Paris, France - Day 6

Today was simply awesome (still is actually). It's now 11:45 and I'm sitting in a hotel room in the heart of Paris. It's DIRECTLY downtown and I am about 500 yards from the Sacre Couere. The big surprise for today was that I spent the day with Dariush Ghobad; he is my brother from another mother. He was an exchange student from Lubeck, Germany that lived with me my junior year and after all these years we're finally able to hang out (mono e mono) in the streets of Paris in his neck of the woods. We did LOTS of stuff today and I'll write it all up in this post.

Before I get into that, I have to share my morning experience with the cleaning lady. :) I woke up at 9am to a cute little cleaning lady coming up the stairs outside my bedroom door. She was on her way up the steps and it woke me up a little startled. When I saw her head pop up over the bannister, I said "Pardon!?" and that scared the CRAP out of her. Obviously she had no idea I was in there and she jumped and yelled out a bunch of french swear words. Then she was immediately embarrassed to no extent. I kept saying "c'est d'accord!! c'est d'accord" over and over and gave her a big morning-breath smile. Her face was three shades of red and she just kept her hand over her mouth trying to let her heart slow back down though. :) There I am laying in my bed propped up on my elbow trying to focus on what's going on, and she's looking at me in total embarrasment. Granted, I went to sleep around 5:30 am and here it was 9am... so I was a bit disoriented to say the least and I'm sure I looked like I was hit by a freight train with puffy eyes and bed creases on my face.

We were able to communicate with one another using my broken up French and lots of hand gestures. We decided that she could come back in about 10 minutes after I got up and put some pants on, etc.. I told her that I would just go hang out in the lobby until she finished. It worked out great and we got a good laugh out of it after the excitement settled.

When I got back to the room I was scurried around and packed my clothes into my suit cases. I needed to meet Dariush at the hotel @ 2pm. During my scurrying I realized that really should wash some of my clothes before heading to Paris. I didn't want to have to worry about it while in Paris and I had access to a "community" laundromat. Therefore, I took my dirty clothes and put them in the washing machine and headed back to the room to finish packing. Oh yeah, check out the engrish at the bottom of this sign:


What? :)

By around 12:00 my clothes STILL weren't clean and I knew I had a pretty long train ride into Paris (with all of my luggage). Therefore I decided to skip the drying machine and just packed them into a plastic bag. I was just going to let them hang dry in the hotel room when I got checked in.

I arrived at the Hotel Gerando and Dariush and I sat around and caught up with one another for a few minutes. It was great to see him again and we exchanged pictures of our families and then headed out the door for our "tour de Paris". We got a really cool room too by the way; it's the very first room on the left, on the first floor. It looks right out onto the street and we see everybody pass by our window. Any other place in the world, i would hate to have such a "high traffic" room, but c'est Paris!! I love it!! We have the Paris night life right out side our window (French noise and all). :)

Our first stop was a very short walk to the Gare Du Nord where we each got a 2 day metro pass that would allow us to go anywhere in Paris. Very cool to have!! From there, we pulled out a map of Paris and just decided to start our day at the Arc de Triomphe. From here would walk down the Champs-Élysées to the Louvre.


We were in no hurry and made a few stops along the way. We stopped at the extremely huge Virgin Megastore, a Starbucks, the Disney Store, and even got some smoothies at a Haagen Dasz for some smoothies. We walked slow and laughed a lot. That's one thing that I've always loved about hanging out with Dariush, we both have the same (very) cheesy humor and we just laugh at each other all day. He lets me think that my jokes are funny and I let him think that his jokes are funny too. We support each others corniness. :)


We eventually arrived at the Place de la Concorde and this place was amazing. I appreciate the architecture and history of it so much more that I'm older. From here, we were able to hang out and take pictures and enjoy people watching for a while. This was actually a very "romantic" place. I even told Dariush that I wish Jennifer was here with me so she could see all of this. I could so see us hanging out here like Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. :D lol! No, but really it was very open with lots of trees, benches, little french tables, birds, and beautiful architecture all around. Sure, the traffic was chaotic, but the people in the park were all just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather. You could see all the big landmarks from here and I really fell in love with Paris from this location.


From here, we strolled up to the Louvre and Dariush told me about a lot of this history of this place. I'm sure I knew about the history of each site I visited today while in high school, but (sorry Madame Weight, et tout) high school was always my "social time", and I didn't go to learn most days. :) It was amazing to stand in the middle of the Louvre and just look around. This is such an amazing castle and I "got it" today. I have always remembered this place by the glass pyramids in the middle of the courtyard. However, today I really recognized and appreciated the vastness of the castle itself. From this day forward, when somebody says the word 'Louvre', I will no longer just think about the pyramids anymore. I will think about the amazing castle at the end of the Champs Elysees. Pictures do this place no justice; you really have to stand at the top of the steps before the castle to understand why I was so awestruck today.

After walking through the courtyard of the Louvre, I called Jennifer from Dariush's cell phone to check in and see how she was doing. I wanted to call her because I didn't think i was going to have internet connection tonight. The best part about our conversation was that I was talking to her while standing on the Pont Neuf bridge over the Seine looking at the Notre Dame de Paris. How often will I be able to have that conversation with her. I've posted a picture of Dariush talking to her so that you can get a feel for how rare such a phone call is for most people I know aux États-Unis . :)


From the Pont Neuf, Dariush and I took the metro back to the hotel to get our jackets on because it was starting to get pretty chilly since the sun was hiding behind the clouds. From the hotel, we went to get dinner a nice little restaurant on the side of a street. In order to get to the restaurant, we had to walk through the red-light district in Paris. It was pretty interesting to say the least. I was amazed that little children were all over the place through this area because there was nudity and sex all over the place. Mais, c'est la vie en Paris I guess. This is where Moulin Rouge is located and there was a big event going on there tonight because the red carpet was laid out and a lot of people were gathered around for something...

Just about 200 yards from the Moulin Rouge, Dariush and I sat outside at a little restaurant and ate some pizza and drank wine. We sat here for about 30-45 minutes and just talked and enjoyed each others company. Our dinner was great and it was pretty cool to see all the traffic and watch the the Parisians walking by us while we just relaxed at a little table on the sidewalk.


After dinner we visited the St. Michel near the Cluny la Sorbonne. It's like a little European village with tight streets and crowded shopping areas. It's a 100% tourist trap. There were many pubs and restaurants in the street and tons of "I Love Paris" t-shirts plastered all over the place. It had a very cool vibe to it. Just picture very narrow cobble stoned streets lined with restaurants, pubs, beaucoup des gens francais, and all the gaps filled in with souvenir shops. Here we got a dish of ice cream and slowly strolled over the Pont St. Michel bridge to the Ile de la Cite where the Notre Dame de Paris is located.

