On The Road Again (or “One Million Miles and Counting”)

I’m back traveling again – this time in Washington, D.C. again. Even though I don’t like being away from Laura, I’m glad to be traveling now. When I travel for work, it’s so much easier to communicate with customers and co-workers; much easier to get things accomplished. Knowing I’m going to be here for the next couple of weeks [excluding weekends, of course] is a bit of a comfort for me job-wise. I’ll be able to answer questions posed to me in person rather than over an impersonal email or phone call. I hope that my presence will also help to accelerate the timetable a little so that I can work on the fun stuff: server installations! [I know: I should be getting over this and moving into the project management mentality and from there into middle management. I just can’t do that! I love to play with the toys still – and I love to build things, even when the things I build are not built with manual labor but by keystrokes and mouseclicks.]

I don’t really know if I’ve traveled a million miles, but I’m pretty sure I have. I’ve been doing this for about nine years and racked up almost 100,000 travel miles each year, not to mention the free trips I’ve used my miles for and the trans-global travel I did in college to visit my parents in the Middle East. Hmm. It could be closer to two million miles…

Going Pro

I’ve decided to try to become a professional photographer. I know it will be a slow transition, but I’m hoping that I can market and sell some of my photographic stock. On top of that, I’m going to offer some of my best pictures for print to individuals. I’ve started by setting up a new site: http://www.jeffphillips.net. This might help me earn enough money for a decent digital camera… well, one a bit more professional anyway.

Wyoming, Ho!

We are preparing to take our Thanksgiving week as vacation and head out to Wyoming to visit my sister and her family. It just so happens that the rest of my family will be there as well. How fortuitous! Laura and I will take the first three days on our own in a cabin in the North end of the state and just relax. Then, we’ll head down to my sister’s place for the big day. We’ve seen the new house, but not in it’s final state, so we’re excited to see the finished product.

Not only that, I’m excited to see snow. Laura is excited to see snow, but not to be in snow… I guess I shouldn’t plan that winter trip to Norway just yet…

Mr. Phillips Goes To Washington

I have returned from my trip to Washington, D.C. this week and I have to say that I like the feel of the city. Never-mind the inherent corruption that festers there – I’m talking about the great food and the feel of the city itself. It reminded me of a combination of Amsterdam [without the smell] and Zurich [where everyone speaks English – at least as a second language]. There were many beautiful old houses and quaint little neighborhoods – as well as numerous slums [but, I didn’t spend much time there…]. Several of the national monuments were under renovation so I didn’t get to see the District unspoiled, but I will be going back next month. Maybe I’ll get some good pictures then.

Flower Gardens Dive Pictures Posted

I have finally finished posting my pictures of the Flower Gardens Banks National Marine Sanctuary on this web site. It’s taken a bit long since we have been moving and time has been at a premium, but we finally got some picture processing done. When you get a chance, you might want to check out the Flower Gardens pictures. They’re pretty cool.

Moved!

2012-01-08 23:29:07

We have completed one portion of our move: we are now out of our old house and into our new place. It took all day yesterday to actually make the move, but I think if we didn’t have Laura’s brother’s help, it would have taken even longer. By all day, I mean from 6:30am to 2:00am. I’m very, very tired but I feel a bit better now than I did this morning. I’m also sore everywhere on my body…

The site, as you can see, is back up. I’m “borrowing” a connection until the final DSL line gets installed, so right now the site really isn’t what you’d call permanently up. Soon, though. Soon. I am looking forward to when my desk is all set up and I can work with the beautiful downtown view in my window.

There will be more later about the move, but at least we only have one set of keys now – and one floor! [FYI: for those of you who don’t know, the old place was 4 stories…]

The Return

We have just arrived back from our underwater adventures in the Flower Gardens. It was difficult to sleep on board, but we got the hang of it on the second day. Of course, once we got the hang of living on board it was time to go.

I’m in the middle of downloading the pictures from the camera so soon we’ll have the pictures posted on the web.

And I’m tired now. Good night.

Flower Gardens, Here We Come!

After one abortive attempt several years ago, I had not for a long time tried to go diving in the nearest salt water diving spot from Houston: the Flower Gardens Banks National Marine Sanctuary. This place is difficult to get to since trips are usually canceled when the seas get above 5 or 6 ft. However, the weather report for today says that all is well: the water is “like glass” they said. So, Laura and I will be getting our first experience at true offshore diving. In addition to the Flower Gardens dive sites, the boat is supposed to stop at a rig on the way back for a rig dive. That will be an experience like I’ve never had before.

For Laura and I, this trip is a replacement for the usual Dive Turkey. However, this year we had to opt out with concern for our finances. Our first quarter trip to Hawaii ate the Dive Turkey budget. But, at a much lower cost per person, one can make about 8 dives in the Gulf over two days with all expenses paid. [They let you sleep on the boat…] So we don’t have to go without diving for the rest of the year.

So, off we go tonight and we’ll be back on Sunday with pictures to post.

I only hope I don’t run out of memory on my digital camera…

Moving Next Week

WARNING: For those of you who depend on me for your mission-critical web content, I am moving next week so my site will be going down sometime on Wednesday morning and not coming back up for possibly a few days. Now: don’t get angry when I don’t respond to your email – it just means I won’t have gotten it yet!

[Correction: That’s NEXT Wednesday – 10/27…]