Beth and I are in Gardnerville again, but this time for my mom's surprise 50th birthday party! Don't worry, the party is over so I can't spoil it. Although mom isn't really turning 50 until September, it was nice to get in early on the turning 50 thing. This might help her get used to it when she actually turns 50.

Beth will be headed back to Vegas tomorrow, and I to Boston...unless I can get my vacation extended one more day. Then I wouldn't have to go back until Tuesday. We'll see. I'll know tomorrow morning about 9am.

Only 361 more days until...

Our second anniversary! Beth and I had a great time on our four day trip, although we altered our plans. Instead of going to New York, which was going to involve a lot of rushing and inconvenience, we decided on a much more relaxing break. We opted to spend our time in the Bay Area. We left on Sunday as planned, although a little later, and flew into San Jose. From there, we drove to Sacramento to have dinner with Chris and Amber in Oldtown. We stayed at Amber's house on Sunday night. Monday we drove into San Francisco and down Highway 1 to Monterey. The drive down the coast was beautiful. We stopped off at one of the many state beaches on Highway 1 and also at Pigeon Point Lighthouse. That was very neat.

Monday night we had a nice dinner in Monterey and stayed the night there. Tuesday we spent all day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where we had a nice lunch complete with a great ocean view. Late Tuesday afternoon we headed to San Jose, where we stayed, and yesterday we spent all day at Great America.

What a day! There were absolutely no lines at all. Often times, we walked right on rides, even the newest attractions like Stealth and Invertigo. Stealth was amazing! You literally lay face down, suspended from this harnass you aren't too sure about. I can honestly say it stressed me, but not too badly...I went a second time! One of the rides I hadn't seen before, Psycho Mouse, looked like a kids ride, but really packed a little punch and was a lot of fun.

All in all, it was a great trip and very relaxing. I am glad we didn't go to New York, although Bethany and I would like to get there together before summer ends. I really want her to fly to Europe with me. Next month I will be flying to London...maybe it will work out. We'll have to see. That would be a real blast!

The website once again has undergone a minor update. Check out the recipe page for two new recipes: Fried Calamari and Cheddar and Beer soup (from Jenn's website.) While copying Jenn's recipe over, I noticed one of the ingredients for the soup was Worcestershire sauce. For one, I never really knew how to spell it, and for another, I never really knew how to say it right. So, I am here to set the record straight and give a little background into the tasty sauce.

According to Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, Worcestershire sauce originated in Worcester, England. Therefore, since it is proper noun, Worcestershire should always be capitalized. Worcester is pronounced woos'ter, and Worcestershire is pronounced woos'ter shir'. I first learned this concept when my mom and I went to London, England two years ago. The closest Tube station to our hotel was the Gloucester Station, and we always pronounced it exactly how it is spelled: Gla ces ter. It is actually pronounced Glaus'ter. Food for thought...

Our friends Brad and Kanako will be arriving this evening, and will be staying with us until Saturday. We haven't seen them much lately, so it should be a real nice weekend. On Sunday, Beth and I are off on our vacation to New York. We'll tell you all about it when we get home.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Most may have heard by now a fire fighting aircraft crashed yesterday about 40 miles south of Gardnerville, and it was all caught on video. The images are unbelievable, since rarely do these types of tragedies ever get caught on tape. One of the crew members on board was a Gardnerville resident and friend to my cousin. My uncle commented on how the image was unbelievable, but that when you knew someone on board, it made it all the more worse. I couldn't imagine.

We had a nice time yesterday on Father's Day. We had a great breakfast in the morning, then had a great dinner up the lake house.

Late last night Beth and I headed to Reno to hang out with Dan for a little while. We went to Deux Gros Nez for 'ol times sake (an old college hangout of ours, and still very cool). Afterwards we went to a gay bar called The Patio in Reno. I've never been there before, but Beth and Dan have. It's a nice, relaxed atmosphere that's not typical of a bar at all. We had a nice time chatting, and ended up watching the season finale of Queer as Folk. It was nice to get together over a few drinks and talk about whatever was on our minds. Friends...what would you do without em?

Beth and I are planning on heading back to Vegas tonight, although mom is strongly encouraging we stay an extra day.

