Trip to San Antonio

 

[caption id="attachment_207" align="alignright" width="225" caption="This painting of Bill Clinton wearing a La Tierra T-shirt was on a wall in the restaurant."][/caption]

Since Saturday evening I have been in San Antonio for work, and I will be here until late Saturday morning. On this trip, I finally met my functional manager in person for the first time, and I visited my company's San Antonio office. We have had a productive week of work, meeting with a client. Tonight though, a coworker from Iowa City and I got to see some of the sights of San Antonio. A colleague of ours who lives here drove us downtown where we went to Market Square, where I got gifts for Mel and Emma. We went through Mi Tierra Restaurant and Bakery, although we did not stop there to eat. We also checked out the exterior of the Alamo since it was closed for the day. After visiting these sights, we had dinner at La Tuna Grill. There was a lot to see on our shopping trip, and the food was good where we ate. It was nice to try something for dinner besides eatting at a chain restaurant another night, although I do like chain restaurants as well.

And before I complete this blog posting, no visit to the Alamo would be complete without mentioning the basement as in the video below.

Preparing for RAGBRAI XXXIX

[caption id="attachment_77" align="alignright" width="300" caption="This is a photo of cyclists riding on a gravel road on RAGBRAI XXXII in 2004."][/caption]

This evening, after the kids went to bed, Mel and I packed for RAGBRAI. Well actually, Mel had already done most of her packing and just had a few things to finish up with for herself. I had to start, and finish, packing my things tonight. And as much as I check things over, I still feel that I am missing something. Fortunately it's not like we will be in the middle of nowhere. If I forgot to pack something, I am sure we can find it wherever we are. I also had to take care of a few last minute work things tonight, such as submitting my time cards for this week and next week. Now that I am done with that, I will not have to think about work at all for the rest of the month. That will be a nice break.

Since the kids are staying with Mel's sister and brother-in-law in Ankeny, Iowa, we had to pack their things as well. And with both my bike and Mel's recumbent bike in the back of her truck, there was not enough room for the things we need to take for the kids, so we are going to end up taking both of our vehicles on our trip to Iowa. I just hope my sister-in-law's minivan has room for the things we are bringing for the kids, especially since we are bringing Emma's bike along for her to ride next week.

While I am on RAGBRAI, I do intend to keep up with my blog, writing about each day's ride. I will probably do most of this from the Windstream Communications trailers if I find the time. If I appear to miss a day's blogging, do not be too concerned. It is probably just a sign that I did not have time to stop to blog that day.

RAGBRAI and the Global Corporate Challenge

My employer is one of many around the world participating in the Global Corporate Challenge (GCC), a 16-week-long walking challenge in which employees walk around the world virtually. This challenge began on Thursday, May 19, and ends on Tuesday, September 6.

While this event focuses on walking as exercise, having participants tracking their daily steps recorded by their pedometers, it also makes allowances for people who cycle or swim. This is going to help me and my team out when I am cycling across Iowa on RAGBRAI next week. According to GCC's website, 2.5 miles of cycling is the equivalent to 0.6 mile of walking, or 1,563 steps. So if I ride all 454 miles of RAGBRAI, excluding the optional loop on Tuesday, I will earn 283,841 steps for me and my team for the week. Of course, this is just the steps I will earn from cycling. I will be walking quite a bit once I reach my destination each night. I will of course be counting these steps as well.

Now I am concerned that the average of 40,549 steps from cycling each day will earn me a GCC "speeding ticket." Such tickets are issued whenever someone records an abnormally large number of steps for a day. If this happens, I will just have to explain to GCC why my step count is so high. This should not be too much of a problem, but it could delay my entry of some of my steps. As I have been averaging around 10,000 steps a day so far, this would be a significant increase.

I will be blogging about my progress on RAGBRAI, so be sure to check back next week to see how the ride is going.

