So This Is Snow

First week in the house, and we get a major snow fall. Now, we didn't think it would be so bad...I mean, we planned ahead and found someone to plow our driveway. Good thinking, right? Wrong. Turns out it's his first year, first snowfall, and when it stopped on Sunday, he never showed. Monday morning? Still nothing. I call him around 11am, and no answer on the cell (he was so proud about carrying his cell, and we could always reach him). Left a message at the house to call me as we want to know when...we're completely snowed in and can't get anywhere.

1pm rolls around, and we decide to call someone else (another guy down the street...more expensive, though, and we're trying to cut costs). He's been out since the snow stopped Sunday night, and needs a quick nap before coming to clean us out. I call the first guy again...no cell, but the wife answers at home. Apparently his truck broke down, and he's at the dealership. He'll get to us in a couple of hours. WTF? And you couldn't call to tell me this? Long story short, neighbourhood guy shows up an hour later, cleans the mess (see pictures) in 10 minutes, and we're all happy, and I'm only out the $10 it cost me to put a stop payment on first guy's cheque. Not fun.

You can see how badly the front walk is drifted over

More front walk

Me shoveling...YAY!

Side of the garage...it's about 4 feet high

In front of the garage...only 3 feet high here.

Drifted right up to the hood of my car

The huge snow pile from shoveling the deck earlier in the week

Visual reference of how high the snow is...I'm not crouching, and I'm probably 6'4" in the Sorels

From inside the garage to outside. It got inside the garage and actually stopped the door from opening (it covered the little laser thingy)

Yet another shot of the front walk

Action shot!

One last look back from between the cars. They were surprisingly snow free (except the one side of mine), which made us think it wasn't as bad as it was. We should have taken some the next morning...you couldn't tell (other than by where the cars were) our driveway from the rest of the yard.

Engagement Photos? What are they?

Apparently, when you spend enough money on a wedding photographer, they throw in engagement photos for free. That being said, here is my fav of the bunch...

Don't we make a cute couple?

This is the product of two weeks of planning, getting rained out the first time, and almost being rained out the second time. Thankfully it held up for about 30 minutes while we took the pictures in front of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Pictures, Picture and More Pictures

I said there would be more pictures of the house, and here they are, as promised.

Front Door

Living Room (note the lovely clean carpets)

More living room, with some dining area, and the stairs to the basement. The white door straight ahead leads out to the garage.

Our sweet kitchen...I love islands.

Main entrance where it leads into the living area.

Lower portion of the deck...it's pretty massive as it's the entire width of the two car garage.

View back up to the patio doors (0ff the dining area). You can see how it's a two-tiered deck.

Basement view from the bottom of the stairs...eventually this will be a pretty sweet daycare.

More basement, and showing the walkout to the back yard.

And that's the stairs into the basement, as well as the fridge that will be moved into the kitchen.

Well, that's our house...we're pretty proud of it, and will be even more so when we finally get the carpets pulled up. The two dogs the previous owner had shredded them up pretty good, not to mention all the dirt and other stains. Man, is there a lot of cleaning ahead.

Hot-lanta? I think not

On the road again, oh how I hate to be on the road again...okay, so it's not quite right, but it fits this trip. I ended up getting shipped off to a Users Conference in Atlanta earlier this week. Sounds like fun, right?

It started off on a bad note...I haven't been feeling all that well for the last few weeks, and it really caught up to me on Sunday when I left. Between the flight down and the cab ride to the hotel, I was feeling pretty sick. Sadique and I got to the hotel where the conference was, set up the booth, and then decided to find a nice restaurant for dinner. What we found was a local pub where, unknown to us, Georgia law still allows you to smoke. Just what my system needed. So by the end of it, I'm about ready to hurl my guts all over the place, and we still have a cocktail mixer to attend. I end up leaving early (about 10 minutes in), and let poor Sadique fend for himself.

Monday morning rolls around, and I'm feeling little better. Oh well, the show must go on...down to the booth to finish setup, and I realize two things. One, no one ordered a power outlet for our booth, so we have no where to plug in anything and two, I forgot the power cable for the monitor. A quick chat with the organizers, though, and both were solved in minutes. A big thumbs up for the organizers. 9:45, the exhibit opens, and we get flooded with people...people looking for stamps. See, they have this draw where if you visit all the booths (proven by this stamp), you can win $100, $300 or $400. So we had tons of traffic, but no interest in our product. Oh boy, this is going to be a fun couple of days. The conferences/workshops started at 10:30, so by 10:35, the hall is a ghost town, and no one showed back up until 4:30 for another 30 minutes. What a waste of a day.

I'm still not feeling well that night, so I ended up skipping on the bus tour they put on. After all, I had to be ready for another day of twiddling my thumbs. And sure enough, Tuesday was a repeat of Monday, but since there was another cocktail party, this time in the exhibit hall, I had to stay not until 5:00, but until 8:30. Fun stuff, especially with a 9am flight the next morning. All in all, the show was a complete bust, and I didn't even get to see anything of Atlanta. Last time I do that sort of thing.

