Pumpkin carving

Bunny, with James watching in the background, at JT and Linda's annual pumpkin carving.

Here's the crowd inside.  It as a bit chilly and windy outside so another carving area was made in the living room.

 

Just a partial showing of the fabulous pumpkins.

A beautiful Fall maple

My neighbor across the street has this amazingly beautiful maple tree.

I wish the sun had been shining but still stunning.

Home but what happened to the rest of the apples

Just got home and noticed that there aren't any more apples on the apple tree.  Unless you count a mostly eaten little one.

When I left town Monday morning there were still several apples still on the tree.  Could the squirrels taken all of them?  It looks like there aren't even any on the ground.  I'll check better in the morning.

A Charlotte Fall

Canceled flight?

Woke up this morning at 4:30am to my cell phone ringing.  It was Delta letting me know that my 7:30am flight was canceled.  Delta also let me know that I had already been re-booked on the 7:30am flight. 

It didn't really make sense. Had they booked me on a different airline? I know that US Airways has a flight at about the same time or was it a connecting flight? I thought one of the messages said the arrival time was 1:0-something.

Come to find out it was a 7:30am Delta direct flight from Minneapolis to Charlotte landing at 10:30am Charlotte time...a half hour earlier than the regularly scheduled flight.  I'm guessing that the difference is the first flight is operated by Compass for Delta and the revised flight is operated by Delta itself.  

The best thing about the change is the revised flight is a bigger plane.  I got moved closer to the front and on the aisle and a row by myself.

Because of the 4:30 wake up call, I got to the airport even earlier than last week.  The security lines were even worse which seems to indicate that being early does not pay off. The non-priority line actually looked shorter so I thought I'd conduct an experiment.

I picked a guy with an orange shirt in the priority line to see which one of us got through security first.  He did. The non-priority maze was longer and the id checkers - one for priority and one for non-priority - would sometimes let the priority person go through the non-priority check.

Mouse trapped

Got home this evening to find the mouse trip over by the door between the kitchen and the dining room.  It was by the refrigerator.  I thought may be Uno had tried to get the peanut butter out of it.

Turns out there was a mouse trapped in it.  The trap is one of those that gets the mouse completely in the device and you just throw away the entire thing.  The mouse was so smooshed and didn't weigh hardly anything that I couldn't tell there was a dead one in there until I finally saw the tale and butt.

I assume the cats are the ones that got the trap from the refrig to the door.

I haven't been posting because work in Charlotte is long long hours and tiring.  This week I got up at 5am my time to get to the airport for my flight.  The security lines at MSP on Monday mornings are rediculously long so have to plan to get to the airport extra early.

I get to the client office in Charlotte about noon Easter time.  The team worked until 8pm Monday night because we had an additional training session. 

Tuesday got in early at 7:30am and worked until almost 6:30pm.  Ate at the hotel bar and then went up to executive lounge to do some more work while watching tv.

Wednesday left the hotel a little late because I over slept.  Traffic was crazy because of an accident on a different interstate.  Didn't get to the office until after 8am.  Worked until 6pm.

Got to the office early this morning for a 7:30am meeting.  Left for the airport a little before 5:30pm.  Got home about a half hour ago.  It is only Thursday and we are supposed to work a full day tomorrow yet only bill the client a 40 hours.

Still harvesting

I'm still getting tomatos, peppers and best of all apples from the garden.

Trail of Terror

That time of year...a beautiful Fall night...a hay ride...and a haunted maze.

Christine, Kay and I were joined by Jan this year on our Trail of Terror outing in Shakopee. We started with the haunted hay ride. It was a beautiful night last night...clear and cool.

We then did one of the side hauntings, got a bit to eat followed by the corn maze.

Then the highlight of the night in the haunted maze. Tons of fun. Scary and funny and scary.

The lines were so short this year we did the hay ride again. An enormous moon was out which just made the ride even more fun.

Ford Escort

Last week's car rental was the 2012 Ford Escort. The new model Escort is quite different from the previous model. Still a small compact, it feels and looks so much more high tech and polished.

The body has creases and folds creating a sleek and aerodynamic shape. A co-worker had to ask what the car was since it does look so different. He was impressed with the look.

The interior is comfortable. The center console has convenient radio and temperature controls. Windshield wiper and washer controls are on the steering column right lever. A nice feature is the delayed wiper swipe when using the windshield washer. Headlamp controls are on the left side of the steering column combined with the blinkers.

