Okay, so no blogging for awhile. To my 1.5 readers I apologize for that.

2006 has been crazy for both me and Andrea. For me, first quarter is usually slow, but (thankfully) that is not the case this year. Unfortunately it would be nice to be able to take some time to re-groove my brain. Andrea is in the throes of the yearly budget at work, and is just as tired as I am most days.

That is, unless I have to travel. Then she’s tired enough for three people, what with her job and the farm to deal with.

I was out of town last week in Vancouver, Washington. I like the Pacific Northwest, although the Portland area has been much wetter than usual. We did get two nice days, with great views of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens, but then the clouds and cold rolled in.

The client was great – a bunch of geeks – and we spent the first day just covering obscure movie references.

I have some friends in Oregon, and on Wednesday I got to see one of them. Robyne Ressler went to Harvey Mudd College the last year I was there. She left (voluntarily I believe, unlike me) and now lives in Portland. She’s founded a non-profit to help with animal rescue called Pals of Paws. I though it was pretty cool, but while they focus on the infrastructure around fostering animals, it’s hard to be involved like that and not end up with something like 8 cats and 5 dogs. (grin)

Another friend is Kathy Forrester, who is really into Middle Eastern Dance. I met Kathy also at Harvey Mudd, but the year after I was invited to leave. For the last 17 years she’s been studying dance, but I had never got to see her perform.

Well, she was doing a benefit performance in Corvallis my last night on the west coast, so I rented a car and headed down there. It poured and I was lucky to get there in time.

Kathy’s husband TJ is really cool, so we found a place to sit until her troupe, Tribalation!, took the stage. Let’s just say that there was a variety of skill levels involved, and I had to work hard to keep from making smart aleck comments.

Tribalation! was great, and Kathy was the star of the show. Not only did I really like their style of dance (versus the more cabaret style of the other performers), Kathy really upped the skill level by performing with two long swords, at one point balancing both on her head.

I tried to take some pictures but they all sucked. I did get one toward the end of her performance that, while blurry, looked pretty cool.

Afterward the three of us went out to eat and joke around. Kathy didn’t bring anything to change into, so she raised her head high and walked into the crowded restaurant in full tribal gear.

I was tired when I got back to the hotel a little after 1am, and we had to get up at 5am to hit the airport, but it was worth it.