Lazy Weekend

Went into the office Saturday morning and then went by myself to the Davidson at NCSU game.

The Pack got off to a slow start but picked it up in the second half.

It’s Christmas break so the students are gone. It was a light crowd, maybe 10,000 people. The thing about empty seats is that most are LTRs (Life Time Rights) so if the owners are a no show – nobody else can sit in their seats. Thus the crowd is scattered all about the arena. The only tickets available to the public are in the third level and the student sections if the kids don’t use up all their seats.

Still – even with a light crowd – and without the students - we old WolfPack Club geezers can make some noise.

I took this short video in the first half.



Today, just been lazing around the house and doing some work that I brought home from the office.

Christmas 2007

Christmas was fun.

Travelling – not so much.

Arrived in NoVa just in time for Christmas Eve dinner. It was great, as always. Too much food to recount, but suffice to say I love red cabbage with apples and the marinated asparagus and mushrooms.


Christmas morning we just eased around the house until it was time to go to my niece and nephew-in-law’s for Brunch and to watch the kids open their loot.

A&R DiD served us a splendid breakfast. French toast with homemade strawberry compote, sausage patties, fruit with, I think, a yogurt based topping. Coffee, Mimosas, homemade cocoa – it was great.

CA and BA and Aunt S were there (as well as for Christmas Eve dinner).



It was a fun time watching the kids (Will and Drew) and enjoying each other’s company. Those 2 guys are a couple of the happiest campers you’ll ever be around!

Later, turns out that United was so affected by the bad weather in Chicago on Sunday – they had a lot of planes and crews out of position. So, they decided to preemptively cancel flights and use Christmas Eve and Christmas day to put their system back together.

My flight, of course, was cancelled.

So – instead – I flew to Philadelphia and then caught a US Airways flight back to Raleigh.

Got home around 2130 (9:30) so I was only about 3 hours later than originally planned.

Popped into the USO at RDU to see if anybody needed a ride to Sanford or anyplace on the way. The only soldier there was waiting out United’s cancellations.

Worked some today. Back home and I've just built a nice fire. Listening to music and I'll probably do nothing but read.


Back to the usual routine tomorrow.

A Final Word About TSA

Their disorganization at Dulles is text book. Dulles has the most chaotic screwed up airport security I’ve ever been through. Not just this year - it's always that way.

No clear directions on where to go. Had to take my tagged baggage to one end of the terminal where it was thrown in a pile along with other backed up luggage – not enough scanners or people to handle it. You had to take it down there because they were so backed up – the conveyor belts behind the ticket counters were stopped.

Then back to the other end of the terminal to stand in an unbelievable line. That is – if you got lucky and chose the correct line. There were no signs, or people to tell you where to go or what to do. It was bedlam.

I stood in lines at Dulles for well over an hour.

Mismanagement, disorganizers, should be ashamed at their incompetence.

And fired.

Contrast Dulles with Philly. Had an hour layover so I stepped outside to have a smoke. Took me all of 3 minutes to get back in through security.

Christmas Eve 2007

1300 (1:00)

Had a 1030 flight to Washington. Got up at the usual time; did a few housekeeping chores; packed; and headed on over to the airport.

Got there in plenty of time and cleared TSA rather efficiently. Efficiency notwithstanding – TSA is a pretty much a worthless security exercise. A bloated, ineffective bureaucracy staffed by CETA employees.

OK – so much for my usual and customary griping about TSA and how my tax dollars are spent.

My flight got cancelled. The incoming plane is stuck somewhere due to the winter storms in the Midwest.

It’s beautiful weather here in Raleigh.

Anyway – rebooked on the 1430 (2:30) flight.

Which is now delayed to weather. And I’ve just been informed that it’s iffy that it will get to Raleigh.

Hmmmmm

I think I’ll go over and take a photo of this lady wearing antlers.


11420 (2:20)

Well, the plane was able to get into the air. So, I’ll be able to get to DC to visit with the relatives after all.

Dammit. Er, I mean, yipeee!

Should arrive at Dulles around 5:30 +/-

Saturday 12/15/2007 +Addendum

Nice and quiet around the house this week. The Nukester is in Southport for a few days so I’ve had a chance to tidy up and get some household chores taken care of.

We moved the filing cabinet from upstairs to the living room and the wall table upstairs. That works out a lot better as the table gives Nuke more room to stash his office stuff and it puts my files / information where I can access them without having to invade Nuke’s privacy.

I got all my filing caught up and things put away. Stuff that had been scattered about the dining room table for about a year. Yikes!

It feels good to get organized again.

Basketball

Pre-game Warm Up

RBC Center Lobby and My Garage

Close Up Photo Of My BMW

Went to the NCSU – South Carolina State game this afternoon. Granted – the competition isn’t ACC but SC State is no pushover.

The Pack played a solid first half and lead by 20 points at the half.

During the second half – we AGAIN went through a slump like we seem to do every game. We just lose intensity for a spell. In this case – about 10 minutes. SC State was able to make a run but we still won by 25 points.

The team cannot have those lackadaisical stretches during ACC games. We’ll lose every time.

Sunday

My plan is to continue to keep on doing chores. Nuke cleared out a lot of stuff in the garage when he moved back in. He’s got all his stuff squared away along the front wall.

But I’ve let my junk slide over the past year or so. The shelves, cabinets, and closet are basically littered with my stuff. Which I’ve been remiss in putting away properly. The plan is to tackle that tomorrow.

We’ll see.

Monday Addendum

Well, I didn't clean the garage.

Instead, I tackled cleaning up my bedroom closet and found even more papers and stuff that needed to be filed away.

