San Antonio River Walk                                                Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Well, I'm glad to see another Friday evening roll around.  I've been working on a big project all week at work and it's finally done . . . we finished it at 5:30 this evening.  It was an RFI (Request for Information) from one of our large customers and contained lots and lots of technical data, product specs and white papers. I think it's a good piece of work and truely a team effort, but I'm not at all sorry to see the end of it; my other work has suffered because of it. Now we'll just have to wait and see if we win the order.

On the grounds of The Alamo                     Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

You know, it dawned on me the other night as I was going through all the photos on my hard drive searching for a good picture to accompany my blog that I've really been quite fortunate.  I mean, I been allowed to travel to an awful lot of nice places and I'd say at least half of them have been business related trips . . . either in conjunction with my husband's business or my job.  And then we've gone to some nice places on our own vacations too.  I have a lot to be grateful for and I need to remind myself of that ever so often. 

This is a picture I took when we went down to San Antonio for our son's wedding last year.  The tree in the center of this courtyard was HUGE!  It provided the shade for the entire courtyard.

Banff Canada                                      Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

In the past (and the operative word here is PAST) our company used to take the admins along on the new year kick-off trips to reward the sales teams for a good previous year and Banff Canada was the destination back in 1996.  I'm not much of a social drinker nor chit chatter so I didn't enjoy the many coctail hours and such that go on at these conventions, so on this particular afternoon I bundled up, grabbed my camera and when out for a walk in the town of Banff.  I walked about 5 miles to get this picture . . . it was impossible to go "as the crow files" but it was good exercise and great scenery.  That's the hotel most of our people stayed in, while some had to go to other lodgings close by because there just weren't enough rooms. 

That was a really fun trip.  One of the days we were there I went dog sledding as my free time activity.  What an absolute hoot.  I figured I'd never again get the chance to go dog sledding so I went for it.  It was very cold, but very fun. 

Somewhere in Palm Beach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Parasailing                                                             Photo by Mike Duffy

See that little person up there under that parachute?  That's ME.  When our good friends who have a time share deal that they can use in lots of countries said that they were going to Porta Vallarta and would like us to join them for a week, we jumped at the chance.  One day we noticed people parasailing down on the beach right out in front of our condo and went down to watch.  Mike, my husband decided he wanted to try it.  I begged him not to, arguing that it might not be a wise thing to do, having had back surgery just a little over a year prior to the trip.  Well, that was like waving a red cape at a bull.  He did it and said it was absolutely exhilerating.  He asked me if I wanted to try it and of course I was too scared, but a couple hours later I finally talked myself into doing it thinking that I could get some fabulous photos from such a lofty vantage point.  I strapped the camera to my wrist while the guys were strapping me into the harness, and once I was up in the air I planned to take a bunch of pictures.  Foolish me.  My hands were white knuckling the straps provided for holding on.  They said that the only way I could fall would be if my harness broke, but I certainly wasn't let go of those straps to find out and test their theory.  It was awesome, and it was exhilerating, but I was scared out of my gourd the whole time I was up there, and especially when it came time to land.  As they swung the boat around, the centrifical force took me so close to the hotels that I was positive I was going to smack into one of them about 5 stories up.  But later they said that you're not really all that close, it just feels like it. 

Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

These flowers are for Marvin Clarke who died today.  Although I only met him once (for a whole week though) I considered him a very dear friend.  My sister Alice had known Marvin for some time. She met him over the internet when she first started using a computer and AOL.  They were unlikely friends, he was 70 something and she was in her late 40's. He was a physicist and she an artist, but they had similar likes listed in their profiles and that's how they met.  Eventually Marvin and Hazel ( his wife) came to Oklahoma to meet Alice and her husband and then when they invited Alice to come to Florida for a vacation they asked me to join her.  He was our guide and constant companion for most of that week.  It was like he wanted us to experience all that he loved about Florida.  He took us hiking, to the beach, to the everglades and even to a butterfly house.  We had a wonderful time and it's sad to think he's gone now.

OXALICE surrounded by Sedum                                            Photo by Chris Duffy

I just love Oxalice.  I first saw some in my sister Alice's yard in Oklahoma City.  It has the most delicate very slightly purple blooms and then the wonderful rich purple leaves.  And as you can see, the leaves look very much like a large clover leaf only purple.  I like the color purple anyway and when I found out it was named oxALICE . . . well I liked it even better.  That's been quite a few years ago and I've had Oxalice in my yard ever since.  This little patch came back year after year even though it's not really supposed to be able to withstand harsh winters, but it was in a fairly sheltered spot which is probably why it made it through the winters.  That was in my former back yard. At this house my oxalice is in a container garden. 

I sure hope the couple that bought our former house likes the back yard and are taking care of my beautiful oxalis and peonies.

Hubby picking blackberries in Lower Rissington, England         Photo by Chris Duffy

Someone commented on my last blog that I must like to travel a lot.  I DO like to travel.  I love seeing new places, especially if it's somewhere that I've read a lot about but have never actually been there.  It's always kind of neat to see how what you imagine a place to be compares to the actual place itself.  I was more than thrilled with England. 

The picture above is my hubby picking blackberries on our other trip to jolly old England.  I don't know why I thought it was so incredulous that they actually had blackberries in England too.  We discovered them on a walk we took our first evening staying at our lovely country Cotswold cottage.  He LOVES blackberries so most mornings we took early morning trecks in the surrounding countryside and picked enough berries for our breakfast.  What fun.