Interesting

Tomorrow should be rather interesting with the flight back to Baltimore because there are two stops, but I don't have to get off and change planes.  I wonder what the two stops will be.  My money is on Denver and Kansas City before I arrive in Baltimore.

I just hope there is a restaurant at the airport that is open so I can grab some food before the flight, 6 hours and 20 minutes is a long time to be on planes.

Baltimore, I shall be home soon; Phoenix, I will visit again.

Damn Weather

WTF is with the weather in Phoenix right now?

For all you who made remarks about how I was going to be in the nice warm Phoenix weather, it's 39F right now, and earlier this evening I was covering plants with my dad so they don't freeze this evening, especially with the wind chill.

I want warmer weather dammit, if only because I have no one I can snuggle up to in order to keep warm ;-)

So Far So Good

I have been so lazy for the last two days, which is totally not like me, but it is something I deserve right now.

The most I have really done is go and finish Christmas shopping with my dad and run some other errands, but otherwise I have just been hanging around the house, catching up on some reading and video games.  Hell, I've even been sleeping the full 8-9 hours I should be getting as well.

I haven't been entirely lazy though, I've still been doing the shovelgloving to help offset any extra eating this week, and I have been watching my snacking because that is the sort of habit I would break while here.  Of course I do whatever I can to help out around the house.

Do I really have anything planned?  Nah, I'm on vacation, and that's how it should be.  What I am reminded is that it is a bit harder for me to go out and about in Phoenix since I don't have my car with me anymore, but that can't be helped.  Besides, it's the holidays and some folks are busy with their own families.  Still, I will see if I can find time to visit with folks I know.

I'm just glad to be here and make a bit of a change of scenery.

Flying To See the 'Rents

*waves from Phoenix, AZ*

This morning I got out of the very chilly Baltimore weather and I headed for Phoenix, AZ to see my parents and brothers for the holidays.

Since my flight left at 6:55 this morning, I had a debate on how I was going to get up there.  MARC train and Metro don't run early enough to get there on time, I was not going to pay for a week of parking, and I really didn't want to make someone drive me up there that early in the morning.  I was considering the possibility of getting up near BWI the night before and staying at a nearby hotel (as suggested by a friend) but I still wasn't set on it.  I then looked up the price of taking the Supershuttle, and even though it wasn't the most ideal, it's what I decided to run with.

4:10 this morning I was awake and getting dressed because the shuttle was going to arrive between 4:25 and 4:40.  I was packed and out waiting by the door by 4:27, and I waited....and I waited...and I waited.  At about 4:45 I got an automated message from Supershuttle that my van was outside.  What van? I didn't see a van there.  I even ventured out in the cold and wind just to make sure the van wasn't parked at a wrong building.  So I start calling, and while I'm on hold, the van shows up...finally.  We start making our way to the airport and right as we get on the parkway, dispatch calls him.  The reason why he was late for me was because he had been waiting on a person who was a no-show, well now she was showing and she wanted her van, so we had to go back and get her.  The best part was by the time we finally got back, we could see her bags waiting by the door, and she's not by them...had to wait about 2 minutes for her to come down.  Thanks to waiting and then going back for her, I was half an hour later than I expected to be.

I get to BWI and since it is early in the morning, it's busy and the lines to check in are long.  As I was getting into the line for Southwest, one of their staff mentioned that it would be faster to go to the skycap outside instead of standing in line.  Since I was already dressed for it, I had no problem just heading out and standing in the skycap line to check my bags and get my passes.  Five minutes later,  I was on my way to security.  Got through security without a problem, grabbed a bowl of oatmeal from one of the local places, and got to my gate in enough time.

The first flight went fine, we were out on time and all that jazz.  I had taken the liberty of ripping a few movies to my laptop so I would have something to do on the flight.  I was able to watch the 40 Year Old Virgin, and a good part of The Simpsons Movie before arriving in Houston.

My concern with my connection in Houston was that we were arriving at 9:35 and my flight from Houston to Phoenix left at 10:00, so a 25 minute layover was definitely cutting it close for comfort.  However, when I fired up my cell phone upon landing, I was greeted with a text message that my flight was now leaving at 10:15, so I got a small reprieve on flying there.  Actually I could have made it if there wasn't the delay, I would have just been running down the hall to get to the gate. with only 15 minutes to spare before that flight would have left.

