A book of poems by Billy Collins... one of my favorites.
Stroking Your Muse... I think that's the title... but it's a hilarious book on writing.
LOTR trilogy in serious hardback book form.
Cute cat pillowcases from my Aunt Karen
JC Penny's gift certificate from Grandma
Sewing stuff from Mom... lots of it. scissors, feet, machine oil, thread, organizers, spools, pins, etc. So I asked my mom, "Does this mean that I get to keep the Pfaff?" (Sewing machine that my mom lent me.)
"We'll see about that."
"You gave me sewing machine feet... ones that are specific for your sewing machine."
Anyway, guess I'll have to get HP4 PS2 on my own.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Canceled
We went directly over to the parcel of angry people arguing with the people behind the counter. They said that they had created another flight for tomorrow at 11am that we'd all be on. Because the airport was fogged in, we recieved nothing from the airline. They don't give hotels, meals or drink coupons for acts of God.
Tricia went to luggage claim to get her suitcase while Nikki and I stood in the customer service line and got on our cell phones, trying to find alternate routes up North. By this time it was 10:30 and all other flights up north had already left. This included flights into Sacramento, Chico or even San Francisco.
We got to the front of the line, and told Christie our problem, and asked for our new tickets for the new flight tomorrow, and tried to get a hotel out of them... considering we had called Mom and she said that Redding was clear and not fogged in... that she had been told that the plane was actually fogged in in Medford (Oregon).
Christie apologized, but then clearly stated that none of this was her fault, or Alaskan Airline's fault, as this was a Horizon Flight, run by Alaskan, but all the Horizon people had already gone home.
So helpful Miss Christie of the non responsible Alaskan Airlines began to check us on to the 7400 flight tomorrow. By this time the rest of the crowd from upstairs was behind us in line and Tricia and Nikki made friends with two girls traveling to Eureka (the next stop on the flight.) We gave Christie all five of our driver's licenses and she got busy typing things into her computer.
"Nicole is now booked on the flight. Jennifer is now booked on the flight." Type type type. "The flight is full. Tricia is not guaranteed a seat, but I think it's just a glitch."
Huh? Apparently the plane for tomorrow's flight was only 35 seats... when the old one had been full with 77 seats.
"So what are we supposed to do? Leave our sister at home."
"It may or may not be a computer glitch. They may have put the wrong plane in the computer... but we won't know until 5 am... so if you come back here at 5:00, we'll be able to tell you if she's on the flight or not."
We stood at the counter debating for about an hour, trying to wheedle our way into a better deal. Christie gave us some Distressed Passengers Coupons for cheap hotel rates. We figured we'd stay at a hotel and sleep for at least 5 hours before calling in at 5.
We headed over to the courtesy phones and called the Sheraton. They said they had rooms and we hopped on a shuttle to their hotel. When we got to the reception desk, suddenly they had no rooms available.
What were our options? At this point we called all the other hotels and the flyers but they were also all out of discounted rooms. So our new option? The Budget Rent a Car was across the street. Why not drive?
We crossed the street and hopped in line. After about 20 minutes in line, one of us got the brilliant idea to actually call Budget on the telephone and have a reservation before we got to the desk... which was probably still a 30 minute wait away. Unfortunately, Budget had no more one way rentals... so we headed out of line and learned from our mistake. We called Hertz and got a reservation. We hopped on the Budget shuttle and headed back to the airport so we could be picked up by the Hertz shuttle.
After about an hour in line, we got to our burgandy Pontiac Grand Prix, and made it halfway out of the parking lot before Nikki realized she couldn't find her driver's license. After 20 minutes of looking, we find it behind the driver's seat and we head out. By this time, it was 2:30am.
Tricia took the first shift and drove until 4:30. I took the second shift and Nikki took over at 6:30. After a McD's stop for brekkie, Tricia took over and drove the last hour and a half. We got in around 10am... and learned from the parents that the flight was already delayed, and it really was a 35 seat plane... so we really would have missed Christmas Eve celebrations, and would have had to leave Tricia behind.
I love making the right decision.
On top of this, I had been coming down with a cold since Friday morning. After two hours of sleep, I got in the car and we drove to the Redding airport... where our flight still had not come in. Tricia and I had been told, since we actually had paper tickets, that we had to turn them in for a refund at an airport... so why Nikki dropped off the rental car, Tricia and I headed into the terminal... which looked more like a minimall than an airport. The Horizon lady told us that since we had American Ticket stock, that she couldn't refund our tickets. We'd have to go to an airport with an American terminal.