The gauges are easy to read especially with the up-down and telescoping steering column. The information controls on the steering column are not exactly intuitive though. I had some difficulty getting the display to return to normal mileage and temperature.

The front windshield is very steeply sloped. There is a bit of a visual blindspot to the front right and left because of the front pillars. You kind of have to get used to looking through the front side windows. They are so for forward that you can see forward as well as to the side.

The seats are comfortable for a small car. And unlike my first Escort back in the 1980's, I was able to adjust the driver's seat far enough back.

I was anxious to rent a 2012 Escort because the 2012 Ford Escape is supposedly going to be based on the same body style. I recently saw a spy photo of the new model Escape's interior and it looks very very similar. I am a bit concerned about the Escape being downsized to the Escort though.

I would definitely recommend the new Escort. It was a lot of fun to drive...quick and nimble.

A big paint project

My friend James was told by the city to paint his house. He was able to get Habitat for Humanity to take on the project. This is the Friday crew of volunteers who scraped and primed.

We scraped down to bare wood. The paint would buckle or peel so the Habitat for Humanity volunteer coordinator thought it best to go all the way to the wood so the primer and then paint would adhere better. JT happened to have this jackable scaffolding. Once we got that up, four of us were able to fairly quickly scrape this side of the house.

Everyone was tired out by the end of the day.

The best apple ever

Grabbed an apple from the tree in the backyard on the way to the airport.  This was the first apple I picked.  The others I've scavenged from the ground.

I finally got to eat it on Tuesday.  It was perfect and delicious.  I'm so glad I planted the apple tree three years ago.

Not as smooth this week

Well, I'm back in Charlotte. NC. But this week, Monday didn't go as well.
I actually got to the airport earlier but I hadn't printed my boarding pass. My printer isn't working so I figured printing at the airport would be fine.

I did know that I was departing from G21 so the mid-terminal security check would be the most convenient. I didn't know that the Delta kiosk wouldn't print my boarding pass, however. For some unknown reason my itinerary was blocked.

There are no gate agents at the mid-terminal security entrance. I had to take the parking tram to the main terminal. It was crazy busy at the main terminal. Monday's are always busy but everyone was making comments on the crowds.

Thanks to having status, I got a Delta agent quickly and she was able to print the boarding pass -- no problem. I was upgraded to first class again. That was a surprise and may have been why the record was blocked.

Now I had to get through security. The lines were twice as long as the previous Monday. It was now 15 mins. before scheduled boarding time. Twenty minutes later I was through security and at the opposite end of the airport from my gate. I made a gamble...instead of taking the long walk down concourse G. I went to C to catches the C tram to the mid-terminal crossover. It worked perfectly. The tram pulled up just as I was getting to it. I was the third to the last passenger on. Everything went smoothly after that.

Buick Enclave

Now that I'm back to traveling, I'll be doing my vehicle reviews again.  Hopefully since it has been a while, there will be some new models to drive.

When the shuttle pulled into the rental lot, there was the Buick Enclave right at the end.  I don't recall having had this vehicle before.  I was too anxious because I didn't realize until I got to the office that the key did not have a fob.

Not having a fob breaks one of my cardinal renting rules but it was too late.  It drove me crazy for the rest of the week.

The Enclave is a big vehicle.  It sits fairly tall and is quite wide...deceptively so.  It is actually kind of tricky to park because it is so wide. 

I am a rearview mirror user. The Enclave has a backup camera.  The display is in the rearview mirror.  The display is seamlessly integrated and is quite large..like half the mirror.  I actually found the size to be distracting. Probably once you've used it for a while, the camera and its display would be helpfull. Better get used to it because I think the backup camera and display are going to be standard.

The Enclave does not get very good gas mileage but I don't think that is why people buy one.  You definitely feel safe in this one. 

But there is a design flaw..a small but iritating one.  It was a stormy rainy week in Charlotte so the wipers were important.  I could not for the life of me find the control for the rear wiper.  Being a crossover, the back glas gets roadspray so the rear wiper is very important.  Granted I should have researched the control loacation when I first got the car but I didn't.

It wasn't until the next day in daylight that I finally found the switch. The flaw is that the control is hidden by the shifter.  Even when you know where it is, the control is difficult to use.

Overall the Enclave is a very nice vehicle. I don't think I'd want one though.

It looks like a mess but tastes so good

This is the incredible Isles Bun and Coffee coffee cake.  Famously known for their cinnamon buns, its the coffee cake that gets me going every weekend.

coffee cake