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6) a full night of uninterrupted sleep. Which includes not having to get up to go to the bathroom or blow blood clots out of my nose.
I know I know... you're thinking
a) TMI,
b) I've still got 22 weeks to go - I ain't seen nothin' yet,
c) And even after the baby is born and my bladder and sinuses have returned to normal I'm years away from a full night of uninterrupted sleep.
I'll be fine. Really I will!
What do the following things have in common?
1) 2 hours of high impact intensive cardio workout
2) A glass - hell, make it a bottle - of nice red wine
3) A 90 minute back massage while laying face down on my stomach
4) 20 minutes in the hot tub followed by 15 in the steam room
5) A deli counter sandwich stacked a mile high with thin-sliced meats
I'll let you figure it out.
On a more positive note, it was a good lunch day in our cafeteria today. The feature soup was "Old Fashioned Tomato". So I high-tailed it to the grill line, ordered up a grilled cheese sandwich, ladeled myself a cup of the "Old Fashioned Tomato" and indulged myself in my perfect comfort-food lunch.
And to top things off - it was still light out when I left work at 5:00pm today.
Yeah - when you've had a week like we've had you have to take pleasure in the simple things.
Today we said goodbye to Max.
We love you Max. You are the best.
Now that I'm home with access to bountiful and reliable bandwidth, I can give you the full trip report, Heather-style :-)
Cannes, "Joyau de la M�diterran�e", is located in the South of France on the Mediterranean sea in an area also known as la C�te d'Azur, so named for the brilliant blue colour of the water.
Perhaps most famous for the Film Festival, Cannes actually plays host to many gatherings, festivals, and conferences every year. The one that I was there for was 3GSM World Congress.
Sunday 2/13 was my first full day in Cannes and I had most of the day to myself. I had a meeting at 5pm with the folks from my immediate team, and another one at 6pm with the larger group of folks that were there representing our company. So after breakfast, I took the opportunity to do a bit of site seeing before having to think about work.
The first place I chose to explore was Le Suquet. Le Suquet is the highest point of the old town and owes its name to the local Provencal dialect, in which Suquet means "summit". Le Suquet is also where the first dwellings and fortifications of Cannes were erected around 1000 A.D. Today, le Suquet is occupied by la Tour Carr�e (the square tower) which began construction in 1080 and was completed 300 years later; the church of Notre-Dame de l'Esp�rance built in the 17th century; and la Mus�e de la Castre which is housed in the remains of a former castle built by Marcellicus and inherited by the monks of L�rins around the end of the 11th century.
After touring le Suquet and wandering through the collections at la Mus�e de la Castre, I wandered back down through le Vieux Port and down the beach back to the hotel.
After a short nap, I headed up to what quickly became known amongst ourselves as well as the companies with whom we were meeting as "The Villa", for my first meeting where we got ourselves oriented, synchronized our schedules, and just generally prepped for Monday.
After our orientation meetings we headed out for our first real dinner in town. It took us a while to find a restaurant that could seat us. It was 9pm, which is the normal dining time for the city (for France / Europe in general), and with 3GSM World Congress in town, everything was packed. We finally found a nice place and after a full stomach, it was back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.
I've posted these and more photos along with more detailed commentary on the pictures in the Cannes 2005 photo album.
More entries and pictures coming soon, so stay tuned!
There are some things that you see that are only camera-phone worthy. You know, the "Wow. That's really kinda wacky - I gotta show this to [fill in name here]" sorta pictures. The kinds of things that are only worth the 2 second effort of pulling your camera phone out of your pocket and snapping a picture, vs the 20 second effort of unzipping your bag, pulling out your real camera, taking off the camera lens, focusing and snapping the picture.
Here are two such camera-phone-worthy subjects, snapped during a little jaunt to Monte-Carlo, Monaco Thursday afternoon/evening.
The first is a peacock-feather skirt by Prada. Or was it Escada? Or Gucci? Does it even matter?
The second is a gold-plated bathroom sink :-)
Unfortunately it was passed closing by the time we rolled in to Monte-Carlo so all we could do was window shop. Because otherwise, of course, we'd have been in the stores spending madly. Sure we would have.
Today was my last day in Cannes. I figured it'd be wise to start the day with a visit to the church just around the corner from my hotel:
With a name like that, it couldn't hurt, could it? :-) A very pretty church. I took some photos of the inside as well, but you'll have to wait for those.
I spent the rest of the day souviner shopping, took a boat ride over to Ile Sainte Marguerite where I saw the prison of the Man in the Iron Mask, and wandered the fort, museum, and forest paths for two hours. The boat ride back was followed by a nice lunch by the marina after which I took a nap at the hotel, packed, and then had a great dinner at an out-of-the-way little italian restaurant in the old section of town. All in all, a very nice way to spend the last day.
I don't have the bandwidth or the software to upload all the pictures I took on the trip, or a reliable enough connection to provide all the usual commentary, history, etc. so you'll have to check back Sunday for the full report and photos.
I'm off to bed. Have to leave the hotel at 6am to get to the airport in Nice.
Next stop - HOME!
