Go Red Sox !

Game 1 of the Major League Baseball "World Series" took place last night at the famed Fenway Park in Boston Massachusetts.   The Colorado Rockies took a wicked beating in a rocky start, losing by 12 runs.   It was almost embarrassing to witness.

In two hours, at 8:35pm Eastern time, Game 2 begins.   Red Sox fans know better than to expect a repeat of last night's game, but we're all wondering....   Will the Red Sox become "World Champions" after 4, 5, 6, or 7 games?   Or will the Rockies turn it all around and upside down?

Being a fan of the Red Sox is nearly a given when living in New England.   It's rather like a marriage.   During good times and bad....   But being a fan when they are near the top, well, that's sheer pleasure!

May the Red Sox continue to rock!

Warner Fall Folliage Festival, held on the weekend of October 6th & 7th of 2007, is one of the big local events in middle New Hampshire, New England, in the Northeast USA.   A little event.   But a huge local event.

This is one of those BIG little local events that a local person, in this case ME, wishes all who are family, friends, coworkers, colleagues, and casual acquainances could attend, share, and celebrate...   assuming the weather is nice, of course.   It is an event that helps celebrate life in the country and includes oxen pulls, wood chopping competitions, the handiworks of country artisans, a fun fair carnival with rides, and so much more that you simply won't find in the heart of our great cities.

It is a little event.

It is Warner's biggest event.   And Warner..., well..., right now, that is my town, a rather small town I love in a rather big way.

Two years ago, we had friends / work colleagues / "family" from Bangalore India staying at our house during the Warner Fall Folliage Festival 2005.   The weather did not cooperate as best as it might, but still the festival was a success and a good time was had by all.   2006 weather was more generous, and I suspect 2007 will provide an example of perfect fall weather.

While it is difficult (although not impossible) to invite all of our "local" Burlington Massachusetts & Nashua New Hampshire Sun colleagues to Warner to visit during the upcoming Fall Folliage Festival, I would like to use this forum to try to do so.....

Come to Warner New Hampshire on October 6th & 7th.   So easy to find between exits 8 and 9 off of I-89.   (Sooooo easy to remember.)   Come experience the Warner Fall Folliage Festival at least once.   It is good family fun.   Truly.

For those within Sun, call me on my extension for more info, including how to get to what I like to refer to as the "Sun Warner NH Drop-In Center"...  

A few weeks ago, two majorly cool milestones in my life bumped up against each other.   One involved my horse, Jeddien, the other... work.

Milestone One

After a 2.5 year absence from Dressage Competition, Jeddien and I entered the June 15-17 and July 27-29 Green Mountain Horse Association competitions in South Woodstock, Vermont.   Showing at 3rd Level, we quickly qualified for the USDF Region 8 Championships.   And as a fun bonus, we debuted at 4th Level as well, coming 2nd with a decent score.

We quickly celebrated this surprising qualification, just prior to me hopping onto a July 29th flight to California for meetings the next few days.

Milestone Two

During the business trip, I learned that my VP had put me forward for promotion, and that it had gone through.   Soon, it would be formally announced that I was one of Sun's newest Directors.   Wow!

Another celebration back at home in New Hampshire would no doubt follow this major career milestone.

Now, according to my husband (and dressage trainer!) Georg, qualifying for championships means GOING to the Championships!   And for the USDF Region 8 2007 Championships, this means spending 5 days in Saugerties, New York.

On the work front, becoming a Director means attending Leadership Forums.   And, wouldn't you know, the next one is the day after the Championships...   and 3000 miles away.   Bumped up nice and tight right against each other.

NationWide Insurance has a slogan that seems to fit right now...   "Life comes at you fast."   Nooooo Kidding!   But then, riding the big waves, as they roll in, is half the fun.

For the past 17 years, I have celebrated June 12th.   It was 18 years ago today that I joined Sun.   A good day.   One I remember always.

But life, being what it is, tends to once in a while throw in a few hooks and slices into what seems to start off as a perfectly teed up kind of day.

