Bud beats Coors

Our trip to Denver was fun. Flights were very lightly loaded...so light we flew coach and had rows to ourselves each time.

All of the photos are here: http://stillageek.com/newgeek/?page_id=1417 or click through below. Not captions yet...I'm lazy.

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I rented a "Ford Focus or Similar" from Budget. Hint for travelers...sign up for the rental car company member program. We walked off the bus and into a car. No waiting in line. I still prefer National/Alamo as I can pick my own car. Budget assigned me a Kia Sportage V6 4WD SUV. How is this similar to a Ford Focus?!?!?!?

First stop was the Denver Zoo. Kelli and I have been to several Zoos including Fort Worth, Jacksonville, Florida, San Francisco, and San Diego. We've been to aquariums in New Orleans (pre and post Katrina), Atlanta, Chicago, and Monterrey, California. The Denver zoo was "right sized".

We arrived just before it opened...parked less than 30 yards from the front gate. The temp was just below 60...I was a little cold. We took our time and saw the entire Zoo in a little over 2 hours.

Next stop was Golden Colorado for a tour of Coors. This tour was a major let down. The tour seemed like an afterthought. The tour of Budweiser in St. Louis is AWESOME. The Budweiser tour guides are informative and engaging. The Coors tour is a self guided audio tour. Before the tour starts everyone gets a photo taken infront of a back drop of beer kettles. I thought, "wow free photo...neat". While in line there was a "secret code" being used. College aged kids were asking for the "short tour". It took us a bit to figure out what the "short tour" was. The "short tour" is a straight shot to 3 free beers.

After the pretty short tour we entered the hospitality room. We were handed our photos too look at. If we wanted them it would be $20! WTF? Really Coors? Really? We didn't buy them.

We each enjoyed one beer. We could have up to three. The lines for beer were too long to wait for two. I did buy two bottles of beer bread mix. Should be interesting.

After the tour we headed to the Aloft hotel in Broomfield. The hotel just opened in April. Still very new. The hotel was nice. Very "hip" rooms. There is a translucent panel in the shower shared with the bedroom. Kinda voyeuristic. You can't see detail of who is in the shower...but you can get a pretty interesting view. Yeah.

The next morning we hit up two more museums. First was the Forney Transportation Museum. They had a lot of very rare cars (more than a few cars were the only one's in existence). We had a really good time. Afterwards we then hit up The Air & Space Museum. It was okay.

After eating a free lunch (from my Applebees gift card I won on Raffstar!!!!) we headed to the airport. Pretty tired.

I lost my "easy button". I have had it since I started flying. Kind bummed.

Almost ready for the arrival of my mother in law, sister in law and niece. I should be on airport standby Thursday to meet them at the gate.

Wall mounts for new TV's arrive tomorrow. Still not sure which TV's will be mounted.

My Zune is on it's late leg. Played with the Zune HD at Best Buy. Loved it.

Looking forward to Japan.

Rooty, Tooty, Fresh and Free Tethering!

I'm an outlaw. Yesterday I entered the dark side of mobile computing. While sitting on the couch....watching TV.....I rooted.

Rooted? Yes rooted. My T-Mobile G1 has been a great phone. Every now and then it gets a little slow. I downloaded an App (TasKiller) that helped.....but I still wasn't happy. I wanted more. I wanted a faster User Interface and the ability to tether my phone to my laptop. What is tethering? Well I can browse the Internet on my laptop by using my G1 as a modem/gateway.

I found an app (http://www.junefabrics.com/android/index.php) that allows tethering...but it was $29 and Windows only. I run Windows, Mac OS X and Jolicloud (Linux). I needed something much more flexible.

By rooting my phone I now have one touch access to tethering on ANY operating system. Additionally my phone can serve as a gateway for multiple computers. In reality it would only be used for Kelli and myself. The tethering application allows the phone to serve up the net via Bluetooth OR Wifi. Very interesting!

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The screen looks "rainbowy" due to the mirror screen protector that I no longer care for...but am too lazy to replace.

Rooting does has some limitations. I won't get any automatic updates from T-Mobile. Also there is a risk that I could "brick" (render the phone useless) during the rooting process. I followed the steps posted at Smarterware.org . Total time was just over 5 minutes. Very happy now.

