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Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Random Stuff

Lots to talk about now, and virtually none of it poker related.

Wedding

My Brother‘s wedding went well. It’s hard to believe they’re finally married after being together for 6 years. The ceremony was very nice, and the party afterwards was fun. Brad and Staci are now in Hawaii, hopefully enjoying their honeymoon. I’m back at work in California.

I don’t know what else to say about this, except congratulations to both of you!

Flight Home

Years ago, I took a trip with my family from New York to Tucson. We flew America West from NY to Dallas/Ft. Worth to Phoenix to Tuscon. Our flight out of Dallas was delayed, and we missed the last flight out of Phoenix to Tucson. The airline put us on a van, and drove us there. They dropped us off at the airport at around 4am, and left us there. No one else was there, and we were left stranded at the airport. We decided not to fly America West again.

This was a long time ago, so I decided to finally give them another try. I flew to Tucson, again through Phoenix, from Santa Barbara for Passover last month, and my flight to New York for the wedding was also America West through Phoenix. Last month’s wasn’t that bad. My flight from Phoenix to Tucson was only delayed for four hours (in which time my father, who was already in Tucson, could have driven to the airport to pick me up, and driven back). Unfortunately, that terminal of Sky Harbor doesn’t have wireless internet access. I ended up reading some of Sklansky’s Hold ’em Poker for Advanced Players while waiting. The flight from Tucson back to Santa Barbara was relatively smooth.

Getting to New York was easy. No delays, no problems. I read Bringing Down the House on the way there. Very good book.

The flight back, however, was a mess. We took off a little late from JFK, but still managed to make it to Phoenix on time. I slept for a few hours on the flight, and then started reading The Biggest Game in Town. I finished it about halfway through what was supposed to be a four hour layover in Phoenix, and I highly recommend it. I finally started Positively Fifth Street, when they announced that the plane to Santa Barbara would be delayed an hour and a half coming in.

While I was waiting for the flight, several others were delayed at the same gate and the next one over. A flight to Austin needed a new tire, which was supposed to take a half hour, and took two and a half. They were lucky, they eventually ended up getting where they were going. A flight to Palm Springs needed twenty volunteers to get on a flight the next day because of a weight limit on the plane. A flight to Durango was delayed, for some reason I didn’t hear. The Palm Springs flight gets the volunteers, and then gets delayed more anyway, because of problem with the plane. They finally get a new plane (and didn’t need the volunteers after all), and take off.

My plane takes off shortly afterwards. A minute or two into the flight, I can tell something is wrong. We don’t seem to be getting any higher, it seems like we start circling, and there’s some strange noise. After another few minutes, the captain says the front landing gear won’t retract, we have to circle to dump some fuel, and will be landing in Phoenix again. I’m not at all surprised. We circle for twenty minutes, a third of the flight time to Santa Barbara, and land again. On the ground, I find out that the Palm Springs flight also had a problem, and landed back in Phoenix.

After another hour and a half in the airport, waiting for the plane to possibly be fixed, they tell us the flight is cancelled. The later flight to Santa Barbara is also delayed over an hour, and will likely be cancelled. I get booked on the 7:28 am flight the next morning, and they put me up in a hotel, and give me a $10 meal voucher good at the airport or the IHOP in the hotel. As I’m leaving the terminal for the baggage claim, they announce that some other flight is delayed because the dashboard lights on the plane don’t work.

I pick up my bags, get the van to the hotel, and check in. I’m told the IHOP is closed for the first time in six years, until Wendesday. The remote control for the TV in my room doesn’t work. I watch Monk, the only episode of the show I’ve ever seen before, and then go to sleep. I get up at 4:15 to shower and get the 5am van to the airport. I check in, check my bags again, and get told to go to gate B18 (the same gate as the previous night). After about an hour, I use my $10 food voucher on overpriced Cinnabon and bottles of water. I happen to check the monitor while I was doing this, and notice my flight has moved to gate B1.

At gate B1, the Palm Springs flight is supposed to take off at 7:24. My flight is 7:28 at the same gate. We board late, after the other flight, but somehow manage to take off and make it to Santa Barbara on time. Only 15 hours after I was originally supposed to be there. I get a cab home, and then go right to work.

I don’t think I’m ever going to fly America West again. They didn’t offer any voucher for future travel or refund. I don’t think I’d feel safe flying with them when their planes have so many maintenance problems anyway. It really wasn’t worth the $200 or so I saved by choosing them over any other airline.

Baseball

Randy Johnson became the oldest player to throw a perfect game last night, throwing the 17th in major league history. He struck out 13 batters and threw 117 pitches, 87 for strikes. The best part of the whole thing, for me, is that it was against the Braves, who aren’t in first place in the NL East for a change. The Mets aren’t either, of course, but I’ll take what I can get.

The Mets did give me a nice blown save in my fantasy league, though, to get a win against Isringhausen and the Cardinals. They’re only one game under .500, and only 2.5 games out of first. There’s still hope.

Softball

I missed last week’s softball game because I was in New Jersey. Apparently, we were winning going into the last inning, when the other team scored 14 runs. Last night, we were losing 5-1 after the first, and 13-9 after 5. I walked in my first plate appearance, and was left stranded, lined a single to left in my second, and was forced out at second base. In the top of the 6th, I came up with the bases loaded, down by four, and lined another single to left. Only one run came in, and the bases were still loaded. The next batter also singled, driving in one more. After a run scoring flyball, and a popout to the infield, I was the tying run at second base with two outs. A groundball up the middle drove me in, and we scored two more in that inning to take our first lead of the game since we went up 1-0 in the first inning. In the bottom of the 6th, the other team loaded the bases with nobody out. They had the tying run on second, and needed just a single to bring him in. They hit two flyballs to center (driving in the runner on third), and then the last batter lined out to left, giving us only our second win of the season. I think we’re now 2-5. But it was fun, and we won.

I’m sure I had more I wanted to talk about, but I can’t think of it now. Maybe some other time.