Author: Benford

Here, There, Everywhere

Today has been quite a domestic day for me. Here’s the run down of all that’s been done around the house:

  • Cleaned out the refrigerator(s)
  • Mopped the kitchen floor (helps when you drop & break something out of the fridge)
  • Vacuumed the living room, hallway, my bedroom and bathroom
  • 2 Loads of dishes (the second load was all the containers from the fridge)
  • Put away laundry (okay, most of that got done like 2 days ago…but there’s always laundry to do and put away!)
  • Took out the trash

    • The house isn’t spic and span necessarily but it does feel much better. Now, if I can just get to organizing that office again. That’s a never ending project…especially if I never get to working on it! LOL I think I’m going to leave that one for another day.

    Oh, I had a little bit of an adventure today. I was talking to Kelly (Krez) when the doorbell rang. I wasn’t expecting anyone so I looked out the window to see a Travis County Sheriff’s car outside. I laughed because I knew it was one of my ex-band dads and an ex-student that was riding with him today. But geez, since I was cleaning, I am just in a t-shirt and yoga pants with my hair up. I was a little embarrassed to say that least! But it was certainly nice of them to stop by and make my neighbors think that something was going on here! 😀

    Tonight, bonfire at our friend Ben’s place in Leander. We’re going to roast marshmallows and make smores! Should be a fun time. 😛

    Still need to decide plans for New Years. I think we’ve got a few VIPs lined up so it should be a fun night downtown. I’ve gotta figure out what I’m gonna wear, too. Hmmmmm……

    Paperback Writer

    I’ve found a new internet toy – Google Reader. There are quite a few blogs that I can’t read at work (thanks, stupid firewall) and flipping back and forth across webpages can get frustrating when there are quite a few folks that don’t blog too often (not at all a hint or anything – blog as you feel the need!). With Google Reader, I can glance through whatever blogs I want to subscribe to (except the MySpace ones – there’s an option to subscribe but it doesn’t seem to work yet) in one glance. I guess it’s really just an RSS reader but it looks like e-mail so I’m finding it quite easy to use and add to. If you’re looking for an easy RSS reader, give it a try!

    Hello Goodbye

    I checked out of the hotel at noon and headed to the airport. There are probably 15 or so stops between where I was in Chicago and O’Hare. Despite all the things they say about the EL, they really did try to design it to be a pleasant experience. This is at the Jefferson (I think) stop. Notice the nice tiling on the ceiling and floor.

    It was starting to snow when I was on the train. As Chicago is called the Windy City, it naturally was and I don’t know if you can tell in this picture but the snow was actually blowing sideways. The snow was really dry, though so it wasn’t very successful at sticking to anything and holding.

    I caught an earlier flight home. Success! It was supposed to board at 1:35 and leave Chicago at 2:05 pm but we didn’t get off the ground until after 3:00 pm. Apparently, before I ever got to the gate I thought was the original one, it had already changed gates once and it changed again about 10 minutes after I had arrived at Gate H11B. No matter, I am in the air, headed back for Austin in the great State of Texas. I took some pictures of the airport pre-security. You’ll see here that it was quite empty. It wasn’t that way when I finally got to the gate(s). In fact, I was trying to figure out how to take a picture without seeming like a weirdo. Couldn’t do it so there is no picture of the chaos at the gate(s). It’s pretty much what you see on TV, though.

    I don’t think I blogged at all about my flight to Chicago as it was unexciting but I do need to mention that Paula Crider was on that flight with me. On this flight home are Jerry Junkin and his wife Stephanie. It’s been a UT book ended trip!

    There are several dogs on this flight. One is a Rat Terrier and it’s his first flight. They’ve got him a bit dope up on Benedryl. He’s very calm and cute. Seeing how cute this little guy is makes me want a small dog. I’ve actually wanted to get a small dog for quite some time now. I’m really afraid of how the cats might treat it. They are big, bully cats, you know.

    The Benford clan (minus Trish, this year) will be doing our annual Christmas brunch at the Austin Four Seasons. I’m really sad that Trish won’t be joining us but I am glad that she will be able to go with Chris to Colorado New Mexico and spend time with his family for the Holidays. They really like Trish and it’s been a rough year for them. I wish them a very special Christmas.

    Still not 100% what New Years Eve holds in store. Crystal and I are getting dressed up and going downtown. We just need to make sure that we get our VIPs in order so we don’t have to pay cover. It looks like Martin Montoya will be joining us. Whatever we do, it will certainly be a fun night!

    ——————————————-
    I wrote all the above on the plane. Last night, I set up a flight notification for my original flight. I just got another call telling me that that flight has been delayed until 11 pm (this is the 2nd delay) and it’s gate has been moved for the 3rd time. I sure am glad I flew home early!

    The long and winding road…

    So, I’m headed home today. My flight departs at 9:35 tonight from O’Hare but I’m going to make sure my bags are packed well and I’m going to head to the airport about 9 hours before my actual flight to try to fly home standby. It’s a good thing that I like to people watch because there is going to be a lot of people at the airport.

    I’ve never flown standby before so I have to admit that I’m a little nervous about the whole thing. I just don’t want to be on a late flight that gets canceled or delayed and be stuck any longer in the airport behind people who have already been waiting for 16,000 days already. Martin’s friend Dawn says she has a good feeling about my getting home earlier than planned. Let’s hope she’s right.