Boston 2009

Just got back from a work conference in Boston. The weather was great. Nice and cool! Got lots of good information and still had time to see some sites.




Our group at the airport.




Mike Jones sighting at the airport.




Boston from the plane.




Tradition.




Columbus Park.




Tall ship week.




Lobby of hotel.




View from my room. Boo!




Attending sessions. We stayed at the conference hotel.




Flag in the JFK Presidential Library.




In Kennedy's own hand. Notes for speech. "Ich bin ein Berliner"




Irish band.




More live music.




Cheers. The fake Cheers. We got to go to the real Cheers two years ago.




Boston at night.




Subway ride.




It's a work trip. More sessions.




Here we are pretending to be going to a game but we were just hanging out.




More subway.




Boston Public Library.




Boston Public Library.




Boston Public Library.




Injured party.




Edible Garden at a church.




Nice day for the park. This one is between Trinity Church and the Public Library.




Street scene.




Fluer-dee-fluer-dee-fluer. I do like fluer di lis.




Tiffany windows.




Dark begonias and black pot make a good color combo.




Swan boats.




Yours truly.




Food.




Food.




Food.




Back to the library. Beautiful fountain in the courtyard.




Jordan at the Public Libary in the room with the Sargent murals.




Dessert at the conference Excellence Awards Dinner. Yum!




My account reps, Sara and Mark.




Conference friend - on left, Abe, (a.k.a. Hawaii) won the Peer Excellence award. First time for someone to win two years in a row.




My conference friends from Aberdeen.




They had an 80's band as entertainment after the awards banquet.




Last meal before we took of on return trip. Although we did swing by Ben & Jerry's.




Discussion about lettuce wraps with chicken and nuts and stuff turned into hysterical "Chicken Nuts" meltdown.



The flight home was interesting since Jordan was on crutches. We got to go to front of security line. Then a cart ride to baggage claim upon arrival. The cart driver sang "honk" in a big booming voice when driving through the terminal instead of the regular "Cart!" announcement. It was a hoot!


Had a fun time, learned a lot, but sure was good to get home.

July 4th

Lots of photos of Bauer BBQ to share but no time to get them up now. Here's the 2009 group. It was our tenth Bauer BBQ.

Blog Break

Sometimes it's just really hard to sit down and make a post. I want to but the urge often comes when I'm not at the computer. Or I can't get to it because I have so many other things to do.

I think I'm going to be pretty busy in the next few. There's lots coming up and work is plenty stressful.

So I think I'll take a formal blog break for a month or so. If something exciting happens that just has to be told, you bet I'll make a post. Or maybe if I just find myself with some time that just has to be filled. Otherwise ... see you in July sometime. Later!

Recently Found June 1980 Photos

... or so that was the date imprinted on the slide.



Dad's brother, Uncle Tuney, and Aunt Edna.




Mom's oldest sister, my Aunt Marie.

Martha, Uncle Glenn, me.

I used to stay with my cousin, Rita, a lot. They lived next door to Aunt Marie and Uncle Glenn. We always played outside except when it rained. When it rained we played on the screened-in front porch at Aunt Marie's and Uncle Glenn's. They had an old phone (the heavy kind you dial) to play with there. I thought that was about as great as it could get ... a real phone. Not a plastic play phone. (People didn't own phones back then. The phone company graciously let you borrow one while you had a phone line connected.)

With brother and sister having houses next door to each other, it made for an extended yard for us kids to play in so we often played under the shrubs that marked Aunt Marie's far yard boundry. The shrubs were old and woody and had plenty of room for little kids to climb in underneath and play. I seem to think they may have been some gardenias in there because I remember there being something fragrant.

Things that always come to mind about Uncle Glenn is first, that he smoked a pipe and always smelled of good pipe tobacco. Also, he was missing fingers ... that was pretty fascinating to a little kid. In stories Dad has told me lately, he says that Uncle Glenn was locally known as "Stubby" because of those missing fingers lost in a mill accident. And he almost always wore that straw hat.

And during the time period when that photo above was made, I almost always wore a hat, too. I wore hats for years. A trademark kind of thing I guess. Now I'm glad I liked hats since we didn't know about sunscreen back then. And also in that photo above, I can't believe how long Martha's hair is. She's always been a short and sassy haircut kind of gal.

