Sunday, October 22, 2006

Kansas City, MO

So I've been slacking... about posting that is... But I finally got some time now!!! Last week was crazy at work since I was gone for quite a few days for the SWE Conference.

Friday night, David and I drove to LGA to take our flight to go to Kansas City, MO... of course, the flight was delayed. We didn't get in till midnight! We stayed at the hotel around the airport instead of driving all the way to Topeka, KS for the race.

When we got up the next day, we drove to Topeka, KS to meet up with David's dad for car racing. On the way there, we stopped to get breakfast at Wendy's. Yes, you read it right, Wendy's serve breakfast down there! And they are GOOD too! Only if our Wendy's serves breakfast...

When we got to the race track, there really isn't anything for me to do, so I knitted. (what did you expect???) I am currently making a sweater for my mom so I have to get that done soon, since she will be visiting during Thanksgiving. By the end of the trip, I almost had the sweater finished:


In need of another sleeve, but I ran outta yarn while I was there!

The race isn't until the weekend after, but the track gives you some practice time, hence the fact we were there so early... David and Dad worked on the car for quite a bit while we were there:


David, Dad and their car

I left on Tuesday night to sleep at the warm Marriot back in Kansas City and attend the conference. Wednesday was a tour/class day. I signed up for the Technical tour of Hallmark Liberty Distribution Center. There was no picture taking allowed, so I can only descript to you what I've seen - LOTS AND LOTS OF HALLMARK CARDS! and other product by Hallmark of course, but the size of their warehouse and the way they distribute the orders are so interesting and I've never seen it done anywhere else! All the orders they fullfill are unique, so there is no two orders alike! and at the end, I got a little goodie bag from Hallmark, containing two CDs and some cards.

I got back in time for some SWE Business and then we are off to "A Taste in Kansas City" tour. We first got to this restaurant for some famous KC BBQ ribs, then we went to couple of the bars. The first one was just like a regular bar I've always gone to, nothing very special. The last one, however, is a very awesome Piano Bar called The Phoenix and they have the BEST Chocolate Martini ever! The live band played my request and was quite good at it. Joy and I really enjoyed the whole experience:


Joy and I enjoying our Chocolate Martini and our song request at The Phoenix

On Thursday, I had a packed day at the conference, majority for SWE business. After all the meetings, a few girls and I went to The Drum for a drink and went to Hyatt Skies (rotating restaurant) for dinner. The dinner was delicious and the Sea Bass was definitely one of the best I've ever had.


The girls and I at the Drum

While at Dinner, Darlene and I talked about arts and crafts, and it turned out her and Bernice are both going to Rhinebeck as well! So we promised each other we'll meet up at the festival.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and joined others for some hospitality suites, then we went to Over the Hill suites to meet more SWE members! Over the Hill suite is a Suite in the hotel room rented by some elder members that have been involved in SWE for a long time. Most of them are fellows and life members. It is always fun to meet up with them for some old time stories.

Friday morning, I had a very early meeting for Collegiate Leadership Coaching Committee. I volunteer to become a Collegiate Leadership Coach, which I will be traveling to different schools to presents some leadership modules and help the students out. After that, I walked around the career fair to do a little job shopping, plus to see what goodies others are giving out. I ended up giving out 3 resumes out, and I got invited to have dinner with Bank of America!!! I was very excited about the invitation and Laura thinks I just landed myself a job - which could be good :) While walking around, I aquired some chips from Frito Lays, a can of Cheeze-it cheese, a computer light, a book light, some more hallmark cards, a mug from Raytheon, a pair of headphones from eBay, few luggage tags from expedia.com, some playing cards and caramel popcorn from IBM, a google pen, some stuff from P&G and some stuff from J&J. I think I missed some stuff, but I had a bunch of stuff - all good stuff though, no junk! And yes, I managed to get them all into my suitcase to bring them back to CT. I left the Career Fari around 1pm and decided that I should take a drive to The Studio. I found them online and thought I should go check it out since it's only 10 minutes away! It was a very nice shop with LOTS of Koigu! I didn't end up buying Koigu though, instead, I left with this:


2 skeins of Superwash 100% Superfine Australian Merino by Dream in Color

The picture really doesn't do its justice. It is hand dyed with different shades of purple. It is extremely soft and I can't wait to knit with it. I don't have anything in mind for it yet though... I only have about 500 yards of it. Suggestion? The company that made the yarn is Dream In Color and is based in Washington area. The website is not completely up yet, but you can see if your LYS is going to carry it - if you living in the east coast, you are out of luck because none of the stores are listed in the east coast, only WA to the midwest. I'll be checking back with them to see if they will be coming over to the east coast soon.

I was at The Studio for hours! I got back just in time for a session I was helping out with, and right after, I headed to Savoy Grill to meet up with the Bank of America crew. Dinner was okay, but the people were so much fun! I sat next to the Senior VP of Quality (I later found out his title) and he was originally from Kansas. He talked about how he used QFD (Quality Function Deployment) to buy his house and how he also used it to brew beer! There were only three of us that were invited to dinner with them, and I already heard back from one of the HR lady to have a phone interview next week. We'll see how that goes. I went to bed right after the dinner since dinner lasted 4 hours!

Saturday was a long long long day. I was in COR (Council of Representative) meeting all day till 5pm! After that, I hung out with Michelle until we had to go to Celebrate SWE! Celebrete SWE is a fun banquet event. Everyone supports their region by different things - Region F, New England Region, has bottle shakers and mini F signs and Lobster hats. I almost lost my voice just for cheering! Region F won quite a few awards, which was awesome :) After the event, bunch of us went to the bar at Marriot to hang out till late. We all said goodbye to each other since most of them have early flights back to New England.

Sunday morning, I checked out of Marriot and drove back to Topeka. Dad's race was that afternoon. Don, the other race car driver, won 3rd place, which was great because Dad and David worked on that car as well. Sher, one of my mother in-law, was there as well. She arrived Saturday. We had some girl talk and was ready to cheer for Dad. Of course, it was freezing cold and raining...


Dad waiting at False Grid


Dad and Sher


Dad waiting in the car

Dad did pretty well consider how much trouble he had with the car during the week. He placed 16th in the nation! We left Topeka around 7:30pm and went to a local restaurant for dinner, then headed for Kansas City, MO for the hotel.

Puppies were very excited to see us home. They were jumping up and down and couldn't be more happier.

I pull out my knitting that night, and found this:


My sz 9 Denise is missing!!!

The best conclusion I can come up with is I lost it at the airport. I was very upset, but David ordered me replacements already, on top of it, he ordered a 30" cord and couple more end caps for me as well, resulting a very happy me :)

Well, that's my week worth of Kansas City, MO trip! I will be updating my Rhinebeck trip shortly! I promise!

Happy Knitting! :)

2 comments:

Marla said...

That was very sweet of him to order you the missing needle. I'm not sure if mine would have gotten the hint.

anphoe said...

That really was a busy week, but it seemed that you also had a lot of fun. I agree with Marla, David was very sweet, I don't think Andrew would do the same, or maybe he would, but not with the extra cord and end caps, he is not that thoughtful. Lucky you. And I am very jealous :)