Why exactly was I in Geneva in the first place? It's not exactly the first place in Europe someone thinks of visiting. The answer is that on August 12 I was slated to meet my REI group in the Geneva airport so we could go hiking in the Alps together. I'd allowed plenty of extra time to get to Switzerland and recover from jetlag, and somewhat ( Read more... )

Unsurprisingly, there are no direct flights from Cleveland to Geneva, but there there is one from Washington, D.C. to Geneva, most likely to accommodate diplomatic traffic. As such the first official day of my sabbatical, Saturday, August 8, looked like this ( Read more... )

I spent 4.5 weeks in Europe in 2015. I intend to post about it in some detail over the next many Sundays. I have good notes, and more helpfully I've already posted all of my photos over on Facebook over the past four months. Here are links to all of those photos for those of you not on FB or who might have missed them.

GenevaI landed in Geneva on ( Read more... )

Since my first day of CrossFit last December until the end of July, I lost five pounds. Weight loss wasn't my main goal, and I got significantly more toned and fit, so this was perfectly fine with me.

Over the five weeks I was in Europe, I lost seven more pounds. This puts my at my lowest weight since the end of the 2013 bike seasonI was certainly ( Read more... )

While I was in Europe, Tulip stayed in boarding. She had a good time, but when I picked her up they reported that in the last few days she was there a giant lump had appeared just above her knee on her front right leg. Sure enough, there was a large, apricot-sized bump that wasn't there before ( Read more... )

I returned from my sabbatical. It was great and there will be many pictures and posts coming in future weeks. Then I had to go back to work. How much email can one person get in five weeks? Some people guessed; here are the guesses in order:

tylik - 372
pussygalore66 - 466
Phil - 490
khiron1416 - 666
Kendra - 713
gieves - 744 ( Read more... )

So in less than a week I fly out of the country for more than a month. On my past international jaunts, I've done a "guess how many emails I have when I get" contest, and I see no reason not to do it this time. So, here's the deal ( Read more... )

My company rolled out a sabbatical plan in November of 2013, in which any employee with at least eight years tenure in the company is eligible for 4 contiguous weeks of extra vacation. As I hit my 13 year anniversary in May, I am more than eligible ( Read more... )

So in case you hadn't heard, my sister and I and our good friend DJ Relativity are going to Iceland in August for 10 days. We've got a nice little apartment in Reykjavik and we'll use that as a base for a bunch of day trips and possibly an overnight trip. Lots of hiking and outdoor activities are on the docket. This may include whale watching and ( Read more... )