On the road again...

I know, I know...too long since my last post. Usual story. It's been a super busy summer so far. Busy at work and lots of traveling.

A couple trips to DC in May and June. Then in early July, I went to France for a week for work. I was excited about this trip since I have never been to France. And also, as most of you know, I am a huge cycling fan and July is Tour de France month. I was hoping to be able to see a stage in-person, but the timing didn't work out. I was in Bordeaux all week (5th-11th) while the Tour was on the eastern side of the country. It wasn't scheduled to get to Bordeaux until two weeks later. Hopefully, some day I will be able to get back there and see the TdF.

Just a couple days after I got back home, I had to get back on a plane to head to Thailand. Pat's father was hospitalized and his condition was very serious so we needed to get there as soon as possible. Luckily, the outcome is positive. Her father responded well to treatment and is now at home recovering. He still has lingering health issues, but he is home and staying with Pat's brother and doing remarkably well.

I have lots of photos from my travels, so I'll share some here. First, a few photos from Bordeaux. I'll post photos from Thailand in another edition since it has taken me several weeks to get this post up.

I spent a Saturday afternoon wandering around the old part of central Bordeaux with my coworkers. Old Bordeaux is amazingly beautiful. Enjoy!

Making progress...again!

I know, I know...too long since my last update. Lots of stuff happening at work and home. Things at work have really picked up recently which is good. I have a couple new projects designing some cool stuff.

At home, Pat and I (mostly I) have been able to cross some house projects off our list. Pat has been working hard landscaping the flower beds. This spring the tulips that we planted last fall look great.

This is my most recent project:

A car hit the wall a couple years ago and I finally got around to working on it.

 

I also finished refinishing the wall leading down the basement stairs. I really like how it turned out. I'll have to post photos next time since I haven't taken any yet.

  

Other projects that were crossed off the list: final countertops, check. Lighting above sink...check. And the kitchen backsplash...check...finally! It only took a couple days to put it up, but about a year to pick out the tile! We're really happy with how it turned out. I think it adds another dimension to the kitchen design.  

  

During all this we also had to deal with some sick animals as well. Chester had radiation therapy last winter to treat hyperthyroidism. He is doing much better and is back to his old self. He looks much better and has put quite a bit of weight back on. He still has a case of the sniffles from an upper respiratory infection.

And two weeks ago, Chelsey suffered a case of bloat. Luckly I noticed it immediately and rushed her to MedVet. I am grateful to the staff at MedVet here in Columbus. They were amazing and got her into surgery right away. Anyway, she seems to be back to normal. She gets her stitches out tomorrow. I think I am going to have a problem getting her to switch back to dry food only...

Anyway, that's about it for now. More updates soon.

"Summer" vacation

Pat and I returned from our "summer" vacation in Chile a couple weeks ago. The weather was absolutely amazing and a good change from the usual January weather in Ohio. This was our first time to South America and we really enjoyed it. My Spanish language skills are pretty much non-existent. Even though I tried to cram some "survival" Spanish at the last minute, it was only marginally effective. Pat has been studying Spanish for several months and fared a bit better than I.

We spent the entire 9-10 days in Santiago. Pat was taking a diploma course in Global Health at the Universidad de Chile's School of

Public Health. She had class all day for the week so we didn't have the time to get out of the city.

I spent my days wandering around Santiago, seeing the sites and taking lots of photos.

We found a rental apartment in the Barrio Brazil area in central Santiago. It's an older but decent area and very conveniently located to the Metro (subway), downtown and most of the tourist stuff.

Our neighborhood.

Honestly, I didn't know much about Chile before our trip. But I found it to be a very modern city with alot of interesting history, great architecture, good food/wine and extremely friendly people.

Some important government building.

Musicians at Plaza de Arames.

Santiago has alot of interesting (and well done) "street" art.

This is an excellent bakery I found on the way to the Universidad. They made a really good strudel among other pastries. Apparently, in addition to the Spanish, there is a significant German influence here.

The city fruit market district.

The Cenemtario General. Apparently, this is where alot of important people get buried, including Salvador Allende.

Pat at Santa Lucia.

We're already talking about going back again next year. Maybe we will have more time to see more of the country.