The Big Winter Storm

Hear about the snow in the northeast this past weekend? I got to fly right into the lion's den! We arrived in Allentown, Pennsylvania around 11:15am. One leg to the overnight to sit in a hotel all day. Excitement city! I watched Olympics all day. Well, the skies were gray and threatening snow until around 4pm or so when it finally started coming down. And didn't stop until, well, I'm not sure because when I left for Atlanta it was still snowing. Here's what happened the next morning:

Overnight, Allentown got about 8-12 inches. Walking out the lobby doors at the Crown Plaza at 5am was intense enough on it's own. We were greeted with a blanket of snow between us and the van as well as swirling death winds b/c we were downtown amongst the tall buildings. Yes, they do have a few in ol' Allentown. None of the streets were plowed. Our top speed on the way to the airport was about 25mph; the driver spinning his tires a couple of times trying to get moving from stops. The Comair people at the ticket counter were like, "Wow! You guys are here!" At the gate, our passengers eyed myself and the captain suspiciously (he's 38 but looks 30). They're looking out the window at their snow-covered airplane. One man asks, "You guys are good, right?" I so badly want to say no when people ask that. Yes, I've heard it more than once when the weather is bad.

Down the jetway we go to our freezing metal tube. Zipped up snug in my leather jacket and gloves and a borrowed ear muff thing from the flight attendant, I ventured out into the cold to conduct the preflight examination of the aircraft. At one point, I had snow up to my knees while fighting the blistering winds and moderate snowfall. It was actually kind of fun. Trudging around in the snow with my flashlight. Needless to say, we had to de-ice.

We pushed back from the gate on time at 6:00am sharp. Now it was time to clean the plane. First, we have to de-ice all the snow and ice built up on the plane overnight. We configured the aircraft and the truck circled around and shot us with it's hose. One guy up on the cherry picker arm and one guy driving the truck. That took about 15 minutes or so. Now, since it is still snowing moderately, the wings and tail have to be sprayed with anti-ice fluid to prevent anything from re-freezing long enough for us to take off. Well, the truck can't get pressure for the anti-ice fluid so they have to call out a competitor's truck. In this case, Continental. One of the Comair guys has a buddy over there and he helps us out. But it takes a while. Finally they arrive and coat us up with green goo.

Off we go! The Captain carefully swings us around on the icy snow-covered ramp only to find he isn't getting very good traction, at least, not enough to turn us so that we can make the entrance to the taxiway. Now we're stuck. The crew that pushed us back from the gate comes back out to push us back about 20 feet with the tug so we can make the turn. This takes a while. While it's taking a while, we're looking at the clock and noticing that our window for taking off in icing conditions with our anti-ice fluid is quickly closing and finally slams shut. Like I said, depending on the type of precipitation, we have a certain amount of time before the fluid loses it's effectiveness. So call back the Continental truck. First they re-de-ice us with the Comair truck, then re-anti-ice us with the Continental truck. By now the sun has cast some light on the Earth, allowing us to see just how gray and dreary everything is in the constant snowfall.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, once again from the flight deck....I've finally got good news for you. Everything is set to go and we're going to be number two for takeoff once we reach the end of the runway. We do realize your frustration and appreciate your patience and we will do everything to get you to Atlanta as quickly and safely as possible."

At 8:15am, 2 hours and 15 minutes after pushing back from the gate, we are on our way to Atlanta.

January

It seems that in January there is this kind of "blah" feeling since all of the holidays and gift giving is over and it's BACK TO WORK.

Dave and I were feeling the "January blues" recently but we do have somethings that are going to make this month a little more exciting. Dave is getting a new car! He researched some different ones and found an awesome car for a nice price. It's the Scion TC. This will be nice for Dave because it has a bit more pep then his good trusty Toyota truck. We are still keeping the truck for now.

Also this MLK weekend Dave and I are going to go to Virgina. We are going to see some of Dave's old memories. Plus we will see my great Aunt Delle and her daughter Tony and her husband R.D. We will also go to D.C. for a quick tour.