I love my Zune. It has been through a lot with me. It's traveled to the United States, Canada, Mexico, The Bahamas...and Oregon. Each night when I go to bed I start a playlist/podcast, pop in a soft earbud...and go to sleep. Kelli hates lights/noise when going to bed. For years I've been blinding myself by having a computer monitor next to the bed at close range and risking losing my hearing by sleeping with ear buds in.

Two nights ago I plugged in my Zune and went to bed. In the middle of the night I woke up (it got quiet...song/podcast ended) and started a new playlist. Apparently I put the Zune under a pillow. When I woke up the Zune was kinda warm....it had been charging while under a pillow. When charging the screen stays on. I pulled it out from under the pillow and tried to disconnect the charging cable...it was stuck. Foolishly I tried harder...it came off...but at an angle. Well since then it hasn't connected to my computer via USB to sync. I can sync wirelessly (thankfully something Microsoft uses that Apple/Ipods do not!) which is okay...but not perfect. I inspected my Zune last night....bent pins. Not good. I am going to try to straighten them out. My hopes are low. I can charge my Zune...but for some reason it never gets to a full charge. My Zunes days appear to be numbered. *sigh*.

I'm still not settled on the Zune HD vs Ipod Touch debate.

In laws arrive next week. Ordering massive amounts of cotton candy for Haley.

Floors are 99% done. Yeah we got really lazy after putting the Konecto down. All we have left is the carpet to Konecto transitions.

I am down to, at most, 3 soft drinks a week. Sleeping much better. Don't get crazy....I still drink a pot of coffee in the morning.

Still averaging 800-1100 MG of sodium per day. Tried to eat Taco Bell a few nights ago. Couldn't do it. My former love of Volcano Tacos is over. I took one bight and almost spit it out. So salty. Didn't eat any more.

Xbox 360 eilte for $199 at Geeks.com. Refurbished. Not sure how I feel about that after ours had the red ring of death.

Next month will mark the start of my 3rd year at my airline. I will finally have access to buddy passes...I also get a nice pay raise.

My Civic Duty

Picked for Jury Duty. My third time in my life...second time in just over two years. I was picked for a jury last time. Thankfully the trial stopped before my jury arrived as the defendant plead out.

Yesterday I was picked for "trial room D" at 9AM TODAY. Meaning another day off from work. Initially I was worried I wouldn't get paid for the second day. Once I got home I took a look at my contract...I get paid for each day of Jury duty. I much prefer to go to work (even sitting around the airport) than jury duty. I get paid $6 for the first day and $40 for each additional day. Sounds great BUT I pay $20 a day for parking. Sure I could park in the free lot....which is in the middle of nowhere in a unsecured lot. Each year there are news stories about how many cars are broken into while parked in the free lot. No thanks.

Women in technology are hot. There is just something hot about a woman who knows the difference between NTFS and FAT32 or who spend hours discussing the latest tech gadget. I wonder if I could set up a 1-900 number (do those exist anymore?) where geeks can call in and listen to women talk about technology. Awesome.

Sarah Lane is a women in technology who I enjoy listening too and watching. Can't explain why. Veronica Belmont is another. Kerry White is the original geek girl (well she says she is anyway).

Think we are going to Denver. Flights are crazy open. I was worried about money for a hotel. I only had 3400 Starwood points...11,000 Holiday Inn points while Kelli only has 3000 Holiday Inn points. Surely too few for a free night. Wrong! I found a swanky hotel in Denver called Aloft (part of the W hotel network) for just 3000 points a night! Sweet. I found a rental car deal for $28 all in....but we would have to stay Saturday night. As we are paying $60 all in. Oh well.

We plan on visiting the Coors factory, hitting a few hills for some skiing and *at least one* cross country skiing adventure. If Sonny Bono can do it....wait. Okay we are visiting Coors....screw skiing.

More waste

I've thrown out over 100 pounds of stuff. Yesterday was my third trip to the city dumpster...I think I have one more trip.

We moved the recliner. It was in no mans land. Now the living room is much more open.

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During my cleanup I found a box of floppy disk. I paused for a moment. I remember buying Microsoft Flight Simulator on floppy disk....like 15 different disk. Back then I loaded disk #1....then disk #2...and so on. Needless to say it took a while to install a program...and it was all in DOS. No pretty icons...just white text on a black background. Anyways I threw out all but 2 random floppies....gotta remember the past.

Speaking of the past. Over the last few months I have reconnected with people from my past via Facebook. It's amazing who's on Facebook. I've reconnected with my best friend from high school, my first girlfriend and more. Unlike Myspace...I think Facebook is here to stay.

