Hallelujah!

Yeah! Melinda will be home in the next couple of hours! She's been visiting her sister in Minnesota for 5 days and 4 nights (not that anyone's counting.) I think she's had it in her mind for some time to take a trip to visit her sister. Amy has 4 kids (2 of which are very small) so Melinda was going to help her travel to Utah to be at Grandma's funeral.

We were worried about how Saffron would do with her Mom away for so long, but she's done very well. I think it helps a lot having her 3 older siblings look after her; they're very attentive. Melinda also talked to her on the phone once or twice a day and she seemed excited that her mom was coming back with 2 of her baby cousins.

We've done pretty well being orphaned and widowed for these few days, but it will be soooo nice to have Melinda back with us again. We've all missed her very much.

Karen was also very gracious to watch the kids during the day. Thanks Auntie Karen!

We've actually been quite busy these past few days, which probably helped the time pass more quickly. Here's a short list:

1. Thursday we had homeschool Lagoon day. Miles, Ian and I had a great time.
2. Friday we went to Connie's book group "After Hogwarts" at Barnes and Noble.
3. Saturday we gardened and weeded at home. Then in the evening we went up to see Ed, Salena, Teancum, and Rachel. Karen and Wendy fed us (though they also tricked me into helping them plant tomatoes.) Actually, I enjoy gardening so even though it's work it feels recreational.
4. Sunday we went to church in Roy for baby Hope's blessing. My parents, Grandma, and most of my siblings (we missed you, Ruthie!) were there. Everyone got to meet Jame's finance, Brooke, and we had a nice picnic in the park.
5. Sunday evening went back to Grandma and Grandpa's just in time for dinner. The kids were pretty lucky today; two sets of cousins to play with in one day!

Grandma's funeral and viewing are going to be held in the next two days and things will be very busy with all the family in town. It will be busy, but it's a good busy.

Retreat!

Oh no, retreat, retreat! Well, that's always my initial reaction to the annual company retreat. But even so, I always make it through and I (surprisingly) end up actually enjoying it a little. Since I didn't have to go the meetings yesterday (because of the down server) it doesn't seem so bad today.

Thursday when I told the kids I had to be gone for 2 nights they said, "you never used to leave us at all and now you do all the time!" They're right, 3 months in a row leaving them for 3 days and two nights (Florida and Chicago.) But I actually got to stay home last night, and I'll be home tonight so it will actually only be 2 times. I'm actually very lucky and glad not to have to a traveling job.

I found out that after dinner they don't have any specific activities planned so, I'm going to sneak home and sleep in my own bed. They have a room for me, but the 2 other guys already have the beds, and I really don't want to sleep on the hide-a-bed. There's nothing like your own bed. I'm pretty sure Melinda would rather have me home as well.

We had our management meetings, and they weren't so bad. After several years I can finally keep a straight face during the motivational and inspirational pep talks about being all you can do, and giving it a 11o%, and all that schtuff. It's actually good to see co-workers and people who call me on the phone in a non-work environment. It reminds you that these are actually real people and not just disembodied computer problems.


Fall is really pretty here in Park City. After our meetings they gave us free time to explore Park City or do what we want. Some people went horse back riding and others golfed. I optioned to do the restort activities so they gave me an all day activity pass. I rode up the lift and went on the Alpine Slide twice, and a new Alpine Coaster twice as well.


Anyway, I don't have to feel to guilty about having fun without my family, since Arden took them all to the circus. It will be nice to see all my sweet little niños tonight. Then I'll just have to make it through tomorrow's meetings and awards and my weekened will be mine again.

The Art Institute of Chicago

The highlight of my trip to Chicago was the Art Institute of Chicago. It was honestly quite amazing. I’ve saw most of the Smithsonian Museums, but I missed the fine art museum. This was the first real world-class art museum that I’ve been to.

It was really cool to these masterpieces in the flesh. I've see many of these pictures in books, but they are really much more impressive to see them in their original scope.

I loved to see all the details close up; the intensity of the color and the variety of textures. The Jackson Pollock and Roy Lichtenstein pieces were cool, but they were quite underwhelming compared to Saint George Killing the Dragon by Bernat Martorell. I was never impressed by that in books, but seeing it close up, I was amazed. It had gold highlights embossed and it was just plain magnificent.

It was impressive to see so many works by Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Pollock, Cassat, Dali, and Rodin all in one place. My favorite, of course, was A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat.

But I must say that the is no way Ferris Bueller and his friends did so much in Chicago in one day. Let’s see, during the school day they crashed a fancy restaurant, went to a Cubs game, went to the Art Institute, saw a parade, drove home, hung out at the pool, and ran Cameron’s dad’s Ferrari in reverse all before his mom and dad got home from work. No way.

Today the kids got out their Masterpiece board game and we realized that all the art in that game is from this museum. Lisette is now very jealous and she told me I have to take her to a famous art museum.

Chicago

Friday I took the train into downtown Chicago. The weather was looking better, and I wanted a chance to see a few of the sites. I had been on the outskirts of Chicago a long time ago, but I never made it into the city. The train was efficient and clean, although it was a bit noisy inside. The night before the train was speeding past all of the traffic, but today the traffic was speeding by the train. However, I think I still saved time because as soon as we got into the city the traffic was pretty thick (and parking was tricky). I was going to transfer from the train (this was the blue line coming from O'Hare) to the El, but it was confusing so I just walked.