In other news: work is work, and Douglasville is Douglasville. (o;

Christmas Holiday

For Christmas, Dave's family (Pat, Tom, and Ellen) came to Atlanta for a whirlwind tour of the best the city has to offer. Here's what we did in no particular order:

Stone Mountain: There's a lot to see and do there if you want to go all tourist-out. We decided to take the cable car up to the top and then hiked down, one of several hiking/riding combinations possible. There were many names and dates carved into the mountain by previous visitors. Because we are all so ridiculously silly, break time during the hike included a fun shadow puppet show. Once we reached the bottom, we saw the confederate generals ("the dudes") carved in the side of the mountain. It was a gorgeous view and we enjoyed the fresh air.

Also we went to the new Georgia Aquarium. We saw beluga whales, penguins, otters, all kinds of fish, and many more creatures. It was quite the aquarium.

Hmmm...let's see....We hiked in Sweetwater Park, which is just around the corner from our apartment. The view was nice and the weather was perfect for a hike.

Allison had heard of a great restaurant from her friend Melaine and we wanted to take the family. So we ate at the Flying Biscuit. We all chowed down on the "towering" buttery flaky biscuits. No, that's not all we ate, but they were quite buttery and good.

While Allison took the GRE downtown, everyone else explored the Georgia capital building and saw MLK Jr.'s church, childhood house and grave.

After the GRE was over, we all went to a downtown market with fresh produce and "meat." Interested in a whole ox tail? Or maybe some pig ears? How about cow stomach? Naturally, we ate lunch there and had some excellent desert of red velvet cake, caramel cake, and sweet potato pie. The lunch did NOT include any of the above meats.

For our official Christmas night we opened many presents. Plus we played Shanghai, Scattegories and Scrabble. Hmmm...all S's.

Each evening, we got a recap of pictures from Dave and Tom. And everyone thought we were annoying with just ONE camera!!! Mwahhahahaha! We took many pictures throughout the holiday and we got to see ALL of them. (o;

We were both so happy to have had everyone to our new place. Plus it was great to see them again since the last time we saw them was the wedding!

On the real Christmas Eve/Day Dave and I just spent some quality time eating fondue, watching cheesy Christmas movies, playing games, opening our presents to each other and just enjoyed our first Christmas together.

We will email out an email (o: when we get the pictures up on Shutterfly.

Turkey Day

To celebrate Thanksgiving Dave and I went to Ohio. Pop, Polly, Mom, Dad, Patrick, Lydia, John, Michelle, Reganne, Uncle Don, Stephanie, her boyfriend Ryan, Aunt Jeannie, Uncle Dennis, his daughter, and her family. I think that was everyone? Gee there were a lot of us.

We flew in Tuesday (first class). Wednesday we went to the Airforce Museum so Pop could tell all of his stories to Dave and Uncle Dennis. We will be sending out the pictures in an email. If you do not receive one in the next week or so and you'd like to see the pictures please email one of us and we'll send you one. That evening we met up with Ryan and Steph to play pool with them.

Thursday morning we met Dave's relatives Barb Marriot and George Marriot. They live right down the street from Pop and Polly! Then we met the family at the Officer's Club for a Thanksgiving feast. It was super! Later that night we went with Ryan and Steph to see Harry Potter!! It was excellent! Steph and Dave said that it had some great similarities to the book however there were some differences.

It snowed a little in Ohio and my mom hit me with a snow ball! Oh and I got Dave with one. hehe (o; Reganne tried out snow for the first time and she looked soooo cute all bundled up!

Friday we flew home kind of early and made first class again. (a benefit we may not have for long)

Overall we had a wonderful Turkey Day! Also we wanted to let you know that we are very thankful for our friends and family!

Idaho Tourism

The state legislature of Idaho has issued an official commendation of the creators of Napolean Dynamite. Apparently they are sighting them for the "increased tourism and economic growth" the movie is creating. Here are some of my favorite direct quotes from the bill:

"The Preston High School administration and staff, particularly the cafeteria staff, have enjoyed notoriety and worldwide attention"

"...tater tots figure prominently in this film, thus promoting Idaho's most famous export..."