Zune. I love my Zune 80 gig. Kelli likes her tiny Zune 8 gig. We both get all the music we want for $14.99 a month. I'm eyeing the Zune HD or Ipod Touch. Can't find a compelling reason to buy either. Would be nice to have a web browser on my MP3 player. I really wish my G1 has a normal headphone jack. If it had one I would be fine using it for everything. There is a new T-Mobile Android phone coming out next month that does have a headphone jack. Might be worth the wait.

My mother in law planned next years vacation. A week in a cabin in Oregon. I shouldn't say cabin...she says its a house....at a resort. Hmm...I think it's Sun River resort. Don't see a Casino on the website. I will be a team player. She says there is free Wifi. I should be fine. I won't be hiking, white water rafting, snow skiing, horse riding, or mountain biking because.....that's how white people die. They do have Sailplane excursions......that might be interesting.

Party of 5

New couch is here. Our old couch served well for the past 5 or so years. It's now in my man cave.

The new couch only seats 4....5 in a pinch. There are 4 built in cup holders and two storage cubbie holes. All seats recline and the two end seats rock and recline.

Click on the photos for a bigger view.

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Our house is still in disarray. Still have a few weeks till the in laws come. No worries.

Next week the dishwasher gets replaced.

An announcement was made by my employer today. Overall good news. They announced they are buying 22 more CRJ-700s (the plane I fly). Additionally they are outfitting the entire fleet with a First Class section. The bad news is....most of them are going to damn Chicago. No news on what happens to me.

Giving up salt has been easier than I thought. When it comes to high sodium foods (with the exception of BBQ in St Louis), I just tell myself "no". Giving up sugar will be more of a challenge. I miss fast food...big...greasy hamburgers.

Glad we didn't have the custard

Another day trip down. We wanted to go to Boston...but the hotels were too expensive. We then tossed up the idea of going to New Orleans....but the flights weren't as good. Finally we decided on good ol' St. Louis.

That morning Kelli and I left the house at 5:15AM to catch a 6:30AM flight. Flying is like driving to the store for us…..just another mode of transportation. But of course the day wasn't just another normal day…...it was September 11.
I have gotten lax about preparing for a personal flight. That morning showed me I need to prepare for personal flights the same way I do for my work flights.
Kelli woke up at 4:30AM. I stayed in bed. I don’t care to interact with her dogs. If I stayed in bed then she would get to them in a few minutes.
Just past 4:50AM she was out taking care of her dogs…I rolled out of bed.
First stop was getting my computers ready. I copied over several video episodes of Diggnation to my netbook from my server. We were just going out for a day trip…no need for a full laptop.
I then got my clothes out of the dryer and turned on the iron. Time 4:58AM. Kelli was busy feeding her dogs and getting ready herself. When I am on an overnight I iron my clothes the night before. I am going to start doing that for personal flights as well.
While the iron was warming up I began searching for my employee ID, cell phone charging cable and GPS for the rental car. I was done ironing at 5:09AM. I still had not found my employee ID. I stashed my netbook and cables into my mini messenger bag and slipped my shoes on. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my ID.
We rushed out the door at 5:16AM. I tossed my bag and items into the backseat and drove away. Halfway to the stop sign I reached around my neck like I always do when heading to work to make sure I had my ID. I didn’t feel it. Turn around.
I ran back inside to hunt for the ID. Not in sight. Once back in the car I saw it around the strap on my messenger bag. Nice.
Now we were 4 minutes late. We reached the employee lot at 5:38 AM. I saw the employee bus approaching. I still had not learned my lesson from 20 minutes prior and rushed myself and Kelli out of the car and across the lot. Once seated…another missing item. My cell phone.
As soon as I realized it was not in my bag or on my belt the bus pulled away. Crap. I told Kelli to go ahead and go through security and I would meet her at the gate. At the next stop I got off and walked the 1/3 of a mile back to my car. I searched for my phone, which of course was in a black case……which was hopefully somewhere inside my car. Oh yeah I have a completely black interior. I searched and searched. No phone. Crap. Time is 5:49AM.
Figuring it is in my driveway (having fell out when I went back to look for my ID) I got in my car and started driving to the terminal. I then remembered my prepaid cell phone I carry for my side business. I grabbed it out of my messenger bag (glad I packed it in there last week!) and called Kelli. We discussed our options. I then had a bright idea…have her call my cell phone to see if it was in the car. She did…and saw her phone number pop up on my radio screen. Thankfully my blue tooth was on…my phone was in my car…somewhere.
I answered and told her to go to the gate and that I would princess park (parking right at the terminal) and meet her at the gate. Parking at the terminal is expensive….but I had no choice. I had put myself into this situation.
Once parked I turned off my car and called my phone again. I saw it…it was under my brake pedal. Nice spot.
I cleared security and headed to the gate. Time 6:05AM. Flight made I needed coffee. We boarded the flight at 6:20AM. I wore my ID around my neck to make sure the flight attendants know I am here if they need me. I don’t always wear it as they can also look on the passenger manifest to see I am a crew member. Today was different.
After I took my seat the crew prepared the cabin. To my astonishment and disgust a man across the aisle wasn’t complying with the simple request to turn off his IPhone. Not airplane mode…off. The reason? The FAA says devices have to be off….they don’t mention “airplane mode”. The flight attendants enforce the FAA policy that electronic devices must be off. Don’t be an ass…just turn it off.
The flight left on time. One flight attendant felt a little sorry for me as I was sitting in a middle seat next to another large guy (hmm did I just call myself large?) and told me after takeoff I could snag an exit row aisle seat. Sometimes it pays to wear my ID.

