Catching Up

I haven't blogged in a while and have some catching up to do. And yes, dear reader, there have been changes:

My new position, Sales Engineer/Director of Technical Training, requires that I work from home. It's the best thing ever! No more babysitting grown adults, no more stress over internal politics, no more swimming with the sharks aka working with the backstabbers. Glorious!!! True, I seem to be getting little (read as: no) direction on the "Technical Training" portion of the new job, but I can live with that.

Part of my territory is what we call the "Mid-Atlantic" which consists of NJ, MD, and Eastern PA. I'm going there in a few weeks to sus out the lay of the land for our products. Can't wait.

And supposedly there may be some international travel associated with the afore-mentioned "training" position. I'll believe it when I see it, but that would be a welcome change for me. I loved seeing different countries and experiencing different cultures, at least until the demand of constantly travelling burned me out. Time will tell.

My brother has been having some health issues. He was in the hospital last week where it was discovered that he had fluid building up around his lungs and heart. Friday, he had an operation to cut a pericardial window in the sack around his heart to relieve the fluid build-up there. His lungs have been drained twice. The frightening thing is that the doctors don't yet know why this is happening. He shows no signs of infection, so it may be a viral outbreak. He is still in the hospital as of this writing.

Last weekend, my friend Missie and I went to see the Vatican Splendors exhibit at the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland. Fantastic! If you get a chance to see this touring exhibit, do so. Afterward, we checked out the Puerto Rican Festival. The empanadas were terrific, the arepas pretty good and the piña coladas were cold and refreshing but there wasn't much happening late Saturday afternoon. We decided that next year we'll come back in the evening, when there are singing acts and probably more people.

But Turbo had a good time:

Translation:
"At the Puerto Rican Festival, TURBO eats an empanada and rice with beans and sips a cold piña colada while watching the pretty ladies walk by. Smooth."

Where will Turbo pop up next?

P.S. I hope everyone managed to catch Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog while it was online. Some of those songs are still stuck in my head!