WLAN Design Class in San Francisco

I think I agree with Mark Twain... "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

It was in the 50's and low 60's in San Francisco this week. I was wishing I'd brought along my vest! But I would much rather be chilly than hot.
I taught a three-day AirMagnet class on Wireless Network Design at the Courtyard Marriott in the SoMa area of San Francisco this week. (South of Market street... I guess this is like the SoHo in Manhattan - South of Houston)
I was able to go and sit a class on the new Macintosh OS X Leopard at the Apple Store one night after class. And the other night after class I was able to watch the new 'Get Smart' movie. It was really fun to watch. An enjoyable movie - highly recommended. Then on Wednesday I was going to fly home and watch Brent's Men's League Lacrosse game, but the flight was delayed and I didn't get home till 10:30pm.

Emma Dog...

After over two months of fighting off an unknown infection... multiple visits to the Vet... four rounds of IV anti-biotic... and multiple tests... Emma passed away this morning a little before 7:00am.
The family stayed up with her all through the night to give her comfort, support, and love in her time of need. We'll remember Emma as the "so ugly she's cute" little dog everyone loved. The family will really miss having her in our lives. Hearing the little 'jingle' from her collar tags as she moved around the house. Having her excited 'dance' as you returned home after a long day away.She will be missed!

Saturday - Garage Floor and BBQ Sauce

Today was the day to put down the new floor in the Garage. Our old 'paint job' was deteriorated way too much. To do another paint job would have required sand-blasting the old paint/oil/stains prior to putting new paint down. So instead, I got a hold of a vinyl floor covering specifically designed for Garage Floors. Stain and Oil resistant - as well as has grooves for the water/snow to slide down. I first made a pattern of the various stairs/walls/etc. so I could cut the vinyl to a pattern rather than try it myself. It was going to be a 'family project' - but I got up early and just 'got 'er dun'. It still needs to 'rest' for a couple of days before we make the final trim cuts and glue it to the floor.

It was also the day of the year for me to make my BBQ sauce. I learned of this secret recipe from a friend, Berke Horrocks in Bothell years ago... and try to put up a bunch of quarts every year. This year I made a total of 22 Quarts - Whew! It took most of the afternoon and into the evening. Making the Sauce, simmering, cleaning all the glass jars, filling the jars, sealing, and then a 10-minute water bath to 'can' the BBQ sauce. I only 'lost' one jar in the process!
Here's a picture of the cooling jars while the last load was in the water bath.

Put your orders in now while I have 'a few' jars available!

Recording 802.11 n Workshop in San Jose

Thursday I took a flight over to San Jose - and spent the afternoon working with some folks at AirMagnet on a variety of projects.

But the 'real' reason for the visit was to re-do the 802.11 n Workshop (the one I was on the road teaching the last couple of weeks...) for an Audience of AirMagnet employees - and be recorded so AirMagnet could sell the class offline as well as the live sessions.It was a bit awkward in being recorded - because there was only the recording engineer and myself in the room during the recording. (The employees were called away on some project they were working on) I've been hesitating to do the recording... because it feels a bit awkward... and weird to hear your own voice in the headphones while you're speaking... But it's all over now and will be turned in to a large FLASH presentation - including live demonstrations on the new AirMagnet Laptop and Survey tools that have been upgraded with 802.11 n features.

Then home again tonight. Quick trip.

Bad Travel Karma...

I normally am blessed with very good travel karma... I was calculating up the other day, after I 'lost' my car in the Airport Parking Lot, that I've been on nearly 800 flights in the last ten years.

Sunday night I not only wasn't on my scheduled flight, but I missed the entire teaching gig up in Northern Alberta on Monday morning. It was a carnival of errors, last minute changes, expensive tickets (actually the most expensive ticket I've ever purchased at over $3,300...) - so when I get to the Airport the Delta counter wouldn't/couldn't print out my boarding passes since the AirCanada flight from Edmonton to Ft. McMurray was oversold and so I was 'bumped'. I don't like the feeling.

I did, however, get a chance to be with family on Father's Day for dinner at Janet's house and spend time with everyone there.

So a quick little reschedule - change from 5 6-hour days, to 4 8-hour days and a flight on Monday... then another change to 3 10-hour days and a flight on Tuesday... then at 10:30pm Monday night another change to move the entire class out till September. This is the first time in over 15 years of teaching that I haven't been at the venue ready to start the first morning of class. It was a kind of ego buster... that is until Jill slapped me out of the funk.

Whew! - I booked and canceled over 6 different itineraries in less than a week.

So now I'm off to San Jose tomorrow to teach the 802.11 n Workshop - but this time for AirMagnet employees and to be recorded so they can have the workshop on DVD to sell to their customers. But I'll be back Friday night... so it's just a 'quick trip'

Jill's Hard Work in the Yard!

I'm glad to be married to a spouse who likes to do yard work!

I really enjoy our yard now... but I really never have enjoyed working on it... ok, sometimes I like making the lines in the grass perfect when mowing... but weeding, getting my hands dirty... yeck!

