i am back in ithaca after the holidays for my usual �business trip�. it seemed weird driving back from buffalo this morning as it had been a while. the drive itself was non eventful except for the usual snow and ice. the weather had been quite balmy for the past few weeks, but it looks like winter has finally arrived. work is the same; the holidays passed very quickly.
i was reading some of my recent (relatively) entries, and it looks like i was going to write about one of my last weekends before the holiday break. given my porous memory, i can hardly remember a few days ago, let alone weeks ago. that is what the weblog is for after all. alas, those days will be forgotten by all. maybe it’s time to start the ginkgo regimen again.
fortunately, tho, i still have a draft of one of those updates (our dinner at tsunami), so i will post that shortly.
but what had happened over the past few weeks?
sunday, 21 december 2003
amanda and i left buffalo for her parent’s home in wooster, ohio. we left piglet and mr. blue in lainie’s care; she came back from her vacation in arizona whilst we were in transit and will check up on them every couple of days. carlos and karen’s goldfish was there as well, but his name is mysterious to me. susan was not there in ohio yet; she would arrive later on 24 dec 2003. we had dinner at el canelos, a mexican place near her parent’s house.
later, we went to walmart to pick up some food and supplies for sugar cookies. amanda wanted to make some to take to chicago.
i am completely blanking on what else happened, so i am forced to continue on…
monday, 22 december 2003
we drove up to the cleveland airport to catch a flight to chicago to spend a couple of days with my mother’s relatives (and amanda’s and mine of course). we were going to meet her parents for lunch before we left as they were in the area for a medical appointment, but the timing was off and they were tired anyways. we ended up getting a quick bite at a perkins… only the second one i had ever been at. the first was outside of the smoky mountains in 1993 where i had a very translucent piece of strawberry (allegedly) pie that i unfortunately still remember. we were going to meet at an olive garden, but they would not be able to seat us because �they don’t have enough people�. amanda told me to remind her how much of a hassle it is to eat at olive garden and how much she hates them in case she even thinks about going there in the future.
we left our car in the longterm parking (the $9/day garage as opposed to the $13/day one that is a whopping 50m closer to the terminal). checkin, etc., was uneventful except that security would not allow amanda to take our nalgene bottle of water to the gates. she eventually just poured it out in a nearby plant. i guess unopened labeled bottles and whatnot are alright, just not generic ones.
getting to chicago was much more eventful than necessary. a bit after we boarded the flight (united), they announced that the cockpit heat was not working and they were trying to fix it. i suppose they were checking if anything else was wrong, too. after more waiting, we were then asked to leave the plane and wait at the gate. then, they would reschedule passengers who had connections first on other planes (there were two more leaving for chicago) or our currently-being-fixed plane if it was repaired soon enough, and then they would deal with other passengers.
all of this was fine in theory, but united’s implementation of this idea was atrocious. all the united agents were dealing with our flight, which way only half full, but for some unknown reason, they were taking incredibly long to deal with each passenger. for the next three hours, they slooooowly worked their way through the people with connecting flights. they never really got to the other people (those going directly to chicago) who probably made up half of the total people. at one point all four were dealing with one passenger! they clearly had something fuckup with with their process… one would think that they would want to piss off the fewest people the least amount, but they were seriously not operating efficiently. this annoyance would not be so bad, as we could always just leave and drive back to wooster, but my mother was waiting for us in o’hare, and we had no way of telling her what was going on. fortunately, she called me on her one day old cellphone, but she left a message with her incorrect number. however, we eventually were able deduce her number and contact her with what was going on. at around six-thirty, another plane to chicago was going to leave, but it was held up because all the agents were dealing with our flight. they eventually had to have it leave because the two planes with taking up valuable united gate space, and delaying other planes from landing and leaving again. as for us, we managed to get on that plane by clever standing-in-line technique. we were the next to the last people on the plane before it left. we eventually got to o’hare maybe six hours after we were supposed to, which, all and all, was not so bad. ok, end rant.
we dropped by my auntie cora’s house, where all of my family was waiting for us, and ate dinner. they made a bunch of veggie stuff for us. i saw all of my cousins for the first time in quite a while (perhaps seven years?); they obviously seemed much different to me. my mom gave us a wedding scrapbook that she had made. she even had pictures from our official wedding in the canadian rockies; she wrote our marriage commissioner and he sent her the negatives he had taken. what a guy.
