9/10_2012 Connecticut and Boston - Dave's Business Trip

I went to a hospital in Boston in early September to perform some equipment diagnosis for work. It was pretty nice weather in Boston and I hadn't been there in years so it was fun to cruise around a little bit between work outings. Here is the view out of my hotel window looking toward the river and Harvard Square on the other side. Here I am in standard hospital scrub attire. "Doctor?" The next few pics are just a few scenes from around Boston. There were quite a few people out and about as you can imagine in a city that size. Lots of sweaty joggers running on the paths along the river. Masochists. Floating boat vehicle thing. (more text below) The view from the Points Club Lounge - luckily my travel companion (not my adorable wife) has tons of hotel points so we get free afternoon happy hour drinks and appetizers. In early October, I traveled to Connecticut for an extensive four-day technical seminar on ultrasonic welding. We use this process for many of our medical devices. The first picture is one of the ultrasonic welding labs at Branson.We learned a lot about part design, weld configurations and material compatibility. After one day of the seminar we had to run an errand in Walmart so you can see me here checking out the excellent pop tart bargains. :) The next few pictures are from my old hometown of Wilton Connecticut. One of the days of the seminar finished early enough for me to drive 20 miles south for a quick tour down memory lane before it got dark. Here is my old high school. The pictures after this are my old middle school and the grocery store where I worked for years. (more text below) Here are a few pictures of our old house on Appletree Lane in Wilton, CT. The big trees you see in the cul-de-sac were planted by my father and I back in 1974. Free Blog Counter

12_2012 Dave Heads to Europe for Biz

In early December, I went on a whirlwind five-day trip to three countries in Europe to gather hospital user information and performance data for our ultrasonic dissection device. First I spent three days in London and on one afternoon I had a few hours to walk around the city to check it out. Here a bunch of photos of various sites and scenes in London. It was cold and a bit windy but sunny. All the pasty Brits were out and about enjoying the sunshine :) Ornate buildings and red double decker buses abound in London. Also there are scads of tourists taking tourist photos like me. (see more text below) In this one hospital in London we went up this stairwell and to my surprise there was this 15' high wall-mounted sculpture of a female rocker climber. Pretty funny and a complete surprise, not to mention it seemed totally out of context. Next stop on the tour was Liege Belgium. We arrived after several train rides into the main train station at 10pm. It was a pretty cool train station. Then we got a ride from a crooked cab driver to our hotel which despite the 15 minute ride we found out the next day was only 1/2 mile from the train station. The hotel room was nice but very Euro-funky. Check out the huge unused acreage in the room. Pretty funny. The hotel buffet breakfasts in Europe were quite tasty!! I piled my plate high with salmon, eggs, and chocolate croissants. Yum! I had about an hour in the morning to walk around Liege which was fairly interesting although it was raining so I didn't travel too far. (more text below) When we were done at the hospitals in Liege, we went to the Brussels airport to fly to Stockholm Sweden. However, it was snowing heavily in Stockholm and many flights were cancelled. This seemed like a bummer at first until we got comped rooms and dinner at the Crown Plaza which is little out of my usual league of travel. I enjoyed the fine robe. :) And the free dinner. The next morning we went to the very cool Brussels airport to catch our flight to Stockholm. This is a picture of a pedal-to-power charging station. People sat on these machines and pedaled to charge their computers! The US could use some of these. I thought it was very cool. After landing in Stockholm, we took a cab to Uppsala Sweden to visit a hospital there and gather clinical and diagnostic information. Here I am stylishly modeling the latest in disposable Swedish Scrub Wear. The hospital there was huge, and very well organized. Impressive. That last night I stayed at a Stockholm airport hotel then caught a very early flight to London. From there, I continued on to Denver. I had two empty seats next to me on the flight home so I was able to get some sleep and minimize the jet lag. :) Free Blog Counter