May Second
Somehow its the 18th week of a year that seems like it just got started. How'd that happen?
Google's Phone 411 (800-GOOG-411) makes me happy. It saved me a buck and a half in looking up the Applebees this week to order my take-out dinner in Binghamton.
Last weekend, the furniture and all the belongings were moved out of the house in Austin up to Irving. As a result the whole place echoes, and my heart aches like never before. Ten and a half years I've been there, and the memories rattle around in the empty rooms now. Raucous laughter and parties, the crushing helplessness of an early morning call when Chaz's sister passed away, the patter of racoons taking up residence in the attic, packing the house up to live in Amsterdam, doing dishes after a dinner party when every pot and pan in the house had been used, lots of naps on the couch; the house has seen it all, and perhaps its a good thing that the walls can't talk.
The project with Lockheed came to a head. The team in Dayton continued to have problems with the software install, despite my not being able to reproduce any of their problems. The executive leadership finally stepped in and handed the package to a team in Montgomery, Alabama to install. The install in Montgomery went flawlessly and the software runs fine there. Vindication is pretty rewarding. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when Dayton is getting their budget cut.
Next week begins the May European Adventure. On the 8th I take Chaz's parents to the airport with me, and put them on a plane to Europe. They'll spend a few days in Rome and a few in Paris, then head to Amsterdam with Charles as their tour guide. I'll meet then in Amsterdam on the 15th, and spend time with them there and in Munich. After they leave Munich, I'll spend a few more days in Munich with Franz, doing some remote work, and catching up with my friends there. While the tourism with the family will be fun, I'm looking forward to a couple days of just being in Munich again. Just being. Franz has a couple things planned, we'll see how they pan out.
After Munich, I'll be home for the memorial day holiday where Chaz and I will get the house ready to put on the market. A coat of paint, some unfinished projects to cap off, and she should be ready to show.
In recent days I've had more and more opportunity to reflect on the trip I took last fall to Nepal. And as I look back, the trip and the time seems to be more and more amazing. The 'Today Show' had a broadcast today from a monastary in Bhutan, and seeing the bhuddist monks and the mask dance brought back a snowy evening in Tengboche where Franz and I got to watch a similar festival.
We slept in a stall, but got up to brush our teeth under a crystal clear blue sky, with Everest, Lhotse, and Ama Dhablam watching over us, closer to the sun than ever. A washroom near the top of the world.
I'm a member of a mailing list that has one of our Austinites who's redeployed back to Iraq. This time around he's giving some training, so has more time to send some photos and updates on a personal level. That's been pretty fascinating, and I admire the work he's doing. (Note that the powerpoint art below is NOT the work he's doing, as far as I know.) It's just a shame that Colin Powell's "Pottery Barn Doctrine" has come true.
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