It's amazing to see so many tall buildings stacked so close together. It was overcast, but I imagine those building still throw mighty long shadows. It was an urban canyon. Salt Lake has very wide streets downtown, but Chicago's are probably a 1/3 as wide. It was very vibrant and busy, but somehow it seemed friendlier and less overbearing than New York City. I passed the picturesque Chicago Theatre on the way.

Millennium Park was really cool. They had lovely gardens and lots of interesting outdoor art. My favorite part was this giant mirrored "bean" (Cloud Gate.) It was really cool to look at the skyline reflected behind you. There was a street performer on stilts playing popular music with his ukulele and a melodious falsetto.

I took the opportunity to snap a self portrait on the underside of the bean.

The Crown Fountain was really fun. There were lots of kids playing around in it; you could tell they just loved it. Though, I have to admit, the picture of it does look quite bizarre.

I really liked Michigan Ave, "The Magnificent Mile." It was the last street of skyscrapers before the park and the lake. I liked the contrast of the intricately detailed old buildings and the sleek modern new ones.

I liked Chicago. It didn't see too much of it, of course, and I haven't had the experience of living there and having to commute to the city, but I liked it. It was a very unique, interesting, and beautiful city. Frank Lloyd Wright said, "Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world." I don't know if that's true, but if it's not, it's not too far off.

Seaside, yet still docked

The Chicago skyline "dinner cruise" last night was big on the dinner, but small on the cruise. The water on the river had risen so much because all of the rain that the boat wouldn't clear some of the bridges, so we ate on a docked boat.

Luckily the main cabin was enclosed, so we stayed mostly dry. We did get a few breaks from the rain where we went up on top and took in the Chicago skyline, albeit a very static and limited portion of the skyline. By the end of the "cruise" the water had risen to almost 5 feet higher than usual (the captain had never seen it higher, and they had to jury-rig a gang plank for us to get back on the dock.

It was fun though. I had to make an effort to be sociable, but it actually wasn't as hard as I thought. It was actually nice to have people to converse with when you're traveling somewhere alone.

I was just glad that my flight wasn't scheduled for last night; they canceled 500 flights out of O'Hare because of the extreme weather. One of the company's tech support guy had his basement flooded, and there were power outages all over the place. Luckily the weather was good today and my flight was on time. It's so good to be home.

Chicago style

Last night I had an authentic deep-dish Chicago-style pizza from Giordanos. It was quite tasty. It's basically a pizza which has the outside crust pulled up to form almost a bowl. Then it is cooked, then the cheeses and all the toppings get put in and then the sauce is on top. Then it is baked again. I got a small one, which was bigger than I expected. Please don't ask how much of it I ate, because I'm still feeling it out almost a day afterwards.

My conference has turned out really nice. Besides missing Melinda and the kids, it's been a good experience. I've learned a lot about our billing software, CareVoyant, and all the changes we will need to make for the new upgrade, and what the new options and features are. I've even been somewhat social, which is a big deal for me. It hasn't even been that painful.

In thirty minutes I will be boarding the shuttle bus that will take us to downtown Chicago for a dinner cruise. I've been looking forward to it. However, there are severe thunderstorm warnings, and flooding warnings right now. It's raining, and there has been quite a bit of lightning. The organizers said even if we can't get out on Lake Michigan, we should be able to at least go down the river and see some of downtown.

So my simple goals for this Chicago trip (besides the obvious educational ones at the conference) were to try Chicago pizza, see downtown, and see the Art Institute of Chicago. I've got one down, and I'll have the rest done by tomorrow afternoon. Now I get to add one more; to see the Windy City windy (and wet).

Air travel

Right now I'm posting from my hotel room in Chicago. In the past 2 months I have taken 2 flights to spend 2 nights away from my family. Previously it's been over 3 years since I've even been on a plane, and then I was with my family.

Business air travel seems kind of glamorous with your power suit, your executive leather briefcase, your wheeled travel bag with you connected to your mobile phone via bluetooth headset making powerful and important decisions on the go. It seems glamorous, but honestly, it makes me feel tired. I'm very happy with my job where I show up in the same place everyday.

I've never been to Chicago, so it is kind of exciting to see somewhere new, but my room here is very quiet. Sometimes in the chaos of home I really long for a little solace. Today I can say it's overrated.

Anyway, the flight was fine. My seat was a little stingy in the legroom department, my iPod died, and the onboard audio quality was abysmal, but I had my trusty crossword collection to keep me occupied.

I sat by the window and watched as the houses, roads, fields, factories, and warehouses got smaller and smaller. When you are up so high you can see patterns. The road grids, housing developments, canals, ponds, lakes, hills and mountains; all the things that you can't see when you're own the ground in the thick of things. From up so high the little details seem somehow not to matter so much. Like when I drove the car off the road coming home from night-skiing right after Lisette was born. Man, that was seriously depressing and stressful at the time, but from 10 years make it seem pretty inconsequential. I should remember that the next time Saffron spills her milk, or Ian doesn't do the Laundry, or Miles leaves his dishes out, or Lisette won't clean her room.