Credit Card mess

The Visa credit card I use for business travel was caught up in some merchant data theft. So I was issued a replacement card that had to be activated immediately. That was last weekend.

On my way to the airport last Friday I noticed that credit card was missing from my wallet. I got the receipt from the last place I used it, a restaurant, and called the number. No answer. I thought may be they are only open for dinner.

I tried them again when I got back to Minneapolis. Still no answer. I looked up their number on the internet. It was slightly different than the one one on the receipt. Called the new number and still no answer. That left me no alternative but to cancel the card.

A new card won't arrive until sometime this week...while I'm out of town.

Today I tried using my Actors Federal Credit Union Visa and it was denied. I called the number on the back of the card. After holding for nearly 15 minutes I find out that this card was also part of the same merchant theft and has been blocked. I had received a replacement card over the weekend but since I only had a couple of days and thought it was my usual annual replacement card, I didn't have it authorized.

Lesson learned. Activate credit card as soon as open letter.

Here we go again...

Dallas, TX. Monday through Thursday (at least that's what I've booked).

Looks like the weather will be a bit cooler than it has been. High 60's/low 70's instead of 80's. Hmmm...Twin Cities expecting snow storm tonight and tomorrow...I'm thinking 60 degrees is better.

Nissan Rogue

A smaller cousin to the Nissan Morano that I had a few weeks ago. At least I think it was smaller. They look an awful lot a like from the outside.

I'm getting to like these Nissan models. The Rogue is another all-wheel-drive cross over vehicle. The pickup from both a stand still and at highway speed is fantastic.

The Rogue has vents that rotate and flap making them infinitely adjustable...a great feature. I mentioned the really good windshield spray and wipers on the Chrysler Sebring. To contrast the Rogue squirts out two little streams of washer that hardly cover anything.

Took a while to find the gas gauge. It is a digital image in the center of the console. The other gauges are easy to read. The radio could use speed-sensitive volume adjustment. The wind noise is very noticeable.

I would recommend the Nissan Rogue for its power and roominess. Gas mileage does not appear to be so great though.

Make sure you're sitting down

I made it home yesterday. And here is the exciting part...the flight left ON TIME! AND...get this...we arrived 15 minutes EARLY! AND....we pulled right up to a gate with NO WAITING!

It almost makes me think I should stay through Friday every week. But it is just too long to be away from home.

Another day in Texas

A rare 5-day stay in Dallas this week. I miss my Frankie and Uno so much. I head home today on 2:30pm flight. I'm really hoping that this flight will be on time since it is earlier than my usual 7:20pm-never-has-been-on-time-flight.

I'm the only one on the team that is traveling. Everyone else is local. One good thing about that is no one stays much past 5:30pm so you better believe I'm not going to either. One bad thing is that everyone else goes home to family for dinner and I'm generally stuck eating alone. Since I'm leaving work earlier, I'm being more adventurous in finding places to eat.

One other good thing is that I've been working out consistently in the mornings and evenings.

Went to a different sushi restaurant yesterday. It is in near my hotel and also near this market/bakery/grocery store place I've found for really good take out. The sushi restaurant is Sappporo Sushi. It was very good.

Passed this beautiful wisteria in full bloom. The colors are a bit washed out in this picture. I don't have my photo software on my work laptop.

My Dallas Family

John Arnone is in Dallas working at SMU and the Under Main Theatre. He was so kind and generous to invite me over to his mother's house for dinner with his sister, Carolyn, and friends Pat and Judy.

To the left are Laura, John's mom, Pat, Carloyn, Judy and John in Laura's front yard with the azaleas in full bloom.

I had a wonderful time. It was great to have an evening in a real home with real friends and real heart-felt warmth. Beats a dinner alone in the hotel or a restaurant...actually it doesn't even compare.

My thanks and love and gratitude to the Arnones and Kellys.

Memories...light the corner of mind

Walking through the warehouse here at client site and see someone has a box set by one of the workstations. The box has "DO NOT REMOVE" carefully written on it.

I am reminded of Lisa Andersen and her "this is a great box" at the Guthrie. I don't remember if she had received something in the box or just found the box. But whenever she looked at it, she would say, "This is a great box."

As I remember the I and the rest of the stage managers gave her a time about her affection for that box. But all I have to do is see a box someone has set aside and I'm reminded of Lisa and her box and I smile...even sometimes chuckle out loud.

Ahh, memories.

