And we're back!

Hey! I'm NOT dead! Isn't that great?

I'll do a little version of 'hitting to all fields' now.

Am I becoming a flight snob now?

I've just recently returned from a one night (and next day) work trip to Miami. As expected, it was hotter than Hell. Work-wise, it went well, which is nice. I took an early flight back (yeah!) but first was full so no upgrade (boo!) but what are you gonna do?

I'll take that deal every day of the week and twice on Sunday

Since our sitter (who is great, btw) was on vacation last week, I took last week as a vacation week and watched the sprout all week long. It was a pretty amazing experience, spending so much time with her. I'm glad I did it. It only reinforced my thought that (if the $ were not an object...) I would be a stay at home parent, no doubt.

That smell on the DC Metro? That was me.

The week before that, I spent a week in SCADA training in Washington, D.C. Now, I've always wanted to go there and see the National Mall and all the memorials and all that. And this was the perfect occasion to do so. Training was Wed--->Fri so I flew out Tuesday morning and did some site-seeing for the rest of the day. I took the DC Metro from Vienna, VA, into the city. I walked around for almost 6 hours. It was hotter than Hell and I was major-league sweating. I'm sure by the end of the day, I reeked. It was so bad I washed the clothes at the hotel.

Now that everyone's grossed out...

I have to say, DC was amazing. I saw the Air & Space Museum, Capital Building, White House, Supreme Court, Washington Monument, FDR, Jefferson, and Lincoln Memorials. Vietnam Wall, Korean War Memorial, and the new WW II Memorial. I also saw the Holocaust Museum.

Someone with my same first and last name is on the Vietnam Wall. I plan to see what I can find out about him.

Since 9/11, all the areas around the White House are pretty locked down. You can't even walk up to the fence anymore. What a drag. I did take a zoomed in picture of some guys standing watch on the roof though, which was kinda cool.

All in all, it was a great trip. Even greater since I earned the certification I was there for in the first place. But what stays with me is the memorials to so many of the people that made this country what it is. I don't think they make people like that anymore.

It's a whole new ballgame.

Boy, I haven't posted in a while. At least, beyond the different question/answer stuff I post now and then. Anyways, some catching up to do.

Our little one is now scuffling around the floor and pulling herself up to stand against just about anything. It's pretty amazing to see. It seems so cliche to say that time has gone by so fast, but it does not seem so long ago that we were at the hospital begging her to eat a half an ounce so we could finally take her home. Now, she's eating Stage 2 foods and regularly draining her bottle. Last night (and this morning) I went into her room in response to her making some noises to find her standing up in her crib and clutching onto the top railing. It's simply amazing.

Work has been pretty busy. I have not been traveling as much as I used to but I have a trip on tap for June. Ottawa, Canada for a week. At least it's not over Father's Day. I'm not sure what there is to see there but if there is I'm sure we (I am going with someone from work) will see it. No baseball team though, so that's too bad.

I've found that the combination of watching Tivo and listening to my iPod in the car has totally made me intolerant of commercials. I just can't stand them. If they could find some way to target them towards things I actually use, that's fine. But the majority of them are for beer (no thanks) or insurance (already have it in multiple forms) or for other products that I have no use for. Just about the only ones I enjoy are the funny ones (a rarity) or ones advertising new products like a new dish at Olive Garden or something. There has to be a better way, because literally 95% of the ones I see are for stuff I have never and would never purchase.

I think much like a person who drives in a ton of traffic ever day becomes numbed to it, and a person who doesn't gets bothered by the slightest amount of traffic, I can't stand commercials at all because most of the time I don't have to listen to them.

On that subject, when I listen to the Cubs games on the radio commercials are unavoidable. There's a beer commercial (at least I think it might be Old Style) where a guy talks about 'local traditions' with the catchphrase "It's a local thing"...the only problem is that these commercials are so annoying AND it seems like the guy is just reading various bits of Chicago trivia off of a script. I can't stand them.

Some days I find myself getting really annoyed at the smallest thing. Maybe I'm too busy at work or not getting enough sleep. Who knows, but I'm sure it's annoying my wife and friends.

I was able to order this, which I was very happy about. Wedge is one of my favorite characters.

I've decided that instead of aiming at last year's model of LCD TV I will most likely choose this year's model, which has 3 HDMI inputs. I'll mostly likely get it from Grants and try to get a good price and financing. Timeframe is TBD because I still haven't found a nice stand for it. I think the TV will end up getting mounted to the wall. I think this will make the front room look bigger. (oh yeah, and my 30th is months away...)

After looking at the ticket stub I have for Borat (dated 11/10/2006) I discovered it's been some time since I've seen a movie. I would like to see Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four 2, and Pirates 3 and Shrek 3 can go hang for all I care, since I can't stand Shrek. Oh yeah, and I WILL go see Transformers on or around the release date. Hello, it's the original voice of Prime!

Podcasts I listen to:

Tony Kornheiser show on Washington Post Radio
Official Lost Podcast
Battlestar Galactica Podcast
Jim Butcher.com Butcherblock Podcast
ESPN's Eye of the Sportsguy Podcast

Terminal Case

I'm realizing that I left off the last day of my trip, the day where I (thankfully) returned home.