It wasn't all bad, though...I did end up getting a nice travel mug, laptop bag and new mouse out of the deal.

House Pictures

Me on our new front porch.

SOLD! The happy couple now eyeball deep in debt

And last, but certainly not least, a shot of the house from the road.

That's a lot of grass to mow, and there's way more out back :S

So This Is Debt

More steps on the road of life...Jenn and I bought a house this past month. It's a pretty sweet place, about a 1500 square foot bungalow (2500 square feet living space with the finished basement), and the best part is it's on a 2 acre lot. I love space, and I'm going to love the riding lawn mower even more :)

So now we have 25 years of mortgage payments to look forward to, but we also have years of memories, a place to start a family, and the groundwork for Jenn's home daycare to look forward to as well. I can't wait to move in!

Pictures are coming, but probably won't be up until next weekend at the earliest.

London...again

At the end of August, I asked my boss what the schedule was going to be like for the next few months...it looked pretty slow, and that I would be in Ottawa all of September, minus maybe a day trip to Montreal. A nice, relaxed pace. Two days later, I get an email asking if I could go to London for a week on short notice for a show and customer visit. While Jenn wasn't too excited at the prospect, it was that many more Aeroplan miles that we could use for the honeymoon, and she relented.

It started out pretty badly...we were attending a major show (DSEI), and as a result, almost all the hotels (well, certainly all the decent motels) on the east and south side of London were booked. We did manage to find some nice rooms close to the exhibition hall, but at $6000 for the week, it was a bit much for the company. A few hours more searching, and we were in the area and the budget.

Like normal, I booked my own tickets, and the sales guy (Peter) had my itinerary to do the same. The plan was for the Pete and I to meet at the airport, and I assumed that he was on the same flight. After kicking around the Ottawa airport for a few hours, I realized that he wasn't on the same flight. Hmmm...maybe we'll meet up in Toronto then. I check the terminal in Toronto, and still no Peter. He doesn't carry a cell phone, so by this point I'm really unsure what the heck is going on, but I have all the directions and reservation information, so I'm good.

A long ass flight later (first class thanks to some upgrade coupons), and I'm in London. $250 in cab fare later, and I'm checking into the hotel...I should have known it was a bad sign when there were 3 rooms reserved for "K Kunka" and another for "Kevin Kunka". I tried to cancel some, but the hotel staff thought that there might actually be another one out there. I mean, what are the chances that two are staying in the same hotel at the same time? At this point I still haven't heard from Peter either, so I'm a bit nervous. I log onto the net, check my email, and waiting for me is a "where are you" message from Pete. "I'm at the hotel...where are you?" "At the hotel". We finally talked to each other around 2pm, and made plans for dinner. One mess straightened out.

At 7, I met Peter in the lobby and talked to the guy at the desk to cancel the other (mistaken) room reservations. I was then informed that I would have to pay one night for all of the rooms as you can't cancel after 4pm. Astonished that the guy would argue with me (the customer is always right after all), we asked for the manager. And she preceded to say the exact same thing...we'd need to pay 1 night * 3 extra rooms. Finally I asked her to show me the reservation sheet that was emailed to her by the website I booked through, and low and behold, there should have been 2 rooms...one for Pete, one for me. I thought it was straightened out finally, only to hear the first guy argue with the manager that we should be paying for the room. Uh, shouldn't you just shut up and listen to the boss?

Dinner that night was pretty good, we were in a nice local restaurant (the only one within 3 miles, it turns out), and figured out a game plan for the next day. I was to meet the other Peter (our reseller in the UK) at 8am to head out to Jaguar for a meeting. Talk about a rude way to get over jet lag...I needed to be on the tube by 7am to get across town to meet UK Pete. Another 2 1/2 hours in the car to get to Jaguar, and I'm toast before the meeting begins. Thankfully the guys were really interested in our stuff, and they're continuing on with the evaluation. Think we'll get a car to test the GUI on later?

The show itself was pretty cool...lots of guns and tanks and rockets and such in the halls, a bunch of naval ships in the river outside, and not a single prospect to stop by the booth. It was pretty much a waste of time, and that's about all I have to say about it. If it hadn't been a last minute decision to go, I think we would have set up a bunch of meetings with customers to make it worth while, but it was just too late to organize anything. At least we know not to go back in the future. And even though there were hundreds of protesters, and a bunch of arrests, I didn't even see one. What a shame. I'll post some pictures later in the post.

Back to the incompetence of the hotel staff, though. It started with the reservation problem, then kept getting worse. Tuesday we asked where the closest pub is..."Just a bit up the road, no more than 15 minutes walking, 20 if you stroll". We head off looking for this pub, and after 30 minutes and no luck, we ask a guy on the street. "Oh, it's about a mile and a half up the road, you're about half way there." Good job, hotel staff, good job. We finally made it there about 20 minutes later, and the food was worth the exercise, but had we known the distance up front, I think we would have grabbed cab. We asked the cabbie for the mileage on the way back, and it turned out to be 3 1/2 miles from the hotel. I'd like to see anyone cover that in 15 minutes.

