Pink Martini with the Austin Symphony

Last night we went to hear Pink Martini perform with the symphony. This was one of the "pops" events held in the Palmer Events Center. Groups can reserve tables and pack a picnic dinner. It is all very informal and fun. We were invited by Jo and her husband. They are on the symphony board and our table was right up front. The piano player (Thomas Lauderdale) and female vocalist (China Forbes) met each other at Harvard in the early 90s.

Here is a clip of Pink Martini on the Letterman show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjtekYzkZD4

NM Caravan - Rowswell

In the past month I have made several trips to NM. All of the trips start in Albuquerque. Which has given me time to visit with Family. This all part of the NM Reading and Language Art adoption for 2010. The tree cities in which we displayed and presented were, Roswell, Farmington and Albuquerque.

Here is a picture of some new friends from my trip to Roswell plus a pictures of the wide open spaces and blue sky in NM.

I also had a chance to have dinner and visit with family. Here are a couple of pictures at Aunt Debbie's.


And a trip to Albuquerque would not be complete with a trip to a casino. On this trip we had dinner and lost $15 at the Route 66 casino.

Minneapolis Trip

Last month I made a trip to Minneapolis for some meetings at one of our offices. Since there was no baseball or football game in town and a little time on my hands I decided to visited largest mall in the United States. The Mall of America has more visitors every year than Disneyland. There are over 400 stores, an amusement park and over 12,000 employees at the mall.

http://www.mallofamerica.com/#/main/home/home

El Paso

On a business trip to the El Paso area (9/8 - 9/11) I had the pleasure of visiting with high school friends and with my cousin, Tillie and 94-year-old Uncle Raul. The visit with my uncle was supposed to be for dinner and half a football game. We spent most of the evening talking about people and life around southern NM. My uncle spent a few years in Santa Rita and later moved to Truth or Consequences (T or C). During the visit with spent most of the evening catching up on family members. My cousin shared an obituary of Clint Jencks. Her was a labor leader in Grant County and a friend of my dad. Jencks is also in the movie of Salt of the Earth plus a graduate of Colorado Springs High School (Palmer HS). After 2 beers, several slices of pizza, the entire football game and coffee around 11:00 I had to go and get ready for my meetings the next day.

I was finished with meetings around 3:00 in the afternoon and had a little time to travel to an area of El Paso that I had never seen. East of town and along the river is a collection of old Spanish Missions, Ysleta, Socorro and San Elizario.

DC Trip

Family,

In the past month and half I I have traveled thousands of miles by car and by plane. Along the way I have been to several cities and visited with customers, Pearson employees and family.

Starting with a cross country trip to DC. Julie is going to earn her masters at Georgetown. I think the following list will bring a smile to one of us:

Loaded Cargo Van
Front Porches in Tyler and Big Sandy
Jet Packs
Books on Tape (MP 3 player plus our speakers)
Laffy Taffy
Pancakes
21 Cracker Barrel stores between Nashville and DC, 8 more from Nashville to Dallas
MegaBus being towed outside of Nashville
4 Gig thumb drives
Ethiopian Dinner
Breakfast across from Ford's Theater
Rain from Bristol, TN to Washington, DC
Mom and the Air Conditioner

Labor Day Weekend II

Sal and I had thought about going somewhere, but couldn't agree on a destination. We ended up painting our bedroom. It is hard to tell the color from the pictures--I wanted a muted blue. It does look good--much better than the odd color of green that was there before.

Labor Day Weekend

We started the weekend with the football game Friday night. It was at Lake Travis, so we stopped at The Grove first for a bite to eat. Once we got there the game was postponed because of lightning, so we ended up staying only to the half. Sal and I listened to the end of the game on the radio at home--we lost.