We had a nice time today at Beth's parent's house. As usual, more food than you could imagine. We made fried calamari again, something we've done for three weeks in a row now. It's such good stuff. We made it up to Reno and down to G-ville ok. Now that Bailey is done (I hope) licking us, we can get settled in and go to bed. Tomorrow morning we're having breakfast here at the house with about 20 people. Tomorrow night we head up to Lake Tahoe for a Father's Day get together at the lake house. Hopefully that will be a lot of fun.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

I partially updated the website, finally.

Home again...for a short time.

Even though I am not on vacation, and Bethany is too, we are both hittin' the road, er, the air, uh, whatever. We decided last minute tonight we will fly to Reno tomorrow night for Father's Day. We will be at Beth's parent's house tomorrow afternoon/early evening for a Father's Day get together there, and then will head to the airport about 6:45 to fly to Reno. We won't be gone long though...we'll be heading home late Monday night. It should be a nice little get together at Dale and Carter's, and also at my parent's house. We'll be heading up to my grandpa's at Lake Tahoe for a Father's Day BBQ on Sunday.

Otherwise the next two weeks, with the exception of our trip to New York later on, will comprise of various home improvement type jobs. We'll be painting some rooms/walls, touching up the paint in high traffic areas, making and installing solar screens for the windows and straightening up around the house. Currently, our living and dining room are full of Beth's stuff from school. There's tons of it! Since she is moving to a new school next year, she had to take all her stuff with her. It's amazing how much she accumulated in a year and a half of teaching. We may also work on parts of the backyard, perhaps starting to dig for a sprinkler system. We hope to really tackle that this fall. Another goal of ours is to fix up the landscaping up front, making it a little more exciting, and also redoing our dining room table. We've got a lot of wotk ahead of us, but it should be fun endough. In the end, it should all look great. It better!

London was a blast!

Although flying international is a lot of work. We fed those people rediculous amounts of food, even in coach! There is only one good thing that comes out of that--you're busy the majority of the time. I don't think I sat more than 30 minutes, total, during the entire flight. It was about 6.5 hours from London to Boston. The crew was great and we had a really nice time.

The captain took us to dinner last night at this cool Italian resteraunt. He paid for everything, including my pasta with lobster! I am guessing the bill was around 175 pounds, which is over $250. Our hotel, the HolidayInn London Kensington Forum, is in the same area my mom and mine's hotel was when we were there two years ago. I still remembered everything in the area, including the grocery store and the Tube, London's subway. It made me feel very comfortable in the area, knowing where I was. I look forward to going back a lot more.

I head back to Vegas tomorrow, and will probably leave in the morning. I am on vacation for the rest of the month! Woohoo!

This will be the best adventure to date...

Can you say, "Picadilly Circus?" I am off to London in the morning! This is the first international trip for me, and thank god I am not the purser. I was hoping I would be able to get my feet wet without being the purser and baring all the responsibility the first time I flew a trip. This way, I can just be a spectator, ask a lot of questions and observe. I am sure I will learn loads tomorrow, and am looking forward to it. I am flying a coach position on the 767 airplane.

I am sure I will have a full report for you when I return, so be sure to check out the website sometime Thursday evening or Friday. Until then, see you in London!

And so the adventure begins anew...

This time it wasn't so adventuresome. I decided to avoid Chicago like the plauge today and went through San Jose instead. That was a welcome relief from last week, although it takes longer that way then Chicago of everything goes well. And we know how it goes... San Jose was a smart choice. I arrived in Boston about two hours ago and am comfy and settled in my crash pad.

I am number one to be called out tomorrow, if they do is another question. There aren't that many international trips out of Boston right now. We pick up a bunch more on June 15 when the summer schedule takes effect. There will be plenty of flying then, but I won't be here to see it. Vacation for me starts June 15. But that's good news.

