Sunday 14 October 2007; 1555

Greetings fair readers,

It's been a pretty good week, Henry was out of school on Friday and was able o spend the day with me @ work. He actually spent the majority of the day with my friend Jen and the rest of the team (myself included) kept having to tell both of them to SSSSSSHHHHH because they were giggling and running around and yelling and having way too much fun. I spoke to Jen's hubby at her 40th birthday party last night and he said that she went to bed at 8pm on Friday because Henry wore her out. It was pretty funny...
Henry's bowling league was yesterday and he did all right, nothing like the week prior when he rolled a 141 game, his personal best. His team went up in the standings to 4th place from 5th and these guys are having a good time this time around because there doesn't seem to be as much competition between the members of the team this time like there was last season.
Henry stayed with his Mum today and will tonight although it is my weekend. He just wanted to hang with her he said. He's been good about her being so tired and she has been pretty good this weekend so I don't blame his wanting to see her more chipper. Probably best anyway, I've spent the day working in the shed and on the yard. I planted a 100 daffodils, mowed the dandelions in the front yard and got the last mow on the back. I sprayed some poison on the dandelions in back since they have started to come back wherever I dug them up earlier this summer. I'm hoping that they are tender enough the poison can actually affect them this time. I hate using it bu I haven't much choice with these gnarly things, they just don't want to die. I also repaired the fence where our lovable but not terribly bright dog broke through one of the posts last week. Yes, you heard that right, he broke off a treated 4X4 cedar post at the ground. He's just too darn strong and thinks he can jump up on the fence. Doofus
I've been spending some time getting used to my new MP3 player. Since the reopening of the bus tunnel under downtown Seattle, I have been losing radio reception as soon as we enter each day and the portion of the player that Henry had given me that played MP3s was very small and ate batteries very fast so I invested in another. Trying to figure out how to maintain the files w/o so much trouble but at least it holds a lot so I don't have to move anything on and off very often. I'm not sure how everyone has the patience for these things all the time. I know lots of people that move stuff on and off their players constantly

Not much more for now, think it's time for a cocktail and start relaxing before heading back to work tomorrow.

More later...

Tuesday 9 October, 2007; 1751

I made it to the gym again! WHOO HOO!

It may seem like a small accomplishment but making it on schedule twice after months away is a good start and I'll take it any way I can. I do have to say it hurt a lot more today than it did Sunday and I'm sure it'll be that way all week but it does feel really good to be back.

Even with all the red meat, wine, beer late night Sapphire and tonics (Thanks Nics), goose fat and hi fat content butter, I lost 3#s while I was away. The French paradox at it's best. I've lost another 4 since I've been home too so the gym is fitting right in. I'm determined to drop another 8 by Halloween to be @ 15 lost.

I think I'm finally back on Pacific time, today it was difficult to get out of bed @ 0500 for the first time sine I've been home. Up to now I've been waking by about 0430 every day plus I felt like I was relatively focused all day @ work today which is a definite first since returning. Tomorrow is my least favorite day of the month where every 2nd Wednesday I get to work @ 6 and have back to back meetings beginning @ 0830 the rest of the day. To top it off these are the meetings where I have to be a stern and sober to the wireless carriers because we have come to rely on them so much with all the mobile devices we have in the company. Then Thursday and Friday we have more monthly performance reviews for our POS service, new store installs and end user HW support. It's really the only week I have to wok really hard so I guess it's not to bad bu it certainly cuts into my nap time at work :D.

I set out the pictures from Beziers today and I hope to hear from the everyone as they get the chance to see the photos.

That's about it for now, off to make a protein smoothie and then dig into some work I brought home.

More later...

