Almost in the Braska!

Tomorrow at this time I will be back in the Braska!!! (Lord willing)

So, interestingly enough, it only cost $20 more to get a limo service to-and-from the airport as opposed to off-site parking in Newark. Yah - that's what I said. Duh - park in Newark and risk my car winding up in Georgia in a ditch or pay $20 and arrive in style?

You know I'm goin' in style :)

...if only I could chuck those air fresheners out of their cars.

K - must get some sleep cuz I'm gettin' picked up at 5:30am! Talk to ya on the other side -

Our apartment reeks of Raid now. Makes me wonder what they put in that stuff... It literally kills on contact and they say it continues to kill for 6 months.

Hmmm... maybe we should spray it on our food.

I guess that means that if I die in the next 6 months, that the secret will be out. But everyone will be really impressed that I kept my roachness a secret for so long. That kind of makes me a secret-agent.

Cool.

Hotel Roach: You can check in, but you can never check out

Well I've tried to maintain some optimism, but it's going on 2 weeks of having this stupid chest cold and I still can't fall asleep at night b/c when I take a semi-deep breath I start coughing uncontrollably. Uggghhhhh.

But at least I have a nice, calm weekend planned so I can hopefully catch up on some R&R. As I was leaving work, I was talking with another project manager who ski's and he said that a relatively nicely-sized ski resort in NY state (about 2 hr drive away) has most of its runs open with about a 40" base of snow. I know - it's no Colorado, but I convinced myself for about 15 minutes that I was going to wake up at 6am this morning and head up there to get some solid slope time. Needless to say, that didn't happen. Actually, I'm still laying in bed. And this is much better. :)

Oohhh - my roommates and I exterminated our apartment last night. Or, at least I should say that they provided me with the Raid and I exterminated our apartment.

See it all started about 3 weeks ago when I discovered a few roaches near our sink and I promptly squished them with a paper towel. Now, I've been out on the road for much of the last few weeks and I told my roommates of my discovery, but Conor in particular didn't see any more until yesterday - and apparently he transforms into a little squealing girl when he sees bugs. And he made said transformation when I returned home from work and found him high-stepping through the living room hollering some mean smack-talk to the roaches in the kitchen. So, of course, I made fun of him. But he followed through with his threats to the roachies and bought some Raid... and he gave it to me to handle the situation.

What followed was a slaughter of almost-Armageddon proportions. Conor stayed in the livingroom for most of it, shouting words of encouragement followed by more menacing words to the roaches writhing on the floor. Andy stepped in and helped me move more stuff out of the kitchen so I could continue mowing down the roaches... and he helped me plant the Roach traps all about the kitchen.

So, stage 1 of the attack has been executed successfully. I think we're going to call for backup and have the apartment fumigated properly. Conor said he couldn't sleep last night.

South BEEEEACH!

OH yeah! So, I finally convinced all the guys at work to go to South Beach for dinner tonight and it was sweet! Sheesh - Friday I was at the Pacific at Bodega Bay in California, and today I stood too close to the encroaching tide and found myself ankle-deep in the Atlantic! Sounds fun - but not so much in my work-dress clothes. But that didn't dampen my spirits enough to stop collecting sea shells n' stuff. I must say, South Beach is much better for shell-collecting and whatnot. First of all, it's 75 degrees as opposed to the 50 degrees I felt at the Pacific... and then there is the absence of sea kelp here too - which not only helps the appearance, but also the general scent of the beach. That is of course - not to knock the Pacific... it has its own charm... but not its own salt water taffy.

OOOOH - and I'm finally tasting the sweet fruit of my frequent flier miles: I finally got a free upgrade to first class on my 8am flight back to NJ tomorrow - so, I'm going to try really hard to act like I've been there before... Turn my nose up a bit, avoid direct eye contact with passengers who sit back there in filthy "coach" class, sip my free wine, talk Wall Street Journal stock updates with the other 1st classers, and laugh with big, heaving gusto. King for 2-1/2 hours.

Stuck in Air Traffic

So... my NWA flight was supposed to connect in Minneapolis to my flight to Newark - but that was 4 hours and 3 bottles of water ago. Thanks to the blessing of BD Travel support, I've been rebooked on a red eye Continental flight that leaves in 5 hours. Sooooo - I've got nuthin but time to kill!

One HUUUUGE blessing was that as I was getting into the airport, I bumped into Ben Coleman - a friend from college who was traveling with the manager of Casting Pearls (Brandon) and they were scheduled on the same flight as me. So, we've been hanging out in the terminal, watching YouTube videos and trading cold medicine to get us through this thing. Praise the Lord for the blessings He provides in the middle of frustrating circumstances!

I also discovered the wonderful world of "InMotion" video rentals --> where I just rented "You, Me and Dupree" for $5 - and I'll just drop it of in Newark when I get there. Not too shabby!

So, that's the plan anyway. I think I'm getting hungry again - so I'm gonna run and grab some grub. It'll be a nice, short night (arrive at 5:40 am) - but I've got one more dose of Nyquil to help me through it!

The Pacific!

I got to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time today! Tanner had to work, so I just drove 45 minutes from Santa Rosa to Bodega Bay and hung out on the cold, windy black sand of Northern California -

I looked for seashells and such but found mostly ginormous seaweed that looked like 3" diameter spaghetti and a lot of seagulls. Then I went into the hippie town of Bodega and chilled in a coffee shop with some locals and ate some fresh fish tacos... I came this close to buying a tie-dyed shirt with Jerry Garcia's face on it. And then I was going to buy some saltwater taffy from one of the local shops - but I figured I'd inquire as to its origin prior to purchase. The store clerk's anser: "It's made in Salt Lake City, Utah." I said "thanks," pretended to find interest in some other trinkets, and then walked out the door. You can't tell me that being that close to the Pacific no one makes their own saltwater taffy?!! C'mon. Weak sauce.

All in all a pretty rewarding experience!