This is beyond old

I'm back in Dallas this week.  Sunday through Friday.  It was supposed to be a kind of celebration trip for the official end of my involvement.  Well, that isn't going to be.  A problem came up last week and it has been a 24x7 effort to get it resolved.

I don't talk much about work but this project has really gone on way too long.

Did have an interesting lead fllight attendant tonight.  Have had a similar lead attendant before but I think it was on an entirely different airline.  The lead flight attendant "themes" the first class section.  She had decorated the bathroom, the food tray and even the walls of the first class cabin with "winter wonderland" items. 

There were snowmen in the bathroom and on the food cart.  She had snowflakes and snow covered tree pictures taped to the cabin walls. It was really kind of weird.  Tonight was the last night for the winter theme because it is Jan. 31.  Tomorrow being Feb. 1 means Valentines is the next theme.  I really hope I don't have to see that.

Getting spoiled

My travel this week was very last minute.  I found out around 3pm on Sunday that I needed to be in Dallas on Monday.  The corporate travel application got me on my usual Monday morning flight but booked the late flight tonight -- 8:40pm.

I figured I'd try to go stand-by on the 5:45pm flight.  Weather in Dallas was very bad for flying.  Thunder and lightening storms moved in right before the 5:45pm flight.

Being at the top level of American Airlines frequent flyer program is what is making me spoiled.  Because I am Executive Platinum I went to the top of the stand-by list.  The flight was late because of the weather but I made it on and in first class!  I've been upgraded to first class on every flight this year.

We were less than an hour leaving Dallas.  Huge thanks and congrats to the ground crews for the fast turn around.

So much for a week at home

Up until about 3pm yesterday, I was planning on working from home this week.  The client in Dallas called to say there were some "problems" and could I call into a conference call.  That is always a bad sign.

So now I'm on a plane flying to Dallas....again.

Snowy and getting cold at home so at least it should be warmer in Texas.  I already know that I'm flying to Dallas next week for the official go-live of my 2 1/2 year project.

US Pond Hockey Championships - rained out

Who would have thought that pond hockey would get rained out in January in Minnesota!?

It was nasty wet this year for the entire weekend.  They played yesterday in the mess but today's games were canceled.

Some birthday pics

Christine, Kay, JT and Amy

Linda and me.

Jen and Bruce

Lyndsey

Bunny and Kathy.

Home

I got a much earlier flight which required changing my itinerary.  Instead of flying through Dallas, I routed through Chicago.  It took 30 minutes and 3 American Airlines ticket agents to make the change!  Being top-level frequent flyer helped.

Flight left Bentonville around 1:45pm and I got home about half hour ago...8:00pm.  My other itinerary had my landing at 11:00pm.

I don't usually talk about my actual work very much but this one was a challenge.  Three of us were brought in to do talk with various employees of this company and then today, present our perspective on their situation.  Our presentation would be the basis of whether IBM would get contracted to do follow on work.  This week's work was a freebie.

The good news was we knocked it out of the park.  The client loved our findings and presentation.  The bad news is the client lover our presentation....which means I'll probably be going back at some point.

For now I'm just glad to be home.  As it looks now, I'll be home all next week.  Then guess what?  Back to Dallas on Feb 1.

Heading home today...finally

Boy what a long week.  Really long days of work with tons of meetings and discussions.  Our "findings" presentation is this morning.

Since I didn't know when the presentation would be, I booked an evening flight.  Going to try to get on earlier flghts and back to Minneapolis, friends, house and Frankie and Uno.

Saw nothing of Bentonville let alone Arkansas.  Dark and foggy nearly every morning driving from hotel to office.  Just go out briefly for lunch.  Have to walk across railroad tracks and wet strip of land between IBM office and client.

Client facilities are vast...and I mean vast...cube-lands.  Thousands of people working in cubes and at desks.  Everyone has been very nice but this gig has been a challenge for me.  So looking forward to going home.