One More Office Work Day

Teresa somehow wangled to cancel her departure luncheon, mine is tomorrow at Bob Chin's. For those not from Chicago, Bob Chin's is the highest grossing single sight restaurant in the country, at least it always has been.



Got a few farewells today, thanks Bill L, Linda L. and Leslie M. It's been great.



Funny thing, while we were on the cruise I got a Happy Anniversary card from the big guy (Joe R) to acknowledge 7 years at Allstate. I must say all were very good, that chapter is almost over.

My replacement, Jason K. is doing a pretty good picking up everything I'm throwing at him as part of the turnover process. He's going to have quite a challenge. Jason - you can call if you need anything, but be sure to rely on Ron. He is very knowledgeable and knows a lot about what we can and cannot do, he might push the envelope a bit, but he's real good and very understanding.

For a little levity here's our room tonight. Remember we still have our cruise clothes with us, which we just finished laundering so they can be put away fresh. And we also have our training clothes, and our last days of office work clothes.

Hanging in there

Two more days of office work, we're both trying to cram as much as possible into them. Turning over responsibilities and stuff.

Wrong again. The Extended Stay in Rolling Meadows is a dump. We woke up at 2am trying to breath. The room smelled musty, so Teresa says to open the window. Now you know it's about 10 degress out. So of course you have to turn on the heater and voila, the air is dryer than a popcorned fart. So at 3 am I run out for a room size humidifier and got back to sleep.

Woke up at 6 am and the air was a little better. Didn't matter, Teresa says she can't handle the place another night.

So now we're back to the Holiday Inn in Elk Grove Village. Real nice room but no kitchen facilities.

So we're hanging in there and excited to head for GB on Friday. Still lots to do.

Brrrrrr

We're back to Chicago and 3 inches of snow on the VW Beatle, at least both vehicles started up.

Dashboard says 12 degrees, a far cry from Long Beach this AM, and I suppose about what it will be in GB on Friday. Now I know how T-Net feels. Check out America Through a Windshield to read her story.

We're staying at the Extended Stay hotel in Rolling Meadows, a bit of a disappointment. Dirty dishes, one spoon and left over stuff from the previous guests. Pillows are as thin as pancakes.

We think we've planned stuff out pretty good, but you never know. We have two Home Depot storage boxes full of foodstuffs we think we'll use regularly. We'll see if we use it or cop out and go out to eat. But at least I picked up fruit and milk for cereal and tea and coffee.

Brought in Teresa's sewing machine, as you know she uses it regularly.

Let's see... I think we'll have sausage and Zatarains tomorrow for dinner. Stay tuned.

Mom made it back to Idaho fine, little tired but no worse for the wear.

T-Net must be jealous

Somebody please tell me why the pictures seem to stack up backwards on top instead of where I try to put them.

Long Beach port at 6 am

Hand made tiles - cement not clay.

We're baack. Cruise was great. We've checked into a hotel in Long Beach and it's 81 degrees out. Don't mean to rub it in T-Net, but it's really nice here. They can keep the traffic but right now the weather is heavenly. We're headed for the pool when Teresa gets back from Albertson's with some fruit and a couple of books.

We drove up to Santa Maria ( about 160 miles each way ) to meet Claire and Ledo and drop off our grandson to them. In each direction we saw a rollover. Fortunately in the other direction.
Also 1 t-bone and at least 10 smaller accidents.

Beautiful driving up and down the El Camino Real along the ocean.

Teresa is back and it's time for the gym and pool.

Oh, by the way, today is Teresa's birthday... all of 49. But don't tell anyone !!!

Kind of wanted to finish this off... brrr the pool was a bit too cold for me... Not as cold as Wisconsin is for T-Net... HA

Here's a couple of pictures from our cruise - why are they up there instead of where I try to put them ???

Network Finally

By the way we are on the Carnival Cruise ship Pride. Great crew and entertainment. We honestly are loving every second.

In Puerto Vallerta we took a shore excursion down the highway, darn forgot the name... I will add later. Anyway they tell us it's where the filmed the Night of the Iguana - guess we'll have to check it out now.

The table dancing is pretty good. That's my Mom and I Made, our head waiter. Below are Teresa and myself.

The best thing about a cruise is the FOOD...

and the chocolate melting cake with ice cream is exceptional.

Haven't won in the casino, but I sure scored with my wife and Mom, great girls.

Well, got something... go fast... that's Teresa and Aslan.

We're in Heaven

Finally got a network. The one on the ship is terrible, so I'm jumping onto a hotel across the bay in Cabo San Lucas.

Seems like this one is not so cool either, I can't get it to upload any images.

Ok, try it again, Teresa says. Nope, that doesn't seem to be working.

The short story is we're having a great time. Got the final word from Schneider today that we are in the next class starting 2/16...

More stuff about vacation when we get some reliability.

Primed and ready

We're heeerrre. The day started with about 10 inches of snow to plow - any takers ? Nah, I didn't think so. I'll do it myself, said the little Red Hen, and I did. Whew! done, got the last of our belongings out of the house and into storage at 11:00 this morning. We've lived here about 10 1/2 years. Got married on the deck in the back. Lot's of memories. So you can imagine Teresa had a few good melodramatic tears while walking through the empty house and reflecting on all the goings on of the last 10 years.

Got through the sale closing of our house in 1 hour then over to the accountant for an hour. Then whoops, something came up a work - Got to love Ron in Charlotte. He's really great to work with. Pretty demanding, but he covers my butt when necessary. So into the office for a couple of hours. We worked our issues out and got our stories straight. We're leaving the truck at my office.

We've got a room at the Holiday Inn in Elk Grove village for $89 for the night and we can leave our car parked here for up to two weeks for no additional charge. Go figure, it would have cost about $170 at O'hare. Now that's a deal, so we're leaving the VW Beatle here. King size bed, free wireless access pool and Teresa's going to wander up and see if there's a hot tub, too.
Think about it... on vacation, in a hotel, hot tub at the ready. What's next ? Right, time to go now.
See you in Long Beach, CA.