Thursday, November 27, 2008
Finland Dec 2008
I am officially heading back to Finland again later this month. There was a chance that I would not be going, but the customer and partner were very insistent that I return.
One thing I am looking forward to is placing some Travel Bugs in a geocache that I found the last time I was there. Continuing my theme of caches that could lead to international incidents, this one was located on the door of a power vault at a large fire station in Helsinki. Shoo suggested that I wear a trench coat and dark glasses when I go caching over there. Nice to have helpful friends!
In any case, this cache required unscrewing 4 screws to get in. This was in the area where the fire fighters cars are parked. The cache entry says that they know about it, but it just takes one suspicious person that does not know about it to cause a problem.
In any case, I got it opened, signed the log, and left a Disneyland map. That sounds like a fun thing to leave in Finland. The cache is large enough to take some caches and should be in walking distance of my hotel.
Another discover close to this cache is shown in the picture below.
The owner of this shop is a nice young lady that has dual US/Finnish citizenship. It turns out that she went to school at UC Irvine and learned to surf here. We had a nice chat when she saw me taking this picture. She said that she can always tell the Americans because they are the ones that take the photos!
I also found a possible future Rosetta Stone. This sign includes English and the two official languages of Finland: Finnish and Swedish. The bird in the second photo was sitting on a rock near this sign. I think that he said "Nevermore" in Finnish, but I'm not sure since that word is not on the sign!
It will be dark, cold, and possibly snowy on my next trip. Also, I will only be there for 4 working days. That means that I will probably not be able to take any pictures. However, I still have some from my last trip that I can share if I find some blogging time.
One thing I am looking forward to is placing some Travel Bugs in a geocache that I found the last time I was there. Continuing my theme of caches that could lead to international incidents, this one was located on the door of a power vault at a large fire station in Helsinki. Shoo suggested that I wear a trench coat and dark glasses when I go caching over there. Nice to have helpful friends!
In any case, this cache required unscrewing 4 screws to get in. This was in the area where the fire fighters cars are parked. The cache entry says that they know about it, but it just takes one suspicious person that does not know about it to cause a problem.
In any case, I got it opened, signed the log, and left a Disneyland map. That sounds like a fun thing to leave in Finland. The cache is large enough to take some caches and should be in walking distance of my hotel.
Another discover close to this cache is shown in the picture below.
The owner of this shop is a nice young lady that has dual US/Finnish citizenship. It turns out that she went to school at UC Irvine and learned to surf here. We had a nice chat when she saw me taking this picture. She said that she can always tell the Americans because they are the ones that take the photos!
I also found a possible future Rosetta Stone. This sign includes English and the two official languages of Finland: Finnish and Swedish. The bird in the second photo was sitting on a rock near this sign. I think that he said "Nevermore" in Finnish, but I'm not sure since that word is not on the sign!
It will be dark, cold, and possibly snowy on my next trip. Also, I will only be there for 4 working days. That means that I will probably not be able to take any pictures. However, I still have some from my last trip that I can share if I find some blogging time.
Labels: Geocaching, Rob, Travel, Work
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Hayley the Teenager
Uh oh, I forgot to post about Hayley's 13th birthday earlier this month. She is offically a full teenager now. She had a good birthday. It was spread over a weekend with various friends and family. The centerpiece of the birthday was having friends spend the night and doing various fun things with them around the house.
One really cool thing about Hayley is that she is willing to play my old boardgames with me. She is really the only member of the family that will do that. For her birthday, I pulled up an older board game called Merchant of Venus. It is basically a game where you fly your starship around the galaxy, discover aliens, buy stuff from some aliens, sell to others at a profit, and try to have the most money at the end. We call the game "shopping in the stars." Anyway, her friends liked the game too which was another bonus.
Overall, Hayley had a good introduction into her teenage years.
One really cool thing about Hayley is that she is willing to play my old boardgames with me. She is really the only member of the family that will do that. For her birthday, I pulled up an older board game called Merchant of Venus. It is basically a game where you fly your starship around the galaxy, discover aliens, buy stuff from some aliens, sell to others at a profit, and try to have the most money at the end. We call the game "shopping in the stars." Anyway, her friends liked the game too which was another bonus.
Overall, Hayley had a good introduction into her teenage years.
Why am I not posting?
I have done a few blog entries about my international customers (Sweden and Finland primarily). We are very close to taking our customer in Sweden live, but that is requiring a lot of work hours. My priorities right now are something like this: Family, Physical & Mental Health, "Minimal" sleep, Work, "Extra" sleep.
Family means things like helping the kids with homework, having dinner together, doing as many family events as possible. Family includes our exchange student, Ina, too!
Physical & Mental Health includes obvious things like showers and eating and non-obvious things like playing WoW with my friends twice per week if possible.
"Minimal" sleep means that I am sleeping a little less than I should, but enough to avoid the nasty side effects of lack of sleep.