First stop in St. Louis was the Arch. We had been there before. The first time was 3 years ago. That day it was packed and the line to go to the top was over an hour....we didn't go up. This time we bought tickets in advance. Of course there was no line.

The elevators were small to say the least. The view at the top was neat...not as cramped as I thought it would be.

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After the Arch we headed to the Anhauser-Busch factory. This was our second time on the tour. The first time the bottling section was closed. Most of the tour was the same, seeing the bottling section was way cool and worth the second trip.

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We then headed to Pappy's BBQ. We saw Pappy's on a TV show we watch called Man vs. Food. This is our third resturant to visit from the show. The line to place an order was 30 minutes long. An employee said sometimes the line is nearly an hour long. Once they run out of an item they announce is and post it on a board. Thankfully that didn't happen when we went.

I ordered a half slab or ribs and sausage. Kelli ordered pulled pork and brisket. That was the best slab of ribs of my life.

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Bellies full we headed to Harrah's because we are gamblers. Kelli financed my bank roll because I am a poor pilot. On the way a couple in a 2002ish Lincoln Continental with the gold package, pulled around and then infront of us. The guy was leaned back and had his arm around his wife. I joked with Kelli that was "big pimp".

Sure enough he pulled into the casino parking garage and proceeded to illegally park in a non-parking spot. That's how pimp's roll. After less than 45 minutes we left broke.

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Walking out ahead of us was "big pimp". He and his wife stood near the wall of the parking garage....hanging out?

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My best friend Katrina sent us a text message that we should try a specific custard place. We popped the address into the GPS on Kelli's phone and began driving. Somewhere along the way I messed it up and took a wrong turn. We were both pretty tired. I pulled over to get gas. The gas station was just 5 miles from the airport. If we headed to the airport now we could make the 5:30PM flight instead of waiting till the 7:30PM flight. Kelli gave in on custard. Good.

We made the 5:30PM flight no problem. As normal we didn't sit together as the flight was kinda full. 40 minutes into the flight the Captain advised that Dallas was closed due to weather. We would be holding. After an hour of holding we headed to Dallas. Once we got back we checked the 7:30PM flight....it cancelled. If we would have custard we would have been stuck like chuck.

For all the St. Louis day photos (with Captions, but not in slideshow mode!!!) click here.

Out with the old...in with the...wait..damn door

So with me moving my "office" across the house to my new "man cave"....I've begun throwing stuff out...a lot of stuff. I took an entire Multi-Activity Vehicle worth of stuff to the dumpster. I threw out old computer parts, various cables, old CD's (scratched to hell so no worries on someone stealing stuff), and more. I have another load to take tomorrow.

Within the next two weeks I will have all of my needed computer stuff consolidated down to 1 walk in closet from 3 walk in closets. Yeah I have a lot of stuff.

Going to have to go back to the Dr. This nasal spray worked....then stopped working. Damn it.

I'm getting further and further away from watching regular TV. I used to watch hours of TV a day. No more. Now maybe 2 hours. The rest is spent listening to audio podcast or watching video podcast. Of course I am watching these video podcast ON my TV.....but it's not "traditional" content.