Wednesday and the problems continue...I get up, all ready to meet Peter downstairs at 8:15 to head out to the show. 8:30 rolls around and no Peter...I call up to the room, and he confirms that it was 8:15, and asks what time it is. "8:45". Apparently asking for a wake up call was just a bit too much for the staff.

It can't get any worse, right? Wrong...Thursday we call down and ask for a cab to the pub (no more walking for us). Peter even double checked that they called the cab. We wait for 10 minutes outside, then head back up to the desk to ask "Cab? What cab?". Honestly, they couldn't get a single thing right the entire week. If you're ever in London, never even think about staying at the Holiday Inn, Newbury Park. Out of all the places I've stayed in my life, it ranks right behind the Ranger Motel in Calgary (the single worst experience of my life, complete with body hair and blood on the sheets) as the second worst place in the world. Nice facilities, yes, but zombies would be an improvement over the staff.

Enough ranting...here's some pictures:

The booth next to ours was all guns

Armored Personal Carrier from General Dynamics

The Russian booth, complete with rockets, APCs and tanks

Gives you a bit of an idea of the size...

...it just keeps going...

...and going...

...and going. Keep in mind that this is only one of two halls, plus some displays (ships you could tour, some tanks and such) outside.

Some More Pics

The promised and requested picture of the fiance

One more of Ella, this time playing with a toy mouse

Not much else to add...the eye infection on Ella is getting much better, and we're going to talk to wedding photographers tonight. Should be fun (and expensive as hell).

New Addition To The Family

As mentioned before, we have yet another addition to the family, but this one is a little closer to home. Two weeks ago, Jenn and I picked up a little kitten, promptly named Ella, at the humane society. She started out a little ill, but now that she's healthy again, she's turned into quite the ball of energy.

Right after we got her, all she did was sleep for the first week.

A little more perky during week two.

Not much else to add on the home front for now. Still doing a lot of prep work for the wedding, seeing a few photographers this upcoming week, so hopefully we'll iron that out soon enough.

On a work front, it looks like I'll be heading off to London (again) for a week or so in September. It'll be my first time there in the fall, as all other trips to the UK have been in the spring/summer, so it'll be a nice change. I'm also staying on the east side of London (probably), which again is a little different from where I've normally stayed.

It's shaping up to be a busy fall for the company in terms of travel, but now that we finally have all 3 TAMs back in the office, hopefully I'll be at home more than I'm on the road. With luck it won't be much more than 2-3 trips this fall.

Beantown

Not much to post about my trip to Boston...it was over before it began. Wednesday was another early start, getting up at 3:45am to be at the airport for 5am. The joys of a 6am flight. I ended up getting to the airport a bit late, and thanks to the ever so speedy Gold service at the Air Canada desk, it took a lot longer than it should have to get checked in. Thankfully I made the flight on time (walked up to the gate just as they started boarding).

The flight itself wasn't too bad, but I forgot my back roll to help out with my posture. Needless to say, I was a bit sore when I came off the plane. Then it was off to Dollar for the rental, and to stand in another line. 20 minutes later and I'm finally on the road in the middle of a thunderstorm, so my original time line for getting to the customer site is now officially out the window.

Once I got to the customers office (albeit 30 minutes late), I spent most of the morning writing up some documentation, and reviewing the process to change languages in our product. For those familiar with our product, it takes 1 line of code, so there wasn't too much to review. The afternoon was much the same, with a quick review of the process in the doc, and then trying to help figure out a bug in their app. After sending off a quick email to our office in Ottawa, I was off to find my hotel.

Checking in was a breeze, but I got stuck across the hall from the ice machine, which was pretty damn noisy. Not good, but the air conditioner (set at 60!) overpowered the sound once I closed the door. I swear, Bostonians must be allergic to sweat or something...everywhere I went I had to put a sweater on as the A/C was just cranked. Anywho, I ended up at a mall for dinner, trying a nice little Italian place. Nothing like Italy, of course, but it was pretty good.

Thursday morning I was up, checked out, and off to the customer. Training was the order of the morning, after a company wide meeting at 10 am...had I known this, I could have gotten more sleep :( Then it was lunch with the software team, and more bug fixing in the afternoon. We did a bit of a code review to try to figure out what might be causing the bug, and like I had originally suspected, it was their code and a character array that was too short for the string they were using. A quick fix, and everything was working again.

The day wrapped up around 5pm, when it was back off to the airport, trying to find something to eat for dinner (I ended up eating mozzarella sticks, blech), and heading home. All in all, a long day, but it felt so good to be in my own bed that night...the joy of being home. As nice as it would have been to see a bit more than just the highway between the airport and the customer, I'll take being home most any day.

