OT: Really staying busy

Well, it's been a busy time in the Perry household.

We were thrilled to have hosted our dear friends Bill and Karen from Australia for a week. It's fun playing tourist here in St. Louis, especially in the beautiful springtime.

While at Grant's Farm, we did get caught in a pretty heinous downpour. But, rather than run for the meager shelter with the rest of the human cattle, we stayed standing below the umbrellas on the dining tables. Offspring Alpha, having been placed standing on the table by Bill, stayed pretty dry with the exception of his feet. Alas, we adults were cursed with soaked backsides. But, at least we had some breathing room. I always love feeding the baby goats and watching the other animals on the farm (some animals from each continent, except Antarctica).

Their tour included the Arch, the floods, the St. Louis Zoo, the Science Center, Antonio Winery and Schlafly bottleworks as well as some of our favorite restaurants. We also spent some much-needed relaxation time at home with them. Gosh, what big kids we all are!

Mike and I got to see Offspring Beta for the first time via Ultrasound two weeks ago. MAN has that technology gotten even more impressive in the five years since I first saw Alpha in his! Oh, and of course, this means TWO BOYS! A girl would have been lovely, too, but, I have so much fun with our son that I'm really looking forward to another.

I recently started a new course in my Bachelor's studies at SLU (they're compressed classes, one four-hour course per week for nine weeks). It's technically a Biology course, but, with more of a medical slant, since most of my classmates are in the medical field. It's about how cultural and ethnic differences can affect the care medical workers give to patients and how patients communicate with their caregivers. Really thought-provoking. I'm in the midst of doing a group project with a couple of sharp women from the group. It's a challenging class, but, I really like it.

Mike has also been insanely busy with his work with the AUGI Board, and just returned yesterday from his tri-annual face-to-face meeting with the other volunteering BoDs. It's obviously good to have him back home helping to keep things running smoothly.

Oh, and thanks to those friends who saw my interview in the June issues of CADalyst Magazine about online networking in the design world and gave me positive feedback about it. Obviously it's an interesting subject that is changing the way that we work (especially how we find work).

Also, the Salary Survey is ending right now, so I'll be delving into that starting tomorrow and will be immersed in it for the next couple of months.

And, St. Louis is getting another CAD Camp this year (September 23rd), so keep an eye out to see when classes are posted and registration opens up (don't forget, in year's past, you could get the cost of your CAD Camp discounted off of your Autodesk University registration fee).

If you're interested in all of the little things going on in the CAD world, check out all of the announcements, press releases, favorite resources, etc that I post for the benefit of the Gateway AUG in their discussion group.

I'm also busy tackling some other things in my personal life, so it's really never a dull moment with us.

That's okay, evidently, that's the way that I like it.

Cheers!