The second flight I finished watching the Simpsons and watched most of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation before the first battery croaked on me; that's why I have a spare.  We then landed in Phoenix, where I met up with my parents, picked up the bags, and was on my way to their home.

I am just glad that despite the fact that it's the holidays, travel was fairly smooth today, unless you were going to Portland, Oregon.  The flight crew was warning us on the Phoenix flight that if people were making a connection to go to Portland that the airport was basically closed to any air traffic, so it was your choice whether to stay in Phoenix and work to book another flight there, or still make your connecting flight, get to Salt Lake City, and hope Portland would open back up.  Good thing I wasn't flying there then.

So now it's time for the holidays here with the folks, it should be a blast :-D

One Day Sale - Buy Now!

If you're a roller coaster junkie like I am, you're going to want to take advantage of this. For today only, Six flags is offering their season passes for 20% off of the pre-Memorial Day price. This is an awesome deal, especially in my area.

Here's how it breaks down:

If you buy your season pass after Memorial day at Six Flags America, it's $90. If you buy it before Memorial Day, you pay $5o. If you buy it today, it's $40. Consider that the cost of a 1 day ticket is $50, your total savings today off of the regular season pass rate is the same as a 1 day ticket. If you will go to the park at least once, this is an awesome deal!

Here's the further benefit, you can also purchase season parking for another $45, which means being able to park all season long for free. Consider that parking is $15, that's worth it. Oh, and did I mention that your season pass and parking will work at any Six Flags in the country? That's right, you don't just have to stay in Maryland, you can drive 2 hours to New Jersey and go to the Six Flags there with free parking and admission. I may make a trip out to CA to go to Magic Mountain this year on the pass :-D

So if you like the coasters and you'll go to the park at least once...buy now!

Go See Milk

Monday night Fredo and I went to see Milk since it has finally come to the DC area. From what I heard from other folks, it was a movie worth seeing, it was going to hit you emotionally, and they were right.

To me the movie was a realistic portrayal of Harvey Milk. I knew some of the history about him and the Castro area based on some of my past research, but there was so much that was filled in that I didn't know about. None of the books I had ever really mentioned his long-time partner Scott, so that was a good detail for me to know.

Sean Penn does a good job playing Milk, he seemed to have gotten into the mind of the man, which was no easy feat considering that Milk was killed 30 years ago. Luckily from what I saw in the credits, there were many people who supported this movie and gave their time and stories, so that is probably what helped put together what really is a quality movie. It keeps on moving and doesn't drag anything out ad nauseum. I liked that they mixed real news footage with some footage they created so they could put the Sean Penn character in there as well.

One thing I had noticed in the movie was that some of Milk's speeches mentioned the word "hope" a lot. I wondered if this was based on speeches that Milk actually gave or if the writers were feeling just a wee bit inspired by the Obama campaign this year. I brought that up to Fredo and he thinks the movie speeches were from actual speeches because they would be on record somewhere.

By the time I was halfway through the movie, I was hooked, and very emotionally invested in the people, always wondering what was going to happen next. When I saw Anita Bryant show up on the screen and start in with her right wing religious bullshit, I actually growled a little bit without even consciously thinking about it. No one has gotten me to react like that before.

If you're familiar with the life of Harvey Milk, you know how this movie will end up, yet by the time it gets there, you will find yourself wishing that history had not gone the way it did. I myself was holding my breath through those final scenes and later I began to wonder, just what could have happened if history had not gone the way it did? Unfortunately we will never know.

What it boils down to is that this is a good movie, period, and after seeing it now I understand why people very much felt that it was snubbed for the Golden Globe nominations. It's not another pointless debate like the "controversy" when Crash took home an Oscar for Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain; Milk was a very good movie and it should have at least gotten a few more nominations than it did.

Go see it, no matter who you are, it's worth a look. I may have to go see it again before it leaves this theater. It's already in my Netflix queue as well.

A Bullshit Win

NFL Refs SUCK!!!!

Ravens vs Squealers, we had that game, and it came down to one call on whether or not to give the Squealers a touchdown. While the receiver had their foot over the line, the ball was not over the line when our defense took them down. After a review, the ref decided to hand the Squealers a touchdown, that MOTHERFUCKER!!!! I WANT HIS HEAD!!!! AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!!!!!!!