Just wrapped up my last meeting of the conference! The only thing left for me to do now is "booth duty" - i'm on the schedule for tomorrow morning. I've never done "booth duty" before but I'm told it's a no-brainer. I stand there and demo our product to people who come by. Only most people that come by, I'm told, will not really be interested in our product or a demo, but are more likely more interested in "schmoozing" and asking totally random questions that are completely unrelated to the product that I am demoing. And since tomorrow is the official last day of the conference, most people will be bailing early, so I suspect there won't be that many people coming by our booth at all. But I'll be there, with my black pants and shoes, and white shirt with our logo on it, demo script fresh in my mind, all ready to do my thing.
I wandered around the exhibitions on my own this morning, and noticed that quite a few booths had oddly, scantily, or flashily (is that a word?) women handing things out, or demoing products, or go-go dancing on platforms to techno-music. So I'll happily take my black pants, white logo'd shirt, and demo script over any of that ;-)
I wanted to take pictures - I had my camera phone (actually Tim's!) but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I think it was the fact that I was the only woman standing in a sea of men also holding out their camera phones pretending to check their schedules.
Anyway - after 12:30pm tomorrow I'm a free woman! Tomorrow afternoon and all day friday belong to ME! ME ME ME. I can get up whenever I want, eat whereever and whenever I want, go whereever I want, and indulge my gelato cravings (not only is this the land of italian restaurants, it's also the land of gelato - I guess being so close to Italy, and on the mediterranean and everything ;-)). Oh - and check out the ferrari store for Tim (even though I already bought him a souviner ;-))
Then it's off home on Saturday! bright and early. With a 5 hour stopover in Heathrow. But it'll be ok, because I'll be on my way home!!
:-)
The pictures don't really do it justice. But here's the real reason why I'm here:
And this next one is just for Tim - the store is right around the corner from the hotel I'm staying in. I promise to check it out when it is open before I leave! ;-)
I have many more pictures from my little adventure roaming around the town today but they'll have to wait until I get home cause the bandwidth and reliability here just sucks.
Well - I finally made it to Cannes. All in all, a very uneventful trip to Nice, which is nice (I never get tired of saying that ;-)). Had some turbulance. Made me laugh at the people who had ordered wine with dinner as it was splish-splashing all out of their glass. Me - I had water. I just put the cap on and stayed dry.
We actually left Seattle an hour late, but arrived over Heathrow half an hour earlier than originally scheduled. Go figure. as it turns out though, we ended up arriving at our gate exactly at the originally scheduled time - they made us fly in a holding pattern for 30 minutes due to winds.
The flight from Seattle to Heathrow was pleasantly not full. I was in an aisle seat (strategery on my part - being pregnant and all, I anticipated many trips to the bathroom, and I was right). but the seat next to me was also empty so I conveniently usurped it for my purse and my laptop bag, eliminating the need for me to put anything in the overhead bins. It also came in handy when I decided to take a nap. Extra space. It's a good thing.
10 reasons why I like flying British Airways Economy Class better than North American airline economy class:
1) Don't need to pay for the headphones for the movie
2) EVERYONE gets a pillow AND a blanket
3) Each seat has its own personal TV embedded in the back of the seat in front.
4) You get 18 channels of Movies and TV to choose from. Options are good.
5) Even in the 50th row (5th from the back) I still get my choice of their two meals
6) Free mini-bottle of wine for dinner; and your choice - red or white. Being pregnant I went with sparkling mineral water and opted out of the wine. BUT it's still pretty cool.
7-10) They give you a little kit containing slippers, an eye mask, toothbrush and toothpaste - yes - in economy class!
No doubt about it. If you gotta go overseas economy class, do it with BA. They'll take care of you.
My stop-over in Heathrow was 4 hours. I wandered the shops, bought and sent some postcards, had a meal, napped a bit, and then wandered over to my gate when it was finally posted. They booked me business class from London to Nice (all together now - "which is nice" ;-)). Except for the gentleman sitting in the middle next to me - who had a carry-on larger than my checked bag and who was insisting that he was going to sit with the thing between his legs the whole flight. He lost the argument and the flight attendant took it away. Thank goodness. but then he was up and down every 5 minutes - he wanted to get something from his bag; he wanted a glass of water; he wanted to go to the bathroom.... whatever.
So I finally got to Nice - on schedule (which is...? what?) and one of my coworkers had a car waiting for him and gave me a ride as well.
There are palm trees here. It's quite tropical looking actually. It's warmer than Seattle is right now, but not "summer" temps. My hotel isn't that far from the beach. I might go exploring tomorrow. Ah - my hotel. Not exactly the 4 star that most of the rest of the gang is staying in (there are 5 of us staying at this hotel. The rest of the folks from work are staying in what is referred to as "The Villa". "The Villa" has a heated swimming pool, and spa, and fitness room, and it's absolutely gorgeous from what I saw as we drove past it on the way to MY hotel). I'd call this hotel a very basic and european 3-star. It is clean. The staff is friendly. It's conveniently located. It is reasonably priced. I'd stay here again I think. Especially if I was on a budget and paying for the trip myself (which thankfully I am not ;-)). But there is a bit of false advertising going on with their web site with respect to the services they offer. "Room Service" only refers to breakfast. The "Wireless Internet Access" is archaic, flakey and unreliable. The "nicely appointed rooms" are the size of our bathroom at home (but that is really not all that surprising in Europe). The "view of the bay" must have been referring to the rooms on the other side of the hotel because all I have from my room is a view of the building across the street. The bathroom is marble - I'll give them that. And I did get free slippers.