Searching

My former boss who I worked for about 20 years is retiring. I've been hunting down old co-workers and friends to let them know about her reception. It's been pretty interesting. There are only a couple that I really tried to find that I just can't. The internet is an amazing thing. Most were just to let them know about the reception or to let them know they could write a note or something for the book they are compiling for her.

However, a couple were co-workers that I was really fond of but had just lost contact. I'm really glad to be back in touch again. Hope to have the opportunity to catch up and see photos of their kiddos.

Like Looking At Pretty Postcards

My Buddy E

My Day

-Someone in my work-o-sphere announced their retirement today.

-The SH-uttle is canceled.

-I'll soon be working on a project with a co-worker who I've worked with before. Should turn out to be a good thing. We work well togther.

-What else? Oh when I walked into work this morning, there was a car without appropriate sticker parked in the handicapped spot. Happens a lot when people want to "just run into our building real quick" as they say. I noticed this person had a big fat flat waiting for their return. No quick get-away for them.
(I know, I know ... how can a flat by its mere nature be fat? I don't care. I just like the way it sounds. Leave me alone.)

-I remembered to leave for lunch. Needed to go pay my car insurance. I went to the 6 month plan so I only have the chance of being late twice a year instead of monthly.

-Coworker posted a somewhat crazy post on our work FaceBook page thinking he was on his personal page. He caught his mistake within the minute and deleted it. Within that minute (actually at 14 seconds), an associate vp on campus saw it and called me about the post someone put up about "i just took some meds and want to lay down and sleep". Of course during the time she was telling me that, it was gone. Oh brother. (To former co-workers... your friend that did that is professor of "HIS 365:The History of Free T-shirts" He's been fighting a cold and was a little loopy. LOL. Also former co-workers ... while you might miss the Cheeseburger, the Malt remains.)

-My cat had to eat a couple slices of bacon for supper last night. Out of groceries and forgot to get catfood. I'm headed to the grocery store and home. Bye!

Happy Birthday, Gene

Undeniably would be approaching middle-age but as it is ... forever 49!

Einstein

You Need This

Here's a LINK to news and information about the Sun-Earth environment.

Blog or Journal?

Just checked my stats and confirmed I'm pretty much talking to myself. Thanks to the two of you who visit regularly. It's nice that you do. Thanks.

Even though there's not much of an audience, I still wish I could fancy up my blog a little and blog more. Keep thinking I'm going to reach that point at work where I'll have the free time to do that. It's not too far away. I think. I hope.

Hello

Been a while. I was off last Friday and used the laptop at home to write up some entries ... of course, forgot the flash drive so not able to put them up. Maybe I'll remember it tomorrow.

I came across a blog, Liberty Post, today and saw an entry and link to this Time photo gallery that shows families throughout the world posed with their week's worth of groceries. Hope the link works for you. It's fascinating.

I found that site on a blogroll of another site that a local news anchor recommended as her favorite. It's full of French Provincial decorating. Wasn't real excited about that but the links to other sites are pretty wonderful in a "too many house decorating magazines have bitten the dust but now here's some great sites to fill the void" kind of way. And yes, the fact that they exist causing the void is not lost on me. Some of them are the above mentioned Liberty Post, Black Eiffel, and the paris apartment is pretty photo rich, too.

And I found this blog which has a current entry telling about a company with cardboard furnishings that completely interlock. No glue or staples or any fasteners of any kind. It looks great! And that led to the site for the company which commissioned the furniture and has a spectacular flash site that's fun to explore. It's Nothing. I really like their introductory flash movie about "spending more for less". It makes a whole lot of sense. And then that led to one of it's artists, Sumkin.

If you feel like taking a look, the link to that original blog is HERE and you have to scroll past a lot of self-aggrandizing to get to her My Blog List. I've only had time to look at a few but look forward to the next time I can grab some Internet browsing time to explore some more.

Who Are These People?

It's one of those mysteries that was bound to turn up in the big Scanning Project. We don't know who they are but it's a pretty cool photo, yes?


Click photo for a closer look.