It's surprising how much time it takes to sort through paperwork and get stuff organized. But - got most of that taken care of.

Organizing / cleaning the garage still awaits.

BTW - Has anybody seen my shop-vac? I can't find the doggone thing.

Braun Shaver

I really like this shaver.

I’ve used Norelco triple head shavers all my life. I got my first one for my birthday when I was 14. My latest has lasted for about 10 years. The battery finally quit recharging.

Last Sunday, I got on the interwebtubes and looked up shaver reviews. Almost all rated the Braun super duper (whatever the name / number) as the best. It costs about $160. But almost all the same sites said the basic Braun FreeControl 1775 was a very close second in performance and only cost about $50.

So – I looked it up on the BestBuy site and guess what? It was on sale. Went to BB in Cary and got it for $32. Yaaay for Bill.

I’ve been using it for a week now and I’ve decided I like it better than rotary head shavers.

Simple design. Easy to operate. Lightweight. A bit noisy though (compared to the Norelco).

Far easier to clean then the Norelco triple headers. Just pop the foil off – bush it – or stick it under the tap (washable) – let it dry – pop the foil head back on and that’s it.

With the Norelco – you had to pop up the lid – take off a holder clip – individually remove the 3 cutters and their rotor heads. Wash each one individually. Be careful to keep track of which cutter goes with which head as they get “seated” – not supposed to mix them up. Then re-assemble. Basically a pain in the arse.

I’m sold.

This Braun is an excellent shaver.

Movie

Finally watched Million Dollar Baby on Netflix.

A very good movie.

OK - Here It Is

I've up dated my 2007 Thanksgiving Cruise entries.

To read what I've written - go back to Thanksgiving Day 1 Sunday.

For all of the photos I took - go here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Bill.Sessoms

(The same link to my on line photos is to the right)

Click on the Thanksgiving 2007 Cruise photo.

Thanksgiving Cruise Day 7 Saturday

Question – Why is this a renaissance plane?

Answer – Because it’s baroque

Bwahahahaha!

Flying Home




For some background - I scheduled our flights back to Raleigh for 1130. Plenty of time to get off the boat and to the airport.

Delta decided to cancel our flight and move us up to a 1030 flight.

Yikes - may not be enough time to get cleared through Customs and get to the airport. But what the hell. If we miss our flight - there's other's later.

So - we arrange with the cruise ship to be able to get off (carrying our luggage) first thing. Customs allows 150 people (out of 2,000) to get off early.

Awesome! We get off the boat at 0830. A short line (maybe 20 people) waiting for Taxi's. We're at the airport by 0900.

Clear airport security and are on the plane and ready for take off.

We're second in line - ready for power up to the runway for take off.

But - we don't go.

The plane behind us goes around and takes off.

We turn right and head back to the terminal.

Here's the Bottom Line

Some people are able to get onto the next direct flight to Raleigh.

Other's head to Atlanta to get connections to Raleigh.

We decide to wait it out. They let us off the plane right away and said they intend to fix the problem.

Later - it's announced that the plane will not be cleared for flight. But - there's a flight coming in from Atlanta and our pilot and flight crew will take that same plane and fly it to Raleigh.

Yaaaay.

So - we take off from Ft. Lauderdale at 1500. Land, at dusk, at RDU at 1700 (5 PM plus or minus).

Originally, we should have landed at Raleigh at noon.

Anyway - we're on our way.

25 passengers on the Jet.

We had been talking with the flight attendant a lot since the plane first started back for the terminal. We were OK with delays, we were happy, we were OK with some bumps in the road. And the flight attendant made it a point to tell us that she appreciated our positive attitude.

Anyway - on the flight back to Raleigh - the flight attendant started a conversation with me about Lion (Aslan). She was talking about how Aslan was "God" in the book. And maybe the fact that we had a stuffed lion named Aslan, along with other good providence was what helped us out.

Say What?

Turns out (and she made me promise not to say anything during the flight) - the airplane had a malfunction which caused an (the) engine(s) to shut off just as we were getting ready to take off.

Per the pilot - we were (and I quote secondhand) "20 seconds from a nose up attitude engine stall".

The stall / burp happened JUST as we were to pull onto the runway at throttle for take off.

Not to make too big of a deal out of it - the flight attendant and the pilot, both were shaken up / adrenalin pumped about the 'almost' bad deal. I think the flight attendant needed to 'talk it out' a little to shed pent up emotion.

Since she had talked with us earlier, we had a positive outlook, and throw Aslan into the mix - there was the opportunity for her to sit in the seat next to me and talk for a while. I think it helped.

A commuter jet can fly on one engine and land on one engine.

It cannot take off one engine.

We were 20 seconds from being on the Discovery Channel - Seconds From Disaster.


Luck? Aslan? Nuke?

It's great to be home.

Great vacation.

Thanksgiving Cruise Day 6 Friday

A day at sea. Played putt putt and read.

Thanksgiving Cruise Day 6 Thursday

Playa del Carmen.

Went to see the Tulum Mayan ruins today.

Great trip.

Trivia number 1 – When the Spanish were asking who the Indians were when they landed the reply they got was Maya. Which in the Indian language ment “Go away”

Trivia number 2 – When the Spanish were asking the name of the city (even then in ruin) the Indian’s didn’t understand the question. The Spanish drew a map in the sand and when they drew in the swampy area around the ruins the Indian reply was Tulum. Which meant “Stinking land” (since the swamp smelled).

So – Maya Tulum translates into “Go Away. Land Stinks”.

So there.

Dinner was lobster and shrimp, salad and a Trio of chocolate deserts.