Reporting from the heart of the deep south here. I’m in Atlanta and checking email, and such. Let me just confirm that Georgia asphalt in the summer is damned hot!

Firstly, for those of you who submitted emails and requests for graphic work - you should have received an email confirming the reciept of said email and explaination that graphic work and designing shall resume on Monday when I return back to the safe confines of my own home.

For those who have submitted orders for hosting accounts - - those have been set up and you should have received a confirmation email with instructions.

I’ll be checking my email again in the morning - so, please bear with me here as I go through my weekend of software training. Oy! The training - - trust me when I tell you that there are so many other things I’d rather be spending my time on (psst - - don’t tell Chris that, however - - he has ‘high hopes’ for me with these projects lol). I spent the day learning about building databases and ‘universes’ and the relationships defined within those databases and the end user output and useage.

Sound pretty dry? Well…yea, it is. But I’m increasing my knowledge base on XML, SQL and basic conceptual understanding of such things..which, I suppose, on some level - - somewhere…somehow, will come in pretty handy, don’t you think?

Highlights of my trip so far? (and training wasn’t one of them):

I got to meet Chelle! How fun was that! Thank you, chica, for opening up your house and feeding us weary travelers! We pulled into her drive way and Chris had barely put the Jeep into park - and I was hopping out of the truck and running up to her door to give her a great big hug. It was really great to see and spend time with her. I had a really super time sitting and chatting with her - - it felt like we’d been friends forever. She is as intelligent, witty, bright and hilarious in real life as she is online. It’s definately something that will be done again, and often - as my new responsiblities with Chris’s company will bring me to Atlanta more frequently. Great time had by all - - and man can that woman cook!

The heat down here is intolerable — how do you Georgians do it? Heat and humidity - and I thought we had it bad up here in Wisconsin! I shall not ever complain again. There is a Tropical Storm headed this way. I just hope it bypasses Atlanta, at least long enough for me to fly outta here tomorrow evening!

Chris and I went out to dinner this evening to a local steakhouse. I made him promise NO TALK of databases or any other computer related babble. We had a wonderful evening and the steak was excellent! For the first time in my life, I tried Fried Green Tomatoes. Ha - you thought it was just a movie, didn’t you? Nope - it’s an actual appetizer and we ordered it because I guess it’s the thing to do in Georgia (along with sweet tea). I have to be honest here and say that will be the last time I order fried green tomatoes ever again. Nothing spectacular — and maybe it was just the way this particular restraunt prepared them — but they tasted less of tomatoe and more of the batter and oil they were fried in. But hey, when in Rome……

Tomorrow is another long 8 hour day of training. It’s been a fun weekend, overall. Chris has been traveling down here quite a lot over the past 4 years we’ve been together - and this is my first time here. It was nice to see the areas where he spends his time. He took me down to the Home Depot corporate offices and took me on an unofficial tour, showed me his office, etc..etc.. It’s just nice to be able to visualize and put him, in my minds eye, in an actual physical space that I can relate to.

Hopefully, the tropical storm will remain at bay, because you know I would just hate to have to call my employer and tell them that I missed my flight due to weather! Yea, that would suck, wouldn’t it? (btw - 1 week, 2 days left!).