Sunday 7 October, 2007; 1652

Greetings,

Well,Scotland went down in a hard fought match today with Argentina. They put up a valiant effort and the 2nd half was very exciting but a few mistakes were made and the Argentine squad was just too tough. I don't have a kilt so I wasn't "kilted up" but I had my Scotland flag draped over my shoulders in the bar and waved it frantically when the boys scored.
I spoke to friend John today in England and he was back there earlier than he anticipated. I expected to find him somewhere between Barcelona and Montpellier but he had a family emergency that forced a long 13 hour drive back to London & then up to Newcastle. He was on his way out to watch the match as well and I'm sure he is quite unhappy. He was in Liverpool and let me know that although he would be at the match he needed to get up @ 0400 to get Laurie back to Heathrow for a flight tomorrow.
I'm getting more and more acclimated to Pacific time again but I still awoke @ 0430 today. Not too bad since I need to get up at 0500 tomorrow for work as usual but I would have liked a bit more sleep. The earlier nightfall isn't helping either as I thought it quite late last night but it was only about 9pm. The Kangaroo & Kiwi was running the early match @ 0600 this morning and I didn't think about it but I probably would have headed down to Seattle for it if I had. Probably better that I hadn't.
I made it to the gym today for the 1st time in months and it felt good. I hope I didn't over do it so I can move tomorrow. I let Henry know I planned to head back to a good workout regime and he was very excited even knowing he will need to go to the childcare the days I have him. He is being very supportive this time and I think his Mum's having cancer now has him a bit more worried than he will tell us. He has been pretty clingy lately and telling me that he wants me to get healthy again so I'll be around for a good long time. I'm sorry he is worried but it sure makes this old man's heart thump when he talks that way.
Been a pretty lazy weekend around here just catching up laundry finally from the trip, taking in the rugby and getting to the gym. Hangin' with the dog, catching up the neighbors on the travels and taking in the final farmer's market; had to get in on the last of the season's corn. I think I'll have some with some steamed crab legs tonight.

That's about it for now, more later

Thursday 4 October 2007; 0515

Good Morning Dear Readers,

I'm home from Europe and the trip of a lifetime. I arrived home after a long journey that began in Paris @ about 0730 local time. The actual traveling did not begin until about 1130 local time but I wanted to walk the city a bit since the evening I arrived it was rainy and not very conducive to walking about.
After a quick metro ride to the new Arch De Defense, I wandered the large square there and then back to the Arch De Triomphe and the Champs Elysee before a quick walk to the Eiffel Tower which apparently had also been set up as the Rugby World Cup fans village until earlier in the week so much was going on as the village was dismantled. The fog was too thick to be able to see the top of the tower but there was a very large rugby ball suspended between the legs of the tower. Clearly France had been gripped in Rugby fever from that and all the large signs and murals I saw everywhere.

A quick walk along the Seine and another metro ride and I was back to hotel where I checked out and took the train to Aeroport Charles De Gaulle. I arrived in Seattle an hour late and by the time I retrieved my bag and then car and drove home it was after midnight and I had to go to work Tuesday. I was a bit tardy from my usual time and didn't arrive until about 0730.

This was truly the trip of a lifetime; I made tremendous new friends, visited parts of the world I had never before been and found a bit of myself of which I was convinced I had lost forever. I will never forget this holiday.

We stayed in the working winery in the Languedoc region, ate the local produce of cheeses, breads and wines. Some nights we cooked and others we dined out. Big breakfasts each morning and a lot activity with no evening ending that I can remember ending before about 0200 and one lasted until 0600. Drinking, carousing, dancing, conversation, music, hugging and most of all laughter, laughter, laughter. So much so it was the group that I didn't want to leave and not the place. I don't think that's ever happened to me before and I think I'm still walking around a bit brokenhearted at having to say goodbye to all these tremendous people. Here are some pictures:

The view from my bedroom window my first morning in Beziers

2nd night in Beziers at the pub for the US v Samoa

Diane and John @ the daily flower market in Beziers

Dinner @the Baronnie

Fun at about 0400

The Baronnie from across the vineyard

The front of the Baronnie and my apartment

The man responsible for it all, John