Monday, February 09, 2009
Time for another update
I have not updated for a while, so here are a few random tid bits.
Live has been very busy preparing for a "User Acceptance Test" with my customer in Sweden. This is a very important step where the users get to say if the system is ready to be used. I was in Sweden last week and we passed with some caveats. We have a few things to fix, but we are basically ready to go at the end of this month. This is a world-wide company, so if the pilot project in Sweden goes well then I have potential to travel to much more of the world.
On the home front, we took Ina (our Norwegian exchange student) to Las Vegas for a weekend. She really liked it and wanted to stay longer -- even though she is not old enough to gamble. She enjoyed taking lots of pictures and generally seeing all of the flashing lights and interesting decor. Andrew went along with us, so it was a nice family reunion weekend of sorts too.
Here are a few random photos that I have gotten lately.
In January, four representatives from my customer in Sweden came to visit. The weather was great. We went to the "Great Park" to ride the balloon. The weather was clear enough to see almost all of the way to downtown Los Angeles.
We have been keeping an eye on some of our outside wood, and decided that it was time to replace some pieces and get the house painted.
Ina (top photo) and Bethany (bottom photo) at the Treasure Island pirate show in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled due to wind. However, they did not make that decision until after we had stood out there for 1/2 hour.
Hayley at M&M World in Las Vegas.
Live has been very busy preparing for a "User Acceptance Test" with my customer in Sweden. This is a very important step where the users get to say if the system is ready to be used. I was in Sweden last week and we passed with some caveats. We have a few things to fix, but we are basically ready to go at the end of this month. This is a world-wide company, so if the pilot project in Sweden goes well then I have potential to travel to much more of the world.
On the home front, we took Ina (our Norwegian exchange student) to Las Vegas for a weekend. She really liked it and wanted to stay longer -- even though she is not old enough to gamble. She enjoyed taking lots of pictures and generally seeing all of the flashing lights and interesting decor. Andrew went along with us, so it was a nice family reunion weekend of sorts too.
Here are a few random photos that I have gotten lately.
In January, four representatives from my customer in Sweden came to visit. The weather was great. We went to the "Great Park" to ride the balloon. The weather was clear enough to see almost all of the way to downtown Los Angeles.
We have been keeping an eye on some of our outside wood, and decided that it was time to replace some pieces and get the house painted.
Ina (top photo) and Bethany (bottom photo) at the Treasure Island pirate show in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled due to wind. However, they did not make that decision until after we had stood out there for 1/2 hour.
Hayley at M&M World in Las Vegas.
Labels: Exchange Student, Family, Travel, Work
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Life with Ina
I took Tina's advice and started a blog about our exchange student, Ina. I plan to include lots of photos so that Ina's family back home can check it out even if they can't ready English.
Here is the link:
Here is the link:
Labels: Exchange Student
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Multi-Faceted Volunteer Day
As I sit here procrastinating due to some work that I need to get done, I am catching up on blogs and reflecting on my day. Thinking back to this evening, I covered a lot of volunteer ground.
4:30pm - Arrived home from work to prepare for the evening's activities. Spent time reviewing a homework assignment with our Exchange Student from Norway.
Group: EF Foundation
5:00pm - Left the house to coach my daughters' volleyball team.
Group: US Youth Volleyball League
6:30pm - Dropped the girls off at home, picked up Celeste & a friend to drive to Anaheim for Girl Scout "Older Girl" leader training.
Group: Girl Scouts of America
9:45pm - Arrive home to continue the work that I was not able to finish earlier when I left early for volleyball, etc. I have a demo with my customer from Sweden early tomorrow morning and I have to make sure that everything is ready to show!
Lee / Tina / Shoo (probably a large percentage of my reading audience!): Sorry that I missed our WoW session tonight. I forgot about the training that I had to attend to become an official Girl Scout leader.
Not exactly solving the world's social problems, but doing my little part to help others when and where I can. I know that most of you reading this have similar stories. What are your favorite volunteer organizations?
4:30pm - Arrived home from work to prepare for the evening's activities. Spent time reviewing a homework assignment with our Exchange Student from Norway.
Group: EF Foundation
5:00pm - Left the house to coach my daughters' volleyball team.
Group: US Youth Volleyball League
6:30pm - Dropped the girls off at home, picked up Celeste & a friend to drive to Anaheim for Girl Scout "Older Girl" leader training.
Group: Girl Scouts of America
9:45pm - Arrive home to continue the work that I was not able to finish earlier when I left early for volleyball, etc. I have a demo with my customer from Sweden early tomorrow morning and I have to make sure that everything is ready to show!
Lee / Tina / Shoo (probably a large percentage of my reading audience!): Sorry that I missed our WoW session tonight. I forgot about the training that I had to attend to become an official Girl Scout leader.
Not exactly solving the world's social problems, but doing my little part to help others when and where I can. I know that most of you reading this have similar stories. What are your favorite volunteer organizations?
Labels: Exchange Student, Family, Scouts, Volleyball
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Rise, Egor!
The family went to a Girl Scout family camp outing in San Pedro this weekend. Nice camp, lots of cool things to do there (both in camp and nearby outside of camp).
