Week in review - December 7th 2008

Happy birthday to Claudia
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.

Week in review - November 28th 2008

Happy Anniversary to us!
Hard to believe, but November 23rd was our first anniversary and we went out to dinner at Roy's in Atlanta - one of our favourite places for excellent fish and wine.

Photo stuff
Another publication has chosen one of my photographs for their web site. A couple of months ago, Whole Foods used one of my pictures on their product pages. This week, Schmap(!!) asked to use one of my pictures from Key West on their map guide for Miami (I know - I was confused too). Schmap!!

Thanksgiving
Dinner was good - we had pork loin with a blackberry reduction which was great as usual. Oddly we had this almost exactly a year ago and it was just as good then.



Cats
Catnip seems to be the drug of choice still. Curiosity got in on the action the other day by rolling around in the box with the catnip and becoming quite satisfied with her delinquent state.

Of course this often leads to turf wars over who gets to loll about in the box of recreational substances.

After that, she felt the need to rest a little...


She did recover long enough for me to take a portrait shot.


Two week countdown
Yes, two weeks today we'll be on a plane bound for Europe. Quite exciting. I'm sure I'll be posting photos when we return.

Not that we're counting but...

Merry voting day

Tuesday 4th November 2008
Yes, it's voting day here in the jolly US. That means I got to exercise my vote again - all very exciting. We'll see what the ballot fairy brings in the morning or whether she has to be dragged through court first. Not being one to be pessimistic, we just don't want blood and gore from beating around the bush.

Fawking around
Tomorrow is of course the 5th of November. It's always entertaining to consider that as one country elects its leaders, another had tried to blow them all up and for that, we are generous enough to bestow this fine calendar event on the world. Guy Fawkes was clearly one who resented the status quo (I think they played their first concert in 1605) and took matters into his own hands to see that they change for the better. Needless to say he probably didn't intend for us to celebrate burning effigies at the stake for the next 400 years although he might be impressed at the fireworks.

Who says the electoral process doesn't work?

Everything is bigger in Germany
As seen in this recent exchange between the heads of state from Germany and France.

Clearly had Gordon Brown (look him up if you have no clue who he is) been there, it would have been a different story.

Light relief
Thanks to Pat(ricia) for this recent gem.


Reading etc...
Sorry, haven't done any.