a few times but ended the night with a lot more than he came with.  My holdem hands were awful, but the Omaha hands made up for that late.  I ended the night with a small profit.

The Knife also paid off the football eliminator challenge that I won in just 2 weeks.  We had 3 misses and one no-pick to eliminate everyone but me.

A few of the conversation topics from the poker game:

  • Jim took down $1k this past week
  • What does an Asst. Principal do?
  • Brian the Red’s rough job.
  • Falstaff’s new sofa.
  • Skip, the Canadian butt@^er.
  • Shooting pool with your fly down.
  • Vegas in December (at least 4 are going).

The next 2 weeks are going to be really busy, so there won’t be many opportunities.  Hopefully, with the cold weather setting in, we will be able play a bit more regularly, or at least more often. :)