Travel Travel Travel

Start a three week travel schedule on Monday. Leave for Dallas on 29th for work. Then on Friday, Nov. 2, I fly to Honolulu, Hawaii for vacation. Yaaaahoooo! I go back to Dallas on the 11th from Honolulu. Then home on the 15th.

It is a long time to be away from Frankie and Uno but I have the greatest neighbors. Splitting cat care between Mather across the street and Roxi in the apartment next door.

pots and pans

I've been home long enough and trying to stick to my trainer's food suggestions that I've actually been using the pots and pans and have dishes to clean.

How sad is that?!

Soldier of the Quarter

My niece, Gracie Kay Best, was named Soldier of the Quarter for the second time this year. That means she is only competing against two other soldiers for Soldier of the Year honors.

Great job, Gracie Kay.

Odds and Ends

I am working from home again this week. Yeah! It looks like it might be a nice weather week. No rain. Might even get back to mid-60s by Thursday.

I put the storm windows up in the front porch. Need to put in the one new one still. Haven't cleaned up the garden for end of season yet. Some of the Stella d'ora day lillies are still blooming and the potted geraniums, too.

Frankie has figured out how to get more food out of the automatic feeder. He can poke his hand up the dispenser spout and dislodge some of the food. He is able to get a few more nuggets of the food. This is probably a good thing since he doesn't eat all that much at feeding time and little miss round thing, Uno, eats everything.

Today is the 18th anniversary of the Jacob Wetterling kidnapping. In honor of his abduction and other child abductions, turn on your porch light tonight.

Fitness Together - six weeks later

I had my sixth week fitness evaluation at the Fitness Together - the one-on-one workout studio. I improved in all areas but I hadn't lost as much fat as I thought.

My weight was almost exactly the same - 196.8 to 196.6. My lean weight (muscle) increase 2 - 4 lbs and my fat weight reduced 2 - 4 lbs. The range is from two different caliper tests.

I went from 26 push-ups in September to 33 in October. That's a 27% improvement. I haven't done push-ups since high school.

My bench press went from 225 lbs to 263 lbs, a 17% improvement.

Doing the one-on-one training has been one of my better decisions. I feel better physically and emotionally. And I can walk home now without the pain and moaning I had those first few times.

Kathy's blog

Check out my friend Kathy's blog, JustBKath and while you're there, encourage her to keep it going.

The picture of her vehicle after driving back from North Dakota deserves close attention.

Home

I'm working from home this week. I have work area set up in the sun room. Uno and Frankie have taken over the two wingback chairs in the sun room.

Uno and Frankie hanging out while Dad works.

A rare awake time.

Honda Accord

I now know why this car is so popular. I have never driven a Honda that I can recall. This is an extremely well put together car, comfortable to drive and efficient.

The radio controls are some of the most intuitive I've seen. Nothing really outstanding or extraordinary which makes it a perfect rental vehicle. It just works and works extremely well.

I imagine it is very reliable and gets good gas mileage.

Travel plans

As of now, I'm home for two weeks in a row! I hope it stays that way.

Then I'm back to Dallas the last week of October. I'm going to Hawaii for vacation the first week of November and will be leaving from Dallas. I return to Dallas from Hawaii for another week of work then home.

Featured Hybrid

A picture of my Escape Hybrid got chosen for this week's picture on the Ford Escape Hybrid yahoo user group.

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/hybrid_ford_escape/

My Escape has our two canoes on top parked in front of Baker Lake.

Grassy Knoll

As you've probably figured out, I finally went to the sight of the John F. Kennedy assassination.

My rental car this week happened to have the navigation system. While trying to find the SpeedZone attraction, I noticed that the Grassy Knoll was one the attractions the system had. I couldn't pass up the chance to have the system guide me there.

Venkat, one of my fellow IBMers, went along. It was late in the evening and already dark. The navigation system directed right to a parking lot. We got out and were looking around when a man with some newspapers in plastic bags approached us and offer to show us the highlights of the assassination. He readily admitted he belonged to a conspiracy theory group.

