Made it home

A very odd week of work.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport has one of the back scanner x-rays.  I ended up in the line using it.  It definitely takes a lot longer.  After you stand in it...with your arms above your head..., you then have to move to another location while the TSA guy gets told in his ear piece whether you passed or not.  There isn't any noise or lights or anything.

I thought the storms would delay the flight but didn't.  We did take a more southerly route but still landed on time.  It was nice to get home while still light outside.

Montgomery Inn at The Roadhouse, Cincinnati, Ohio

Finally got into downtown Cincinnati yesterday.  We had a team meeting at the Garfield Suites Hotel.  Kind of a seedy hotel but at least was downtown.

That is a picture of the James A. Garfield statue with the sun obliterating his head.  It stands in the park just outside of the hotel.

After the meeting...which on for way too long...we went to dinner at the Montgomery Inn located along the Ohio River.  The view from the restaurant was fantastic.  The near full moon rose over on the Kentucky side of the river and shimmered off the river.

The food was good.  Montgomery Inn is famous for its barbeque pork ribs.  I had a small rack of ribs and barbeque chicken.  Both were very good.

Very last minute

Heading back to Cincinnati tomorrow, Wednesday.  I've been asked to attend a meeting tomorrow and another on Friday.  Really wasn't thinking I'd be traveling this week.

Did find out that I had two accounts with Hilton's frequent stay program.  Don't know how that happened but now have the points combined.  I'm over 800,000 points.  But everytime I try to use them, there isn't a Hilton property to stay at.

Finally

After almost 5 years, the Escape finally has 30,000 miles on it.  Traveling out of town nearly every week really limits the number of driving miles.

This actually occurred on drive from airport on Thursday night.

New Neighbors

Stepped out the front door this morning about 6:30am.  And saw new neighbors asleep just across the street.

Earth Day

Screech owl.

Client site was having an earth day thing and one of the presenters brought this owl. He/She (the owl) was very very intense.

Back in Cinci

In Cincinnati again this week. This should be my last week...at least for a while.

Flew Delta Airlines instead of American. It was a direct flight. Still a small regional jet. The Delta terminal is very nice at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Regional Airport. Big difference to the terminal I was in last week flying American.

It looks like I'll be back for a day in mid-May. Turns out the client really likes me. :-)

New roof and gutters

Here's the 'before' from the back yard.

Here is the 'after.' Notice the gutter on the back porch. It is now moved to the other side away from the back door.

The roof shingles are much lighter in color though still green.  And there is now a roof vent line at the peak.  Attic ventilation is required by code now.  I decided a peak vent would look better than having those square vents every.

I chose regular flat asphalt shingles instead of the now popular architectural shingles.  I like the flatness of this type shingle. Architectural shingles have too much texture for my little house.

This is the front 'before' picture.

And this is the front 'after' picture.

The front gutter has been moved from the side of the house where I had to step over it for the past nearly 20 years.

It now is located where you see it in this picture.  At the corner of the front porch where it will drain into the front garden.

In the shade, the roof color looks almost the same as before.

Adopt-a-Highway thanks

Many many "thanks" to Rose, Amy, Bunny, Marlin, Kay, Corky, Rachel and Christine for the spring Tall Boy's Fan Club adopt-a-highway cleanup.

Once again the north bound side was a mess. That's the side of the road headed out of Elk River.

It was the most gorgeous day to be outdoors.

Home from Cincinnati

A very long evening of travel last night. Left client site in Blue Ash around 5:15pm eastern time and got home just before midnight central time. It was partially self-inflicted because I flew American Airlines and had to connect through Chicago.

Cincinnati was warm...matter of fact near record breaking warm on Wednesday.

The biggest and most interesting story is finding evidence of other Alspaughs. The woman who set up my access to the client's wireless internet told me that my last name is the same as her mother's maiden name! That has never happened before. Her mother's name is Roberta and I don't know anyone on my dad's side of the family with that name.

Stayed at the Doubletree in Blue Ash which has a really large maccaw in the lobby. The picture is a bit blurry because he was swinging on his swing. This guy was not particularly friendly. He would have been pleased with himself if he could have gotten a piece of you.

The redbud trees were in bloom everywhere and so beautiful. The Cincinnati airport is actually in nothern Kentucky on the south side of the Ohio River. The drive from the airport to the city is quite lovely. Very hilly on the Kentucky side with the hillsides covered in trees with the redbuds splash of red and purple-pink.

Home today...gone tomorrow

Working from home today, Monday. But tomorrow I'm back on the road to a new destination.

Traveling to Cincinnati, Ohio via Chicago O'Hare. It'll be two smaller planes to get there and leaving super early from MSP....6am...ugh.

I think the client I'm visiting is actually in Blue Ash outside of Cinci. I need to do some research.

Take the Civil Literacy Quiz

Try the Civil Literacy Quiz from Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

I scored 75.76% which was barely above the April average. Once you click Submit it takes quite a while for the results to come back. I'm figuring Amy and Bunny would be keen to take this.

Mom, the quiz doesn't work on Web TV

Uno - Her Sleepiness

Uno's turn for cute sleeping picture.  She loves to lie in the sun and the best spot is on the back porch.

Here she is sleeping before she realized I was there.  Her hand is covering her eyes.

Now she's got her eyes open and still sprawled on her back.

His Sleepiness

Frankie can sleep in almost any position.

Ahh, so peaceful.