Back in the USA again

Australia is behind me once again. I was supposed to stay another week and go to New Zealand as well, but there was a change of work plans and I came home instead. Not complaining, despite all the snow here in Grand Rapids - it's always nice to be home.

I finally decided to join the herd and join Facebook. It integrates pretty well into Twitter so I can just keep on doing what I have been, and it'll update more or less automagically. I loaded up the few pictures I took on my latest Australia journey on Facebook. The feature where you can pick out people's faces is kinda nice, although with the photo quality I tend to take, it's unlikely to matter much.

Things are pretty quiet at the moment on both work and life fronts, so I intend to relax as much as possible in the next few weeks. Things will heat up soon enough in the April-June timeframe at work, so I'd better enjoy it while I can.

Australia Feb 2009 - Week 1

Back in Australia again. This time I've got company, which is a nice change from my last trip, where it was just me with a few others dropping in from time to time. There's about 30 people from various other countries (US, India, New Zealand, South Africa) all visiting here this time.

I've been out every night so far, which is definitely not helping the weight, but it's fun to spend time with folks. Been to the Irish Pub across the street from the hotel twice already. The jet lag is still hitting me a little, but I expect this weekend I'll be more or less back to normal as far as sleep cycle. Not that I'll be staying out too late, since my normal bedtime is about 10 PM anyway.

A bunch of us are going to downtown Sydney this weekend, to another hotel for Friday and Saturday nights. Should be fun roaming aimlessly around downtown. 

Visit to Portland

Good times visiting with my family in Portland, OR the last few days. I got to spend a lot of time with my parents, my brother Mark, and his wife Lisa. They all have their own lives to tend to, of course, but Mark was on vacation and the others had light enough work schedules that we were able to spend quite a bit of time together. It's too bad I didn't get up to Seattle to see my other brother Josh and his family, but that would have been pretty tight timing. Better to take it easy than to add a bunch of stress and travel.

Mark, Dad, and I went out to the Tillamook Cheese factory on Friday, which is always a good time. We took a few pictures at their 100th anniversary celebration, which was a bit on the mild side since it was Friday, but I'm sure got more interesting on the weekend. Always fun to visit out there.

Now it's off to Australia for a couple of weeks for work, followed by a week in New Zealand. I'm hoping that there will be some time for activities outside work, unlike previous trips, since our deadlines have been pushed back a bit. There's a lot of people traveling in so there should be a good group available to roam around with.