PhotoPost

I have nothing in particular to post about today, I just decided to make a general update. I haven't uploaded any pictures in quite a while and it seems the main reason for that is that I own way too fancy of a camera. For my wife's last birthday I bought her a flashy SLR digital camera. The thing is, it is just way too fancy. We have yet to figure out how to get it to take a picture under varying light conditions. It works great if you are outdoors on a bright day or indoors with the normal flash where you do just 'point and click'. However, I can't figure out how to get it take a good picture indoors without a flash; something my old cheapo camera used to do just fine. It is also large and bulky and doesn't lend itself to taking pictures spontaneously. I used to just carry a little digital camera around in my bag before.

Last weekend I bought myself a small handy-dandy digital camera called the 'Kodak Easy Share'. It is very 'point and click' and I can easily fit it into my bag.

As you can see from the picture above, I am decked out for my special night as Worshipful Master of Naphtali lodge. This Thursday was 'Junior Warden night' and I got to sit in the East for the first time. We were also conferring a first degree and I gave the charge. I decided to dress up for this special occasion and I am proud to say that I did very well. I only messed up a word or two and very occasionally needed a prompt.

The only other news I have to report is that Terry and I got our entire vaction booked and scheduled. It is already on my calendar so it feels pretty real. On July 7th we will be leaving for Paris. We will have five full days in Paris before we take an overnight train to Rome where we will spend another five days. The trip will include myself, Terry, and my daughter Lauren. Lauren has never travelled to Europe before and she is very excited about the experience. Even though I have been fortunate enough to travel internationally on business the past couple of years I still haven't had a 'proper' vacation in over four years. The closest thing we have had was a quickie two day trip to Cancun over three years ago.

A trip like this is a pretty big deal because of the expense. Before it is over, including tours, meals, shows, and everything else it will cost about $15,000. I don't mind spending the money for the experience but it makes a person very nervous about the possibility that something could go wrong. I purchased the travel insurance which is supposed to give some peace of mind but I would still be very dissapointed even if I had to use it. We decided not to take our younger son Alex along, mostly because of the additional expense. We will make sure that he gets a similar vacation in about three years when he is Lauren's age.

I am very familiar with Paris after spending three weeks there last year on business. I am looking forward to being able to spend time there now that I really know my way around the city. I have never been to Rome and I am excited about seeing eveything there is to see while there.

I booked the trip through a tour operator called 'Trafalger' which is supposed to be one of the better companies. We are travelling under their 'superior' package which includes excellent hotels in the heart of the city. The way I figure it is if I am going to only take a vacation once every four years then I'm not going to scrimp on the one time I do.

It is actually much less expensive to book a trip through a tour than trying to do it yourself. If you were to go to Expedia and try to book the same travel, including all transfers and comparable hotels, it would cost quite a bit more. The tour companies have negotiated rates that you cannot easily duplicate on your own; anyway, it is also a matter of convenience. You don't have to worry about how to get from one city to the next, hassle with taxis, and other inconveniences. Once you are at your destination you can pretty much do whatever you want independent of the tour. That said, the tour offers access to a lot of activities that you simply couldn't easily book by yourself.

One of my biggest worries about travelling internationally is being unable to communicate back home in the case of an emergency. I have never been able to get a cell phone to work in Europe. The thought of calling home on the phone in my hotel room sends shivers up my spine thinking of the outrageous rates that I would be charged.

Thinking about this yesterday I went ahead and made what seems like a fairly goofy purchase. I bought a Skype telephone. This is a phone that uses the Internet to make phone calls. The service itself is pretty good as I use Skype all of the time to talk to my friends in Europe. What's goofy about a Skype phone is that it only works when you are within the range of a wireless network. Go into a Starbucks and you can make and receive calls but, step out the door, and you are out of contact. Nevertheless, it only costs about ten cents a minute for International calling over a Skype phone (and it is free if you talk to someone via their computer), so I am hopeful I will be able to check in with family back home on a daily basis.

Other than International calling I think the phone is fairly useless since I have a cell phone in my pocket anyway.

So, other than vacation planning and my one night stint as Worshipful Master there hasn't been much going on. It is taking me a while to get up to speed at my new job as the project is quite massive. I am slowly making progress and expect to be at a near full productivity level starting next week. On Thursday and Friday of next week I will be travelling to Texas for a short business trip. I'm looking forward to that excursion as I haven't travelled anywhere in well over six months.

Last weekend we had a brutal ice storm. It did a lot of damage to the trees in the area. I went out and took some pictures with my new camera and would like to post them here.

Here is an unusual photograph. Last weekend my daughter had some friends over. When I went downstairs to check on them I was rather surprised that one of the kids had brought a rabbit into the house. Since I own both a cat and a dog I found this a bit surprising. I have a long relationship with rabbits. When I was a teenager I raised them at our home. I would have as many as 40 rabbits at any one time. I didn't raise them as pets, I raised them for dinner. I have a lot of experience with rabbits and, while they are cute and soft to pet, I never thought of them as having much in the way of a personality.

This rabbit was amazing. It was incredibly friendly and did not act afraid under any circumstances. It chased our dog and cat around the room and showed absolutely no fear. Here you can see it sitting peacefully on my shoulder, he sat there for probably five minutes before he just went off hopping around and exploring.