Thursday, December 28, 2006

Merry Christmas 2006!

Merry Christmas to all, from us denizens of State of Nature.  As with all things here, ours was a bit chaotic, but with a healthy dose of fun.  Mamere and Pops were here to enjoy the festivities and we had a wonderful time.  Here are some pictures I got when I managed to pick up the camera.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Porto Alegre, Brazil

I had an eventful trip last week to Porto Alegre, Brazil.  I had to go there on business, and the trip wound up being successful in that regard.  But the travel was very tough.  Here is a free travel tip:  Do not try to fly domestically within Brazil during an air traffic controller work slowdown.  The trip down was okay, relatively speaking.  My flight into Sao Paulo from Newark was on time.  The connecting flight from there to Porto Alegre was "only" delayed 2 1/2 hours.  This was within the expectations I had given the situation.  However, coming back (isn't it always coming home where the bad stuff happens?) was a different story.  My flight from Porto Alegre to Sao Paulo was delayed six hours, causing me to miss my connection back to Newark.  I was very fortunate to find some really helpful Continental agents at 11pm that night, who were able to rebook me on a Delta flight that went through Atlanta.  I finally rolled up to our house at about 4:30 pm, more than 24 hours after starting my journey home.

Anyway, back to the positive.  I got to see some of the sights in Porto Alegre, which is the capital of the southernmost state in Brazil, called Rio Grande do Sul.  I took a few pictures, which you can see here.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Politically Correct Holiday Greeting

Someone at Honeywell circulated this the other day.  Not sure what this implies about our Law Department . . .  

_________________________________________________________________

Dear All, 

I wanted to send out some sort of holiday greeting to my friends and associates, but it is so difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I contacted HON legal yesterday, and on their advice I wish to say the following:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasions or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make the world a great place (not to imply that any country is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Disclaimer: no trees were harmed in the sending of this message however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.

Or - Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Christmas Travel Surprise

Well, the travel elves at my office have really outdone themselves this time.  I found in my stocking about two weeks ago tickets to Porto Alegre, Brazil, of all places.  I have a long-pending case there, and the judge has set a hearing for this Thursday, December 21, and ordered representatives of the parties to be present.  So I am off tomorrow night for what could be a real adventure -- a ten hour flight to Sao Paulo, with a connection for another 1 1/2 hour flight down to Porto Alegre.  I have to admit, I'm somewhat intrigued by the whole thing; seeing a place I pretty much never dreamed I'd see, and experiencing first hand the legal process of Brazil.  However, I don't love the timing -- the week before Christmas and Stephen's birthday week -- and I'm a little concerned with the ongoing work "slowdown" by the Brazilian air traffic controllers, which has caused significant delays on domestic flights.  Wish me luck, and I'll be sure to post upon my return!

Make Way For Santa!

Saint Nick may have some trouble navigating through our living room given the size of the Christmas tree we've planted there.  We tried to get it as far away from the chimney as possible, so Santa will have room to enter the room and move around . . . but I think it might be touch and go.  We got "Bertha" (my nickname for the tree) last weekend at a farm where they cut the trees down for you.  I think this one is a good example of the eyes being bigger than the living room.  Getting her home was a real adventure.  We were on the interstate a few miles from our exit when the ropes holding the front part of the tree to the top of the car broke, and we almost lost her.  After stopping to re-tie the ropes, we finally got her home, and then had to figure out how to wedge her through the door and erect her in the tree stand.  After some fairly comic maneuvers, we finally had her up and ready to decorate.  Using what little energy remained at that point, we trimmed this truly majestic blue spruce.  Now, a week later, she looks great and is standing tall -- so tall, in fact, that even after I cut a fair amount off the top, we don't have room for our star!