A place for our thoughts
Today I finally had a chance to put some captions on the photos I took on our recent trip and then upload them to the web site. There are a lot of them, and I’ll apologize in advance. But since there are little thumbnails, you can look at the ones you find interesting. Most of you have high-speed anyway, so it shouldn’t be so bad!
Enjoy them here!
Monday evening we returned from a wonderful vacation to France. We both needed to get away for an extended period, and it turned out to be exactly what we needed. My friends Stephen and Cayetano in Nice were wonderful hosts, showing us all around the côte d’azur (the Blue Coast), including Monte Carlo, Cannes, St. Paul sur Mer, and Antibes. The weather was in the lower 80’s and sunny with light breezes off the sea. It was amazing.
We then took the high-speed train (TGV) from Nice to Paris. The 5 1/2 hour trip took us westward along the coast to Marseille, then north to Paris through central France. The scenery was beautiful, and the ride was smooth, quite and comfortable!
Paris … wow! We spent the next 6 days wandering the streets and Metropolitan from sight to sight, café to restaurant from dawn ’til dusk. Okay, maybe not dawn…after all, we were on vacation! I could go on for hours about the trip. But will restrict myself to maybe a couple separate posts. I will also put up some photos once I get a chance to go through them.
We returned home to find a couple of surprises, including some water damage from crossing a frosty evening with exposed irrigation system pipes (oops!). But all in all it was a wonderful trip. I’d highly recommend a visit to France to anyone!
Tonight I had to say good-bye, or hopefully rather until we meet again to my very good friends Larry & Gwynn. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing them for several years now and have come to appreciate them as two of the best people I’ve ever known. The world could certainly benefit from having more folks like them!
But I’m confident that we will remain in touch. Certainly it will not be as easy to see each other as it has been in the past, but technology really has shrunk the world. Cell phone calling plans and the Internet, webcams and digital photos all make it much easier to stay in touch than it was 20 years ago!
In any case, I wish them all the best in the next chapter of their lives, and look forward to stories of their adventures to come. And if they happen to be reading this, I have this to say:
     Thank you, and I love you!
All my best….
Kevin
For my birthday, Jeff surprised me with tickets to see Wicked, the broadway musical based on the novel Wicked: The LIfe and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. Two years ago when we went to New York to see Kathy & Mo, we stayed at a little hotel that happened to be across the street from the theater in which Wicked was playing on Broadway. It was relatively new then, but tickets were impossible to come by. Ever since, I’ve been saying how I’d like to see that show. Finally, it’s touring, and made a brief 10-day stop in town…and the dates just happened to coincide with my birthday. So thoughtful Jeff jumped on the opporunity and it was an awesome gift.
As we found our seats in the Orpheum, I noticed the curtain was a map of Oz, with the emerald city glowing magically in the center. Little did I know that it would be only a hint of the wonders we would experience over the next three hours!
For those that don’t know, the story dovetails with the classic story we all know about Dorothy and her experiences in the land of Oz. But it’s from another perspective…that of Elphaba, the Wicket Witch of the West. We learn of her origins and her relationships with some familiar and some new characters not mentioned in the famliar story. It weaves in quite well, and provides some very interesting perspectives. While being entertained, we are challeneged to re-think our perceptions of good and evil.
As for the production itself…it was amazing! From scenery and lighting to costumes to choreography and vocal performance everything was stunning. Combined with the story and the music, it may very well be the best show I’ve ever seen! I would highly recommend anyone that enjoys theatre in the least make an effort to see this show if they can possibly do so!
Happy Independence Day!
For me, it was independence from work, and independence to do something I don’t usually get a chance to do in Utah. There is a small road, open only during the summer months, that connects Brighton to Park City and Heber City. I’ve always seen the road, and wondered about it, but never had a chance to drive it. Well today I did! I rounded up Scott from work and we went on a little road trip.
This is the view as we reached the top of the ridge dividing Big Cottonwood Canyon from, well, I’m not really sure! But from the other side! I’ll have to do some more research to see exactly where we drove!
The intense morning heat put a lot of energy into the atmosphere, and some storm clouds developed. I was hoping to get lucky enough to capture some of the magnificent lighting strikes, but at least the lighting here is still pretty cool.
We continued along a narrow stone/dirt road until we found ourselves descending into Park City, right behind Park City Mountain resort. We notices a lot of new construction of homes and condos and they look pretty amazing. I could see myself living there!
