My short weekend home (Friday evening to Sunday afternoon) was relaxing. Didn't get many of my Honey Do list items completed. Darn it. I have higher hopes for this coming weekend when I return home on Thursday. Top of the list is to close the books on my Creative Memories and ensure I am ready to do my taxes. It will be a fun one this year. 6 State taxes, standard married fed taxes and my small business taxes.
My cab ride to the airport wasn't looking good. The driver was 12 minutes late. Fortunately, I have been ordering the car a bit earlier in preparation for this. We make it to the airport smoothly. The driver was not my favourite driver, Sher. And the Lincoln (whatever model) did not have heated seats/back in the back. I was disappointed since I really wanted to warm my freezing back.
Security was a breeze. The poor young guy in front of me was harassed by the TSA agent. The older TSA agent was sweet as can be with me. No waiting! :) I get to the gate. Thank goodness it is at C12 instead of C34 or C36 where it has been for the past couple of weeks. Less walk. Yes, I know walking is good exercise. I don't care. I get enough exercise at the gym.
The flight is delayed. So it begins. It isn't too delayed, only about 7 minutes. They said it could be up to 11 minutes late. That isn't too bad. I figure w/ the wind pushing us, we'd get there on time still. Make up the time in the air. To my surprise we land EARLY. We get there 25 minutes before we were supposed to.
The flight attendant, Pat was a stitch. She couldn't remember where we were flying to, when she paused to check w/ the pilots, everyone yelled, CINCINNATI!. She had the entire Safety procedure memorized. That is a pleasant change. Many of the last dozen flights, the flight attendants were all reading it from a script. Pat interjected some humour in her "presentation".
Now to Ian. Ian was a older gentleman from the UK. He had travelled from Southern England to Amsterdam to Detroit and then end up in Cinci. Ugh. The worst part, he was only going to be in Cinci for a day. He is to fly back the day after. Double UGH! His company partners with another company in OH that manufactures equipment for the Petroleum industry. . . machinery for Oil Rigs for example. His company makes the software for this company. Not sure what the software does.
We had a lovely conversation and of course, when speaking to a British gent, my slight continental accent started to creep back in my tone and my vocabulary switch to more British English than American English. Ian is apparently a brilliant Physicist in his area. Pretty impressive. We bonded a bit over the love of Sciences. My father was also passionate about Physics. It was amusing that his oldest daughter had issues for the first time in electromagnetics @ Univ. That was when my physics grades started to fail. Up until then, Physics was super easy. After EM Physics in Adv. Physics in High school, I decided being a physicist was not for me. This young lady is studying to be an astrophysicist. Sigh. More power to her.
Ian and I also discussed the trials of the youth now a days. I am not sure if it is a sign of me getting older or if this has been a problem that is becoming quite bad. No matter where I go, there is always some one older than me tell me that problems with the young coming out of college. Unfortunately, I do agree with many of the ones disparaging the up and coming work force. The best way I can say it is, this 12 rules I found on the Internet.
TWELVE RULES FOR RAISING DELINQUENT CHILDREN
1. Begin with infancy to give the child everything he wants. In this way he will grow up to believe the world owes him a living.
2. When he picks up bad words, laugh at him. This will make him think he's cute. It will also encourage him to pick up "cuter phrases" that will blow off the top of your head later.
3. Never give him any spiritual training. Wait until he is 21, and then let him "decide for himself."
4. Avoid the use of the word "wrong." It may develop a guilt complex. This will condition him to believe later, when he is arrested for stealing a car, that society is against him and he is being persecuted.
5. Pick up everything he leaves lying around - books, shoes, clothes. Do everything for him so that he will be experienced in throwing all responsibility on others.
6. Let him read any printed matter he can get his hands on. Be careful that the silverware and drinking glasses are sterilized, but don't worry about his mind feasting on garbage.
7. Quarrel frequently in the presence of your children. In this way they will not be too shocked when the home is broken up later.