While on the "island of the city", we were able to get up close and personal with the Notre Dame cathedral. This was another "wow" moment for me. I stood at the front door of the Notre Dame and was very impressed by it. It is simply huge and extremely beautiful. Dariush gave me a lot of history about the religion behind it. He has worked for the church for years and knows a lot about this area. We were able to go inside and walk around a little bit and this impressed me EVEN MORE. On the inside, it's hard to comprehend what it took to build such a place by hand. It was very quiet and dark in here and there was catholic music playing with very dim candle lights. Dariush said that he wanted to bring me back tomorrow (in the day time) so that I can see the light coming in from the stained glass windows. I do recall visting this place when I came over 15 years ago, but (again) it's much more powerful to me now that I'm older and more impressed by these things. Here is a movie that I made to (try) and show the beauty of the Notre Dame at night and I actually was able to spot the Hunchback of Notre Dame at one point :)



After leaving the Notre Dame, we strolled through the Hotel de Ville and just let ourselves get lost. We talked about pulling out the map to find out where we were a few times, but decided against it and just enjoy the beautiful weather and Parisian night life. We stumbled upon Les Halles and sat down for a few minutes to rest our legs and decide what to do next. We decided to just head back to the hotel and then maybe find an internet cafe so that I could post this. And lastly, on our way to the metro, we passed in front of le Centre Pompidou.


Phew!!! That was a HUGE day. Tomorrow we have even more plans, but I won't elaborate now... You'll just have to wait and see... That is if you are even still reading this huge post. :)

Paris, France - Day 5

Today was a complete work day. I woke up at 9am and touched base with Bob before he left for the day. The fact is that he was leaving today and wasn't coming back to the apartment until Wednesday, and I was leaving tomorrow and won't be back to the apartment until next Monday.

Once we got everything organized and worked out, he took off and I immediately got ready to head into the village of Val D'Europe so that I could get some groceries and do a few errands. My ultimate goal was to get groceries and come back here to work all day. I had a HUGE project that needed my complete (undivided) attention all day. Therefore, it was very important to have enough food and water so that I didn't have to leave the apartment for anything.

I headed to the village around 10:30 - 11 am and was able to get all the things I needed. It was a total "batchelor" grocery list too. I got:

• A box of mini Pain au Chocolat's
• A box of Apple Juice
• Two 1 litre's of Evian
• Two prepackaged deli sandwiches
• Two apples
• Three bananas
• Coffee grounds
• A wheel of cheese wedges

The supermaket was quite an experience. I did fine until it was time to check out. It was pretty busy so I waited in line for almost 20 minutes. When it was my turn, the lady held up my fruit and rattled off some intense French words.

I gave her the "HUH?" look and said "Désolé mademoiselle, je suis American."

She smiled and indicated that her english was very bad. So instead of giving it a lot of effort she simply picked up my fruit and said "weight?".

I said "Je ne c'est pas" and shrugged my shoulders.

She then pointed across the supermarket and rattled off some more French. That led me to believe that there must have been some scales over there, and I needed to weigh them before I could check out.

So I grabbed the fruit and took off running towards the direction she was pointing. When I got there, there was a touch screen computer with scales attached to them. Granted, all of the prompts were (of course) in French, so I had to take my time and figure out each step.

Eventually, I was able to work my way through it and the banana's and apples each got their own printed sticker with the weight on it which told the lady how much they cost. I then sprinted back to the checkout line where there was a line of customers waiting for me and watched me fumble all the way back up to the cashier who (the whole time) had a very pretty smile on her face. I looked at all the customers as I scooted by and said "Désolé, désolé, désolé" and gave her the bags so that I could get the heck out of here and let the supermarket get back to it's cycle.

I totally felt like that commercial where the whole place bogs down when someone pulls out their cash. :) Only, the theme music was a french accordion and I was the dude with the cash...

Anyway, the walk back to my apartment was pretty intense. My grocery bag was super heavy and I had to walk (just about) 2 miles with it. I would go about 100 yards and then have to switch hands. In hind sight, maybe I should have just taken the bus for 1.5 euros (~$2). Oh well, it was an experience to say the least and it allowed me to suck in some fresh French air.


View Larger Map

When I got back (around 1:30 pm), my day started and I was officially in geek mode. Actually here it is 2:30 am and I am still grinding on the tail end of it. I'm not saying this to complain or make you (Mom & Dad) think I'm being worked to death. :) The truth is that starting tomorrow, I won't be able to work on this project again until next Monday. Therefore, it is essential that I put 120% of my focus on this before my fun-time starts (at 12 noon tomorrow). If my part isn't done before then, the people around me cannot be productive while I'm out. Therefore, I'm going to work on it for a few more hours before getting some sleep...

Ok, enough about work... I was able to talk to Jennifer and the girls on Skype for a while and that really brightened up my day. Even though it too was a short talk, it got me out of a code-funk and back to reality. Jennifer told me about what Kanye West did to Taylor Swift at the VMA's last night... What a dork!! She also told me that Patrick Swayze died today. :(

Well, I'm gonna sign off... Sorry there are no pictures today. Again, I've been couped up doing computer work all day, so there really isn't much to show in the way of pictures. Here's a picture of where the supermarket was from the front gate of my community:

Looking at it from this picture makes me realize that I had to be crazy to think this was a good idea. :)

Paris, France - Day 4

Today was a great day, mais pas très français. It started off by me getting to sleep-in a little bit. I went to bed around 2:30am this morning, and then after some tossing and turning I probably didn't "fall asleep" til around 3:30 or 4am. I wanted to wake up around 7am, but actually rolled out of bed around 9am instead. C'est la vie...

I wanted to get in a nice relaxing run before starting the day, but that didn't happen. Sundays are typically my "long run" days and I try to run anywhere from 10 miles or more at a very slow & relaxing pace. Now granted, I didn't want to run 10 miles this morning, but I would have been very happy with a 4 miler or a 5 miler. Since I woke up so late, I was forced to do a very quick 1 mile run. Oh well... The good news is that on my sprint, I was able to find a nice little gravel trail off the road that tucked into some woods. I ran through this little wooded area for about 1/4 mile then had to turn around and head back to the apartment and get showered since Patrick was on his way to meet up with us. Oh well, I worked up a good sweat since I was trucking kinda fast.


