Internet

A month of nagging from my wife was enough for me to ditch AT&T today and sign up for a new phone and internet service provider. We have had AT&T for 10+ years or maybe 15.... Wife has been complaining that the internet speed is too slow. I downloaded an APP and tested the speed. It turned out to be 2.9Mbps download and .29Mbps upload. I know for sure that some other folks in the neighborhood have better internet speeds. So, today I went ahead and order phone and internet from Sonic.net. Looks like they lease their lines from AT&T but they promise speeds of upto 20Mbps. It will take 5-7 days for the service to switch and I am keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully, it turns out good. Oh, BTW the sonic service is at half the cost of AT&T service. I guess it's people like me (who don't shop around) that are keeping companies such as AT&T in business.

Roadshows

Supposedly, a perk of the marketing job... this week I got to go on a roadshow and tour the midwest. I and a colleague flew to Dallas, did some customer presentations for a new huge hospital that is coming up. While Dallas is beautiful and people are nice, it is somewhat of a concrete jungle. The next day we flew on to Wichita, KS. Wichita is a typical small town, USA and very green. At the Wichita airport, it felt as if we had landed in some 1960s era town. The car rental lot was smaller than a small parking lot and was shared by all of the 5 car rental agencies. Our hotel was a good 1 minute driving distance away. :) Houses don't have fences and land is in abundance. Since this roadshow was meant for SLED customers, the next day we drove to a school and I presented to a bunch of school IT directors. In Wichita, I met the local SE (Kewal). I must say, I am very impressed with the guy. He is such a jovial fellow and it was a pleasure interacting with him... so full of energy and cheerful. In the afternoon, he drove us to our final destination - Kansas City. Now, KC is much bigger than Wichita but it was again a very green city. The city is itself split between Kansas and Missouri states. The next day my colleague presented to about 20 customers. In the evening, it was time to head to the airport and come back home. 4 days on the road went like a breeze. Even though the trip was fine, I didn't enjoy it much. The night before I was to leave, I was tucking my son into bed and he had sadness all over his face at the thought of me going away. He wanted to know why I had to go and then I noticed a tear trickle down from the side of his eye while he lay in bed. He wanted to know if I would still have to go if I called in sick. That visual stayed with me throughout my trip and I just couldn't wait to come back. It was late on Thursday night when I reached home and the kids were already asleep... but sure enough early in the morning, he walked into our room, lay down next to me, hugged me tight and went off to sleep... quite peaceful. :)

Spring break!!!

Breaking away from tradition, we booked our spring break vacation plans 2.5 months in advance. :) So, last weak we flew to Houston, TX and then drove down to Corpus Christi. CC (for short) is a beach town in the gulf of mexico. As luck would have it, our hotel (Radisson) was right next to (yes of course the beach, but ...) the star attraction - USS Lexington. The evening we drove in, it was a bit windy but soon we were on the beach (right outside our hotel) wading in the warm waters. :) The hotel was decent and we spent the next two days there. The CC beach is pretty nice - neat and clean. Somehow, we missed the Texas spring break crowd by a couple of weeks. :) so, we had the beach pretty much to ourselves. The next day, we walked over to the USS Lexington. First time ever for me to see a US Aircraft Carrier. We got to walk all over the place - the flight deck with the actual fighter planes, the bridge (captain's quarters), the artillery station, the flight simulator.... amazing.

Then, we moved to a resort in Port Aransas - about 30-35 miles away. This was probably the best part of the vacation. The hotel suite (more of a condo, calling it a room would be insulting) was huge and nice. Two rooms, living room, fully stocked kitchen, balcony, 3 TVs, music system, 4 pools, water slides, walk to the beach, restaurant - you name it. This was luxurious living. We spent a couple of days here, often venturing out and exploring the local scene.

Finally, for the last leg of our vacation, we moved to Galveston, TX and checked into a nice Holiday Inn hotel. Now, this hotel is nice but after Port Royal, in Port Aransas, we felt cramped in a single room. :) The beach (very beautiful) was right across the hotel (across the road).

Throughout the vacation, the temperature was between 60-80F but we didn't feel the heat. Nice winds, an occasional shower .... Food was surprisingly not an issue. We found many options for vegetarians and people were very friendly. Finally, last night we flew back to SJ and after a day's rest, gearing up for work tomorrow.