Category: Kyle

Look at me! I’m on a roll! Birthdays didn’t always get celebrated ON the actual day, but I’m trying to be better about that, and today we celebrated Kyle’s birthday. 🙂

Kyle decided what birthday cake he wanted, when everyone was here for Tyra’s birthday weekend. I had tried a cake recipe to use with the strawberries, since Tyra wanted strawberry shortcake, and then I noticed that the cake recipe said to frost with penuche frosting, and that recipe was right below. The next day, while we still had my family here to help us eat it, I made the cake over again so that I could try it with the penuche frosting. As we were eating that, Kyle thought it would be awesome to try the frosting on chocolate cake instead. So that is what I made for Kyle today, chocolate cake with penuche frosting.

I have had Kyle’s birthday present for months. He had no idea that I had it, though. I bought it online with some other stuff that I had ordered for Christmas (so that’s how long I’ve had it), and then I hid it so that he would have no clue it existed. A few weeks ago I pulled it out and wrapped it, (so that I wouldn’t get to the moment to give it to him and realize that I had totally forgotten to wrap it) and then I put it on top of the book shelf in the entry way. As soon as Kyle knew it was there (the kids told him that it was for him of course!) he started with the ‘maybe it’s a…’ thing that he does. In the past he would do that to try to get clues out of me, and he would end up figuring out what his present is way ahead of time. This time I let him know right up front that the kids have NO idea what it is, and therefore they couldn’t tell him, and every time he started with his guessing, I basically just told him to shut up!

Love you honey, and happy birthday!

A couple times a year, my work does a site-wide Dutch Oven cook-off, where around 20-30 people make different foods to show off, plus we get to mingle with everyone at work.  I had expressed an interest in participating, but never had a dutch oven and used that as an excuse.  So when the person in charge asked me to join in, I told him I did not have one, and he said I could use a crock pot instead.  I agreed, and began contemplating what I would cook.  There were categories for main dishes, breads, and desserts, and I figured I would try the hardest and attempt to cook bread in the crock pot.

I checked recipe books to see if it was even possible, and found a whole wheat bread that sounded curious.  I decided to do a trial run the day before, and mixed it up and left it whilst I went to work, asking Rebecca to turn it off a few hours later.  When I came home, it was well done and somewhat dark brown, but at least I knew it would work.  We put the kids to bed, and Tyra asked Rebecca, “Does daddy even know how to cook?”

I made another loaf for the cookoff, along with a pound of honey butter, and took it to work with ingredients to make another batch to cook on-site.  The second and third attempts were actually really nice and soft, and I had a ton of compliments and surprised looks from people who didn’t realise crock pot bread was possible.

As it was a competition, people had the chance to vote on which food they liked best.  I actually came in first place for the bread category, and am now a proud owner of a Dutch Oven.  No more excuses for next time.

So, after having a nice relaxing weekend back home, I had to travel again.  As one of the top performers in the company, I had the chance to take a special training class on how to deal with difficult situations, and as the classes filled up quickly, I took advantage of an opening in our Springfield office, to sign up for it.  Once I got all the travel arrangements finalized to be there on Thursday and Friday, my manager approached me and asked if I could extend the trip and spend two days training a newly transferred member of our group, in the products I used to work on.  I agreed and made the changes, and eventually the time to fly arrived.

I was a little less ready for this one, as the flight was mid-morning, and I had to rush to get to the airport on time.  I learned from my last trip, and packed lighter, only taking a carry-on bag (to avoid the $25/flight baggage “fees.”)  Previously, I had checked my bag at the counter, so this time as I was bringing it as a carry-on, in my hurry to get to the plane, I totally forgot about picking it up at the TSA x-ray machine.  I made it half-way down the moving path before I realised it, and I quickly turned around and ran back in the wrong direction, to get to the security desk.  Once I was off, I realised it would have been faster to run with the flow, then take the moving path back.  No matter; when I got to the security scanners, they were simply scanning my bag again, making sure it wasn’t suspicious.  I quickly thanked them and rushed off to the terminal, where everyone else had boarded, and as soon as I was on, they closed the plane.

If Boston was hectic and crowded, and Rochester was more suburban and pretty, Springfield was quite laid back and green.  The whole time I was there, I awoke to fog in the morning, and it was drizzly a few times during the day.  The airport was out in the middle of farmland (coming in for a landing, I saw fields in all directions.)  It just had a nice, mellow feeling to the place, which I really enjoyed.  The people were overly friendly, as West Coast people tend to be.  Plus, this was one of our company’s main sites in the US, as we occupied the entire building, which included an on-site food court, a number of large conference rooms and data centres, and from what I heard (but did not see), a fitness room.

