A fresh start

When I was in elementary school, I loved it when the teacher rearranged the desks. It was like when my mom rearranged the living room furniture every 6 months or so. It felt like we moved to a new house even though everything was exactly the same. Funny, because while I loved this as a kid, I grew up to despise change in my 20s, even the furniture rearrangements... I'm back to embracing change a bit more now days.

It's the beginning of my second semester and I get a whole new team for the remainder of the program. I'll spare you the details, but my team finished a nightmare of a project at 11:57 pm, just 3 minutes before the deadline and after many late nights...

On the bright side, I learned some key lessons like that the slacker to hard worker ratio must never equal one. And my favorite, is that "relevant theory" is defined differently in other cultures. Evidently, some define it as anything found on Google written by a PhD at any point in time about any subject so long as there is one word in common with what you are looking for -- in this case "change." Interesting... But the good news is that two guys with a sense of humor (and some sharp writing skills) can make it all better.

Some Swiss Fun...

Here is a picture from my first day back on skis - a little day trip in France with some girls from the program. Not bad for my first time back on skis after a 17 year break. It was amazing how much came back to me - just like riding a bike, as Dad promised. The parents had me on skis by the time I was 4 or so and we skied every Christmas until I was about 13. I'm not nearly as fearless as I was back then, but all those lessons certainly paid off.
And here is a picture from the Festival International de Ballons in Chateau-d'Oex near Montreaux. It's equivalent to the big festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was a gorgeous day in Switzerland. Here is a picture with K, the roommate.

Happy Super Tuesday Mom!

Happy Super Tuesday to all, but most importantly my mom! Today is her 60th! Hopefully those voting in the primaries will deliver good results for Mom on her very special day!

And sorry for the radio silence. More to come soon on the happenings here including a ski trip, balloon festival and travel to Budapest, Vienna and Prague. Stay tuned!