So there is an issue with some of them, or actually all of them. I have changed the security settings so I will need to go back and update them all with the updated link.
Actually, I am thinking of being lazy (go figure)… I am going to add a list of all the albums here and previous entries will just have a dead link. Sorry y’all… I am too lazy these days…
Finally… we got away for a vacation. First one this year, and our first real vacation where we had no timetable, no restrictions, and the freedom to do what we wanted, or what the Pickle Pie wanted, for a full week. The week started at 3am on a Friday, and ended around midnight this past Friday. We spent the week up in the Rockies, in Fraser Colorado, near the Winter Park ski resort, and a relatively short drive from the Rocky Mountain National Park.
After a lift to the airport, a flight (where Pickles did really well, except for being a little scared when we were coming in for landing), a little train ride in the Denver airport, a bus ride to the car rental facility, and then a good drive up into the Mountains, we hung around Fraser for a couple of hours until we could get into the unit. During that time we picked flowers (see below), bought an incredibly hard puzzle (and a ball), and played in the grass outside the unit, before finally checking in.
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The rest of the week was spent taking hikes, going into town to see the Chooo Chooo, and driving around the Rocky Mountain National Park.
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On the way back to the airport, we drove all the way through the National Park, on our way to Boulder to see a friend, and then onwards to the airport for a long trip back.
We are now back in Houston, and ready to start work, which I am not looking forward to, but such is the life. The trip was a very enjoyable one, and we are looking forward to our next vacation later this year when we get to see some very close friends up in Boston. Here is the link to the rest of the photos from the trip. I had been lucky enough to get a wide angle lens for my birthday and made very good use of it. I loved taking the photos, as did Nora, and hopefully everyone agrees that they did as well. We saw lots of wildlife, including Moose, Foxes, Birds, Chipmunks, Squirrels, and Bats (plus more).
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Ain’t technology great?
I am in a cab on my way to the airport and yet I am online with my laptop posting about Norbles, who just had her first taste of food. Having just turned 6 months we felt it appropriate… and she certinaly has been ready for a while!
I won’t delay you anymore… here is the proof…
Oh, and it seems I might be able to link directly to the high definition versions… just need to investigate how (Thanks Rakesh! 
)
That was my cab drivers favourite saying. He was certainly the most entertaining cabbie I have had in a long time and I will be sure to use him again.
He actually was a programmer back in the days, working for Compaq, but was WFR’d following the acquisition by HP. He had a lot of stories about saving people, and people nearly blowing their brains out in his cab. As I say… entertaining.
I also figured that if your flight is codeshared with an airline you have a frequent flyer number with… then ask them to add it, even if it was not part of the initial booking (like mine… silly travel system). It earned me an upgrade to business, a decent seat, a free beer, and free food on a Delta flight… all of which I appreciated.
I am now up in chilly upstate NY, and will not be home till Frida. Luckily, I have some vigilant neighburs helping keep Mum Mum and Pickle Pie in line!
Anyway, din din time for me. More later… If I have the time and energy… must do more work upon my return, and must stufy for that silly PMP exam. Sigh
So it has been a long time since I last posted photos. What has been happening since the last set?
Photos added under the following slideshows…
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Woooo… We made it through year one!
We have a lovely little Norbles and Wabbles at home.
We had a reservation at a nice local Steakhouse for dinner tonight. Mum Mum’s parents lined up to babysit the little one while we go out… and then…
… I get on a call on Thursday and one of the sales guys tells a vendor that ‘the whole team will be onsite in DC next week.’ Furiously sending IM’s to my boss and sure enough, without checking with us all we were assigned to travel up to work on sales docs. Granted it is a huge deal, but I am typing this from an office in Bethesda, MD, and am not at home with my wife, child, and cat!
NOT HAPPY!
Sooo… HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABE!
Will be home as soon as I can!
But still getting a Pickle Pie fix!
Mum Mum sent a couple of photos yesterday, and while we were talking she put me on speakerphone and Pickle Pie, who was fussing at the time, seemed to settle a little when she heard my voice… freaky!
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 Drooling on mum be fun!!! |
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More photos to come soon, including a couple from just after Ike hit.
HP Lappies decided that the week that I am travelling and need it to take notes on it (it is a funky tablet PC) and of course it decides now is a good time for the harddrive to start to fail. It all started on the plane on Monday morning and has not stopped since. Takes the lappie over 30 mins to boot and longer if I want to do anything with it.
Turns out that the harddrive has some bad blocks (as opposed to happy or good blocks?!) and it is on its last leg. I am getting the same error in the event log every 7-8 seconds… which can’t be helping things!
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Only fix that I have found is a new harddrive, which luckily is on order now. That still leaves me with a machine that barely works and I need to type up all the session notes from the day on it. I went to Best Buy after leaving the site and got an external drive so that I can back everything up just in case the whole thing dies on me before I get home and I am backing it up now. Although I am typing this from the lappie and it is ok… seems that as long as I do not hibernate or power it down I may be ok… fingers crossed I do no experience a blue screen of death! And if I do, then I have a client customer I should be able to use to type any notes up on. Sigh… never easy is it?!
Mum Mum had a conference up in Vancouver for the past several days. All very exciting stuff around statistics, trending, image manipulation, polar bear issues and other such exciting Scientific Editor stuff. Needless to say any session (apart from the polar bear keynote session) would put me to sleep in 5 minutes flat, so kudos to anyone who could stay awake… and even better understand what was being said.
Anyhoo… we both flew up to Vancouver on Friday evening (photos will be posted soon). Mum Mum started the conference on Saturday morning and I took myself out for a long walk around Vancouver. While on my walk in Stanley Park I saw a couple looking intently in a shadowy area. Being curious I approached. They asked me a question but with my iPhone on I heard nada. Anyway, there was a Racoon (photo below) hanging out with his buddy the white chested squirrel. The Australian couple asked me what it was… and my answer was ‘uh, a Racoon?!’ They then proceeded to ask if the squirrel was a baby racoon. It took a lot of self control not to laugh at them, but my answer was ‘nope, that would be a SQUIRREL!’
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Silly Ozzies.
Trip was fun, although having to get up at 5:30 in the morning on Monday (Pacific Time) to start the work day was not fun. Vancouver is a nice town, and we had fantastic weather for the weekend which worked out really well for me.
On the flight back I went to boot my PC up to download some photos and to maybe do some work. When I tried to take it out of hibernation I got the following error message, which freaked me out as I had not backed my PC up, in uhh… never!!! Finally, after pleading, begging and threats of violence, the PC booted up, and as soon as I got home I backed up my critical files. Sigh… What a pain.
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Anyway, to wrap up this brain dump, it has been a long week and is only Wednesday. I finally got home at around 9pm with Cammie with me (picked her up from my parents). She was screaming the whole way home, but after a good brushing, she settled down and was very cuddly Monday and Tuesday night. Tuesday morning I was up at 4:30am to fly up to Dallas for a meeting, and I got back from that at 6:30pm, only to have to get on another call at 8pm. Sigh… I will be glad when this week, and with it the engagement dominating mylife, will be over.
