techie win and loss

I had some technology wins and losses last weekend.

I checked out my first ebook from the library.  I added it to my cart, checked out, and like magic it was on my kindle. This opens a whole new world of possibilities.  I have the book for 2 weeks, so I need to finish it up this week - before it disappears off my kindle.

I dropped, and cracked, my phone.  Honestly, I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner than this.   Luckily, it still works and I'm going to get a replacement phone soon.  I was really hoping to get the same phone I had, but its not made and not available through the insurance.  I did think about buying through ebay but decided against it.  wish me luck on moving everything over to the new phone!

Birthdays, siblings and Olympics

We had a lot to celebrate this week.

On Wednesday we went to my in-laws to celebrate our niece and nephew’s birthdays.  Since their birthdays are only 2 weeks apart and our niece is too little to really understand what her birthday is (except an excuse for presents!)  it works really well to celebrate them together, so we’re taking advantage of that while we can.     We kept it small this year, just family, and had pizza, ice cream cake (so good!), and presents.   I love that our nephew felt he had to explain to us that the candles on the cake were a 7 for him and a 3 for his sister, not 73 in case we were confused.

Kevin picked out some binoculars for our nephew, and I had fun picking out clothes for our niece - a cute Tinkerbelle dress and a watermelon rainbow shirt.  She loved the clothes, whereas our nephew told us repeatedly to get him “anything but clothes”.   He liked the binoculars and we hope it’ll

I think he liked the binoculars, and we hope he’ll  be able to use them at Texans games, or camping, and probably for spying on people on in the neighborhood (sorry neighbors).    They are designed for kids – can withstand being dropped, sounds like the kind this clumsy girl needs!

On Thursday, I was able to visit with both siblings.  My brother & wife were in town from Austin for the day and had made plans to go to new Chinatown with my sister and her guy.  I was really happy to be able to join them.   We had Malaysian food (a first for me).    Sister’s boyfriend ordered some dishes for us to share family-style, and I had my favorites – a beef curry dish, and a beef noodle dish – but don’t know what they were called….after dinner we went for a shaved ice dessert.   Luckily we all split one, it is shaved ice, covered in cut-up fresh fruit of your choosing, then smothered in evaporated milk, and topped with a scoop of ice cream .  it is just as decadent (and cold) as it sounds, and the dish is huge…5 people all got their fill from that one dish.  Its not often we can all get together and we had a great time visiting.    Kevin wasn’t able to join us L, he’d had to spend most of the day on school stuff – he was getting things set up for the classes to take a test next week, including putting his tech skills to the test figuring out how to load everything needed for the online class. 

On Friday we watched the Olympics opening ceremonies.    I loved it!    Seeing the progression of England from pastoral times to the industrial revolution and then to the digital age.  I couldn’t get over HOW the transitions happened.  I also loved the cameos – Mr. Bean, hilarious! 

I think this is the first time I’ve watched the entire parade of nations, and am always astounded at how many countries I’m not familiar with.   I do love that they show where they are on a map on the tv screen.  I feel like I need to study a world map afterwards, and am amazed at how small some countries of the world are, one had less than 10,000 people!  (finding someone to date and marry must be tough, wouldn’t’ you be related to almost everyone?) We’ll be watching a lot of Olympic coverage over the next few weeks, and I love seeing the sights of London, this is one of the few Olympic cities (maybe the first?) I’ve actually been to..

After the busy week, it was nice to be at home yesterday, we were pretty busy taking care of things around the house but being home is a different busy then being out.  We got a lot done - yard work, cleaning the house and laundry, and even gave S a bath - so today we should be able to sit back and relax a little bit (and watch some Olympic coverage)

Austin

Its been a busy week over in the Tucker house....Kevin is loving teaching!    He'll give his first quiz tomorrow, I can write that since its not a pop quiz - he told them it was coming up.   I also seriously doubt any of his students would ever read this blog....

We took a quick trip to Austin with friends over the weekend and had a great time.  We listened to some good music on Sixth Street and visited with everyone.  With everyone's schedules, it was a once in a blue moon sort of trip to get 7 people, most of whom have kids, away for an adult fun weekend.  We will have to make an effort to make more trips with friends - plans are in the works for a 2013 trip with some of my very good friends from college!

