Core i7 processor (fastest consumer processor as of this week at least). New 23 inch monitor just came in today. HOLY CRAP. It’s huge. And HD 1080p. Now I’m wishing I’d upgraded to the BluRay drive in the laptop. ; ) But I shouldn’t get too greedy I suppose. The purpose of all of this tech upgrade was to facilitate my workload. Running processor-intensive programs on the little Acer laptop just wasn’t going well. I’d get 4 or 5 programs running (which is unfortunately a necessity) and then I’d just sit and wait. And wait. Not anymore!

As the picture above shows, this week Google has been honoring public television by applying Sesame Street characters to it’s logo. I about died when I saw Cookie Monster. Simply amazing. The Big Bird logo the day before that was pretty sweet, too.

Well, to all those reading – it’s time for a nice weekend. Becca’s been hinting at actually doing something this weekend – as of yet undetermined. Tonight I intend on getting a nice “tasty steak” (because that was the only thing I could think about during today’s social networking class) and then passing out on the couch. Tomorrow may hold something better. We’ll see. Ciao!

Before I ate, though, I walked down to the Charles and walked out about half-way over the bridge. Pretty cool view of Cambridge and even looking back into Back Bay. But it was cold. C.O.L.D. Mainly because of the biting wind. Regardless, I was oohing and aahing at all the cool architecture. There are some awesome buildings here. My best guess is that most of them are relics of the 1800s. Cool stuff.

Back to the Irish pub. Had some tasty fish and chips. And managed to down 1 pint of Guiness (can’t be in an Irish pub and not have Guiness, right?) and 2 pints of Sam Adams. I stumbled back up Mass Ave and decided to venture around a nifty Best Buy that spanned 3 stories of a building. Picked up some new music. Then I came back to the hotel, played Boggle on Pogo and passed out.  Tonight I think I might try to find the Sam Adams brewery and lord knows what else.  Until next time!

Everyone in the office is super nice, the office itself is super nice and I was able to plug in and start working without a fuss.  WordStream’s office is on the 16th floor of a tower owned by the Christian Scientists, right next to the rather large Prudential Tower and about 1.5 blocks from my hotel room at the Hilton Back Bay. Being in a cube, surrounded by the ever-familiar “clickety-clack” of keyboards feels much more professional than my meager home office!

Despite my want to explore, my body put up a solid fight yesterday. Waking up at 3 am isn’t as easy as it used to be. My post-work evening consisted of a hot shower, a dinner out, ice cream and beer in the hotel’s Starbucks (weird, right?) and then a dip in the hot tub and pool before passing out to Monday Night Football glowing on the TV.

Assuming that it stops raining today, I plan on putting on my tennis shoes and seeing where my legs take me. May try to venture over to the Charles Basin, check out Fenway Park and who knows what else before I run out of steam tonight. Here are the few photos I managed to take with my phone yesterday:

Abigail: Father’s Joy

3 years ago Abby was born and changed our lives forever. Beautiful. Funny. Endlessly curious. Totally and completely my offspring (uh oh!), but more than anything my joy.

Sappy stuff aside – we had a fantastic party yesterday.  Fantastic not because of gifts, but because we had a home full of family and friends. It’s always a fascinating affair to put my family and Becca’s family together and throw in a few friends. Stir vigorously, and whalah! There’s a lot of people. A lot of kids. And a lot of fun (usually).

We didn’t get too many pictures yesterday, but I’ve pieced together a few of the best for this blog post.  If you took pictures yesterday, please make sure Becca and I get them from you, please!

On Tuesday we hit the Ripley’s mini-golf course again.  It was in the mid-nineties and all of us were soaked in sweat.  Mmmm…  After packing up all of our crap and saying the inevitable good-byes to Phil and Jess, we hit the road – bound for good ole Indiana.

What a drive!  It rained practically the entire way home, rather heavily in spots.  We stopped twice – once for dinner and again for ice cream.  Blame Abby.  When we got to Louisville, there was road construction on I-64.  The crews were working at 11 pm in the rain and had the damn interstate down to 1 lane.  That wasted 30+ minutes of our time.  All said and done we got home at 1:30 am (Wednesday morning).

We had a great time in Tennessee.  Big thanks to Phil and Jess for their hospitality and letting us crash with them for 4 nights.  While we are now home, the vacation isn’t really over.  Becca is off of work through Sunday.  Phil and Jess will actually be here Thursday/Friday.  They have a wedding to attend and they are attending the Dave Matthews Band concert with us on Friday!  I think Laura, Gracie and Maggie will be here over the weekend.  So I’m sure more fun times will be had.  I’ll be sure to blog about anything interesting that pops up…

Part of the exorbitant ticket prices was due to the fact that the movie was being shown in digital 3-D.  Sort of made up for the prices.  But I will say that the movie was fantastic!  Pixar continues to amaze me with their improvements in animation and story-telling.  Though I will warn those of you who haven’t seen UP that it is quite emotional.  The first 10 minutes alone are like a tear-jerking hit to the stomach.  Ahh…

After the movie, we picked up some groceries and I made dinner for everyone.  Cream cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped chicken breasts with a cream of mushroom and Monterrey jack penne mac and a side of California style veggies.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the fat-filled carnage, eating past their fill.  : )

We wrapped the evening up with video games.  The ladies played Rock Band 2 with us.  At one point, Phil made a beer run downstairs.  Since he was playing drums, we decided to play a little trick on him.  We picked Metallica’s Battery (Master of Puppets, hell yeah!).  That song is amazing, and amazingly difficult.  We put him at Expert level.  For any Rock Band aficionados out there, you’ll know that drums on Expert is about impossible.  HOLY CRAP was that drum part insane.  Phil gave it the old college try and soaked his clothes with sweat to prove it.  We were all laughing so hard we couldn’t play our own instruments properly.  Good stuff.

I’ll leave you all with a moment of beauty from yesterday.  While we were in the grocery, it rained.  Since they were scattered t-storms, the sun came right back out.  As we exited the store, we witnessed a complete double-rainbow.  Simply beautiful.  I only had my cell phone for taking a photo, so this pic doesn’t really do it justice.  But I’m sure you can fill in the pixelated gaps with your imagination!  (And with that I say adios until tomorrow, ya’ll!)

Double Rainbow in Knoxville, TN

Clingman’s Dome is amazing.  For many reasons – 1) it’s beautiful and 2) it’s a physical challenge to make it to the top!  Our crew (Me, Becca, Abigail, Phil and Jess) made it all the way with only 5 stops along the way.  Phil had the best endurance with me bringing up the rear.  But getting to the observation deck was well worth the climb.

After the Dome, we went to the place where Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the Great Smokey Mountain National Park in 1939.  It’s right on the Tennessee/North Carolina state line.  Didn’t realize we were traveling into North Carolina!  Heck, even Clingman’s Dome is in NC.  Show’s how much I know, right?

“To the free people of America. We meet today to dedicate the mountains, streams, and forests to the service of the American people.”

The final leg of our trip was to make the jaunt around Cade’s Cove.  We’ve done this before (and Phil/Jess have done it countless times), but it is still beautiful.  We were hoping for a bear, but instead saw 20 or so deer.  Even saw a few bucks with antlers.  Sweet…

We made it back to Phil and Jess’s house around 11 pm, exhausted.  A good day, for sure.  Today will be a hodgepodge of random activities.  We’ve discussed a candy factory, country-themed dinner theater and seeing the movie UP.  I’ll let you know how it all goes in my next installment!  Until then…