Preppy Look Unleashed!

My wife decided that for the cruise I needed some new shoes so behold... the Sperry Docksider! This is like the ultimate addition to any preppy wardrobe. Just to be funny and to complete the look I also bought some flat front khaki shorts and some polo shirts from Tommy Hilfiger this weekend.

I gotta say that I have that New Canaan/Greenwich look pretty down when I'm sporting these bad boys. If I take some pics of myself with this stuff on I'll post it on my blog or something. The only thing I didn't add to the outfit was a sweater. Seeing that I live in Floriduh it doesn't make much sense.

I hate US Airways

This week I had to travel to Pittsburgh PA on business instead of Memphis TN. In order to get there I had to take my most hated airline.... US Airways. So far they haven't disappointed me in terms of delaying my flights to my final destination. First off, since I booked my flight really late I had to get middle seat which totally sucked on so many levels. Next I get to Charlotte for my connection and learn that my flight is delayed. Well like that is a surprise! So instead of getting to work at around 11AM I didn't get to work for around 12:15PM.

I'm hoping that I don't have to fly US Airways often since this should be my only trip to Pittsburgh for this client I'm currently on. I've learned my lesson and won't be flying them for leisure travel any time soon.

Cruise to the Bahamas

This 4th of July I'm taking a 3 day cruise on the Carnival Fascination to the Bahamas where I will be enjoying myself at the Atlantis resort. I've already started my packing list but I haven't actually packed anything yet. The challenging part of all this will be having enough clothes that are clean that I can pack for the trip. I'm getting home late on July 3 and have to leave the morning of July 4. That doesn't leave me a lot of time to gather up clean clothes and throw them in my suite case.

I also hope that I have enough room in my rollerboard. I can fit 4 days worth of clothes in it for work but I have considerably more clothes for leisure than I do for work. I am indeed looking forward to some rest and relaxation for this trip and as a little tune up for another trip that I'm going to take this year.

I need to update my wishlist on Amazon, the 30th birthday is coming up and I need to find something I truly want so I always remember it.

New Asics for me

Today my wife was kind enough to get me some new sneakers so that I can start running again. Right now I still can't go running for about 3 weeks and my left foot still hurts so I'm taking it easy. I saw these Asics online on Runners World and it got one of the better reviews for Motion Control running shoes which is what I need.

Right now I'm still using my New Balance 473's while I'm here at work but depending on how good these sneakers are I might buy another pair and bring them on the road with me. I'll end up taking them with me on the cruise I'm taking for the 4th of July so I have something to exercise with. I can't wait to get these suckers in.

Fixed my sunglasses

I currently own a pair of Bolle Meanstreak sunglasses which I was looking to replace this summer if at all possible. Unfortunately all the sunglasses I've tried, I'm unable to use because my eyesight is so bad. My lenses basically have to be straight and not curved. What I may try and do is get new lenses since I fixed them or buy a backup set of frames. The nose piece on this pair were falling off but you'd be surprised what a little crazy glue can do.

It looks like I'll have a pair of sunglasses to sport on the cruise and in NY :) SWEET!

New Footware Required

This week I went to a Sports Medicine doctor because I've been having some pain in my foot in the past few months. After talking to him for a bit he prescribed for me some insoles for my shoes and some new running sneakers since the ones that I've been using aren't good for my feet at all. The insoles that I got feel a little bit funny but it releaves pressure from my heel which is a good thing since thats whats causing me the most pain at the moment. The doctor also took a look at my sneakers and said that I would probably need to get some new ones.

The ones that he suggested are by a company named Brooks. I personally have never heard of them but supposedly they are famous for making excellent running shoes. The name of the shoes is the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8 which is a Runners World Best Buy.
I saw this shoe at the store where I got my shoe inserts for my dress shoes but I didn't buy them because I wanted to shop around online a bit first to see if I could get a better deal and to see if there were a few more colors available. The picture to the left shoes the shoe I will probably get even though I don't have anything yellow to wear with it but it looked the best out of the selection that was available. However there are other sneakers that I am considering and I might buy them and take them on the road with me to try out.

The Asics GT2130 is another option that I am interested in because I know the brand much better than Brooks. I might decide to buy these using some gift cards of mine so it doesn't really cost me anything. They look just like the Brooks sneakers above which is nice.

Right now as things stand I'm not allowed to go running so I can rest my left foot which is the one that is injured right now. I can do very low impact stuff so that I can keep on exercising and trying to lose weight, but I have to wait at least 3 weeks before I can start some light running again. So I'm going to wait till then to buy my sneakers, maybe by that time I would have picked a shoe that I like and will get two pairs so I can have one on the road and one at home.

So much for getting my Nike's! I have a gift card for them already but my wife can use it :)

MS Project..... How I loathe thee!

Being a Consultant a lot of my work is tracked and entered in a little tool called Microsoft Project. For those that have no idea what I'm talking about, thats ok because most of us that use the tool see little value in it as well, at least I do. A lot of projects I've been on have tried tracking what we are supposed to do in MS Project and to a certain degree we are successful. The only thing I don't like about it is that projects are fluid, they change from day to day or even hour to hour so it almost makes everything impossible to track. I had the fun duty of creating a project plan and made it nice and high level so that it will be easy to track stuff. Now whether or not people want to do it that way is not my problem yet. I just know that after I create this project plan, a few updates will be made and then I won't touch it ever again until maybe the end of the project.

I just know that its going to get worse as my career progresses because I will be the one making the updates or requesting others to create project plans. People just love seeing these things with all the fun lines and what not. The one I created in Excel is prettier than anything you can get in Project, it just can't give you reports and what not. If I'm lucky, Microsoft will come up with a more automated or simple tool that I can use. That would be the ultimate! For now I guess I'll suffer along and curse the program as I continue to use it throughout my career.