Today is one of THOSE kinds of days.

Today, my only Uncle by blood, Kenneth King of Port St. Lucie, Florida & Hampstead, New Hampshire, passed away.

Needless to say, our whole family is quite saddened by this rather unexpected news.

But as the news rolls out, there will also be people all over the place who will mourn his passing.   You see, Kenny touched the lives of so many...   His many friends.   His golfing buddies.   Business people from over the years.   His neighbors in Florida.   His neighbors up north.   People to whom he gave a lot of himself, his time, his love, his support, and his energy.

And, I think it is worth noting that quite directly, Ken was the cause of a lot of the smiles and hearty laughter in the world and within Sun Microsystems (and no doubt other companies) where many of his humourous emails (from pen name: "psllefty") made the rounds over the years.

We will all truly miss him.

So, it seems Ken King has joined a new Country Club.   And aside from saying how sad it is to see him go, I guess I also want to say:   Good luck, Uncle Kenny!   And try not to beat the old bearded man in the long white flowing robes too often!

London 2012.

While I have not yet put in for vacation time...   yet,   I have full intentions of being in London for the 2012 Olympics.

Registered a few years ago as a volunteer, I have yet to learn what role I will play.   But I will be there....   No matter where I live at the time.

Summer 2012.

Got any plans?  

It's hard to believe we've finished our second winter in Warner, New Hampshire.   It seems only like yesterday when we started our long journey from the United Kingdom to the USA...

After getting married in Aldershot Hampshire England and starting the paperwork to get Georg's Green Card, we set out to find a new home 3000 miles away.   We relied completely on the resources available on the Internet, searching MLS databases and Realtor websites for homes that would suit our combined wants and needs....   Nice house, some land, a place to keep our two horses, easy access to a Sun office, affordable (as in little to no mortgage), and within 3 hours drive of my parents.   Our criteria was set before the Summer of 2004 gave way to Fall.

Using the Bean Group Realty's fabulous website, we were soon spending evenings and weekends browsing information about equestrian homes in New Hampshire.   The "tax free" status of New Hampshire and its lower property prices quickly turned our focus towards the little New England state.   Massachusetts was simply out our price range considering what we wanted.

We planned our first house viewing trip to the USA for October 2004.   The timing of the trip would allow us to enjoy family events as well as leaf peeping.   And the weather was likely to be crisp, maybe a bit rainy, but not yet snowy.

With a well populated spreadsheet of over 150 equestrian homes in New Hampshire which met our basic needs, we needed to narrow things down to a list of 12 for viewing on our trip.   After weighing various criteria, including house style, acreage, distance from Sun's Nashua NH office, and price, we selected a mix of properties and towns to view.   Our househunting trip would take us to 12 different towns across New Hampshire, viewing a range of house styles including New Englander Colonials, Cape Cods, Split Entries, and Modern Contemporaries.   It was gonna be a whirlwind trip, but hopefully, insightful and educational.

As October approached, we arranged exact viewing times with various Realtors.   We had not selected a single Realtor with which to do business, so each Realtor was not only going to be showing us a home, they would be interviewing for the position of being our estate agent in whatever transactions transpired.   Before we hopped onto a Virgin Atlantic flight to the USA, we had a full itinery lined up.

Basing ourselves at our timeshare property in Boston, the Marriott's Custom House, the October trip started with visiting family.   Then the property viewings began.   And with each viewing, we not only saw a house for sale, we visited a New Hampshire town.

First impressions were swiftly reached and sometimes quite brutal.   We visited towns which looked tired and run down, some which were painfully difficult to reach, and some which simply left us thinking, "How blah was that?"   While we had not given the town itself a weighting in our decision analysis, we soon could see that the town itself was going to have an impact on our choice of new home.   We wanted a nice town.   We were looking for a town with Curb Appeal (or "Kerb Appeal").

