Entry Finished

Well it took me a good twenty four hours to get back to updating this, so here we go. It is now the day before Thanksgiving and in just a few hours I will be leaving work picking up Jen, Melissa and Bailey the beagle for the long commute down to Connecticut. Yep that's right I am spending the holiday weekend with Jen's family. I can't wait its going to be fun.

The ski season started two weeks ago and I have skied three times. I started on telemark and last weekend due to a random overnight injury had to alpine. The cold weather really hasn't been around much up there and they haven't had a chance to really make much snow. Hopefully a cold spell will come soon and make it worthwhile to drive all the way up there. I am sure Mother Nature will have more than a few surprises up her sleeve over the coming winter. The house Kate and I rented is great. There are several different rooms so you don't feel squeezed in with everybody in the house, you can really go into another room and just do your own thing.

Work has been hectic the last few days while I have tried to get a special project completed by today so I get Friday off. It seems to be working okay as of noon today, lets just hope nothing crazy happens between now and Friday. I will be on call though, so if something does go wrong I can help patch things up from CT.

Spanish class at the BCAE (Boston Center for Adult Education) is great. I have refreshed my memory on so many topics its tough to keep track. We are halfway through the class and I am already beginning to remember the preterite. Ahhh not that!!!! The class is very laid back and the Argentine teacher is hilarious.

Can you believe how everything Christmas is out already? Macy's was putting things out in the middle of last month and now have full displays set up. It won't be long before they just leave stuff up year round.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!!! Gobble, Gobble!!!!

Somebody's Out of Shape

Well I learned one thing for sure yesterday, I am not in shape. I went up to the mountain yesterday morning for my first day of skiing. Instead of taking the easy route, I decided to push myself and brought my tele gear. Let's just say after two runs I was so sore I couldn't ski more than fifty yards without stopping. Now I could have gone to the car and put on my alpine skis for a bunch of runs, but I am not one to give up and stuck it out for a few more runs. I know it makes my ski days shorter for the time being, but after a few more weeks of this I will be able to tele for much longer then if I had given in to my alpine skis.

Let's go back to Friday. Work wasn't nearly as bad as on Thursday and I was able to get out on time to go see a Boston Chamber Music Society concert with Jen. It was great especially the last performance, which had two people playing Stravinsky's Rite of Spring on one piano. It was an intense song and the pianists were even more intense. On Saturday we drove up to the Portland Museum of Art. It was nice, much smaller than some of the places I went to in Europe, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. We walked around the Old Port for a little while and then drove up to the Outpost for the night. I took a bunch of random pictures.

BoCaNO Funny Faces
First Weekend Up North

Career Discover

I began the Career Discovery program at State Street. Basically they give you a few surveys and help you figure out what you want to be when you grow up. Here are the primary and secondary motivators for me. Do you think they describe me?

Intellectual/Physical Challenge
For those with this Career Driver, the one thing that matters most is being challenged at the highest possible level. Success is defined in terms of winning the war, the game, the contract or the sale, overcoming obstacles, being the best, being first, beating the competition, reaching for their highest, surpassing previous goals, and so on. This Type sees the area of work or the specific job to be performed as secondary to the experience of challenge. The challenge can be intellectual or physical, and occasionally both (planning an ascent of Mt. Everest or putting out oil-well fires in Kuwait). The challenge may be defined by the stakes-a big contract, a major gamble on a new product, or a complete reorganization of the company. These people often seek variety in their careers (and lives in general) and, in the absence of challenge, become highly dissatisfied. They are often initiators of imaginative projects. Easy things are boring for them, as is the long-term, repetitive nature of ongoing project or team management.

Professional Excellence
Those driven by Professional Excellence are most motivated by being very knowledgeable and producing highly effective work in some field of specialization. They are primarily motivated by the content of the work they perform and the form of the results they achieve. These people tend to identify strongly with their field of expertise, and their self-concept is dependent on their ability to succeed and be recognized in their area of specialty. Professional Excellence may lead to a managerial position, as many companies promote people who are good at what they do, rather than because they have managerial or people skills. But, people with Professional Excellence as a Career Driver are only satisfied if they can manage within their discipline and would avoid promotion if it meant leaving their specialty and losing their connection with that field. People with this Driver are seldom satisfied in a generalist position. Every occupation and organization has its professional achievers who are capable of making outstanding contributions when they are allowed to develop and use their expertise. It is usually of great importance to people with this Driver to be recognized for their achievement and contribution by others in their field whom they respect.

Roller Coaster Tuesday

Yesterday was a real roller coaster, I had a good morning until we had a fire drill and had to stand outside in the cold. Afterwards on a whim I went to the Morale Committee meeting for our group. It was interesting and I was able to find out when they might have the Holiday Party. The work part of my day was very boring. Lunch was good I ate Jay-Bo pizza for the first time in a while. At three we had a meeting that lasted an hour and a half. It was comical, but very long.

