In My Copious Free Time

Feeling at home in Scotland

I arrived today in Aberdeen, Scotland for a few days of work (after which I'm on to a few days in Paris - w00t!). Our little group of three went out for some lunch and as we walked out of the pub to return to the hotel, strains of something familiar hit my ears. I could just barely make it out - is was so indistinct that I wasn't sure which direction the sound was coming from, or that I was even hearing it at all. (I have a tendency to hear phantom rings, so other phantom noises surely aren't that far off.) It sounded like an electric guitar, but was I really hearing what I thought I was hearing? As we walked through a courtyard and onto the main street, the sound became not simply clearer, but unmistakable. There I was, on Union Street on a gray day in Scotland, listening to a street performance of a song that made me grin from ear to ear.

The man was playing "Sweet Home Alabama." They might as well have rolled out a red carpet, because I felt totally, cosmically welcomed.

Warming up my passport

In 30 hours I leave for a work event in Aberdeen, Scotland. Thanks to some excellent sleuthing by our crack travel person, the best fare was found through Paris and since it's no more expensive to stay over in Paris a few days than to go straight home (cheaper, actually), I'm staying a few days.

It's been a couple of years since my last trip to Europe, and my one day in Paris. If you read the part about the Paris day trip, you'll see that it was short and that the only food I consumed while on the Continent was a single Tic-Tac, which did not stay with me for long. I'm not sure what I regret more - having so little time (particularly at the Louvre) or being unable to eat a single bite of French food. Let me go on record now as intending to correct both of those tragedies.

In preparation for this trip, I got a phrase book and accompanying CDs and I've been practicing my French.

Ou sont les toilettes? ("Where's the restroom?" very important)
Combien ca coute? ("How much?" - also very important!)
Je voudrais la crepe, s'il vous plait. ("I'd like a crepe, please." I plan on saying this frequently.)

And of course, the obvious:

Je suis desole, je ne parle pas francais. ("I'm sorry, I don't speak French.")

Aside from their practical use, these CDs have provided their fair share of amusement. The first time Alex was in the car as I listened, he was terribly puzzled, exclaiming "What IS that?" I told him and he seemed satisfied. I guess the ridiculousness of what he was hearing was too much for his 7-year-old brain to bear, because a few minutes later he asked, "What IS that?" again.

Before going on I should explain that Alex loves to watch "Super Mario Galaxy" tutorial and game play videos people post to YouTube. In the game, when your character dies, the words "you lose" appear on screen. Because he watches videos from people around the world, he's seen this phrase in several languages. Anyhow...the turning point in Alex's acceptance of the language CDs was when the "Emergencies" track began. On of the phrases was "je suis perdu" which means "I'm lost." Alex immediately recognized the word and from that point on he's listened attentively and recited many of the words and phrases along with me. He even greeted Joe with a hearty "Commet allez-vous?" ("How are you?")

There is one thing that puzzles me about these CDs, though. Logic dictates that anyone purchasing such a CD is unfamiliar with the language it covers. It isn't a big leap to assume that the purchaser is visiting a new, unfamiliar place where the language on the CD is spoken. Makes perfect sense, right? So I'm going about my merry business of stumbling through phrases when the phrase "Can you recommend a babysitter?" came up.

Excusez-moi???

What kind of person goes to France with little to no French language skills,and asks a person who is undoubtedly a stranger (one who speaks little to no English, apparently) to recommend yet another stranger to watch their offspring?? I'd tell you what kind of person does that, but my phrase book doesn't cover "stark-raving lunatic."

And now my last load of laundry is done and it's time to get some sleep.

Leavin' on an airplane

Pop quiz time

Question 1
If I leave Aspen traveling east at 350 miles per hour, making a 55 minute stop in Denver, then continuing east at 400 miles per hour to Washington, DC by midnight, at what time will my luggage arrive?

a) midnight
b) roughly 12:15 a.m., depending on how fast the ground crew is at Dulles
c) noon-2pm the next day

I suppose I don't have to tell you the correct answer is c). My luggage never even left Aspen, despite the fact that I checked in over an hour prior to my flight.

