Skip to content

Regina, Saskatchewan

A whole lot of nothing on the Saskatchewan horizon.I was in Regina, Saskatchewan for a few hours yesterday with a prospective customer. Regina’s the home of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and it’s a fair ways north. After work, we went to a (really good) steakhouse, emerging with full bellies around 10:00 p.m. It was still light out; the sun was just going down. “How far north are we?” I asked — about 50 degrees. The sun came up full at about 4:45 this morning… just in time for me to get up and catch my flight back out.

Regina is an interesting city. Although I was there for (way) less than 24 hours, my initial impression is one of frontier city meets suburbia. There are neighborhoods that could be lifted directly from the North Shore of Chicago, with Prairie style architecture and original (wavy) glass. Downtown has a mix of buildings old and new; glass, concrete and steel. Nothing is more than 10 minutes’ drive away.

My pal Rick lives there, and he said all the trees were imported and planted… and as the photo shows, once you reach the edge of town there isn’t a whole lot on the horizon except more horizon.

Photo from the Air Canada ramp at Regina International Airport.

Posted 25 June 2008 † mjg § Travel ‡ Comments (0) °

What other exciting adventures were had in Germany??

Funny you should ask. I was just about to answer that question. It must be the continuing effect of the psychic that’s given me such insight into the minds of others…HA

Mike – my ever faithful companion who follows me around the world – arrived on Friday evening. We’d had ideas about taking long and exciting trips over my weekend off, but then remembered that a) I’m PREGNANT and tire easily; and b) we were both tired anyway.

So instead, we decided to take 2 small day trips. On Saturday, we went to the lovely city of Cologne, and then on Sunday, we went to the wine festival in Winningen where they have little booths and it’s a super cute little city and those who are not knocked-up can sample the wines. Those who are knocked-up can look longingly at those who aren’t and imagine how nice it would be to sample the wines and instead focus on eating the brats.

Mike and I had a lovely afternoon/evening in Cologne on Saturday. We didn’t exactly get going early since Mike was completely jet lagged and exhausted from too much travel all week, but we had a fun time anyway. We had a very sweet young German woman who helped out in the control room who lives in Cologne – so I asked her if she would mind suggesting train schedules etc. to go there. When Mike and I went to go pick up the info on Saturday, she’d created an entire folder of things to do entitled “cologne survival package.” It had maps – with areas of interest highlighted, all the churches, museums, shopping districts, good German bars and ‘party’ (i.e. nightclubs). I’d say “cologne thrive package” was more accurate.

So we did a few of the things on the list- we were not really about to go clubbing, but we did appreciate the thought- and here are the photos of our Cologne Thrive Day:
img_3955.JPGFamous Cologne Dom
img_3957.JPGOur not so famous heads in front of the famous Dom
img_3958.JPGReally awesome advertisement for a camera store on the streets
img_3959.JPGDid someone say monster ICECREAM?!?!
img_3963.JPGMike hiding behind the 200 ml Kolsch glasses (Kolsch is the beer that is made in the area and this was our guide’s favorite local bar – with fresh beer and real locals. She was right on both accounts; she also forgot to mention giant meals slathered in butter and cream, but I guess that’s kind of an unspoken given in Germany

img_3965.JPG Me looking forlornly at the Kolsch I would not be drinking
img_3966.JPGKolsch eye view of the bar

Posted 09 June 2008 † kirsten § Travel ‡ Comments (0) °

So what’s up with us? Where have we been and what have we been doing???

These are all good questions and since I consider myself to be a ~ nice person, I’ve decided perhaps I should answer them.

