Well, if I recall it was actually April snowfall, not rain this year in Fairplay, and definitely no time to smell the flowers in May. It seems I have not been so inspired to write much about my travels with IBM lately. My thoughts have been more on the RV, and moving into it, which worked out well as I didn’t travel at all in the first quarter of the year. In March I took a two week trip to Toronto, which felt like a repeat from last year… nothing new to report. And then took a three day trip to Montreal. Montreal was a new city for me, but the client is Air Canada, so I stayed at a hotel at the airport, and had meetings at the Air Canada headquarters at the airport, and so only got into town for one day. I saw the big cathedral there, and walked around old town, did a little geocaching and walked through the newer part of town to china town… so got the relative lay of the land, but frankly did not fall in love with Montreal.
When I asked my Canadian colleagues what I was special in Montreal, the most consistent answer I got was the food. Unfortunately I have been on a very strict dietary program since mid-January (and lost 45 pound BTW) and during this phase of the program it is VERY difficult to eat out. Rather than blow it all, I decided to prepare for success. I cooked, portioned, sealed, and froze all the food I would be eating for the week and took it with me. It was difficult, but in the end SO worth it. I didn’t have to make choices about food while I was gone, and I had lots of evening time to myself that I would normally have spent finding food.. I might just adopt this always. I did have another trip scheduled to Toronto, and sadly the most interesting thing was that my last night in Toronto I found a game store that had a game night (meetup) once a week. I was looking forward to going to that on the next trip, but that trip was cancelled. Sad to miss out on the game night but glad to be home for the last 2 weeks before we moved into the RV.
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| Our home in May |
May first found us in the RV park (Coronado Village) in Albuquerque. I had planned to stay “home” the month of May.. Mostly because it was our first month and wanted to settle in, but also because my folks and my kids are there, and that seemed great. Also and we needed to get storage somewhere, might as will be in Albuquerque, where we know people that can help care for it. But best laid plans… Suddenly I had to travel a lot. I did manage to be in Albuquerque for one week, but my parent just happened to go to Europe the day we got to town (passed them in our driveway actually).
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| Mike on the new Recliner/Love-seat |
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| San Antonio Riverwalk |
Then I spent 2 separate weeks in San Antonio, coming home on the weekend for the square dance festivals I was attending the first two weekends in May, and having a final Garage Sale at my vacant parents house. Mike and I went on a vacation to Cabo San Lucas for one week (blog post to follow), and I spent a week in Chicago. That doesn’t leave much time to “hang out” with anyone!
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| Managed an evening at the Alamo with colleagues |
As mentioned we did have a final Garage Sale, and sold everything down to our last box full of stuff. Felt pretty accomplished about that! We also had an Open House on Memorial Day with the attempt to see a few Albuquerque friends that we have been missing that last many years. The Party was very fun, although many seemed to have conflicts for their time and we didn’t have the attendance we hoped. SO, I guess we are ALL busy these days!
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| Logan and I “escaped” the office for a few minutes for Chicago Pizza at the lake. |
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| Fish Lake |
While I was in Chicago, Mike moved the RV and spent a week at Fish Lake in Southern Utah. Then I came home to spend another weekend in Albuquerque before heading off for 2 weeks working in Las Vegas.
On the weekend between my two weeks, I flew “home” to Salt Lake where we joined Mike’s sister for a relaxing weekend camping up by Park City. Mike and his brother in law went fishing/golfing/ and general running around. I just enjoyed my first uninterrupted time in the RV. One project I had been pushing for months was to put up the vinyl tile in the kitchen. I decided to spend one day while the boys were out putting the tile up, and I’m thrilled by the results. That and the solitude was just what the Dr. ordered. I guess Mike’s sister needed the solitude as much as I did. She spent her days relaxing in her trailer too. Felt funny.. but good, to be so anti-social!
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| Before the tile |
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| After the tile |
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| Wasatch Mountain State Park, Utah |
After Vegas, Mike moved from Park City down to Ogden, but I was only home for 3 days before I had to leave for Austria. He will stay in Ogden, Utah, where his parents, sisters, two of his kids, and 5 of our grandkids are, while I’m gone overseas. I will get home just in time for a family party at his sister’s for 4th of July, then we are off to Wyoming, at this time it’s looking like I might be joining him ;-). Hopefully Mike will get plenty of grandkid time in while he is in Utah.
