A while back I increased the security settings for blog comments. I was getting lots of automated spam comments (the manufacturers of Viagra and Cialis were apparently very concerned about my, um, well-being), so I started requiring all commenters to “register” with the site. This solution proved to be more trouble than it was worth, and no one registered. So I changed it back. All you need to do is click “Comments” at the top of the blog entry, enter your name and email address, and add your comment. No more registering! Comment away – I love hearing from you!
Vacation Time
We are back from Chicago after a nice trip. As usual, we met lots of great new hires, sold lots of stuff, and laughed a lot with our buds from People. This trip included a fun diversion between the new hire luncheon and the meeting that night: an unveiling party for Illinois One, our newest themed aircraft. Like the other state-themed planes, it bears an interpretation of the Illinois state flag. I actually like the plane’s version better than the flag itself. Click here to see what you think. They let us see the aircraft up close after the unveiling, so I grabbed a friend and had him take a picture that I’ve wanted for years: me in the engine.
In about 3 1/2 hours, our “vacation” will officially begin! Jenny compiled a big list of activities and goals, possibly more than we can achieve, but it’s good to aim at something. Thursday night is the Stars game. Friday is “productive day” when we wail on BB’s room and assemble some or all of his furniture. Saturday is video game day. Sunday is open. Monday is Fort Worth day, when we go hang out near Downtown. We might go to the Botanic Gardens and take lots of pictures while the flowers are blooming or the zoo and see the animals. Monday night we plan to stay at the Texas White House, a cool bed and breakfast near the gardens. Tuesday we might play in Fort Worth and then return home to relax.
Off to MDW
Jenny and I plan to leave for Chicago Sunday morning for the final out-of-town New Hire Luncheon and Message to the Field. The original forecast predicted rain and snow with a high around 40F and strong north winds. Apparently Chicago forgot that spring has arrived. Now they say the rain/snow will be done, but we’re still miss the PERFECT weather we’ve had here in Dallas over the last couple of days. We plan to return on Tuesday, run a CARES Spaghetti Dinner Wednesday night, and then start our “vacation” on Thursday.
In related news, the Stars have won their first two playoff games against the defending champion Anaheim Ducks IN ANAHEIM. Games 3 and 4 are scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday back in Dallas at AAC. We bought tickets to Game 4 to kick off our vacation. Woohoo!
In the Mail
Several pieces of snail mail I’ve received in my lifetime stand out for me, such as:
- My first published article (a two-page on quiet times, published in a small Christian teen magazine)
- My wait-list letter from Rice University (significant not because I still wanted to go by that point, since I’d already decided on Baylor, but because my pride wanted me to say I’d actually been accepted to Rice and not wait-listed)
- My care packages from Mom and Dad at Baylor
- My offer letter from Southwest
- My first commendation letter from Colleen (SWA President)
- My first issue of Parenting magazine (this week)
Yep, we have a trial subscription. Where’s my minivan and soccer practice schedule?
What’s in a Name?
Our current difficult project is naming BB so we don’t have to call him BB anymore. Before we got pregnant, we had a boy name and girl name picked out. Afterward, we decided, “just for fun”, to toss around some other names to see if we liked anything better. We subsequently rejected the boy name, found out BB is a boy, and now are wandering through tens of thousands of names in search of the perfect one. The Social Security Administration maintains a cool website that lists the most popular names of each year and decade for the entire country. BabyNames.com lets us maintain a list of names, in which we periodically add and delete possibilities. Another great site, BabyNamesWorld.com, lets people who already have a particular name tell you what they think about it and any problems the name has caused them. Between the two of us, we have several criteria:
- He only has three names (i.e. only one middle name).
- He is not Andy III.
- He goes by his first name rather than his middle name.
- His name isn’t among the most common names, defined as maybe the top 10-15 in popularity.
- He doesn’t share his name with anyone whom we really dislike.
- His name and initials don’t lend themselves to easy ridicule by mean kids.
- His name is definitely masculine rather than ambiguous.
There are probably others, but those are the main ones. I lean more toward “normal” names and Jenny more toward unusual names so he won’t share his name with any other boys in his class. We hope to find something we both like very soon.
New Tombstones in the Airline Graveyard
In the last week, Aloha Airlines, ATA Airlines, and Skybus Airlines all shut down their passenger operations with no notice. One day they were flying, the next they were gone. Thousands of passengers were left stranded. If they called the airlines that had failed, there was no one to answer. Passengers who booked via credit card were instructed to contact their credit card companies and ask for a refund. If they could afford to buy another ticket and find a seat on the plane, another airline would have to take them home. A fourth airline, a charter operator that I’ve actually flown called Champion Air, announced that it would cease operations after May 31. The most significant of these failures is ATA’s, since it was a codeshare partner for Southwest. A customer could book a flight through Southwest from a Southwest city to Hawaii and some other good destinations that we don’t serve. We flew the customer part of the way, and then ATA took over. The arrangement made both airlines a lot of money and increased the flight options available to both airlines’ customers. But now all that is over until we find another codesharing partner. It’s a sad week in the airline business.