Question 2
Assuming the same conditions as described in Question 1, at what time did my thrice-confirmed driver arrive to collect me at Dulles?

a) roughly 11:40 because he wanted to be there in case I got in early
b) midnight
c) this is a trick question because he never showed up

'nuff said.

Question 3
How long did I have to wait for a cab at the airport?
a) 5 minutes
b) 15 minutes
c) 30 minutes

(Just go ahead and pick the worst possible option, because that's how my travel luck is going tonight.)

On the bright side, I did meet Wade Davis, who gave a talk at TED on day 1, in the cab line.

Another exciting Friday night at the airport

I was in San Jose this week for an NTL Human Interaction Laboratory. Awesome - one of the best things I've ever done. A lot to think about and write, but also a lot I can't really share or even put into words.

Two weeks ago I spent 8 hours of my Friday night in the Cincinnati airport waiting for a long-delayed flight to Columbia, SC. This Friday night I'm spending 6 hours in San Francisco International waiting for my 10pm red-eye home. I have:

• Eaten some delicious lentil soup. Very. Slowly.
• Read two magazines.
• Read about 50 pages in one book and 20 in another.
• Downloaded this week's episode of "The Office" while doing the above three.
• Watched "The Office."
• Caught up on my feeds.
• Eaten 4 butter rum Life Savers and half a small bag of honey roasted cashews.

2.5 hours to go until takeoff. If there is anything right about this universe, I will be able to sleep on the flight.

Updated to add:
Right now I'm surfing and listening to my iPod. Random Guy walked up to me and asked if there was wifi available in the airport. I assume there is and said as much, adding that I wasn't using it since I had a Sprint card (tapping the part of the card that sticks out of my laptop). He continued:

Random Guy: But are you accessing the internet?
Me: Yes.
Random Guy: Well, you are using wifi, then. (he might as well have patted me on the head when he said it)
*pause*
Me: No, I'm accessing the internet via Sprint's EVDO mobile broadband network.
Random Guy: Oh, satellites. Cool.
Me: I'm sure wifi is available, though.

Behold the cuteness

This baby is so sweet, you might need a flouride rinse after seeing this picture:

Great weekend - awesome friends to laugh with, unbelievably adorable and happy baby to snuggle, cat to give scritches to, southern cooking to eat (cheese grits! biscuits and gravy!). So fun.

You saw this coming, right?

My flight finally took off at about 11:30, 8 hours after I arrived in Cincinnati and 4 hours after my originally scheduled departure. I got in to Columbia and was greeted by J (who was carrying a very cute yellow patent bag, I should add). I was not, however, greeted by my luggage. My luggage is in Appleton, WI.

It's a cruel, cruel world.

Just once

I'm not sure what it is lately, but I can't seem to take a single trip by air without encountering some sort of delay. Today's initial flight started out with a small delay as we waited for the aircraft to arrive. Upon arrival (also upon the completion of my medium Coke from McDonald's), the gate agent announced that the lavatory on the plane wasn't functional. Great. I managed to survive. I think we arrived 10 minutes late, but no big deal.

I thought I was okay today as I waited out my FOUR HOUR LAYOVER in Cincinnati, on my way to visit my friend J, her husband and their baby. I had just entered hour four of the layover when an announcement was made. Inbound equipment was coming from Appleton, WI and hadn't even left yet. Add two hours to my layover. And that's assuming the plane in WI takes off in 10 minutes as planned.

Gah. Guess I'll go have dinner by myself.

2007 travel punch list

This would be the personal travel version. I won't get into the work travel version just yet, but my dance card is filling up.

Some likely destinations:

San Francisco (Alex insists this is where we are going for summer vacation)
Paris (this is what I want to do -- we'll see what we actually do)
Cape May (still would like to rent a place and get together with some people)

Toying with:
WDW

Definite:
Alabama maybe this summer for a quick visit (either me or me/Alex), but most definitely in October for a longer visit and hopefully all of us going

Deja vu

Another good weekend to report...