Another week in Dallas

This is going to be a long week in Dallas. Monday to Friday. Got a call last Friday to extend my stay.

One good thing is that my friend, John Arnone, is in Dallas and has invited me and Pat and Judy to his Mom's for dinner on Tuesday. I am so anxious to meet John's mom and sister.

Maybe it isn't consumers but sellers

I stopped at Morries Ford to pick up discount coupons for the auto show. I was approached by a salesman right after I parked. I was fine with that. Told him I had three questions. He stared at me.

I asked if they had discount coupons for the autoshow. He said yes.

I asked when they would have the 2010 Fusion Hybrid. A friend was interested in getting one...which is the truth. He said he didn't know....end of sentence.

I asked when they would have the 2010 Escape Hybrid. I'm interested. He said he didn't know. I asked if it was the same as the 2009. He said yes.

He then took me into the showroom and handed me the coupons. He did mention that the 2010 Fusion Hybrid would be at the autoshow.

I guess I should be lucky he didn't start some song and dance on buying a new vehicle but don't ya think they should know when new model vehicles are coming??

My second shopping experience for the day was at Macy's. Macy's was having yet another "One Day Sale." Seems they have a one day sale every day!

I needed new dress shirts. I asked the sales man if I could try on one of their Club Room shirts as I had not worn that brand before and they are all manufactured differently. I asked if there were shirts that were already out of their packaging because I realize I difficult it is with all the needles and folds and wrapping and inserts.

He mumbled about there being hundreds he would have to go through in the back. Could he take my measurements. I said fine but that I was concerned about the shoulder width. He measured and said a 16 neck with 34/35 sleeve would work. I've tried 16's before and found them not wide enough. Would he see if there was one I could try on because I'm not buying one without trying it on first.

He mumbled again that he would try but that there were hundreds in the back he would have to go through. I almost left right then and there.

He...his name was Floyd...came back with a 161/2 34/35 'cause that was the first one he found. He handed it to me. I looked around for a fitting room. He finally pointed them out to me.

The shirt did fit. A 16 would have been to narrow as this 16 1/2 was borderline. There was a shirt on one of the shirt forms that I liked and even though it was with the Club Room shirts, it wasn't a Club Room shirt. It was Tommy Hilfiger. He guaranteed me that their sizes were the same. Turns out they didn't have that one in my size.

I did buy 3 Club Room shirts. He put his name on the receipt which has a web site where you can comment on the purchase experience. I did.

Chrysler Sebring

Last week's vehicle was a Chrysler Sebring. I don't recall ever having rented one before.

It has what I would call a very masculine look. The front hood has grooves like pinstripes with raised edge in the center like a back bone. May be that steel luggage is a good analogy. I kind of liked it.

The car feels heavy but not necessarily in a good way. Pick-up, especially accelerating up to highway speed, is not good. The handling is confident though.

Spring is definitely springing in Dallas. And so the trees at the hotel were dripping sap or pollen or both. The car was kind of mess. The Sebring gets high ratings for its windshield wipers and washer spray. The tree mess came completely off with the full washer spray and wipers. The side and rear windows were another story.

The gauges are white faced with black lettering in day time and blue background with black lettering at night. Kind of neat and easy to read. There was an analog clock in the center of the dash...throw back to the old days. The driver's seat was very comfortable.

Overall a good car but the weight and engine size need to be addressed.

Oh, so close

I really thought my flight was going to be on time this evening.

We were at a different gate than usual. The incoming flight got in in plenty of time and the passengers off.

The flight was not at all crowded and everyone got on smoothly. Just as the last passengers were getting settled, the pilot announced that maintenance had difficulty shutting the galley door and it wasn't looking good.

Then I got text message from AA.com that the flight was delayed by 25 minutes. But the pilot made it worse. He announced that the plane was being taken out of service and to get off.

Ugh! Hopes dashed! Disappoint once again.

About 2 hours later we finally took off. Home at midnight again.

Bring on the allergies

I knew last week's rains would really make Spring bust out here in North Texas.

It is turning green at a rapid pace. The grass. The trees. It is quite lovely. But my nose is runny and my skin itches a bit.

Ahh, Spring. It is all worth it though. Warm sun. Pretty. Pretty.

Back in Dallas....no one should be surprised

Got upgraded to first class on flight from MSP. Always a nice treat. Plane was packed. I guess it is Spring break time.

At DFW you have to take a bus to the car rental facility..."approximately 7 minutes" as the recorded lady says.