After my run, I took a quick shower and then it was off to the Montevrain train station where we needed to pick up Patrick. He was coming in from Paris and then we were driving back out to Fontenay-Trésigny, where the office is located. While at the train station, we purchased some cold cut sandwiches, yogurt, water, and some chocolates to keep us nourished throughout the day. The goal was to have enough food and water so that we didn't have to leave the office for anything and therefore just focus on work. We did just that... We spent the full day working side by side on this epic project; which is really the whole reason that I'm over here in the first place. It worked out great that we were together today because we really got a lot accomplished in a short amount of time.

Fast forward 6 hours while we work. Nothing really worth blogging about, unless you enjoy dba / programmer / system architecture talk. :) I'll assume you don't so let's move on...

We left the office around 6:30 - 7pm and headed back to Montevrain, where we ate at a nice little Italian pizza place. Of course (to me) it was French-Italian, but the theme was supposed to be Italian. It's hard to pull off an Italian theme in France for an American customer. Especially when serving French wine and French bread from a French menu. :) En fait, c'est TRES BIEN!!

We of course started off with some wine, and bread. I ordered a Pizza all to myself for the entree and wound up eating the whole thing in record time. C'est delicious! After the pizza, we ordered some coffee and then a nice little French apple dessert. The apple dessert was sooo good!! Even on a full tummy, I had no problems eating it. :)



After we left the restaurant, we came back here to the apartment and I called my girls on Skype. We had a great time and just caught up for about 20-30 minutes with a streaming video feed the whole time. Jennifer remodeled the house a little bit and the girls were playing outside with the puppy. I gave them all a video tour of my apartment and showed them how the toilets flush, as well as took them out on the balcony, and through the french doors leading to the patio. They all really enjoyed it and I felt like a tour guide for a while. Jennifer and I had a moment of silence together and was able to mourn over the Buckeyes losing to the USC Trojans last night. :'( She said it was a great game, but we just lost it on the last drive... Oh well, if you're gonna lose, let it be to one of the best teams I guess.

After talking with the girls, I came back downstairs here and I'm currently downloading Visual Studio 2008 SP1 over a wifi connection. Not only that, but the file I'm downloading is probably sitting on a server in Redmond, Washington, and of course I'm in the middle of rural France. The download is 831+ MB, but I really need it in order to be productive tomorrow. Therefore, I'm just letting it download at it's own pace while I update my blog and check emails. :P

I did receive some great news today from my sister in law, Amie. Apparently my niece, Kayla was able to cut 10 minutes off a 2 mile race in cross country the other day. Amie told me over Facebook because she knew I would want to hear it... She was absolutely right!! I can only imagine how good that made Kayla feel too. It's not easy to take off 5 minutes in a mile, let alone 5 minutes off of two consecutive miles. Way to go kiddo!! I'm anxious to go to one of her track meets when I get back to the states. I can really tell that she's trying hard at this sport and I'm super proud of her!

Tomorrow should be a fun day. I'm on my own for the most part, as Bob has to attend some meetings all day. I'll be here at the apartment by myself working a big change that we implemented today at the office. Tomorrow is really my last "work" day until next Monday. I'm considering sleeping in a bit, and then working here on the couch with lots of coffee and my iPod. When I get hungry I'll just walk down to the train station for some "guy food" (ie. quick and easy stuff). :)

Finally, for my own personal joys, here is a picture of my beautiful wife that I secretly snapped tonight while she was smiling and telling me a story. :)


I miss her.

For now, I'm gonna keep waiting on my download (almost done) and will be sure to write up my adventures tomorrow... I have some REALLY cool plans starting Tuesday, but won't share them on my blog just yet... It's gonna be cool though, so please be sure to check back in and see what I'm talking about. ;)

Paris, France - Day 3

Today was a great day! I woke up at 7am sharp. This was after a short 3-4 hour nap after my late blog post last night. When I woke up I saw Jennifer online and caught up for a few minutes before my run. This mornings run took me the opposite direction near the 'industrial' area, whereas yesterdays run was more towards the residential (village) area. I much prefer the village vibe over the industrial vibe and will probably head that way again tomorrow morning. It was cold this morning, but once I got moving, the shivers stopped and I was chugging along enjoying the new scenery.

Here are some pictures that I took on my run:






By the time I got back to the office, Bob was waking up and we talked for a while and had some yogurt for breakfast. I then took a quick shower and we got ready to head to the office (not the couch this time) for the day. One of our colleagues, Patrick, was picking us up here by our community area and we were going to drive about 30 minutes to the office.

When we got to the office, we struggled with the alarm system... actually it went off a few times, but to our surprise no cops ever came and we never got called to ensure that things were OK. I'm sure that somebody got called, but we were never hassled for setting off the alarm multiple times. We stayed in here and talked about our project for a few hours and drank lots of coffee.

Speaking of coffee, one thing that I'm noticing over here is that the coffee is nothing like coffee that I'm used to at home. I'm a true-blue coffee drinker and I love my coffee by the masses and the darker the better. I don't really drink coffee to wake up, or get a caffeine fix as much as I drink it for the pure joy that it gives me. :) I like hot, black coffee to sip on and this means that I can drink it pretty much all day just like some people drink iced tea or water. I enjoy big cups of it. It's nothing for me to drink a full pot of coffee by myself before lunch time... Actually I do this all the time. :) However, I'm discovering that "coffee" in Europe is actually what we consider espresso. It comes in cute little kiddie size cups and it's a bit frothy on top. I shoot these things down in about 1 minute and end up wanting more... It's been quite an adjustment to say the least. Even our coffee cups in the apartment are "small". But Bob and I drink it like real americans by the cup fulls. It's sometimes frustrating pounding these sissy espresso shots while we're out in public though...

So after we worked at the office for a while, we headed to a local village and ate at a very authentic french restaurant. It was just this little hole in the wall on a residential street smashed between other houses and small businesses. Think of a cliche' European village with a narrow road winding through a hill of compact houses and European cars, and then picture us walking into a restaurant. There you have it. Unfortunately I left my camera at the office, so I wasn't able to snap a picture of the restaurant, or the dish that I ordered. I told Bob and Patrick that I wanted something "french" and they recommended the Perch. I love poisson (fish), so I ordered it and it came with white rice and fried potatoes. Of course, we all washed down our meals with water and red wine. After my meal, I had Patrick order me a nice "french dessert" and it was da' bomb!! It was called a floating something, but it was basically this glazed meringue that was floating in a sweet egg sauce. It may sound discusting, but it was surprisingly good!!

