Now the rest:
So today at work was fairly slow – I’m kinda on an in-between period on projects. I was looking forward to going for a run when I got home. I came home, drank some water, and read for a little bit to let the traffic calm down some. Before I knew it, it was 19:00…I read longer than I wanted. So I get dressed, throw some new tunes on the ipod, and head out. I hadn’t thought through my run before getting outside, which is not normal. I decided to do a fairly easy 4-5 miler, just up and back a short, rolling-hill segment of road a few times.

About half-way through my run, I change my mind and decide to push a little harder and get a 5k race-pace run in (which was a horrible decision). I ended up pushing myself too hard, and walking back home. To top it all off, I got an annoying blister right in the middle of my arch. And I didn’t make the pace I wanted…by 5 seconds.

I blame daylight savings time.

Jamie at Homemebeli is all about how to make great food that you can grow in your own garden during all four seasons. Reading through it has REALLY made me wish I had a garden to grow various vegetables in. This is yet another reason why I would like a bit of land in a future home. There’s a recipe for squash soup that I really want to try, maybe it will take shape in the next few days…

Additionally, there were several boxes of hardwood flooring and tile on the floor. These I’m sure were form the immediately previous owner, who was a home builder (though I’d never buy a home from him again based on the experience I had with the negotiation process with him, and the subsequent signing). These are now stored in the wall – that’s right, IN the wall. Well, kinda anyway. One wall of my garage is exposed studs, and all but one of the boxes is shallower than the studs. So the perfect solution: put then in the wall, and a 2×4 across the front to make sure they don’t fall out! The tile was just super-heavy, and is now in a location out of the way!

After a little sweeping, setting up some new, USE ABLE, shelving, and organizing several things I intend to keep in the garage, I now have a garage which is almost they way I want it. I need to run some power to the walls as the only outlet is on the ceiling for the garage door opener which is just silly. But most importantly, I now have space for something else in the garage. (and a few others – I ran out of words…all in no particular order

The LTP day went pretty well – some parts were interesting, others not so much – fairly normal. It was an awesome day outside, so we were able to do some of the little group things out in the courtyard which was cool. The weather forecast showed basically no weather across the entire country except for the far northwest, and parts of Texas, Michigan, and Maine. All indicators of smooth sailing on the trip back.

We left the LTP meeting a little early as normal for us all to catch our flights. Chris & Dan have a 1730 flight to ATL, and mine is at 1815 or so. I let them check in first, and when I go the kiosk thing says that I need to go talk to a kiosk assistant. Thinking I might have typed something in wrong, so I try again. No difference. I ask the lady behind the kiosks, and she looks up some information and informs me that my flight is delayed to ATL and I will miss my flight to CVG. The only option is to rebook. To the full-service ticketing line I go.

At this point I REALLY which I was a medallion member – there are 2 or 3 people in that line, as opposed to the 30 or so in mine. I wait, and I make it to the counter, and the guy starts looking for flights. Basically, nothing into or out of ATL will work at this point. Not entirely surprising. I knew there were some other options when I was booking, but I wait to see what he comes up with. He finds a flight through JFK, which makes me a little leery knowing how many problems originate from JFK. The guys says the other flights have been on time today, and the plane to JFK was already at the gate – and the flight doesn’t leave for another 90 minutes.

Knowing the weather and the current circumstances, I take the flight. Now to wait – I make a few calls to update family of the new flights, and read some things on my phone. I think I also played a little brickbreaker too. Anyway, onto the plane, and all is well. I have my radio and I’m trying to listen in on all the ground traffic, more as a curiosity than anything else.

Eventually, we close up (running a little behind because of some weather), and move on to taxi. This is where things really start to go downhill. The time: 1830. I start hearing over the radio our pilot talking to ground control about a later departure time at 2345Z (which would be 1945EDT). While it’s a ways away, the 60-90 minute flight to JFK gets me into the gate around 20-50 minutes before my flight to CVG. (On a side note, the pilot did manage to talk our way onto that 2345Z flight from the scheduled 0120Z flight – which would have been REALLY bad).

