The Philly airport lived up to reputation on my trip home. First the original plane could not make it for some reason, so they sent a 767. I don't mind, but there is not much luggage space. Then the loader machine for luggage ran out of gas. So they had to tow it across the airport, refuel it, and then drive it back. Then a hugely long line on the runway. So we were delayed 90 minutes plus. Yuck. Then I spent 45 minutes waiting in line to get out of the airport parking lot. So a nice welcome back to the travelling life. It is generally not that bad, but it was this time.

I found out my promotion went through, so my new title is Sr. Consultant. Pretty nice. I'll find out about the $$$ implications next month, but for now it just means I will be billed at a higher rate and have more responsibilities. But I have already been performing at that level, so it really won't be different to me. Just more team lead work, and higher expectations of my skills and knowledge. No worries.

So that's good news, but they had the meeting to decide it two months ago. They just have a lot of approvals to go through before making announcements. It is a little slow for my taste, but promotions happen faster than most jobs so I can't complain too much.

Life is still good, but days are long due to a normal work day, then coming home to catch up on 50 work emails AFTER work. Lots of responses, or additional things I need to do then. So quite a full day.

I finished my latest book on the plane ride up this week. John Grisham's The Rainmaker. Pretty interesting, but it didn't end as I would have expected. And that doesn't give anything away. The main part of the book is a just graduated law student against a big fraudulent insurance company. It was good reading, and you learn more about the law too, which is a plus. I know I am probably better for not being a lawyer, but I think I would probably enjoy it and maybe be good at it. It is in my blood, you know.

So I'm actually not in Philly, but a ways from there. I'm kind of out in the middle of nowhere. It is a pretty small town. It's not bad for me, but for my two New York senior colleagues it is quite a shock. As we were introducing ourselves today to our client, I mentioned I flew in, and they said, "We just drove in from the city". Our client said, "Philadelphia?" They said, "Oh no, New York". Only a New Yorker would say "I came from the city", and assume that everyone else would immediately recognize that to mean New York. It made me chuckle when our client said, "there are other cities than New York." Ha. Then when I mentioned there was a bad smell of a skunk that had died, they laughed like I had told a funny joke. But a skunk smell is somewhat distinctive, and they couldn't imagine that I might know what that would smell like. One of them was scared while we were driving through the woods at night because of a movie where woods folk kidnapped people driving through. Too many laughs.

Went out for a nice steak dinner with the coworkers - very good food, and they are both nice.

No external internet access at work, so I can only do all email, blogging, and everything else I need to do in the hotel. Quite a pain. It's strange being away after being in town since late February - you get used to being at home. Chrissy and I would see each other every day. We've been lucky to have me in town for most summers while she is off school. I'd rather be in town when I can see her now, than in the fall when she'll be busy with classes again.

I bought my plane ticket for Philly today, and on the website where I book they now list the on-time percentage, and it is quite depressing. My early flight going is 90-100% on time, but of course the return trip is only 60-69% on time. Yuck. The Philly airport was always really bad. Let's just say on the pat downs the security screeners lived up to the reputation, the "City of Brotherly Love". Whoa! I promise I have no metal - just take your hand off my thigh. Not only that but the lines were really long, and then the planes being on time was an exception. Hopefully it will be better now since it is three years later. How time flies.

Since blogger now has picture attachements I thought I would include one of my shots from our vacation to Peru last month.

This is from Machu Picchu, and is in the beautiful Andes mountains. Cusco is the former Incan capital, and is now a major city in Peru. Machu pichu is a four hour train ride away. We did not hike the Inca trail, but we did hike up the tall peak behind the ruins you see in the picture.

There were some amazing views. It was quite a trip.

Stars and Stripes Forever

I set my cell phone to wake up me to the great American classic, and it really set a good mood for the day, despite being at 5:45am on a Holiday. We went to the Peachtree Road Race where there are nine groups. I was in group 2, (the 20,000s) Chrissy was in group 1 (the 10,000s), Chrissy's mom was in group 3, and Sarah who made it back yesterday was in group 6. My mom, and Chrissy's dad were in group 9.

You have to have a qualifying time to get in group 1 or 2, and Chrissy had a 10K time of 50:30 that got her in the 1B group. She actually got a chip to track her actual time, and a cool looking number. Chrissy ended up finishing a minute faster than me at 54:55, making her Peachtree PR. I started 3.5 minutes after her, and finished in my Peachtree and 10K PR at 55:55. I know I could do faster than that, so I will probably try to qualify for a chip next year too. I need to have a time under 55 for 1B, or 50 minutes for 1A. We shall see...

After the race I saw my sister Sarah, one of Chrissy's friends from school, one of my high school friends, several GT friends, etc. You meet a wide variety of your Atlanta friends, which is always fun. Everyone was impressed with Chrissy and my low numbers, which is funny since we are really not that fast/athletic.

We got back and tried to have some family time, but Claire is panicking about packing since she leaves for KC on Wednesday. I told her she didn't plan enough time to be home, since she had to do so much before starting work some 10 days later. So now our family is having to deal with her running around helping her in every way. Her priorities are funny to me. She hasn't gone through her clothes yet, but before she leaves in 48 hours she wants to file an insurance claim for her camera, put pictures in an album, and get a new CD player installed in her car. Oh well...

It was sprinkling that night, but we were able to watch the Roswell fireworks. I was quite impressed with the show. It went a long time, and there were some cool fireworks!

All in all a good day. I'm thankful for the freedom we have in this country, and hope we continue fighting to ensure we can continue to live this way.

Carter and Kent came over for a cookout and we had a good time. We played Crocquet - Chrissy won the first game, I won the 2nd. Carter hit Chrissy's ball across the street into the neighbor's yard. Very nice.

Also according to this calculator, I am going to live to be 84. Chrissy is living to be 93.

Also, here is the updated map of where I have visited in the world. Having visited Russia makes my world look much more red. I feel like I've seen more than 8% of the world.



create your own visited country map

Here are the States visited in the US... I've seen all the South, and I have missed most of the Northwest.



create your own personalized map of the USA

Our friend Anna is coming in town for a wedding tonight, so we'll get to meet up with her. That should be fun.

I cannot believe July is already here! It seems I just got back from South America! I have the day off today. My company has started giving an extra day for the 4th of July and Labor day. That is pretty nice, but I think traffic was so bad on those days that most people left really early anyways. So smart productivity decision.

Chrissy and I already ran 3.5 miles, and when we got back in the house it felt amazing cool. And it was in the upper 70s in the house. We definitely started too late with the temp and humidity. Chrissy was right on that one. Right now a 30% chance of rain in Atlanta for the Peachtree. We shall see...

I am interested to see how this Supreme Court retirement of O'Connor will pan out. Hopefully Bush is bold in his choice.