I know that in hockey, the head of all the referees will actually e-mail individual refs with a critique of their performance the night before, complete with video to justify what he is saying. I hope they have that in the NFL as well because the ref that reviewed the play needs to be walloped upside his head for that call, it was a BULLSHIT call!! One could claim that I am biased because I am a known Ravens fan, but even the Squealers fan that was sitting with me called bullshit on the call as well.

Damn them, I hope that the refs are a bit more neutral in the upcoming Cowboys game. Speaking of, am I the only one who wishes that Terrell Owens would pull a Plaxico Burress and accidentally shoot himself?

Tuesday Monuments

Tuesday was more of a low key day. After a late breakfast, we hopped the Metro and did a monument and memorial visit. Of course that meant going back to just where we were the day before, with plenty of jokes about deja vu.

We walked by the Washington Monument on our way to the WWII Memorial, which was something brand new for my dad. If you visit any of the memorials around here during a more "normal" vacation time, you would see the fountains all going and such. Since my family and I are not by any means "normal" we were visiting the places in the winter, and therefore every fountain was drained. Actually it was a bit surreal to see, so I snapped pictures of the memorials with their now-dry fountains. After WWII was the Vietnam Memorial, where I learned some interesting tidbits from my father about the construction of it and such. We then walked by the Lincoln Memorial, where the story is that my dad is one of the few people who has played piano at the Lincoln memorial. The story is that he was there visiting and there had been a concert that night. After they finished, they packed everything up....except the piano. So what do my dad and his buddies do? Sit and jam on the piano. Am I surprised? Not really, that sounds like him.

We walked over to the Korean War Memorial and my parnets and I had a discussion about the difference between this memorial vs other memorials. I would talk about that here now, but I am saving that for when I post the pictures since they lend a visual context to the discussion. My dad was familiar with the process they used to etch the wall there, which he liked seeing, but we are surprised there isn't some kind of a clear coat to protect the parts that were etched out. I hope they do something to preserve it or the weather is going to wear them away.

Beyond that there was nothing my parents wanted to see, so we headed home. There was one other memorial I had hinted at seeing, but I don't think my mom is ready for it yet. I will say this though, 9 years this week.

Got home, hung out and relaxed, enjoyed 5 Guys burgers for dinner and watched Christmas Vacation, which is always a classic. I want to learn Clark's freakout speech because it is an absolutely perfect insult.

Monday Museums

What a week it has been with the parental visit.

To give a bit of history, my parents lived here 28 years ago, so they are familiar with the DC metro area and all that it has to offer. However, much has changed since they moved away 21 years ago and it made for a great excuse to play tourist and visit these places.

After finally thawing out Monday morning from the 24F (with a wind chill of 14F) weather, we hopped on the metro and went to the Smithsonian American History museum. That museum has been closed for the last year and a half for remodeling, and they re-opened about 3 weeks ago, so I was very curious to go, and so were they. The museum itself does look really nice and much more modern after the upgrade. However, I would wait at least another month or so before going right now. The exhibits look great and there's plenty of new stuff to see...if it is actually open. There are still sections of the American History museum that are not finished and open to the public yet. I'll probably go back after it is completely done to see just what it is I missed out on. While there we did see the newly refurbished Star Spangled Banner, along with Julia Child's kitchen. My mom says she could spend all day just looking at Julia's stuff, and my dad and I want to try making French Bread the way Julia says you should make it.

Next was the Air and Space museum, where we looked around at all of the planes and the space stuff as well. Interestingly I learned that in order to become an airline stewardess (yes I know they're flight attendants now, but work with me on context here) one requirement was to be a Registered Nurse (alternatively at least a year of college), which makes some sense, especially back when commercial flights first started. I also liked looking at the weather satellites since I am kind of a geek about checking their data out online, especially when a storm is coming. For some extra geekery, the NOAA facility next door to my agency is the one that collects all the raw satellite data and sends it on to the NOAA folks and computers to analyze.

After those museums, it was beginning to get a bit late and I had dinner plans with friends in Chinatown so we headed back to metro and made our way over to Gallery place. We stopped in over at Fado and my mom and I had an Irish Coffee to warm up since it was a chilly day once again. Then it was on our way to Chinatown Express for dinner, and my parents got to meet a few of the folks I regularly keep company with. Dinner was good, everyone enjoyed their food, my parents especially liked the fresh noodles. I knew they would like it though because they're the type of tourists that will do local food when they can, and when they visit San Francisco,they always have to go walking through their Chinatown, so a place like this is perfect for them. We eventually went our separate ways and I took my parents home since it was starting to get to be a bit late.