Back when we had Cable TV I was always annoyed that I couldn't record digital channels on my Windows Media Center. I loved Windows Media Center. Well now it's possible. Cablecards are now available for Windows Media Center computers ( Click here for more info). Too bad we have Uverse.

My blood pressure has taken a healthy noticeable drop over the years.

Back in May 2006 I was a good 140/95. Not good. With a little exercise I got it down to 135/85. Over the last few days I have been a steady 118/80. Not great...but a pretty good drop. All without drugs. I quit smoking, quit soft drinks, reduced my caffeine intake, greatly reduced my salt intake and watch my fat intake. I do need to exercise more. I need to put more cameras up. I swear Kelli is putting something in my drinks to make me live a healthier lifestyle.

I rolled Kelli back to pre-Snow Leopard.

Sent my brother in law an email about DFW Airport hiring cops. Pretty good gig especially compared to walking the streets of New York City.

I think sometime in the next few months I am going to build a new office computer capable of dual booting Windows an Mac OS X. I miss playing high end games.

Not missing salt

Almost a week into my self imposed low sodium diet. There has only been one day that I have exceeded 1400MG of sodium. The RDA is 2400MG. I am working my way down to 1000MG per day. Not going to be too hard.

The biggest change is no fast food. Well not no...just gotta be careful. Today I had a Southwest Chicken Salad from McDonalds. Total sodium was 590 MG. If I added the grilled chicken I would have had 1300 MG of Sodium. Without the grilled chicken I had just 590. Not too bad. Giving up sugar soon might be a little more tricky.

When we bought the couch (from Rooms to Go) we bought a "stain protection warranty". They apply some oil based protectant and guarantee that we won't have any stains for 3 years. Last night I Googled the warranty and found nothing but complaints. The total for the protection was $200. Hmmm yeah.

I stopped by today and advised that I didn't want the warranty. On the back of the receipt in REALLY light font is the fine print. I had a hard time reading with my 32 year old eyes....I bet most can't read it. We only have 48 hours to ask for a refund. After that we get just 80%. Nice.

The initial person I met was a lady at the front arranging flyer's. She told me she would call my salesman as he would have to help me. The salesman came up and then went back to HER as she as a manager. Yadda, yadda, yadda he said he could take off $200 and leave the warranty. Hmm ok. This bothered me as I felt like we got really cheated....how much money was left on the table? He took off $200 off the price of the couch. Fine...but this still bothered me. I am sure his commission is higher on the warranty than the couch. Whatever done.

I spent the afternoon researching dishwashers for Kelli. I ended up liking a WhirlPool GU2300XTVQ (Lowes Link). The list price at Lowes was $498. They had all energy star models 20% off this weekend. In addition they had free delivery and free installation. I installed a dishwasher 10 years ago....not hard....but since it's free. One less thing to deal with. With the 20% off we paid $398. One thing about the energy star models is that they take longer to finish a cycle.....but they use less water. Bleh.

Almost done with the flooring stuff. Kelli is going to caulk up the baseboards and paint the trim. Still gotta get some kind of transition thing.....yeah.

Snow Leopard runs like crap on Kelli's Macbook. Can't figure out why. On top of that the Time Machine backup of her pre-Leopard system wouldn't restore. Good times.

Looking forward to my new man cave.

It's all because I had to use the restroom at Best Buy

So with our new flooring Kelli needed an exercise mat to do Tae-Bo on. We stopped by Academy in Grapevine. Next to Academy is Best Buy. I wanted to pay a visit just to walk through.

After walking through I needed to use the restroom....this is where is the weekend took a turn. When I left the restroom I took a right turn just to take a look at dish washers. Ours works fine. It's plain jane...but works fine.

Kelli walked over and began looking at them. Suddenly our washer was a rusted, old, piece of crap. Kelli wanted a new one.

Due to a recent error on Lowe's part....we got a one year no interest deal from Lowes. That's where it all started.

I spent Saturday night in Savannah, Georgia. When I came back Sunday morning Kelli had fresh coffee waiting for me. I then spilt said coffee on the couch. Kelli mentioned how she didn't care for the couch any more as it took up a lot of room and the cushions moved. I then mentioned that we could move the couch into her old office and buy a new couch...at some point. Yeah.

We then saw Extract, DAMN GOOD MOVIE! Afterwards we visited 3 furniture stores. Yadda, yadda, yadda Kelli wanted a new couch. Kelli bought this....but with four seats instead of three.



