My last poll, which was HIGHLY unscientific, showed that half of my readers come to AndyBox.com on a daily basis! The second most popular answer was 2-3 times/month. Since the poll was only up for a couple of weeks (I think), I don’t know how accurate these results are. But THANK YOU to all my readers, especially those who stop by often!
I just added a new poll that was suggested by two of you: Brenden’s weight! Vote now!
One of my favorite movies is Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. I enjoy the humor, of course, but even more appealing is the concept: what if you could relive the same day over and over? No consequences, no limits, no rules. No matter what happens, you go to sleep at the end of the day, and everything gets magically reset in the morning. BUT-the cool part-you can retain the memories of what you did or learned the previous day.
If I were stuck in a Groundhog Day, I would use some of my days to learn all sorts of things, including how to play guitar and piano, various languages, etc., kinda like The Matrix except much, much slower. I would try all sorts of approaches to talk to people about Jesus to see what worked and what didn’t. Much of my time would be spent experimenting with people, just talking about different things and seeing how the conversations go. I would travel all over to see as many places as I could in a one-day timeframe. Since it wouldn’t count (right, Mom?), I would jump out of a perfectly good airplane with a parachute. Probably several times. I’d rent a Viper and take it out to Texas Motor Speedway, probably driving a little fast on the way back as well. I’d get a motorcycle, too, and see how fast it could go. I’d pick a fight with someone just to see how I would do (maybe after studying some martial arts). And of course I’d go streaking, probably at a Rangers game since they are warmer than Stars games and have more room to run.
What kinds of crazy and/or interesting things would you do on your Groundhog Day?
Hi all! Andy has been mentioning that I haven’t posted in a while, so I thought I’d take a minute to say hello. I couldn’t think of anything really interesting to post about, so I’ll just give you a list of the weird things I’ve noticed during this pregnancy. Feel free to add others, all you moms out there….
1. I seriously think people think my eyes are now around my belly button. I’ve never been one of those voluptuous women who have men looking at their chests instead of faces, so this is a totally new experience! I feel I should wear a sign down around the belly that says “don’t worry, it’s not going to explode.”
2. Feet swelling is the weirdest feeling.
3. Until about a week ago, the general public would just look at me and grin. Now, for some reason, they all have the desire to ask questions about how far along I am, whether I’m having a boy or a girl, etc. I wonder if I finally crossed the “is she chubby or pregnant” line over into “holy cow, she’s going to give birth any minute” category that is making people more bold.
4. I tried to ride a stationary bike at the gym yesterday instead of walking on the treadmill. That was an interesting experience. Think about trying to waddle on a bike. Not pretty.
5. Swimming pools are the greatest invention. Ever. All pregnant women should be given access to one as a prescription as soon as they find out they are pregnant.
6. I haven’t gone into full on nesting mode, but I have moments. They’re kind of scary!
7. The phrase “barefoot and pregnant” actually sort of makes sense now. I now dread having to put any type of shoe or sock on my feet – it takes way too long.
8. Brenden has really bad hiccups – poor guy. I wonder if he’ll continue to struggle with them once he’s born. It’s not like you can scare a newborn and expect good results!
9. I am a notorious over-packer, especially in situations where I’m going into the unknown. You should see all the stuff I keep trying to add to the overnight bag for the hospital. I think we’re going to need a sherpa by the time I’m done. Does that count as nesting?
10. We have less than three weeks to go before we stop being just a couple and become parents. I have moments where I’m beside myself excited and can’t wait to meet him, and others where I want to look around and go, “WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?” Being afraid and excited at the same time is almost as weird a feeling as swelling feet.
Now that I’m “retired”, I’ll try to post a little more often. For now, I need to go be productive and finish out some thank you notes that have been sitting around for a while now!
Much love,
Jenny
One of the most important aspects of my job as a flight dispatcher is fuel planning. For each flight I work, I consider the weather, airport, air traffic control issues, and more to decide how much fuel to order. Once he arrives at the airport and examines the same issues, he/she decides to accept my plan or work with me to alter it in some way, such as adding fuel. The more fuel we carry, the heavier the aircraft is, and the more fuel we burn at $4.00-4.40/gallon. So I normally don’t fill the tanks like many people did in the past. But I have to carry enough fuel to reach our destination and alternate (if required) successfully, plus 45 minutes of reserve fuel as required by the FAA, plus enough extra fuel for any other problems, such as expected airborne holding or ATC reroutes caused by weather or traffic. The last item is the hard part because it requires an educated guess about the factors that will affect the flight.
American Airlines management recently sent a memo to their flight dispatchers that sparked an interesting discussion on one of my favorite websites, airliners.net. In a nutshell, the memo says management will be studying each dispatcher’s average fuel loads and counseling those who consistently add too much extra fuel, as defined by certain criteria. Management believes that in general, AA could still operate safely with less extra fuel. Reading through this discussion will give you great insight into my job.
Jenny and I went to an afternoon movie called Wanted on Wednesday since we could. We sat behind a couple who had brought their newborn, who slept through most of the movie and didn’t bother anyone. That could be us in a couple of months. Anyway, the movie was pretty good. I’m a sucker for hitman movies, which is probably horribly unChristian of me, but I can’t help what I like. My favorite is probably Leon: The Professional by Luc Besson. Wanted had some significant plot holes and too much gore for my taste, but the action sequences were thrilling, with Matrix-style slow-mo, curving bullets, car chases using a red Dodge Viper, the whole bit.
As always, I looked up the movie’s trivia page on IMBD.com, the world’s best movie site, and learned that the screenwriters were Baylor alums Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, who graduated from the writing program a year or two ahead of me. I never met them, but I took a couple of classes with Robert Darden, a successful writer who served as a mentor of sorts for them. They named the first assassination target after Darden, one of my favorite profs. I wonder what he thought about such a dubious honor. As you might know, I wrote a couple of unpublished screenplays myself while at Baylor and briefly considered pursuing it as a career before my desire for a steady paycheck convinced me otherwise. It’s nice to see products of the Baylor writing department enjoying success in Hollywood. Sic ’em, Bears!
Southwest and excellent Canadian low cost carrier WestJet have announced plans to codeshare starting in late 2009. That means we’ll sell seats on each other’s flights, allowing someone to buy a single ticket from Dallas to Vancouver, for example, flying part of the trip on SWA and the rest on WJ. I am SO excited about this! It will provide more options for our customers, extra revenue for each company, and some good nonrevving opportunities for the employees. Using a fleet of 737s, WestJet currently flies to Vegas, Phoenix, LA, and a few Florida cities where we could feed each other passengers. From what our CEO said in a Chicago Tribune interview, I suspect they will be adding service to Chicago Midway. Baltimore and Denver wouldn’t surprise me, either. Here’s a link to the story.