Tag: 2013

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My 2013

The year 2013 stood out more than past years, enough so to write this post..

Our “babies” left us this year … our babies being our fancy pet rats. We rescued, and provided a sanctuary at times, as well as adopted fancy pet rats for close to ten years but as difficult as it was we chose to take a pause in that work this year with the passing of our last babies over the summer time. They are beautiful, intelligent, addictive little creatures but we are among the few that see them that way and they require a great deal of work to ensure they live a safe and comfortable life. A life any family pet deserves.

I changed jobs this year, some may even say I started a new career, too. I spend nearly 25 years with E.C.E. (Canada) Ltd. serving many roles with many titles but essentially it could all be boiled down to customer service. It was a tumultuous year for E.C.E. as well with new ownership taking over but they will survive and strive if by nothing more than the passion of that new ownership … or so at least I firmly believe and wish them all the best going forward with.

After many months of discussions and negotiations I started my second career as the Lead Happiness Engineer – NextGEN Gallery at Photocrati Media; in its essence a customer service role but one with great potential for growth. The opportunities offered by a small company can be immense, especially one that is building its product offering on the WordPress platform. Obviously there is the possibility of growing the Lead Happiness Engineer role, but there is also the possibilities of being able to actually use my WordPress knowledge and the code writing skill sets I have built as well with contributions to the Photocrati Media products currently being offered and the new products, features, and options being considered for the future.

We, Terri and I, traveled this year, too. It wasn’t that we has set out in the beginning of the year to cross something off our bucket lists but we created the opportunity all the same. We rode the world famous trolley cars of San Francisco. Although we had far reaching plans to visit the Grand Canyon, Yosemite Park, and the Hoover dam (not necessarily in that order) the US Government happen to “close” at the same which was actually quite fortunate in hindsight as our travel plans were forced to be drastically changed but, also in hindsight, our west coast vacation was a much better holiday. We stayed in Monterey for a few days and then moved up to San Francisco for a few more days.

Looking forward to 2014 already has a significant event on the horizon, Terri and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary … not certain what else this year holds for us but we have each other and I am certain we will have things to do and places to see.

Happy New Year!

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First Days Of Winter 2013

The first day of Winter brought with it freezing rain. Now this was not so bad by itself, a light coating of thin ice makes for beautiful images and generally does not have a dramatic impact on the trees around Lake Aquitaine …

… but unfortunately the weather forecast and the continued freezing rains that followed left many of the trees around our lake in a sad and broken condition.

Terri and I walked around yesterday (follow the link to her images) taking pictures of the trees and other ice covered pieces around the lake, my images are in the first gallery. We walked around again early this morning (more images by Terri) and this is when I took the second gallery images.

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Big Basin Redwood State Park

After our harrowing experience driving on mountain roads to get where we were going. We were almost to the point where we had enough and just wanted to find our way out of the wilderness … and a freeway to Monterey. We pretty much stumbled upon the park, so much so that we didn’t think we were even at the right place and dreaded the very thought of having to return the way we had just driven. Fortunately we had finally found Big Basin Redwood State Park … and with the help of the park rangers also found we could just keep driving and find our way back to Highway 1 and a more or less safe road to Monterey, too.

Before we left, we paid a second time for day-use of a state park and proceeded to take our time following a simple trail through the trees. Here are some of the picture from the day:

 

To see the NB click here.To hide the NB click here.
Travel Tip: When touring California State Parks, you only have to pay once … and just remember to display your ticket in the driver’s side front window … for any State Park visit that day.
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San Francisco to Big Basin Redwood State Park

Piano on the beach

I expect this will be one of many posts describing our vacation in Monterey and San Francisco.

A little back story before the first gallery of pictures …

… Terri was away for business in Fort Worth, Texas. She knew this a few weeks in advance and suggested we take this opportunity to have a “real” vacation since it had been 15 years since our last one. So, our plans were set in motion. I would meet her in Fort Worth on Thursday Night and then we would fly to San Francisco Friday morning; pick up a rental car and head south to Monterey. This is when the fun begins.