As we viewed the houses, we also learned more about our individual tastes and preferences.   We discovered where our tastes overlapped and where we had differences of opinion.   But the big things we agreed upon.   We wanted a dry location set back from the road, a home with a big kitchen, at least one fireplace, good sized bedrooms, and, after seeing a couple nice homes situated right next to truly dumpy ones, we wanted to live in "tidy" neighborhood.

After a nice, but long journey up two interstate highways cutting through fall foliage that had just peaked in colour, we reached another town for another property viewing.   We were ahead of schedule and were due to meet the Realtor in another hour and half.   We had time to kill.

We had already driven to two other properties, arriving earlier than planned, and called into the Realtors to cancel the meeting.   First impressions were that bad!   So, once again, having arrived early, we decided to drive past the property and see what was what.

This time, something different happened.   We had to drive through the town center first.   And, lo and behold, it was down right appealing!   It was the first town that really made us sit up in the car and say, "Okay, now this is more like it!".   And so, the little town of Warner got two thumbs up, just on curb appeal alone.

We drove past the house...   and were only a little surprised to see it was not as nice as it had appeared on the Internet.   That was consistent with what we were experiencing throughout the trip.   We drove past it, a little disappointed, but also hopeful that the badly peeling sky blue exterior paint was going to be the only surprise.

Reaching the end of the road, we "found" the gate to Rollins State Park and a Park Ranger who happily collected a visitor's fee from us.   Okay.   We drove on, taking our rental car up the windy narrow mountain road up Black Mountain and then Mount Kearsarge.   Near the summit, we parked and hiked along the well prepared path to the top of the granite dome where we enjoyed a spectular 360 degree view of New Hampshire.   It was truly breathtaking!   Warner earned a couple more points while we fell in love with its mountain.

Soon after, we viewed the 43 acre horse farm in what must have been record time!   We were in & out in less than 60 minutes.   We whizzed through the house, walked around the barns, saw the indoor arena, walked into a couple pastures, and explored a little of the woods on the north-western edge.

Like many houses we had seen already, the house was stuffed wall to wall with the possessions of the current owner, making the viewing feel more like a walk through a maze.   We were smart to have gone a bit over the top with our photographic records of each room of each home we viewed.   It helped us make sense of the massive jumble of mental images we carried back home to the United Kingdom.

We had only viewed the big horse farm, ranked 48 on our spreadsheet, as it was fully ready to operate as an equestrian centre.   However the price, while fair, was well beyond our planned budget.   Our intention was simply to get an idea...   Something for comparison sake.   What can $X00,000 buy you in New Hampshire?   That kind of thing...

As we got into our rental car to set off to the next viewing, the sense that this was "the one" was overpowering.   Driving down the driveway was emotionally painful.   I did not want to leave Warner.   I did not want to say goodbye to this farm.

It took several months and a lot of juggling of numbers.   But suffice to say, two years ago this week, we closed on the Warner property.   We moved in a month later.

Did we make the right choice?   Without question!   Not only do we love our home, we found a fabulously wonderful community.

I walked into the class room to find all the others quietly working on papers.   I sat at my desk, looked around, and decided to just get on with folding the laundry.

The teacher came in and announced that we only had 5 more minutes to finish the exam.   Then we would have a short break before the next exam was to start.

Crap!   I was supposed to be taking an exam!   How did I manage to forget that one?   I went up to the teacher's desk and grabbed an exam booklet.   Even with only 5 minutes to go, I figured I could at least do enough to prevent myself from getting a big fat zero.   And if it were multiple choice, maybe sheer chance would give me a break.

The exam booklet was filled with pictures, photos, and drawings and ramdomly placed words in foreign languages.   On one page there was a artist's drawing of a horse head, a picture of a man, and a vegetable.   The word "Cheval" was also on the page.   Was this a French language exam?

I failed to find instructions for the exam and ran up to ask the teacher.   She replied, "You need to work with your divining herb to solve the questions."   "My what?", I responded, and then was informed I needed to get a piece of divining herb.   Without it, it would be impossible to do the exam.   Kindly, she gave me extra time for the exam.