Ina had her first chance to actually touch the Pacific Ocean on this trip. We had taken her to Laguna Beach on Labor Day, but only had time to get to the cliffs overlooking the beach and let her take some pictures. On this trip, she got to play in the sand and visit the local tide pools.
On Saturday night, the girls had a campfire. The girls were trying to come up with a skit and I made a couple of suggestions. The first suggestion was considered too gross even by their standards (which are much lower than I thought, but that is another topic). That skit was "A Hot Meal." I won't go into details, but those of you who know it understand when I say it is gross.
The one that they did like was "Rise, Egor." This was one of our favorites when we were in Boy Scouts. I have very fond memories of Lee as the mad scientist and Shoo as the Avon Lady. But I digress. The girls talked me into playing a part and I had the honor of being the first to die. The little girl that played the part of the mad scientist did a great job. Hayley played Egor and at the end of the skit had the audience cheering her on.
The campfire included the making of s'mores. This was another first for Ina and she seemed to enjoy it.
Ina is a great sport and is doing a good job of putting up with our kidding and even starting to return it. I don't think that camping on the sand is what she expected, but it is definitely a unique California experience!
Ina had her first chance to actually touch the Pacific Ocean on this trip. We had taken her to Laguna Beach on Labor Day, but only had time to get to the cliffs overlooking the beach and let her take some pictures. On this trip, she got to play in the sand and visit the local tide pools.
On Saturday night, the girls had a campfire. The girls were trying to come up with a skit and I made a couple of suggestions. The first suggestion was considered too gross even by their standards (which are much lower than I thought, but that is another topic). That skit was "A Hot Meal." I won't go into details, but those of you who know it understand when I say it is gross.
The one that they did like was "Rise, Egor." This was one of our favorites when we were in Boy Scouts. I have very fond memories of Lee as the mad scientist and Shoo as the Avon Lady. But I digress. The girls talked me into playing a part and I had the honor of being the first to die. The little girl that played the part of the mad scientist did a great job. Hayley played Egor and at the end of the skit had the audience cheering her on.
The campfire included the making of s'mores. This was another first for Ina and she seemed to enjoy it.
Ina is a great sport and is doing a good job of putting up with our kidding and even starting to return it. I don't think that camping on the sand is what she expected, but it is definitely a unique California experience!
Labels: Exchange Student, Family, Hayley, Scouts
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Ina is here
Last Thursday night, our Exchange Student, Ina, arrived from Norway. It was over 24 hours from when she left her home until she arrived in Orange County. The last leg of her flight was from Chicago to Orange County/Santa Ana/John Wayne Airport. She was scheduled to arrive at 8:12pm. We had a meeting beforehand and planned to get to the airport at 8:15pm. When I checked the flight status, it showed an early arrival at 7:56pm. As a result, we decided to arrive at the airport at 8:00pm and meet her at baggage claim.
This was Ina's first flight out of Europe and her first time to travel alone. As a result, we really wanted to be there when she arrived with signs to welcome her to the country.
Sometime between my last check of the flight schedule and when we got to the airport, the pilot floored it. The plane arrived even earlier than expected. By the time that we got to baggage claim, she was already there. I never thought that I would be disappointed by an airline arriving EARLY!
Fortunately, my mom came to the airport to meet Ina too. She got there much earlier than we did and was able to meet her as she came down into the luggage claim area. *phew* That avoided a really bad first impression!
Anyway, things have settled down and she seems to be doing fine. We kept her busy through the weekend and she seems to be doing fine on our timezone.
This was Ina's first flight out of Europe and her first time to travel alone. As a result, we really wanted to be there when she arrived with signs to welcome her to the country.
Sometime between my last check of the flight schedule and when we got to the airport, the pilot floored it. The plane arrived even earlier than expected. By the time that we got to baggage claim, she was already there. I never thought that I would be disappointed by an airline arriving EARLY!
Fortunately, my mom came to the airport to meet Ina too. She got there much earlier than we did and was able to meet her as she came down into the luggage claim area. *phew* That avoided a really bad first impression!
Anyway, things have settled down and she seems to be doing fine. We kept her busy through the weekend and she seems to be doing fine on our timezone.
Labels: Exchange Student
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Exchange Student
A few days ago, an email plea came through our company looking for families to host exchange students. Several of them are due in the country soon and their trip will have to be cancelled if they are not placed. Since we have an extra bedroom now, we decided to look into it. Lee and Tina had such an awesome experience that we decided that it would be worth a try.
Wow are things moving fast! We have an in-home interview tomorrow and we have started cleaning up and painting that extra bedroom. Tons of work, but hopefully a life changing experience is on the way. The girls are excited about the idea.
If all goes well, we will have a student living with us before the end of the month. Hopefully we will survive the preparation process!
Wow are things moving fast! We have an in-home interview tomorrow and we have started cleaning up and painting that extra bedroom. Tons of work, but hopefully a life changing experience is on the way. The girls are excited about the idea.
If all goes well, we will have a student living with us before the end of the month. Hopefully we will survive the preparation process!
Labels: Exchange Student, Family
