It's been awhile since I have had a chance to make a post. Writing for this blog is just not as high a priority as other aspects of my life. Sorry!
Big news items since my last post.
I have changed all my fall travel plans. I now work Friday August 15th, then I'm attending a wedding, which will be super fun. After the wedding weekend, I'm catching a ride to Edmonton with one of the folks heading into town for the wedding. Then I think I'll spend a day in Edmonton, maybe two. I need to be in Vancouver by Tuesday the 19th though, as I have tickets to Radiohead that night, which will be awesome. Then I hope to hit Victoria for the weekend to visit some friends up there. I have to be back in Vancouver for Thursday the 28th, as I am attending Beck that night. Then I'll catch an early morning shuttle to Seattle from Vancouver, to get to the Penny-Arcade Expo. Then it's September long, and I think I booked off the Sept 2nd too, as a recovery / cushion day. The end result. 18 days off in a row. I hear that's awesome. I am pretty excited.
It's Jazz Festival time! Which means I'm busy. Today is my day off, no gigs tonight. So I'm hoping to get a bunch of yard work done and housework to prep for the Canada Day party we're planning for this weekend. I'll have to get a hold of Visions too and check the status of my projector. We NEED it for Canada day... I think I'm going to pick up Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Version some time this week, and start getting some DLC for it. Then we'll have like 200 songs in Rock Band for people to jam on, and if we get ambitious, we can set up some singing competitions. Should be fun.
But I have to get to work, I have to find and fix this bug asap apparently. I'll try to post another update closer to the end of the week.
Heads-up: I'm playing at the Free Stage by the Bess on Tuesday night, 7pm. You should come out.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Return
So I'm back.
I gave a brief explanation of my hotel room. It was pretty nice. Good wide screen, plasma tv. Good stuff.
Conference was pretty interesting, at times. There was a couple panels on Federal Rules that were boring, as I'm Canadian and the US federal initiatives are useless to me. A panel or two turned into essentially ads for a company as well, which was a bit of a downer, but the conference organizers are aware of that, and are trying to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Trip back to Saskatoon sucked though. I got to Ohare around 3 hours before my flight, due to when the conference ended, and shuttle times and such. Not that big a deal. Then my flight got delayed by 30 minutes. No big deal, I had a 2 hour layover in Calgary, so I wasn't to worried about time. Just meant I had an extra 30 min to kill at the airport. Then it got delayed another 30 minutes. And another 30 minutes. All said and done, my flight was delayed 3 hours. Looks like I won't be making my transfer.
Sure enough, I get to Calgary (around midnight), and there is NO ONE around. My plane is gone, I run around trying to find someone from Air Canada or United Air to help me. I finally, after about 30 minutes of hunting catch a Air Canada rep, who lets me know I'm already booked on a flight in the morning, and gives me a phone number for some company that will help me find a hotel room in Calgary. I call the number. No hotel rooms, but try again in 15 minutes and we'll try to find something. So I start calling some hotels while I'm waiting 15 minutes. Now I need a shuttle or a cab or something too, and since it's already 1ish, I want something close, and preferably cheap. I can't find anything. The company that specializes in finding hotel rooms can't find anything. Awesome.
So 2 rolls around, I'm tired, as that's when I usually have my core. I'm still at the stupid airport. I say screw it. It'll just sleep here. Bundle all my bags up as a pillow, and find a decent bench to crash on.
I don't have an alarm clock or anything, but I figure I'll be ok. When I don't have a clock, from experience, I get up around 7 at the latest. But I wasn't comfortable. It was an airport bench, so I toss and turn a fair bit before falling asleep. No idea when, but it was late. Well, I must have been tired, as I woke up, and the airport seemed busy, and lo and behold, it was 7. My flight was scheduled to leave at 7:40. I was on the wrong side of security. I at least had my boarding pass from Air Canada the night before. But I hadn't checked any luggage. So I look at my bags, and figure, I can get away with taking it as carry on... I hope. And rush to Security. Security was actually really fast, faster than Saskatoon security going to Chicago. So I get to my gate in about 15 minutes, they aren't even boarding. Sweet. I start jamming my bags into that carry one check metal basket thing to see if I can get away with it. I barely can. I cheer quietly inside.
I didn't get to do any of the touristy things I was intending to in Chicago. The day of the White Sox game I was thinking about attending was rainy, and I didn't want to sit in the rain to watch baseball. It also didn't help that at the end of everyday at the conference there was a sponsored cocktail hour or two. That meant I wasn't ready to leave the hotel until 7-8ish, and usually reasonably intoxicated from the free drinks. SO I watched the game 5 in the playoffs at the hotel bar, and spent a fair bit of time there. Wasn't too bad. There was a couple cute bartenders I had some good chats with. Enjoyable.
I gave a brief explanation of my hotel room. It was pretty nice. Good wide screen, plasma tv. Good stuff.
