Sharp Corner: On the road again...

So, May was a busy month for travel... We went to Abbotsford, BC to visit M's family. That was a lot of fun and we saw Iron Man. (Awesome movie, btw.) A couple weeks after that, we went to Cardston, AB to see my family. (The only movie that was playing was Speed Racer... No thanks.) We did both drives at night and I must say that Washington State has way better roads than BC.

While we were in Cardston, I was able to see my brother and sister and their families. I also met my new niece who is three weeks old. She is really cute and seeing her made having our own baby that much more real. I must say that I'm pretty excited about our upcoming addition to the family.

So, we came back from Cardston on the Sunday before Memorial Day and I am glad that we did. I ended up spending all day getting ready to go to Bethlehem the next day for work. (You may be thinking that I am lucky to get to go to Bethlehem, but this is in Pennsylvania, not the Holy Land.) The day we left for Cardston, my car would not start after work. I wasn't sure what was wrong, but I thought it may be the battery or the alternator. It would cold start, but the more I turned the key, the stonger the battery got so I thought that was really odd. I cleaned the contacts to the battery, but it didn't help. So, I took the battery to Napa and they tested it and said it was good. I figured it was since it wasn't that old. I bought a brush to clean the contacts and then it worked perfectly. A few months ago, I was having the same problem with dirty contacts, but it was also freezing outside so I really did think it was cold starting. A guy at work told me to clean the contacts and put vaseline on them. I did that, but all I had was baby powder scented vaseline. I guess that is not a long term solution for battery maintenance.

Anyway, off to the corporate holy land... at 4:30 AM. I have done this flight before, but it still isn't very much fun. Spokane to Chicago, Chicago to Allentown. The nice thing about travelling is that I am on per diem. I always go to Starbucks in the airport and by an Odwalla juice puree and a banana nut muffin. Thre trip was okay and the meetings over the next couple of days were good too. I met some of the other graphic designers that work for sister companies and we had a good speaker come in from Canada.

On the way home, my flight to Chicago was delayed and I missed my connection to Spokane. I spent the night at the Crown Plaza hotel. I didn't get to see much in Chicago, but it did make me feel like a small-town boy. Everything is so BIG. We don't have a lot of tall buildings in Spokane. So, I finally made it home on Friday at 2:00 PM. I immediately had to turn around and head to the community college because my company had a team in the Relay For Life. I did this event last year and it was a lot of fun. I ended up walking a lot and getting a chance to talk with people from work that I normally don't a chance to talk to. I fell asleep after being up for 24.5 hours. I slept on a cot in a sleeping bag with a sweater wrapped around my head. The bad thing is that when I am that tired... I drool. (The sweater has been washed.)

It has been a crazy few weeks, but I have had a lot of fun. I have had a couple days of routine and that has been nice. It's good to see the family again. Below are some photos to show what we have been up to.