Luskville

Just a quick update on the weekend of drag racing. A lot of fun was had by all, sunburn not withstanding. Unfortunately both Jenn and I left the cameras off for the day, but here's a nice shot from her uncle Bernie. I'm the guy in the red hat in the background.



I'll post some more about Boston in a couple of days, as well as some more news about additions to the family (it's not what you're thinking Brian).

Time For A Tea Party

I'm off to the Boston area for business next week. It's not much of a trip, though, as I'm only in town for, oh, 37 hours or so, at least 16 of which will be at our customer's office, another 2 hours driving out there, an hour or two in airports. So all in all, I get about 15 hours, including sleep, this time around. Talk about fun. The sad part is, 15 hours sounds like more time than I expect to have. The best part is, with my back still out of whack, the plane ride might kill me. My physiotherapist suggested that I walk around the plane as much as I can. Anyone over 6 feet tall try to stand on a regional jet? It's just not possible, especially if you're supposed to keep your back straight and stand tall.

On a more immediate note, Jenn and I will be heading to Luskville in Quebec this weekend for some drag racing fun. If only we owned a drag car, instead of being in the stands with a camera :( Oh well, something to work for. I'm sure I'll have some pics to post next week (or whenever I get off my butt).

And I'll post more on the Boston trip next week too, if I can find time in my ever so busy schedule.

And Now For Some More Good News

As some of you know (well, I think everyone who reads this knows), I proposed a few months back, and she actually said yes (sucker!). I've been slowly telling friends and family as I think of it, and now am ready to tell the world. Jenn and I are getting married next May (the 3rd to be exact), and we're so excited. Now we're just stuck with all the details...who knew a wedding was so much planning? Thankfully the parents are helping out. Couldn't do it without them!

And yes, at some point I'll finally post some pictures of the lovely Ms. Coulas, but for some reason she's a bit camera shy. Or at least when I'm trying to take pics. Something about "let me put some clothes on" or some excuse like that ;)

I'm An Uncle...Twice!

I know this is mostly a travel blog for me, but I've got to post some pics of the new additions to the extended family of sorts.

First is a beautiful baby girl that my good friends Brian and Tamie (they live in Japan), Layla Estey, born at the beginning of June this ye

Layla Estey

Congrats Brian and Tamie!

The second addition is a little closer to home (as it were) as it comes from someone I consider one of the brothers I never had. A big congrats to GJ and Heather up in Sioux Lookout, who just gave birth to Hannah Lynn a few weeks ago (and I finally got some pictures!)

Hannah Lynn Ninivirta

Proud (and very tired) GJ with his new girl

All I can say is that I'm super excited for both of you, and I can't wait to meet the kids.

The Bay of Tampa

My first trip to Florida was pretty short, so this time around, I invited Jenn and decided to make a "vacation" of sorts out of it. I was supposed to be down from Mon-Thurs, so I just pushed the flight back to Saturday, and we had some fun.

Monday was another early flight (6:30am), and since Jenn is a bit of a nervous flier (third trip on a plane, and the first one over a border), it was just that much more hectic, answering questions and re-assuring her. All in all, we made it to Tampa without incident. In Tampa, it was slightly different, though. I swear, we waited at least 45 minutes for our damn luggage to show up on the belt...it was ridiculous. After that, it was off to pick up the car (Jenn insisted on a red Charger), and find the hotel. Combining my slightly "excitable" nature and Jenn's first time giving me directions, it was an interesting trip to the hotel. Thankfully we found it eventually, and all was forgiven.

It would have been more easily forgiven, though, if the hotel hadn't booked us in a room with two beds instead of one...so much for a romantic getaway. We ended up getting them to switch us on Wednesday to a king size room on the 25th floor (man, what a view), which was a bit better. After checking in, it was off to lunch and to wait for Roger and Ariel to show up. Their flight ended up being delayed (mechanical trouble), so we had to head over and set up the booth ourselves. It doesn't sound too hard, but I've never set it up before, and Jenn doesn't even work for us, so it was an adventure. Thankfully, it was pretty straightforward, and all was done by the time the other two showed up.

Tuesday was the start of the show, and in the morning we thought it might be a good turnout. We had a lot of people by the booth, we were across from the buffet, what could be better? As we found out that afternoon, that was all the people we were going to see. I swear, after that, we had maybe 4 people stop by for the next two days. Not my idea of fun.

All I have to say about Wednesday was that Jenn got a wicked sunburn...those mostly cloudy days when you can sit outside forever and not feel hot are a killer.

Thursday I dropped Ariel off at the airport, and Jenn and I did some mall exploring. She was so excited to get some shopping done in the US (again, she's never been), so it was fun. I also got to find out where my fav NFL team (the Bucs) play, so that was cool. Friday was beach exploring in St. Petersburg, and little else (it was so nice to relax). And Saturday, we stopped back by Raymond James Stadium, took some pics, and off to the airport.

All in all, a good break from everyday life, and I can't wait to do it again.

