Hanging Out in The Airport

I am flying home today. I hope. Currently I am parked in the Syracuse International Airport. I have been here since 2:30ish. When I came here today I had two flights to take. One leaving here at 4:15pm then transfer in NYC and take the 7pm flight back to Atlanta. I got as far as telling the lady at the check in counter this and she picks up a phone and asks if there is room for me on another flight. She told me I can take a flight non-stop to Atlanta at 5:55 out of Syracuse. Neat.

I walk over to the Delta counter get my ticket, call appropriate parties about my early arrival time and think things are going pretty well. My dad has decided to wait with me until I have to go through the gate. The security check at Syracuse doesn't take that long because it's not a busy airport. So we hang out and in that time Rob calls to tell me he sees that my flight isn't leaving until 8:50 and not due into Atlanta until 11:30. How odd. I walk down to the counter to verify this is actual fact and it turns out it is. My dad waited with me until almost 6pm and then I went through the gate.

I now have 2.5 hours to kill before my plane is supposedly ready. I guess things might get better, but I am still going to be quite delayed. I got to the airport today at 2:30pm for an 8:50pm flight. Nice. At least I had some company for a while.

Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh

This photo was taken a while ago on the trip back from the beach. It's taken a while to write about because of the computer issues and well, a picture is worth a thousand words.

In case you can't tell, it's pouring outside. Rob was filling up the gas tank when this lady pulled in. I watched her get out of her car, leaving the door open, then go to the trunk, leaving that open as well, to grab an umbrella and use it while putting air in the tire. She did this for a good 5 minutes at least. I was just so baffled by this scenario that I had to take a picture. I can't imagine how wet the inside of her car was. Of course, Rob was being silly and washing the windows at the time (in the rain) and he thought I was taking pictures of him. Both would have been good pictures, but I know Rob was being goofy. This lady though, I am not too sure what she had going on upstairs. :)

Birthday Week

That's right, an entire week for the birthday celebration. I started my partying last Friday and it will probably carry over until Monday. It's not exactly a week, but I am willing to bend the rules as I am the birthday girl.

My sister first came up with this concept. You should probably know that our birthdays are right next to each other. Hers is today and mine is tomorrow. My good friend Sean's is the day after mine as well. Since we already had two days for celebrating, what's a few more? Then you are sure to get at least one weekend (two if you are me and greedy) no matter where your birthday falls. Also, we happen to have birthdays right around or sometimes on Labor Day. This can cause logistical problems with people being out of town and places being closed or what have you. So the birthday week was invented.

Having a birthday in early September can have its drawbacks, but also some pluses. My very first day of school was my birthday. In college, my 21st birthday was the first day of classes. The downside was growing up, people were getting ready to go back to school or had to do the last family vacation, so I was sort of stuck for parties, but its gotten better.

This year I will be heading home shortly after my birthday and my sister and I are planning to goof off all of Friday and I can't express how happy that makes me. First I get to spend time with her, second, we are going to the spa, and third, we are going to sit back and drink wine while my brother in law makes us dinner. If that's not a perfect day, I don't know what is. :)

I plan to embrace all of my birthdays and to try not to get too depressed about what age I happen to be turning, whether it's 26 or 46. It's not like you can stop time and linger at a particular age anyway. Why not embrace it and have fun? I am being optimistic about this whole idea and my 50 year old self might want to punch my 25 year old self, but that's ok.

It's my birthday and I am going to do what I want. Right after I go to work and some meetings,but then totally, whatever I want to do. And whatever Rob has planned. :)

Socks - Not the White House Cat

I am on a quest. One woman's search for black dress socks that don't suck a whole lot. I have purchased various kinds of black socks, some expensive, some not, and lots of different brands. All but one pair have failed to impress me. That is the one pair of socks I bought at Ann Taylor Loft and they no longer carry socks. Figures.... What I am looking for is a pair of socks that meet the following criteria.

1. They stay up. There is nothing I hate more than the feeling of socks falling down as I walk. It just irks me.

2. The don't get holes in them in less than a year. Perhaps this is asking too much from dress socks, but I put my toe through a pair last week and I can tell you, it's not very stylish.

3. This one is a carry over from two, but getting thread bare in the toes and heals. Also not very cool since I don't wear shoes in my desk area. Yes I know, I should, but frankly, I am much more comfortable with them off.