The rest of the group stayed at a hotel, but Kevin and I stayed with my brother and his wife, a great chance to visit with them for a bit and see their cute kitties - one of them will give you a 'high five'!   We also saw Rocky bird, don't think he remembers us.


On Sunday, we had some great BBQ at Salt Lick.   Note to self - they are BYOB and cash only (good thing they have ATMs on site!)

Professor's first day

Kevin had a great first day of work!    It poured rain all day, unfortunately it flooded many homes and came close to the rain some areas had during Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.   Luckily he has a big truck so water was not an issue for him and he gets to park in a garage and the walkway is covered all the way to the building.   He didn't want to be soaked to teach the first class!    He actually had to check to make sure the campus wasn't closed before heading over.

There were some bumps in getting going - the door was locked and he had to track down where to get his key, then he couldn't get his computer log-in to work.  He knew what the problem was since he worked in IT so long, he just had to get one question answered (which domain to use).  The IT department will either love him or hate him since he's worked in IT,  love him because he can help himself in many ways, hate him for the same reason.   Those bumps got him a little flustered, but he calmed down as he started lecturing and really enjoyed it!    He has about 25 students in the in-person class and 35 in his online class.   He's so glad to have the first day out of the way and ready to start up again next week.

I spent the better part of the day in the Amarillo airport due to rain delays in Houston, but was very fortunate to get put on a flight that same day to get home (many ahead of me were being told they could fly tomorrow).   My flight was cancelled but they put me on a flight that was an earlier flight that hadn't arrived yet -- the plane was stuck in Houston.   My original flight was scheduled for 1:20, the one they put me on was scheduled for 10:47 am and we finally left Amarillo about 3:30 pm.  The Amarillo airport was comfortable if you have to be stuck somewhere - they even have a long tabletop with chairs and plugs everywhere, perfect for laptop work!  The food selections were VERY limited (it has one eatery for the SEVEN gates)...

I made it home in time to have dinner with Professor Tucker and hear all about his first day.   He told me that he can't believe he gets paid to do this!!!  I'm so proud of him!   I know he had moments in school when he worried he made a mistake, its hard to do a career change and being on one income for 2 years has been tough.   I know he made the right decision, and his new career will make him happy which is what I want for him and better for both of us.  

I also am so amazed he can get up and lecture and enjoy it!  The thought of getting up and lecturing to people every day makes me feel ill, I don't think I could do it...I do presentations for work sometimes, and am very glad each time they're over.


Unrelated - happy 3rd birthday to our beautiful niece!!!

Amarillo

Hello from Amarillo!   I had a heck of a time getting here on Monday.   The sky opened up and poured down rain and so I could tell my flight wouldn’t be on time.   A woman I was supposed to travel with let me know from Waco that all flights in Houston were grounded before they told us anything IN Houston.   

We waited and waited, while the waiting area got more and more crowded – since no one was ever leaving and more and more people were arriving for their flights.  I lost my seat when I got up once to use the restroom and eventually sat on the floor to make use of the only unused plug I could find.  I had to keep my phone charged to keep in touch with the woman in Waco – we’re sharing a rental car here – and keep K updated, as well as to make some phone calls to make sure my rental car would still be there for me, and to use the time to go ahead and confirm appointments for later in the week (in Amarillo).

I did finally get on my way about 3 hours later, I was pretty fortunate that it wasn’t cancelled and I still got in at a decent hour.   I grabbed a yogurt to eat in the airport, it was the best thing I could find some the only eatery near me was primarily a bar.

I had debated whether or not to bring my book because it is so thick (Game of Thrones book #4 over 500 pages).  I’m glad I did since I had lots of time to read in the airport and I cannot read fast enough what is happening to everyone.

Its been a busy couple of days.  We’ve toured a couple of hotels to find a place that we can hold our conference in 2015 (seems so far away).  We’ve also had time to see some of the other attractions to help with planning for other events during the conference – we visited Palo Duro Canyon today, gorgeous and surprising sight in the middle of the plains.      

We found a winner of a hotel today!  It has everything we need and is taking good care of us here too.  I could get used to being wined and dined!

 
I am glad I'll head home tomorrow so I can ask K how his FIRST DAY OF WORK WENT!   so excited for him starting his new career, and he's already getting questions from students :)