We’ve been pretty busy lately. Our May was a hectic one of international fame and fortune- okay well not that, but at least travel. Graglo and I spent the first week of May in NYC for the UN Commission on Sustainable Development meeting. The day before the meeting we went to a street festival where I got to sample the self proclaimed “world’s best cannoli” (I don’t know if it was really the world’s best, but it certainly was tasty), and I met a psychic who gave me a free reading. Among other things, she sensed that there would be children in my life – I pointed to my belly and said she just might be on to something. Clearly she was a woman of much mystical power and skill 🙂

After returning from NYC I had ~ 18 hrs at home to do laundry and pack again and then I flew to my most dreaded city in Europe: Bonn, Germany, for the 3rd and hopefully LAST time of my life. I went there to attend the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and Convention on Biological Diversity meetings. Why do I so dislike Bonn, you ask? Well, I’m not really a fan of German food- I don’t much care for Schnitzel or lots of potatoes covered in cream, and I’ve been there 3 years in a row in May which is Spargel season. What is Spargel you ask? It’s big honking asparagus that has not been exposed to UV light so it’s etiolated, or as most non plant-biologists would say “like pale skin.” Don’t get me wrong, I like asparagus, but when you get a big plate of large, human skin looking asparagus under a pile of cream sauce, well the appeal just isn’t there. The creepy factor is- the whole dismembered body parts thing- but not so much else.

BUT I do have to confess, we stayed at a different hotel in a different city than we’ve stayed in before, and that made it much nicer. Plus, they were out of regular non-smoking rooms, so I got a luxury room on the corner overlooking the Rhine, and that didn’t really suck so much either. AND most importantly, the hotel was by a whole bunch of Italian restaurants, so I didn’t ever have to eat a large German meal!! Score!!!

img_3943.JPGThe 1 lb of spargel our Assistant Secretary got for lunch (yes it really was a pound and yes that really was the smallest size you could order. These people take their spargel seriously, I kid you not!)

img_3945.JPGShot from my hotel room window of the Rhine

img_3946.JPGMore shots from hotel room window- cute German restaurant next door

img_3947.JPGView of Königswinter from my other hotel room window (like I said, I scored and got a master suite with windows pointing in 3 directions- not too shabby)

img_3949.JPGSunset on the Rhine- at 9:00 pm and it was only May- yes they are far north!

Is this all I have to say about Germany you ask? NO I answer! Mike came and visited too! More stories to follow…….

Posted 09 June 2008 † kirsten § Travel ‡ Comments (0) °

View from my office

The air travel didn’t so much rock the house this week.

I was in Albany today (well, Schenectady) after a laundry overnight last night. Now sitting on a Barbie Pencil Jet at Dulles to Manchester NH, since my scheduled flight to Boston won’t leave until at least 00:30 (and I bet it will canx entirely, last I looked the plane was still in Chicago on its way here.) And all this after Dulles ramp decided not to bother loading my bags on the Albany flight this morning, making me wait five hours for them to come up on the next flight before I could go to my meeting.

Should have just driven from Albany to Billerica. Ha, point “A” to point “B.”

Oh well, it could be worse. Surely.

I ended up getting to Manchester around midnight, then driving about an hour to my hotel near Boston. I was still better off, though, than my original plan – which didn’t land at Boston until about 3:30 a.m.

The bright thing in the left side is a Garmin nav unit, which is totally the best thing. You get in a rental car in some city you’ve never been to before, punch in the address, and a nice British woman tells you where to go. She’s very patient.

Posted 21 May 2008 † mjg § View from my office § Work travel ‡ Comments (0) °

View from my office

It’s hard to tell, but this is the Carlsbad Courtyard by Marriott. Took the long way to Chicago this week (it was cheaper.)

Now here’s the funny thing. This is the Carlsbad airport. All of it. All of it. Well, okay, half of it. The second doublewide is the post-security waiting room.

In which we have this gem. Is TSA kidding me? Sure I remember what it felt like to feel safe. It was when you people weren’t running things.

Posted 13 May 2008 † mjg § View from my office ‡ Comments (0) °

Toto, I don’t think we’re in California anymore

well, at least the peanut butter cups have protein.The snacks at a computer security conference generally run toward the four basic food groups: coffee, soda, candy and booze.

Posted 05 May 2008 † mjg § Work travel ‡ Comments (1) °

I’m here too. But only for a minute.

Hey all. Lest you think that Kirsten is the only blogger around, I’ll raise my keyboard for a sec and chip in.

