Short Vacation

I spent the last week vacationing with family in Pensacola, Florida.  Why Pensacola?  Well, a lot of my family lives there, in no small part because of the naval base.  My grandfather was an Admiral, with the distinction of having been one of few to achieve such rank out of ROTC (via Cornell).  Back in the early nineties, my uncle commanded the Blue Angels, flying the #1 F/A-18 Hornet that led the elite air squad after his tour in Desert Storm.  It had been about two years since I’d visited Pensacola, but in my mind it’s hard to believe it had been so long.

What is difficult to believe was the weather.  I boarded the plane bound for Houston (my only stop en route) in 70 degree whether, carrying my jacket on my arm and enjoying the Spring sunshine.  When I finally arrived in Florida, I found myself shivering in the ~45 degree rainy climate, hoping the cold grey would soon turn to bright warmth.  It finally did, the day I left.

Still, it was a relaxing respite from the craziness of work and all of my side projects (Start++, Uganda, some semblance of an active social life, my new MMO addiction, and more).  Of course, now that I’m home I need to catch up on e-mail all the happenings I missed… making for a not entirely costless respite.

There were many things I wanted to blog about while on vacation, but I resisted the temptation to spend too much time glued to my Vista-powered Macbook.  I’ll try to catch up on some of those this weekend, as I strive to aptly prioritize my catch-up efforts.  Speaking of which, if you sent me an e-mail or posted a comment and I haven’t responded – it’s entirely possible that I wasn’t ignoring you, but rather just haven’t gotten to it yet.