Beth and mine's anniversary is on June 23, and we will be heading off to San Jose that day to go to New York. We plan on leaving early on the 23rd for San Jose so we can go to Monterey for the day and maybe Santa Cruz. Monday we fly to New York with Janniffer, Tuesday we fly back. On Wednesday, we want to go to Great America and fly home Wednesday night. Hopefully all goes according to plan. If so, it should make for a great mini-vacation. While in New York, we hope to see Les Miserables, eat dinner at my favorite resteraunt, Southwest 44, and take in a day of shopping at Canal Street (knock-off central). It will be four fun, jam packed days. And hopefully easy on the wallet.

Flying won't cost a thing. We only need a hotel for one night: $42 thanks to our favorite crew hotel in San Jose. We'll be staying with Jann in New York. We'll rent a car for one day (Sunday) and then the cost of the brodway tickets ($50 each at Tkts Tkts), dinner $50 and Great America $50 each. All in all we don't have to spend more than $400, which isn't bad when you take in Monterey, CA and New York City, fly there and back first class, see a Broadway show and have a nice dinner. Anybody else and that would cost about $8,000. What a value! And people ask me why I am a flight attendant...

Resting happily...

How nice it is to be back home. Maybe that is why this job is so nice, or, at least one of the reasons why it is so nice. I never under-appreciate what it's like to return home. I never take it for granted and wait with baited breath to 'round the bend, push the garage door button and drive into my humble little home. Awh, the confines of home.

Our weekend plans changed somewhat. We never had our garage sale due to very high winds, and, we never made it to the Street of Dreams, electing to push that back to next weekend. Yesterday was kind of cramped time wise for Dale, so we decided next weekend would be better. We did have dinner at Beth's parent's house, and that was a lot of fun, and good. Dale made spaghetti with an excellent home-made sauce, one of the neighbors made a delicious salad and Carter and I made home-made, fried calamari. Such good stuff, indeed! Another neighbor made home-made brownies for dessert.

And still goes...

I guess I should elaborate a little more on my trip out of Chicago on Tuesday morning. I knew the 7am to Boston from Chicago was canceled. So, I was aiming for the 8am flight. The aircraft was inbound from Laguardia. Not only was it on time, it was early...until... the agents made the shrieking announcement that due to the weather at O'Hare airport (Chicago) our aircraft had landed in Detroit. Long story short, our 8am flight to Boston finally left at noon and I arrived in Boston at 3:00. After starting out Monday morning at 11am, I didn't make it to Boston until 3pm on Tuesday. Like I said, what an adventure it was.

I thought I needed to milk more sympathy out of all this. I am here in Dallas now for 777 training. It is boring an monotnous as one might expect, but there are some cool things about the plane. For example, the entire thing is computerized, the cabin controls that is. The Purser (ME!) has a computer with touch screen at the jumpseat where all functions of the cabin are controlled. It's the coolest thing ever.

It was a long day; I started in Boston this monring at 8:00am, took a four hour flight to Dallas and then sat in class until 6:45pm. It was nearly a twelve hour day, not inlcuding the time from when my alarm went off (5:30) and the time it took me to commute to the airport. Needless to say I am tired! Tomorrow we should be out of class and on the bus to the airport by 2:30, alllowing me to catch the 4:00pm flight home. That'll get me to Vegas at 5pm.

This weekend, Beth and I have plans for a garage sale at her parent's house to finally get rid of the junk we attempted to get rid of at our community garage sale. Then, we hope to go the "Street of Dreams", a row of four homes with the latest and greatest techie gadgets and modern home conveniences. Each home costs in excess of a million dollars. I have never been, but I here they are quite amazing. Then, Saturday night, we are having dinner at Beth's parent's house. That should be nice.

I assume Brian and Rene are having a nice time in St. Lucia. I am not for sure though since I have not heard from them. After all, they just got there late Tuesday night.

And goes...

I finally made it to Boston after countless hours in the air and even more on the ground. I had my wings clipped, to say the least. I made it here about 3:00 this afternoon, after starting out yesterday morning at 11am. Thank God I didn't get a trip. I am glad to finally be here and settled. My new home away from home here in Boston is a lovely Victorian home in Winthrop, MA, just across the bay from downtown Boston. It really is nice here. I am excited about how it will go.

I am still on reserve tomorrow with no trip assigned to me. I have a feeling I will be sitting around until I leave for training on Thursday. Hopefully they will send me somewhere exciting when I come back next week.