Anyway, the guy sitting next to me on this flight is a pilot for JetBlue, and we had a good time talking (and when he realized I was listening to ground control he was asking for new info. We chat about various things, which taught me a little more about the airline industry. And then, we make an unexpected left bank, and stay in it. He called it – holding, though not over JFK, we’re over Atlantic City (don’t know the airport code for that). Not far from JFK – but not JFK yet.

We circle for a while, and eventually descend through the weather with a rather bumpy ride. The pilot tells me that I can probably make my next flight since it’s right next to where we’re pulling into – and if there’s a gate attendant planeside I might not even have to go into the terminal. Well, no one is planeside, so in I go. Into the terminal and I’m 20 feet away from where I need to be. The displays show that the flight is still boarding – so I rush over and walk up to the attendant:

“Am I able to get onto the flight to Cincy?”

“Oh, you’re the last passenger….not you’re too late. Go to gate 24 for rebooking”

Knowing there isn’t a things this lady will be willing to help me with (after all, she’s probably been calling my name for the last 10 minutes), I go to get rebooked. Nothing more available tonight – the next flight out of JFK to CVG is tomorrow (the 19th) at 1330. 1330!?!?! That’s the afternoon! Clearly not acceptable. Time to rely on another airport.

There is a 0600 flight out of LaGuardia (LGA perhaps?), but I have to find transportation there – not a huge deal. I ask about a hotel: “Since the delay was due to weather, we do not cover the hotel.” Frustration+30.

After a few more calls to update family, I call up AMEX travel to add a hotel somewhere and they are swamped. After holding on the line for a while, I decide to go the old fashioned route and just go to a hotel. I get in the cab (which was MUCH better than the cab in San Diego 2 years ago – this one had an LCD touch screen showing a map of where the cab was and the news. Not to mention they took AMEX), and head for a hotel near LaGuardia. First attempt: Holiday Inn, but we couldn’t find it. So I had him drop me off at the Mariott we passed.

I walk in, and stand in line for a few moments (pulling out my Mariott rewards car, as if it will help), and approach the counter when it’s my turn:

“Do you have anything available?”

“No, we’re actually overbooked by about 20 rooms.”

“Oh, okay – do you know of anything else in the area available?”

“Everyone else is booked too – there’s a place in West Chester* which is a ways away”

“Oh, okay – do you have a shuttle to LaGuardia?”

“Yes, but if you’re going to do that, why not just stay here in the lobby. There’s a lounge and restaurant down the hall. We might have something open up after midnight and you’d at least get a few hours of sleep.”

Here was finally someone who was at least helping me out, if only by giving me an alternative which didn’t keep me on the move for a little bit. So I find a quiet seat, call family one last time with an update, and come to eat. Which is where I sit writing this now (the fish was pretty good at least). The time: 2340. I need to be at the airport in ~4.5 hours or so. I will definitely not be putting in a full day of work tomorrow – which means work on Saturday. Now I need to call and/or email my boss and manager to let them know I won’t be in early tomorrow thanks to the modern convenience we call airline travel.

(I wish the guys at the bar were less annoying – but that might just be the being awake for 21 hours talking….)

Update 1: The time now: 0330. Not knowing when the airport opened (and only having a vague idea that they actually closed), I set my alarm on my phone for 0330 to make sure I didn’t miss this flight. And being the usual me, I woke up before the alarm went off. Woke up may be too strong of a choice of words. I don’t think I actually slept for more than 20 minutes at a time max since midnight. The 2 hour flight will be a nice time to sleep.

I certainly hope that my next trip back to New York will be more planned…

Update 2: I made it back around 0800, tired, and ready to be home. I worked for a while, and came home and dozed for a while. I’m still pretty tired, so we’ll see how early I get to sleep!

* The mention of West Chester at this point, while not referring to my place of inhabitance, was enough to make me REALLY miss home at that very moment.

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So anyway, with the desire to go on vacation, and the school year winding down, I need some ideas. Where should I go? What should I see. Keep in mind I like to minimize charging vacation time at work – so things which maximize vacation time for the proverbial vacation dollar are preferred. (Places which offer good photography time in addition to relaxing are also a plus – i.e. not a beach somewhere, I’m not really a beach person anyway)

Share your thoughts!