Home

This morning I woke up in my hotel room to discover that the electricity was out over most of the hotel. Fortunately I swam in the pool last night and showered afterward, because I really did not want to shower in complete darkness. Some of the lights in the rest of the room were working, so I was able to see well enough to get dressed and to finish packing my things. I had to walk a mile to Burger King for breakfast, once the rain stopped, since the hotel's restaurant could not serve anything more than toast and cereal.

After getting back to the hotel I decided to head to the airport to either use its Wi-Fi connection to work, or to see if I could get on an earlier flight home. I was pleased to discover that I could get on the flight that was scheduled to depart just one hour after my arrival at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport, and even better, my seat was in the exit row. The flight did leave about twenty minutes later than scheduled, but I still arrived in Minneapolis before 11:00 this morning. I did have to wait a very long time for my luggage though. It was eventually discovered to be stuck on the conveyor that brings it to the baggage claim area. I am glad to be home finally. Now I can actually get my project work done.

A Semi-successful Trip

[caption id="attachment_31" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Water Slide at the Sioux Falls Ramada's Buccaneer Bay Indoor Water Park"][/caption]

As I previously wrote, I am in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for a business trip. Overall my trip has been a good one. I facilitated meetings both today and yesterday, and they each went quite smoothly. My group got done with yesterday's meeting fairly early. We did not finish today's meeting as early as yesterday's, but we still got done with some time to spare.

Part of my trip has been less successful as I hoped however. I had hoped to get work done in the evenings on another project I work on. I got a little work done yesterday afternoon after finishing my meeting early, but I have had a heck of a time with my Wi-Fi connection. I am not sure if the fault lies in the hotel's service or in my old laptop, but regardless of what was at fault, after being connected initially for almost an hour, I was disconnected and then repeatedly lost my connection again just minutes after I regained it. That made it impossible to get anything done. Hopefully my new work computer arrives shortly after I am back in my office Friday.

Since I have been unable to get much work done, I had time to check out the hotel's water park. I went down the large water slide a few times last night and a couple times tonight. It was fun, but it would have been a lot more fun if Mel and the kids had been here to enjoy it as well.

I fly out tomorrow and am really looking forward to getting home to see Mel, Emma, and Maximus. I don't mind business trips but I do miss my family while I am gone.

A Sick Day

We kept Emma home from daycare yesterday. She had gotten sick during the night and we decided that even though she was feeling better in the morning, we would be better off keeping her home. I was able to finish the tasks I needed to complete yesterday, and was able to call in for a regularly scheduled Monday morning meeting, but after that I wasn't able to get any work done. Being not quite four years old, Emma is not yet able to keep herself entertained for hours on end. That was all right though. We had a good day day.

Business Trip to Chicago

I am currently on a business trip to Chicago. I arrived yesterday afternoon after a rather uneventful flight from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Usually on business trips we stay at an Embassy Suites hotel. This time though, the Embassy Suites was booked, so the people from my company are at the Marriott Suites near O'Hare, while our committee members are staying at the nearby Marriott. Now I don't want to sound like I am complaining about the Marriott suites. Quite frankly, I think the room I am in is the best hotel room I have ever stayed in on a business trip. However, I really miss the breakfast with the omelet bar and the afternoon manager's reception that  the Embassy Suites has. Oh well, since the after-work drinks aren't free, the company will just end up paying for them.

This is a nice hotel though. The room has two large high-definition televisions. The alarm clock in the bedroom has a docking port for my iPod. That is especially nice since I prefer waking up to music than to an obnoxious alarm. And with the iPod dock, I can listen to my own music. I always find it such a pain to find a radio station that I will like in a city I am visiting. This eliminates that need. The bathroom is also very nice. Besides the typical bathtub, there is an actual shower stall, and the shower head is actually high enough for me! There are a couple of drawbacks about the hotel though, besides the lack of free alcohol. One is the lack of wireless Internet access in the room. I have Internet access, but it is not wireless. The second is the fact that sodas from the vending machines or from the front desk cost three dollars. That's an outrageous price! However, neither of these negatives are particularly bad, especially since I can get reimbursed for my beverages when I submit my expense report upon returning home.