After dinner, we headed back to the office and worked for a bit longer on some geekery design stuff and sipped on some more sissy espresso. Then around 6:00 we headed into Paris to hang out and have some dinner. On our way to Paris, I was able to catch about 20-30 minutes of a cat nap. I've only had about 8 total hours of sleep since I've landed and it was catching up with me. By the time I woke up in the car, we were stop & go in traffic along the Sienne River right in the heart of Paris. Our goal was to first stop at Patrick's apartment to drop off our bags and get a drink or two before heading to the restaurant where we had reservations for 8:30pm.

Patrick's apartment was really cool. It was just this little 1 bedroom apartment on like the 5th floor and it had a really cool feel to it. We hung out and drank some Irish wiskey and shot the breeze for about 30 minutes or so. He had a small balcony that looked over a tiny road in the heart of Paris. From his balcony, you could see the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides (where Napolean Bonaparte's tomb is located), and the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur waaaay of in the distance. Even directly below his balcony was a museum with sculptures out front. Best of all you got to see the city life of downtown Paris whenever you wanted to just by stepping out onto the balcony.

So anyway, we hung out here and had a few shots of whiskey after a full day of geeking out, and then headed toward the subway to get on train toward the restaurant. The subway is still pretty cool to me. Basically you buy a ticket for about 2 euro's (~$3) and you can pretty much go whereever you want in the city. Of course they have deals where you can buy day passes or week passes. But if you just need to go somewhere on the other side of town, you buy a ticket and hop on the metro... Voila, you're there!

As we walked along, I soaked in the vibe and just love it. People were sitting at little tables outside of restaurants, motor bikes are zooming by, people are walking super fast to nowhere in particular, and every now and then you'd see couples holding hands walking very slow down the streets just enjoying each others company. It really made me wish Jennifer was here to see it all with me. Next time for sure!!

We arrived at the restaurant a little bit late, but immediately it felt good to have a reservation because there was a crowd outside. We walked in and sat right down. This was a little Basque restaurant that had a very authentic French vibe to it. It was another little hole in the wall place with about 12 - 15 tables and very compact. The food was AMAZING!! We of course started with some wine, yes I'm slowly becoming a wine-o... be warned for my return Jennifer. Along with our wine, we had some french bread and just hung out and talked for a while. For an appetizer I got a pouched egg soup with mushrooms and bacon. It was delicious!! After I scarfed that down, our main course came and I had ordered the venison sweetbreads & kidneys. It was pretty french and isn't served in the states for safety reasons (which is more or less stupid), but it was really good. Different from anything that I'd ever had but good. I'm forcing myself to try new things while I'm over here this time, and it's working out pretty good. I've been discovering a lot of really good cuisines so far. I wasn't able to eat the entire plate because I was pretty full on whiskey, wine, bread, and pouched egg soup.


We hung out for a little while longer and shot the breeze over some sissy espresso :) and another drink at the bar before heading back to Patrick's apartment. When we got back to his place, we had yet another shot of sissy espresso chased with another shot of liquor and then Bob and I took his car back to our apartment here in Montevrain. It was about a 30 minute drive and here we are updating our blogs. :)

Tomorrow, we are heading back to the office again for more geekery and that is really all that's on the agenda so far. Who knows, maybe we'll hang out in Paris again, or maybe we'll just come back here and order some delivery again. Either way, I'm gonna soak it up and enjoy the crap out of it. I didn't get a chance to talk to the girls tonight, and will try to connect with them tomorrow over Skype again. I also plan to purchase some post cards and send them to my girls so that they can have them for years to come. I know they love it when I do that on my trips...

Paris, France - Day 2

Phew... Day two is in the bag. It's actually 1:30 am on Saturday morning now and I'm so ready for bed. However, I'd rather stick to my guns and update my blog each night or else I know it will become to epic to try and do two posts tomorrow.

My day was pretty uneventful for the most part. I went to bed extremely late last night (~2am) and woke up this morning around 8:30am. Bob and I ate at the community lobby here in the complex that we're staying. It was pretty nice; sort of like a continental breakfast in a hotel or something, but a little more personal. The owner of this complex actually knew that we were going to be eating breakfast, so he set up a nice selection of breakfast foods for us and it had a table set for us and everything. It was pretty nice. I had some Pain du Chocolat (my favorite), some cold cuts of ham, a slice of cheese, a bowl of Cocoa Crispies in warm milk (yes, warm milk), a glass of orange juice, and a couple of cups of some high octane french espresso. Bob and I just sat at the breakfast table and talked for a little over an hour and just started our day very slowly. It was a great way to get started IMO.

Immediately after breakfast, I put on my running shoes and headed out the front door to get acquainted with the local village where I live. As it turns out, the apartment that we are staying in is outside the city of Paris in a little "department" (or suburb) called Montevrain. It was so cool running through the village here on foot. I got to experience so much more by running through the village than I would have ever got in a car or on a train. As I ran through the streets I greeted a few locals with "Bonjour" and a few "Ca va"'s here and there. At one point I was completely lost, but I didn't even care. I knew that I could find my way back at any time, so I just didn't worry about it and kept moving forward. Eventually, I got my bearings and found my way back to the My Suite Village (where I'm staying).

Here are some pics that I took on my run this morning:




My total distance was just a quick 2.5 miles, and here is what my Garmin map looked like:

Once I got back, I took a quick shower and then I was off to the office... Which is basically a cherry red couch right by the french doors that lead out to our little french patio. :)


I litterally sat on the couch almost the entire day drinking coffee and coding away on my laptop while Bob was sitting at the table with his laptop about 5 feet from me. Every now and then we'd stop and discuss some architecture changes and doodle on some graph paper... But mostly it was just me and Jim Morrison (on my iPod) with a nice french breeze blowing in the door on me all day. I could get used to these working conditions! :D

The only excitement for the next 6-7 hours was that we ordered some cheeseburgers (yes delivery) and that was really about it. Actually,... Yup, that was really about it.

Around 7pm, we canceled our dinner plans into Paris and decided to take the bus to the local town of Chessy Gares. It's a real cute little french town about 3-4 miles from our apartment. While there, we ate at a nice little French Restaurant and I ordered Duck with Salad and Fried Potatoes. Of course we also ordered a bottle of wine, and just had great conversation. By the time we were ready for dessert, I was feeling the wine... I'm such an American when it comes to "wine with dinner". :) Anyway, I ordered some coffee dessert and it was pretty delicious.

After dinner, we came right back here to the apartment and worked for about an hour or two more, and then I was able to talk to my girls over Skype. It was real cute to see them all on video and we had fun making faces back and forth to each other. Skype is so cool, especially when you are talking to the cutest family in the world on the other end. They told me all about their day and every now and then they would get side tracked by seeing themselves on the monitor. So funny!!