So I pretty much slept through Christmas Eve. I woke up long enough to eat dinner, and hug a bunch of relatives, and get slobbered on by my aunt's dog. Fun.
Tricia went to luggage claim to get her suitcase while Nikki and I stood in the customer service line and got on our cell phones, trying to find alternate routes up North. By this time it was 10:30 and all other flights up north had already left. This included flights into Sacramento, Chico or even San Francisco.
We got to the front of the line, and told Christie our problem, and asked for our new tickets for the new flight tomorrow, and tried to get a hotel out of them... considering we had called Mom and she said that Redding was clear and not fogged in... that she had been told that the plane was actually fogged in in Medford (Oregon).
Christie apologized, but then clearly stated that none of this was her fault, or Alaskan Airline's fault, as this was a Horizon Flight, run by Alaskan, but all the Horizon people had already gone home.
So helpful Miss Christie of the non responsible Alaskan Airlines began to check us on to the 7400 flight tomorrow. By this time the rest of the crowd from upstairs was behind us in line and Tricia and Nikki made friends with two girls traveling to Eureka (the next stop on the flight.) We gave Christie all five of our driver's licenses and she got busy typing things into her computer.
"Nicole is now booked on the flight. Jennifer is now booked on the flight." Type type type. "The flight is full. Tricia is not guaranteed a seat, but I think it's just a glitch."
Huh? Apparently the plane for tomorrow's flight was only 35 seats... when the old one had been full with 77 seats.
"So what are we supposed to do? Leave our sister at home."
"It may or may not be a computer glitch. They may have put the wrong plane in the computer... but we won't know until 5 am... so if you come back here at 5:00, we'll be able to tell you if she's on the flight or not."
We stood at the counter debating for about an hour, trying to wheedle our way into a better deal. Christie gave us some Distressed Passengers Coupons for cheap hotel rates. We figured we'd stay at a hotel and sleep for at least 5 hours before calling in at 5.
We headed over to the courtesy phones and called the Sheraton. They said they had rooms and we hopped on a shuttle to their hotel. When we got to the reception desk, suddenly they had no rooms available.
What were our options? At this point we called all the other hotels and the flyers but they were also all out of discounted rooms. So our new option? The Budget Rent a Car was across the street. Why not drive?
We crossed the street and hopped in line. After about 20 minutes in line, one of us got the brilliant idea to actually call Budget on the telephone and have a reservation before we got to the desk... which was probably still a 30 minute wait away. Unfortunately, Budget had no more one way rentals... so we headed out of line and learned from our mistake. We called Hertz and got a reservation. We hopped on the Budget shuttle and headed back to the airport so we could be picked up by the Hertz shuttle.
After about an hour in line, we got to our burgandy Pontiac Grand Prix, and made it halfway out of the parking lot before Nikki realized she couldn't find her driver's license. After 20 minutes of looking, we find it behind the driver's seat and we head out. By this time, it was 2:30am.
Tricia took the first shift and drove until 4:30. I took the second shift and Nikki took over at 6:30. After a McD's stop for brekkie, Tricia took over and drove the last hour and a half. We got in around 10am... and learned from the parents that the flight was already delayed, and it really was a 35 seat plane... so we really would have missed Christmas Eve celebrations, and would have had to leave Tricia behind.
I love making the right decision.
On top of this, I had been coming down with a cold since Friday morning. After two hours of sleep, I got in the car and we drove to the Redding airport... where our flight still had not come in. Tricia and I had been told, since we actually had paper tickets, that we had to turn them in for a refund at an airport... so why Nikki dropped off the rental car, Tricia and I headed into the terminal... which looked more like a minimall than an airport. The Horizon lady told us that since we had American Ticket stock, that she couldn't refund our tickets. We'd have to go to an airport with an American terminal.
So I pretty much slept through Christmas Eve. I woke up long enough to eat dinner, and hug a bunch of relatives, and get slobbered on by my aunt's dog. Fun.
Christmas Adventures
So let me describe the original Christmas plan: Liz drives Nikki, Tricia, and Jenny to the airport on Friday evening. We get on Horizon's flight to Redding that leaves at 8:55 pm and arrive in Redding at 10:50 pm, get picked up by my cousin Stacy and driven the 45 minutes to Gerber. That was the plan, anyway.
