July 12, 2009

We were pleasantly surprised to receive our Moroccan rugs this week. As you can see in the photos for the week we have found locations for all three. Unfortunately, neither Joann nor I were lucky enough to get a interior decorating gene so we are left wondering whether these are a good addition to the decor or not. But with what these cost us to purchase, we figured we should be using them. The one upside is the one under the kitchen table feels nice on the feet in the morning. With the arrival of the rugs our trip is now pretty much complete except for the bills that should be coming via Visa in a week or two.

Work wise this week, Jo was home all week long and had her usual mix of meetings and teleconferences to keep her busy. When your team is scattered across the entire globe many of those meetings need to happen in the evening hours on the East coast so she had a late night or two this week. I was in the southeastern portion of England at Pfizer's Sandwich research center. The travel there and back went as smoothly as it ever has and I was barely settling on my flight before they were announcing the landing. I caught up on some movies during the flight there and back although nothing that I would recommend - that is what Jo and I love about travel with movies, you can watch all the lame ones that you wouldn't want to pay money for. I ran each day I was there and managed on one day to run to the English Channel (ever wonder why it isn't called the French Channel?) and put my hand in it. Another day I ran past an old Roman fort (first fort the Roman's built when they landed in England in something like 43 AD), I couldn't get in but saw a bit of the ruins and a nice site map. My trip was about interfacing with the Sandwich team that does the same work as my team here in the states. It was very productive so I'm declaring my trip a whopping success. The only downer was I struggled to sleep each night as the hotel was a bit hot with no air conditioning which combined with the time zone differences made sleep a bit hard to get.

Came home on Friday and we promptly headed off to the North Stonington Agricultural fair (the link takes you to all the fair has to offer) to enjoy the tractor pull, dog show, and reviewing the cows and chickens (just to note, Jo gets unusually happy when she gets the chance to pet the cows - don't ask me why, I think it is a flashback to her childhood thing). We enjoyed the fair food and the wonderful weather so besides me struggling to stay awake it was a lot of fun. On Saturday, after getting our chimney inspected and cleaned and a few chores, I got caught up on my missing sleep for the week with a 3 hour nap - yes, you read right, 3 hours, I was really behind. Then, last night we headed into Westerly, RI to enjoy a nice dinner with Sheri and Bruno (it is their blog to the right, check it out) and then on to the Granite Theater for an excellent performance - for the Granite Theater - of "The Love List" by Norman Foster (I'm into links this week - no real clear reason why, just am). Today we have yoga after our morning run and then the vegetable garden needs a bit of weeding and I must spray the flowers to encourage the deer to eat elsewhere. Then it is getting mentally prepped for heading to work.