First off, I wanted to share with you all my new desktop. If you’re an MK fan and you like the wallpaper, you can grab it from here; we at Mortal Kombat Online released the wallpaper this morning in four different sizes.
All right, now that that’s out of the way…
So, I got back from Canada on Saturday afternoon. I’ll go ahead and be kind by putting this under a cut, so that those people who may not be interested don’t have to read the whole thing. :-)
Anyway, my flight out of Houston left at around 6:20 AM Tuesday morning. Words cannot really express how much I enjoy having to be at the airport at that time, but I made it anyway. Fortunately, the flight was a smallish puddle jumper plane with comfortable seats. I had to gate check my carry-on suitcase, but that was to be expected in any event. After dozing on the flight to Denver, I arrived with enough time to head on over to the concourse where my flight to Rock Springs was boarding from. Apparently it was in the “very small airline” part of the concourse… heh. Imagine my surprise when I went out to board the plane and found it was a propeller plane. I haven’t ever been on one of those…
So, I arrived at Rock Springs… and I swear to God, my old elementary school was bigger than the airport terminal there. What compounded my feelings of being out of place was the fact that there was a bunch of snow on the ground. I was a bit nervous, as I haven’t seen snow proper since moving out of Chicago in 1980. Fortunately, the rental car that had been arranged for me was a 4×4. Still, I ended up driving like a little bitty grandma until I reached the actual highway, which had already been plowed. Then, it was off to our new location there, at which I spent about four hours or so on the phone with Qwest (to get their link to our corporate network operational) and taking pictures to get an idea of what the layout would be when we rewired the place. Then, it was back to the airport for the flight back to Denver. I must say… it was odd not having to go through security until it was actually time to board the flight. (They probably could get away with that because Denver was the only arrival/destination point for that airport.) Once back in Denver, I caught the shuttle to my hotel, and decided to rest for the night. Fortunately, I didn’t even have to leave the hotel to eat; there was an Outback Steakhouse in the parking lot which delivered to the hotel, so I got myself some fried shrimp and a blooming onion delivered. :-)
The next morning, I left the hotel bright and early, and caught an 8:50 AM flight to Edmonton. Once there, I went through customs and immigration, which wasn’t really an issue, and then went to get my rental car. … once outside, I began to realize that the trenchcoat I brought would most likely not be needed, as it REALLY wasn’t cold enough for it. My leather jacket was warm enough. After getting my car, I went to our company location in Nisku (which is right across the highway from the airport) and worked for the rest of the day. After the work day was done, I took a trip over to West Edmonton Mall, where I browsed for a bit, and ate dinner at Hooters. After eating, I went back to the hotel and settled down for the night.
Thursday and Friday were really something of a blur, filled with work and more work. I didn’t get back to the hotel until 9-10 PM either night, and as soon as I got in I went straight to bed. I couldn’t even say I got a good dinner either night; pizza was ordered both nights. The first night, they ordered it without consulting me first, and so I had to pick green pepper bits off of the pizza. The next night they made up for it by offering me an all-meats pizza. Too bad the food was generally agreed to be atrocious afterwards…
Anyway, I was up at 3:15 AM Saturday morning, as my flight out to Denver was at 6:15 AM and I had to go through US immigration and customs at the Edmonton airport. I managed to doze on the flight (yet another puddle jumper… heh), and arrived in Denver two hours before my flight to Houston was to depart. After a brief lunch of Quizno’s and a bit of time catching up on mail and IMs, I boarded the flight to Houston (which was a 737… and was actually more uncomfortable than the puddle jumpers), and made my way back home. I got home around 2 PM Houston time.
All in all, it was a semi-productive trip. I didn’t get finished with everything I wanted to get done, but that was due more to circumstances beyond my control than anything else. Also, Edmonton was unseasonably warm; it only got down to 20-30 degrees F while I was there. I enjoy going to Canada, don’t get me wrong… I can just do without the insane flight times. I don’t know when I’ll be going back, though… heh.
In the meantime, I gotta prepare for a trip up to Buffalo, TX and a vacation-type trip later in the month. That should be fun… heh. For now, though, I’m just going to get some water and get some rest.