Where am I now?

As you can see, this blog hasn't gotten any love in many years... But you can now find me on my site jessicatravels.com.

30 October 2007

What's a Soulterrain?

In the course of my research today, I'm reading about Hungary, and I'm still finding entertaining tidbits. For example, you know you're reading a computer-generated translation when you read something like this:

"This modern furnished, two-story terraced house has a beautiful, calm situation. Common, enclosed garden with UBS103. The landlord lives in the Souterrain."

Luckily, this description was followed by a note indicating that "this description was computer translated to English." Well, that's good, because I was beginning to wonder what on earth "Soulterrain" means in Hungarian. Sounds like a good band name, though, yes?

18 October 2007

Poland, the Natural Choice

In doing research for something I'm writing for work, I found Poland's official tourism website, on which I found what appears to be their official tourism slogan:

Poland, the natural choice

Of course, all I can think of is that it sounds like a fiber supplement: "Visit Poland. It'll keep you regular."

16 October 2007

Tempis Fugit

We've barely hit the halfway point for October and already November is half-gone. And this year has been so topsy turvy that while I'm not sad to see it drawing to a close, I'm kind of annoyed at it for giving me such stress. So far, I'm not a huge fan of 2007 - and it doesn't have much time left to make me a convert, either.

Bub's doing well with his chemo appointments still, which is excellent, although he's looking a tad mangy in places because of the fur he's lost. But he's happy and energetic, and his weight is stable, so we're thankful for that. He's on an every-other-week schedule right now, and after a few more weeks will be on an every-third-week schedule. If all goes well, that'll last through March or so next year and then he'll be done with chemo. We'll probably keep taking him in for monthly vet visits to make sure the cancer isn't coming back, but I'm hoping that break from chemo will give him a chance to put more weight on and regrow some of his fur. He's turned into quite a little beggar now, too, in that he gets people food so much he thinks he can just grab for it right off our plates now. That's mostly funny when it's just us, but when we have guests we have to keep a closer eye on him.

My annual year-end meeting is coming up at work, so I've got a few days of all-day meetings scheduled in the next couple of weeks. Last year's was exhausting and energizing, so I'm expecting more of the same this year. It's great to be able to sit down with colleagues who I don't chat with often and socialize as well as brainstorm with them. I work with a great group of people, even if all we do is hunker down over our computers all day and not say more than five words to each other... In our "off" hours, we're very talkative, really. (Well, at least I am.)

Chris and I will be taking a quick trip to Milan next month, although it's decidedly not a vacation. He'll be in meeting after meeting (some set up through the employment agency he's working with, others he's setting up on his own via networking avenues) and I'll be hunkered down with whatever free WiFi I can find to get some work done. We will make time to see some of the sights, of course, but this is mainly a trip devoted to figuring out whether Milan is a place we could see ourselves living in. It's exciting to have this trip in the works, especially when we didn't think we'd be going overseas this year at all, although it's probably not the most financially prudent thing we've ever done! We're hoping it'll pay off in the networking department, and that it'll be a good learning process for us both.

Anyway, there's just a lot going on right now - some of it good, some of it bad - and I'm having trouble keeping up.

02 October 2007

Leaving on a jet plane...

No, not me. Unfortunately. My mother and youngest brother just got on a plane this morning headed for China. By the end of their travel day, which will actually be something like four days, they'll be in Nepal. They'll be in Nepal, Tibet and China for the next month or so. I can't wait to hear all about it when they get back!