This was my last day in Quebec. The phone rang early again this morning, but it wasn’t Dave this time. It was Mary of Phil and Mary; they had arrived in Montreal the previous night. We got together for breakfast in le Institut, it was eggs Benedictine again for me and Anne had crepes this time. We walked around for about an hour after breakfast. Phil and Mary showed us where they were staying, just a block away.
We checked out of le Institut and drove to the airport. Anne dropped me off and headed towards Ottawa. I went through American customs in Montreal, neat trick. It was a lot easier getting out of Canada then it was getting in. The American customs agent looked at my paperwork and said, “Okey-dokey, your good, bye.” American customs worker in Montreal, I’ll have to put that in my job jar. I had arrived so early that I snagged a two hour earlier flight out of Montreal to Chicago. That was a good thing. Thunderstorms were building in the Illinois afternoon and soon after I arrived the delays started to appear on the boards. I got a standby on an earlier flight to Saint Louis, but it was delayed. The long and the short of it was that I was laid over for five hours at O’Hare, but I still managed to get back to Saint Louis an hour earlier then originally scheduled. I took MetroLink almost all the way home and hoofed the last mile home. It was hot!
That was last Sunday and now as I write this it is Friday. It was a tough week at work; we are gearing up for a big deliverable. I biked one day this week for fifteen miles. The lotus pictures are from that ride. They discovered lead in the Forest park police stables and evacuated all of the horses.
My brother Chris was granted a patent. He applied for it in 2000 while working with Oracle. It is for a visual configurator. Here is the link to the patent filing.
Last Christmas, our friends Alice and Chris sent us a Demotavators Calendar. It is a funny opposite of the more typical motivator styled framed posters that are rampant in corporate America. I think that this month, August, is why we received the gift. The caption title is Blogging. The tag line goes like this: Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few. Thanks, Alice and Chris.
More news from Rochester, Andrew returned to town. He came by to pick up his stuff, that he left here over the summer. He had a new car, it looked pretty good. Whoo Hoo!
Anne picked up Dave in Ottawa and they drove together to the Soo. They arrived at the Cabin within an hour of when Dan and Annie arrived there, driving non-stop from Saint Louis.