If anyone has a place the would recommend I buy them from, I am all ears. I bought some from Target, whatever various brands they had, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor Loft, and Old Navy. The Gap has good socks, but once they get all black, the elastic they normally put in place is replaced by some inferior elastic bound to fall down.

Quest marches on!

Parking

Todays topic - Parking. I went to Costco today to get a few things that would require a cart to haul it to my car. To my knowledge I have yet to acquire super human strength so there you have it, stuck with conventional methods. In choosing my parking spot, I alway go for the spot near but not next to the shopping cart return if I know I am getting things that will require me to use one. This seems logical to me. Then I can just load the car, walk 10 feet to return the cart and back to the car and away I go. Oddly enough, I don't think many people use this method for choosing where to park. Works for me since that will leave me with lots to choose from!

Another good method is going for along the store front instead of out from it. Those parking spaces are normally left alone because the people who want the spot near the door try for right in front of the store. If they don't find one close, they usually just park at the first available one down that aisle. I wonder if it's some weird psychological choice. Bare with me for an extremely dorky engineering moment, but I bet that the way people park looks like a normal distribution from above. Whoa, that was almost a bit much even for me.

Now some people are the kind of people that pull down an aisle only to get about 15 yards in because they are waiting for someone to finish loading their car and pull out so they can have the spot that's only a little ways from the entrance. I don't understand why people do this. In the time spent waiting for the spot to become available you probably could have parked and walked to your destination. What's another few feet? Most of the time the next available spot is only a few more down.

Now this excludes holiday shopping or at times when there is little to no parking available. Fine, troll along and get what you can get, however I am talking the everyday things. Are people really that lazy? I do enjoy a good parking spot, but if it's not present when I want to park, then fine, next one in the area will do. I figure I probably don't get enough exercise as it is. Does anyone else have weird methods for parking or I am alone in my dorkness on this? Which by the way I am totally willing to accept.

My Sister Rocks

I was thinking about what I should write a blog about today and it dawned on me while I was looking at the "shrine" I have made at my desk at work of all the cool stuff my sister has done over the past year. I am not talking about your average Joe Schmoe sheet cake, but fancy stuff.

It was kicked off by her amazing talent with her gingerbread house. It wasn't just any gingerbread house, it was a 40" tall Lighthouse with cottage. Although this picture doesn't show it, she did a cutaway room on the back of the cottage where there was a dining room, fireplace, and oriental rug. She entered the competition and took first place as grand prize winner and as peoples choice award. The picture below with her in it gives you perspective on how big it really is and yes, it really lights up.

Since that win, she has been doing a number of neat looking cakes in her kitchen. The first one that popped out was one that looked like something you could get at the fast food joint, but better! Everything on this display is edible, including the fry boat.

Next came the beer bottle. This particular cake is about 2 feet long. Reminded me of my days at the brewery. I can tell you, the cake tastes nothing like beer. ;)

In between it all, she also does weddings. This is what a typical spread of hers looks like. Don't worry, I have her tagged to do mine when that time comes. It's going to be delicious!

And the latest out of her kitchen this last week was a pirates ship. A 3-D pirates ship. I think it looks pretty awesome myself. I can barely draw one much less make it out of cake.

My sister is a very talented individual. I'd like to think I have picked up a thing or two from her over the years. :) She's a pretty good teacher too.

Trash Trail

So this morning I was up and out early to do some much needed grocery shopping. Before I left, I cleaned out the fridge and made a point to fill the trash and toss it on the way out. Normally I remember in those 5 minutes of leaving the house that I have trash that I need to toss before going out of the complex. This morning was not one of those mornings. I did remember by the third light I got to because it started to smell. I turned around and tossed it out.

There are a number of ways I have seen people carry their trash to the compactor here. Some people just carry it, some put in on the trunk, top of the car, or on top of the hood. Most mornings when I leave for work, there is at least one person who has put their trash somewhere ON their car and forgets about it, then drives off down our road. I assume once they hit about 20mph, it flies off. Then welcome obstacle course of whatever they had in that bag.

It happens so often I wonder if it's the same person or if everyone in our complex has a day like I did today and just plain forgets. But for all the complexes I have lived in (and those that have moved know, it's been quite a few) I have NEVER witnessed this before. It's a phenomenon that I can't quite grasp. I don't know if it's this complex, the fact that people don't put it in their car, or something about being in GA, but it stinks.