Ok, so here it is almost 2:30 and I'm pretty drained. Tomorrow, or "Today" rather, I'm going to wake up at 7am and get in another quick run, and then we're headed into Paris to meet with another colleague and go over some intense system design stuff. I'm actually really looking forward to it. Yeah, I'm a dork, but I thrive on designing systems, and that is really the theme of tomorrow's work day. I think after we're all done, we're going to get some dinner in Paris... at night! That should make for some amazing pictures on tomorrow's post so be sure to check for another update...

Paris, France - Day 1

Note: If you are reading this from Facebook, I recommend that you read my actual blog post (click here) if you want to see my pictures. For some reason, Facebook doesn't always show pictures in my posts and I'm not sure why.

This is actually a 2 day post, but the first day was mostly travel, and it's hard to justify a full post dedicated to air travel and train rides.

My flight left at 2pm on Wednesday afternoon and I was escorted to the airport by two hotties: Jennifer and Daizi. Lizzie and Jazzy had school, so I had to say my goodbyes to them as they got on the bus. I squeezed them extra hard this morning since I wasn't going to be able to see them for a while. So, Jennifer, Daizi, and I all got to the airport around 11:30 or so and I breezed right through the check-in. It was really the fastest I've ever checked into any airport, ever. I walked up, handed her my passport, she handed me my ticket, and away I went. 1 minute later I was hanging out with Jennifer and Daizi in the food court. After we ate, we all did some shopping at the airport stores for odds and ends. It was Daizi's second time in the airport, but the last time she was at the airport, she was just a little baby. So we can just say that it was her first time in the airport and she LOVED it. She was by far the cutest kid in the Columbus Airport. She was blown away by everything (escalators, elevators, the big sculpture in the middle of the hallway, cops on segways, etc...). So cute!

After our little shopping excursion, I walked Jennifer and Daizi to the van and sent them on their way, then headed toward my gate. I got through security extremely fast as well and this was on course to be a very easy trip so far. My flight to Charlotte was very quick and easy too. It seemed like we went up and came right back down. No problems!

It's amazing how often I've been in this airport, I knew it by heart all most. I knew where the restrooms were, and even a nice restaurant that had good coffee. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry to get to my gate so I could plug in my laptop to charge before the +8 hour flight over the Atlantic. When I got to the boarding gate for the flight to Paris, it made me think of my girls. There was a plane suspending by cords from the ceiling and I know they would have thought it was soooo cool. Therefore, I took a picture for them and hope that they reads my post one day. :P

Before I boarded, I called and talked to Jennifer for a while, and then hopped on the plane after only letting my laptop charge for about 20 minutes.

My seat was smack dab in the middle of the plane. There were 2 window seats, 3 middle seats and 2 other window seats. Of course, my seat was in the middle of the 3 center seats. I was dreading having to sit there for 6 hours... Ugh... Luckily, as soon as I got there, I saw that I would be sitting in between two pretty french women in their mid-20's. I thought... Ok. :) However, shortly after I sat down, another a pretty french girl came up to me and said (with a french accent) "Excuse me sir, I have a window seat and was wondering if you would like to trade me seats so I could sit next to my friends." I couldn't believe it... I said "Absolutely!" I'm sure I was doing her a favor, but she did me a much bigger favor!! So far this has turned out to be the perfect trip.

Once I sat down, an older gentleman came and sat next to me. I immediately stuck my hand out and introduced myself. The guys name was Frank Nye and he was from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was a very nice guy and we talked like old friends for a very long time. I was able to get about 2 - 3 hours of uncomfortable sleep in, and then I woke about 1 hour before we landed. Just long enough to get some coffee and a pastry in me before starting my day. I was very happy that I was able to sit next to Frank on this flight, we connected and traded business cards. I told him next time he came through Ohio to give me a call. We'll see...

So I arrived in Paris at exactly 6:40 am. See, I got on the plane at 4:30 pm (Ohio time) and my body thought it was now 12:40 am (ie. bedtime). Unfortunately, Paris is 6 hours ahead of Ohio time, so it was actually 6:40 am in the morning and I had a full day ahead of me. Ugh... More coffee.

Once I got through the airport, I made my way through customs and bought a one way ticket to le' Gare du Nord where I would meet Bob (my boss). The plan was to find some food and just kill time until 12 pm. Bob was going to be getting off of a train here with his wife and then we were going to go onto the apartment where we could chill out and drop off our luggage. By this time it was going on 9:30, so I only had about 2.5 more hours to kill. However, keep in mind that I had some very heavy (and bulky) luggage with me.

While waiting, I snapped some pictures:

It was cold and rainy outside the Gard du Nord.

There were about 5 levels of chaos inside the Gard du Nord.

It is so neat seeing these sites again after ~15 years.

Duh, I had to take this picture.

This is where the trains came into the Gard du Nord. Rather impressive.

It's amazing how the sights, sounds, and smells take me back to high school when I came over here with the French exchange program. Even the rain on the streets reminded me of my first trip over here and it felt really cool. I recall how everything was so amazing and new back then. It still seemed that way today as I stood outside and took pictures. A few times, I actually got into the mindset of a foreign exchange student and just looked around in awe, amazed by everything. I've thought about getting ahold of my old host families to say hi to them. However, it all depends on if I have enough time this trip. I have a pretty full schedule while I'm over here and know that there is a chance that I could come back again soon. Therefore, I may just hold off for my next visit with Jennifer (and possibly the girls). I would much rather contact them when I have some gifts, or pictures, or just more time.

Around 12:00pm exactly, Bob had found me. Apparently he had been walking around for about 3o minutes looking for me, and the whole time I was standing stationary directly in front of him. :) Yes, the Gard du Nord is very crowded. We wished Michelle (Bob's lovely wife) a safe journey home and then we headed toward the apartment. It was quite a long ride, but it went by very fast, as we were able to catch up with one another for a while.

As we got closer to the apartment, I was starting to "hit the wall" (runner talk) and realized that my eyes needed to close for a while. So it goes without saying that as soon as I got back to the apartment, I tried to open my computer and be productive. However, as soon as I opened up the laptop, I closed it and headed up to my bed where I slept for 2 solid hours. When I woke up, I worked on the computer on the couch for about 6 hours and then we ordered pizza and Coke for delivery. The whole time we were eating, we were also working through some ideas and various schedule conflicts that we might face in the next few days.

Right outside our apartment doors is a pretty nice view and I was able to capture the sunset over the french countryside. Looks pretty cool:

As I was packing it up for the night, Jennifer pinged me and I was able to talk to my girls real quick before they headed to bed. I sure miss them already and can't wait to talk to them again tomorrow evening as they get ready for bed.