Conference was pretty interesting, at times. There was a couple panels on Federal Rules that were boring, as I'm Canadian and the US federal initiatives are useless to me. A panel or two turned into essentially ads for a company as well, which was a bit of a downer, but the conference organizers are aware of that, and are trying to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Trip back to Saskatoon sucked though. I got to Ohare around 3 hours before my flight, due to when the conference ended, and shuttle times and such. Not that big a deal. Then my flight got delayed by 30 minutes. No big deal, I had a 2 hour layover in Calgary, so I wasn't to worried about time. Just meant I had an extra 30 min to kill at the airport. Then it got delayed another 30 minutes. And another 30 minutes. All said and done, my flight was delayed 3 hours. Looks like I won't be making my transfer.
Sure enough, I get to Calgary (around midnight), and there is NO ONE around. My plane is gone, I run around trying to find someone from Air Canada or United Air to help me. I finally, after about 30 minutes of hunting catch a Air Canada rep, who lets me know I'm already booked on a flight in the morning, and gives me a phone number for some company that will help me find a hotel room in Calgary. I call the number. No hotel rooms, but try again in 15 minutes and we'll try to find something. So I start calling some hotels while I'm waiting 15 minutes. Now I need a shuttle or a cab or something too, and since it's already 1ish, I want something close, and preferably cheap. I can't find anything. The company that specializes in finding hotel rooms can't find anything. Awesome.
So 2 rolls around, I'm tired, as that's when I usually have my core. I'm still at the stupid airport. I say screw it. It'll just sleep here. Bundle all my bags up as a pillow, and find a decent bench to crash on.
I don't have an alarm clock or anything, but I figure I'll be ok. When I don't have a clock, from experience, I get up around 7 at the latest. But I wasn't comfortable. It was an airport bench, so I toss and turn a fair bit before falling asleep. No idea when, but it was late. Well, I must have been tired, as I woke up, and the airport seemed busy, and lo and behold, it was 7. My flight was scheduled to leave at 7:40. I was on the wrong side of security. I at least had my boarding pass from Air Canada the night before. But I hadn't checked any luggage. So I look at my bags, and figure, I can get away with taking it as carry on... I hope. And rush to Security. Security was actually really fast, faster than Saskatoon security going to Chicago. So I get to my gate in about 15 minutes, they aren't even boarding. Sweet. I start jamming my bags into that carry one check metal basket thing to see if I can get away with it. I barely can. I cheer quietly inside.
I didn't get to do any of the touristy things I was intending to in Chicago. The day of the White Sox game I was thinking about attending was rainy, and I didn't want to sit in the rain to watch baseball. It also didn't help that at the end of everyday at the conference there was a sponsored cocktail hour or two. That meant I wasn't ready to leave the hotel until 7-8ish, and usually reasonably intoxicated from the free drinks. SO I watched the game 5 in the playoffs at the hotel bar, and spent a fair bit of time there. Wasn't too bad. There was a couple cute bartenders I had some good chats with. Enjoyable.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Chicago
So I'm in Chicago.
I found out of Friday I was going. There is a electronics and trucking conference thing here that one of my co-workers was signed up to attend. However, that co-worker forgot to pick up his passport and was unable to leave the country. Thus I was sent in his place. I had never been to Chicago, so I thought it would be fun.
Had a long day of flying. Had a 3 hour layover in Edmonton. 4 hours in the air, and some very long lines to wait in. Saskatoon was even busy, and took almost 30 minutes to get through security. I didn't think that was possible.
The hotel I'm staying at is pretty nice. I have a corner room, which is a bit of an odd shape, but my windows overlook a golf course. It looks like a pretty nice course. Looks nice and expensive enough that it's not worth me playing it, as I will lose too many balls.
Due to a mix up though, I've already spent a lot more money than I was expecting. Everything was supposed to be left on a work credit card, and it seems like it wasn't. Now I know a little better how it was all set up in the first place, so hopefully I can get it all cleared up today.
But I should go, breakfast starts right away, and I want to hit the front desk first.
I found out of Friday I was going. There is a electronics and trucking conference thing here that one of my co-workers was signed up to attend. However, that co-worker forgot to pick up his passport and was unable to leave the country. Thus I was sent in his place. I had never been to Chicago, so I thought it would be fun.
Had a long day of flying. Had a 3 hour layover in Edmonton. 4 hours in the air, and some very long lines to wait in. Saskatoon was even busy, and took almost 30 minutes to get through security. I didn't think that was possible.
The hotel I'm staying at is pretty nice. I have a corner room, which is a bit of an odd shape, but my windows overlook a golf course. It looks like a pretty nice course. Looks nice and expensive enough that it's not worth me playing it, as I will lose too many balls.
Due to a mix up though, I've already spent a lot more money than I was expecting. Everything was supposed to be left on a work credit card, and it seems like it wasn't. Now I know a little better how it was all set up in the first place, so hopefully I can get it all cleared up today.
But I should go, breakfast starts right away, and I want to hit the front desk first.
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