Almost there.

OK, last stop enroute to Portland is San Jose. So I learned two new airport codes, PDX and SJC. Many more to come, I am sure.

I kind of indulged myself a bit. Boys need toys, so my new toy is the Motorola Q. One of the nice things, if not the nicest, is EVDO connectivity. In Deutschland, we call it UMTS. Elsewhere, 3G. At any rate, it's the answer to my prayers. Well, not quite, but short of. It gives me my Internet dialtone on the road. But the story is complicated. First of all, my provider Verizon does not want you to use the phone as normal techies would, which is to "tether" it to your PC. So new word learned, "tethering" mean to hook up your phone to your laptop as a dial-up modem. So that is disappointing news. But, 35 bucks later, PDAnet to the rescue, I have a dial-up connection wherevever I have a signal on the phone. We'll see how it performs. So far, I get the promised 700-800 kbit.

For voice, I gotta say it is really bad. You get hilarious voice quality. I'd chuck it right away for that, but I can't. The other reason why I'd like to thrust the Q into the orbit is battery life. Blimey, this thing sucks out a battery pack faster than you can say "charger". It comes with a battery that last, well, not quite a day. The extended battery lasts, well, almost 24 hours. What is up with that?! Can you guys at Microsoft and Motorola please figure this out? My Blackberry 7290 ran FOR A WEEK without charging. Get with the program, guys. This is horrible. At least the phone charges on the USB while connected.

So anyway, this phone hooks me up while we get our life sorted. Which brings me to the next point, a nice home we found. This brings to an end three weeks of living in and out of hotels. So here it is.

What else. Well, half an hour to kill while waiting for my flight. I figure this is going to be a regular occurence. I am back in the field. "Field Consulting Engineer" it says on my new business card. Alright, off to collect frequent flyer miles.

So my boss told me today we have a new customer in Germany with offices in the US and Germany. Guess what I need to do. Yep, go to Germany for the install. Why did I migrate to the US? Only to fly back to Germany to work? I don't know, but it will be fun.

P.S.: Notice the wet concrete in the picture? ;-) Oregon is supposedly rainy. I'll see.