Tomorrow, I plan to get a quick run around the area when I wake up. We plan to work here in the apartment most of the day, and then we are meeting up with another colleague in downtown Paris. I think we're going to some fancy restaurant with a killer view. If so, I'll be sure to take some pics. ;)

Thanks for reading, and tune in tomorrow...

Chubb Insurance Lawyer

Why are lawyers so mean to the opposing party? They hear one side of the story, and don't even try to understand the other side. Is it money? What ever happened to Morals? Values? Ethics? Manners? It's amazing how (a very little bit of) money can make a person so cruel. Why can't things be settled in a civil manner anymore? At least WAIT until things need to be escalated before turning into a complete @$$#*!!. I'm not a fan of law because in all of my experiences it's been nothing but crap in my life. Sorry if anybody is offended by this, honestly. However, it's proven itself over and over for me and I'm sick of it.

If you are in the law system, just be nice and try to see both sides before attacking! Just because your client is paying you a lot of money to represent them doesn't mean you have to lose respect for the other party and insult them for no reason. You couldn't pay me enough money to be as rude as this guy was.

My wife hurt her foot a few months ago (very badly) in a shopping store. The insurance company has put her case on hold for way too long, so she called to finally get it resolved. The lawyer called her back and insulted her to no extent, thinking she is out to get rich off of this. She's not! She just wants to resolve it and move on with her life. The guy offered her an INSULTING amount of money to get it resolved, and did so in a very rude manner. Not only that, but he insulted the way that she lives her life as a stay at home Mom. He treated her with zero respect and doesn't know a damn thing about her or who she is. Mind you, she's the victim in this case, and should be treated as such. Instead, he treated her like the villain and it's made me even more upset with our law system than ever before.

If I had the guys name, I'd consider posting it and put some choice words along side it, but I don't and I won't. Maybe I'm just better than him, I don't know... Just don't insult good people, and namely my wife! Next time, try talking to me and we'll do just that... talk. Not scream. Not insult. Not be-little or accuse. Just talk. Get a life Chubb Insurance Lawyer dude. You ruined my day, and made my wife cry. I hope you're getting paid a lot of money to be an asshole, because to me it sounds like you live a very sad life... It's good manners to be nice to people you've never met. From now on, you are my #1 example for everything that's wrong with our law system and insurance...

Brooks Cascadia 4

I wanted to be just like Nick, so I bought a pair of Brooks Cascadia 4 shoes. :) He talked 'em up real good on his last run, and I know for a fact that Brooks makes a damn good shoe. I have +500 miles on my Cascadia 3's and I still where them on runs from time to time.

I actually went to FrontRunner last Friday and planned to purchase a pair of Vibram Five Finger shoes. However, they didn't have any of the new models in my size and I didn't like the way that the old models fit my foot. They had a stiff back on them and everytime I bent my foot, I felt it pressing against my Achilles. Therefore, I explored some other shoes and settled on the Cascadia 4's. I haven't yet ran in them, but hope to do so tomorrow. As soon as I put them on, they fit my feet perfectly. If they are anything like my Cascadia 3's, I'll have them for years and put hundreds of miles on them.

Castle.Windsor Tip

You must specify the assembly name in both the Type and Service attributes when defining a component in a config file. I wish somebody would have told me that tip yesterday. I've wasted my entire morning figuring it out myself... I'm finally smiling again. See:

:)

Now, let's get productive!

2009 Hocking Hills Indian Run 60k

As it turns out, I won't be able to run my favorite race. :( It's for good reason, but I'll be out of town on work the day that this race is taking place. I may drive down to Hocking Hills when I'm back in town and do the race on my own time at my own pace, but I'm not sure. I still have the Columbus Marathon and the new Bobcat Trail Marathon to train for.

One of the (many) things I like about the Indian Run is that it's one month before the Columbus Marathon and it always makes that race a breeze for me. I mean running 37+ miles of hills and trails at Hocking Hills makes a flat 26.2 mile road race through the streets of Columbus a walk in the park.

I'll see all of you Indian runners next year!! I'll be thinking about you all on race day...

Dog Years

I never posted it or mentioned it out in Cyber world, but our dog Grady went missing last month. We had a bad thunderstorm one night and we never saw her again. We think that she got scared and took off to hide somewhere. We did an extensive search and posted signs all over this area in hopes that someone saw her. Jennifer put ads in the paper, on the radio, on Craigslist, PetFinders, and we checked all the pounds and shelters around here numerous times... Nothing. While it was a hard pill to swallow, we gave up on her last week and started searching for another dog to adopt. :(

We are a dog family and really like their companionship. If Grady is out there with somebody else, I sure hope that they are treating her the way she deserves to be treated. I'm sure she misses the girls and I know for a fact that our girls sure miss her. They talk about her ever day. Jennifer and I are heart broken that she got scared that night. I wish we would have brought her in the house and let her sleep inside that night. I still hope she comes back one day. She loved it here; she fit here.

Grady was a diamond in the ruff. Really! We got her for free at about 6 months old from some family that couldn't take care of her. She showed up shaking and scared. She had never been taught any commands, but it was just "IN" her to be a good girl. She loved our girls and protected them at all costs. She was always bringing us dead rodents and placing them on our back step; those were just little gifts that she could give us to show her love. We never had any behavioral issues with her, ever. The only thing that she required was that you pet her and love her the way that she loved us. It was almost as if she had a huge St. Bernard body with a human brain. Sometimes you could just tell what she was thinking. She sure loved us, and we had a very simple, effortless relationship. She was (and will always be) a Hardbarger. Man, I miss her!

So fast forward to last Sunday: I went out for my weekly epic run @ 8:00 am and somewhere between the time I left and the time I got back @ ~2pm, Jennifer had woken up and taken the girls to the far west side of Columbus to meet a Bernese Mountain pup. She drove over there with very little hopes that this puppy would be a good fit for us. I mean who could replace Grady? Grady set the bar, and we were looking for a dog that was laid-back, kinda big, well mannered, and most importantly great with the kids (tall order, huh?).

When Jennifer first showed up at the house, she was immediately impressed with the puppy. The people that had adopted her were dog rescuers themselves. They adopted other dogs that were neglected or abused and would re-home them. However, they had adopted this puppy to be one of their own. These people knew how to train dogs enough to understand basic commands and this pup (even at 4 months old) knew good manners. It's great to see a puppy that knows how to sit, come, back up, lay down, and take treats without CHOMPing at your hand in excitement. We've tried training dogs in the past and it's a very involved process.

