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February 18 The Ice Caps are Melting...Melting... Melting....Just a quick update... not much time for a real post, I worked most of the day today and we did the movie thing yesterday... but I did want to get this photo posted before the ice caps completely melt. We took it last weekend on the way to the movie theater... Don't worry, I'll catch you all up on the Oscar count down soon... I know you can't wait to hear about every one of the 300 movies we've seen over the last 3 weeks...
Anyway, this ice flow (and yes, I think the correct spelling in this case is flow) is on the side of a cliff on I-79, just west of Pittsburgh... it's even more breathtaking in person...
August 01 Bean TownFrom the title you've probably guessed, Joe and I are in Boston - I had a short meeting, so we decided to take a little break from the mayhem going on around us and grab a few days of R&R.
So far we've hit the "Rest" part of that combo pretty heavily. Saturday night, it was lights out at 8 p.m. We have a lovely room overlooking the Charles river so we opened the curtains and turned out the lights to enjoy the view - and promptly fell asleep. I had meetings Sunday and Monday, so I was up at my normal time, but Joe slept in until he heard Rod Roddy's 'Come on Down'. I don't know what it is with that man, (Joe, not Rod Roddy) when he's on vacation it's like he's obssessed with Bob Barker... He just won't miss that show!
We're going to tour the town today - take one of those touristy trolly cars and see the city. I can't wait
Housing Update -
I have no clue what's going on back at the farm. We haven't gotten any phone calls and we haven't called to inquire... out of sight out of mind.
We're in full-blown house hunting mode though - I've looked at about 5 or 6 and have realized yet again that my tastes out distance my pocket-book.... we're still looking and have many friends on alert for the perfect house as well...
They tell us that there are 7 stages of grief - Joe's moved beyond Anger and is well on his way into Acceptance. He says that the ELL (Evil Landlords) aren't off the hook and that he won't forget this, but that this was probably meant to be, and that he's accepted that buying a house and moving are the right things for us to do.
I'm not doing as well, I'm past denial, but am still firmly stationed in Anger. I want to hurt someone. That's definitely not my normal personality, so not only am I angry, I'm dealing with unfamiliar emotions.... I had one brief moment of excitement yesterday when I remembered that contented feeling you get when you live in your very own home....then the anger returned at being forced out of the place that for the past 6+ years I've considered to be my home.... I'll get there... it's just gonna take some time for me to get over being outsted. July 16 The FallsWe made a stop at 'The Falls' on the way home from Toronto, my sweetie and me. Did you know, or remember, that Niagara Falls was once the honeymoon spot beyond all honeymoon spots? I don't know why. It is quite romantic though, must be all that rushing water that gets the emotions flowing?
Here are a few photos. As the kids say, I heart my camera. I think the cheap little Panisonic works quite nicely. These photos were taken from our hotel room... awesome no? July 11 Oh Canada!I'm in Canada, eh. Land of the Mounties, Land of Maple Syrup, Land of incredible public transportation, Land of the really friendly, I could go on and on....
I like Toronto. The Torontonians are sooooo friendly, the food is good, they have Starbucks coffee...what more can I ask?
I'll tell you more once I get home...the internet connection here is a bit hinky and my computer is not exactly happy with the whole set-up so posting isn't exactly easy, but as they say here......no worries, yah!
March 24 An Almost OopsieI just returned from a business trip to Boston - I'm really beginning to like that city a lot. It's old historic buildings make the revolutionary war and all of those patriots seem much more than story-book characters from grade school history class; the accent is a hoot, and no-bouta-doubt-it it's the home of the best clam chowdah I've ever eaten. I've had chowdah at numerous restaurants on my 4 or 5 trips to Boston, all slightly different, but all delicious. I have a funny feeling that somewhere in the back room of most Boston restaurants there is a spigot where all they have to do is turn the tap and out comes steamy, creamy clam chowder. Yum! I'd like to get one of those for my kitchen, but unfortunately, the best I can do is a can of Progresso from the microwave!
The almost oopsie I started to tell you about before I got sidetracked by my growing affection for Boston, came at the hands of who else...good old US Airways. I had to connect through Philly, so out of 4 flights, 1 was cancelled, 2 were late and 1 almost crashed. That almost-crashing thing sort of puts the cancelled and late flights into perspective.
