Friday, December 18, 2009

What ‘almost home’ looks like and weird ads

flightstatus

Yay!!! My college kid is almost home! She’s actually coming in early (is that even allowed?) so I hope the Mrs. has made it down there in time to pick her up. We’re very excited to have her home for Christmas.

Now, what is up with those weird ads on the flight status?
What makes them think that I want to go to Iceland? Or need a lawyer? And the DUI?
I’m guessing the click-through rate on these ads is essentially ZERO.

Until now. I clicked on each one several times. Just for the heck of it – in the spirit of giving.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Merry Xbox-mas

Avatar-1

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, from our digitally rendered family, to yours.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

I’m on the “5k-a-day” plan

As some of you know, I do some weird stuff to pass the time when I’m traveling on business. Who can forget my “Vegetarian-for-a-week” activity in Manhattan? (Actually, being a vegetarian in Manhattan is not much of a hardship because there are great places to eat ANY kind of food.) Or my attempt to smuggle two bottles of Israeli Diet Coke back to the US through security? (Yes, their Diet Coke really is THAT good.)

Thankfully, I don’t travel nearly as much as I used to, but I am on a trip to Montreal right now visiting a partner.

I’m staying in the beautiful Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel. As usual, I don’t sleep well when on the road, so I’m taking generous advantage of their 24 hour fitness center.

Yesterday was my first day in town and I was on the treadmill. I meant to run two miles. However, since my mad metric conversion skillz are a little rusty, I decided just to run 5k instead. I’ve never done a 5k race and while my trail run (closed for the winter) is about 5k, I don’t run it solid as some of the hills are steep. So this seemed a fun challenge.

Then I decided to run another one today. I just finished, having shaved several minutes off my time to get done at 33 min 10 sec (that time is in metric, so you may need to convert it).

I don’t have to go to the office tomorrow until 9:30, so I’m going to run another one in the morning before I get dressed and check out.

Three 5k runs in three days. That’s pretty cool.

By the way, Israel may have the chosen Diet Coke, and Taiwan’s Snickers bar may be beyond compare, but Canada has introduced me to the sensual pleasures of the Kit Kat 70% Cocoa Dark.
Canada, it’s not just Smarties and ketchup flavored potato chips anymore!