"Uncle Rico's football skills are a testament to Idaho athletics..."

"Napoleon's bicycle and Kip's skateboard promote better air quality and carpooling as alternatives to fuel-dependent methods of transportation..."

"Pedro's efforts to bake a cake for Summer illustrate the positive connection between culinary skills to lifelong relationships..."

"Napoleon's tetherball dexterity emphasizes the importance of physical education in Idaho public schools..."

Think I'm kidding? Go check it out for yourself.

Dave's Roots

This past weekend, Dave and I went to Houston on his overnight. He was able to show me his old house, High school, Randall's, and other old memories. We also got to eat lunch with Raj (his bestman / best friend from high school)

Then we went to Galveston and saw another old house of Dave's and his old school. Plus Dave was noticing things that had changed there... like a huge building that isn't there anymore right on the seawall.

After all that we met up with Angie (my friend from Baylor) and her boyfriend Matt at Bennigans. We needed to catch up. I miss Angie!

Overall it was a great trip! Gosh Texas is hot!! It was nice to see "home" again.(o;

Allison vs. 50 Cent

Get Rich or Die Tryin'. Hmmm. For those of you familiar with pop culture, you are also likely familiar with the rap artist, "50 Cent." That's 50 CENT singular, not plural. Even though there are multiple cents involved once you go over 1 cent, he chooses not to use proper English.

Recently, this entrepreneur has taken the obvious next step in a "music" career that many "musicians" do: Movies! Yes, that's right folks, it's the long-awaited 50-Cent film, Get Rich or Die Tryin'. What is this movie about? From what I understand, it's basically his true life story about doing whatever it takes to "make that paper" so you can have fancy cars, big houses and lots of bling-bling. Whatever it takes involves lots of wonderful selfish criminal acts with no regard for anyone but me Me ME!

In addition to a new movie, he also has a new video game coming out called, "50-Cent: Bulletproof." The cover features a computerized version of 50-Cent's mug looking all sinister and intimidating. The goal of the game is to use your gang of followers to kill as many people as possible in order to gain power, respect and most-importantly, CASH baby! Target even has a sweepstakes where you can win the new game and a bunch of gansta loot, including my favorite item, a life-sized cutout of 50-Cent himself. I'm peeing my pants I'm so excited! Oh and don't forget the bling. It literally says that. Go look at the website.

Who is going to see this movie/buy this game? More importantly, what kind of message does all this crap send? And who really teaches our (proverbial) kids this days? Is it Allison and the under-appreciated group of teachers that have to put up with kids who's parents send them to school after letting them be exposed to this sort of junk, therefore undermining any concept of morals and respect that kids should have? Or is it 50-Cent and his G-Unit?

You decide.

In a recent interview, 50-Cent was asked if he was planning on continuing with a movie career or sticking to music. "It's a big thing making a jump to movies, but I took a HUGE PAY CUT to do this film. Let's say I had an album that sold 6.5 million units. If I had been touring for three months, I probably would've made maybe $15 million. That's likely more than I'll make for this." Man, that must suck, huh? Less than 15 million in 3 months. Life can be rough sometimes but you just have to keep that chin up.

How much does Allison make?

I rest my case.

Halloween weekend

Dave and I went to Murphy's restaurant in Virgina Highlands for (My twin friends from Texas that live in GA too) Mel and David Veatch's birthday celebration. It was a fun time to eat and chat while being all dressed up.

Mel was in a bright orange wig with a flashing pumpkin necklace and a crazy/glittered orange mask. I told her she was the spirit of Halloween. Her boyfriend Danny was Tom Cruise from Top Gun. Mel said she was Katie Holmes dressed up for Halloween. (o;

Dave was dressed up like a cowboy wearing a HUGE belt buckle. (It was really our Texas Trivet) Very creative and funny! I was a pirate with jingly coins on my boots.

David Veatch was a priest with a walking stick. The food was great and the conversations were much needed. This was the first time in awhile we have all been able to hang out. Happy 25th Birthday Mel and David! Happy Halloween everyone!