Now on to the details of what I have been doing while I was here. Last night, two of my coworkers and I had dinner at the Carlucci Italian restaurant that is located very close to our hotel. I had some great food -- flank steak, pasta, and lobster-stuffed shrimp! It was fantastic! The crème brûlée I had for dessert was good as well, although the flame went out before the alcohol on top was sufficiently burned. It was so big that I was unable to finish it.

Today was the first day of our day and a half of meetings. I am not going to go into detail about the meeting, but I will say that I definitely earned the drink I had with dinner tonight! Speaking of dinner, we went to Gibsons to eat. We wanted to eat in the restaurant itself, but without a reservation we would have had to wait until 9:00 at the earliest before we could be seated, so we ate in the bar instead. Finding a seat in the bar was almost as difficult. I noticed that three women at one of the tables were eating some cake, so I staked out their table waiting for them to leave so I could pounce on the newly-vacated table before someone else had the chance. While I was waiting for them to leave, I noticed that the men at the neighboring table were paying their tab. They ended up leaving first, so I procured a table for my group. I had a rib eye steak sandwich for dinner. A few of us shared some crab cakes for an appetizer. For the second night in a row, dinner was quite delectable. After dinner, we returned to out hotel where we had some desert at our hotel's restaurant.

After returning to my room, I spent a little bit of time working on a different project to which I am assigned before composing this blog posting and going to bed. I am anticipating that my committee will finish up early tomorrow, so I guess I will probably be spending extra time at O'Hare waiting for my 3:05 flight back to Minneapolis.

Wrap-up of the Past Week

We've had a pretty busy week this past week. Last Saturday we all went to the Mall of America where Emma finally got to ride on the carousel. She rode on it three whole times! I thought that since she was tall enough to ride on her own, but I wanted to go with her, I would have to pay as well, so I paid enough for two rides, one for her and one for me. However, when we got on, they only charged us for her, so we had enough points left for her to ride a second time. Somehow though, the points were not deducted from our ticket for on of her first two rides, so she was able to ride a third time. She had a great time on the carousel.

On Sunday we went to the Minnesota Zoo. Emma wanted to play in the splash pad, but we told her we would do that before leaving instead of right when we got there. As a consequence, Emma did not want to spend much time looking at any particular animal. She kept saying that she wanted to see the next animal. I am pretty sure this was so we could finish with looking at animals so she could play in the water. When it was finally time to go home, Emma was not happy about it. She screamed all the way to the car that she didn't want to go home yet. She fell asleep in the car, but when she woke up when we got home, she began whining again. She ended up spending a bit of time in her room alone until she managed to calm down.

On Monday, Max rolled over from his back to his tummy! He had begin rolling the other way regularly last month, but now he can roll both ways!

Max's physical therapy appointment for his torticollis was Wednesday. He is doing really well, although he still tilting his head to his left. This appointment was also a lot more pleasant than the previous two as Max refrained from screaming for most of the appointment. He did complain some during one of the exercises he did though. It was nice to not have him screaming for the entire appointment though.

I had a follow-up appointment from my gallbladder surgery yesterday. Everything looks just fine.

I have had quite a bit of work lately, especially since Wednesday this week. All of these other appointments haven't helped with getting it done, and we have another appointment this afternoon. However, working at night, I have been able to get things done. Well, I've gotten most of it done anyway.

My Last Full Day in Philly

Today was my last full day in Philadelphia before returning home from my business trip. We were able to wrap things up a little early today. This gave me the opportunity to do a little sight seeing. I took a cab to the Liberty Bell. After visiting that sight, I wandered around the area for a little while, visiting the tomb of the unknown Revolutionary War soldier, and walking by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the United States Mint. Also during this walk, I stopped at the Independence Hall visitor center where I got a free ticket to tour Independence Hall.

