Saddam Is Dead

Good news! Saddam is dead. I'm glad we're all safer in the West and the Middle East is now a safer place for everyone. Oh. Wait.

Back In Cali

Well, Noelle and I made it back to California on Friday, no thanks to American Airlines. Our flight connected through San Diego, which apparently lacks the wherewithal to have a shuttle between the main terminal and the commuter terminals, so we had to go through security again. Bah. Then, when we got to San Jose, we waited in our jet for 25 minutes before they could find someone to haul the plane to the gate. After finally getting inside we go down to the baggage area to wait for our bags. And we wait. And wait. I ask them woman there if the the bags for our flight are coming on this carousel. She says yes. We wait some more. Suddenly a whole bunch of people show up who were clearly not on our flight. They wait. Some bags finally come down. We wait some more. More bags. I notice all the bags that are coming up are tagged for Hawaiian Airlines. After the third batch of HA bags, I go over to the woman at the AA counter and ask if there's been some problems with our bags. It's now been over an hour after we got off the plane and nearly ninety minutes since we were supposed to have arrived. She asks for my baggage tickets. I give them to her. She tells me they never made the connection from San Diego. WTF???

1. We were on the ground over an hour at SAN. Why didn't they get loaded?
2. If they never were loaded at SAN, why didn't she tell me that an hour earlier?

I have no good answers to these questions. We dragged our carry ons mile after mile to the taxi stand (There's a reason why I dislike flying into Terminal A, I remembered.) and get home around 1am. Bah. Fortunately the bags weren't lost and we finally got them at 1:30 the next afternoon. But AA is now on my list of airlines to avoid.

RIP Godfather of Soul

James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, has passed away at 73 of heart failure. We owe him a debt that cannot easily be repaid. I hope he feels good wherever he is these days. [article]

Merry Christmas Everybody!

It's the wee hours of Christmas 2006 here on the east coast and things are going pretty well on my holiday with Noelle! The presents are almost entirely wrapped ( a new record for me, thanks to Noelle's awesome assistance!), and we have two Christmas dinners to look forward to soon. We went skating tonight because my cousin's husband got us the use of skating rink for an hour so. I managed to not fall down once, so I counted it as a victory. Earlier in the day we finished up Christmas shopping (I got Noelle a fuzzy moose she dubbed Morrie the Moose) and I took her around Bangor to look at the various Dark Shadows type locations and of course, Stephen King's house. Just about to wrap up for the evening before going off to various festivities in the morning. I hope all my friends are having a very happy Christmas.

Have A Holly, Jolly Christmas

So it's been a little while since I've blogged, but I am in vacation-mode, heading back to Maine for Christmas with the family. Noelle is keeping me company, which is good, because this is probably one of the worst air travel experiences I've had. We got through the security checkpoint and our 12:10 flight turned into a 2:30 flight, which turned out to be wildly optimistic. We didn't get off the ground until after five. And we were told before even got off the ground that our connecting flight to Boston had already been cancelled. Thankfully Noelle had the presence of mind to book a room at the O'Hare Hilton or this would be an even sadder story. Fortunately I am relaxing on a comfy bed watching Futurama instead of lying on a cot in the terminal. With a little luck we'll catch a flight in the morning to chilly New England. Now I think I'm going to have a nice shower. So tired.

RIP Peter Boyle

Peter Boyle, whom I will remember best as the Monster in Young Frankenstein and Clyde Bruckman, the psychic insurance salesman who could see how people were going to die in the X-Files, has died at age 71. I will never forget his classic rendition of Puttin' On the Ritz. Vaya con dios Peter.
[CNN obit]

Public Service Announcement

News of the Times

Wow, it's been a while since I posted. I guess I am recovering from having 20 people over at my house last Friday night for dinner. Made a nice beef tenderloin roast that came out pretty well, I think. Most of the week before that was spent getting the house ready for 20 guests, with a few breaks here and there, like seeing Wolf Mother at the Fillmore last Thursday with Carl and Noelle (along with the opening act Silver Sun Pickups). Wolf Mother was more entertaining than I had expected. They are kind of a modern day Led Zeppelin. The singer sounds like Robert Plant blended with Jack White. Last weekend was spent recuperating from party and getting ready for the upcoming holiday. Well, gots to get ready for work now, which has been busier of late. Just in time for the holidays!

Bunnies!

A shout out to Derek for pointing this out to me. This is funnier if you've played Rayman's Raving Rabbids, btw. :-D

Yawn - Wait, What?

<blink>
Damn, it's Friday. I've been heads down all week long. Finally made the breakthrough at work that I've been struggling towards and went out to see Aki's band play at JJs. Then hung out at my place with Noelle watching The Sopranos and trying to re-figure out how to read music. A very satisfying evening, overall. :-)

Ok, gotta go wrap up some loose ends at the work place.