Wedding things are getting wrapped up.

We have worked hard to finish Thank you notes but, we appogize about the last few that took so long to complete. Finally... a few weeks ago we finished our last documented thank you note! Yeah!!!! (all you married people know what I'm talking about)

Plus we were able to take the (traffic filled - weekend construction issues on I-20) trip to downtown ATL to get some final William Sonoma and Crate and Barrel gifts. Thank you for the gift cards!! We enjoyed searching out things we really wanted and didn't get. Plus we got some fun random things like little funky cheese knives from Pottery Barn. (o:

** Did you know that Crate and Barrel gift cards can be used at Pottery Barn? Well they can! **

The only other wedding thing that I'm not sure will ever get wrapped up (until we move) is that the apartment kitchen just doesn't fit some of these wonderful appliances that we have! So we are finding that this second room/closet is great for storing things! Everyone who said, "You'll need a lot of room" you were right!

Salmon?

Check out Alaska Airlines' new special paint scheme:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/933358/M

Wedding Pictures!

Our wedding pictures are now posted on our photographer's website.

Madden Photography Click on the "wedding" link and then scroll down to click on the picture of us. (:

Spam in New York, New York

We received tickets to Spamalot as a wedding present from Dave's sister Ellen. It was a hilarious comedy that was full of satire and crazy songs. It was mostly a take off of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and there were other bits of Life with Brian. We thoroughly enjoyed the show and the sites of NY. I had never been to New York and Dave used to live there when he was young, so he was an awesome tour guide that showed me most of the major sites there.

Just to tell you a few things we did; we rode many subway trains, saw Time Square from a revolving resturant, walked around Time Square, ate a NY hotdog, ate NY pizza, ate a NY pretzel, ate at Cafe Lalo (famous cafe on "You've Got Mail"), I fed some pigeons, we went to the top of the Empire State Building, visited Ground Zero, saw the Statue of Liberty, saw Governer's Island (Dave's old home), saw Rockefeller Center, Saw Radio City Music Hall, saw the Booklyn Bridge, and walked most of Central Park. We should have some pictures posted soon!

Small Australian Business

This is an interview with a lady that I met in Australia. Her daughter Shari and I still communicate through email. (o: You'll love the accents!

http://www.radio4smallbusiness.com.au/business_in_action.html#JennieCowdell It takes a little while to load.

http://www.lavenderhillfarm.com.au/ Here is the small business website too.

Delta Sells ASA to Skywest, Inc.

In a tentative deal, Delta sold my company, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, to Skywest, Inc of St. George, Utah yesterday. The deal isn't supposed to be finalized until sometime in September.

What does this mean for me and, more importantly, Allison and I? Well, really, nothing. It is simply a transfer of ownership of our primary stockholder from Delta to Skywest, Inc. ASA and Skywest airlines will still operate as separate Delta Connection carriers, us out of Atlanta, them out of Salt Lake City. They also fly as United Express and there are no plans for ASA to do the same right now. The agreement calls for another 15 years of Delta Connection service from both ASA and Skywest.

Why did Delta do this? Delta is trying to improve their liquidity to avoid chapter 11 bankruptcy and does not need to own us outright in order to take advantage of our much-needed regional service. With that said, there is speculation that they will also sell Cincinnati-based Comair, the other Delta Connection carrier wholly-owned by Delta.

Therefore, my job is secure and ASA's Atlanta operations won't see any major changes any time soon. Skywest and ASA are planning on looking at the strengths and weakness of both companies in order to grow together as the largest Delta Connection carrier while remaining independent of each other from an employment and operation standpoint.

Allison's job change!

Okay as if there wasn't enough change in my life already... I'm not going to be teaching fourth grade anymore. There is a "shortage of kids." So I'll be teaching first instead!! I've started moving somethings over to my new room and the special ed. teacher is moving her things into my room.

