Switzerland and France

Toban, this whole country is a scam!

I met one of my clients in Switzerland to discuss some business, and this was his summation of the country. There certainly is some truth to that. Twenty Swiss Franks for a Burger King meal. Are you kidding me? It is by far the most expensive country I have ever been to. Never the less, it is very beautiful.

What really surprised us though, was when we went to Eastern France. I’d never even heard of Strasbourg France, but I was thoroughly impressed. My wife was speaking a conference there, and I tagged along. I mostly strolled the streets which gave me a nice opportunity to improve my photography skills.

The last 3 months

Yesterday, my son Zachary turned 3 months old.  Since his birth, my life has been completely turned upside down.  My wife and I are tremendously lucky in that we both essentially work from home.  Of course, as most parents know, this is both a blessing and a curse. It has been a challenge to figure out how to manage our schedules, spend time with Zach, spend time with each other, all while getting some work done.  But I think we’re finally starting to figure it out.

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Also, last week, I spent a few days away from him and the family for the first time.  It was surprising to me how much I missed them all.  But the scenery helped a bit.  Whistler, British Columbia.  It’s the best ski resort I’ve ever been to, bar none.

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Portugal. 10 year wedding anniversary trip

My wife and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary by taking a trip to Portugal. It was absolutely fantastic! We enjoyed it so much. But unfortunately (for my clients), I was without internet access or telephone for almost 2 weeks (SORRY!). It was a much needed break. But to be honest, after a week, I was itching to get back to web designing. I guess it’s a good sign that when you are in paradise, you’re looking forward to work. My wife and I both absolutely love what we do. We’re in completely different fields (she’s a professor), but it works very well. If I had any other job, taking time off like that would be very difficult. It’s amazing how much traveling we get to do because of the flexibility of our jobs. We are very blessed.

South West International Boat Show, Houston, Texas

Mantus Anchors invited me down to the South West International Boat Show this weekend to help them out with their booth and enjoy a little bit of Texas.

I had a great time.  I created the Mantus Anchors iPad app which turned out really well.

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I spent most of the weekend in the booth.  I never thought I’d have a job as a “booth babe”… but you’d be surprised how the old rich boaters like me. 😉

This morning I went Kayaking out in Galveston Bay where fish were almost jumping in my kayak.  It was awesome.

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It was a great time and it’s nice to have great clients like Mantus Boat Anchors.  For today, it’s back to Durham where I will be feverishly working on all of my other clients web design needs.

Durham to Orlando, and Back

I recently took a week with my wife, and our friend, Mary, and drove down to Orlando Florida for a week of fun in the sun. I had great intentions of creating this amazing 10 minute vacation video. But then two things occurred to me.

  1. Nobody likes long vacation videos
  2. I don’t have the time to edit that much video (at least while I’m not being paid)

So I came up with this compromise using Apple’s iMovie.

Highlights (or lowlights depending on how you look at them) of the trip include Disney World, The Holy Land Experience, South of the Border, and hours and hours at the pool.