8. Give the child all the spending money he wants. Never let him earn his. Why should he have things as tough as you did?
9. Satisfy his every craving for food, drink, and comfort. See that every sensual desire is gratified. Denial may lead to harmful frustration.
10. Take his part against neighbors, teachers, policemen. They are all prejudiced against your child.
11. When he gets into real trouble, apologize to yourself by saying, "I never could do anything with him!"
12. Prepare yourself for a life of grief. You'll surely have it.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
The Westin stay 2
I have now stayed at the Westin Twice in a row. I find that the house keeping is rather sporadic. Some days, I receive a refill on my coffee filters. Some days I receive new toiletries. The oddest is this week, where all my toiletries are used just one night and then they take it away and replace with new! I am not sure what is exactly going on.
On a positive note, the fruits provided in the 5-7 hour were huge Asian pears! Very tasty. There were some very tasty red pears too. The work out room was also quite empty so it was nice. Met a nice guy, Nick who is a branch manager at Proctor and Gamble. He recommended trying out the Precinct and Jeff Ruby's. This is the 4th person to recommend both these places. I guess a trip to these restaurants are definitely on the list.
I hope my flight tomorrow will be okay. There is some talk of snow. Coming here this week was odd. We pulled away from the gate and waited for an hour, then they pulled us back and let people off. Two women left the plane and claimed that they had no baggage on board. I kept thinking, GOD I hope there isn't a bomb. I would be very pissed to be blown out of the sky. Fortunately, no issues. Whew.
On a positive note, the fruits provided in the 5-7 hour were huge Asian pears! Very tasty. There were some very tasty red pears too. The work out room was also quite empty so it was nice. Met a nice guy, Nick who is a branch manager at Proctor and Gamble. He recommended trying out the Precinct and Jeff Ruby's. This is the 4th person to recommend both these places. I guess a trip to these restaurants are definitely on the list.
I hope my flight tomorrow will be okay. There is some talk of snow. Coming here this week was odd. We pulled away from the gate and waited for an hour, then they pulled us back and let people off. Two women left the plane and claimed that they had no baggage on board. I kept thinking, GOD I hope there isn't a bomb. I would be very pissed to be blown out of the sky. Fortunately, no issues. Whew.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
First Travel in the New Year
My first flight out for the year didn't start off well. My limo was late and we barely made it to the airport in time. When I got to the airport, security was interesting due to all the traveling students.
Luckily my flight was delayed. The delay was kind of amusing. The woman didn't know how to operate the gate correctly. Apparently, she knocked into the plane. She looked pretty tired and didn't want to be there. She was slow enough that the 3 pilots catching a flight back after work were all grumbling about her.
The only good thing was that the flight was pretty empty. I got to sit by myself. A pleasure. Hope I will be as lucky for the rest of my flights - half empty.
Executive coach taking me to the hotel was interesting. The driver had very decided ideas on politics. He went on for a while about the history of Cincinnati too. Fortunately it was a short ride.
Checking into the Westin was a dream. I was impressed with the room. The decor is definitely my style. The furniture was dark wood. The lines are nice and clean. The lounge chair is nice and square. I didn't think it would be so comfortable. The leather ottoman, hmm, very interesting.
After another week here, I will do a comparison of the hotels I have stayed at in Cinci. I am trying to decide which one would be the one I want to stay at long term. It is more difficult than I thought.
Luckily my flight was delayed. The delay was kind of amusing. The woman didn't know how to operate the gate correctly. Apparently, she knocked into the plane. She looked pretty tired and didn't want to be there. She was slow enough that the 3 pilots catching a flight back after work were all grumbling about her.
The only good thing was that the flight was pretty empty. I got to sit by myself. A pleasure. Hope I will be as lucky for the rest of my flights - half empty.
