Flight Delayed

Today I learned a lesson: Check your flight status before you leave for the airport.

When I arrived to the airport I was surprised to see that on the departure list that my flight, United 486 to Chicago O’Hare, was delayed 3 hours. I don’t know if the status changed while I was in the cab to the airport or before I left. But, now I’m writing this from gate N10 at SeaTac wondering if I could still be at home enjoying the Seahawk game on TV instad of sitting at the airport. Needless to say, I signed up for notifications from United to be sent to my e-mail and mobile phone to ensure that I’m kept up to date with my flight’s status.

Things I learned from my accident

This morning I got into a minor rear-end accident. I’m OK, my car is OK, the other driver is OK, her car is OK. But, looking back at the incident, there were some things, post accident that I would do differently.

  • Verify the phone number. I just took the phone number for granted. Now, I have a phone number that calls a disconnected line. I have no way to get in contact with the person I hit.
  • Write down driver’s license info. I didn’t do this, but at least I could verify the name and address of the person.
  • Write down the car’s VIN number. These are usually visible through the windshield glass, but I didn’t do it.
  • Be patient and wait for insurance information. She didn’t have the info with her, so she said she’d call me later. Now that I have a phone number that doesn’t work, I’m out of luck.
  • Have a camera. Ever since I lost my small digital back in January, I don’t have an “everyday” camera with me. I could have used it today to take pictures of where it happened and also of the damage.

Other than the above, I’m OK. I’ve filed a claim with my insurance, but I am not tapping into insurance for my part of the claim. But, I wanted to have my story on record so that if something comes up later (think statute of limitations), I’ll be able to recall what happened. Looking back on it now, I hope that I’m not going to get scammed. It looks all too good for a setup, so I’ll have a skeptical eye on this.

Is it your birthday?

Last night after work, Trevor, David, Rufino, and I went to Claimjumper in Redmond Town Center to get some drinks before we headed out to an Avanade event that night. We were just about on our way out when someone from the restaurant came to our table. She says: “Is it your birthday?” We’re a little stunned, and Trevor says that it is David’s and we all kind of point at each other saying that it is the other person’s birthday. She’s like “OK, let me bring you dessert on us.”

At this point we think she’s kidding, but we were wrong. No joke, she shows up with a huge slice of chocolate cake. So, we got a free dessert! Nice deal, and awfully nice of her. We didn’t really know what to do since we were all kinda shocked. But, ate of it that we could. It was good, but we were all pretty full off of our beers and food that we ordered.

Pretty nice of Claimjumper and I don’t think that’s ever happened to me before.

Vacation begins now

I’m in Eden Prairie for the next five days. My vacation has officially started.

I’d lie if I said that I’m not going to work, but I’m sure I’ve got at least a few hours worth to do while I’m here. No worries though :)

I broke a sweat, but I made it

I’ve made it to my hotel in Chicago, but it wasn’t without a little stress along the way.

Saturday afternoon I made the decision to have a cab come and pick me up at home around 10:30a for my 12:20p flight. I figured that an hour and a half should be enough time at the airport to check my bags (I already had my boarding pass), go thru security, get lunch, and board my flight. My cab ride was fine and it got me to the airport at the time I thought it would. However, when I entered the airport it looked like a zoo.

My first thought was “Thank God I printed my boarding pass”. The line to print out a boarding pass looked at least 45 minutes long and it was wrapped out the door the the departure drop off. So, I headed to the line for folks who had their boarding pass, but needed to check in their bags. I had one bag to check since I’ll be gone a few days short of two weeks. I got in the line thinking I’m in good shape since there were only two people in font of me. But, this line quickly caused me to panic.

There were two kiosks that were available for people to check in their bags with. When I arrived, they were both occupied. One with an older couple and another couple who looked like they had no idea what they were doing (I saw them start over at least five times). As 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes passed, they didn’t have their bags checked. They were still trying to figure out how to work those kiosks. This was driving me nuts, since I knew that I had very little time to waste. Finally the older couple gets their bags checked and the first person in line goes ahead. He is in and out in a matter of minutes. The next fellow in line goes up. He looks to be just out of high school, or in the early stages of college. Even he can’t figure out the kiosk.

Luckily, a NWA rep ushered me to another machine and I get my stuff taken care of. My total time spent using the machine, maybe two minutes. I even got the chance to change my seat to an exit row. But, even with that good news, I have to stand there and wait 5 more minutes because the woman manning the two kiosks at her station can’t multi task. She is too pre occupied with a pending credit card transaction for an overweight bag to put my one tag on my one bag and let me go. So, I stand there, ask her politely if she can help me as I only have one bag and my boarding time is quickly approaching, she acknowledges me, and continues to wait for the credit card transaction to complete.

After I get my bag checked, I make my way to security. At this time It is around 11:25a and boarding for my flight starts at 11:40a with a 12:20p departure time. I overhear someone ask how long the line takes and the agent says about 30 minutes. I start sweating bullets and ask if there is anything she can do to help me since the line is so long. In more or less words she says no and I walk away before she finishes, since I’m going to end up back in line anyways. I knew asking was a long shot, but I figured what the hell.

Watching time tick by I finally get through security and I begin to book it to the tram that leads to the S gates. I’m the last one to make it on the tram and I have a little bit of time to catch my breath and put by laptop back into my bag. Because, once I got my shoes back on, I grabbed all of my stuff and ran.

Once the tram made it to the S gates, I booked it up the long ass flight escalators and ran to the gate. I arrived as I heard “final boarding” from the gate agent. I hand her my ticked and I’m in. At this point I am sweating and thinking I need food and water, but I’ll have to wait for the cart service and one of those $5 box lunches. But, as I enter the main cabin, it might as well have been a sauna. So, maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that I wasn’t baking sitting on the plane. Apparently, one of the APUs that starts up the engines, which lets the plane be cool, was busted and they needed an electrical truck for assistance starting the plane. No worries, I’m already sweaty.

Finally, the engines turn on, cold air hits my face and I can relax in my exit row seat. All is well.

The rest of my trip was thankfully way less uneventful and now I’m at my hotel room trying to see if I can get to sleep at a reasonable hour for tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes.

First Business Trip

Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Chicago to visit my Test Team for the first time. This trip will also mark my first “official” business trip with Avanade and my third trip to Chicago. I have been to a couple of Fly Back Friday’s but, I don’t really consider those business trips since it’s really an internal meeting for the region. I’m excited to go since it’ll be first trip related to client work, but I’m also looking forward to it since I’m breaking it up with vacation in between to Minnesota.

My schedule has me in Chicago Sunday night to Tuesday night, flying to Minnesota Tuesday night and staying there until Monday early morning. Then I’m back in Chicago for Monday until Thursday evening when I head back to Seattle. It’ll be kinda weird to be away from Seattle so long, but I am looking forward to the vacation break that I’ll have in between. The last time that I had off for vacation was when Jamie and I went to Washington D.C. in March for five days.

It will also be strange because currently Jamie is in London and Germany, and she’ll beat me back by a couple of days. So, when I get back she’ll be here, which will be nice since we’ll have not seen each other for over two and a half weeks. But, luckily for us there’s technology like Skype and IM to keep is in touch with each other.

But, when I’m in Chicago, I hear that the Taste of Chicago will be going on, so if I have the time I may have to go and check that out. Then when I get to Minnesota, the Taste of Minnesota will be going on, and I’m sure I’ll be going to the Bite of Seattle too when that’s in town… lots of food festivals to go and enjoy, I can’t wait.