And All That Jazz

More shows for the company means more travel for me, this time I'm off to the windy city, Chicago, and the not so windy city, Minneapolis. This time is a bit of a first for me, as I was off by myself with no sales guys to help me out.

Another first in that it wasn't a 6am flight out of Ottawa, either. I nice, leisurely 6pm departure time. The only problem is, now everyone expected me to be into work on Monday. WTF? No one else has ever had to come into work when they are flying...oh well, gives me more time to get ready on a work front. Plus I got to meet the new guy, John, who happens to be from Nipigon and went to Lakehead too.

Around 3:30 I finally got out of the office and headed to the airport. Breeze through customs and I'm on my way (direct flight and everything!). Not too bad. Once I get to Chicago, it's off to National for my SUV (somehow cheaper than the smallest car), and on to the Hilton. Only problem is, the salesguy didn't book the hotel for two nights, so I ended up having to scramble to find a new hotel minutes before the show started. To top it off, once I found a new hotel, I ended up breaking my shoelace in a hurry to get downstairs to the booth...definitely not my day.

The show itself went okay, not a lot of traffic, but a couple of good leads. After the show, I packed up and headed off towards the airport and my new hotel. It was honestly one of the nicest rooms I've had in a long time, with a monster TV, huge pullout couch, and kitchen. All for $100 a night. Pretty good, in my opinion. For dinner that night I tried a place called Charlie's Charhouse. Since I've never been before, I had no idea what to expect. I ordered the potato skins and a caesar salad. Problem was, I was expecting normal size portions, not a platter of potatoes (10 in all) and a salad bowl that was (I kid you not) about 14 inches across, and a good 4-5 inches deep. Needless to say, I didn't even get half way. No wonder some Americans are so big.

Wednesday saw me back at O'Hare and off to Minneapolis, where I was to meet with a customer of ours. No problems with the flight or getting to the hotel (a real dump this time), but the customer was actually in the process of moving offices, so everything was packed up, and it was decided that maybe we'd skip the meeting. Oh well, more time at the Mall of America and lounging around the pool for me...I wasn't complaining.

The show on Thursday was much better attended, and I had a few more good leads. Again, back to the mall for dinner and some last minute shopping, then a good nights sleep before heading back to Ottawa. And since the flight left at 6am, I was back at work that afternoon (seriously, I had to go). Thankfully the only work I had to do was figuring out who was bringing what hardware for the trip to Tampa the next week, and I was out of there pretty quick. Once the two guys I would be traveling showed up, that is. All in all, a long day, but with the promise of sun and sand the next week, one I could handle.

Texas and California

Another month, another trip, this time to Houston, Dallas and LA, all in 4 days. Way too much time was spent on planes and in airports for my tastes.

Monday was a holiday for everyone else, but since we were meeting a long standing customer in Houston that afternoon, it meant a 6AM flight to Toronto for me. Fun stuff. At least I didn't have to take a taxi to the airport this time around. The flight was uneventful, and soon we were on our way through customs in YYZ. No free pass this time around as I was thoroughly searched (all bags, patted down, no rubber gloves thankfully). Still managed to make it to the gate in time, though, which was good. A few hours later (and the entire book I brought to read this trip), we were in Houston. Pick up the rental, and off we go looking for our customer's building. Unfortunately Roger had picked up directions from Yahoo maps, and they sucked. No directions (right, left, north, south), and they actually referenced "un-named street" at one point. Needless to say, we got lost, but still managed to make it on time thanks to some rental car map navigating by yours truly. Never again.

So we talk to the customer for all of 10 minutes, and head off to the hotel. The entire time I'm thinking "I gave up my Monday for this?", but they've been using our product for 7-8 years, so it was good to get in touch and see exactly what they do. Now it's off to the hotel where the show on Tuesday is going to be held. Another navigation nightmare (again, no directions), but this time compounded by the hotel being in the middle of a construction zone. This bodes well for the show...

Tuesday morning it's up bright and early to set up the booth/table, and work the show. Problem is, the construction zone combined with heavy rain made this the worst attended show that I've ever been to. I swear, there were more exhibitors than customers. At the end of the show, we pack up and head out to the airport to catch a flight to Dallas. Problem is, Roger booked the flight into Dallas at Dallas Love airport, and the flight out at Dallas Fort Worth, so we had to change the rental car (among other things). Easier than it sounds, as only Budget would let us rent from one and return to the other on such short notice. We get to Dallas, head off to the hotel (and get lost again, because Roger didn't get the directions to the hotel but to the area code), and get a short nights sleep.

Wednesday morning and it was a quick breakfast and out to attend the Freescale Worldwide FAE Training. Why we showed up so early when we weren't presenting until 11 is beyond me, but then again, I'm just an engineer. Over 100 people are signed up, so I figured we'd get maybe 20 attending (it was optional, and I was hopeful). Apparently I was too hopeful...6 people showed up. Two were very interested and engaging, but still only 6. Finishing up here, we raced off to the airport for our flight to Los Angeles for the Wind River Aerospace and Defense Conference.

