Started a little packing today, but nothing serious yet. Tomorrow morning brings on the dash to fit and remember everything for my two weeks in Brazil.

I bought a larger suitcase to take this time, and am having to deliver a replacement laptop to a co-worker there (and bring her old one back to the US), so I wanted to be able to pack it instead of carrying it. I didn’t pay a fortune for a lighter-than-air MacBook for traveling only to have an 8-pound Dell become my ball-and-carry-on-chain.

I’m glad I was able to spend the weekend at home with my honey. We spent a lot of time together and just enjoyed each other’s company.

I’m starting to think about prepping for my next trip to Brazil (in four days). Originally I was to leave tomorrow, but a change in plans on the return due to a newly-scheduled meeting the day after I was to come home allowed me to shift the outbound back a couple of days as well. I like being home.

The week at work (just back from two weeks off) has been relatively quiet, which was a welcome change and a nice transition.

Next month is our company’s annual customer conference and for me, September is pretty much a lost month due to tight deadlines, meetings, planning sessions, etc. October should offer some more breathing space — and I have already purchased my ticket for that 10th trip to Brazil.

My honey and I took a 2-day trip to Las Vegas last weekend to spend time with his family who were gathered there. We had a relaxing time and didn’t lose as much money as we took, so consider it a success.

On that trip we stopped at his mother’s in St. George to pick up an item to carry to his sister in Las Vegas and ended up having a rather heated discussion about marriage. She is considering marriage number 6, but has no problem supporting anti-marriage equality initiatives on the ballot. A rather frustrating conversation took place and while I am prone to discussion, normally my honey is not. He was this time.

A couple of days later I asked him, “If and when we are legally able to get married, are you going to invite your mother?”

He didn’t answer.

I made it back home yesterday and am happy to be back. I visited Wyoming (Torrington, Wheatland, Laramie), Nebraska (Kearney, Nebraska City, Hebron, Belvidere), Kansas (Concordia, Emporia, Reading) and Missouri (St. Joseph). Most of these cities hold memories and/or genealogical significance for me.

I didn’t find anything new other than the divorce papers filed by my great-grandfather’s 1st wife in 1902. He sounds an awful lot like my dead brother. It’s amazing to see history repeat itself inside the same family.

I drove just over 2,500 miles and am ready to stay put for a while (though my honey is talking about going to Las Vegas this weekend with his parents).

I fly back to Brazil on the 24th and have enjoyed staying grounded for these few weeks.

I was in sore need of some time off from work and my Brazil travels, so I took off two weeks and on Sunday I got in my car and drove 750 miles to Kearney, Nebraska. The next day, I drove to St. Joseph, Missouri via Nebraska City, Nebraska.

I’ve been visiting cemeteries, museums and in general just site-seeing. I spent some time doing genealogy today and found the divorce papers from my great-grandfather’s first marriage. An interesting read that provides a bit more flesh on this man who killed himself in 1915.

I was disappointed to see a number of tombstones pushed over in the Ashland Cemetery in St. Joseph yesterday. I can’t imagine what thrill someone receives from being destructive for destruction’s sake.

Tomorrow I may venture a little further east and continue my journey and photography.

Tonight is my last night in Brasil — for the month of July.

This is has been a productive, yet long trip (10 days) and I am ready to get home to my honey. He has taken the whole week off, so I decided that I would take off Friday as well (I get home Thursday afternoon) so that we could have a 3-day weekend, at least.

On Friday night we went to Bar Brahma again and saw both Carolina Soares and Os Originais do Samba and had a great time. I took a work colleague who is both LDS and new to the company (and Brasil, for that matter), but I was pleasantly surprised to see him roll with the punches at this loud, somewhat raucous club.

I didn’t mention church to him on Sunday and as far as I know, he didn’t sneak out of the hotel and find a local sacrament meeting, so I find that somewhat refreshing. I have a colleague now who makes a point of letting everyone know that she will not be socializing on the sabbath and ensures that everyone knows she has gone to church.

This time was a nice contrast.

Tomorrow I leave for São Paulo again. It’s the middle of winter and the forecast calls for rain and nighttime temperatures in the 40s and 50s, so this will be a nice change from our hot, dry spell here in Utah this year (though we did get a nice rainstorm early this afternoon).

One of the events to which I have been invited is a baby shower. My first in Brazil. The mother (who is an employee of the company with which I work — and a friend of both mine and my honey) had asked me to buy her a baby swing for which she would reimburse me. I decided it would make a better shower present — and then I won’t feel bad if I picked the wrong one. I don’t have a lot of experience shopping for newborns.

Two Facebook sites have requested my membership and they are diametrically opposed to each other — the first, the mission reunion site I mentioned previously and the 2nd, an ex-Mórmon (it’s all in Portuguese) site that pokes fun at the church.

I hope I don’t mix up any posts I may make.

I just checked out of one hotel and into another. I had a nice, quiet weekend with no travel for a change and was able to sleep, eat, walk, take photos and sleep some more. It’s funny how much ‘me’ time I can get in a city of this size.

Work begins tomorrow and it will be four intense days filled with meetings, problem-solving and trying to impress my boss, who will be here for the first time while I am.

Today is a beautiful fall (at least for 4 more days) day and the skies are blue and the temperature in the 70s F. This could almost be Sydney if it weren’t the for the funny accents.

And tomorrow is another trip to Brazil. The discussions to have me move down there for a duration have progressed to the point of a specific timeframe (“six months”) and the involvement of Human Resources.

At this point, I’m just taking it a day at a time and will do what I need to do — as long as it does not demonstrably impact my person life.

I’m there just over a week (I’ve decided to quit traveling over the weekend to/from) and will have an entire weekend in São Paulo and one in Salt Lake when I return a week from Friday. What a concept!

I’m back home in Salt Lake City again and am enjoying a nice, quiet weekend with my honey. We had dinner with a friend on Friday night, visited my cousin and his fiancé  and another friend yesterday afternoon, went to see Xanadu at the Grand Theatre last night and had brunch with friends this morning.

Ok–not that quiet of a weekend.

My honey leaves for Dublin on Wednesday, and as far as I know, I am home for a couple of weeks at least. We’ll see what Monday brings…

My honey’s parents spent the night with us and just left to fly to LAX, where they will meet other family members for a cruise to Vancouver, BC. We were invited, but with my travel schedule (or lack of one) lately, it’s been kind of hard to make any plans.

I was in Minneapolis on Thursday and Friday and got to have dinner with my brother and his family. Always fun.

I’m heading back to Brazil this week, arriving Saturday. This will make six trips to/from Brazil since mid-January (in 14 weeks). In sheer distance traveled, I will have done the equivalent of circumnavigating the globe four times.

My boss on Friday suggested that if I wanted to move to Brazil, she suspected that the company would support it. My honey was not thrilled, but logistically, I could probably do it for a year or so. He said, “You need to at least be home for our 25th anniversary” (in March 2013).

I guess we’ll see how serious everyone really is. I suggested that perhaps a week-long trip once a month to Brazil might suffice….