Happy Thanksgiving!

A day, late, but I hope everyone takes time from the turkey & dressing induced hangovers and the Black Friday sales to celebrate with family and friends and give thanks for all of our blessings. I try to take time during these busy holidays to remember all of the blessings we have: life, family, friends, health, opportunity. I am especially thankful for the men & women serving abroad in the armed forces who could not be home with family during this time.

I intended to post a couple of additional updates from Belgium, but wound up working late each day and had to get up way early to catch a flight to Paris for the long trek back home. 12+ hours flying, 4 hours waiting in the airport, 4 different passport checks, 3 airport screenings, a gallon of coffee, and several rounds of airline meals, I finally made it home to Texas. Traveling on the 23rd wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated crowds had not yet started to stack up and there were no delays in my flight. I was up for 22 hours straight, tired and had hoped to come home, drop the bags, kiss the wife, hug/walk the dogs, and catch up on my sleep, but I walked right into a leaking water pipe in the attic. A small pinhole leak had sprung up over the last few days. It hadn’t been leaking long, but enough to stain the ceiling and drip through the sheetrock. Needless to say, I was not happy, to which my darling bride added (trying to lighten the mood) added: “Well, which dwarf are you?”.  Her funeral will be next week.  Given the holidays, I could not get a plumber out until the weekend, so, being an engineer, I ran out to the big box hardware chain and picked up a pipe clamp (no, the duct tape did not work).  I was able to clamp down on the pipe and stop the leak, for now.  We still need a plumber, but the crisis level has dropped to DEFCON 4 (for now).

I have started to pull together my notes/pictures from my week in Europe. I’ve got enough stuff left over from the weekend to fill up several blogs. Keep an eye on this place for some interesting tales and sites and more on my visit with RC. 

Tower Bridge

 

Brussels