Monday, January 30, 2012

Home, Cold, Spa, Prophets

Got home late Fri, felt terrible with the cold I caught and rested all afternoon.  Saturday I was closer to normal.  Had a good afternoon with my daughter doing a bit of surprise shopping with her.  We continued it on Sunday.

Next up will be Chris.  Offered him a similar surprise and he's opted to take in two AHL games - Manchester Monarchs and we'll also head to Worcester to catch a game there.  I offered Celtics or Bruins, but he'd rather two AHL games.

It's Monday, cold is gone and the Spa has arrived!  Got it wired - it's not pretty, but it will get me through the winter and I'll finish off the wiring better when it's a little warmer.

I'm in week 3 of my online class in the Prophets.  I have to get my reading done to prepare for my chat session tomorrow night.  So far I really like this class a lot, I am getting a lot from it and have been keeping up with my reading.  Joshua and Judges finally make some sense to me!  On to Kings and Samuel.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

DELAY

Got to the airport several hours early, only to learn delayed already. As I checked flight tracker it got worse - I'm at the SF airport before my inbound flight from Boston has even departed.  An hour after monitoring it, it finally took off, 3 hours late.  So my 11:10 PM departure is (for now) scheduled to depart SF at 2:20 AM.

How to spend 7 hours in an airport without football games on TV, no good restaurant (had a pizza) and a cold....

Leaving San Francisco, with my heart and a cold

Last day in San Francisco.  I seem to have caught a cold, which makes travel uncomfortable at best.  An early night last night, as was the rest of the week.  Got my paper complete for my online class.  Trade show hours today are 10 AM - 4 PM, then pack up and head to the airport for an 11 PM flight back to Boston.

One nice thing about this trip is that I set up Skype on the laptop and was able to call home and video while talking.  Of course K and M were never available for it because calling at 5 PM CA time meant they were in bed asleep.  But I got to talk with Chris a few times which was fun.

Looking forward to sleeping on a plane tonight.  Spa delivery is set for Monday!

Monday, January 23, 2012

San Francisco

So after a 4 hour delay at Logan, I am in San Francisco this morning.  The delay was ok, it allowed me to watch the first half of the Pats game at Legal Seafood and the second half at the gate waiting to board.  Flying jetBlue for the first time, they had the 49ers game live on the flight.  So, even though I was traveling, I got to watch both games!

Arrived in SF around midnight, got to the hotel and straight to bed.  Trade show booth setup today and then three days of standing in a booth.  Tough work, but someone must step up and take the assignment.  My CA counterpart lives close by the location, so he is traveling from home each day.  This should leave me for quick dinners alone and studying in my room for my online class.  Now if only I can work out a way to join the chat session tomorrow during the trade show hours....

Forgot my camera this trip!  So, no pictures. :(

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Free Monarchs tickets

Chris won free Monarchs tickets by answering a trivia question correctly!  Congratulations Chris!

And...my daughter got her license today!  Congratulations Mary!


From Facebook:

Congratulations to Chris Lavallee who correctly answered that the Monarchs all-time regular season record against the Hershey Bears is 6-11-1-2 in 20 games over the last 11 seasons. Chris won four Flex Vouchers to a Monarchs game this season! Congrats Chris! Thank you to everyone who played this week!
 ·  ·  · 7 hours ago · 

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

New PC

New PC just arrived.  Got to get through the work day and a chat session for class tonight before I can set it up.  It will be nice to have a PC that is faster than me.  My current one is 4+ years old and I spend a good amount of time waiting for it to catch up to me.  Also ordered a second DVD burner for the new one, so that is due to arrive today and I'll install that prior to replacing the current PC.

K made me realize yesterday that when I fly to San Francisco on Sunday, I'll miss the Pats game.  Flight leaves Boston at 3 PM and I land at 10:30 PM EST.  But today, went to the dentist and they made me realize I am flying JetBlue for the first time, with TVs in the seats.  Perhaps I'll be lucky and they will have access to the game for my flight!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Dr Scott Hahn

Yesterday was a great day.  We went to see Dr Scott Hahn with good friends from our parish, had an early dinner with them and then came home to watch the Pats beat the Broncos.

Dr Hahn is a popular Catholic Author and Apologist.  He was appearing to give a talk based on a few of his books at a parish in Andover, MA.  We heard about his schedule a few months ago and immediately bought tickets.  I own about 10 of his books and have read about half of them.  I told him that my discernment toward becoming a deacon began with a class I took in the Mass that was based on his book "The Lamb's Supper"  That class was the slippery slope for me, leaving me continually looking for more to learn and do to serve God and His Church.  It was followed by a class in Mary from his book "Hail, Holy Queen" and Confession from his book "Lord, Have Mercy."  He gave two very engaging and deep talks regarding topics from his newer books, including Signs of Life.

Here are a couple of photos of K and I with Dr Hahn, or Scott as he introduced himself.



Thursday, January 12, 2012

Snow day

Started up our new class this week online.  In parallel, our next class instructor sent an email of our outline for March/April.  Quite a reading load!  Better get started as the class is Christology/Trinity so a challenging class for me, lots of reading and a topic of great importance to our Formation and future role as a Deacon.  Our final is a 7-10 page paper.  I don't think I've ever written a 7 page paper.

Still waiting for the spa and also for a new PC to arrive.  Heading off to CA in two weeks, the spa will probably be ready then.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

New class

This week, we begin an online class through the University of Notre Dame.  The course is in the Prophets.  The intent is to help us not be impacted by snow in driving to class.  Many of our classmates ave great distances to travel to get to St A's or Plymouth.  I'm looking forward to getting back to the studies.

Still waiting for the spa.  Should be here in a few weeks.  Also purchased a new PC this weekend.  Mine is over 4 years old and really showing its age, especially when I try to load Photoshop.  So lots of new stuff!

Saturday, we head to N Andover to see Scott Hahn, a popular Catholic Apologist, author and educator.  I've read several of his books, so we're really looking forward to it.

Had our bi-monthly Laurel & Hardy film gathering last night and watching football all day today.  Just some ho-hum times...

Oh, almost forgot to mention, yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of the passing of my mom.  Still think of her and Dad every day.  Mass was for mom today at St Mark's.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Well, that was fast.

Holidays are behind us!  How quickly they come and go.  Had a week of vacation and spent it cleaning the house.  Sort of a winter spring cleaning.  Back to work today.  Since it's January 3, it's time to start planning the beach vacation, booking our location.  Seems M wants to go back, so we hope to rent the same space this year.

Tax time is upon us, some weekend plans and class begins again next week.  This one is an online class in the Prophets.  Class at St A's starts up in early March with a class in Trinity/Christology for a 4-5 weeks, then Moral Theology.  Lent will be here before we know it!  February 22.  I got a book on daily reflections for Lent by Pope Benedict XVI, hoping to make this Lent even more meaningful.