Segways in San Antonio

Boy, that's a title for a book if I ever heard one! As I walked to the convention center last evening to pick up my swag, this is what I saw--a training class of Segway users!

Made it To San Antonio

Phew! A rough ride, but made it to my hotel last night around 6:20. We diverted west on the flight due to some storms, and still managed to have some pretty rough turbulence. I guess that was payback for me saying to Mark, "After riding these coasters, no flight could be worse!" Then once I was on the ground, I made it through San Antonio International--a smaller than thought airport. Boarded a shuttle bus of about 20 people, and I was the LAST person off. I walked around a little, toured the Riverwalk and Alamo, then had dinner at Fuddruckers. How is that for taking in the culture! (-:
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Sitting now in a session on 'Welcome to NECC' (the conference I am at). One of the large names in Open Source, David Thornburg, is up next.

Another, clearer pic...

So that motion shot was pretty blurry! Here's another

Deep in The Heart of Texas!

Currently waiting at DFW airport, awaiting my trip to San Antonio for NECC. Had a great evening with the Flangians and an AWESOME morning--we took the kids to Six Flags over Texas-Arlington, and I had some coaster rides! They actually have some decent coasters. Mark and I hit Batman, a pretty speedy invert. Then we went to Mr. Freeze, which is one of those laucher coasters (0-70 in 4 seconds), with a tall spike you fly up. Took a ride on Titan, a pretty sweet megacoaster...with an inverted helix. And then the Texas Giant--a mega-woodie that reminds me of Mean Streak at Cedar Point, but the second half shook me apart.
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And Lucy got on her first coaster with Daddy! Proud moment!! All I remember are all the wheees! So funny! She went on everything to keep up with her buddy, Aidan. Myra rode a bunch too--so fun!!! But I miss all three of my girls already!

Sheetz Goes Global!

So many of you know my infatuation with Sheetz. After growing up with it up North, I was thrilled a few years ago to hear they were moving down to North Carolina. Now, we have about 20 or so Sheetz, stretching from Greenville, an hour and a half east to High Point, two hours to the west. Our local Sheetz is only four miles from our house. Great times!

Now, it seems like they want to further expand. They recently began offering 'Sheetz Bros.' premium coffees to rival Starbucks. While of similar quality, the cost is much cheaper. With this release, they also began a 'poem' contest, playing on the jazz coffee shop metaphor. And offering a cool $5 grand. Well, the other evening, while surfing around, I found a Sheetz ad in the unlikeliest of places. First--do not judge me for the video I watched on YouTube in the image attached to this post. Yes, it is New Kids on the Block, but I heard they had a new song (yuck!), and wanted to hear it. While my ears burned, I noticed the ad. I usually just tune out any advertisements, but since I did not want to watch the NKoTB video, I gazed at the ad--and it was the Sheetz ad for the contest. So in a way, I owe New Kids for noticing Sheetz advertising globally. Pretty neat!!

See--I Am Even Smarter Than an 8th Grader!

You Passed 8th Grade US History

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade History?

One Week Until Our Flight

What a busy week! Between all the work things going on, working with a large group on professional development, we also continued to plan out the trip to Texas next weekend. Kerry did such a good job with the girls--they played 'security checkpoint.' Too funny! They brought out a table, and this was the 'x-ray machine,' and Lucy and Myra had to push their suitcases through it. They both had a ticket too and pushed their suitcases all over. Makes me smile!
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The other large thing going on, looking at that other position, will begin interviewing on July 13th. I have yet to hear about an interview, but I heard my endorsement from a former supervisor was shared! We will see!

Feelin' HOT HOT HOT

So, summer arrived to Raleigh this week. We had 4 days of 100+ weather. Two days it reached 102, so needless to say, we spent much time indoors. Toward the end of the week, a COLD front went through, lowering the temps to a cool 93. Brrrr! But the girls enjoyed playing out in the yard with a sprinkler. Probably be the last time too for the summer, as with no rain, I anticipate the City of Raleigh enacting water restrictions any day now...

I am Changing!

I did this in 2005--and I have since turned more country...

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English 20% Yankee 10% Dixie 10% Upper Midwestern 5% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

So Who Do You Think I'll Vote for This November...

You Are 80% Democrat

You have a good deal of donkey running through your blood, and you're proud to be liberal. You don't fit every Democrat stereotype, but you definitely belong in the Democrat party.

How Democrat Are You?

Excited for NECC

I have a badge for NECC--w00t 4 me!


View my page on NECC 2008

North Carolina is Just the Coolest!

Our Governor Mike Easley and Barack Obama and their now infamous bump...

We're Leaving On a Jet Plane...

So, the big month of taking our girls on their first flight. We will leave RDU early early in the morning and end up in Dallas to visit Mark, Christie, Aidan, and Maeve. Then I will head on to NECC the next day in San Antonio. I just have a little trepidation of taking the girls, but I think we will take enough to keep them occupied that they will enjoy it as well. We're going to play 'security check'at home to prepare them for going through the line. I think Lucy will probably love that game, as she loves playing library as well.
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NECC will be enjoyable as well. I will attend with a co-worker, and then some folks from the LEAs I work with. We already made our reservations for an Alamo Ghost Tour. Should be fun! Lots of open source sessions on the agenda, along with hearing Nicholas Negroponte of the OLPC fame.

Linux and Loving It

Recently upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04, Hardy Heron. Gotta love Linux and open source software. I also have been tinkering with Firefox 3, and LOVE it. The tagging feature for bookmarks makes so much sense to me. Same with the address bar with titles and URLs. Just a bunch of common sense goes into these apps. I also just finished configuring VirtualBox on this laptop and our desktop in the kitchen. Looking forward to using that for any Windows necessities that may pop up.
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On a related note, my Dad brought down his computer and my Pap's computer for me to tinker with. I came so close to installing Ubuntu on both. I really think, for all the work my Pap uses his for (Internet and Soltaire), he could transition smoothly. We'll keep working on it. I did struggle with the lack of common sense in trying to complete simple tasks in XP. It just does not make sense. Yuck!

Heat Wave!

Phew--I know North Carolina gets hot, but this is the earliest it hit 100 in recorded history. Here we are, just at the beginning of June, and today will mark our third straight 100+ day. Forecast is 102 and we're at 97 at 1:13 PM. Phew! Needless to say, it makes it hard for us and the girls. No playground. No walks. We filled their kiddie pool yesterday morning, and were back inside by 10AM. I used the water for plants later that day, and the water was as warm as you would like a hot tub to be. Ouch! Cool down coming this week--low 90s! At least we'll be ready for Texas in a couple weeks.
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Had a great visit with Nana, PapPap, Aunt Jenny, and Cole, although it went too fast, as usual. No matter--we will see them in August--up there. Hopefully it will be a little cooler for us!
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