After work I went to Spanish class on Comm Ave. Oddly enough I wasn't too nervous about it and it turned out there was no reason to be anyway. The class has about 15 people in it. I am probably one of the youngest people in there, but most people are in their late 20's or early 30's. I couldn't believe how quickly it all came back to me. We are pretty much required to speak in Spanish for the entire two hours and about 95% of the time I knew what everybody was saying. It was funny to hear somebody make a mistake, like when this guy walked in and the teacher asked his name and he replied, "Good." Haha. After finding out one guy had two dogs, one large and one medium sized another student asked him which dog was the boss and he definitively said, "Yes, they do run the house." Haha that was the same guy who was supposed to read the role of Sr. Gonzalez in a dialogue, but he ended up reading Sr. and Sra.'s parts. It was crazy. I am looking forward to the next five weeks.

I went home and played a little Donkey Kong Country. I had never played it before and I am not too impressed with it. I know at the time everybody was raving about it, but the play control is horrible and it seems too easy. I am sticking with Mario games.

I did witness something funny this morning while watching TV. I flipped to a channel and somebody was reading letters about people who had made money or received a promotion after a $58 seed. The read letter after letter of success stories after $58 seeds. Finally the camera pulled back and it was some sort of religious guy trying to sell membership into this club of 3000 people. I can't believe people actually send money to this organization. How dumb can people be? I then realized those are probably the same people who voted for Bush last week. What is wrong with this country?

Wonderful Weekend

Once again I spent a weekend in the Boston area, but still it was a wonderful weekend. On Friday night, Scottie came in to Porter Square on the commuter rail and we went to eat at the Spirit Bar. Afterwards on the way to my housewe stopped by the liquor store and picked up a bottle of razberi stoli, Sprite and cranberry juice. We played a little Super Mario Brothers and I quickly learned that the more you drink the worse you are at video games.

On Saturday I spent most of the day at home, watching tv, playing video games, strumming the guitar and reading my book. I have now finished two of the books I bought at the book sale a week ago, "All Quiet On The Western Front" and "Brave New World". Now I am tackling the biggest so far, "Lord Jim". In the evening Jen and I went out to dinner at Cambridge Commons, which was very good. After dinner we drove to Waltham for a party at Scott's house. It was great, there were a bunch of people there and he had just bought a new video game thing with 76000 games in it. I played Contra and 1942, very cool. Unfortunately, the extra life code in Contra didn't work so I had to play with the standard 5 lives. Jen had never heard of the code and thought I was weird, I reassured her that I was in fact normal and that every guy in the room knew the code. So I asked and they all knew, at least the essence of the code. Do you know it?

On Sunday we just stayed in all morning and decided against our planned drive to Provincetown. Instead we walked to the T and went into the city for a little shopping and lunch in the North End. The lunch was fantastic and we followed it with coffee and dessert. Yummy!!!! We walked back to Charles/MGH took the T to Harvard and then walked the rest of the way home because it was such a nice day.

Next week ski season starts. Who's going up? I will be there on Sunday for a little while to see if my legs are strong enough for another year of abuse. I am thinking about switching my tele bindings to my shorter skis, because this year will mainly be on tele. I won't do the Bust 'n' Burn on them, so I will need to find another shorter pair before April, but Tele is the way to go this year.

Thursday Morning

Its been a while since I last updated, so here is a little update about what I have been up to. Well last weekend was very lazy, which is something I needed. I seem to have been going going going for the last couple months and it was nice to slow down for a little while. Jen and I went to Newburyport on Saturday for a book sale at the public library. It was my first used book sale and at one dollar a bag I couldn't have picked a better place to start. I ended up with over ten books, most were classics since I need to get a good base before I really start to experiment with new authors. Afterwards we went over to Starbucks and had coffee, I finally got to say "For Here" before the order so I would get it in mugs. Afterwards we went to my mom's house and then over to Flatbread for an late lunch. I really appreciate that place more now since I have been much more adventurous with my food choices. Sunday was such a beautiful day, we opened all of the windows up and did some cleaning and organizing. In the afternoon I met up with Andy for lunch at Pizzeria Uno, yes I know pizza two days in a row who would have thought.

Monday and Tuesday were tough days at work because of good ol' expenses. I made it and I am currently working to solve the problem well for at least the next six months. After work on both days I had to drive up to Amesbury and drop my car off for service. It was just an oil change, but I really like my dealership and don't want to switch down here just yet. I voted on Tuesday in Amesbury, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get my presidential choice selected. What is the deal with the people in the South and Midwest? Last night BoCaNO went to see the latest Warren Miller offering at the Somerville Theater. It was okay, I am just not as in to these movies as everybody else is. It does get me excited for skiing, but only about as much as when I see the first snowflakes of the season. Besides that not much is going on. Everything is very well and I am very happy.

Peace out,
Keeg

In Memory

Tiffany Staelin Slideshow

Obituary from the Toledo Blade