The Liz to the airport part went extremely well. We even had enough time to stop at Islands for Happy Hour and two Mai Tais. We were all pleasantly alcoholated as we went through security line and got out seats somewhat close together. We even got to pull Tricia out of the long line and checked her bag through customer service.
We weren't too bothered that our flight had been delayed by an hour and half. We went into the bar, grabbed a table, more drinks, and Nikki even pulled out a bag of cookies. After an hour or so in the bar, we headed off to the terminal and played a game of hearts (which I was very close to winning,) when they announced that Flight 2304 had been canceled. Yes. Canceled.
The Liz to the airport part went extremely well. We even had enough time to stop at Islands for Happy Hour and two Mai Tais. We were all pleasantly alcoholated as we went through security line and got out seats somewhat close together. We even got to pull Tricia out of the long line and checked her bag through customer service.
We weren't too bothered that our flight had been delayed by an hour and half. We went into the bar, grabbed a table, more drinks, and Nikki even pulled out a bag of cookies. After an hour or so in the bar, we headed off to the terminal and played a game of hearts (which I was very close to winning,) when they announced that Flight 2304 had been canceled. Yes. Canceled.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Sunday, December 04, 2005
TGIO - Saturday - The Game and Singing
Let me tell you how happy I was that the USC/UCLA game was so one sided... I didn't feel cheated having to leave at halftime to make call time for my choir concert.
We arrived at USC at 7:30 and by 8 the parking structure was closed. (The game started at 1:30 pm.) We were later than some, who at 7:30 were already completely plastered. We made up the time, however with beer, mimosas and this fruit concoction of Robs. The recipe goes something like this:
1 cup of strawberries
1 cup of raspberries
1 cup of blackberries
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of chamord
1 cup of vodka
1 cup of rum
Mix it all together, let it sit in the fridge overnight, then eat the fruit (by itself or over the top of Rob's cheese blintzes) and pour off the alcohol into a pitcher and cut it with club soda. Drink liberally.
Okay, so Rob told me not to drink more than one an hour, because "it goes down like fruit punch, but packs a wallop."
Knowing I had to be suitable for choir, I had one glass, and one mimosa... which was seriously unlike the last game where Liz handed David to me on the phone and I literally had a giggle attack while rolling on the grass. And of course I got ribbed for it yesterday, but I think Annelise was more plastered than I was.
Since I was on the verge of losing my voice, I did no screaming, which was difficult, especially when we were up almost thirty points by halftime. When I heard later that the score was 66-19, I knew that Ol' Pete Carroll had put the third string defense in so UCLA could score a touchdown or two.
I was a bit frazzled before the concert. The director spent most of his time rehearsing the songs with the orchestra. We didn't even run through several of the numbers... which was a bit scary.
I got lots of compliments on my solo, which I'm glad no one knew what it was supposed to sound like. I was also glad I convinced Mom and the Rainbow Girls to help out with the refreshments and the drawing. Mom is very good at getting things done with a minimum of stress.
The concert went okay... the music could have been a bit better. I think that David the Director is choosing more and more difficult music, and so we spent a lot of time on those pieces. Either way, I'm very glad it's over. I've only got two more, and that's it!
We arrived at USC at 7:30 and by 8 the parking structure was closed. (The game started at 1:30 pm.) We were later than some, who at 7:30 were already completely plastered. We made up the time, however with beer, mimosas and this fruit concoction of Robs. The recipe goes something like this:
1 cup of strawberries
1 cup of raspberries
1 cup of blackberries
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of chamord
1 cup of vodka
1 cup of rum
Mix it all together, let it sit in the fridge overnight, then eat the fruit (by itself or over the top of Rob's cheese blintzes) and pour off the alcohol into a pitcher and cut it with club soda. Drink liberally.
Okay, so Rob told me not to drink more than one an hour, because "it goes down like fruit punch, but packs a wallop."
Knowing I had to be suitable for choir, I had one glass, and one mimosa... which was seriously unlike the last game where Liz handed David to me on the phone and I literally had a giggle attack while rolling on the grass. And of course I got ribbed for it yesterday, but I think Annelise was more plastered than I was.
Since I was on the verge of losing my voice, I did no screaming, which was difficult, especially when we were up almost thirty points by halftime. When I heard later that the score was 66-19, I knew that Ol' Pete Carroll had put the third string defense in so UCLA could score a touchdown or two.
I was a bit frazzled before the concert. The director spent most of his time rehearsing the songs with the orchestra. We didn't even run through several of the numbers... which was a bit scary.