Once in LA, it was a quick (and scary as hell) taxi ride to the hotel, where we freshened up and headed downstairs for the parnter meet and greet. Basically an excuse for an open bar, but I was glad for the change. Met a few good people, and then off to bed for the show the next day.

Thursday it was up early again and manning the booth. Which was less exciting than it sounds as there were seminars all the time, and few people on the "show floor" as it were. I did catch a few good seminars by parnters, though, and was impressed by their offerings. Oh, and I got a new laptop bag out of the deal. Not bad at all.

Friday it was another early flight (7am this time) to Chicago, an hour wait, and back to Ottawa. All I can say is that I'm glad to be home.

Finally, Paris Pictures

Promised many months ago (or so it seems), I've finally managed to get the pics off my camera (my desktop died, so it took me this long to remember to bring my camera to work).

Notre Dame Cathedral...very big, and tons of tourists (just like me)

The Louvre - line-ups were way too long for me to even peek inside.

L'Arc de Triomphe (as if you didn't know)

Eiffel Tower, which I also didn't go up. Damn tourists.

Apparently I can't go anywhere without taking pictures of ducks, so I'll keep the streak alive.

This is a building under construction, so they put up a wall around it. Tres cool. Freaky too.

Time For A Tea Party

Thanks to the quirkyness that is our company, I ended up going to Boston on about 4 days notice. Originally Steve-o was supposed to go, but he's overseas now. Then Ariel was to go, but he needed the time to prepare for a trip to Asia. So the Wednesday before the trip, I get a "hey Kev, wanna go to Boston?" from Ariel, and next thing I know, my ticket is booked.

Monday I show up at the airport and met Roger (fresh back from vacation and unaware of the personnel change), which was interesting. A direct flight to Boston (thank god), and next thing we're bouncing around in the back of a shuttle bus to get to the car rental office. I swear, the driver was either drunk or practicing for a demolition derby. Picked up the car, and Roger was nice enough to head downtown as I've never been before. We walked around a marketplace downtown for a bit, grabbed lunch (where I found out my company card was maxed), and then headed off to the hotel. The hotel we're staying at is about 30 min north of Boston, on a good day, but we got stuck in traffic, so it took about an hour. Fun times. And it turns out that the hotel is booked only for the 1 night, even though we'll be in town for 2. Even more fun. After that, it was just a quiet night, grabbing dinner in the hotel (we're not really close to anything), and crashing early.

Up at 6:30 to set up for the show, a good breakfast, and off to the floor. Roger booked another hotel downtown for that night, so we were taken care of there. A good show, good turnout for the presentation, and some solid leads, which was awesome. After the show, we talked to the new reseller that we signed for the Northeastern US (an old friend of Roger's), then headed off downtown. Another good meal, a quick walk around, and off to bed.

Wednesday we had to meet with an old client, who convieniently enough, had their office just down the road from the first hotel. Which is now an hour drive away. But the meeting is at 10AM, so we weren't too rushed in the morning, thankfully. We spent just over an hour with them, talked about where they were going and how we could help, and then jetted off to the airport to see if we could change our flight (we weren't supposed to leave until 8pm, but got to the airport around 1pm). A $50 change fee later, and we were on our way home, 5 hours earlier. I can't imagine how boring it would have been if we had to wait around the entire day.

Europe Recap

Since I've been asked about it, I'll do my best to re-cap my latest European adventure.

It was a short trip this time, only 10 days, so I figured it would be a pretty good time. I left on the Friday (March 23rd), and got into Heathrow at 6AM on Saturday. After stumbling through security and customs, I wandered off to find a cab to the hotel. $100 later, I was checking in, preparing to be told that my room wasn't ready and to come back at 3 or something. By some miracle, though, my room was ready, and it was off for a quick nap.

Having been to London before, I figured I might be a bit pressed for things to do, so I asked a friend for advice, and was in turn sent to talk someone who actually lives there. I was pointed in the direction of a bunch of markets, and had a wonderful time checking out all the stalls, and looking for a good bargin. I ended up with a nice shirt for myself, and a head massager for Jenn.

Monday rolled around, and it's time for work. We ended up meeting with an editor for a magazine, where I gave a brief presentation on my company, and what we do, then did the same thing for the resellers/distributors that we recently hired in the UK. I had a good time, got to know them and their business a bit better, and then it was "see you tomorrow" and off for dinner. Some good food at the pub, and a good night sleep, preparing for the trip the next day.

It was an early morning Tuesday, as I had to catch a train out to Reading/Twyford for a web presentation from Peter's home. Unfortunately there were some technical difficulties on the prospects end (web server was having trouble, phones were out, and the cellphone he was on was dying), so the presentation was a bit short, but they seemed very interested. A quick bite to eat for lunch, and off to Heathrow (again) to catch a flight to Glasgow, Scotland, where I was to do some training for a customer of ours.