I remembered that earlier in the day, or maybe it was another day, the teacher and I had been outside talking, while sitting next to a hedge of rosemary.   Could a sprig of rosemary act as a divining herb?   I asked and was informed that any herb would do, including rosemary.   So off I went to get my divining herb.

It's a big High School and the rosemary hedge was on the opposite side of the school.   Spying the local neighborhood just across the road, it dawned on me that other herb hedges would likely be closer.

However, walking in this little New Jersey suburban neighborhood, I failed to find any herbs.   Soon I reached the Mississippi River and a bridge crossing over to Chicago.     While walking in the Chicago suburbs, I saw a couple of lobsters skuttle under a front porch while a young boy chased them.   His mother, in turn, was chasing the young boy.   In their front lawn was an old lavendar plant, full of woody branches and fresh growth.   It was in flower and smelled lovely.

Still worried about the exam, tired from my walk, and desparate to get a piece of divining herb, I broke off a small piece of the lavendar while the mother chased the boy chasing the lobsters and I headed back to New Jersey across a different bridge.

While walking, the sprig of lavendar grew into a woody branch with a 3 inch diameter.   New growth was playing with the fingers of the hand I was carrying it in.   Tendrils were playing with the sleeve of my shirt.

I snapped at the herb, insisting it behave itself.   And for the rest of the walk back to the High School, it did.

Once back in the classroom, it suddenly dawned on me!   I don't need to take exams!   I already graduated.   And the one class I came back to take as an adult, had nothing to do with needing divining herbs.   I didn't have anything to do with this class nor this exam.

Rather pleased with myself, I grabbed my laundry basket, and left the classroom.

Watching the Weather Channel, we learned about one of the new laws California has on the books.   Apparently, it is now illegal to have passengers travel in the trunk (or boot) of the car.   Seriously.   It's a law now.

Googling the web, I quickly spotted this article talking about this and other new laws in California.

Will this new passenger safely law impact carpool lanes in Sunny California?   I kinda doubt it....

It happened.   As usual, I guess it was just a matter of time.

Somehow in moving to America, I lost my beloved, but rather old, Sony Discman D121.   How old, you might wonder?   Well, MP3 was not a yet household word that easily rolled off the tongues of kids and grannies alike.   In fact, my Discman was many years old.

Today, I mentioned that I wanted to get a new Sony Discman CD player.   My only method of playing CDs for the past year has been via the SunBlade 150 on my desk, one of the laptops, or in my Volkswagen Cabrio.   But these all truly limit when and where my listening pleasures could take place.

Just before Christmas break, one of my colleagues told many of us about his daughter's experience with a new Apple music player called a "Shuffle".   He said it was tiny but was good enough to use when crossing the University Campus.   I was unable to assess what that meant.   I was still not up fully up to date on the concept of MP3 players or the Apple iPod products.   Nope, I guess I don't get out much....

Leaping forward enough to bearly catch up with the world, today I went from the need for a new Discman to becoming a Apple iPod shuffle user.

Now, I should admit I find most software applications to be non-intuitive and painful to use.   But within an hour of getting home from the mall, I used Apple's iTunes software to download 7 of my favourite CDs into my little shuffle!

Painless.   Easy.   Fast.   Amazing!

I now have a tiny music player clipped onto my jeans and comfy earpieces pumping Queen music into my head.   (Long live Queen!)   The only thing I have to do now is stop worrying about how far I can go from the SunBlade before unplugging.

Check it out!   I'm wearing my music!

I first starting smoking when I was a mere 13 years old.   I was healthy, athletic, and fit.   Little did I believe that joining my horsey friends at Watchung Stables in Summit New Jersey in a few Marlboro's could possibly be "bad for me".

Like so many of my friends, I got hooked.   And it probably wasn't until my 20's or maybe even my early 30's, that I first tried to quit smoking.   With varying success.   The motivation to quit wasn't really strong.   And I was still surrounded by puffing peers.   It was never easy to quit for more than a day, a week, a month, or maybe a year at a time.   A wild night out, and puff!   One won't kill me....

