Category Archives: Trips

Never a Dull Moment

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Here are some highlights from our trip to Oakland and Phoenix:

  • Each luncheon had over 70 new hires and several SWA leaders, including President Colleen Barrett.
  • Our friend Kyle, who is about to turn 27, got hit on by not one, but two different 40-something flight attendants, aka “cougars”.
  • After Jenny and BB called it a night, I stayed up until about 2:00am with three of Jenny’s coworkers eating pizza, chatting, and laughing our heads off.
  • Some impatient maniac in Oakland actually cussed out Jenny’s boss after nearly backing into her.
  • We’ve sold nearly 600 new-hire sponsorships, each of which gives the sponsor a cute racing duck in the SWA Duck Derby at Sea World San Antonio in May. We managed to safely bring home all 7 proto-ducks, not losing one to theft by admiring employees.
  • I rode in the cockpit jumpseat with a former U2 pilot and Federal Flight Deck Officer (an armed pilot trained in cockpit defense techniques).

It was a great week, but we’re definitely glad to be home.

BB Gender Poll and More

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Thanks to all who participated in my first poll! Obama was the clear winner with 44% of the vote, followed by McCain. Note that Texas’s primary is March 4, and it’s an open primary, meaning that you can vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary (but not both) regardless of your party affiliation. Since it looks like McCain has the Republican nomination in the bag, the only primary that matters is the Democratic. Apparently Clinton has a large following in Texas and is predicted to carry the state. So if you happen to dislike Hillary, you need to vote for Obama whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat. =)

As you can see, I’ve created a new poll on the right: BB’s gender! Some people have “feelings” about babies’ gender before the sonogram reveals it. Others simply want to guess. Now is your chance! This poll will run through Feb 27, when we hope to find out the truth. Happy voting!

Jenny and I are back from Orlando after a very successful but draining trip. We leave for Oakland on Tuesday, fly to Phoenix Wednesday night, and fly home for good on Friday of next week. We’re having a great time, but it will be great to be home for an extended time once next week is over.

Happy belated Valentine’s Day to all! Jenny and I had a lovely dinner at Cafe Cipriani in Las Colinas (try the souffle!) and walked around Lake Carolyn a bit after doing some shopping. I remember flying her to New Orleans for our first-ever Valentine’s Day about 6 weeks after we started dating. How time flies!

Back in Texas, Temporarily

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We are back after quite a journey! We left on Monday for Chicago, planning to do a new-hire luncheon and work a booth at the Chicago Message to the Field, hop the last MDW-BWI flight that night, and repeat in Baltimore the next day. Unfortunately, MDW was fogged in all day, and SWA shut down our operations there. So we went straight to Baltimore instead! Tuesday Jenny and I took the light rail from the airport to Camden Yards, home of the Orioles, and then walked over to the Inner Harbor and toured the National Aquarium. One of my favorite parts of the aquarium was a life-size reconstruction of the jaws of Carcharodon megalodon, a 50-foot prehistoric shark similar to the great whites of today. I took a picture with my cell phone. Its teeth are about the size of your hand. I love sharks and used to read about them as a kid, but I’d never seen a life-size set of its jaws in person. I also want to note how WONDERFUL it was to take a light rail line from an airport into the city! In a few years DFW and DAL (sort of) will have the same capability.

Anyway, the new-hire luncheon went great, including a new format that gets the new hires to interact extensively with the leaders who attend. This luncheon had several directors, at least two vice presidents, and CEO Gary Kelly. How cool is it that senior leaders, including the CEO, will come hang out with our new hires?!? That night we sold new-hire sponsorships in exchange for entries into the first-ever SWA Duck Race, which is scheduled for May at Sea World San Antonio. Jenny and her team have been working really hard on the duck race, and I think it’s going to be a blast! Now we’re back home to relax a bit and host a CARES breakfast on Saturday before heading out to Orlando on Sunday.

