Jenny’s Bday Part II

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For Jenny’s birthday we went to Tranquility Time Massage Therapy in Richardson for massages. Tranquility Time is Jim Caddell, a super nice guy who is also an excellent massage therapist. I found his website while searching for “pregnancy massage”, since it’s a little different from non-prego massage. We both had a great time and recommend that you pay him a visit.

Afterward we had a fantastic dinner at III Forks thanks to some VERY generous friends who gave us a gift certificate. We both ordered filet mignon medallions with lump crab and bearnaise sauce on top. WOW. Just WOW.

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AFI Dallas

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Last night I went to a movie at AFI Dallas, an international film festival that started last year. It’s about 10 days long and gives us the chance to see about 200 different movies of all sorts – foreign, documentary, family-friendly, narratives, fantasy, horror, shorts. Most are done with a low budget by people who love film and poured their hearts into making the best film they could make. The screenings are mostly at Dallas-area theaters that focus on independent film. Generally some of the people who made the film attend the screening and talk about it afterwards.

I saw a Belgian/Dutch film called Blind, which is a tragic love story about a blind and violent young man and a woman who is hired to read to him and calm him angry soul. The filmmakers did a fantastic job all around to produce a very moving and memorable film. The lead actor, a 20-something marketing student, flew over to attend the festival and answered lots of questions from us afterward. I hope to attend another AFI Dallas film, but I don’t know whether I’ll have time. It’s best to buy your tickets in advance through the website. If you like unusual films that aren’t your typical $100 million Hollywood blockbuster, I strongly recommend that you attend!

Wii Love Surprises!

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Tuesday was a good day for the Boxes. One reason is the arrival of our Nintendo Wii, the latest generation gaming system that uses motion-sensitive controllers. In layman’s terms, if you want to swing a sword at a dragon, you actually swing the controller (aka Wii-mote). It’s much different from a traditional gaming system and tons of fun. Sure wish I’d thought to buy stock in Nintendo a couple of years ago. Anyway, that was Jenny’s birthday present, and she might still be awake right now (2:30am) playing.

The other reason Tuesday was good is that I won a prize in SWA’s incentive program, called Operation: Kick Tail. If you attend a company event or get recognized by a manager or coworker for doing something well, you get an entry in a monthly drawing. I got a call on Tuesday saying I’d won a nice chunk of change. That left me with a pleasant dilemma: what to do with said unexpected funds? It’s not enough to retire on, but it’s definitely worthy of serious thought. I could save it, knowing we’ll be a single-income family soon. I could buy some audio gear for my home theater system. I could give it to IBC or ALARM or Ineo or WorldVision. I could buy stock in Nintendo. I could use it for a quick vacation with Jenny, maybe using what I learned from seeing the movie 21 the other night and going to Vegas to count cards (ha!). So for my new poll (powered by EasyPoll.com), I thought I would pose a similar question to you on the right side of this page. Vote now!

The votes are in from the recent vacation poll: Vegas is the winner, with 1/3 of the vote, followed by the beach (22%) and the mountains (also 22%). Thanks for voting! I suspect I know a couple of the Vegas voters. =)

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Another Reason I LUV SWA

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Saturday night I was working flights in the South. We had an aircraft get hit by lightning coming into Nashville (BNA), so we needed to fly it empty to Dallas (DAL) for an inspection before we could carry revenue passengers again. Separately, we’d sent a flight crew to Dothan, AL, (DHN) to drop off one aircraft for heavy maintenance, test-fly another one that had been checked out, and fly it back to Dallas if it passed its test hop. This left us with a problem: one missing aircraft in Nashville and two extras in Dallas. We would’ve been forced to cancel a early flight in Nashville Sunday morning, resulting in lots of unhappy passengers. But our captain agreed to fly the checked-out aircraft to BNA instead of DAL to balance out the fleet and prevent the cancellation. That might not sound like a big deal, but understand that he had specifically agreed to go out to Dothan and back and was expecting to sleep in his own bed Saturday night. Instead, he stayed in Nashville and returned to Dallas the next day. He could have refused to change his plans and left us short in Nashville, but he didn’t. Once he took off for Nashville, I sent him a message thanking him again for his help. His reply said it all: “That’s why I came to work for SWA”.

The Boxes Report a Diversion

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Holland America, despite what they originally told our travel agent, actually doesn’t allow prego women to sail past their 24th week. Since we’ll be at 24.5 weeks, we can’t go. They did, however, take our money and refuse to give it back. Our options are to cancel the trip and pay a cancellation penalty or reschedule for earlier (impossible) or later (either waiting 6 months after BB is born and taking him with us, or leaving him behind for 5 days). I just wrote up a nice dispute letter for my credit card company. Think twice before cruising with Holland America. Their ships and itineraries are nice, but their customer service isn’t.

As always, though, God has added a silver lining. First, we discovered the problem ahead of time instead of flying to San Diego and getting sent home. I might have gotten a bit ugly. And used some colorful language. Second, we’ve decided to use that vacation time to stay home and relax. No overtime for me, no appointments with other people, no problems. As far as you’re concerned, we are gone! We hope to work on BB’s room and the apartment, get lots of rest, maybe stay a night in a nearby hotel, watch movies, play video games, or whatever else we feel like doing.

I am also sad to report that my mom finally put our old white and brown chihuahua to sleep yesterday. His official name was Mickey, but we called him Mick or Mee-Mee. Mom took great care of him all his life, and he was around 15 years old, which is like 200 in dog years. After seeing his poor body slowly shutting down over the last several months, we finally all decided it was time to end his suffering. May he rest in peace.

In happier news, Sunday is Jenny’s 32nd birthday! We’re getting the family together Saturday night for dinner at Grand Luxe Cafe in the Galleria. I love how Jenny doesn’t whine about her age every time a birthday rolls around. She’s happy for an excuse to spend time with friends and family and enjoy cake and presents.

Babymooning

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Before Jenny gets too uncomfortable, we are planning a “babymoon” trip just to get away and relax while we can. After much debate, we decided on a cruise up the West Coast in mid-April. We got a fantastic deal on Holland America for a 4-night cruise from San Diego to Vancouver with a stop for tea in Victoria. Check back in a few weeks for pictures.

Last night was CARES Poker Night. Our first poker night was a flop, with only one resident attending. We decided to try one more time, moving the event from Friday night to Tuesday night and adding a prize for the winner. It was so windy Tuesday that we couldn’t put up our sandwich board signs to advertise the event, and I was afraid we might not have anyone. However, we were happy to find that several people came, most of whom I barely knew, and we had a great time. Some came just for pizza, others just for poker. Jenny spent some time visiting with a mother of two young girls while her husband and I played. After teetering on the verge of elimination near the end, I got lucky on a few hands and emerged victorious. I might be tempted to gloat if I actually knew what I was doing, but this victory was definitely more luck than skill! Since I was ineligible for the prize, the runner-up took home the free Chipotle Burrito Bucks. Each event is a bit of a mystery. We never know who will come, how many, whether we have enough food, or even what to expect if it’s a new event for us. We can only make educated guesses and pray each event goes well.