Friday was ultra-stressful, with some difficult client negotiations and a proposal to finish that was giving me fits. But I managed to get it done, get us home, and get us to the train station in time for our 5:15 train to NYC. That would be the 5:15 train that left promptly at 5:51. -eyeroll-

Remind me to not take the following advice again, no matter how handsome or confident-sounding the bearer of said advice is:

"We don't need the stroller."
"We can just walk to the hotel from here."

Moving right along...my dad and uncle were in NYC to see the US Open, so we decided to go down for the weekend to spend time with them. We had a lot of fun doing some touristy stuff and just hanging out at the hotel, and we also managed to snag a couple of hours of hanging out with a couple of friends.

We stayed at the Radisson on Lexington and 48th, which was supremely preferable to the hotel they'd originally been booked in -- a Comfort Inn in Flushing. The backstory is that they were given this trip as a gift, but the hotel didn't get booked until the last minute, and because of that, there wasn't much available within the vicinity of Winged Foot. So this is what they were given. We had planned on coming down and spending the weekend with them at whatever hotel they were in. Call me a hotel snob, but when I saw that, my reaction was a solid HELLS NO. The more I thought about it, the more I thought I really needed to step in and do something. I did a little digging, found that there was a free shuttle bus from the Mamaroneck train station to the course, and that the trains were running an expanded schedule from Grand Central during the tournament.  So I suggested that they stay somewhere midtown near Grand Central. Easier said than done. I must have looked at 50 hotels that were booked solid. Though, IIRC, the Waldorf Astoria was available for $500/nt. ;) I got tired of searching and set my travel agent loose on the issue. He came up with the Radisson at the superb average rate of $245/nt for their stay. Ours was even better since the weekend prices were lower than weekdays -- $189/nt.  I even arranged for a car service to pick them up at JFK.

Anyhow, back to the weekend. We had upgrade coupons, so after the first night (they were full that night), my dad and uncle were upgraded to a "suite." Because of our rate, our room was apparently not upgradable, but strangely enough, our room was bigger than their suite, and it wasn't just that we had a king and they had two doubles so ours seemed bigger, either. Our room didn't have the mini-fridge and microwave, but it did have two bathrooms. Radisson also has Sleep Number beds, and the first night, my Sleep Number was zero. I don't care what the Bionic Woman says, give me a Heavenly Bed any day.

Some things we did:
Empire State Building
lots of walking around
dinner at ESPNZone (my idea)
Toys R Us in Times Square (and a ride on their Ferris wheel)
WTC site
American Museum of Natural History

My uncle, the retired fire chief in our hometown, wanted to see the WTC site and I was jaded about it until I got there. It's something else -- the contrast of the bustle of the rest of Manhattan and relative stillness of that site is incredible.

We had a nice time at the AMNH, and Alex caught site of the new (I guess?) ground fountains outside the Hall of Planets or the Rose or whatever it's called. For some reason, I packed a change of clothes for him that day, something I almost never do. Lucky thing -- he had a great time playing in the fountains. I have to say, I enjoyed it myself. Not that I played in the fountains, but I did stand in near enough that my feet stayed wet, and therefore cool. And if I accidentally got splashed a time or two, I wasn't complaining.

We planned on leaving on the 5:45 train, but ended up staying to watch the final round of the Open with my dad and uncle. When we returned from AMNH to collect our bags from their room, we were surprised to find they'd just gotten there as well. They had called it a day and trained back to watch on TV -- Winged Foot is a tough course for golfers AND spectators, plus when you're there, the most you can really see is 1/18 of the action. I guess it sounds funny to think that we all had a great time sitting around talking and watching golf, but we did. After Ogilvy won it (how did Johnny Miller predict that one??), we went out for pizza and then Joe, Alex, and I left for the train station. And this time, we took a cab. Fool me once and all that business...

All in all, a very pleasant weekend. Alex was a trooper and we had a nice mix of family time, friends time, stuff we all enjoyed, and stuff that was all about him. He's now ridden the subway in four major cities in three countries. :)

Also, Phil Mickelson could use a Bro. Or a Manssiere.