Executive coach taking me to the hotel was interesting. The driver had very decided ideas on politics. He went on for a while about the history of Cincinnati too. Fortunately it was a short ride.
Checking into the Westin was a dream. I was impressed with the room. The decor is definitely my style. The furniture was dark wood. The lines are nice and clean. The lounge chair is nice and square. I didn't think it would be so comfortable. The leather ottoman, hmm, very interesting.
After another week here, I will do a comparison of the hotels I have stayed at in Cinci. I am trying to decide which one would be the one I want to stay at long term. It is more difficult than I thought.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Upcoming Vacations
As many of you know, I am a bit of a planner. I have 2008, 2009 and 2010 all planned out. No, there is no medication for my "problem".
For this New Year, we only have 1 big vacation due to B's work. We are going to Mexico in April. I can not wait. We are going to a Palace all inclusive resort so it should be a blast. We are going to relax, ready, sleep and do what couples do . . .
For 2009, I have my Galapagos Island Diving already all booked. Depending on finances, we might be able to do St. Lucia in April 2009. That would be awesome. St. Lucia in April and Galapagos in June/July. 2010 is reserved specifically for our Australia and New Zealand tour. I believe I might be able to get 4 weeks off. We'll see how my new boss to be feels about it.
Now why am I bringing this up now? Well, it is because B sent me an email that kind of freaked me out. As you may know, I am an avid scuba diver. I love to scuba dive. I want to go diving every year multiple times. Well, B sent me a little something that would give me more than a panic attack.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=505753&in_page_id=1770
For this New Year, we only have 1 big vacation due to B's work. We are going to Mexico in April. I can not wait. We are going to a Palace all inclusive resort so it should be a blast. We are going to relax, ready, sleep and do what couples do . . .
For 2009, I have my Galapagos Island Diving already all booked. Depending on finances, we might be able to do St. Lucia in April 2009. That would be awesome. St. Lucia in April and Galapagos in June/July. 2010 is reserved specifically for our Australia and New Zealand tour. I believe I might be able to get 4 weeks off. We'll see how my new boss to be feels about it.
Now why am I bringing this up now? Well, it is because B sent me an email that kind of freaked me out. As you may know, I am an avid scuba diver. I love to scuba dive. I want to go diving every year multiple times. Well, B sent me a little something that would give me more than a panic attack.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=505753&in_page_id=1770
ARRGGHHH!!!! SO the things running through my mind are, SHARK! SHARK! SHARK! Then I think, oh God I hope the shark doesn't like Chinese food. Because this is one Chinese delivery I hope not to make. Then I think what is wrong with this dumb ass person? When he is going to start paddling like they do in the cartoons? Would he have a huge stream of water shooting out from the back of his canoe as he is madly paddling away?
Then I think, who is this photographer? How the HELL did he take this shot. I wish I could take a shot like that! Read the article, it is a bit incredible. You know those academic types, totally out of touch with reality. Crazy buggers.
SO needlessly to say, South Africa is NOT on my list of vacation spots. I do not want to dive with great whites. They freak me out. Of course the debate is that there are Great Whites in Australia too. And that there are famous shark spots in the Galapagos. I am not going to think about that. Ignorance is bliss.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Christmas Visit home
Well, I am finally back again to write about my travel to my parents home. The weather cooperated and we made it to my parents home easily the Saturday before Christmas. Not to my hubby's surprise, we made it before both my sisters, even though they have only a 2 hour drive while we have a 4.5 hour drive.
We packed up everything into the car with no issues. Looked like we were going to move in for a month!
Air mattress - Check!
Luggage - Check!
Food - Check!
Gifts - Check!
And then we get there and I realize I didn't bring enough blankets or the portable heater. And I forgot a couple of pairs of underwear. DOH! Oh well, we were actually warm enough this year. Must be because we keep our house colder this past year. It is 67 when we are up and about. 60 when we are not supposed to be at home. And it drops to 57 when we are sleeping. Thank goodness for heated mattress pads! And people wonder why I prefer to work in the office rather than remote from home.