Everything is pretty much the same as it was 40 some years ago. The book depository where Oswald fired from is there and is now called the Six Floor Museum. The window where he allegedly was has a webcam in it. You can see live pictures from the window by going to the JFK site and clicking the Dealey Plaza Cam link.

It is kind of surreal that all the landmarks are still there. There are even white X marks in the road where the motorcade was when the supposedly two different shots were fired.

SpeedZone (Tuesday)

Stacey at Neiman Marcus organized a field trip to SpeedZone, a go-cart race track. It was so much fun. Stacey's dad and sister were also there. Stacey was the only one from Neiman Marcus to go. In addition to me, Luis and Albert from IBM went.

We did time trials of small open-wheeled cars. A very curvy course. I had the worst time but had a blast. I even did a 180 spin on one run.

We then went to a track where you could race against others head to head. These cars have bumpers all around them and you zoom around another very curvy course. You don't start even with others. I was in front so slowed down for others to catch up and make it more fun.

Our last ride was drag racing. This was a huge adrenaline rush and I won 3 out of 6 times. It was all in the start. I used by Stage Management calling experience when watching the light tree count down.

These drag race cars were really fast. You could get up to 70 miles per hour in 3 seconds. Chevy 350 engines that were nitrogen boosted. Way fun.

From back door to airplane door

Back in Dallas though I almost didn't make it. There was an accident on my route to the airport and it was raining. Traffic was going less than 10 miles per hour!

I caught some luck with the TSA opening a new security line and I was the first through. I boldly stopped to get coffee at the Carabou along the way. Got to the gate. Showed by boarding pass. Boarded the plane.

Ford Focus

This week I actually got the level of car I rented. A small compact, the Ford Focus. It is a cute little car. The seat goes back far enough unlike my Ford Escort I had years ago.

The seating is kind of high so even though my head doesn't hit the roof the windshield doesn't go up far enough for me.

It is a fun car to drive. One feature that I've only seen on a Honda is the delayed last swipe after pressing the windshield cleaner. You press the button to wash the windshield and the wipers come on. The wipers stop then a few seconds later they make one more swipe. Clever idea to get those drips that always happen.

Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog launch

The Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog was launched on Wednesday. The office and distribution center celebrated the launch with an outdoor modeling show and displays of some of the 'fantasy' gifts.

Also on display was this ultralight used to follow and document the monarch butterfly migration. Neiman Marcus' logo is a butterfly.

BWCAW (Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

So much to tell but I'll keep it short. Here we are picking up the canoes. Fresh.

Many thanks to Scott Baune and his mom and dad for letting us spend the night at the Baune house in Silver Bay on Wednesday night.

We got up early and went to the Ranger Station to watch the video and answer the test questions. This is when we found out it was moose hunting season in the Boundary Waters.

It was a wet trip in. It didn't rain during the five hours of canoing and portaging (carrying canoes and gear to next lake) but it was very wet. I did rain right after we got our tents set up. Perfect timing. It was followed by the most incredible double rainbow. The end of one of the rainbow actually ended just on the other side of the lake.

Friday was the most beautiful day. We canoed around our lake. Jenny and Andrew fished along the way while Julie and I paddled. We found a beautiful waterfall and all fell asleep on a big rock next to the falls.

Saturday was a rainy day. Julie and I stayed at camp and kept the campfire going. Jenny and Andrew went fishing. Got completely dumped on but came back with a large small-mouthed bass. Andrew did a great job cleaning and cutting it. Jenny did a fantastic job frying it up. We ate very well.

Sunday was another 5 hours out canoing and portaging. We saw a huge moose (cow). We also saw an otter. We ran into three hunters we had seen on the way in. One had gotten a bull moose. He was so proud. It is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It was rainy and windy and kind of a tough trip out. The hunters had taken the moose meat and trophy head out. They were on the second trip out with their gear. When we reached the truck (my Escape Hybrid), we stopped to see the head in their trailer. It wasn't real big but still fascinating.


Julie has great photos on Kodak.com. Please try this link click here

And here we are after returning the canoes. Not too worn for the wear.

Back from Boundary Waters and off to Dallas

Made it back from Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness yesterday (Sunday) evening. A great trip. I'll provide details later this week.

Down to Dallas again this week.