Yes, it was my sweetheart's birthday on Friday. Alas the day brought no presents or dinners and in fact was probably was more of an ordeal but for this, I blame the GSU PhD programme :)
November and December are full of events. Our anniversary in late November; Claudia's birthday in early December. Chrismas. My birthday. New Year. Cram it all in and we suffer "celebration shock" by Jan 2nd.
Claudia's pre-birthday started on Thursday with her last (hopefully) masters level economics class. Unfortunately this came with an exam, albeit a take-home exam. Unfortunately it was due on Friday and was a significant effort. Bear in mind she was used to working long hours in her previous life as a DBA with Chick-fil-A. So she had to work overnight Thursday and into the wee hours Friday to do the exam. Finishing around 5am, she had an hour to kill before leaving to go into GSU to teach an MIS class at 7am. No sleep for the blessed. Needless to say, she got home mid-afternoon Friday having been up since Thursday morning and was pretty exhausted. We had a nice, quiet night in and a quiet dinner.
So Saturday... I worked on a client issue early in the morning and then mid-afternoon Claudia had to go to GSU again to "proctor" (nothing to do with proctology I hope) an exam to the unwashed (undergraduates). Then Saturday night I had some system maintenance do to between midnight and 3am.
Sunday morning, Claudia spent several hours marking student exams
My point is that Claudia's birthday, my birthday, Christmas and our anniversary will be rewarded by our trip to Europe. We leave on Friday (woohoo) and don't return to normal lives until the 29th (I go back to work on my birthday for a special treat). It will be a wonderful time. Although Europe at this time has a climate similar to our current weather in Atlanta, it will be noticeably warmer in Barcelona. Upon my return, I am sure we'll be posting pictures (by the thousand).
We both hope that we won't have to wait until Claudia's 2010 AMCIS conference in Peru for our next vacation :) Machu Picchu anyone?
We'll miss the cats but they are being well cared for by an excellent local pet-sitting service. Part of the peace of mind that will allow us to enjoy the vacation without worrying how they are. Second to Claudia come the cats - as you can probably tell by the photo volume.
So here's one of Tinto who enjoyed the visit I made to Whole Foods on Friday.
Have a wonderful week. We'll be thinking of you whilst we are in France and Spain (sure we will)...
Steve & Claudia.