New Year's Eve 1999, several coworkers at Sun and I worked the UK Solution Centre shift to welcome in 2000.   Dozens of us sat at the ready to take calls as computers all over Europe were supposedly going to keel over from date problems.   No calls came in.   But we did have a fun night at work, watching movies on our desktops, eating snack foods and toasting in the new millenium.

Exactly two years earlier, I had quit smoking.   Fairly successfully.   But at midnight January 1st, 2000, while several coworkers started to smash their packets of Silk Cuts, I saw myself reach out my hand to save one of those packs, took out a cigarette, and lit up.   Those first puffs tasted like hell and made me cough.   But just like that, once again, after 2 years of not smoking, I was a smoker, fully hooked on the drugs and poisons neatly wrapped up in the pretty white cancer sticks with the pretty name.   I was back on the Silk Cuts.

This was not good.   I was not proud of my renewed smoker status.   And every pack, for the next two years, I claimed was going to be my last pack...

As December 31 2001 approached, I set New Years 2002 as my new "I QUIT" date.   This time I really WANTED to quit.   So, I planned.   I prayed to whomever might be listening.   I repeatedly played a small collection of Paul McKenna videos and audio tapes.   I read all the reasons why smoking was bad for me and those around me.   I learned how badly cigarette smoke ages the skin and hair.   I invited vanity to kick in.   Sensibility also kicked in.   I rallied my friends and loved ones and asked for support and encouragement.   I learned who else in my smoking group at work was going to quit on the same day.   I stocked up my office and home with candy and fruits.   I took note of what smoking routines I had, when and where I tended to smoke, and made alternative plans.   In effect, I prepared and completely psyched myself up as best as I could.   I planned to be successful.   I planned to live smoke free.   Drug free.

That was 5 years ago.   January 1, 2007 is my 5th anniversary of living smoke free.   I am expecting a nice big prezzie from my husband, as he promised if I reached this milestone.   But most importantly, I got here.   (Odd, but I still occasionally smoke in my dreams.   When I first awake, I'm pissed off and disappointed in myself, but then soon realise it was just a dream...   Phew!)

To all those who are going to free themselves from their addiction to cigarettes, I wish you success and smoke free, drug free lives!   Don't give up trying to give up!   It is all worth it in the end!

This past week has been one filled with sorrow, anger, loss, and revenge for many.   Within a few days of each other, we lost a local military & community hero (Matthew Stanley), a beloved national treasure and former president (Gerald Ford), an amazing influencial musician (James Brown), and a foreign leader recognised as a global terrorist (Saddam Hussein).   Hardly cheery Christmasy news, huh?

But now, we are having our first real snow.   The world outside is quiet and shifting to shades of dark green and white.   The sky is a soft grey, filled with more of the white stuff as it drifts gently down to blanket everything.   And the view from our windows goes no further than the boundaries of our property.   The world is once again small, cosy, friendly, safe.

A good quiet snow is a lot like a system reboot.   It feels like it allows for a new start.   It helps repair emotional wounds, paints a simple landscape full of new possibilities, and allows nature and our minds to enjoy a rest.   And when the snow is done falling, the world outside will be new, clean, and footstep free.   The first steps left outside will be the ones we choose to put there in a newly rebooted environment.

This morning, Georg ventured on his own, by car, to a Sun customer near Kendall Square in Cambridge Mass.   Historic location.   Great University area.   Yes, Bostonians know it well.   But for native Germans new to the USA, new to New England, new to the Boston Metropolitan area....   At night...   In the rain...   During rush hour...   A true potential navigation nightmare!

To travel from Cambridge to central New Hampshire, basically you have to travel due north for about 80 miles.   But first, you have to get onto (not just near it, but actually ONTO) a major highway.   And any first time visitor to Boston will no doubt tell you that THAT can be a huge challenge.

