2 Weeks Ago – Denver
Went skiing out West in Breckenridge with good friends. It was an odd vacation. Since Alex can’t ski, Dina and I alternated ski days with Alex-sitting days. There were times I felt that instead of going to work for the day and leaving my family at home, I was going skiing instead… odd. Anyway… notes from that trip:
- We didn’t bring the Pack’n'Play. Alex slept in our bed. Alex, being a product of his parents, is definitely a night owl / not a morning person. Dina and I would frequently wake up and leave him in bed. Normally we’d know that he was awake based on the cries coming from our room. However, one of the last mornings we were there, Alex actually woke up, got out of bed on his own, and came to find us. We were very happy / proud of him.
- He answers his own questions / requests now. “Watch Dora?”, “OK.” (he generally says “OK” instead of “yes”, since that’s what we say to him.
- We find we need to spell a lot of words around him. Mind you, we need to say “Digital Versatile Disc” (and, yes, we know…)
- Except, we think that he now has figured out what “Dee-oh-are-ay” means.”
- We flew through Salt Lake City on the way there and JFK on the way back. We spent 2 hours sitting in the plane on the tarmac over these 4 legs. Not too bad normally… crappy when you have a toddler with you.
- They lost our luggage on the return flight. Again, not too bad normally… unless you’re flying out to the Netherlands the next day and need stuff that’s in your lost luggage. Thankfully, it arrived slightly after noon the next day.
Last Week – Netherlands
Off to the Netherlands for work, and then a weekend in Amsterdam with old friends, Hannah and Steve.
- It took me a while to get re-used to the smaller European personal space. A couple of times I felt that coworkers were uncomfortably close until I consciously adjusted my thinking to remember what culture I was in. Odd. I used to do that automatically.
- I need to learn not to burn my tongue on hot chocolate. Patience grasshopper.
- We saw the chick who wrote on Jim.
- We went to see a sex show, since Steve had never been. Unlike other times I’ve been, I was actually impressed. The performers were enthusiastic and smiling. When it came time to get a volunteer from the audience, some guy on his bachelor party volunteered himself (as opposed to being volunteered) and was a very good sport about things… hamming things up and making both the crowd and performers laugh. After the show, when we went to get something to eat (mmm… coconut chocolate), we noticed the two goth-lesbian performers grabbing a bite (hahaha… one of them wore vampire teeth during the show), joking, laughing, and acting like a cute couple on a date. In some ways, seeing the performers as happy, normal human beings was cool.
- I seem to see the same video loop when in Amsterdam. Saw a couple of BBC’s Blue Planet episodes, plus the video for Destination Unknown (link goes to YouTube search results… videos mildly NSFW).
- Me to Hannah after seeing a blond while strolling around, “Jim would have just had a coronary.”
- The new wind turbine fields are oddly yet stunningly beautiful.
- There was a cool art installation in the red light district. Brightly lit windows, white light, with fashion displays in the window. Called Red Light Fashion. Très cool.
- I’m starting to understand Dutch.
- While drinking in a bar, the bartender randomly walked up to us and offered us raw (well, smoked) fish. I [heart] Holland.
- Hannah and I tried to get a manicure, and, alas, failed.
- Had some aged Dutch cheese. €1.80 / 100g. My mind is on unit- and currency-conversion overload, so I can’t figure out whether that was a good deal or not.
- I needed to find a T-Shirt saying, “My dad went to Holland and all he got me was this lousy shirt.”
- It makes me feel very Type-A sometimes that I want more precise maps of things.
- Saw some interesting, artsy wrist-watches that were using non-traditional ways of displaying time… made me wonder about how to better represent some concepts that I need to display when it comes to UI design for work.
On the plane home, I realized that the job I have now is pretty close to my dream job in some ways.
I took a lot of pictures of food while on my trip. I need to put together a blog post with pictures for Daniel at some point.
This Week – Boston / Canada
Landed in Boston, saw Sheffi for 10 minutes at the airport as he was flying back to Portland. Went to E’s BDay party, then crashed.
I returned to work on Monday to find that my wonderful co-workers had completely foiled my cube. 
Now I’m in Windsor, again for work. Thankfully things are less hectic here and I finally have a bit of time to compose blog posts…