MoreTravel - More Homecomings

Airports. Airports are not my favorite place to go. I've spent a fair amount of time in them the last week. All three airports - Baltimore, Detroit, & Minneapolis are the same and different. I think that the more modern they are, and all three are fairly new, the more the same they feel.

Anyway - airports - bad.

Hotels on the other hand are still not that great, but at least the one I was in had an old fashioned bar and restaurant. A good restaurant and bar - they knew how to poor a Guinness.

The work I was doing just went OK. The client really didn't bring the correct people to class (one guy "got it", but I think he was totally overworked). Oh well, they will probably be expending a large amount of time and resources on consultants.

Anyway, it's good to be home.

Trying to have a nice weekend

So it was Dominic's birthday last Wed. He's five and very proud.

What does he really want for his birthday - a trip to the Waterpark of America.

So I reserve a nice (really nice - bunkbeds, jacuzzi, fireplace!) and get everyone set to go. But check-in isn't till 4 PM, so we go to the Mall of America first and do some shopping and have lunch at Bubba Gumps.

So far so good.

We ride some rides, and Dominic even goes on the log flume again and seems to enjoy it.

Still good.

However, Rowan starts complaining that his stomach hurts.

Not good - you see where I'm going here.

Rowan makes it through the mall OK, but after a few rides at the waterpark vomits on one of the walkways - great.

So, I tell a lifeguard, and get mom to take him to the room. I play with Dominic for a while - it is his birthday party afterall, and then go back to the room. Just in time to see Rowan vomiting into a trashcan. Now I'm starting to think it's me.

But that's not all.

So we don't have to worry about Roswell - we made a reservation at the local Petsmart hotel, but in checking shot records found that she was due for a couple. We got those done on the Friday before, but then were told that we had to wait 24 hours before she could stay in the kennel. This was after being told it would be just fine to have her stay after getting her shots.

Still bad.

So, now we have had to make three trips back and forth from the hotel to take her out. About a 90 minute trip.

So we get up on Sunday morning, Rowan comes into the room saying he is doing better. and then procedes to vomit again while I'm in the shower and Jenny is travelling home to walk Roswell.

All in all not the best weekend ever.

Now I'm traveling for work this week, and I'll either spend the time waiting to get the stomach flue, or having the stomach flu - sweet.

Griffey Comes "Home"

Just read the news that Ken Griffey Jr signed with the Mariners for this season. man, that's good news.

After the disaster that was last season - it is good to see some news like this. I was just starting to follow baseball when Griffey started with the Mariners. I had graduated from college that year and moved to LA for my first real job (a bad idea - that led t a good thing - that led to a bad thing - that eventually turned out great) and baseball kept me attached to the Northwest. Then the year after the strike, the Mariners had their greatest season (even greater than the 116 wins) - and beat the Yankees in five games - five awesome games. I've been a fan ever since. In fact I just got my new hat for this year in the mail today, and I'm wearing to work!

Feels like spring to me. Bring on summer.

Baseball Season

Summer starts today - Teams are reporting to camp for Spring Training.

I'm a Seattle Mariners fan (really - no it isn't easy) so pitchers and catchers reported on Friday, and workouts are moving slowly. It is great to see baseball make it to the front page, even as the temperature drops below freezing.

If only the A-rod saga would drop out of sight it would be much better. If only he'd stayed in Seattle I'm sure this never would have happened.

Now to go look for cheap tickets.

Stimulus

I don't know what to think of the Stimulus package. The tax cut is nice, and I don't think I can help but spend it - it's pretty much too small to save.

And all the different elements on their own seem good - keep teachers, fix roads, more police, modernize the power grid. But all at once - everything all at once?

I think that perhaps they could have taken a lesson from Google or 37 Signals. Release small and quick, and refine as you go. I know, I know - the problem is too large, the stakes are too high. I think that the country is too large and too diverse to depend on one big plan.

We have fifty states - fifty different test cases (at least) - fifty different sets of problems.

I can't see a one size fits all.

Yellow Belt

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Rowan testing for his belt in Taekwando. Well, today he got his yellow belt - hooray. He seems very proud, and I am too.

It's great to see your kids accomplishing something. Especially something that they want, and they choose.

Watching the President

I watched a few minutes of President Obama's press conference. It was nice to not be angry at the President, and just listen. I think he did OK, but it was interesting to hear the hesitancy in his voice, and perhaps a little nervousness. I wish he'd done something like this right away. But I also wish he could have started with a more bi-partisan plan, and worked from that.

I think it's awesome to have a President that is still learning, and at least seems capable of learning, and admitting mistakes. Refreshing compared to our last President.

Oh yeah, and he has autism research as a priority. Won me over.

Looking for good Apps

So I have this spanking new and awesome MacBook Pro - I love it.

But know I'm looking for more reasons to use it. I currently do your general web stuff on it - email, browsing, social apps (mostly twitter) - but any laptop would do. I'm starting to write a little, but again any laptop would do.

Ideas so far:
Programming. Work is starting to use a new language - Ruby on Rails - and it is suited for development on the Mac

Some type of design - don't have a clue on this one yet

More writing. Using this computer is so easy, that it makes me want to use it.

I hope to add to this list, but we shall see.

Agent to the Stars and other cool things

I just finished Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi. Man that was fun. Even when you can see it coming the ride was worth it.

If you haven't yet, read Old Man's War - classic.

Oh yeah - Burn Notice on USA - The new A-Team.

Survival

Jenny came home mid-afternoon Tuesday, so my few days with the boys was over. No trips to the hospital, no broken bones or furniture, so I'm calling it a success.

On Sunday, while watching Toy Story 1 & 2, I cooked a monstrosity containing 2 pounds of bacon and 2 pounds of sausage called the bacon explosion. It took four days and the help of most of my colleagues at work to finish it off - but the house still smells good.

Me and The Boys

So the boys and I are home alone while Jenny goes to a conference for school (vacation).

We've been doing pretty well so far. They've been good - for boys. Spent a lot of time wrestling on Sunday night. We watched both Toy Story 1 & 2, and it was probably a bit much for them.

Dominic had a great day at daycare - so we went out to Applebees for dinner. I've never seen Mac & Cheese hoovered off a plate like that. They liked it better than the ice cream.

Dominc's OT is tomorow, and I'm going to work from home after that - no sense driving in to work to just come back in a few hours. Lovely documentation - sigh.