In Glasgow, we had some beautiful weather (no rain, sunny skies) which is almost unheard of. Unfortnately, I spent most of the trip in an office, so it was wasted on me. The training went smoothly, except for a bout of the flu which saw me leaving my breakfast in the hall at our customer. Not fun. Oh, and we took in a match at a local pub, getting to see Scotland be dominated by Italy. We only had 2 nights in town, so as I said, I didn't see much.

On Thursday, it was back to Heathrow, drive back out to Reading, another hotel, and another early morning (6am) for the drive out to Southampton, where we were to meet another prospect on Friday morning. Again, a good meeting, but it was cut a bit short (only an hour and a half) due to prior engagements by our prospect. I think it was well worth the visit, though, as we seemed to have convinced him that our product is a good fit. Now it's on to the technical evaluation by their engineers. We finished up at the customer, took a quick bite to eat, Peter showed me his boat (it was near by and actually work related), then back up to London.

Saturday saw me at Heathrow again (4th time, for those keeping score) for my flight to Paris to see another distributor. I decided to go over on Saturday so I could see some of the sights, as I'd never been to Paris. Saturday ended up being a wash, as I only had time to check into the hotel (outside of Paris, it turns out), and wander around trying to find dinner, which was harder than expected.

On Sunday, though, I did manage to grab a train into Paris, and check it out, if briefly. I think I saw all the major sights, but didn't have much time for anything else (no museum tours, no going up the Eiffel Tower, etc), but I did manage to grab a little something for Jenn.

Monday was another presentation, more training, and little else. Tuesday was more relaxed at the reseller (I had nothing to do, really), but we did meet a new customer that afternoon, and then Julien took me around Paris. Great time, and I really enjoyed myself. Julien was an awesome host, and I can't thank him enough.

Wednesday was back to the airport, flight to London, switching terminals, kicking back for a few hours, then off to Ottawa. I even managed to use my upgrade certificates and was in first class on the way back. Man, it's the only way to fly. If only I could afford it more often.

And yes, I'll post pictures soon...

Europe in 10 days or less

So it turns out that it won't just be London and Scotland, but also Paris as well. I leave on the 23rd of March, and get back on the 4th of April. Such fun...I wonder if I'll even get a chance to see anything other than the inside of hotel rooms, airport, planes and offices. But hey, I get to see some of the best cities in the world for free, so how can I complain?

Hopefully I'll have some stories to tell and some pictures to post when I get back...until then.

The New Place

So Jenn and I moved in together last weekend into a new house in Bell's Corners. No, we didn't buy, we're renting, but it's a step in the right direction. I also means I'm sore as hell and broke too, as moving is never cheap. And I have nights and weekends of unpacking to look forward to. Fun stuff. Maybe this time I'll get around to a housewarming.

Swamps and Tornados

Ah, the first business trip of the year...and the first of many from the sounds of it. Now if only I hadn't been under so many other deadlines right before we left, and if my laptop didn't start crashing two days before as well. We (Roger and myself) were doing 2 shows, one in Melbourne, Florida and one in Huntsville, Alabama.

For some reason, this involved leaving at 6am the day before the show, then a 2-3 hour layover in Philadelphia. Not my idea of fun. When we finally land in Orlando and rent a car, we're running late for our appointment with a client. No biggie, pedal to the metal and we're almost on time...not even a speeding ticket. We talk business, they are looking at using us for another project, and all is well. We even get some advice on a scenic route to the hotel, so I can at least see the ocean (my first time to Florida). The "scenic" route meant looking at the back of a lot of hotels and condos, and not so much of the Atlantic. Better than snow, though, so I'm happy.

We get to the hotel, shower and change, and downstairs for dinner. The food was okay, but the sweet potatoes left us both feeling terrible later that night. Next morning, up bright and early, and off to the show (also in the hotel). I made the mistake of having some fruit for breakfast and ended up having an allergic reaction (three cheers for hives). Thankfully it didn't kick in until after my presentation, which was well received by the 6 people in the room. The rest of the show was me trying not to scratch, and talking to the odd person.

That night we went in search of a restaurant with a view of the shore...think we could find one? Hell no, all condos and hotels. We ended up a seedy little bar that had a patio where we got some drinks and a basket of fries. Also got a chance to walk along the beach, which was really nice...I think I could stand living there. Except for the old people and hurricanes, that is. Later we hit up a seafood restaurant for some real food, and called it a night as we had another early flight in the morning to Huntsville (damn US Airways scheduling).

We get into Huntsville without incident, check into the hotel, and walk over to the US Space museum next door. At $21 the entrance price was a bit steep, so we just walked around outside and checked out the various rockets on display (as well as an SR-71 Blackbird...very cool). It was pretty awesome. Dinner at the hotel (no rental this time), and off to bed early.

The show this time wasn't as well attended, but had some better prospects showing up. It didn't help that they were forecasting a tornado to hit Huntsville at the end of the show. Thankfully it veered off, so we weren't effected, but still caused a number of fatalities elsewhere.

