Lincoln, Nebraska

I am in Lincoln today to talk IT with the 2010 Special Olympics US National Games. I had to fly out of national instead of bwi due to a travel agent mixup. This also forced me to get up at 3:15am to make the flight.



All is good now that I am here. The lincoln airport appears to have 4 gates and you are allowed to park curbside with a 10 minute limit!

Hanging the TV

The goal was fairly simple. I wanted to hang the TV over the fireplace. I consulted with Dad, Nick, other Dad and we all decided that this wasn't going to be much fun.

After staring at for a while I decided to call Chris. This needed an engineer's fearlessness.

Chris and Nick came over on Saturday and the decision was made to reinforce the studs by adding some additional framing. That meant that a 55 x24 inch hole had to be cut in the drywall.



This hole was later enlarged so that the framing gun could fit. (I cut the crooked top)


We took the opportunity to run some speaker wires and hdmi cables for the tv.


The wall was reinforced and a new piece of drywall hung. Joanie is sanding and repainting. We hope to actually hang the tv next weekend and get our living room back.

Reduction in Force

This came to me via my father-in-law. I'm not sure if it accurately reflects where you work but I have several friends whose companies are following this logic.

In this current economic crisis,

we see no alternative but to reduce our staff.

We have to lay off André.

Meeting new people

On Sunday night we had a lovely dinner at Chris & Pam's house. It was Simon's first time meeting them, their kids Evan & Sam as well as Joanne & Mr. Yuck and Jake & Mandy. We forgot our camera so all photos come curiosity of Joanne.

Chris was his usual over the top self and made a huge paella. As Pam commented Simon's dubious look probably has something to do with the fact that he would fit in the pan.


















Here is a shot of Evan, hamming it up.


















Here is Sam. Do we have this mess to look forward to while feeding Simon in 7 months? She looks so pleased with herself!














Here is a shot of just the boy. He has started playing with his tongue and makes all sorts of funny faces now.

Simon got his swing back!

One of the first things unpacked today was Simon's swing. He had big smiles and coo'd at the mobile as it spun around. He sure is fascinated by the whole apparatus.

On the plane

Here we are ready to take off. Simon did great on the plane, no crying he didn't even seem to notice on take off or landing.

PS) The humidity here is crazy.

Carbondale, Glenwood Springs & Aspen

We spent a day and a half with Rachel.

We went to Glenwood Springs and took Simon on his first gondola ride to the top. Hopefully he will be used to these in the future along with quads, and tow ropes.

From there we had beautiful views of Mt. Sopris. There was also a killer Alpine Slide but no pictures.

Here are Rachel & Simon at the top.

We also went to the Maroon Bells. Here is what they look like on a clear day.

Here is what they looked like on the day we went. Simon didn't seem to care either way but he did get caught in his first snowstorm.

We also drove to Aspen for lunch. What I thought of as Aspen is actually made up of four ski areas including Buttermilk where they host the X Games. Check out the size of the jumps that are still there this late in the year.

The next day we went to the town of Red Stone to see Hay's Creek Falls and the old coke ovens.

We had lunch in the little town and than we left for Denver driving over Independance Pass. The boy was sleeping so we didn't stop at the summit. We've found it is best to let a sleeping baby lie.