Armed with directions from a well-meaning local, Georg soon found himself on the seafront of Boston.   He was headed southeast.   Sure, he was in an area of good restaurants.   Big trade center.   Fish markets and piers.   Tall ships once in a while.   But it was not exactly the way home from Kendall Square...   Unless he was having dinner at Anthony's Pier 4 first.

Any Bostonian, had there been one walking in the dark rain, would have been able to tell him he was only one more One-Way Street away from the parking lot called I-93.   Atlantic Avenue was just behind him, and from there, I-93 North is easily reached on a good day.

Oh, let us not forget that Boston's Big Dig also results in several Travel Advisories...   Road closures, diversions, and what not.

We don't have TomTom, Garmin, Magellan, or any other navigation systems in either our VW Cabrio car or our Dodge pickup truck.

Nope.   No navigational aids.   So tonight, as Georg tried to navigate around the one way streets of Boston, back and forth across various waterways, in, under, around, and through the Big Dig areas, it was "KimKim" who got him back onto I-93 North, not "TomTom".  

KimKim, navigating an interactive MapQuest map on a Sun Blade 150 at home, while talking on the telephone with the driver.   What will happen next time... ?

Dear Santa, are you reading this blog.... ?

While travelling by air last week, I was seated near yet another laptop user.   Bored, I once again caught myself glancing over to see what was so engrossing only feet away.   However, unlike the last time I did this, this time, I was blocked from viewing!

This laptop user had prepared his system against wandering eyes!   He was using a laptop privacy screen cover.   A colleague at work had shown me one of these after I blogged about spying financial records during a flight.   But this was the first time I had seen one in use.   It worked!

Last week, I travelled from New Hampshire to California via Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.   Now, I like to think of myself as a seasoned traveller, having been to Japan, much of Europe, Mexico, India, and much of the USA.   I've seen a lot.   But I was initially caught off guard by a novel product at O'Hare...   Automated toilet seat covers!

At first glance, it looked like the previous "occupant" had left me with a bit of tidying to do.   Not a pleasant thought, considering.   But, when I finally noticed the notices..   often something trickier to do than one might think...   I was able to read the instructions, do the little hand wave, and get a "fresh" seat.

The instructions were in English, of course, as well as Spanish, I believe.   For those who read neither, I wonder how long it takes before they figure out this clever sanitation system...   or not.

Comically, I'm not the first person to be fascinated, dare I call it that, by the O'Hare Toilets.   A search in You Tube shows several video clips of the magic awaiting weary travellers thanks to the good people at North American Hygiene, Inc and their Sani-Seat product.

My interest in politics comes second only to my sheer enthusiasm to embrace the latest technology.   My regular readers know what that means!

But over the past few weeks, like many of us in New Hampshire, I have been subjected to watching television ads on the Massachusetts TV channels, ads paid for by the political parties supporting the candidates for Massachusetts Governor.   And, albeit without direct interest, I have watched, listened, and developed an opinion of sorts.

So, my home state of Massachusetts is getting close to finalising the votes for what the Brits would probably consider the underdog.   Deval Patrick was up against the current Lt Governor of the Bay State.   He was also up against an intelligent and personable women who felt like she could be your kid's best friend's Mom and an independent who came across as a very nice guy.

Supported by Massachusetts Senators John Kerry & Ted Kennedy and the iconic Bill Clinton, Deval comes across as a potentially huge success story.   He is articulate.   He has some "Kennedy Charm" and general good looks.   His campaign was clean and focussed.

Deval supports "High Tech" (an area where some feel Massachusetts' role as a leader has slipped over the years) while also talking about the local fishing industry and all ranges of jobs.   He campaigned about local challenges and local issues.   He says he wants to get Massachusetts back to being one of the top states in the USA and is talking to most of her citizens on a level they personally "get" and personally believe is long overdue.   Of course, the proof will be in the pudding....

Have you ever wondered who will be the first Afro-American American President?   Keep an eye on the new Governor of Massachusetts!   This could be the man!