Anyway - that's where I'm at. It's 1:00pm in Seattle; 9:00pm here in Cannes. I'm exhausted. Discounting the 3-4 hours of "rest" I got on the plane to London and in the Heathrow departure lounge, I've been up for a total of 30 hours. So with that, I think I'll turn in and see about getting a fresh start tomorrow.
Bon Nuit!
I'm off to France tomorrow, in case you haven't guessed! 8 whole days. I'd come home sooner, since Tim isn't coming with me, but I couldn't get a flight back before Saturday. Besides - it gives Tim an extra day to "get the kitties back on track". Heh... I'll believe that when I see it :-)
I have a lovely 4 hour stop-over in Heathrow on the way there. Sigh. I am booked business class from Heathrow to Nice which is nice (had to be said) because the flights were so full. That's like less than a 2 hour flight though. Bummer that the flights weren't as full on the Seattle-Heathrow leg... that'd be a comfy flight ;-) C'est la vie.
Anyway - all that matters is that I get there safely, in one piece, have an uneventful week full of meetings, and then come home safely, in one piece. That's all I want. That and a good night's sleep.
Vive la France!
I am constantly getting "comment-spammed" with commentary and links to porn, gambling and drug/online pharmacy sites.
I'm also constantly getting trackback-ping spammed with links to the same types of sites.
And lately I'm now constantly getting "referrer-spammed" with the same.
MT-Blacklist has been a life saver to deal with the comment spam. But it's still requires some (albeit very minimal, which is a plus) administrative effort to de-spam moderated comments and keep the filter up to date. I've also dutifully installed the nofollow plugin in the hopes that eventually if enough people use it, it will make some sort of difference.
For the referrer spam, there are now apparently some scripts out there that will help clean up referrer spam that I'll have to check out when I have the time. That is but a minor annoyance at the moment, but it would be nice at some point to have clean referrer logs again to see how people are getting to our site - just out of curiosity.
But this latest spam that I received is an all time time new one. It was comment spam, but it wasn't about gambling, or porn, or drugs, or the rest of the usual crap. It was targeted. Based on the content of our site.
Thankfully, MT-Blacklist forced moderation on this comment because it was posted to an "old" entry (although relative to the target entries of other comment spam I regularly receive, it wasn't such an old entry) so it never got published to our web site, but it kinda blew my mind. I've cleaned it up to remove all URLs, names and email addresses, because I'll be damned if I'm going to provide them with free advertising or increased ratings on search engines, but here it is (as you know if you've been reading this blog, we're in the process of building our "dream" house)
Email Address: [some plumber's email address]
URL: [a home contractor web site. Which actually did link through to a real web site that contained sponsored links for home contractors]
Comment:
Need a building contractor for that new house of yours?
It would appear that it's not random anymore. And it's not just about porn, gambling and drugs and cheap prescriptions. And it's likely no longer just about higher search engine results placement or referral rankings either. It's now all about targeted advertising and solicitation.
Last night at 1am we were jolted from our bed by a loud clap of thunder, followed by a long, deep rumbling. Then ever so slowly...
tap...
tap tap...
tap tap tap tappity tap tap
tap THUNK tap tap THUNK THUNK tap
THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK DING THUNK
THUNKTHUNKDINGTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKBANGTHUNK
THUNKTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKBAMTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKTHUNKTHUNK
etc.
The hail storm lasted about half an hour and there were a couple more impressive thunderclaps. It was amazing to listen to. I don't think I've heard one quite as intense. I couldn't bring myself to leave my bed to look out the window, but Tim did.
No.... can it be?
Stewart to Star in Second Apprentice
Exerpt: "Martha Stewart, you're hired. NBC, Donald Trump and Mark Burnett, the masterminds behind NBC's "The Apprentice," announced Wednesday that Stewart will host "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart," a new version of the business-themed reality show."
Ok ok... any guesses as to what the weekly tasks will be?
(My MS Word clip-art rendition of the Martha Stewart Board Room :-))
It's Superbowl weekend this weekend. Patriots vs Eagles on Sunday.
While of course we'd much prefer to be rooting for our beloved Seahawks in the Superbowl, that just wasn't in the cards. But we maintain eternal hope for the future. So - in the absence of having a team to root FOR in the Superbowl, we will be avidly watching the game on Sunday and rooting AGAINST the Patriots. It's become a tradition :-)
And so, it is with great pleasure I begin our anti-Patriots crusade by bringing you an article that reinforces just what a whiney bunch of weenies the Patriots are as a team.
Pats complaining about practice field again (Mark Long / Associated Press)
Whatever.
Go Eagles!