meinen Reisen MY TRAVELS mijn reizen mes voyages meus cursos mis viajes minhas viagens mo taisteal mine rejser mina resor i miei viaggi

I found a cool diploma in a tube while at home. It is actually my Masters Degree Diploma from UCD. It is in Latin, so I don’t know what it really says…. Anyways, I don’t want to be one of those who hangs their diplomas on the walls of their office, but this looks neat, unique, and international. So, I took the diploma to Hobby Lobby. I chose a frame and a matte as the size was European. The man who helped me deserves a lot of credit. It turned out beautifully. He did so much work and it was all included in purchasing the frame and the matte. He cut the matte perfectly which I would have awkward eye-balled probably. He clean the glass and air-dried it. He even put a backing on it and a hanger. I was so impressed I went up to a manager and said how nice he did. The manager looked at me bracing for a complaint. I think I will take a Guatemalan painting in too and get it framed. It was $2.50 to get the hanger on it and frames are 50% off right now.

Last weekend, I woke up Friday morning and decided I didn’t want to spend the weekend in Orlando, so I looked up a flight to Cedar Rapids at 8:30 a.m. I called Dad and asked him if he would pic me up, texted my boss, and booked the flight. I told Andrea that I didn’t have anything to do (which was a mistake – as my arrival was going to be a surprise) and she texted me a picture of the flight I had just purchased. We are sisters.

It worked out well as it was better that Andrea picked me up and Dad didn’t have to pick me up. Andrea and I ate at Zombie Burger and Hurts Donuts before heading to Burlington. Saturday, we went to the farm and did other things around town before going to Hy-Vee and getting food for a picnic at Geode. It was a great day. Later that night, we went to Boogaloos at Fun City and surprised Murphys.

We had another picnic lunch at the river on Sunday. We drove up to Big Hollow and back to the farm. The farm home is looking pretty nice. Andrea and I went back to Iowa City and ate at Texas Roadhouse.

On Monday, we met Margee (my German teacher) at Masala for an Indian buffet. It was nice seeing her and reminiscing about the past (and talking about geography and games). Afterwards, we went out to Aunt Debbie’s. I ran around the conservation area outside and biked once too. It was great seeing them too.

Today, the Governor visited St. Cloud to discuss the attempt in the State Legislature to defund Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida. I work closely with Enterprise Florida. They are the state’s economic development and department of commerce all in one. Their international divisions does trade shows and missions. The main issue with them is that they offer incentives to get companies to move here. It is much like the fight EXIM Bank. We wouldn’t need them if every other state (country in the EXIM example) didn’t have them.

The roundtable was held at the Catfish Place, so I ate with a few friends after the meeting. When in Osceola County, eat what the locals eat, so I had fried catfish, grits, hush puppies, and beans and rice.

I created this video last Friday. It isn’t perfect, but it is improving. If you have any creative thoughts, please feel free to leave a comment:

Once a year, I pay money to see a Magic game. Sometimes I go with work, but I will pay to see the Spurs. Andrea encouraged me and it was fun to see some of the stars including Tony Parker, Danny Green, Manu Ginobli, and the quickly rising star, Kawhi Leonard. The problem is that the Magic are not very good. We only see like 60% of the amazing show the Spurs could put on. I think Kawhi was pretty much out of the game after the 3rd quarter. He could easily of had 40 or 50 points. He had 22 towards the beginning of the 3rd quarter. I saw some amazing dunks and the Spurs always play like a team even without Duncan who has retired.

The final score was 107 – 79 I believe. I predicted it would be 110 – 92. It is something to think that the players earn $94 million in one season on each team which is means we do have priorities out of place, but it is something to think that both teams spend the limit and Orlando is continuously horrible.   There were about the same number of people cheering for the Spurs as for the Magic and many South Americans were wearing Argetine jerseys for Ginobli as he is from there. I think most of the people just wanted to see the Spurs. The Orlando fans didn’t wear too many jerseys. The were many Spurs jerseys.

Here are some pictures I zoomed in on (I was in the 5th row from the top of the arena, so really bad seats):

Here are all the pictures I took (Also, the arena doesn’t allow long lenses, so these were taken with my small lens):

Below you will find some random pictures from the last few weeks.

I went to a meeting at Citricos at the Grand Floridian. The Turkey Federation was in town and the U.S. exports 80% of its turkeys to Mexico, so I had dinner with the NAFTA trade commissioner from the Mexican Embassy in D.C. There were about 6 of us talking about the future of NAFTA which was interesting.

Other pictures include mostly food: Hawkers, Artisan’s Table, Lac Viet Bistro, Artist’s Palette, and Agave Azul.

Other pictures include: Jerry (my boss) went to Germany and brought be back a German Incense Smoker which is really cool and an ornament from Neuschwanstein Castle. Andrea sent me tulips, a bear, and some chocolate for Valentine’s Day. The tulips really opened up.

Tonight, I went to a dinner hosted by the Kingdom of the Netherlands at Gaylord Palms (near where I used to live actually). I always wanted to eat on the boat inside the hotel and that is where the dinner was hosted. It was really nice. I learned that the Port of Rotterdam is the second largest port in the world. Port Canaveral actually has a ship that goes there. The Netherlands exports the 2nd most in agricultural products after the United States believe it or not. Also, almost the whole country is under sea level. (A Retail Supply Chain Conference was in town this week which is why the port was in town).

I added a picture of what the boat looks like inside the hotel during the day.

Here is a great video:

The key to a good blog is to update it… sorry.

I didn’t even update about the day Andrea and I volunteered at the Disney Marathon in 40 degree weather, but we bundled up and it was actually fine. We barely had enough water, but we didn’t run out. Andrea had a friend from camp run by.

Later in the day, we went to Magic Kingdom. I can’t really remember all we did as it was almost a month ago.

Evidently, Epcot makes a lot of money during festivals, because they added another festival, Festival of the Arts.

It is actually quite nice, but there are so many people. I did the scavenger hunt where you have to find paintings (sometimes with Figment in them) in each pavilion. I also saw the Broadway performances. I think the first Belle from Beauty and the Beast and the first Tarzan were the performers that weekend. They were really good — obviously they made it on Broadway. If you see a “play” button, you can press it and hear them sing.

Other pictures include the me going back to the Vietnamese restaurant, the Mayor’s Economic Summit, an Asian event, an inauguration watch party, and another visit to the Art Festival.

A colleague, who is semi-retired, is very active with the NASCAR Foundation – Children’s Programs.

He asked me if I wanted to volunteer for the Taste of the Rolex 24. The Rolex 24 (which I didn’t know what it was) is a car relay race that lasts 24 hours in Daytona. There were various classes of engines….none were the typical NASCAR. Anyways, it is fun to do different things, so I went up there last Saturday. Daytona really isn’t too far from me. I would say it takes about 50 minutes from my house.

The Taste of the 24 is a night where 24 restaurants from Daytona, Port Orange, and Ormond Beach showcase their food. I just welcomed fans (a vast spectrum of people), gave them “best of” voting slips, and gave them restaurant guides when they left. Towards the end of the night, we were able to walk through suites to sample the food too.

I said that I would think about volunteering for the Daytona 500, but I am not a huge fan — but the Rolex 24 was neat to see. (It was also cold and rainy.)