She has been in our house for almost a week now and she's doing great. She's had a few accidents, but that's to be expected. Luckily for us her accidents have either been on the concrete in the basement or on the linoleum in the kitchen. The girls love her and she loves us. She's very protective of the girls already. Therefore, she's a keeper. :)

Our Dog History

Diesel : We got our first St. Bernard as a puppy before we got married back in 2000. We took him everywhere with us. Once he had reached about 180 lbs, we realized that he was getting to be a little ornery. We tried to take him to doggy school, and he did great until he got out of class, and then he was back to his rotten self and we didn't know how to teach him differently. Our biggest problem with Diesel was that he saw the family blossom and with the birth of our girls, he wasn't getting as much attention any more. When we moved out to the country, he took off as soon as he got the chance and we would always have to go find him. He was so big that fences didn't stop him either. We butted heads a lot, but I loved that dog!

Grady : We got Grady as a companion dog for Diesel (tears welling up)... Ahem, and I told you how good of a girl she is...

Kool-Aid : She was given to us by some close friends and she was a middle aged woman-dog by the time we got her. Our friends did a great job with her and she knew LOTS of tricks. She was a very good girl and fit right in with our family. I know she had a great life out here on the farm for her last couple of years. Our friends even buried her up on our hill and it's great having her doggy-spirit out here now. For about 3 months Diesel, Grady, and Kool-Aid were the three musketeers out here on the farm.

Rocky : After Diesel died, and Kool-Aid went back home, we got Rocky as a companion dog for Grady. One day Jennifer and I took the girls to town or something and when we got back, we found that Rocky had chased and killed 2 baby goats. He thought they were chew toys or something, but we broke him of that habit the old fashion way and then had to get rid of him. He had the taste for them and we couldn't afford to take the chance of him doing it again. He went to a family that had two other big dogs to romp around with. We haven't heard from them since...

Camp : After we got rid of Rocky, we realized that Grady was kind of lonely out here for a few months with only a few cats to play with, so we did some research and found Camp. He was an immediate success, as he and Grady paled up real quick and things were great. However, as he got bigger, he got crazier. He was a jumper and a biter. He wanted to bite everything, even the girls legs, arms, and faces. He was a complete spazz. The bigger he got, the more he drove Grady absolutely crazy. Grady put up with him and she was trying to train him in her own way. Jennifer and I saw it many times. One time he chased our car out of the drive way and Grady jumped in front of him and somehow made him sit and watch us drive away. Again (going back to Grady) she was an amazing K9. It goes without saying that Camp didn't stay here long. It got to the point that our girls were afraid to even go out the back door to play in fear that Camp would tackle them and maul them thinking they were big puppies too. It wasn't fair to Camp to tie him up while everybody else was having a good time, nor was it fair to our girls to be affraid of the puppy that we got for them. We do feel good knowing that we gave him to a great family up by Cleveland who has another dog that he romps around with now. I remember when Camp left, Grady was so happy to just have things the way they were: chill.

Valley : She is our newest addition and is doing great... She's chill, protective, cute, fluffy, and (kind of) smart. We'll see how she does as she gets bigger. So far things are looking good and we're already talking about taking her to doggy school.

Morning Runs

I love 'em. I used to never run in the morning because I was usually up too late the night before or had to start work immediately so as not to throw off my day. The later I start my job, the later I get done. Therefore, when I would wake up, I tried to use every possible minute hacking away.

It took me a while to really appreciate the power of morning runs. However, once I started getting into the routine I realized that it's the only way to start the day. The best part about an early morning run around here is that the trails I run in the morning are always empty. It's a 95% guarantee that I'm the only one on the trail anytime before 10am.

Wednesday, I didn't wake up early and I didn't do my run before I started my day. It was obvious too because I was just wasting time all morning and it felt like even though I stayed busy doing things here and there, I didn't get a single thing accomplished. Once I got out and got my body moving I felt 10x better and came home with a head full of things I had to do.

I think it's confirmed that I'm now a morning runner...

Tip of the Day

Copying gigs of data to a network share over wifi takes a long time.

Online Social Network Diversity

I haven't been blogging as much lately. I've been blogging for years now and have never really had a problem coming up with content. I would just write what was on my mind. Now, all the sudden I'm faced with a decision of what to write, where it should go, who should see it, etc... I feel as thought I have consumed too many social networking sites. Now when I want to share a thought or story, I have to run through a series of questions in my head to decide where to post it, and most I times I end up just saying "screw it" and end up not sharing it at all.

In the past, when I was just blogging, if I wanted to write about something, I didn't think about it, I just gave it a title, wrote what I wanted to say, and gave it a few tags. Period. That's what I still love about blogging. However, ever since I've started using all of these other social networking sites (ie. Twitter, Facebook, GoWagon, FriendFeed, and (yes, even) Google Reader), I've noticed that they all have the same theme about them; they all want you to be the "One Stop Shop" for your online experience.

Blogging
I didn't understand blogging at first when I started it back in 2004. I enjoyed reading blogs and I learned a lot from them, but to write my own seemed weird... until I started doing it. Then I got it! I still love it, and need to get back into it. I will continue blogging until I flat run out of things to talk about... which is never going to happen. This is great for writing a random journal entry out of the blue. It's also great for sharing your thoughts on what is going on in the world, or some random content on the Internet. It's good for anything. It can be one word, it could be one thousand words. Just type!

Twitter
To be honest, I didn't get Twitter at first either and it took me a few months to understand its purpose and power. It's basically just a service that let's you be a "lazy blogger". I can go out to twitter and write 10 words about what I did today and be done. I may even respond to some random tweet from a buddy from yesterday just to say "hey, I read your tweet" or whatever. It's still a bit strange to me how I communicate with so many people through twitter and only know what they look like through their profile pic. :) This is a great service for bookmarking content as well. For example, when I post this blog entry, my twitter feed will show that I posted a blog feed with a link to it. Very handy!

LinkedIn
This is a great service for building a professional network. It's a bit advertisy and has some spam elements to it, but all in all it's a great service. It's like having an online resume with various professional acquaintances attached to your resume. Head hunters can go out here and find you or you can go out and find companies from this service. You build your network and recommend people that have worked for you and so forth to help them out, etc... Again, it's a great service if you can see past all of the (growing) advertising crap.