We’ve embarked on our yearly May Festival of Travel. It seems Kirst can’t avoid going to Bonn every spring, and she’s headed there in about a week. I find myself this evening in St. Petersburg… Florida. Oh well, one out of two ain’t bad. At least I can still pay for things in dollars.

it's not what you would call subtleI’m currently in the hotel lobby bar, with Don Julio and Señor Patrón as my dinner companions. We’ll be spending the next few days here with some prospective customers, which promises to be a fine time talking about all kinds of things related to computer security. At the moment, though, I’m trying to finish up some slides for a presentation I’ll be making later in the week at the University of North Carolina. No matter how hard we try, slides just never get done less than a week before they get presented.

On the Graglo front, Kirst has been feeling a lot more kicks and punches lately − and if I’m very quiet, I can feel them from the outside. Very exciting, and completely unsurprising. Henry was an active kid, according to my sister, and Graglo is certainly related to Kirst. We’re going in for another monitoring ultrasound later this week, which should be another opportunity to peer in and see how things are progressing. The books say the baby ought to be around 1.4 pounds now, finally larger than the Münsterschnitzel I had in Bonn last year!

Posted 04 May 2008 † mjg § Jackson § Work travel ‡ Comments (0) °

So what’s the latest on Graglo and the rest of us?

So you may be wondering to yourself what’s up with Graglo and Mike and me. Well, things are pretty good I tell you. Given my scientific background, my penchant for data, and the fact that my OB is in the ‘if it has any possibility of being a problem and it can be tested, then let it be tested’ category, we’ve had some testing done lately.

I’m happy to say that Graglo is testing 100% normal so far (normal in terms of physically and gross chromosomal defects- not personality, looks, likelihood of twitching, strong desire to head-butt people, etc). We did amnio and there are no gross chromosomal defects, we did a level II ultrasound and I saw Graglo has 4 heart chambers, 2 brain lobes, 10 fingers and toes, internal organs (although I had to believe the tech on that one, they look like blobs to the un-initiated like myself) and all the other relevant bits. Also, we’ve recently done a fetal echocardiogram and Graglo’s heart looks 100% and the chambers are all beating together in unison at 145 beats per minute. So we’re getting a thumbs up on that front.

One other thing we learned is that Graglo does not particularly like sitting still, or having the uterus compressed by the ultrasound device as there was much punching and kicking and wiggling when it was pushed down on my abdomen. The poor echocardiogram doc kept saying ‘baby, HOLD STILL’ as Graglo continued to dive and weave and dodge the sound waves while she tried to get good images. Given the movement and the pushing back when personal space is intruded upon (if you’ve ever tried to take a blanket from me in my sleep, you’ll know what I’m talking about), Graglo seems to be more in my personality camp than Mike’s at the moment. We could be in for some interesting times at the end of August!

In terms of me- I’m doing pretty well. I had an OB visit- I’m at 22 weeks (5 ½ months) I’m up 8-10 lbs, and I’m feeling pretty good. Tired, and less able to touch my toes than I once was, but okay. My only real complaint is that I’ve now developed sciatica in my left thigh, so it feels tingly or it burns frequently now. I’ve been doing lots of stretches and going to the gym and icing and heating my back which is helping, but it’s still not something I’d ever really wished for. ‘pain in left thigh’ has never been on my birthday or X-mas list.

In tems of Mike- he pretty much looks the same as ever. Not fair I tell you, not fair!

To show you more of the changes occurring and our little progeny to come- here is a close up of Graglo’s head at ~20 weeks and Graglo’s heart and heart beat. Also, some photos of me. I’m going to let you figure out which is which. I love technology! graglo-level2-ultrasoun.jpg img_3925.JPG img_3928.JPG

Posted 24 April 2008 † kirsten § Jackson ‡ Comments (2) °

View from my office


Going to San Francisco for k2’s last hurrah before the baby comes.

Posted 17 April 2008 † mjg § View from my office ‡ Comments (0) °

Sign in the Philadelphia Amtrak station

Why bother captioning?

Posted 15 April 2008 † mjg § View from my office ‡ Comments (0) °