Thank God, for an experienced pilot. We were about 4 seconds from touch down in Philly when whoosh, I heard the engines rev and we pulled up. Sharply. We continued the climb for about 3 minutes and then the voice of the very irritated pilot came over the speaker and told us that a plane had been out of position on the ground and had taxied onto our runway. We were 4 friggin' seconds from touch down and someone else was on our runway? I can't even think about this right now... that was way too close for comfort.
January 28 Up Up and Away ??I took a business trip to San Francisco this week and had what I hope will be the weirdest trip I ever take. The flight west was fairly routine. It was a direct flight on US Airways from Pittsburgh to San Francisco and even though it was pretty bumpy, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
On the other hand, the return trip was, as my dad says, 'snake-bit' from the start. Because of the US Airways/America West merger, I was routed from San Francisco through Las Vegas and finally to Pittsburgh on flights booked through the US Airways ticketing system, but operated by America West. Even though the merger is official, the two airlines are still operating separately in some instances, seat assignments on the other half of the merger being one of those cases. So, since I couldn't get a seat assignment for America West through US Airways, I was halfway expecting that there might be trouble... and sure enough, there was. The flight was cancelled. I was re-booked onto United, which meant that I had to hoof it about a half-mile to get from the America West check-in counter to the United check-in counter. Being re-booked also meant that I had to go through an 'enhanced' security screening... guess being unlucky enough to get your flight cancelled also makes you more dangerous. In my case they probably made a good assumption, because after dealing with a surly ticketing agent and arguing about seat assignments, I was getting a mite testy.
Since there was the whole airline-switching thing going on, I didn't want to chance losing my luggage by checking it through, so I ended up with 3 days worth of dirty laundry, toiletries, a couple of SF newspapers, a tawdry romance novel and a bottle of California wine spread out in front of the whole world. Well, maybe not the whole world, but at the very least in front of the poor TSA officer who'd made it his purpose in life to handle every piece of clothing and test everything in my bag for whatever it is those CSI types test for. That was the first leg of the trip.... it gets worse.
Anyone who's ever been there knows that the Las Vegas airport is not small. It's basically a huge casino with parking spaces for airplanes. Again, due to the multiple airline thing, we landed at Gate Far-Far-Away and had to get to Gate Other-Side-of-the-Airport in about 19 minutes. And, since we'd come in contact with those evil casino types, we had to go through security yet again.... Arghhhhhh... and I HAD to go potty before the 3+ hour flight home.
I made it... barely... I boarded, found a space for my bag.. no small feat.. whooo-hooo.., looked like my luck was changing... I was nearly last to board and the middle seat next to me was still empty... could it be that I would be one of the fortunate few to have a bit of extra space? ... oh noooooo, not me.... not on this day.
He looked fairly normal... some might even call him handsome in a smarmy sort of way. The gentleman in the aisle seat let Mr. Wonderful in and he began to get himself settled into the middle seat just as we started to move away from the jetway. There was no room for his bag in the overhead bin, so he plopped that down on the floor between his feet... which shifted his right foot into my space..... those precious few inches of space that were supposed to be mine... all mine. Danged interloper... this was not shaping up well.
It gets worse...
It was a red-eye flight, so the lights went down and the crowded cabin begin to get quiet as most of the passengers tried to sleep. Mr. Wonderful next to me was no exception... we'd come to some sort of unspoken truce about the foot space, so he'd settled down and began to do the pre-sleep head bob. We were about an hour into the flight when he got restless...I have no clue what was going on with him. Maybe he's one of those people who have very vivid dreams or maybe he was a sleepwalker and the restriction of the seat belt frustrated him... whatever the case, he began to stretch and thrash around. Then, before I knew it, he'd settled down and dropped off to sleep again, but he was leaning against my shoulder. I shrugged, not wanting to be rude, but trying to wake him enough to dislodge him. He didn't budge..... it took a series elbow jabs and shoulder shrugs to get him off of me... he settled down again for about 15 minutes, then, holy cow... he did the thrashing, stretching thing and then leaned over and put his head on my lap! This went on all freakin' night...he never woke up, and he never said a word, but about every 20 minutes, he'd thrash around and then end up resting against me in some fashion. I kept nudging and jabbing and trying to keep him off of me... at one point the older gentleman in the aisle seat reached over and pulled Mr. Wonderful back upright in his seat. I felt like I was living out that Listerine breath strip commercial. By the time we landed in Pittsburgh, I was worn out and felt like I needed about 6 showers. Oh, and Mr. Wonderful, he picked up his bag and left and never even said a word. Flying just isn't much fun anymore.
More another time -
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