It looks like many of you have already noticed, but just in case – the new poll over on the right is my poll, created just for AndyBox.com, not an ad. I’ll try to post a new topic a few times per month, so make sure you cast your “ballot”! Also note that Mitt Romney is a LIAR and is no longer a candidate. Tuesday night he promised his followers that he would stay in the race until the convention. Today he announced that he is withdrawing from the race. I can’t take him out b/c it’ll reset the poll. Just don’t vote for him. =-)

The Wonderful World of Disney

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We really did have a wonderful time at Disney World, and I’ll try to stick with the highlights! We hit all 4 parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Disney-MGM Studios) over 6 days and fit in two rounds of mini-golf (with at least two holes-in-one!), tea at the Grand Floridian, shopping at Downtown Disney, and some great piano music at Jellyroll’s. We managed to get at least one food item or wine tasting from every country at Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival and liked the vast majority of them, especially from Canada (cheese soup and maple-glazed salmon, mmm….). As a birthday present for me on Tuesday, NASA launched the space shuttle so I could see it from Epcot (I got a few pics!) right before our fabulous lunch at Coral Reef, a restaurant with a huge aquarium inside. Our birthday and anniversary buttons earned us free desserts and lots of congratulatory comments. I learned that Mickey, Minnie, and many other characters are quite short (to be accessible and non-threatening to kids), which makes tall people like me look funny getting their pictures made with them. I decided not to get my picture taken with my girl Ariel (the mermaid princess) because, well, that’s kinda creepy. Jenny and I enjoyed great thrills in the Studios riding Aerosmith’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror. I took over 500 pictures! Using night-vision glasses, we spied on African animals one evening at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I even saw a 10-foot-tall Transformer made of Legos. Disney does an amazing job of adding magic to EVERYTHING, from the parks to the restaurants to the shopping and even the parking lots. Many rides make the wait more enjoyable by adding a preliminary video, interesting displays to read, a 4-piece horn ensemble, or even an interactive game for the crowd to play. The rides at Six Flags might be better for pure thrills, but nobody does theming and atmosphere like Disney. What a trip!

Moving Boxes

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Hello, neglected readers! I do apologize for the delay. Internet access was difficult to find in Disney World! We returned on Saturday after a wonderful week of fun, relaxation, great food and drink from around the world, tons of pictures, and memories that we’ll treasure for years to come. I’ll spare you a full trip report for now, but I’ll try to get some pictures up in the next week or two. The big news now is that we are moving tomorrow into our new home! We picked up the keys and bought some bedroom furniture this afternoon as a warmup. Our high-speed (what a beautiful phrase!) Internet connection won’t be up until Wednesday, so bear with me as we get settled in. We are extremely excited about the coming months and years and look forward to seeing what God will do in us and through us. Check back in a few days for a progress report AND an AndyBox.com first: a guest blog post from my wife! But for now, I must hit the sack. A 24-foot moving truck has my name on it tomorrow morning.

Back to School

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No, I’m not going back to Baylor for another degree. Yesterday Jenny and I returned to Baylor for the evening. We attended the annual banquet for people in a scholarship program I was in during my Baylor years. I like attending these banquets to meet the new members of the program and see a few of the people I remember. They always inspire and energize me with tales of their academic achievements and the community service projects they have done. One girl set up an interfaith group for Christian, Muslim, and Jewish teens to get to know each other better. Many people work with children after school or on weekends. Some started recycling programs or gathered art supplies for orphans in Eastern Europe. I am honored to be part of them, even if I still feel a bit unworthy.

While I was there, I had to explore and reminisce a bit. Baylor tore down my old dorm, Brooks Hall, and rebuilt it bigger and better. It has a Harry Potter-style dining hall now, beautiful rooms, and a separate building with apartments. They also expanded the Bear Pit where the mascots live. Before I left, I topped off the gas tank at my old gas station and bought a french vanilla cappuccino there, just like I did during my freshman year when I needed to stay up “late” to study. It’s always fun to go back to Baylor, almost enough to make me want to go back, but I know it wouldn’t be the same.