And so it goes...

I am sitting here, still up, surfing the net checking out things I have been wanting to for some time, like National Airlines website with informaiton on their new service to Reno. I mentioned earlier there was weather here in Chicago, although not as bad as yesterday. As I sit here, zomby-eyed and half paying attention I hear it...loud and onerous...thunder! Ugh. I hope it's gone by morning. I guess I better check out Weather.com for current local radar.

And what an adventure it was…

After leaving the house for the airport at 9:45am, fifteen minutes late, I made it about ten minutes into my 30 minute commute when the traffic stopped. And, I mean s-t-o-p-p-e-d. So I sat, slowly crawling along. It took me an hour to drive from my home to the Spaghetti Bowl, a drive that usually takes fifteen minutes. I arrived at the airport at departure time for my flight to Chicago. Fortunately it was delayed thirty minutes…but, I couldn’t get on because it was weight-restricted. Weight-restrictions are imposed when fuel quantity reaches a certain level and the temperatures are high. The further the plane has to travel, the more fuel it needs. The hotter it gets, the longer it takes a plane to take off. With the added weight and high temps, weight-restrictions become nasty problems. Then I waited for the next flight only to find out it was delayed about three hours due to weather in Chicago.

At this point I decided to wait and take the red-eye from San Jose to Boston. I would be leaving Las Vegas at 7:10pm for San Jose. While sitting in the boarding lounge, they made an announcement that our inbound aircraft had an emergency and the passengers evacuated on the tarmac in Las Vegas. Ok, so now I can’t make my connection in San Jose. I am writing this blog on my laptop while in-flight from Las Vegas to Chicago. I will be arriving in Chicago about 1:30am central time and then will catch an 8am flight to Boston, arriving about 11am. I am on call tomorrow and not currently scheduled to fly anywhere. Let’s hope it stays that way. And, if they fly me, hopefully it will be something that signs-in after 11am. I don’t think I will have to worry about it though.

I am sure I will update the blog as soon as possible to let you know the outcome. I suspect that all will go well from here, but I am well aware anything can happen, especially after the day I’ve had. I failed to mention before after I decided to leave the airport and go home, to catch the flight later to San Jose, I was having nothing but problems at home. I dropped everything I could drop, including dumping pasta in the sink while trying to strain it and then I dumped a whole bowl of pasta and sauce on the counter. Ugh! This day was just not meant to be. My friend Stacee in San Jose is convinced it is a sign I should not have transferred to Boston. Of course, she would think that since she didn’t want me to go anyway.
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I am now in Chicago, where the local time is 2:40am. I can now publish what I had written on the airplane with the update of my progress. I guess the good new is I am no longer in Vegas, after trying nearly all day to get out of there. Everything seems to be on track for my flight to Boston, but I certainly won't hold my breath. There is still weather here in Chicago, but nothing like what it was before. The thunderstorms have stopped and it's misting and cloudy at the moment. Hopefully that won't cause the problems today that it caused yesterday...or I may be here a while.

And so the adventure begins...

I am headed off to Boston today to start my new job as an international flight attendant. Who knows where I will go first since I am on call this month. I looked at trips that needed covering tomorrow and I don't know if I will get any of them. I wish I could get a flight down to San Juan since Brian and Rene will be there tomorrow as they make their way to St. Lucia on their honeymoon. It would be cool to run into them there.

The wedding this weekend was a lot fun. I danced probably more than I have ever danced before. The food was great and the ceremony was beautiful. Thank God the weather turned out great! About two hours before the ceremony, little rain drops were starting to fall and the sky was cloudy. By the time the wedding started, it was only partly cloudy with plenty of sunshine. We were all very lucky.

We had breakfast yesterday morning at the same house they were married at. That was a good time and good food, too. Beth and I spent about an hour down on the dock looking off into the lake. My mom and Aunt Dynie joined us there. It was nice to get away and enjoy the Lake. Lake Tahoe is one of the few things I miss about the area. If I had to name things I miss about Northern Nevada, they'd be: family, friends, Lake Tahoe and Super Burrito. I don't think the list would extend a whole lot further.