North Carolina
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Lazy Saturday Morning
Today I am off to Munich, Germany for work with two of my colleagues. Next week we will be showing off the new database for the first time to end-users who have not been involved in the design of the system. I really hope they like it! Since I had to be in Wilmington for SME Week, it was cheaper and less crazy to simply stay over in Wilmington on Friday night and travel with Aaron and Albert from Wilmington to Munich, rather than try to go back to Austin for 24 hours. I am very pleased with my decision to schedule my travel this way. It meant I got…
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SME Week
My project at work has really picked up. We are working on figuring out what topics people will need to be trained on related to the new database that is being built. My team spent the week in Wilmington, NC, meeting with Subject Matter Experts. We had back to back meetings all week (organized beautifully by my team member, Jessica). We began calling it “SME Week”. We made a lot of progress, but all the work this week highlighted how much more there is to do between now and our go-live date, which will be toward the end of the year. I did manage to have some fun while I…
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St. Patrick’s Day in Wilmington
Julie invited me to join her and her husband at their favorite Irish Pub, Harp, for St. Patrick’s Day. It did not take much convincing, and shortly after work, we were standing outside the pub watching people play the bagpipes. As we approached the pub, I noticed that Dr. Who had also traveled to Wilmington for St. Patrick’s Day, as the TARDIS was parked outside the pub. I got a kick out of hearing people walking by asking, “What is a Police Public Call Box?” I never spotted The Doctor, but I am sure he was there somewhere. We drank green beer, and ate bangers and mash. We hung out…
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Wilmington Walk
Whenever I am in Wilmington, NC, and the weather is nice, I like to walk down the boardwalk that runs along the Cape Fear River. It was quite warm this time, and the first spring flowers had started to bloom. The night blooming jasmine in one garden I passed was just opening up, and it smelled fantastic. I was inspired to take out my camera and snap a few pictures of things I saw on my walk.
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Arriving in North Carolina
I traveled to North Carolina from Baltimore today. I landed in Research Triangle Park, or RTP to those of us who frequent the area, which is between Raleigh and Durham, NC, at around noon. I met up with some colleagues from the RTP office and we went to Neomonde Baking Company Cafe for lunch. Neomonde’s is a favorite stop of mine. I really love middle eastern food, and these folks know how to do it right. After a yummy lunch, I spent a few hours working in the RTP office, and then drove down to Wilmington. My friend and colleague, Amy, had told me that, of the nights I will…
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Five states in nine hours
I previously posted about a crazy drive around Texas, during which we were in three cities in fourteen hours. Well, this past weekend I completely topped that when I went to see my mom and dad! I started in Raleigh, North Carolina at around six in the morning. I flew to Baltimore, Maryland, where my mom and dad picked me up. We drove through Maryland and Virginia on the way Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, where my mom works. I got to see Mom’s building, office, and classrooms. We walked around Shepherdstown, and had lunch in a nice tea shop. I browsed through the shops on the main street…
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New Manager, Former Manager
My manager, Heidi, is leaving my company. She is adopting a baby, and has decided that she wants to stay home with her new daughter. I totally respect and support her decision, but I am really bummed she won’t be my manager anymore. I really love working with her! Happily, the person who is taking over as my manager is a co-worker that I admire. Her name is Tracy, and she is officially my boss on Monday. My former manager and new manager are in the picture; Heidi is on the left, and Tracy is on the right. Tracy and Heidi have done a great job with the transition. They…
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Drive to Durham
Today I drove from Wilmington, NC to Durham, NC. I always stay in a hotel in Durham. My co-workers usually stay at hotels near the airport. There are lots of fast food restaurants and business parks. It is not very friendly or welcoming. A few years ago, when I was spending every other week in this part of North Carolina, I discovered that there is a DoubleTree Hotel about a ten minute drive from my office. It is in more of a neighborhood, and not to far from a major shopping center that has good restaurants and stores like Target and CVS. Anyway, I made the drive from Wilmington to…
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Relaxing Saturday
I decided to take it easy, and have a relaxing Saturday. I slept in a little bit. I worked on my knitting project. At lunch time, I met Farrah at Brasserie du Soleil. We were both craving the same thing: Brasserie Burgers – small burgers (my mom used to call them “mighty bites”) – with roasted tomatoes, caramelized onion and gruyere. We also got macaroni and cheese. After lunch we went shopping at Belk. Fun for me because we don’t have this store in Austin. I spent the rest of the afternoon giving myself a pedicure and manicure. I tried to go to the movies, but there was nothing I…
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Happy Hour – or Happy Day?
Happy Hour is illegal in North Carolina. You heard me. There is no such thing as happy hour. The state government of North Carolina has decided that having drink specials at certain hours causes people to drink too much too fast. Restaurants and bars can have daily drink specials, but not happy hour specials. One of my favorite places to go for “not happy hour” in Wilmington is the Cafe Phoenix. First of all, they have a cool name, and a cool logo. Secondly, they have half price wine all day Thursday, by the bottle or by the glass. Whenever I am in Wilmington on a Thursday, Nicole and I…
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Hanging out in Wilmington
I am in Wilmington, NC for a big project for work. The weather is really beautiful: mid-sixties during the day, down into the forties at night. Wilmington has a really nice downtown area along the Cape Fear River. My hotel is on Water Street, which, as the name suggests, is right on the river. Within a few blocks of the hotel are tons of great local restaurants. The project lead, Michelle, invited everyone to dinner at Deluxe Cafe. We had a great meal. The food was creative and fun, as well as delicious. We started with seared ahi tuna topped crisps with greens, bruscetta with pears and brie, and calamari. I had Scallops Florentine…
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Visiting North Carolina – April 2006
I finally took up LisaDiane’s offer to visit North Carolina. She has been working in RTP for a little over a year and she invited me to join her for a few days, see the cities, and meet her co-workers. We went to the Spring Daze Earth Day festival in Cary, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, and the Magic Wings Butterfly House at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. We had dinner with friends at Maggiano’s and a tasty Mediterranean lunch at Neomonde. Here are some photo’s I took along the way.