Anyway, to the topic of discussion. I’ve started running. Well, I’m kinda running – for any runners it would be more of a jogging pace probably, but I’m building up speed and distance. I feel pretty good after 30-35 minutes, my large muscles aren’t hurting or anything. What keeps me from going faster is my heart rate. I need to build up a little more endurance still. But I’ve only been running for ~3 weeks, so I’m far from concerned at this point!

It’s been interesting that I’ve seen a couple of programs on TV about running. Seems like it’s creeping up in more places. Several others at work are also running, though I’m not ready to keep up with them yet. I think I would like to get a consistent 5k on the treadmill, then move to running outside the same distance. mapmyrun.com has provided a neat tool to track my progress, and find some good runs around here. I also went over to the Mojo running store and got a good pair of shoes (not to mention meeting someone who is passionate about running, and can probably give me some guidance!).

So I’ll hopefully keep with this – and I’ve already seen some benefits, which is good. Who knows, maybe I’ll make it to a marathon one of these days

To start off, I have joined the Cincinnati Astronomical Society. It’s been a good long time since I’ve looked skyward at night and really studied what I saw. There are a few constellations I remember from when I was younger, but I certainly didn’t study any nebulae or other heavenly bodies. They have 4 telescopes at their headquarters, and I’m working on getting checked-out on the 14″ Newtonian. Once I get the key, I can head up whenever I want! And, they’re working on building a radio telescope using gnuradio – which I’ve been wanting to work with for a while now! I also managed to run into an old friend who I never knew was a ham or into radio-astronomy, so that was really cool! It has been a real thrill to start finding things in the night sky again (and meeting some new friends here on the ground)!

I’ve also been doing a bit of reading – quite a bit for me, but others might laugh at what I’ve accomplished in the month and a half of no school reading. I started with C.S. Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters” and would recommend it to anyone interested in getting a good dose of thought about the subject of temptation.

I then moved on to a book I’ve been wanting to read since the TV show “The Unit” was released (great show by the way). The series is based on a book by command sergeant major (ret) Eric Haney called “Inside Delta Force.” It’s a wonderful look at (some of) the training that the elite forces of our nation, and of some of the monotony of the missions they were tasked with. I wished there was a little more information about some of the “more exciting” missions they were deployed to, but of course, most of those details are probably classified.

Now, I have turned directions once again, and am working on a book entitled “Poincaré’s Prize: The Hundred-Year Quest to Solve One of Math’s Greatest Puzzles” by George G. Szpiro. We were having a discussion at work about the need to have n-1 dimensions to visualize an n-dimensional object (think drawing a cube on a chalkboard) – and applying that to higher dimensional objects. I knew that Poincaré’s Conjecture had something to do with a problem involving higher-dimensional objects, and that triggered a search of the bookstore for more information! I’m about a third of the way through it, and I can’t really say I fully understand the problem yet – but a lot of background knowledge being covered, which is necessary since I’ve never done any formal studies in topology. I tend to like to jump into topics like this and struggle through them – which, I guess, is a good thing since I’m a grad student!

HTG work has been going well – we’re trying to slow down some of the development on our first application and let it ride for a while. We need to get some more clients using it before we invest too much more time in it – not that I have invested a lot of time recently – Tim and Wyatt have been cranking on it hard for the last several months, and they deserve a break. Unfortunately, it’s to a point where I think I am unable to come in a make a contribution to the project feature-wise without a lot of time studying the existing implementation. And there are rumors about rewrites, but that’s another story.

We have a few new apps in the mixing pot, some that might make us some money even! One of the projects is mostly being used to bring us up to speed on a newer development model (Ruby on Rails). There look to be some really promising things with the Rails framework, and hopefully we can leverage the nice things the language provides and develop some awesome products!

Well, I think that’s all for now. We have an HTG dev meeting here in 5 minutes, and I need to get some more coffee and switch mindsets over to ruby before the others show up ready to run. If you’ve made it this far – thanks for sticking with me