Working From Home...sort of

No travel this week so I get to work from home. Except that I cannot connect to my client's network from home for some unexplained reason...unexplained by them because it worked until an upgrade in the Fall.

My two favorite coffee shops to hang out in were also experiencing connection issues. The Dunn Bros at Lake and Bryant is having wireless internet connection problems and have been unable to resolve. Isles Bun & Coffee has the similar connection problems as my home wireless. I can connect to the City of Minneapolis network from Isles but it costs money and is not too reliable.

So being a good consultant I decided to go to the downtown IBM office and connect from there. Well, that was a disaster. To make a long story short, it didn't work so hot. So I packed up and headed back to Uptown. On the way I lost my hat and it is cold and windy today.

I'm at another Dunn Brothers in Uptown but their wireless isn't working correctly either. So I've connected back to the City of Minneapolis service. We'll see how this works out but I think it is a sign that my time with this client should be over or I have to travel to Dallas.

Christmas '09 Snowstorm Rounds 2 and 3

There wasn't really a round 2 other than it snowed all day Christmas but it also warmed up and started to rain on top of the snow....a very big mess was created.
Round 3 would be that it turned cold and the slushy, very wet snow has now frozen. The roads are icy and the sidewalks are treacherous. The mounds of what was wet snow and slush are hard and sharp danger zones.

Merry Christmas Eve -- Snow Storm Round 1

The much anticipated Christmas '09 snow storm is in a bit of a lull at this time. It is just snowing lightly now at 9:30am and was not snowing at all at 8am when I shoveled.

Looks like I've gotten about 5 or 6 inches so far around my house. It is very wet snow and has a blue hue to it.

They are calling for even more snow this evening and overnight. So no doubts about a white Christmas.

Joy and Peace to all...and to all a snowy night.

Ornament Tree

I've been wanting to display my ornaments...many of which are from my childhood and others that I've been given through the years. I've been nervous about hanging them on a tree with Frankie and Uno's curiosity.

I came up with the ornament tree you see to the right as the blog's new photo. It actually looks prettier than the picture.

Merry Christmas to all.

No Travel -- Yay!!

No travel this week. Which is particularly good since I think I've come down with something.

Really sore throat on Friday and now just run down. Glad I'm not flying this week.

Prairie Lights pictures

Here is the entrance as we start the drive through.

Asha at the lighted forest.  There was a separate admission but the girl in the booth very sweetly let us in for free.

A rare Friday in Dallas

Client asked that I stay through Friday this week since I won't be traveling for the remainder of 2009.

This past Tuesday went to Prairie Lights with Asha.  I have a neat video that I'll post this weekend.  Yesterday we had a team lunch at the Four Seasons.  Just us IBM developers and client developers.  It was nice to get everyone out of the building and together for a change.  I then took the IBM developers and their wives to the client's downtown store.

I was hoping for amazing Christmas window displays but was somewhat disappointed.  Client has done a display to support children, innovation and creativity.  It was clever but not so Christmassy.  The store itself is not all that big but is extremely tasteful.

Santa was there having his picture taken with children but he was getting ready to take a break when we arrived.  He looked a bit tired and was kind of cranky when I tried to chat with him.  I'd probably be cranky too if all kinds of kids had been sitting on my lap.

Dallas for the last time....2009

This is probably my last week in Dallas for 2009.  There is an outside chance that this is the last time period.

Left Minneapolis this morning with a beautiful light snow and low teens.  My new outdoor thermometer wasn't displaying and I didn't have time to find out why.  Arrived in Dallas where it is sunny and low 70's.

Shovel test

Got home last night anticipating the new patio covered with snow and how shoveling would go. 

I am very happy to report that it is easier to shovel than the old sidewalk.  The old sidewalk was narrow and had been pushed up in couple of places.  Though I was used to it and knew exactly where each little step was, it is nice to have a large even surface that I can shovel as wide and where I want.

I tried shoveling the driveway this morning and got it half way done before my hands got too cold.  It was 3 below and the snow had blown off the garage roof and was over a foot deep on the drive.  I'll do the rest of it later.

Wild goose chase...or is it a coyote?

Asha invited me to go see the Prairie Lights a Christmas light display that you drive through.  She lives in Cedar Hills which is south of Dallas.

