Friends

Just a quick well-wish out to you all - here's hoping to a joyful and prosperous 2012 for all of us. I've again been slacking with my blog entries here as most of my infrequent updates have ended up on Google Plus or Facebook. I'll try to do better at putting things here first and linking to them outside.

We went fishing on Saturday (Oct 22, 2011) at Natchez Trace State Park near Lexington, TN. and had a great time! I picked up Trey around 9am and then stopped by and got Sherman and little Sherman around 10. We took the Durango so we had plenty of room - we even took Trey's little 4-wheeler. He calls it his "bike". We got to the Pin Oak campground at around 12:30 and met up with Mom, Ruthie, Shelli, and Henry. Pop, Forrest, and Cash were out on the water when we got there, but they showed up around 45 minutes later. In the mean time, we went down to the play area and let the boys wade. Cash and Forrest joined us down there. Then we got the word that lunch was ready, so we headed back up to the campground.

Lunch was really great - lots to pick from. The campsite has a nice, big picnic table and we had plenty of room for everything and everyone. Skookie came down and joined us also - he was staying in the lodge. The boys rode around on the 4 wheeler while the grown-ups finished lunch.

I'm trying to spend more of my interactive time on Google + now and less on the Facebook these days. I really like how G+ is set up and how it works (my profile is at https://plus.google.com/109898559193504595928). The never ending Facebook experimentation with how their service works is annoying. I know they benefit most from advertizing and that drives their desire to push as much of the content (especially that we post ourselves) as publicly as they can get away with. This makes it an easier proposition for me personally, but I know it will be a long, likely impossible, process to move many if not most of my friends list from Facebook to G+. So I will probably have a dual presence for the time being. What I may start doing more often is to post here on my blog and then cross-post to both FB and G+. However the way G+ works, it's much better to participate in conversations there, which really doesn't lend itself well to crossposting. It will be quite interesting to see how this all shakes out.

I had a nice evening with Minnesota friends - Terry, Reiko and I were hosted at Megan and Dave's house for dinner. Dave fired up the grill and we had brats, burgers, and lots of other goodies.

Megan and Dave's kids were great fun, and went to bed pretty early so we could have a nice "big folks" conversation too! I really wish Patrisha had been there with us...fortunately we'll BOTH be back up for a visit in a couple of weeks.

...except maybe my knees. And my ankles. And I have to wear reading glasses now. And my hair (especially my beard!) is getting gray. Ok, maybe I do feel 50. Oh, well - I'll just have to deal with it.

My lovely wife threw a once-in-a-lifetime party for me on my birthday. We had a fantastic time! Lots of friends and family, great food, and lots of partying. The caterer did a great job, and the facilities were top-notch.  I'll let the photos tell the story - you can see them on the photo gallery here. Mom & Dad's photos are here. Patrisha also posted some on Facebook.

Now it's time to start that run to retirement!

We had a great time on our mini-vacation last weekend. The Smokies in the early fall are wonderful, and the Mystic Moonlight cabin we stayed in was great. Thursday we drove up from Memphis to the Smokies, picked up some groceries in Sevierville, and settled into the cabin. We had a nice dinner and called it a night.

Friday we had a leisurely breakfast and then drove down the mountain to Gatlinburg and spent the day in town exploring the tourist shops and attractions. The girls had a blast, and the men persevered. :-) It was pretty warm, but we found shady spots to shelter ourselves as we moved around. Towards the evening we made a quick grocery run into Pigeon Forge to get what we needed for a fish fry, then headed back up the mountain to the cabin and had a great dinner.

It has been a long couple of weeks, and I'm very ready to go home tomorrow. We've been working very hard here in Charlotte and have made great strides on our project. I think we'll stay very busy through the middle of November for sure. It's good to be busy, but the travel is starting to wear a bit. I know I'll be traveling every week for the next several weeks, and it's likely to be the case for the entire project now. They like to see our faces! :-) I'll be moving to a Mon-Thu travel schedule starting next week however, so that will make things a bit better.

Last weekend instead of going home, I rented a car and drove to Gatlinburg, TN to meet Patrisha and more of the family where we stayed in a mountain cabin for the Labor Day weekend. The cabin was wonderful, and the company was great. We did tourist stuff, went up to Clingman's Dome and Newfound Gap, and grilled out and had fun at the cabin.

Finally it looks like the final obstacles have been cleared and we can get to work now! I'll be catching a plane in a few hours to Charlotte so we can get started first thing in the morning. The delays have been annoying, but finally are behind us. I'm looking seeing one of my buddies who is leading the team, and I'm also excited to meet the new team members and the client team. This could be a fun project. It will certainly be a busy one!.

I'll be home most weekends, except for Labor Day weekend...more to come on that. Let's just say...a long weekend in the Smokies with family and friends. Now that I'm really looking forward to!

We got a phone call today from our friends the Boyds this afternoon...seems they decided to fire up the grill and cook some ribs. We obviously imeediately asked "what should we bring" and "what time should we arrive". Once the logistical details were out of the way, we packed up Trey (our grandson) and headed that way. The ribs were awesome, as was everything else, and the company was great. Plus we didn't have a mess at our own house to clean up!

I let Trey wade in their pool on the steps for a bit...he loved it. It has just reinforced our desire to put in a pool here. We really miss ours from Kirby Parkway. Once we sell the MN house I think it will be time to make that happen. Anyway, it's been a nice Sunday. I think I'm ready to face another work week now.