Rachel and I wanted to get out of the house for a while. The only problem is that we do not have a lot of money. Therefore, any overnight trip is out of the question as it is expensive to board our three dogs. Of course, even if did not have to board the dogs, most trips would be too expensive.

Last Wednesday, I took the Microsoft 70-536: .NET Framework 2.0 Application Development Foundation exam. I was a bit nervous. The testing center is located at the Lorain County Community College. I had driven by the LCCC numerous times but had never ventured on campus. Since Rachel is more familiar with the area (and because I wanted some moral support) she came with me.

I hope everyone had a safe holiday weekend. I did not do too much. I mostly stayed inside and worked on school work. I am off of work for the next couple of weeks. So, I am hoping that things will stay quiet.

As of Tuesday afternoon, I am on vacation. I won’t be back to work until a week from next Monday. Of course, just because I am not at the office does not mean that I won’t be doing any work. I forwarded my office line to my cell phone in case of issues. And, as usual, I check my e-mail on a regular basis.

I was only halfway home on Tuesday before someone from work called. Someone called me yesterday morning too. I guess not everyone realized that I was on vacation. However, I was able to accommodate both of them.

Since the company that I work for does not allow employees to carry their vacation time from year to year, I have to start using my vacation time. Between normal vacation time, company holidays, and compensation time, I have fifteen days of vacation that I need to use before the end of the year. So, I have decided Tuesdays and Thursdays off until I run out of vacation time. I am planning to use that time on schoolwork (as my current class is fairly tough). However, things have not worked according to my schedule so far. I have spent the first few days of vacation working.

I am still trying to catch up from my recent vacation. I had several pages of material to write for my blog. I had written a number of entries on the trip to the West Coast, but somewhere along the way, I got behind. When I was starting to post entries, I realized that I should take into account from which time zone I am posting.

Four train rides, one bus ride, and one car ride later, and Rachel and I are back home. It was a long trip. Maybe next time we go back to the West Coast we will either fly or take a longer vacation.

The train ride from Chicago, IL to Elyria, OH was uneventful. We did have some problems when we were playing Crazy Eights. Rachel dropped one of the cards and we were unable to find it. We ended up having to almost dismantle her chair before we retrieved the missing card.

When we woke up this morning, Rachel and I did not feel like having breakfast (we were still full from last night's dinner). So, we skipped breakfast, took our showers, and got all of our stuff ready to disembark.

Today's journey on the train was uneventful (read relaxing). Rachel and I got up around 6:30 and headed down to breakfast. I do not remember what she ate, but I had a light breakfast. All of this rich food was starting to catch up with me.

We went back to our room and played Uno for a while before falling asleep out of boredom. A few hours of sleep later, we arrived at Grand Junction, Colorado. The stop was very brief, but Rachel and I had enough time to hop off the train and buy some souvenirs (along with just about everyone else who was onboard).

The taxi ride from the hotel to the train station was interesting. The station was only two or three blocks away. But, with all of the traffic and with half the streets being closed, it took us at least twenty minutes to make the trip.

When we arrived at the station, the attendant notified us that the train was running about an hour late. Since we had some extra time, we decided to repack our belongings and to distribute our stuffed animals and other souvenirs.