Declan's Blog

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Every year the folks at work throw a cool Halloween party!

Great costumes:

Great eats:

Um… this:

More pix here.

I’ve been remiss in posting lately!

Thanks to Grandma watching the kidlets, Elaine and I were able to travel to Seattle and Victoria so that I could take way too many pictures.  Some even looked nice!

I’ve got sets of pictures from each day of the trip here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigdpix/sets/

Look for the NW Vacation Sets.

We flew in from Seattle this afternoon and saw the wildfiles:

There are more in this Flickr set.

I was talking to a friend a while back and realized that in 20 years as a professional, I’ve never taken more than a week off at any one time.  Part of the reason is my profession, the Information Technology field.  It moves fast and is full of deadlines.  And I’ve always been a hands on kind of guy.  Now that I’m a director, the day to day is less dependent on me.

So, what would a two week vacation look like?  No kids…  Sorry guys, but the week trips to NYC and riding bikes from Yuma to San Diego are not what I’m after for this.  A good description of a vacation for me would be “a long period of time where I don’t have to make decisions.”

Some ideas that have come up so far:

Take a cruise.  I did this a few years ago, to Alaska.  It was actually very nice.  I think I’m resisting it now because I’ve done it before.  Also, a cruise is just FULL of calories… 🙂

Ride my bike on some long trip.  This one has some attractiveness in the fitness area, and getting out on my own.  I just keep thinking about how dependent I was on Elaine on the Ride Across California though, and wonder if I could pull this off alone.

Fly off to Europe.  Could have lots of family obligations…

A cabin in the woods.  I tried this in Idlywilde once, but I got in late and it was closed.  The whole town.  Ended up driving from 60 degree weather to 110 weather in Palm Springs.

Palm Springs.  This is actually a lot my speed.  You really can’t go outside much, so there’s an easy excuse to sit in a hotel or cafe and read science fiction books.  Also, I just finished “Generation X” by Coupland, which details a group of people who dropped out in their 30s and got McJobs there.  I think I’m kinda old for that now, tho.  Another place I’ve already “done.”

Vegas.  For two weeks tho?  I’d lose the house… 🙂

So, blogosphere, where should I go?  What should I do?

I can imagine some of the questions… 

Q: What do you want to accomplish?
A: Nothing more specific than to be relaxed and rejuvenated at the end of it.

Q: What’s your budget?
A: Hmm, that’s a toughie…  I’d pay a lot to relax at this point.  I guess some day I have to pay for college for the kids, and retirement.  Lets leave this open at the moment.  Dare to dream.

Q: Do you want to travel alone?
A: Yes and no.  I do get lonely, but I also need some alone time.  I love seeing my family and friends, but I don’t want that to set the agenda.  Getting off an resetting is the goal.

It’s going to take me a while to get all the days written up.

Here is a link to all of my pictures on Flickr. 

http://images.google.com/images?q=tiananmen+square

http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen+square

My buddies KC and Dave Lemson have respawned!

Here’s her official website.

Congrats Lemsons!!!

We hardly knew ye…