Naturally, this lead to a number of delays that day, so our trip home the next day was a bit packed. Every seat on every plane was booked with people delayed earlier, so loading time was stretched, and each leg was late. Compound that with a snow storm in Ottawa, and we thankfully only got in about an hour late. Then we had to wait another hour in line at customs as they only had 2 people checking passports, and 3 planes (including a large charter from Cuba) arrived at once. Not what I wanted to see after 11 hours in airports and on planes. I swear, the people on that charter must have been there for a solid hour after we got out.

Thankfully I survived it all without incident, although Roger caught a pretty bad chest cold out of the ordeal. Next trip is supposed to be London/Scotland from the 24th to the 31st. Now if only I would hear back from the reseller so I could book my tickets....

Travel

As you may have noticed from most of my posts, I enjoy travelling and seeing as much of the world as I can. Not exactly an inexpensive proposition, let me tell you, but a rewarding one none the less. The problem I have is that I have limited holiday time here at work (3 weeks a year), and am trying to figure out how to maximize my travel this year.

I'd like to get over to Sweden this year as my good friend and sometimes travel pal will be coming home (he lives in Lund currently) at the end of the year. Problem is, he spends about 1/3 of his time in Italy, plus his own travels and commitments, so I can't plan too far ahead. Combine my busy work travel schedule, and it becomes a nightmare to organize. I also want to head out to Edmonton for my cousin's wedding in July.

Anyone have any suggestions what I do? Do I take the maximum amount of time in Scandinavia (I'd do Denmark, Norway, Sweden and hopefully Finland) with only the weekend in Edmonton, or do I take a week in Edmonton to see Jasper/Banff? Or do I skip the wedding, grab the surf board and head off to Hawaii?

Also, I'd like to ask everyone who reads this to post a comment telling me about their best vacation or favourite place to travel to, and where they would like to go next. After all, I'm always looking for ideas to steal.

Christmas, and all that crud

It's been a while since I last posted, mainly because I was home (Thunder Bay) for Christmas, and time is always rushed while I'm there. And I don't have internet access at my place, so updates are saved for work hours. I hope everyone had a safe and very happy holidays, and is enjoying what little we've had of 2007 so far. A quick recap of my holidays:

Wednesday, December 20th. I left for Thunder Bay with Jenn, and we managed to get to TBay without incident. My mom picked us up from the airport, then it was off to home and dinner. Not much else happened as we didn't get in until 9PM, and all my friends wouldn't be in until the weekend.

Thursday. Mostly spent shopping with my family (I realized that I didn't pack enough pants, and had to run out to get more), followed by dinner at a nice local restaurant (if you're ever in TBay, head to the Prospector...I hear the buns rock). Then a quiet night of talking and cards to catch up. Turns out that my family is as boring as ever ;)

Friday. Another fairly quiet day, although we had an open house with the family dropping by for the afternoon, so the morning was spent cleaning and preparing snack food (cheese, veggie and meat platters). I got to see most of my aunts, uncles and my grandparents, so it was a good time, even if I didn't talk for most of it. It was just nice to have everyone in the same room again, as it seems like we only do that for funerals anymore. The evening was dinner with the family again, and opening up gifts as my sister was leaving on Saturday to head back to Edmonton and her fiance.

Saturday. Dropped my sister off at the airport in the morning, and then I finally got a chance to head out and see some of the old haunts, and take Jenn for a tour of my home town. She was surprised at how large TBay actually is, and at the beauty of some of the places I used to hang out (I used to spend a lot of time wandering around the bush, pondering life's questions beside waterfalls). We also dropped by to see my dad as it were, which was nice. Then off to BP for dinner (man, the Ottawa locations are so much better).

Sunday. Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is traditionally spent with my friends family, as they have a huge get together at their house where everyone is invited. They make me feel like one of the family, and I really enjoy going. It was good to see everyone again, as it's so rare that we're all in the same city anymore. I ended up kicking around there until midnight or so, and got caught up with most everyone, even if GJ was suspiciously absent.

Monday. Christmas was full of family stuff, as it was lunch at my aunts house, an afternoon with the family, and the evening at a friends with his family. Everyone showed up (even GJ and his dogs), and a good time was had by all. I even got a box of chips out of the deal.

Boxing day was pretty much just packing and getting ready to head back to Ottawa, so a pretty dull day. We were at the airport way too early, the flight was pushed back 2 hours, and as a result we almost missed our connection to Ottawa. Which was the last connection of the day...I was pretty calm (Air Canada screwed up, they pay for the hotel, right?), but Jenn was about ready to have a heart attack. Kinda funny to watch. All in all, we did get back safe and sound, and none the worse for wear.

Since then, it's been catching up with Brian and Tamie (in from Japan), Jay (in from Sweden) and other friends, and drinking Jenn under the table and onto the bathroom floor. And she said she could drink.