B really wanted to bring his entire HD system with him so that we can watch HD movies, but we decided not to. Instead, he brought his xbox 360, guitar hero, many games and my DDR. DDR and Guitar hero were a hit. I would have to say that my sisters liked DDR. Al decided to work out for an hour on DDR. I forgot to mention to her that she might be sore the next day. Well . . . as it turns out, she was pretty sore for a couple of days. Her poor new hubby. All I heard was, "I need a massage. A, massage my legs!"
J played guitar hero more. Good for her. No sore legs. She was very good at it. We believe it is because she used to play the violin. Mes parents also tried the video games. Where was the video camera when this was happening?? Sigh.
We tried something new this year. We each were responsible for a meal. It all went pretty well. This was our trial year. Next year we will do better. Hopefully, we will get our quantity right. A, we are NOT a family of 12. There are only 7 of us and 4 of the people eat very little. Three of us are more vegetarians. 2 Mountains of red meat twice in a row is quite a bit. J, your crock pot cooks for a church congregation. WAY too much food.
We ended up just relaxing and playing video games the entire break. I snuck some time in to do work. I received some glares here and there. The big thing I did was complete most of AL and A's wedding album. It was all digital and has been sent off to the presses! I hope to receive in back in a couple of weeks. Generally it only takes 1 week, but with the rush of Christmas, I am sure that there is a huge backlog.
We traveled back on Thursday before New Years instead of Friday due to the weather again. Fortunately we did make it back before the storm. It was pretty nasty driving weather in Michigan on Friday. I get one week left at home and then I am on the road again. I wonder how many delays I will have on Sunday.
We packed up everything into the car with no issues. Looked like we were going to move in for a month!
Air mattress - Check!
Luggage - Check!
Food - Check!
Gifts - Check!
And then we get there and I realize I didn't bring enough blankets or the portable heater. And I forgot a couple of pairs of underwear. DOH! Oh well, we were actually warm enough this year. Must be because we keep our house colder this past year. It is 67 when we are up and about. 60 when we are not supposed to be at home. And it drops to 57 when we are sleeping. Thank goodness for heated mattress pads! And people wonder why I prefer to work in the office rather than remote from home.
B really wanted to bring his entire HD system with him so that we can watch HD movies, but we decided not to. Instead, he brought his xbox 360, guitar hero, many games and my DDR. DDR and Guitar hero were a hit. I would have to say that my sisters liked DDR. Al decided to work out for an hour on DDR. I forgot to mention to her that she might be sore the next day. Well . . . as it turns out, she was pretty sore for a couple of days. Her poor new hubby. All I heard was, "I need a massage. A, massage my legs!"
J played guitar hero more. Good for her. No sore legs. She was very good at it. We believe it is because she used to play the violin. Mes parents also tried the video games. Where was the video camera when this was happening?? Sigh.
We tried something new this year. We each were responsible for a meal. It all went pretty well. This was our trial year. Next year we will do better. Hopefully, we will get our quantity right. A, we are NOT a family of 12. There are only 7 of us and 4 of the people eat very little. Three of us are more vegetarians. 2 Mountains of red meat twice in a row is quite a bit. J, your crock pot cooks for a church congregation. WAY too much food.
We ended up just relaxing and playing video games the entire break. I snuck some time in to do work. I received some glares here and there. The big thing I did was complete most of AL and A's wedding album. It was all digital and has been sent off to the presses! I hope to receive in back in a couple of weeks. Generally it only takes 1 week, but with the rush of Christmas, I am sure that there is a huge backlog.
We traveled back on Thursday before New Years instead of Friday due to the weather again. Fortunately we did make it back before the storm. It was pretty nasty driving weather in Michigan on Friday. I get one week left at home and then I am on the road again. I wonder how many delays I will have on Sunday.
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