Terri drove out of the airport and we found our way heading south to Monterey. We knew our check-in time was after 3:00 PM, and it was just past 10:00 AM so we thought some site-seeing along the way just made sense … and with the sign pointing to Half Moon Bay we were off to Highway 1 and an adventure. We found Half Moon Bay State Park and stopped there to see the Pacific Ocean first-hand. A first for Terri and 40 years since I last was near enough to see it in person for myself. We found some interesting sites and even some interesting sounds with a weather-beaten stand-up piano on the side of the road over-looking the beach and the ocean (rumor has it belongs to Neil Young whom supposedly lives nearby where we found the piano).

At this same time, the US government in their infinite wisdom (really, you seriously decided to put all of those people out of work because of some sort of pissing content?!) closed and therefore all of the National parks were closed, too (with serious fines for those found “trespassing”). This made us go looking for other parks where we could see the majesty of the Redwoods which led us to Big Basin Redwood State Park.

Now, let me tell you a story about why you should not turn on the “Avoid Freeways” option with a GPS. We call our GPS, Maggie (short for either Magpie or the actual brand Magellan) … and Maggie did a phenomenal job of leading us on a beautiful scenic route to the park. She said, turn left onto El Honda Road, we turned left. She said “Warning”, to tell us we were going over the speed limit. She reminded us to stay on the road … well, the mountains were making it a bit difficult to keep the satellite lock but Maggie was diligent in making sure she told us to stay on the right road. We stopped at a local deli/market for lunch then got back on the road. Maggie told us to carry on to Old El Honda Road and follow it … and the adventure got real.

Old El Honda Road winds and turns and follows the mountain up … and up … and down … and up … and up some more. All that would be fine, except it also essentially turns into one of those one-lane, nothing on one side and a mountain on the other which can be quite terrifying for someone afraid of heights, like Terri. She did amazing given the challenges of the drive but soon enough we switched places as the emptiness over her left shoulder was just too much. I drove the rest of the way to the top of the mountain, only about five more minutes of hell but we ended on a more proper road that we followed to some similar but not so severe roads that eventually took us to the park … just when we thought we had enough we turned a corner and there was the park ranger station.

These pictures were mostly from the passenger seat of the car as I tried to capture the essence of the drive …

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Monterey and San Francisco, California

Terri and I have been vacationing on the West Coast for the last week (we still have a couple more days ahead of us) but I thought it would be a good time to get the ball rolling on what to expect for the next several posts.

After meeting Terri in Fort Worth, Texas we flew to San Francisco, California the following morning; rented a car (a lower-end version of our own Chevrolet Impala); and, headed south. We had an adventure in Big Basin as we followed El Honda Road to Old El Honda Road. As a side-note, the Old El Honda Road into Big Basin is not for the feint of heart as it basically narrows down to a single lane mountain side road with no guard rails or any sort of safety measures aside from your driving skills and nerves of steel. Once settled into the seaside city of Monterey we took day trips and visited the famous Monterey Aquarium and Cannery Row as well as the 17 Mile Drive and some of the State Parks found nearby.

After four days, we headed back north to San Francisco to spend the rest of our vacation time in and about the city. We cruised the bay, visited with the Sea Lions, spent some time on the more famous Whaler’s Wharf and also the world re-known Pier 39 as well. We visited the Golden Gate Bridge via boat tour, bus tour, and even made our way to Sausalito for a quick pass through visit.

I have over 2000 pictures (so far) to review and process … and share. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed this vacation so far.

To see the NB click here.To hide the NB click here.
NB: I’ll be editing and updating this post to link to future posts with galleries of pictures from each day.
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WordCamp Toronto 2013

It’s on … and, yes, I am involved with the event as a co-organizer.

WordCamp Toronto 2013 will be held in the fall at a well known and historical Toronto location. The full details of the date and the venue will follow soon …

This year, the current WordCamp Toronto Organizers team members are, in alphabetical order:

Obviously the official announcements will be easily found at the official WordCamp Central site: http://2013.toronto.wordcamp.org/, but we will also be making use of the official unofficial WordCamp Toronto site at: http://wcto.ca where you will be able to see WordCamp Toronto as it is planned … and be able to participate in those discussions.

Some important points to note with this year’s version of WordCamp Toronto:

I am looking forward to an exciting next six months as we plan, organize, and have a great deal of fun presenting WordCamp Toronto 2013 …
… and I am looking forward to seeing everyone there, too!

To see the other organizer related posts click here.To hide the other organizer related posts click here.
Organizing WordCamp Toronto 2013 by Andy