So we discovered the pictures and videos of the cross country road trip I was part of when we helped James, Kristen and Logan move back to CA.  I'll try to start doing some posts from that trip soon.  In the meantime, not too much excitement, with the exception of a good bit of visitors.  Alex has kept up with that on her blog, so no need for me to go into too much detail. 

Ah...the one visitor that we would like very much to get rid of is our Opossum (let's call it Sam from now on)...or should I say family of Opossums.  For those who don't know, we have had Sam in the attic over the past couple of years.  Normally, it is fairly quiet, and doesn't do much to bother us.  We've tried to figure out where it enters the attic, but we haven't been successful yet.  Well, a few nights ago, it sounded like the thing was trying to dig it's way thru our bedroom ceiling.  It actually woke me up, and I had to put ear plugs in to get back to sleep.  Something must be done!

I spoke to an exterminator that comes by our office a couple times a month, and he suggested I buy a live trap and try to capture my uninvited house guest ourselves.  He noted that the exterminators do the exact same thing, only they charge a lot more to do so.  So Alex and I found a "humane" trap at Lowes and I set it in the attic on Sunday.  I read on some websites that the opossums enjoy bacon and fruit, so I baited the trap with Spam (with bacon) and the core of an asian pear from our tree.  I woke up in the morning and excitedly checked the trap.  What I found was that the core was missing, and the Spam was untouched.  But no, the trap was not sprung. 

That right...I managed to feed Sam. 

Sam - 1
Bill - 0

I think my mistake was that I didn't set the bait far enough back in the cage, which allowed Sam to reach the food without ever stepping on the trigger plate.  So I reset the trap with a Fuji Apple core, all the way at the back of the cage this time.  Unfortunately, it's been 2 nights with no luck.  I'm now wondering if it was the Spam's smell that attracted Sam in the first place.  So tonight, I'll be setting a fresh core in the trap along with the Spam appitizer.  We'll see if that works.  Hopefully, I wake up in the morning and there is a defeated looking Opossum in my trap.

8:35PM EST/5:35PM PST, 35000ft, 457mph in seat 25F of yet another A320 somewhere over western Texas.  Less than 18 hours ago I was in the exact same seat, headed to Fort Lauderdale.  Come to think of it, in 3 days, I’d have flown about 9000 miles. Yesterday/last night was one of those times when I realize why I avoid going to head quarters in NY if possible.  I was originally scheduled to fly out of JFK at 4:35pm, getting into FLL around 8pm.  I had a few things to finish up at the office before I left, and I was trying to get a tour of T5 (our new terminal slated to open in September), so I changed my flight to the later one scheduled at 7pm. 

And here was where all my plans began to unravel.  The tour of T5 got canceled, so I spent a little more time in Forest Hills before heading to JFK. I got checked in and headed down to the JFK IT office to settle in and grab a bite to eat before my flight.  I finally realized that there is a Papaya King Hot Dog stand in the terminal, so I got my first taste of the NY specialty that many a foodie has made mention of on Food Network. I enjoyed my 2 dogs with a Mango drink (I know, it was supposed to be Papaya, but I wasn’t in the mood) and glanced up at the FIDS screen.  Oops…

I made rookie traveler mistake #1…I forgot to keep an eye on my flight.  It was showing 2 hours delayed…damn!  I went back downstairs to the office to log in and start looking at the flights.  Apparently, a line of thunder storms had parked themselves just west of the Eastern seaboard, and JFK was in a ground delay program.  On top of that, the airplane that was scheduled for flight 47 (the 7pm) was way behind, making its runs from BOS to IAD before coming to JFK for our flight.  One look and I knew that FLT47 was going to be leaving after FLT 11 (9:30pm departure). 

A quick reach out to our Corporate Travel folks and they had me moved over.  Now it was just a matter of waiting for the plane to arrive from OAK.  It did get in a little behind, but we still were onboard and pushed back from the gate by 10:20pm.  Unfortunately, by the time we got into the JFK conga line, we were about the 40^th plane in line for departure.  While we proceeded to take a tour of the JFK taxiways, I tried to take a nap.  I guess now is a good time to mention I’ve been up since 5:30am with only about 4 hours of sleep. 

At about 11:30, the captain came on the PA and announced that there was good news and bad news.  The good news was that dispatch had worked out a routing for us that avoided the storm line and we would be able to get going.  The bad news was that the new routing was longer and therefore, required additional fuel.  That meant a return to the gate.  After a wait to get the jetbridge up to the plane to deplane a few folks who wanted off, we pushed back again, at 12:20am.  We finally got in the air at 12:50am. 