At 4:00, I took my tour of Independence Hall. It really isn't much of a tour as there are only two rooms in Independence Hall, the courtroom and the room in which the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were signed. That's not to say that the tour wasn't worth it. The tour guide did an excellent job describing what happened when the Second Continental Congress met there.

Later this evening, my colleagues and I all went to Misconduct Tavern for dinner. I had some really good homemade macaroni and cheese there. In addition to the variety of cheeses in the mac and cheese, I had them add grilled chicken. It was yummy, and not too much food. Tomorrow morning I have a few things to finish up for work, and then I will be headed to the airport to return to Minnesota.

Cheese Steak!

Last night my colleagues and I had dinner at Moromoto Restaurant in Philadelphia. I will be blogging about that, but that will have to wait until I get the menu of what we had to eat back from one of my colleagues. In the meantime, I am going to write about today's meeting and dinner. The meeting which I facilitated today went very well. We made a lot of progress at getting finished what we needed to work on. I am very pleased with what we accomplished.

This evening, a couple of colleagues, a few of our committee members, and I all went to get cheese steak for dinner. I got cheese steak from Geno's Steaks while a couple of the people in our group got their cheese steaks from Pat's King of Steaks across the street. Our cab driver said that he prefers Geno's, which it why I chose that for my dinner. Geno's is the restaurant which was controversial a few years back for having signs up in their windows telling people that this is America, so they should order in English. I was certain to place my order in English as I didn't want to anger the employees. Besides, I wasn't sure how to say "cheese steak" in Klingon. I had my cheese steak with onions and Cheez Whiz. It was good, but I also had a taste of a sandwich from Pat's. I think the meat at Pat's tasted better, but I thought the cheese was better on Geno's. That could be because the steak sandwich from Pat's had provolone instead of Cheez Whiz.

I Dislike Flying

I do not understand why, but I do not particularly care for flying. Oh, I know it's supposedly the safest way to travel, and without flying, it would be a lot less practical to go places that aren't as nearby, and while I wouldn't way that I have a fear of flying, I just can not get over the fact that there is a possibility that the plane will crash. Of course, the probability of that happening is very slim, and it it much more likely that I would get in a car accident if driving a long distance.

Anyway, I had a rather uneventful trip to Philadelphia earlier today. Everything went according to schedule. I even got an entire row to myself on the plane! I have checked into my hotel room at the Embassy Suites, and am currently waiting for my colleagues to arrive so we can figure out what our dinner plans are. This hotel is interesting. Each floor of the hotel is dodecagonal in shape. I have found it to be somewhat confusing finding my room upon exiting the elevator, having to sweep around a whole 360 degrees until I located my room. It might take me until my stay is over before I get a hang of finding my room.

While I am writing about things I dislike, I should also mention that I very much hate heights. Heights don't always bother me. Really the only time I hate heights is when I am not fully enclosed in a structure. For some reason I fear falling over whatever railing there is. I know this fear isn't completely rational, but I seem to get by having it. I did manage to walk up to the railing of the balcony of my nineteenth-floor room, holding my camera over the edge so I could take this photo of a building I have yet to identify. I think I have had enough time on the balcony for the rest of my stay now.

To Friend, Or Not To Friend

I have a bit of a dilemma that I am dealing with. Okay, maybe calling it a dilemma is a bit of an overstatement, but I have an issue with which I am dealing nonetheless. Should I be friends with my manager at work on Facebook? Here is some background on this issue. A while back, I became friends with one of my coworkers who had about the same position with the company that I had. This is a coworker whom I have never actually met, since we have three offices in two states, as well as several employees, including myself, who work completely offsite. We do seem to have a lot in common however, so I have enjoyed viewing his activity on Facebook, and he has made several comments on my activity. Several months after we became friends on Facebook, he was promoted at work and soon after that he became the person to whom I report for general work-related things. Perhaps this is really a non-issue as I can easily modify my Facebook privacy settings on a case-by-case basis to exclude him from seeing anything I wish to keep from my manager. However, any input my readers have would be greatly appreciated.

