Major remodel at our house!

Starting tomorrow (June 30, 2008) construction begins on a major remodel at our home. We are adding about 1,230 square feet of living space to the house in three floors. The top floor will be a new master bedroom suite for Cindy (my beautiful wife) and me, the middle floor will be a mother-in-law suite for Cindy's mom (Becky) to live with us, and the bottom floor (almost a basement, really) will be a third kids bedroom and a home office. 

We are very excited for this addition, but it is also going to mean a lot of inconvenience and distraction during the construction. It should be totally finished before Christmas 2008.

To follow along with a live webcam view, visit http://www.pinkgeek.net/webcam.html

Another reason I live here

I took the waterfront route home. I love this place.

What kind of berry?

Still in the state park. But I have no idea what kind of berry this
is. Do you?

Dash point state park

Taking a nice evening stroll with the boys in Dash Point State Park.
It is finally a nice evening. It really is beautiful out here.

Almost home

This trip is almost over. Flight from Boston was uneventful, got my
lugage almost immediately, then had to wait for the shuttle to finally
show up to haul my tired @ss home. I'm writing this entry from inside
the van.

The flight was made more interesting by virtue of a very nice young
woman and her mother sitting next to me. The mother's name is Cindy
but I only remember that because my wife's name is also Cindy. As I
told the woman next to me I probably wouldn't remember her name since
I am so bad with names - as you tell I was right since I now can't
remember her name. I found out the woman is an English teacher in a
suburb of Boston and the two of them were on their way to Anchorage
Alaska to visit her sister. We ended up having a really nice chat for
part of the flight. It is always nice to meet and get to know
interesting new people. I hope they end up having a great time!

At the symposium

Here's the view down the aisle in front of our booth. Been pretty busy
for me. Others in the booth showing other products aren't getting as
much traffic, but my stuff is "hot" right now. All demoed off of my
17" MacBook Pro.

At one point today I was demoing to a guy from my own company. I
didn't know who he was so was giving him my normal pitch. Turns out he
is a VP and GM! Luckily I did well - he was impressed.

Wish I had slept better last night. I didn't sleep well at all so am
running on only about 4 hours of sleep. I'm an 7 to 8 hour a night
guy, so I am running on empty.

737-800

Here I am at 30,000 feet in the air (give or take a few thousand) nearing my destination. The flight has been entirely unevent. A spot of bad turbulence once, but not actually all that bad.

Three things have made flying quite nice for me lately. The first is my iPhone. I load up a couple of movies on it and I am ready to go. I highly recommend the program HandBrake for ripping DVDs into iPhone playable .mp4 files.

The second item that makes all the difference in the world are my Bose Quiet Comfort 2 noise cancelling headphones. Until you have used a pair for a 5 hour flight you won't believe the difference these things make! And paired with the iPhone and a couple of movies your all set.

The third item I have only just started to use. For Father's Day my kids (and wife) gave me a new Swiss Gear rolling computer bag. That thing is amazing. I knew my old shoulder carried computer bag was hurting me, but I hadn't realized how much nicer it was going to be getting through the airport. I felt much lighter and more relaxed getting to my plane.

So there are my recommendations for happier flying. A few other hints that help me: wear Birkentocks (or other slip on shoes with socks) to help get through security faster; carry a few Luna bars (or other good for you food) since you aren't getting fed on the plane anymore; carry a book for take-off and landing times since you can't use your iPhone.

Another trip

It's another week and another trip across the country. I am headed to
Boston this time to participate in the Air Force Cyber Space Symposium
II. The company is flying me there and back for one day of demos to
potential government customers. Crazy, but they are paying the bills.

I get to fly Alaska Airlines though. That is a plus. They have Jones
Soda cream soda on board which I really like. I have a window seat, so
with any luck there won't be anyone in the middle seat!

The picture is of a flower in our front yard. I was waiting for the
shuttle to pick me up this morning and saw this plant had flowered. A
pretty way to start the day.

My last business trip

This is actually just a test post, but this was the last time I was at
the Rosslyn metro station.

My blogging life

Ah the first post. So pristine. So clean. Not for long!