After a quick tour of Main Street Park City even through the pouring rain (there’s something about me and Park City..it rains or snows every time I go!), we headed down into the Heber Valley. Heber is a place I’ve only seen in the distance, from the tops of Brighton and Alta resorts. So it was time to venture into the valley. We passed Dear Valley resort and the Jordanelle reservoir (??) and a coulpe state parks and rec areas before driving down “the main drag” of Heber City. It’s a cute small town, but doesn’t have the character Park City does. We managed to find the Heber Airport, but through the pouring rain, didn’t go exploring.
All in all it was a nice way to spend the afternoon!
Today we spent another few hours on the bedroom floor…or should I say closet floor. But we managed to finish it, get the base boards re-attached (finally got to use the new finishing nailer I bought weeks ago), get most of the tools put away and the furniture back into place. It will be nice to have a normal bedroom again! However, the nice new floor underscores the need for new bedroom furniture. Another thing for the list!
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Here are some more photos of the job:
 
 
This last week at work has been extremely hectic. I put in some very long days, along with many co-workers. This morning I slept in a little for some much-needed catch-up sleep. After a couple cups of coffee, I was ready to put in some more work on the floor in the bedroom. We spent a couple of hours and managed to finish our bedroom floor, working into the doorway of the closet before I had to go to get my massage!
Last year for my birthday (I, know, it’s almost here again), I received a gift certificate for a swedish massage….which I misplaced until recently. But this afternoon I visited 1609 Salon & Day Spa for my swedish deep tissue massage. I would highly recommend it for anyone that can appreciate a massage! It was a wonderful treat, and I’ll certainly go back.
Now, if only the floor work was done 😉
Greetings all. Time continues to fly, and I find myself catching up on a backlogged to-do list at 2:00am. I’ve finally been able to upload some photos from my trip to Geneva in May. Only a month late…not so bad.
As some of you know, I visit Geneva, Switzerland for work-related meetings once or twice a year. This time I had the occassion to go early and spend a couple of days bumming around the area. Thanks to my friend Barry, I even ventured into France for the first time. Barry was kind enough to show me the way to Chamonix, France, the home of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps (Western Europe anyway). After taking the tram up into the clouds and grabbing a light lunch…we strolled the streets of Chamonix, a very cute little town.
On the drive back, we visited the beautiful little town of Annecy, France. Even through the pouring rain I could tell what an enchanting place it was. We stopped for another bite to eat and a coffee before heading back to Geneva. The drive back was my first experience driving in Europe! It wasn’t that bad, at least we were on the right side of the road. However it was very helpful to have a local on board to ensure I read and obeyed the signs…well most of the time 🙂
This trip I brought my “good” camera as well as my point and shoot. I’ve added several photos to a Photo Gallery here on this site. Check it out, and feel free to email or post feedback here on the blog. I’d love to hear from you.
Since then, we’ve been working on a few more projects. Hopefully I’ll have some time to post updates on those in the near future, so stay tuned!
I can’t believe it’s the middle of May! Yesterday I had my 12th anniversary working for Navitaire (and all it’s former names). It was fairly uneventful in and of itself, although at the end of the month when the anniversary email comes out, I’ll get a few “wows” from co-workers!
Lately it’s been hard to know whether I’m coming or going. I’m in SLC now, and the weather is strangely hot! Temps in the 90’s during the day…but beautiful morning and evenings. Still, it may be a little early for these temps!
Not so true back home! There, there hasn’t been much other than 50’s and rain…at least when I’ve been there. Jeff had to mow the lawn this week, as it’s been rainy the whole time I’ve been there. Even last week when I was in Switzerland…rain (until the day I left to come home)! Continue reading
We were so excited for the date to come, and Wednesday it finally did. We had a wonderful dinner at the Capital Grille followed by our first live show by comic Kathy Griffin!
After work we stopped out for dinner at the Capital Grille. Neither of us had been there for dinner before (Jeff had had lunch there once before). We were seated promptly and introduced to our waiter, Michael. We started with an incredible bottle of Bordeaux, Chateau de Pez. It was the first time I’ve had a bottle of wine decanted at the table…it was a treat! The boquet really opened up, and the flavor was incredible. Then, I had the Lobster Bisque. It was thicker in consistency than I was expecting, but had a great flavor and quite a bit of lobster meat. We followed up with a Delmonico and a Steak au Poivre and a fresh-cut-from-the-cob sweet corn side dish. All were excellent! And Michael did a fantastic job.
We left dinner just in time to get into our seats before the show started. Kathy came out right on time and gave a great show. She was funny as usual, with new material. What I think I liked most was how “natural” she seemed to be up there. It was almost like being at a party where there was a funny guest who loves to tell stories. She’s really comfortable on stage, and she’s doing what she seems to be meant to do. Her tour is pretty big…so go see her if you can!
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