I got lots of compliments on my solo, which I'm glad no one knew what it was supposed to sound like. I was also glad I convinced Mom and the Rainbow Girls to help out with the refreshments and the drawing. Mom is very good at getting things done with a minimum of stress.
The concert went okay... the music could have been a bit better. I think that David the Director is choosing more and more difficult music, and so we spent a lot of time on those pieces. Either way, I'm very glad it's over. I've only got two more, and that's it!
TGIO - Friday Nano Part-ay
The last time I drove up to Barbara's Brewery, which is "on the other side of downtown" near "General Hospital" (County USC), it took me 2 hours, so this time, with rain expected, I allowed myself two hours and got there in 45 minutes. The good news is that I got there at the same time as the other Municipal Liason, Elizabeth. We laid out the prizes, (Big Lots Baby) and I ordered a hamburger because I was starving! Later they laid out a spread of appetizers (with lots of cheese!)
I was a little worried at first, because not a whole lot of people replied to the thread saying they would be there... but when we counted the raffle ticket stubs, we had nearly 40 people there. It was a little loud with the music and the miniature jet engine heater. Overall, I think it was a great success. I had fun talking to everyone about their novels and matching names with faces. I felt my voice starting to go so around 9:30, so I said goodbye to Elizabeth and headed home.
I was a little worried at first, because not a whole lot of people replied to the thread saying they would be there... but when we counted the raffle ticket stubs, we had nearly 40 people there. It was a little loud with the music and the miniature jet engine heater. Overall, I think it was a great success. I had fun talking to everyone about their novels and matching names with faces. I felt my voice starting to go so around 9:30, so I said goodbye to Elizabeth and headed home.
TGIO - Thursday Bombs R Us
So I've had a Mega Packed 72 hours and plan to do completely NOTHING today to make up for it.
It all started when during the last class of the day, my ELD 1 class, an announcement came over that we had a lock down drill. My students dutifully closed the windows and blinds and I locked the door. I had to keep them from peeking out the slats in the blinds at the army of police and fire that were arriving.
In case of a lockdown, teachers are instructed to check their email, as they won't make announcements... in case the emergency is due to a gunman in the school. I get an email that says someone turned in a red backpack to the bookroom with some strange box with wires attached to it. The bookroom, in case your wondering is directly downstairs and over one from my classroom. Peachy.
The email also said that the 100 building had already been evacuated... 20 to thirty minutes before. So I sent an email back asking where we were supposed to be. About ten minutes later I get an angry phone call. "Where are you, you were supposed to be in the auditorium!"
Don't ask me how I'm supposed to be somewhere when no one told me where to go.
"Wait for your administrator to come escort you out."
I tell the students to pack up their stuff as we're leaving. They're confused, but it's a chance not to do their work... so they pack up and head off down the hall when Ms. Broadway comes to get us.
So we got to leave school 20 minutes early and I had to walk the long way around home... and I didn't get to make the copies I planned to make after school.
The bomb turned out to be a speaker with electrical tape and wire sticking out of it. I don't know what bothers me more... that they forgot to evacuate me, or they blamed me for not knowing about it. sigh.
It all started when during the last class of the day, my ELD 1 class, an announcement came over that we had a lock down drill. My students dutifully closed the windows and blinds and I locked the door. I had to keep them from peeking out the slats in the blinds at the army of police and fire that were arriving.
In case of a lockdown, teachers are instructed to check their email, as they won't make announcements... in case the emergency is due to a gunman in the school. I get an email that says someone turned in a red backpack to the bookroom with some strange box with wires attached to it. The bookroom, in case your wondering is directly downstairs and over one from my classroom. Peachy.
The email also said that the 100 building had already been evacuated... 20 to thirty minutes before. So I sent an email back asking where we were supposed to be. About ten minutes later I get an angry phone call. "Where are you, you were supposed to be in the auditorium!"
Don't ask me how I'm supposed to be somewhere when no one told me where to go.
"Wait for your administrator to come escort you out."
I tell the students to pack up their stuff as we're leaving. They're confused, but it's a chance not to do their work... so they pack up and head off down the hall when Ms. Broadway comes to get us.
So we got to leave school 20 minutes early and I had to walk the long way around home... and I didn't get to make the copies I planned to make after school.
The bomb turned out to be a speaker with electrical tape and wire sticking out of it. I don't know what bothers me more... that they forgot to evacuate me, or they blamed me for not knowing about it. sigh.
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