For the record, the general comment from my parents was that I keep good friends these days :-)

Frozen Football

As part of the visit from the parental units, I took them to their first live NFL game.

My mom is a Redskins fan (*gag*) so when I heard that the Ravens were going to play against them, I obtained some tickets so she would be able to go.  What I wasn't counting on was the game being shifted back to 8:15 PM and to have a cold snap come through Baltimore.  According to weather.com last night, it was 24F with a wind chill down to 14F.

We started off by first hanging out down around the inner harbor for the day after riding up on the light rail.  I had to drop into the Best Buy for another memory card for the digital camera because I left mine at home (oops!).  Then we walked around various places before heading back to the light rail and then to the stadium.

Got to the stadium just fine, hung out in the Ravenswalk area for a while.  There was a game playing on one of the big screens so we watched that for a while before deciding to head in.  I got stopped at the gate because I had a backpack on, and apparently they're not allowed in the stadium.  So I handed off the blanket to my parents, and went to a bag check that was back over at the Ravenswalk, what a pain in the ass that was.

Got into the stadium and slowly made our way upstairs.  We hung around the lobby area for a while before I headed down at one point to do some shopping.  We wanted some seat cushions since we knew those seats were going to be cold.  The first team store I went to did not have any, but the second one did, which was perfect.

I went back upstairs and we got into our seats before the game started.  From there we would spend the night cheering on our respective teams and wrapping up tight in blankets to keep warm.  Victory was handed to the Ravens that evening with a 24-10 win.  Luckily for the Redskins it wasn't a shutout though it looked like it could happen.  I hope NBC got some good ratings out of that game to make it worth sitting in cold weather in Baltimore!

After the game was over we got back downstairs, I got my bag, we boarded the train and headed back to our station.  I walked Laura to her car before heading to my own car and headed home.

For a first football game, my parents did enjoy themselves.  I seriously hope that four years from now when the Ravens and Redskins play again that it is an afternoon game, preferably in October or November, when it is not so freaking cold.

It was all worth it though, I love going to NFL games when I can.

Almost Here

The parental units arrive tomorrow for a visit, so that has meant making sure things are in decent shape.

I can't wait, I will be taking them to their first live NFL game; Baltimore Ravens vs Washington Redskins. That game is going to be nuts!

Beyond that, it's doing whatever we feel like. We'll probably be out and about in DC and Baltimore, so those of you following me on Brightkite will likely see me all over the place. Feel free to say hello if we're in your area :-)

Late Thoughts on World AIDS Day

I would have written this yesterday, but I was having some writers block.  Thank goodness a change of environment (coffee shop vs house) is all I need sometimes.

Yesterday was World AIDS Day, and the only thing I did different was go and buy a cup of Starbucks so they would make their donation to Project Red.  The reason I say that is because I continually make donations throughout the year via my paycheck to various organizations, including those that are dedicated to research and prevention.

I have known about AIDS for the last 19 years, and so much has changed, at the time I was learning about it, AZT had barely been approved and the other drug cocktails that would come along either had not been discovered, or had not been approved.  While we still have a long way to go, at least AIDS != Death like it once did.  Still, it is not something I would wish on anyone.

I hope that those I know who are living with HIV/AIDS are able to have a fulfilling life, but I ultimately hope we find a cure and a vaccination as well.

No matter who you are, be safe, there is no excuse to put your health at risk.  It is unrealistic to say that you should just stop having sex, but be safe about it.  Treat every new person you meet as someone that could be infected and that means wear a condom.  Don't forget to get tested regularly.  If and when you settle down with that one person, the both of you get tested and know for sure if you are clean or not.  After that, if you decide to go without the condoms, don't screw around with anyone else but your partner, and if you do, you'd better start wearing the condoms again.  Don't jeopardize your health, period.

Being Thankful

With the Thanksgiving holiday come and gone, it gave me pause to think about just what it is I am thankful for.

I am thankful for who I am and where I am at, the family I have and the friends I know.  It hasn't been without its challenges, but it has been worth it.