I like to stand on the bus after sitting for a couple of hours on the plane. The bus driver was merrily singing as we headed to the car rental place. Unfortunately, he was keeping time to his own singing using his gas pedal foot! We lurched along the entire 7 minutes!

Nissan Murano

Decided to go with a slighter bigger vehicle this time. Worked out well because the weather was not good last week.

Got a Nissan Murano. I would classify it a cross-over utility. It is probably similar in size to my Escape without the cargo room.

I really really liked the Murano. It sits up high. Is excellent to drive. My model had All Wheel Drive which was great because of the heavy rains. The pick-up is fantastic through no matter what speed. It especially makes merging into traffic safe and secure. Last week I had a Toyota Camry which could not find a gear to get into when accelerating into traffic. It was very dangerous feeling.

The speedometer and tach gauges have special lighting effects which can be turned on and off. Kind of interesting.

A couple of complaints: the ventilation controls are kind of flat on top of the dash and the radio controls are on the face of the dash. The position of the controls make them a little difficult to use.

I don't think the gas mileage is too good for this CUV but it sure as fun to drive.

The "Garland Chair"

From Martha Kulig at the Guthrie,

Dear Jeff,
Brandon took a picture of what I called “the Jesus chair” that I tried to show you in the proscenium. He put it on his Facebook page and is now calling it an image of Garland. He took the picture when it first appeared. It was there for about 2 ½ years but was gone when I gave you and Jill the tour.
-M.

Airport CNN-free zone

I need to start a campaign to have a CNN-free zone in airports.

Every waiting area in airports...at least MSP and DFW...have CNN turned on. And usually turned on loud.

Last night it was so loud at DFW, you couldn't hear the announcements. I asked the desk attendants if there was anywhere there wasn't CNN and they couldn't think of any place. To make it even more bizarre, the tv screen wasn't even on so it was just the audio.

Plus CNN is all about doom and gloom. Or "Breaking News!" And don't even get me started about Wolfe Blitzer and the so-called "Situation Room" where if someone broke a nail, it is reported as earth shattering.

So who's for a CNN-free zone?

What a difference a day makes

It was warm and muggy on Monday. Nice and warm on Tuesday. Very rainy and cold on Wednesday and today.

North Texas is in a drought so the rain is much needed. It was really coming down yesterday and the canals and levied rivers were filling up fast.

Just misting mostly this morning but quite chilly. They are calling for more rain today so my flight might be delayed. Nothing new about that... regardless of the weather.

And what a difference a smoking ban makes. Went to a restaurant/bar last night. Having smokers around has not been a problem. But I decided to eat at the bar since it was just me again. The guy next to me lights up and the smoke makes a bee-line to me. I'm now so accustomed to not having smokers in eating establishments.

Ahh, the glamour of flying

Disclaimer #1: I realize it is difficult to travel as a single parent with a small child.

Here's the story.

I stop at my usual Carabou Coffee on E concourse at MSP on my way to gate E16, the last gate. Young woman with baby in stroller, roller-board, diaper bag/purse, another bag over the shoulder, Visa card and some other stuff in plastic name-badge thing over neck, sunglasses on head...is purchasing latte something or other. I'm thinking, "that's a lot to juggle."

My plane was an hour late, then was only 30 minutes late. I had adjusted my arrival time luckily to arrive earlier than the hour lateness. I just went straight on to the plane. My biggest mistake had been to not check my seat assignment earlier. I was not in the exit row and if I wanted an aisle seat, I had to take a seat closer to the front but no leg room.

I make it to my seat and get situated. On comes young woman from Caribou Coffee stop. But no child and she's got a pacifer in her mouth. Not holding the ring of it mind you...she has it in her mouth! She puts her roller-board above...displaying some not so ripped stomach skin...yes, she's wearing a midriff or whatever they're called.

I look up the aisle and turns out she's handed the kid to the poor flight attendant who just happened to be standing at the front of the plane. Back to get the kid and then down into the seat with the diaper bag/purse. I think the third bag goes above, too.

One minute later she reclines her seat. This means I'm trapped. I cannot open my laptop with the seat in front of me reclined....there just is no room. So no working this morning.

Jump to the end of the flight. As soon as we stop at the gate, single mom gets up and picks up child with one hand. I have to give the kid credit. She has been very very good the entire flight.