But Jill is very good at it... and over the last couple of days has done lots of work on the yard and house to get ready for folks to come over next month for our grand-daughter Kylie's Blessing.
She has added color and flower pots to the front porch and hanging plants as well. Pruned all the shrubs, trees, worked on the sprinklers, and loaded not only an entire trailer of topsoil to all the garden beds... but also an entire trailer of bark as well. I figured hundreds of wheelbarrow loads!Yea Jill! - and of course I have to thank Brent for all his work in helping his Mom as well. Thanks for a nice yard to come home to.

Brent's Temple Visit to Salt Lake City

Saturday afternoon the adults in our family went with Brent as he went through the Salt Lake City Temple for the first time in preparation for going on his mission to Sao Paulo in August.
We had a good session, then on to a nice dinner up at 'The Roof' restaurant on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.The grounds of the temple and the surrounding area were beautiful, and we enjoyed our family's company together. It is so nice to have your children turn into adults. I'm proud of both of my sons and how they have turned out. Intelligent, insightful, and just fun to be around. Thanks!

Another 802.11n Workshop Week

Go to Airport, Fly to new city, travel to hotel, check in hotel, sleep, setup classroom, teach, take down classroom, ... repeat three times.

That was my week.

Coming off a great family vacation to Puerto Vallarta... I was home one day then off on a week of traveling. Washington DC, New York City, and then Chicago. The weather was hot and muggy everywhere. But the class went very well at each venue.

It took over 12 hours to finally get home from Chicago after waiting for, and flying around that big storm in the 'midwest'. Like Chicago is in the middle of the west...

I did have a day to catch up on some work at home and the office.

Sorry no, pictures this week.

Books and Vacation

I think that one element of a good vacation is a chance to read, read, and more reading. It is very relaxing for me to sit by the beach or pool and just read.

This week was no exception. Sunday and Monday's readings are in a previous blog.

Tuesday was the Nelson DeMille - Wild Fire - just 'ok' - but swears too much. Wednesday as James Patterson - Step on a Crack. About a New York Cop with 10 adopted children to add some human interest to a mystery suspense novel.
Thursday - I was on the water on six different boats... so no book

Friday - John Sanford - Invisible Prey. I like this guy's writing and characters... but as in James Patterson's books about cops... too much swearing. I'll be leaving these three at the 'book swap' in the hotel here.

Saturday - Today while we finish up in the hotel and on the flight home I'll be reading an Orson Scott Card novel from Ryan called 'Invasive Procedures' Six books in one week... not bad relaxation!

Family Vacation in Puerto Vallarta - Part 5

Day in the Sun...

We spent the day lounging around the beach and the pool - playing in the water, reading, sleeping, etc. Very Relaxing.

So for the day's pictures I included pictures of the hotel, the hotel grounds, flowers, and other pictures from our vacation.

Tomorrow we have to return to the 'real' world. Where people don't offer you free drinks throughout the day... room service isn't there to make you a sandwich at midnight, and someone doesn't clean up after you multiple times per day... bummer man!

Rather than make captions for each of these photos - I've just named them. Roll your mouse over the photo and the name 'is' the caption.

By the way... Some of these shots were taken by Ryan Keith Parsons... Photographer Extraordinare.

Family Vacation in Puerto Vallarta - Part 4

Thursday - My day for Boats!

In the morning Jill and I used the gym on the elipical machines and weight machines then got some play time in at the beach before heading off on my America's Cup tour. I spent over 7 hours on the ocean on a variety of boats.
This big Iguana was waiting by the dock before my first boat trip of the day.

Starting out with a small 'zodiac' boat ride for 20 minutes from the Nuevo Vallarta Marina, out and south to the Puerto Vallarta Marina to transfer to a larger 'apex' (a 30 person Zodiac-like boat) out to rendezvous with the America's Cup Race Boat.

I was on the Aus 29 boat that lost in the 2000 America's Cup Finals by 2.4 seconds. - A many tens of millions investment... made totally of carbon fiber with 1/4 million dollar sails... something that was on my 'bucket list' - glad I got a chance.

We had to sail around for awhile while the other boat had to offload a passenger who fell and twisted their ankle during the first 'warm up' maneuvers. These race boats really 'heel over' and it's hard to stay in your assigned position...

Then we had three races against the Aus 31 boat (crewed by other tour folks like myself) - we had to 'grind' the headsail back and forth during tacking maneuvers as well as the mainsail. It was great fun to be in such a craft. Then we got an 'extra' hour of sailing in the bay as the tender boat unloaded some passengers from each boat who had to get back to their cruise ship... So I got a chance to actually steer the boat as we sailed around Banderas Bay.

Then a transfer on the Apex back to the marina, then a different 'Scuba Tender' boat from the Marina back north to 'our marina'.

Then after checking in at the hotel, we all went back out in another 'Ketch' rigged sailboat for a dinner cruise. Ryan, Brent, Jill and Alysha all got seasick and really didn't enjoy the sailboat ride, along with most of the other passengers - so we brought the boat back early and got to watch the sunset from the Italian place at the Vallarta Palace instead. Later that evening Alysha and Katie were picked to participate in a 'Game Show' type entertainment at night...