A Raise

Yesterday I received a phone call from my manager at work informing me that I am getting a raise. I was expecting one, although I wasn't expecting much of a raise as I had told that raises this year would likely be modest. I was surprised to get a bigger raise than I expected. Today I also found out that I will be getting a bonus this coming Friday. All this extra money will definitely come in handy, especially with having a relatively new baby at home. The raise and bonus are nice, however I am coming to the realization that being a full-time work-from-home employee is probably hurting my prospects of getting promoted at work. Perhaps I should talk to my manager about the possibility of being the lead on a project. That would help in getting promoted, but I do not know if that will happen. I do not suppose it will hurt to ask.

Too Busy to Blog

I have been meaning to blog all week, but I have just been so busy. I returned to work on Monday after a week off. Of course, I work from home, so I haven't had to go anywhere for work, but it still takes up a lot of my time nonetheless. Mel has been staying home with Maximus. So occasionally I take a short break while working to watch him if Mel has something she needs to get done. Of course I keep track of how long I do that so I make sure I work enough and get my assigned tasks completed.

Also taking up my time this week had been getting the taxes done. I have to say I am pleased how that ended up. Besides that, I have been going to bed early all week. Since Mel and I have each been getting up in the middle of the night to feed Max, we need to get our sleep when we can.

While I have been busy, I have had time for some fun. On Sunday, I took Emma to the zoo. With all of the attention we have been giving to the new baby, we need to remember that Emma still needs attention as well. It was pretty damn cold on Sunday, so we spent most of our time there looking at the indoor animals. We did venture outside to check out the brown bears which were sleeping in their den. I also wanted to get a photo of Flat David with the bears. It took me several attempts to get a decent photo on my cell phone. By the time I did get an acceptable photo, my hands were freezing, so Emma and I quickly returned to the indoors. Emma and I had a lot of fun at the zoo, although she was happy to get back home to see Mommy and her brother.

Sunday evening, all four of us went to Green Mill for dinner. We treated my aunt and uncle to dinner since they were so helpful in watching Emma on such short notice two Fridays ago when Mel and I went to the hospital. They really enjoyed seeing Max, and they both had a good time holding him. Max did really well with both of them. It seems that the only person who can not hold Max without him getting fussy is me myself.

Emma continues to do well with having an additional family member in the house. She likes to help out as much as she can. Of course, as she isn't even three years old yet, there is not a whole lot she can help with at this point. She does like putting the lids on Max's bottles when I make them, she takes Max his bottles, and she likes putting his dirty diapers in the Diaper Genie. She also likes to help me do all the shopping.

Yesterday morning we took Max to the doctor for his newborn appointment. He is doing great. His weight is up to 8 pounds 1 ounce, which places him at the 50th percentile for weight. And his height is now 21.25 inches, which is the 95th percentile for height. He didn't get any shots at this appointment. Those will wait until March.

Late Nights at Work

Since the beginning of the year, I have spent a considerable amount of time working late into the evening. Part of the reason for this is that I had two dentist appointments last week. I could have used sick time to make up for those, but I didn't want to dip into my paid leave so early into the year. Also, I had a lot of work to get done.

It had been quite a while since I had really worked late into the evening. Until last week, I had been keeping pretty regular, 8:00 to 4:30 hours, but with Mel going to bed fairly early lately, and little worth watching on TV, I decided I might as well get some work done. Now if I hadn't volunteered to take on some of the extra tasks that I have lately, I probably wouldn't feel the need to work so much. But I do have a lot to get done before I take time off when the baby comes, so I feel it needs to be done.