I wish I could think of what my next rant will be but my brain is kinda turned off today. Till the next blog post!

Summer Travel is Gonna Suck!

If this past week was any indication, this summer is going to totally suck for flying. I had to fly home early this past week due to some personal stuff happening here at home but I scheduled out my normal flights and all that jazz. Getting to Memphis didn't pose any problem at all, just the regular Monday crap that I go through. The way back was an entirely different story.

Wednesday there were all these storms that were rolling through Atlanta and thats the main hub for Delta Airlines who is my current preferred carrier since they have a big presence in Ft. Lauderdale. Well I get on the flight no problem and so far things look like its only going to be delayed for about 5-10 minutes or so which is not even long enough to record on most tracking systems. Of course my wait wasn't that long, I ended up boarding the plane, taxiing to the tarmac and sitting there for about an hour because Atlanta wouldn't let in incoming traffic due to the storms. Oh lovely!! After we take off the pilots make up some time by flying a bit faster, I mean they've already burned a fair amount of fuel just sitting on the tarmac so burning a bit more by going faster isn't going to change things. Ahh here's where the trouble starts to begin.

Just like one of my flights that I took in Detroit, I land but then I have to wait to taxi to the gate. Of course we make all these stops along the way so that jets can take off and land since there are quite a few runways in our path to the terminal. I can almost see my gate and continually check the flight status of my flight home and notice that it says its delayed till 10PM. OK not bad I think I'm alright in terms of time but either way I hot foot it to Terminal A from Terminal B. I get to my gate and see that its deserted which isn't a good sign. I decide to see what zones have boarded and all of them have! Crap! I hate checking my bag but I wasn't the only one late so there was a few spaces still in the overhead bins. I was in Row 12 but my bag was in Row 25 so de-planeing will definitely be interesting.

Just to add a little insult on my trip home, I'm delayed a bit again because of the storms in Atlanta that affected my flight from Memphis. The plane is taxiing to the runway and the pilot informs us that we are currently number 19 for take off.... this just gets better and better! After about 20 more minutes, another small problem arises. The east bound flights can't take off because the storms are rolling in with a vengeance so they have to find a way to get the east bound flights out of our way so we can take off. Overall another hour was wasted taxiing until take off.

If that is a harbinger of what is to come this summer, I know I'm going to be in for quite a few nights in Atlanta this summer which would totally suck! Gotta stay positive though, if I'm lucky I'll always make it home on the weeks I'm flying away for work.

200 Games for Us

Last weekend I went bowling with my wife and for the first time ever we both achieved 200 games. I only got a regular 200, she got a 204 or something. Thats pretty bad ass. It shows that both of us are getting better. She's getting used to her new ball and so am I. If I get a new ball, I'm probably just going to be buy the exact same one that I have now because I'm bowling pretty well right now. I'm probably going to skip bowling this week so that I can catch some sleep. *yawn* Oh well, I just gotta say that its nice to be home for the weekend.

Damn gas prices

Gas prices don't seem to be getting any cheaper. I can understand that there is more demand for it and less people turning it out. Thats why I'm thankful for the job that I have which doesn't require a daily commute using my car. When I used to work in Miami it used to be a 30 mile trek one way to the office. Thats a crap load of gas no matter how you slice it and you use a lot more because you're always stuck in rush hour traffic as well.

Right now my family has two cars. An SUV that my wife drives and my personal car that I drive to the airport. My car is also the weekend car so that we can drive around and get some decent gas mileage. I've watched as gas goes over $4.00 a gallon so my venturing out on the weekends might become even more limited than it is now. Depending on how long my wife's car lasts, we might get her a hybrid of some sort. She loves her big SUV's but its no longer pratcical. If it wasn't so dangerous I'd let her get a Vespa or something but in FL, thats just asking for death right there. The small hybrids are just eh, kinda weak in power and not much to look at. I would be more inclined to get her the Toyota Camry hybrid since that looks pretty nice and 34 MPG is a huge improvement over the 15 MPG she gets now. If Lexus makes an affordable hybrid, I'd get her that.

I'm almost out of gas in my car thats currently sitting at the airport but you won't catch me waiting until that light goes on. No matter what the price of gas, I'm still filling up that tank, I just have to make it last longer while staying safe on the roads. The stories of complete morons running their cars on the highway till it sputters and dies is just nuts, that endangers everyone around them including themselves. $60 is chump change when you compare it to getting nailed by another car at over 70MPH and possibly dying in the process.

Ok enough ranting and raving for now. Time to get back to work.

Getting up late

This past Monday I made a slight boo boo. I had a 6am flight to Atlanta and I got up at 5am. Totally not good! I have never showered and dressed so fast in my life. It was a good thing that I
packed all my stuff up the night before and put it downstairs near the garage door so that I could just pick it up and throw it in my car. I didn’t even get to say good bye to my cats. I did kiss my wife good bye though since that’s more important. I basically raced out of my housing community and booked it straight for the airport. The airport is normally 30 minutes away but I
did it in about 20 without excessively speeding. The excellent part was that there was no line
at security so I breezed through. I had Zone 2 on my boarding pass and they were seating Zone 5 which wasn’t bad. I was able to get all my crap into the over head near my seat and having exit row as well made the trip a bit better.

After all the drama of rushing to the airport, the plane I
was on had a generator problem so we had to taxi back to the gate to have it
inspected. They then decided to switch
on the backup generator which guzzles more fuel so they also had to put in
another 2000 pounds of fuel on the plane to make sure we got there in one
piece. The benefit was that I didn’t
have to wait as long for my connecting flight but I guess that will teach me to
get a good night sleep the night before I have to leave for a 6am flight.