I met her at her house.  First we were going to put the lights on her Christmas tree but on the last string of lights one half weren't working.  I tried replacing the fuses but that didn't work.  We gave up.

We climbed into my Hertz Ford F-150 with Beaux, Asha's new dog.  We stopped at Popeye's and Taco Bell for some food to take.  We planned on eating while waiting in the line to get into Prairie Lights.

Turned out that Asha didn't know exactly where Prairie Lights was but we figured there would be plenty of signs.  Well, there werent'!  Matter of fact the one or two signs that we did see were not in the least bit helpful.  We drove around for quite awhile until we went back to a sign to get the phone number.  Asha called and the directions given over the phone were also not very helpful.

We finally arrived a little before 10pm.  The place closed at 9pm!

On the way out to Prairie Lights we saw a coyote cross the road right in front of us.  Seeing that animal made me think that Mom's backyard fox may have actually been a coyote.  My brother had also mentioned that Kim (daughter) had seen an entire coyote family in her backyard in rural Virginia.

On the road again

Back in Dallas this week.  I have made the top level of American Airlines frequent flier program, Executive Platinum. I think the only real difference is I get automatic upgrades.

I'm renting from Hertz this week.  Got a Ford 150 pickup truck!

Past week's trip to DC/VA

I decided to do a between holidays trip back home to Virginia. My friend Christine was going to DC for an interview with the State Department for a foreign service job. I thought it would be fun to do some DC touring with Christine. Her friend Liz drove down from Philadelphia to visit, too.

I landed in DC at Reagan National Tuesday night. The new airport section is beautiful in the evening.
I rented a car and drove out to Mom's in Burke, Virginia.  Wednesday Mom and I drove to Pentagon City to park the car and catch the Metro.  Mom's Metro pass wasn't working so she got to ride for free and we went to Metro Center station to see if we could get it fixed.  She had to buy a new card and the clerk gave us directions on how to transfer the money from the old one to the new one.

We took Metro to Judiciary Square to visit the National Building Museum.  This rarely-visited museum is one of my favorites.  It is so beautiful inside and out.  There was an exhibit on parking garages which was interesting.  The gift shop at the National Building Museum is probably one of the best in the city.

Christine and Liz were touring the Holocaust Museum on the other side of the national mall. Mom and I met Christine and Liz and at the American History Museum which recently completed a major renovation. I wanted to see the new Star Spangled Banner flag exhibit. The exhibit is amazing and quite moving.

It was raining pretty good by the time we left the museum which closed at 5:30. We walked over to the Willard Hotel to have a drink before meeting my friend Lance Pennington and his partner Tony near Capitol Hill. It was raining hard when we left the Willard to take the Metro to Eastern Market. We found the restaurant and had a fabulous time with Lance and Tony. I've known Lance since the early 1980's when I worked at Arena Stage. Lance is still there.

Mom and I got home very late. Thursday my sister Carol came over and we went to Occoquan for lunch. It was warm this morning but cooling off as the day went on. We ate at The Garden Cafe and it was still warm enough to walk around this historic little river town.

Thursday night Mom and I met my sister Lea, her husband Tim, my niece Gracie Kay and her husband Nate and son Alex in Alexandria for dinner. Alex had just turned three and has quite the vocabulary. When Mom and I got home, she looked out her fourth floor apartment and saw a large fox in the back yard. The fox hung around for little bit before trotting back into the woods.

Friday we met my friend Judy for lunch. Judy was the executive secretary at my very first job out of college in 1981. We've kept in touch all these years. Friday night was do-nothing night and relax.

Saturday we ran some errands early as it was supposed to snow. The predictions were changing by the hour but it was sounding like it was going to be a good storm. And it was. My early evening there were a few inches of very wet snow and it was sticking to the road which wasn't expected.
We had already made tentative arrangements to meet my brother Loyd (Spade). We were hoping to help decorate his boat on the Potomac and participate in their annual Christmas boat float. It was raining down where he was and decided not to get wet and play with electricity. So we met Spade and his wife Bev in Gainesville. It was still snowing a lot and the drive was kind of slow with some cars already spilled out in the median.
After dinner with Bev and Spade, we saw my niece Kimberly at her hair salon. She is manager and head hair dresser.

I flew home today.