Our flight was supposed to leave at noon local time. That would get us home around 6pm Central time. Not too bad and only a little later than I'd get home had I worked a regular day on Thursday.

We left for the airport around 9:30am, since my colleague wanted to get there a little early and do some work. I figured, 'why not', since I had a few books and my iPod. Plus, we would be sitting in the AA Admiral's Club (since he's a member) and they'd have food and drinks there and stuff.

Getting through security was no problem (even with two laptops each) and we headed to the club. We relaxed for a couple hours and then WHAMMO...our flight's departure time was changed to 2:15pm. It stunk, but there's nothing you can do, right?

around 1:45pm, we headed down to the gate...and here comes Round 2. The woman announces that the flight to Chicago that was to take off after ours (originally at 2:15pm, coincidentally) has been canceled. This does not do much for the holiday cheer of those around us. Also, our flight will now *board* at 3:45pm. I say *board* because we will not actually be leaving to fly anywhere. We'll just park somewhere out there because they need to clear the gate. Basically, they need to get rid of us. She said we'd probably leave at 5pm, but she couldn't promise anything. That's always nice.

We go back to the club. There, we hear about a guy whose flight was canceled and he would not be able to get out until that Sunday...Christmas Eve. Yikes.

We did actually board at 3:45pm. And we did actually leave at 5pm. Our seats were in First so even though we sat there without going anywhere for a while at least they were nice chairs. Also, they played the movie "Invincible" which I wanted to see, so that was nice.

When we got there, we headed to our baggage claim and waited and waited. Our flight was up on the monitor for this claim, but it was another flight's baggage. I told my colleague that I was going to look at the other claims and see if our bags were anywhere else. After walking down 4-5 vestibules I found them and called him. After I got my bags I walked past our original claim and told everybody where our flight's bags actually were and people were pissed at the airline big time.

Anyway, I'm just glad we got home Thursday, and safely.

The Light at the End

We checked out of the hotel this morning. We have reservations at another one that's a lot closer to the airport for tonight. Originally I had thought we would be onsite tomorrow as well, but as I looked at the itinerary I saw that we were leaving at noon so going into the office was out.

We get back home tomorrow around 6pm. A Monday--->Thursday night trip, so that's not too bad. At least our flight home is in first.

Also, we passed a Chick-Fil-A between the John Wayne airport and the office. Maybe we'll stop there to eat dinner on our way back.

Me Gone

I somehow lost my sunglasses today. I'm not sure where. They were my good pair too, damn it. The hotel took my info so if they ever find them (yeah right) they'll send them to me.

IF somebody found them and kept them for themselves, Merry Christmas I suppose.

We went to a local mexican place for lunch. I had tacos and they were pretty good. At this place they put the cheese in first, and then the meat, which I thought was odd.

We went to a sportsbar for dinner. NIU was playing in a bowl game and getting their ass kicked but we got to see the end of the Bulls/Lakers game and the Bulls won.

For Fantasy Football, even though I'm out of the money (and have been for a few weeks) I'm in the playoffs (consolation bracket) and will play this weekend for 5th place. Not *too* bad in a 10 team league, especially since I haven't been able to spend as much time with it as I'd like...mostly I just add free agents who are better than my guys and start yahoo's recommended roster. I just haven't had the time to research guys like I normally might.

In the other yahoo league I'm in (where I'm the commish) I've gotten my ass kicked all year and I'm in last place by far...even worse than a guy who doesn't even check his team I'm sure.

Oh well.

Being away stinks. I miss my family. I'll be happy to be back home...and then Christmas will be right around the corner.

Away Message

I have been lucky enough over the last 6+ months to have not had to travel for work.
That ended this week, unfortunately. Leaving home and my wife and daughter stinks.

I'm not sure if it is easier leaving a baby than it is leaving a child who's a little older. I suppose an older kid can understand and talk to you about it and stuff, whereas with a newborn, who knows what they are thinking, if anything about it at all. I know I miss her a lot. I'm sure I'll have to travel again. Who knows when. I'll try to make it the bare minimum I can. If it wasn't for the busy weekend we just had and the weather at home, I would have taken them both with me here. Maybe the next trip will be to somewhere where we can take a little vacation.

One saving grace was that the destination wasn't too bad a place...Palm Springs, CA.

The flight wasn't too bad. I started the new Michael Crichton book "Next" at the airport and read the whole flight. I think I might have tried to close my eyes for about 10 minutes but that didn't do any good. Even though I got up early (for me) and Sunday was a late night, it didn't matter. The book was good though. I actually had about 20 pages left by the time I went to bed in the hotel, so I just finished it.

We landed at the John Wayne airport. They even have a statue of him down there by baggage.

Because the location we're visiting is kinda the middle of nowhere, the hotel was about 2 hours away from the airport. We didn't fly into the Palm Springs airport
for some reason...either itinerary or price, I don't remember which. Anyways, we rented a car and drove there.

The hotel is nice. It kinda reminds me of the hotel in "The Shining" because it's so empty. It's a golf resort and I guess most peopel think it is too cold to golf here now. I don't think it's too bad...though it gets pretty cold (maybe ~40F) at night. There are mountains all around us. IT's weird...growing up in the midwest and spending most of my life there, I always think the mountains look fake somehow.