Next up is the dish washer tomorrow. After that we will be moving the guest bedroom to my current office and making the current guest bedroom an "offspring" room. Kelli's old office will be my new "media" room. We will be buying two LCD TV's. One TV for the new guest bedroom and one for my new media room.

We will also be replacing the lighting figure in the kitchen with track lighting. I also want to replace the two chandeliers with track lighting. We have one in the kitchen and one in the dining area which we never use and are just in the way hanging down.

This all started with me using the restroom at Best Buy.....damn Best Buy.

Kelli has SeeDees!

I'm geeking out this week. My Windows Home Server was having issues. Every few hours the security software program would crash causing the computer to reboot. I have since traced this down to the software saving data to the "data" drive of the Home Server which is really a bundle of hard drives. I installed a spare hard drive (my old Macbook Pro 200 GB SATA drive...I love SATA...same connectors for desktop and notebook drives!) and now have all images and videos saved to that drive....no more reboots.

Before that discovery I began to think of ways to better utilize my data. I have several old computers laying around. At first I dove back into Linux. I installed Ubuntu but got annoyed with setting everything up. I had to VNC over into the shell (I refuse to learn Linux/Unix commands!). After drinking a few adult beverages I gave up. Eric then tipped me off to FreeNAS.

FreeNAS is a free operating system for setting up Network Attached Storage. The required hardware is very low. I have a ton of old hard drives laying around (80 to 300 Gigabytes) not being used. Tada.

I am loving FreeNAS. It took me a few hours to "get it"...but now I am slowly getting up to speed. Eventually I am going to have all Music and Videos on one central FreeNAS server. This will allow my Windows Home Server to simply record video/images...total overkill.

Right now I have to NAS servers set up. One using an old Dell Optiplex (chosen for small form factor) and another built in a mid-size tower which will hold all Music/Video.

Kelli is loving her Zune. I told her to try an MP3 player months ago. She resisted. Kelli is very set in her ways on somethings. With my continuing "live with less" attitude we dumped XM radio. We now use Zunes for our Music. Our montly music bill is now 1/2 what is used to be.

I initially loaded up her Zune (an 8GB model) with all kinds of music I hate....which is all music she loves. She was happy. I then told her that she could put all her old CD's on her Zune. Some music (AC/DC most notably) isn't available on the Zune Market Place. She brought all her CD's home yesterday and I am ripping them one by one. Could take a while.

I used to have a huge CD collection. Over the years I've lost, damaged, chunked most of them. Not Kelly. She has one of those huge CD binder so popular in the 90s....which is suiting as she is still stuck in the 90s when it comes to her music.

Photos of the new floor...yeah....going to wait until we are truly done with the trim and stuff. Should be done this weekend.

Japan is still a go.

Still loving my Netbook. Sure wish I could run Mac OS X.

I gave up salt infused foods on September 1. Yeah just a few days ago. I haven't taken in more than 50 % of the RDA of sodium this month. It's going to be a challenge when I am on the road. I don't miss it.

Next month will be excess sugar. Notice I said excess.

Got luck on my side

Every flight I had over the last two days was on time...actually they all left on time and arrived at least 10 minutes early. This kinda sucks as I was on overtime. Boo.

I am going to buy a lottery ticket today. I have had quite the luck lately. Yesterday I flew the flight from Pensacola to DFW. Not only did Air Traffic Control give us the runway closest to the terminal, but I made the best landing I have had in more than a month. Double luck. The next flight was to Cleveland, Ohio. I took this leg as well. After another very nice landing I found an interesting bug/bird/something splatter on the wing.

After each flight I inspect the plane for damage/general condition. When I walked to the right side of the plane I quickly noticed a dark splatter on the right wing where there was also a dent. Crap. "I must have hit something" I thought. Whatever it was had greenish guts...the diameter was about 9 inches. I notified the Captain and he came out to inspect the issue. He noticed that this dent had recently been worked on as given evidence by the polished metal and fasteners used right around just that area. It appeared as though I hit a bug/whatever in the exact spot as a previous bird strike. We checked the maintenance logbook and called the main operations to confirm. Sure enough a bird strike had been repaired in that exact spot a little more than a week ago. Since there were no feathers or signs of blood, it appeared to be just a large insect. Nice

I have today off. Updated my Macbook Pro to Snow Leopard. No big changes that I can see yet.

We are going to buy some rugs for the floor. Need one for under the recliner (the Lazyboy recliner has legs that will easily scratch the floor) and possibly something for the slot machine.