Archives 2004 - Jim McNelis' Website

Archives - 2004

10/24/2004 - Stopped by my sister's house for dinner and found them making some pies. Antwahn and Noah seemed to be doing most of the work while Ruth and Joel took a nap.

10/23/2004 - I took a couple of picture of some scenery in Loudoun County. They're in high resolution so they could be used for wallpaper on your desktop.

09/25/2004 - Last week Colin scored his first goal! Check his stats here (Colin's jersey number is 5). You can find Colin's Hockey schedule there also. Colin has another game today and another tomorrow. A double header weekend and another double header weekend next week. Colin will play goalie on of the games this weekend. Hopefully he will play offense again soon.

09/15/2004 - It's been a while since I updated my site. I have a lot more updates. Colin has started 2nd grade and his second season of hockey. Jimmy has started College.

06/06/2004 - Added a couple of new items to my links page. My brother's (Tim) mortgage brokerage site and a site for cool artwork from a friend (Diana Co) at work. Recipes and other updates are coming but very, very slowly.

04/26/2004 - Colin finished up baseball (t-ball) season. I created a photo gallery of his season including him getting a trophy.

04/25/2004 - New design to the site. I have not finished all of the recipe pages yet (95 in all). I'll finish them by the end of the week.

04/17/2004 - Colin played his first game as goalie. A couple of pictures of Colin suited up are in his photo gallery. We also went to Leesburg's Flower and Garden Show. Great weather, iced cold drinks and we met up with a friend of ours, Robert Farr, the Chile Man. Robert has a wonderful farm in Round hill where he grows my favorite chili peppers.

04/10/2004 - Colin has started Inline (Roller) Hockey. He plays for the Senators who are part of the Ashburn Inline Hockey League. Check there for standings and schedule of games.

03/24/2004 - Had my second knee surgery today. Left knee this time. Not too bad. Not like the right knee. Just a torn meniscus. No crutches and no physical therapy. I used Dr Randall Peyton again. Excellent surgeon.

03/23/2004 - My nephew Joel turns 2 today. Went to my sister's house for Joel's party. We had a really nice time.

03/07/2004 - Visited with my Dad. I took a picture of my Dad holding the family crest.

03/05/2004 - I'm back from a business trip to Taipei, Taiwan. I was gone about 3 weeks. Pictures, movies and some great stories about the trip are in my photo gallery.

The Trip - In February of 2004, a colleague (David Luu) and I were asked to finish setting up a new site in Taipei, Taiwan. The job was supposed to be for two weeks, but turned out to be a three week stint. Not too bad. We went over to finish up the servers and workstations, tweak a few settings, and knock everything off of a to-do list that had 101 items on it (literally).

The flight took about 23 hours each way. That was probably the worst part of the trip. Although I did expect to have a better culinary adventure than the one I did. Unfortunately, I arrived at the end of the SARS epidemic and the beginning of the bird flu epidemic. So, no chicken for me unless it was imported. However, I was lucky enough to have a Hooter's just one block away. Yes, that's right, a Hooter's in Taiwan and in walking distance. It turned out to be the only place where I could get wings and chicken sandwiches. What did help was the people. I was almost always escorted by a local who showed me what they liked to eat and where the best places were to eat. All in all, nice food, but not what I expected. What was my favorite part of the trip? Hmmmm, how about being the tallest person on the subway or the beautiful festivals and parks or maybe it was the kind-hearted people in Taipei.

Scooters - One of the first things I noticed in Taipei was the amount of scooters on the streets. Almost everyone gets around on a scooter. If not a scooter, then the Metro or a taxi. Very few private cars. And, I only saw ONE accident in the three weeks I was there.

Lantern Festival - I really lucked out. The annual Lantern Festival was being held the first weekend I arrived. The theme of the celebration was the year of the Monkey. I checked out the festival in two different cities that night; Taipei and I forget the name of the other city.

The lanterns are spectacular. Each lantern is made the traditional way, using wood and paper. The lantern festivals were complimented by laser and light shows.

The Office - David and I had to share an end table as a desk because there wasn't enough room elsewhere in the office. I have pics of the office building and layout, the server rack, office staff and the ever popular "lunch box" which is a standard meal from the lunch lady who drives up on a scooter to delivery these inexpensive meals.

Street Markets - This was a lot of fun for me. Just what I've seen on Discovery Channel. Fresh meat being cut up on a chopping block right next purses being sold. With each step, I got a eye full, a nose full and an ear full of Taipei.

Ho Ping Park - What an unusual landscape. The beach is more like sandstone. All of the formations you see are formed from the ocean beating against the sandstone over the years. It was a great place to see small fish and crab. Up on one of the hills was a military installation. We were advised by a guard not to take pictures of the facility.

Temples - Took a stroll through Taipei's temple square to take in the beautiful temples. Enormous buildings with fantastic architecture.

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Archives - 2004

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