we made some plans to go out to eat tomorrow for dinner with everyone (except perhaps for my cousins). we were going to take everyone out for dinner but my relatives nixed the idea via some convoluted logic justifying why they should take us out.
we stayed with my uncle bong whilst we stayed in chicago. we actually stayed in his room while he slept on the couch downstairs (tho sometimes my mom slept there). i felt bad about that, as we could have stayed on the couch, but he insisted.
we watched the mummy returns, yet again. we cannot seem to get away from that movie. my mom had never seen it before, tho.
tuesday, 23 december 2003
we got a bit of a late start (hey, it was vacation), but eventually we woke up, had a quick lunch with my cousin andrea, auntie min, and mom, and took the train into downtown as my relatives live out in the burbs. andrea actually just drove us to the station as she had errands to run. we were thinking about taking a tour trolley around, but it was a bit expensive, it was a bit too cold, it was a bit late, and all that. actually, doing the trolley tour would be better when the weather is better and there are are more daylight hours. we walked a bit downtown. we thought about going up the sears tower, but visibility was poor and they had mega security to get in, so we passed.
we then took a cab to the field museum and stayed there a while. it was a �free� day, so it was pretty crowded and there were many children running about, so the place had a more science museum feel. the museum seemed much different than i recall, it was very interpretive exhibit driven rather than having just displaying lots of stuff that was related to each other (with information of course). since the place was overrun with kids, amanda and i sought out exhibits that they were not interested in after being overrun in their egypt exhibit. they had a very large pacific island area and a large nepal/tibet area that was very interesting. there was probably way too much reading involved for most of the kids. at one point whilst taking a break from all the museumness, a vending machine ate my money, but since i got in free it was not that big a deal. eventually, we met back up with my mom and auntie min. we thought about going to the nearby aquarium, but it was late and would be closing soon, so we just headed back to the train station.
we ended up eating at olive garden for dinner with my aunts, uncles, grandmother, and two of my cousins, andrea and tracy. i did remind amanda about how we are no supposed to go there anymore, but it perhaps was a good choice since we were going out with a lot of people. we did have to wait quite a while since there were many of us, but it was alright.
we watched the league of extraordinary gentleman when we got back to my uncles place. actually, amanda watched it while i dorked about with computer stuff. it seemed kinda mediocre.
wednesday, 24 december 2003
i spent quite a bit of time today and yesterday fixing up some of my uncle’s computers. one was totally overrun with virii and spyware; his notebook computer was slightly less infested. i decided to just wipe his desktop computer since it would take less time to do so and harden it up rather than fix all the other issues.
we had lunch with more of the relatives, tho this time most of my cousins were also there. we went to a todai, a japanese buffet. people tended to scarf up the good sushi right as it came out tho, the villains.
my auntie jenny was hosting a christmas eve party, and unknownst to me i had to dress up a bit for it. i would have thought the advantage of family gatherings is that one does not have to dress up, but what can you do. so, we stayed at the mall todai was located at with my cousins andrea, tracy, and megan to find some suitable clothing. my cousins actually stayed to do some final holiday shopping as well as some quick clothing searches. in a blink of a eye (well, an hour), amanda and i managed to find a complete outfit… shirt, pants, socks, shoes… that look presentable. amanda bought herself a pair of dansko shoes that she could never find in buffalo since i bought a pair of timberlands.
there were many people at the party as it was not a strictly family gathering. there was lots of food around, but it was not very vegetarian (or even fishytarian) as one might expect. however, my aunts bought us crazy amounts of takeout thai food for our dinner. the traditional desserts were tasty, tho, but i have never known any of their names.
we played a game of clue with my cousins and some of their friends whose names i totally have forgotten. megan won… ms. white did it with the candlestick in the billiard room.
after some family pictures, we got ready to go back to my uncle bong’s place. for some reason, we only took pictures of all my cousins with my grandmother (with amanda) instead of with all my aunts and uncles and the like. i guess it was some generation thing… my grandmother with her grandchildren.
we left early with my uncle and mom because amanda and i had to catch our flight back to cleveland way early in the morning, so we had to leave for the airport at 5am or somesuch.
before we left, we got a bunch of holiday presents. they were not supposed to get us anything (according to my mom), but what can you do. i felt bad that we did not get people gifts, even tho the mum said it was not necessary.
to be continued…