Posts Tagged ‘north carolina’

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated so here’s what I’ve been up to. The weekend of the 10th, I attended Hope’s Homecoming activities and my class’ five year reunion. It was a full day packed with fun things to do and catching up with several old friends. We had brunch in the morning followed by our class picture. After some exploring of campus, we headed to the football game and tailgating/picnic’ing. Some warm hot chocolate was in order afterward so we patronized JPs before attending the class party at New Holland Brewery. Here are some photos!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/HopeHomecoming5YearReunion

Last week went by in a blur. I had two quick days in the office and spent Wednesday and Thursday working out of the High Point, North Carolina office. I caught the corporate jet down and back so it was a breeze but still very busy… I even made it to class Thursday night. Friday morning we left for Traverse City on our annual wine and color tour. It was a beautiful weekend full of wining and dining, shopping, visiting friends, and of course, relaxing. For photos, check the following link.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/WineColorTour2009

Sorry to keep it short but I’m writing this between running jobs at work. Yes, still working at 10 PM!

Kellie and I just returned from a fantastic weekend in North Carolina with her extended family. Her cousin Trista was a gorgeous bride and all the festivities were magnificent. My personal highlight of the trip was creating a dance routine to Thriller with two other guys, teaching it to 20 of the family, and then dancing for the bride and groom in wolfpack masks. It was a blast!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/HesterTellierWedding

It’s been a busy week: last Thursday and Friday I worked in Waterloo, Canada and flew on the corporate jet for the first time. I was home Saturday but spent the whole day drywalling the garage with some dedicated friends. Sunday and Monday were spent gone on vacation to Frankenmuth and Tuesday through Thursday I was gone working in High Point, North Carolina. I enjoy the busyness of go-go-go weeks for the most part but it’s always nice when you get back home and have plans to stay a while.

While in High Point, I had dinner with Bryan and Hayley Williams (cousins of my wife) at their new home in Thomasville – about ten minutes away from my hotel. We had grilled chicken and pineapple, beans, and potatoes – a nice meal and a welcome reprieve from the usual on-the-go food typical of business trips. I also had dinner with a coworker of mine (Suzanna) and her husband and son. One conversation that I enjoyed was about geocaching – using a GPS device to find hidden treasures planted by other geocachers. It sounded interesting and I’d heard about it before but never met someone who was involved. Mark convinced me to give it a try so I checked out the website when I got back to the hotel room and was surprised to see that a cache was planted near the Fairfield Inn where I was staying! This couldn’t be just coincidence, right? Using the Nuvi and doing some searching, I found the cache. All in all a neat experience and I’m sure this won’t be the last one I find.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/NorthCarolinaJuly2009

I spent the majority of this week in High Point, North Carolina at Steelcase’s Brayton International subsidiary. I visited this same location during a similar trip back in June of this year. This trip involved assurance testing of the design and development work I’ve done over the past several months in an attempt to help automate and bring the Coalesse commission and incentives programs to SAP. We had several good sessions and the conclusion saw all of my goals accomplished. I hope the fine folks from Brayton had all of their questions answered too. One bonus on this trip (aside from finding a few new local dining establishments) is that I brought a camera.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/OctoberBraytonTrip

Just returned from a week long vacation down south. Mrs. Bolick, Kevin, Allison, Eric, Kellie and I rented a van and embarked on the journey Friday (Jul 11) afternoon. We drove thru the night and arrived in Topsail Beach (North Carolina) early Saturday morning. We spent half the week with her Uncle and Aunt at their beach house before leaving Wednesday morning for a day with her grandmom in Morganton (North Carolina). On Thursday afternoon, we left for and spent the remainder of the week in Dillard (Georgia) at the family reunion. Everyone had a great time and we took lots of pictures of the fun!

We spent time on the beach, in the ocean, on the boat, tubing, water skiing, reading, playing video games, napping, eating lots of food, hiking, and of course keeping up with running and swimming (for the triathlon) – we weren’t able to bike. Enjoy the photos!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/HesterBeachHouse
http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/GrandmaVisit
http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/ReedFamilyReunion2008

I spent the first half of this week on business travel down in High Point, NC. Steelcase has an office and plant there where I had three days of meetings revolving around an incentives and commissions project that I’m leading. The weather was hot but beautiful and although the city is pretty small with a lack of entertainment venues, I had a good time seeing somewhere new.

After a 5:30 flight down Monday (Jun 16) morning, I arrived around 10:30 AM at the PTI airport, picked up the rental vehicle (a Chevy HHR), and made my way to the office. An afternoon of meetings was followed by dinner out and an early bedtime to catch up on sleep.

I felt great waking up Tuesday morning and headed out for a nice six mile run along the back streets. I always enjoy running in a new location because my Garmin Forerunner keeps me accountable to the miles and I am able to explore new terrain. I can think of few better ways to familiarize oneself with a new town than to jog the streets in the early morning with no real destination in mind. Another day of meetings, followed by dinner at a neat brewery (Liberty Steakhouse & Brewery) just out of town and watching the finals NBA game. I was happy to see Celtics pull it off even though it meant getting to bed late.

Wednesday (Jun 18) morning found me tired and ready to head home. Spent another day in meetings and left a few minutes early to explore Greensboro, NC. We found a neat bar along the main strip before exploring one of the main parks in the city. It was a nice reprieve before heading to the airport and flying back. I eventually did that and arrived home just after midnight. Check another city off the list!

Kellie and I flew down to North Carolina for a quick getaway Christmas evening and spent time with her family there before attending a wedding in Asheville that week (on the 28th). We flew back just before New Years Eve – what a quick trip! Please enjoy these select photos from the wedding!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/MorgantonVisit
http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/WilliamsWieberWedding

The Bolick clan attended the funeral of Mr. Bolick’s mother today. It was hard to get through as so many people are emotional wrecks. Although I did not know Grandma well, I couldn’t help but shed a few tears along with everyone else. I’ll never forget the first time I met her and how she made such a big deal about that sandwich. I’ll chuckle about that until I’m old and gray.

Kellie and I received the news last night that her grandmother passed away. She had been placed back into critical condition this past weekend and things deteriorated quickly. Monday night around 11pm, it was all over. Please keep the Bolick family in your prayers as they struggle to deal with the loss of a great woman. Death is never easy, but she is in a better place now and the healing can begin.

We will be heading down to North Carolina for the remainder of the week to take care of things and attend the funeral. I suspect we will return Sunday.

I am very thankful to have the day off from work today. It has been a long couple of weeks and I needed the time to recover some lost sleep and take care of some errands. After carrying the pager at work last week and subsequently working ALL weekend analyzing and repairing damaged sales data, we found out this past Monday that Kellie’s grandmother is at a critical juncture in life. She’s was hospitalized immediately and given only a few days to live. Although her situation has improved somewhat since, the stress and tensions in the family are still relatively high. Adding to this is the fact that she resides in North Carolina, a twelve or thirteen hour drive. If you can remember, please keep her in your prayers.

I also enjoyed the privilege of working out at Champion this morning after nearly a week of sedentary living. It is so easy to skip out on activities like the gym (and to keep skipping out on them). Once I get back into the gym, I realize how stupid and foolish it is to do so as I am immediately revitalized and vow to never skip the gym for that length of time again. Too bad I can never stick to that vow for long. Am I the only one with motivation problems??

The remainder of the day will be spent running errands and moving along the process of selling the Altima. It’s still difficult to think about, but I’m really starting to see clearly: that this is the right thing to do. I hope you all have a lovely Friday the thirteenth and that no boogie monsters jump out of your closets.