Work means having a schedule that includes interaction with my customers that are 9 and 10 timezones away from me as well as my co-workers in the Pacific time zone. That has literally meant things like falling asleep at the keyboard while trying to get some things done (that happened last night for example).
"Extra" sleep means getting 7 - 8 hours per night.
Other things, like making Blog entries, falls below the list above. As things calm down on the projects, I will be able to do more posting. In the meantime, I am sharing a random photo taken during my October trip to Finland. The sign shows the name of the church.
Family means things like helping the kids with homework, having dinner together, doing as many family events as possible. Family includes our exchange student, Ina, too!
Physical & Mental Health includes obvious things like showers and eating and non-obvious things like playing WoW with my friends twice per week if possible.
"Minimal" sleep means that I am sleeping a little less than I should, but enough to avoid the nasty side effects of lack of sleep.
Work means having a schedule that includes interaction with my customers that are 9 and 10 timezones away from me as well as my co-workers in the Pacific time zone. That has literally meant things like falling asleep at the keyboard while trying to get some things done (that happened last night for example).
"Extra" sleep means getting 7 - 8 hours per night.
Other things, like making Blog entries, falls below the list above. As things calm down on the projects, I will be able to do more posting. In the meantime, I am sharing a random photo taken during my October trip to Finland. The sign shows the name of the church.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The Joy of a 3am Telemarketing Call
I am in Finland again this week. Finland is 10 hours ahead of home.
A phone from work is with me for various calls that I need to make. The number is a 949 area code number (Orange County, California).
At 5:00pm Pacific Standard Time yesterday, a recorded "second warning that my car warranty is about to expire" call was made to the the phone I have with me. Naturally I didn't turn my phone off before I went to sleep, so I awoke to this wonderful offer at 3:00am Eastern European Time. I was too tired to stay on the line long enough to yell at someone. If it happens again, I may bring out my toolbox of "special words" to use on someone.
A phone from work is with me for various calls that I need to make. The number is a 949 area code number (Orange County, California).
At 5:00pm Pacific Standard Time yesterday, a recorded "second warning that my car warranty is about to expire" call was made to the the phone I have with me. Naturally I didn't turn my phone off before I went to sleep, so I awoke to this wonderful offer at 3:00am Eastern European Time. I was too tired to stay on the line long enough to yell at someone. If it happens again, I may bring out my toolbox of "special words" to use on someone.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Volleyball: Undefeated? Almost...
We wrapped up our Fall Volleyball season today. Last Saturday we had 3 wins, no ties or losses. Today we tried to achieve an undefeated season.
At practice on Tuesday, Hayley was feeling cocky. One of the other coaches mentioned that we had no losses. On our final day we had games scheduled within our own site only, so we were playing that coach's team. Hayley decide to place a bet on our game with his team. She wanted to bet $5, but the coach only had $1 to put on the line.
Game day arrived today.
Game 1 was a win. A good start for the day!
Game 2 was our downfall. The other team was short a player, so Hayley switched teams for that game. We play to 25, but the winners have to win by 2. The game was back and forth throughout with some of the best plays that we have seen all season. The teams both played hard, but in the end the other team prevailed with a 27 - 25 win.
Game 3 was the money game. The best player at our site, hands down, is on the team we played here. He is the son of the coach that bet with Hayley. It was a good, friendly rivalry. It really came down to this: they had one excellent player and a bunch of average players. We had a team of above average players that work well as a team and are willing to hustle.
Game 3 was a win, and Hayley proudly accepted her $1.
So our team ended up with a season of 20 games broken down as 16 wins, 3 ties, and 1 loss. Hayley ended the season with no losses and an extra $1!
At practice on Tuesday, Hayley was feeling cocky. One of the other coaches mentioned that we had no losses. On our final day we had games scheduled within our own site only, so we were playing that coach's team. Hayley decide to place a bet on our game with his team. She wanted to bet $5, but the coach only had $1 to put on the line.
Game day arrived today.
Game 1 was a win. A good start for the day!
Game 2 was our downfall. The other team was short a player, so Hayley switched teams for that game. We play to 25, but the winners have to win by 2. The game was back and forth throughout with some of the best plays that we have seen all season. The teams both played hard, but in the end the other team prevailed with a 27 - 25 win.
Game 3 was the money game. The best player at our site, hands down, is on the team we played here. He is the son of the coach that bet with Hayley. It was a good, friendly rivalry. It really came down to this: they had one excellent player and a bunch of average players. We had a team of above average players that work well as a team and are willing to hustle.
Game 3 was a win, and Hayley proudly accepted her $1.
So our team ended up with a season of 20 games broken down as 16 wins, 3 ties, and 1 loss. Hayley ended the season with no losses and an extra $1!
Labels: Bethany, Hayley, Volleyball