With the kid crocked in one arm, Mom starts to pull down roller-board and the other bags exposing her lovely belly again. I, of course, could have offered to help but have no idea where to begin. The gentelman who had been sitting across the aisle from me and is now standing offers his help. Mom says, "Can ya take the kid?" There is general laughter among the crowd who has been watching the show.

Kind gentlemen offers instead to help with the luggage. Mom, child, kind stranger and luggage all make it off the plane without incident.

End of story.

Dallas - no surprise

Back to Dallas today. My flight is already delayed this morning.

It has become pretty standard for the American Airlines flights to be delayed. The morning flights usually are not but the evening one's always are. And 'always' is not an exaggeration. Since AA moved the DFW to MSP evening flight to 7:20pm, it has never left or arrived on time.

So it was quite the pleasant surprise when the afternoon flight on Friday left DFW almost on time and arrived early and there was an available gate.

The coast is clear?

Got home on-time today. Amazing what taking an earlier flight can do.

Very entertaining lead flight attendant. He actually got applause for his version of the whole seat belt, air bag, safety speech.

To the "coast is clear" subject...bunny tracks back in the backyard. Looks like bunny didn't get taken by the hawk but had just been hiding out.

Lots of melting was going on this week.

Dazed and Confused

I am so accustomed to taking the 8:40am flight and arriving in Dallas at 11:30ish that flying out last night confused and befuddled me.

The plane was more than half empty and we parked at a completely different terminal. Terminal D. It took a while to figure out how to get to the car rental bus.

The Hertz lot was pretty empty. I really didn't like the car they had chosen. A Mercury Marquis boat-sized thing. I asked for a different vehicle which took a while to find for some reason.

I realized since I was going directly to the hotel, I could take a different, read "shorter," route. That didn't work out of course. Partially thanks to the lack of highway signs, I got lost and ended up on some desolate part of the airport. DFW is huge by the way.

Thank goodness the car was equipped with Neverlost navigation. I punched in the hotel and finally got to where I was going.

It all just seemed so odd.

Dallas later in the week (Tues eve)

I have a couple of standard doctor appointments Monday and Tuesday so not going to Dallas until Tuesday evening. Then back on Friday afternoon instead of Thursday night.

Toyota Prius

Last week's rental was an interesting one. A Toyota Prius.

I've rented a Prius one other time in Chicago so it has been 3 years. Nothing has really changed except there is a backup camera.

The backup camera is kind of cool and very necessary. It is almost impossible to see out the back of the vehicle. While the backup camera is a nice feature, you also need to see out the back when you are driving down the road. The would appear to be a lot of glass in the back but the rear of the car slopes so dramatically, that visibility is bad. It creates a really bad blind spot even with my special side mirror adjustment.

The Prius is fun to drive though. It has good get up and go. The electric to gas and gas to electric modes are very seamless.

The controls for just about everything are too confusing. You can use the touch-screen to control climate, radio, display, etc. or the steering wheel has controls for about all the same stuff. But overall it is just too much.

The cruise control is very easy and logical though.

There is only a digital display for speed and it is just below the windshield. There's something about a digital speedometer that I just don't like.

I've read stories of the Prius not being good on the highway. That it is easily tossed by wind and passing vehicles. One thing I really noticed is when driving at highway speed behind a big eighteen wheeler, you really feel the turbulence.

I wasn't even that close to the truck but the Prius starts to feel like it is going to take flight. Not a good feeling.

According to the miles per gallon gauge, this one has been getting a little over 45 mpg. I'd say that was excellent especially given that it gets driven by people who haven't ever driven a hybrid before.

It is definitely a nifty car. I'd like to see what they do to update it even if it already is a futuristic car, it seems kind of been-there-done-that.

Where are the rabbit and squirrel tracks?

We had the big snow on Thursday. Backyard full of new wind blown snow.

There isn't a rabbit or squirrel foot print to be found. When Mom and Aunt Donna were here for my birthday trip, Mom thought there had been people in my backyard the rabbit and squirrel tracks were so deep and wide.

But here it is three days from new snow and not a single mark.

Here's why...perhaps...my friend Christine had dinner at Green Mill. My neighbor Roxie works at Green Mill. Roxie told Christine to tell me that there has been a big hawk on my fence post. Roxie saw the hawk get a pigeon...Roxie feeds the pigeons.

The hawk has either gotten the rabbits....there are two. I know there are two because I saw them both in the backyard last weekend before the snow. Or the hawk has scared away the rabbits and even the squirrels.

If only the hawk would stay around. I could may be have a real garden and apples on the apple tree.