Back in Philly

Safe and Sound this time... no wrong turns, no meandering walks. Stick to the zone... there's a good boy.

But first, it was the annual trip up to Ruttger's! A little different this time - only 3 nights, and no PapaBam or Lilli, but we were with some neighbors and had a great time. We stayed in a lodge instead of cabins and were pleased to find roomy bathrooms and spacious rooms, plus adjoining doors to create a larger party zone... oh and no musty smells (part of the whole "cabin thing" no matter where you go). The weather was very agreeable, with 2.5 amazing days, and 1 pretty good day. The kids were in that lake quite a bit, whether swimming or just wading in up to their butts in their clothes.

It wasn't without issues: To save a few pennies, we went on the alacarte plan and ate at the bar a few times... but once everything added up I'm not convinced we were better off than if we had done the buffet in the main dining room... and the quality would have been a bit higher too - it wasn't BAD, but it wasn't great... though Randy did get a hideously charred Reuben that had me seriously questioning every link in the failure chain that resulted in this being sent to the table (What cook would send this? What line manager would plate this? What server would bring this?). But that was pretty much the only bump. Oh, and a couple of people puked again (it's not a trip unless someone does, really) - one from heatstroke, one from dodgy potato salad (not from the resort!) But no lasting ill effects.

Pamela picked up some crazy false teeth with discoloration and gaps, and handed them to all the kids who wore them with pride and giggles to dinner one night, and we all gasped in embarrassment as our server grinned widely to show us his authentically hideous teeth... It was a priceless moment - we got "punk'd"

We were lucky to have TWO semi-pro photographers on the trip too, Randy and "the other Pamela" - who took dozens of pics of the kids frolicking - so this may have some wonderful pictures to show someday. The kids swam a lot - between the lake and the pool, they were in water over 4 hours a day.

Quote from Isaac this trip when asked "do you need to go potty?"
"Not at this time, dad." Very matter of fact.

Sunday came just in time - the kids were all starting to poke at eachother and test eachother's nerves, and they were definitely getting on the grownup's nerves too, so we shuffled off to Buffalo around noontime. Naturally Isaac did NOT nap - dude was low on sleep anyway from the excitement, and by the time we got home, he was a walking wreck who we needed to keep up until 7 so he wouldn't get up at 5.

Zinsser? He was so happy to see us, he almost wriggled his butt into light speed wagging mode. He spent the 4 days with his half brother Otto up the block with neighbors, and reports were that he was very very good, didn't mess on their rugs, and even let Otto sleep occasionally. Zinsser was full of cuddles and love for us all.

I crept out at 5:45 this morning to head to Philly: Nope, not upgraded today, but I'll take the pity miles. Started reading The Black Swan, about unpredictable outliers, and am somewhat charmed by the writer's style - he's sort of like the love child between Steven Leavitt (Freakonomics) and Tim Ferriss (The Four Hour Work Week). It works for me.

In the interest of saving my back, I've decided to experiment with NOT lugging my computer around: Bring it to the hotel for evening/morning work, use a flash drive, and move key files back and forth to work, where I have a perfectly usable computer. Today was the first day, and I didn't hit any problems... and more to the point, I made it to the end of the day without a nagging pinch in my neck. I may NOT need to go for that MacBook Air just yet. Every day/week/month you put off a technology purchase is time that technology will keep getting better, faster, and cheaper.

After work, (and work days are not particularly long at this client), I had some amazing Thai food, and found myself close to a movie theater... so I decided to skip over and see "District 9" which was AMAZING: It really synthesized a lot of very cool elements and had a realistic grittiness that was amazingly authentic... but what I loved was that this movie was THAT GOOD and cost under $30mil, which it already made back. And on a monday evening it was a nearly full theater, which speaks well to the word of mouth. The protagonist was a wonderful worm who you couldn't fully hate, nor could you fully root for him. This will make for a fine Avenging movie someday soon.

Speaking of Avenging - Boy, I haven't seen my boys for almost 2 months! Luckily NEXT week I have them on the calendar.

That's enough for tonight. I should just mention that work is starting to accelerate at the new client: I actually have system access, and spent a good bit of time today reviewing echocardiograms (more to see how the report-building functionality works)... I can feel the groove beginning.