I wasn’t really able to nap again, so I did some channel surfing and reading.  We were on the ground a little before 3:30am, and I was at rental car counter by 3:45am.  There were about 6 people ahead of me in line, and only one agent working the counter.  It took until 4:45am before I got the keys to my minivan.  The agent said “I’m sorry but we don’t have any cars available.  I hope you don’t mind a minivan.”  At this point, I would have taken a 1997 Geo Metro, as long as it could get me to the hotel. 

When I arrived at the hotel, which I stay at most of the time when I’m in FLL, the night agent greeted me and asked if I was checking out!  It was that late/early in the morning that he was expecting people to be leaving, not coming in!  After finding my reservation, he asked to take my credit card for the room.  I attempted to explain that the room was a direct bill back to my company, but as I’m sure most people have experienced the people who work overnight shifts at hotels are usually not the brightest bulbs in the bunch.  I was much too tired to care anymore, so I resolved to deal with CorpTravel in the morning and surrendered my credit card.  After a quick shower, I got into bed…at 5:30am.  24 hours awake.  I love my job.

So now I’m back on a plane…headed home.  Man I’m gonna sleep good tonight.

Wow...this page is horrible looking.  I gotta figure out how to fix the colors.

So I'm sitting here in the company HQ in Forest Hills, NY at 7am.  Why am I IN the office at 7am (4am PST!!!)?  So far, on the 7th floor (IT's floor), there is one VP, one Director, and me.  Geeks don't normally get up this early.  The only good news is that we stopped downstairs at the local coffee shop, and I had the best bagel I've had since the last time I was in NY.  That is one thing that I actually enjoy about coming to NY for...the food.  Bagels and Pizza are just consistently good in this city.

Why am I NY, you ask?  For a meeting, of course.  But how did I arrive in here?  On Monday night, I took a redeye "shuteye" flight from LGB to FLL.  I arrived in FLL early Tuesday morning, and worked thru the day with my team there.  In the late morning, I was told that my FLL team would be transitioning leadership over to my counterpart in Orlando to realign the teams more regionally.  This all comes from a re-org of our department to better streamline the teams.  Although I am disapointed that I won't have the opportunity to lead the team that I have been working hard to build, we will still work together constantly as is the nature of our business.  And I'm sure Alex is glad to hear that my coast to coast responsibilites (and associated travel) will be cut down. 

So after speaking with my director in the morning, I was informed that there will be a "Pocket Session" meeting in FSC where our EVP will be meeting with members of the team to explain and discuss the new org.  I decided that since I was in the area (within the same time zone), I would fly up for the meeting.  My director invited me up early to have dinner with him and discuss a few items, so I hopped on an afternoon flight to JFK and proceeded to try to catch a couple hours of sleep on the flight. 

Arrivng in JFK, one thing that's real hard to ignore is the progress of T5, our new terminal slated to open this fall.  It is really starting to dominate the area, and from all accounts, is going to be a real showcase when it opens.  I arrived to wonderful weather in the low 80s and no real humidity.  Caught the AirTrain to Jamaica station where I met up with Pat and we proceeded to take the E-Train to Forest Hills for dinner.  After eating, we went back to the apartment and went over some high level items that he'd been involved with and I proceeded to use my captive audience time wisely, requesting approvals for some needed expenditures. 

After work was done, we BSed a little about various things and I inquired as to when we were getting going in the morning.  His answer was "As Duffy (our VP) likes to put it, ten til 6:20".  "In the morning???" is what went thru my head.  "See you then." is what actually came out of my mouth.  As many know, I am NOT much of a morning person.  I have the capability to stay up as late as I want/need, but getting up early is a whole different thing.  However, with my current job I've discovered that if I get up early, I can actually get a lot more work done during the day, and I do surprisingly well on less sleep.  I think I've figured out that I'm okay with either less than 6 or more than 8 hours of sleep.  Inbetween is where I feel tired thru the day.  I'm not sure how that works...must be getting old.  ;)

It's now 7:45, and the three of us are still the only ones on the floor.  I think I've done enough rambling for now.  I have an afternoon flight back to FLL, then I'll spend tomorrow working with the team before heading back to LGB tomorrow night.  One thing about travelling for work...makes the week go by a lot quicker.  I hope Alex is enjoying her freedom from me...this might be the last time for a while.  ;)

-b