So I have a job still and I'm at the same school... but I'll be teaching different children (about 3 grade levels lower) I'll have a new schedule for lunch/recess/specials and on a different team. The team will be good because they are very organized and helpful (so I've heard) but I'll miss my old team. :( I was just becoming great friends with Joi Dix (another new 4th grade teacher to Beulah.)

Anyway please keep me in your prayers... I'll be moving and setting up Saturday and most of the week this week!

Foe Toes

Go to here to see Patrick and Lydia's photos they took at our wedding. Man it's fun to use bad grammar. :-)

The Wedding from Our Side

Thursday morning Dave arrived. I ran off to get a facial and later we all ate dinner at mom and dad's house.

Friday morning the girls went to get their nails done at my favorite nail salon. Then everyone arrived at the church to help decorate. After that we all met up for the rehearsal. We had a few run troughs and Dad did a trombone solo. Next we went to the rehearsal dinner at La Casa. It's one of our favorite restaurants and they really dressed up the place for us. I was excited because of all the gerbera daisies decorating everything. To end the night Dave and the guys went out and the girls came over to my parents house to have a little shower and munchies.

Saturday morning the girls went to get their hair done at my hair place where I grew up getting my hair done. Then we went to Main Street Bread Baking Co. On Grapevine Main Street for a Bridesmaid's luncheon that my aunt Linda hosted. It was perfect to help us relax and eat some fabulous food. Dave didn't have to get his hair done or have a luncheon so I heard that he really wanted to speed up time and start the wedding.

Then we started taking some pictures separately in the sanctuary. The wedding began and we didn't get to hear the beautiful prelude music. The wedding was beautiful and meaningful for us. We were nervous about being in front of all the people however it wasn't as bad when we were standing up there. After we were announced Dave was tugging me down at mach 3 like he was flying a CRJ. Next was a picture craziness and then we went to the reception. The fellowship hall was absolutely stunning!

We flew through the cake cutting and had a few bites to eat. We mingled with a few guests and went out to the hallway for the garter and bouquet (: My counsin, Steph, caught the bouquet and Dave's friend Bryan caught the garter. We ran out through the bubbles and jumped into the limo.

The honeymoon night (that was a secret to me) was at the Omni Mandalay Hotel in Las Colinas. It had a gorgeous view of downtown Dallas and Reunion Tower where Dave proposed to me. Another awesome thing about it was when we walked around the lobby there was hardly anyone there. So we requested a song from the pianist and were able to dance our first dance as man and wife.

It was a perfect wedding for us. Thank you to everyone involved with it!!

PS. We'll let you know as soon as our pictures are posted online.

We're MARRIED!

It finally happened!

Now we can breathe and actually enjoy our lives.

:-)

More to come later. Like pictures. Especially pictures.

Welcome to Douglasville!

Allison and I recently acquired new digs in Douglasville, GA, where she will soon be teaching 4th grade. I know there is another post further down in which Allison explains all this. Sorry for the repetition.

Anyway, she and her brother Patrick headed out on July 2nd from Dallas in a big Uhaul truck dragging Allison's Honda behind it on a trailer. They got here in the afternoon the next day and we unloaded the following morning. I arrived fashionably late as I had to fly the previous night and got off work at about 8am on the 4th. Just in time for all the big heavy stuff!

Click here for documentation provided by Patrick and Lydia's camera with Lydia behind the shutter.

Simile or Metaphor?

Reading funny books while riding on airplanes can cause people to give you funny looks. A book I read recently, Fluke, by Christopher Moore, caused me to do this, well, pretty much the whole time I spent reading the book, which was about 3 flight legs between Atlanta and Dallas. I have my system, iPod and book. Excellent system. Especially when I'm stuck in a center seat which has been my luck for the last several trips to Dallas. All of the horrors of fat arms invading my arm rest just fade away. :-)

Anyway, here's a tiny tidbit that caused me to draw attention to myself. Probably the best simile I've ever seen, or at least it seemed at the time. I nearly spit Coke everywhere and I was in pilot uniform.

"Kona and Clay were standing to the side, following her movement like dogs watching meatball tennis."

Picture the event and you'll laugh just like I did.