Last week MJ and I headed to Philadelphia to celebrate the new year, attend a PLUG meeting and go to several wedding-related appointments we had lined up.
Some flurries awaited our arrival Saturday night and there was already snow on the ground due to past precipitation, but it was nothing too worrying. Fortunately the weather was pretty clear for most of our visit.
On Sunday we met up with my Maid of Honor, Danita, and did the tasting at the wedding venue. Monday morning we kicked off the first of several vendor appointments.
Monday was also New Years Eve! The evening was spent with our friends Tim and Colleen as we met up for a late dinner at Marmont Steakhouse in Old City Philadelphia, just a couple blocks from Penn’s Landing where the fireworks display would be. Unfortunately there was a mix-up in reservations and we ended up waiting for about an hour to be seated, which made for a rather rushed (but delicious!) dinner.
We did make it outside in time for the new year, and Tim took our picture during the fireworks.
Being a holiday, new years day was a light day for us and I ended up being able to catch up with a lot of project work and email during the day before dinner with family.
Wednesday was busy. We had two vendor appointments and then drove downtown so I could give a presentation at the Philadelphia area Linux Users Group (PLUG) about the trip to Ghana. I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for the talk, so I tried to prepare the group for what I was calling an informal talk, and then was surprised when Dave Sevick, the Executive Director of Computer Reach who led our team in Ghana said he’d fly out from Pittsburgh to attend and participate! No pressure!
To my delight, the talk went very well. My “slides” were just a series of photos but I was confident in the material and I was able to introduce Dave at the beginning of my talk and invite him to pitch in throughout to answer any questions I was uncertain about. It all ended up being quite discussion-driven and what was probably only 30 minutes of speaking material led to an engaging time that lasted over an hour.
Lyz and Dave at PLUG
Thursday we drove to Harrisburg to handle some paperwork, but I brought along a laptop and was able to work on catching up with email during the drive, win! And that evening made time for another last minute vendor meeting.
Friday was the cake tasting and selection! We went with Bredenbeck’s for the cake and the woman we worked with was able to sketch out a cake design based on our specifications while we did the tasting. I was really happy with the experience, and am excited about our cake.
The last visit of our trip was to the Joseph Ambler Inn where we’ve reserved a block of rooms for guests coming to our wedding from out of town. We stayed there during our last trip but due to scheduling issues weren’t able to get the full tour that time – this time we did! I’m even happier about our decision to go with them following this tour. We wrapped up the tour by having a late lunch with family there at the inn. And the day wrapped up with another dinner with local family.
Sunday it was time to go home. In all it was a very productive trip, if not quite as relaxing as I had hoped. We have a lot to do before the wedding and we’ve been super busy with other life stuff. This week we’ve really had to hunker down and put together a schedule so we can meet all the deadlines. No wonder people hire wedding planners.
Wednesday, Jan 16th, 2013 at 20:02
Hi Lyz, This is Ketan patel, a linux system administrator from Surat, India. I want join your learning projects which you have started.So feel free to contact me. If you want to discuss with me , I can meet you on chat, as per your free time.
I came to you across FCM, Your google+ page, and youor blog.
Email: ketan985@gmail.com
Regards
Ketan K. Patel