The local manager (peer to my own) introduced me to everyone on the team, as if I was some special visitor; I appreciated that.  The day and a half that I had to work with this new tech were interesting for both of us, as I hadn’t touched the product in months.  We spent most of the time talking about a lesser-used product, because it was very difficult to set up and use.  Fortunately, we were able to get it working on the first try, so we were able to try out a lot of the functionality that it offered.  I only hope it was enough to help him feel more confident on it.

The training I went through was quite interesting.  We had a decent assortment of people in the room, coming from all over the country, and also covering all positions like management to sales, etc.  The main focus of the class was to help us identify difficult conversations and not let them escalate, but teach us how to take a step back and maintain control over them.  The videos in the class were actually performed by actors and actresses in Utah (I recognised someone from The Single’s Ward.)  I found the concepts pretty useful, although I am usually easy going enough that I hopefully won’t get into those situations much.  (Ahh, the joys of being a White personality.)

By the time I was on this trip, I didn’t really feel much of a desire to eat large meals any more, and even got a chance to use the fitness room in the gym.  I went to Jack-in-the-Box the first night (hey, we don’t have them in Utah!), tried a couple vegan places (one was too salty, and the other had excellent cornbread), and did a Sushi place one last night.  Breakfast was complimentary at the hotel, and lunch was typically spent at the office, eating whatever special of the day was whipped up by the chefs.  I found that interesting, actually, that the site had contract workers cooking for a living.  I spoke to one of them, and he really enjoyed his job.  Sounds like a fun thing to do, if you like to cook.

The people there were all great and helped me feel welcome, but I really was glad when I could finally get back to my family.  Rebecca said Chloe slept in my bed every night; not that this is any different from any other night!

So, the most hectic part of my business trip was travelling to Waltham, just west of Boston.  When I booked the travel flight and hotel, I chose a hotel in Boston, as the recommended hotel in Waltham was unavailable.  Besides, the website said it was only 7 miles from the office, and I typically drive much farther than this on my daily drive to work.  However, I had never been to Boston, and had no idea what to expect from driving in the old historic town.  After I arrived and got the rental car, I was in for a shock, trying to navigate through the small one-way streets, through old downtown Boston.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s quite beautiful there, and so amazing to be able to walk through a historic town that I heard so much about.  However, it was really frustrating as well.  I ended up having to navigate by the GPS on my phone, restarting the directions every few blocks, as I would pass the street I needed, and had to back-track around a one-way street to get to where I wanted.  Then, I finally found the hotel (nice old tall building in the theatre district) and had to circle it three times before I could finally figure out how to park, which ended up being valet parking.  Once I got my hotel room sorted out, I took a walk down to the Boston Common park, and across the street to a pizza place to grab a bite to eat.

I realised that Boston was full of toll roads, and was short on cash to pay for them, so in the morning, I left extra early so I could take the free side-streets to get to Waltham.  That drive took the better part of an hour, but at least I got to see what life was like for normal people attending the University and local schools, and going about life there.  I really wonder what it would be like to live in Boston, and if the salaries for common people would pay enough for their living there.  I found our office without major issue, and had a really good time meeting a lot of people I only knew over the phone or through email.  I won’t go into many details on the meeting, but I felt it was helpful that I was there, as I had more experience with all aspects of the product than any other group individually.

That night, once I left the office, I noticed that the rental car had a toll road sensor on it, that allowed me to drive on the toll roads without spending cash, so I used it to quickly return to the hotel, and I decided to walk around Boston a bit to get to see the area.  Unfortunately, it was already dark by the time I returned, but it was still pretty to see some of the old buildings, including an old church that seemed to be turned into some form of restaurant.  I was surprised with how far I walked, according to the map, and suspect that if I had more time (and light), I could easily have crossed the city in less than an hour.  I ended up eating at a Legal Sea Food, at the suggestion of a friend, and then returned to the hotel for the night.

The next day was much like the previous, only I took the highway to save some time.  Traffic was crazier this day, much more than I expected, but at least I was still early.  At the office, we focused on how we could improve the features that were brought up the previous day, and when the day was over, I quickly headed back to the airport to fly back to Rochester.

I think Boston would really be a fun place to visit, if I ever had the time and money.  I’m sure Rebecca and I would love to see some of the shows together, and just to see the historic city would be beautiful.

It felt really relaxing to return to Rochester, which was not nearly as hectic as Boston was.  Even though I was only there for a day, it felt more familiar and friendly, even though I wasn’t really willing to try a garbage plate again. 🙂 I found, in my exploring of the area, that there was an Aldi store (I shopped at one in England, and loved the place, and found lots of European chocolates in this one!)  I was able to wrap up my training and learn a lot more about the product over the remaining two days that I had there, between the TOI and other training that I took part in.  I rather hope I can go visit the place again, but am not sure if that would happen.  Considering it was about 45 minutes from Palmyra, I would really love to get enough free time to go visit that historic site, instead of feeling more rushed to get the work things done, and quickly get back to the airport, like I had to do this time.