Had dinner tonight with our friends Erica and Marshall at a place called “Grinders” in Shoreline Washington. Food was fantastic, beer was great and the bread-pudding was amazing. The owner and staff were top notch. I highly recommend the Stromboli Grinder and the St Peters Porter.

Up in Seattle this week for the “Governing Live! Managing Technology Conference”. This morning is registration and then a day of “Tapping the Power of 311“

Should be interesting. It’s a concept that is new to me and from what I read, seems to fit well for the direction the County wants to go in increasing it’s service to the community. I’ll certainly know more by this afternoon.

Seattle is lovely and its great to be visiting the PNW for a bit. 🙂

Why you should never leave cans of soda in the back seat of your Honda while it is parked at the airport in Tucson for five days…

Jess had 6 of these mortars go off while she was away to a con. Messy!

Space exploration never ceases to amaze me. I followed the Viking missions to Mars as a kid and just could not get enough of the Red Planet. Its fantastic, but not surprising, how much the imaging has improved since the late ’70s. HERE are the latest shots from the Phenix lander. =)

…well, the latest installment of Indiana Jones was quite frankly;  dull, predictable, inconsistent, and without magic.  When did they start putting metal in gunpowder?? I will however say that Karen Allen is much hotter than she was in the first movie. She got some meat on her bones and she is quite the MILF. I wont spoil it for you , but save your money and wait until it comes out on Netflix.

Dinner with the Valkyrie made up for it though…. loads of great sushi and conversation with the daughter was a pleasant way to end the week. Such a smart delightful young lady she has become.

Made it through TSA and all checked in waiting for my flight out of Bradley. From here its a first leg to Newark and then a long jaunt home to Tucson (then a two hour drive to Bisbee). ETA to my house… about midnight.

Quick recap on the last few days: Had a wonderful time back in New England with my dear friend Lisa. Saw lots of places that I had not seen while we lived here and just thoroughly enjoyed the time off. Had some of the BEST sushi ever in West Springfield and was surprised by a number of eateries including “Tequilas” in Danver Mass. Had a beer at the oldest tavern in NE, the “Bell and Hand”.

All around a great trip with a great friend whom I will miss a lot. Thanks for hosting me Lisa!

Well, almost time to board…

In the air with US Air and winging my way to BDL. The CRJ900 is only partially full so I got an exit isle seating section all to myself… ahhh! Thats an incredible treat for a tall guy!

This week I am heading back to the East Coast to see my dear friend Lisa and many of the things I missed while we lived out in Massachusetts. Its a wonderful birthday present from my lovely Ladywife!! Really the first time I have taken off since starting the new job last year and I am enjoying the hell out of the trip.

Got on the plane in Tucson last night. Flew to LV and now am in Charlotte SC waiting to board the plane to Hartford CT.

So far I have discovered…

a) Tucson is a lovely airport and they have free WIFI
b) The LV airport is like a big casino… who’d have thought?
c) You can’t find a decent cup of coffee in Charlotte (even at Starbucks) but they have free WIFI too.

Why would anyone charge for WIFI in this day-n-age?

Going to go stretch my legs a bit and keep my eyes open for that coffee.

Cochise County is located in Southeastern Arizona and borders Mexico on the South, Tucson on the North, New Mexico on the East and our sister County, Santa Cruz on the West.

It’s one of the most beautiful places I have ever lived and occasionally as the County’s Technology Director, I get a chance to go to some remote location and help with a technology problem… ok, its true, I do look for excuses to get out of the office and enjoy the scenery.

In this instance, its a trip to San Bernardino Peak in the Pedragosa Mountain Range just South of the Chiricahua National Monument and to the East of the city of Douglas.

I rode along with Pablo our Radio/Microwave Engineer and Topher, our Network Engineer, to go replace a base station at our radio tower site last Friday morning. The desert was in full spring bloom and the trip absolutely amazing. If it hadn’t been for a fire in Mexico making the sky a little hazy, you could have seen forever. Below are the pictures from my office for the morning. Enjoy!

The road aptly named “Dangerous Road” to the radio site.

Thats the road there… sort of.

The blue bar is the anti-glare on the windshield but you can see how steep this is. Radio site in upper right hand!

The view back down the road from the site. Looking South into Mexico. Douglas is off to the left.

The view from the office “window”! Looking East into New Mexico.

That’s the view North into the Chiricahua Mountains.

Our radio site from up above on the actual peak. Looking South East this time.

Here is an interview with my favorite author at UBCon XIX… She rocks!
Check out the first interview on the page.