FriendFeed
When I was introduced to FriendFeed, I was just a blogger (nothing else) and I didn't really get it at first either. Once I started using multiple online engines to aggregate my content, it clicked! This is the real "one stop shop" for all online activity. You can link up almost any online service to this engine and let it aggregate it into a single "stream" of content. So, for example, if you want to know where I'm at or what I did while I was online at anytime, simply check out http://www.friendfeed.com/lucashardbarger I love this service, but don't spend much time on it's website like I probably should. I highly recommend that everybody get a FriendFeed account if you have multiple online services you subscribe to. For example, you can link your Amazon wish list to this service, your Netflix queue, Flickr feed, Twitter, anything... Check it out!!

Facebook
Love it! In a matter of minutes after signing up, I was instantly connected with my entire graduating class, and everybody else that I ever came into contact with in my 31 years (or so it seems). There are some people that send me friend requests that I barely even know, but (sometimes) I accept them anyway thinking maybe this is a great way to meet them. I thought it was so great that I even talked Jennifer into signing up. Once she signed up, and figured out how to use it, she was instantly hooked, and has been ever since. The word "Facebook" enters a conversation everyday in this house now. I think it's great to have such a tool, I really do! For example, she will now post something totally zany on her Wall, and immediately she gets responses from random people. Some she might know very well, others she may have never met before. Kweepy?

PicasaWeb
This is what I use for my online photo album. The reason I got started using it is because I love the Picasa Photo application! It is what Jennifer and I use for managing our tens of thousands of digital pictures. It's easy to use, extremely powerful, and best of all, it's free. I can easily upload photos to my online Picasa web album with a single click. it is for this reason that I have a PicasaWeb account. It's also pretty slick for sharing photos with the family and friends from around the world as our girls grow more and more every day. Yes, I know it's rather outdated and I need to upload some pics. :)

GoWagon
I use this service for sharing my workouts online with my active buddies. I have met so many people from around the world through this service. It started out as BuckeyeOutdoors.com, but the brainchild behind that site (my buddy, Ben) integrated a Facebook-style service that lets other outdoor enthusiasts share their workouts in the stream-like fashion and has "Wall" concept for writing on other peoples feeds. There is a lot of overlap with Facebook here, but this site is directly related to athletes. If you like to do outdoor activities (running, biking, hiking, surfing, walking, whatever...), you should definitely check it out.

Google Reader
I use this service for reading blogs. It's got a new element to it now similar to Facebook and FriendFeed in that you can "Like" posts and share posts with comments so that others may see blog posts that you might find interesting or worthy of sharing. While some online services let you share web content, Google Reader is mainly aimed towards sharing blog posts. Period. It's a killer service and lets you see how much you use the site and so on. I can't live happily in cyberspace without my Google Reader.

All of these services combined are making the world a much smaller and fast paced place to live. There is a lot of overlap in all of these online services, but these are the ones that I use and I've briefly described how I use them. Who knows maybe one day there will be a single online site that I use for all of my social networking. Could it be Google Wave? Not sure, we'll see...

Importance of Rudiments

I used to march in the Newark High School Marching Band. Yup! A band dork! I played in the drumline. My freshman year I played Quads, my Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year I played snare drum. I remember coming up from middle school and knowing very little about the drums, and music in general really. I struggled reading sheet music and I barely knew how to do a drum roll.

The first thing I learned the summer before my freshman year "at band camp" was the importance of the percussion rudiments. A rudiment is a simple pattern set of stick combination that are meant to practice stick control. Think of it as the vocabulary for drummers. In order for a non drummer to appreciate the importance of rudiments, just watch this video of the Blue Devils warming up. Be sure to pay close attention to their sticks and hand movements (link):



This is an example of rudiments at their best!

My favorite rudiment is the paradiddle, hands down. It is nothing more than RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL, over and over. In high school, I understood the importance of rudiments, but didn't really "appreciate" them. I just knew I had to know them. However, as a drummer sitting behind a drumset, my knowledge of rudiments has really given me the ability to play complex grooves with very little effort. The faster you play them, the groovier they sound. It is also true that the faster you play them, the easier they are to play honestly. I remember the process of learning them and recall how difficult they were to learn. Not only that, but when I would have to also march to a steady beat, my sticks would just get tied up.

Anyway, I saw that video today from the drumfunny twitter feed and it too me back about 12 years.

Hartford Fair Models

Jennifer took the girls up to the Hartford Fair yesterday and they got their pictures in the local paper (link).

and


Apparently they are the poster children for the Hartford Fair, because we've also heard that they are in the commercial for the Hartford Fair this year as well. Needless to say, Jennifer and I have been watching Channel 10 and Channel 4 religiously so that we might see the girls on TV.

Jennifer's House Fettish

I love my wife. I do. I love her so much that it only makes sense that I recognize her problem with real estate. :) She has been looking for "the perfect house" since we met 13 years ago. I give her all the credit on every house we have ever lived in. She has hand picked the houses that we've lived in over the years. From the renovated garage in the back of an alley, to the german cottage style house by a trailer park. From our dead-end dream home in town, to our country home out here in the sticks. All of the credit goes to her, and she knows that I know that because I tell her all the time. I don't know where I'd be living without her knack for quality living.

So I guess the real question is: What makes a perfect house?

This answer would be different for almost everybody that you ask. Some might say "open floor plan", while others might say "nice view" or "central air" or "downtown". To me however, it has nothing to do with the location, structure, or subtle amenities inside. The perfect house is the one I'm in right now, at any point in time. As they say: "Home is where the heart is". I understand that now that I'm older and have children. I believe that I would be just as happy in a 1 room hut down by the river with a dirt floor and no mortgage; as long as I had my Jennifer and our girls along with their simple child-like innocence to keep us company all day.

So again: What makes a perfect house? You do. The only reason I know this is because I grew up in the perfect house. My parents are strong-willed and family-valued people. There were times when my parents had to choose to downsize and move my sister out of our current school district and away from our friends, or stay and fight to keep what was theirs. In hind-sight the actual house had nothing to do our happiness. Sure it helped, but the happiness was derived from the fact that we were all together.

While I feel like we are raising our family in the perfect house, my wife is convinced that there is another place out there that is screaming our name. If she feels this way, then by golly I'm gonna follow her because she is my home. A new house with different surroundings won't change that. Her latest find is about 5 miles up the road and is about 50% more expensive than this place. I love my wife. I do. :)

Burning River Shout Outs

As I stated in the first paragraph of my last post, I've been pretty busy and haven't been keeping up on my blog roll.

However, I just wanted to give a quick shout out to all my running friends that have been training for and will be running 2009 Burning River 100 Mile Endurance Race this weekend. I wish them the best of luck and know they're going to have a great race!

Go Kimba!

Go Mark!

Go Michelle!

... and anybody else I'm missing! :)