Back to California for work

I made my first regular commute to San Jose in January, and I was able to spend the weekend there since Liz had to work over the weekend back in Beantown. I stayed with my friends Anthony and Maria, who are recently engaged! On Saturday morning, we walked down to the Piedmont Farmer's market. I was greeted with this marque over the historic Grand theatre. I say amen to this:


Later in the day, Anthony and I did some grilling. We made some ribs on the Weber to take over to our friends the Shelver's, who are now the caretakers of my dog Sheila. Here she is, looking quite fit. She even remembered who I was!

First Business Trip of 2009

In the second week of January, I headed from Boston to Newark, NJ via the Amtrak Acela, which is the high speed train along the east coast of the US. It's pretty darn fast from Boston to southern Rhode Island, then it has to go at a more leisurely pace. Still, I got to NY Penn Station in 4 hours, not too bad. I visited with the FDA near JFK airport on Wednesday before heading to Austin for some work. Here's a picture of Terminal 5, the terminal formerly known as the TWA Flight Center, designed by Mr. Eero Saarinen, the famous Finish architect who also is known for the STL arch. The day after I left NYC, the US Airways flight ditched into the Hudson River. It was cold, very cold that week, I'm glad our Airbus made it to AUS from JFK without troubles.

49 states under my belt, only one to go!

We took a weekend trip up to the Pine Tree State the first weekend in the New Year. I had never been to Maine before, along with South Carolina. We spent the weekend at a little B&B in Freeport, Maine where we were the only guests on Friday night, and one of only 2 parties the next night. On the way up, we passed by 41's compound in Kennebunkport, and visited the factory outlet store of Tom's of Maine, our favorite toothpaste. You can get a lot of stuff for $22 at this store! We visited many stores in Freeport, L.L. Bean, of course, and Liz bought some shoes at Cole Haan. We also spent some time in Portland checking out their cool lighthouses. We had to head home a little early on Sunday due to the 6-8" of snow, but the Prius had no trouble on the drive home.
Jon by the L.L. Bean Hunting Shoe left by Paul Bunyan for repair.

Good thing we brought our warm coats, it was cold, but it felt good in the lungs!
We're set for toothpaste for a while now.