Quaker Square

Yesterday morning, I flew into Columbus, Ohio with another account manager to meet with Clear Channel Outdoor. They currently have a digital network in Cleveland, and ones are going up in Columbus and Akron too. It's been nice to meet the people we will be working with daily.

Jon is a Priority Club member, which means he earns hotel points at the Holiday Inn and affilates. He is platinum so we get any available upgrades. Last night I got a jacuzzi suite and tonight I have an executive suite. The hotel here in Akron is really cool - it was a mill for Quaker Oats, and they've turned all of the silos into the hotel! Everything is round. You can see some photos here. The Clear Channel Office is about 2 blocks from here so it is very handy. I like being in a downtown area; they are usually pretty interesting.

The Terrells

On Saturday, I watched Noah for Julie and Rob. Rob works at Dak in Tech Services too, and Julie is the director of Junior Achievement - I took photos for their fundraising "Longest Day of Golf" last summer. Rob asked me if I'd keep Noah out of their hair while they packed. I didn't realize that they were really packing - they are moving to Spokane, Washington. Daktronics has an office there. Noah and I played all day while they boxed all of their belongings up. I'm not sure how I feel about doing that soon! I think I will throw a lot more things away than they did. It'll be hard to judge what is worth putting in storage for two to three years.

Scrabble

I love word games. I found this one, called Scrabble Blast, on MSN. It's addicting. My best words have been FARMING (98 points) JEERS (77 points) TRINITY (72 points) and CITY (55 points). CITY was worth so many because it had triple points for the word, triple points for the I and double points for Y. Fun stuff!! I've learned never to settle for a word worth less than 20 points. There is no time limit so you can study the grid all you want.

V7000 Training at Shreveport

Tuesday through Thursday I was in Shreveport, LA. Their new convention center purchased a ProAd (pictured for those of you who aren't up with Dak products) and two ProStars (video boards.) I trained Michael (advertising) and Chuck (IT) on the displays and our Venus 7000 software/control system. I really like getting out of the office and meeting clients. These guys were super nice and they loved the displays. Comments they wrote on their training surveys included: Everything was clear, concise; Great job! Very professional - an asset to the company; Emily was very knowledgable about the system and explained things in a logical progresion.

It was SO warm there! Beautiful. Shreveport seemed to be known for the casinos - there were several big ones there and everyone kept asking me if I was going to try my luck. (No, not really any time for leisure.) I did go to the Lousiana Boardwalk one night for dinner at a place called Sushiko. I sat at the sushi bar and talked to the chef and a guy named David from Taiwan who owned a deli here. Somehow we got talking about traveling and David was absolutely amazed that I'd backpacked. He said he'd be too scared. Well... he moved here from Taiwan! I thought it was kind of funny he'd be intimidated by traveling in Europe. The sushi was really good, but I did order one thing that I didn't really like. It was salmon eggs (the big kind, not the tiny ones) and quail egg. Somehow when I ordered I didn't realize how big quail eggs are - the chef cracked them open like chicken eggs and they sat on top of the other eggs, bright yellow yolks and all. Lots of big raw eggs. I won't be ordering that again. The eel was the best I've ever had though; I think eel is my favorite!

St Paddy's Day Celebration.....

Jon thought it would be a good idea to begin the evening with shots of Maotai, the traditional liquor in China. He brought some back from Shanghai last week.

Aleisa wanted to throw a party for Jon and I's birthdays and it just happened that St Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday. So she rented a 20-person limo, bought some champange and beer, and we partied like rock stars.

Amanda the giant and I

It was a Newell high school reunion! Randy, Jon, Nathan and Josh (who is Jon's 2nd cousin.)

Emily and Ann

Curns & Bailey are ready for St Patrick's Day!

Curns & Bailey ready to celebrate...

Ice cream birthday cake from the NOC

Happy Birthday(s)!

Happy Birthday Jon!

And mine is tomorrow - such a funny thing that we were born exactly a year and a day apart! The photo was taken by Inge when we were in Amsterdam, July of 2003.

More about Shanghai living...

Here are some photos of our apartment! Jon has slept there 2 nights now and we also have the landline phone number. I will email it to anyone who asks.

It is Jon's birthday now there - not quite yet here. They didn't have Daylight Savings Time yet, so we are now only 13 hours apart instead of 14.

The guest bedroom overlooks the pool and faces the other building in our complex.

The dining/living room, entrance is on the left and you can see the kitchen door is open.

The next 3 photos are the view from the balcony, looking to the right side, then middle, then to the left.

You have new Picture Mail!

This is Noah! You've probably seen his baby photos in my Gallery. He just turned 1. I'm carpooling with his dad this week while Jon is in China.

Moving forward....

We are finally really moving forward with China! Jon is going to get his offer letter (and sign it) tomorrow morning. At 11:30 a guy is coming to appraise the house. Jon arrives in Shanghai on Saturday and will buy a bed and maybe a few basics for our apartment. He'll get the keys to the apartment Sunday at 10:00 AM. He has to go to Beijing then, but when he comes back to Shanghai he'll be staying in OUR apartment. How crazy is that---- we have an address in Shanghai! (although I have no idea what that address is.....)

Speaking of mail, we will have a PO box in Brookings, and twice a week Dak will ship all of our mail to us. So, you can easily mail us stuff paying only the US rate. I'm looking forward to still being able to get my photography magazines and National Geographic. I'm sure you can get it there, but it may be a big search to find in English.

SO - now is the time to let us know if you are interested in any of our stuff. Cars, furniture, beds, chairs, bookshelves, desks, bikes, lawn mower, etc etc etc. Craft stuff, magazines, books, aquariums, plants? We have so much stuff. And we like all of our stuff..... but not necessarily enough to store it for 2-3 years. Uh. We still have a few boxes we haven't unpacked from the trailer! I hate moving all of my books. But I LOVE books!!! I can't get rid of any of them it seems. Too bad we are so tied down with all of our "stuff."

Frost on my window

This morning when I opened the curtains I noticed the frost covering the window. It was really pretty so I decided to take the time to get my camera, put on my F1.8 50mm lens and shoot. This is the result. I did bring the background up and intensify the blue quite a bit in PS. I wish that I had a macro lens.