6-21-2007 Week before trip to Switzerland

Thursday 6-21-2007
Once Eva and I got back from Park City, we had to make sure we took care of a number of things before heading out to Switzerland a week later. Thursday was spent tending to the house and running a few errands. I met my mother at CostCo to do a bit of large-scale shopping and then met Jairo, Carlos, and Joey for lunch at Baja Fresh right there in El Segundo. It was really good to see a few of the guys from work and catch up a bit with them. They all seem to be doing well and everything sounds pretty much the same in the lab. It was a bit amusing to hear that the most recent reorganization seems to have undone the reorganization that was implemented a few months before I left. Hopefully, everything will continue to go smoothly and I will be back there fairly soon. It would be nice to get back into something of a normal routine.

Friday 6-22-2007
This would be my last opportunity to fly before our trip so I arranged for a plane and called up my college buddy John, who lives in San Diego, to see if he was up for lunch. Turns out that grad students have fairly flexible schedules and he was up for a late lunch. It was pretty exciting as this would be the first time that I would go somewhere new without an instructor. I studied the charts and found that Montgomery field looked like a good option though it would be a bit tricky to get into their airspace as it is situated between the San Diego International airport and the Miramar military base (both are pretty busy airports). I pre-flighted and eventually got on my way and had a really nice little trip down. I flew over a little regatta in the Long Beach Harbor and had fond memories of sailing and racing with Nick (though we usually got our asses handed to us).


I was constantly checking my chart to make sure that I knew where I was and that it was OK to be there. Air traffic control routed me through to Montgomery field and no fighter jet buzzed me, which was nice. When I got near the airport, I asked for the big runway on the right but they gave me the little runway on the left and that ended up being the skinniest runway I have ever landed on. It did not look much wider than an average city street but everything went OK. This was my first time using transient parking as well, which was also a little interesting. I did not really know what to do but it seems that it is remarkably similar to a parking lot for a car. You just find a good spot, tie down the plane, and off you go. There were not even any parking fees as long as you were just there for the afternoon (parking overnight was a whopping $5). What a world. John was there when I landed, saw me circle around the “lot” a few times and after I got situated we went off to lunch. He had a nice little place in mind that he told me was a bit of alternative Berkeley right there in the middle of trendy San Diego. We drove into a little strip mall that looked like a thousand other corners all across America, and walked into a Thai Vegan restaurant.

Why I flew down to San Diego to go to a Vegan restaurant, I do not know. Actually, the food was really good, even the “chicken” in my chow mien was pretty tasty. It was great to catch up with John and he seems to be doing well. Him and his little lady were going to take a big step in the relationship as they were about to embark on a road trip to John’s home in Corvallis for a family reunion. If she stays with you after this, John, you know you have a keeper. John drove me back to the airport and I made my way back to Long Beach. The flight back was pretty uneventful, though fun and I was pretty stoked when I got back onto the ground safely. I went back up to LA and then Eva and I went out to a Happy Hour at 3rd Stop with a number of her coworkers. It is pretty amazing how much people will tell you if you just show a bit of interest. Her coworkers are all really nice people and as soon as Eva and I showed some interest they were off and running. We did enjoy it, though, as we are leading the boring married couple life and like to hear about drama as much as anyone else.

Saturday and Sunday, Weekend of 6-23-2007
I spent most of the day cleaning up the apartment, though eventually we made our way down and I joined my parents at a Galaxy game (thanks to the Pete and Sydney for the tickets). Pretty exciting game and we thought the home team might come from behind, but they just could not pull it out.

On Sunday, I got up and went to play a pick-up game of soccer with my dad. It had been a long time since I had played a bit of soccer but it was really fun. The old guys ran me ragged. I still have something resembling a touch, and I can go for about a 10 second burst of activity, but my endurance is basically non-existent. I would make a run and then need a few minutes to recover, during which I was basically useless. I did find that I could be somewhat effective by receiving and immediately distributing from the back and I actually got a second assist using that approach. A number of times I would take a knee to recover, and then, when I stood up, I would get pretty light headed. Luckily, I managed to not pass out though I felt pretty close a few times. After the game we sat and chatted with the guys and it was really nice seeing Mike Sanders and Al and Lee and Big Dennis and the rest. My dad really has a nice group of buddies. Mike was telling me about a few of his little flying adventures while he was over in England recently and Al is halfway through a remarkable summer as one of the two weddings went off without a hitch (or with a hitch, depending on how you look at it) and the other looks to be coming together pretty well.

Monday 6-25-2007
In the morning, I headed over to UCLA to pick up a month’s worth of Lovenox and Xeloda.
In the afternoon, I had to hone my skills by playing as much Street Fighter 2 as possible while still trying to get everything ready for the tournament that took place in the evening. I had prepared lasagna and cookies the night before and put together the last few details right before everyone came over. In total we had about 15 people over and almost everyone took part in the tournament. Most of them were from Eva’s work and were trying to establish the SF2 pecking order at work. We were hoping that Ariel would be the spoiler but unfortunately she lost in the semi finals. Aaron came by and it was really nice to see him as it had been a while and I had just caught up with the rest of his family. He put in a good effort though did not get all that far. After all the dust settled, the title went to Dameon and he took home a chocolate duck for his superior SF2 abilities. Eva had actually played for the first time earlier that evening and somehow managed to beat a few people. What a competitor.


Tuesday 6-26-2007
Most of the day was spent running the last few errands before our trip and taking care of things around the apartment. In the evening, my folks came up as well as Steve and Collette for a fridge clearing dinner. It was really nice to see my folks one more time before we took off and it is always fun to see Steve and Collette. They are such a cute couple. They had taken a big step recently as Steve went with Collette back to Texas to visit her family. Apparently, everything went well as they are still together (not so for Ann Marie’s boyfriend, I guess he could not keep her interested after spending a weekend in Vegas with her and the rest of the family, Steve and Joey liked him and they hung out, maybe that was the problem). After dinner, we finished our packing and mentally got ready for the early morning and long day that we would wake up to.

Wednesday 6-27-2007
We woke up early, closed down the apartment, and then got picked up by my mother to go to LAX (Thanks Mom!). We were going to Zurich by way of Dallas and our flight to Dallas took off at 8:35am. We figured getting to the airport by 6:30am would give us plenty of time to make the flight but it did not look so good once we pulled up to the curb. Fiasco became the word of the day and it all started at the American Airlines terminal. There were lines all over the place and even the employees did not know which line we should exactly be in. After being sent to three different lines, we finally ended up in the right one that was moving at a snail’s pace. We were in line at 6:45 and did not get up to the desk until 9:15am. We asked a few times if we were going to get pulled out of line to make sure that we would make our flight but they seemed unconcerned. When we finally got up to the counter, it was looking like earliest availability for Zurich was going to be at least 3 or 4 days away and this just was not going to fly with Eva or me. What had happened, was that there was a lot of rain in Dallas, which was causing a lot of problems. That morning, there were 3 flights from LA to Dallas that were all around 8:30am; two of them were canceled, ours was not. All of the passengers for all three flights were waiting in the same line to check bags. So, even though our flight was not canceled, we had to wait for the people at the counters to find alternative flights for the other passengers, which then caused us to miss our plane. Fiasco. We asked why they had not pulled us out of line to make sure that the people whose flight was still going were able to catch their plane, and their response was that there was a bit of rioting that was started by a similar situation earlier in the year, so they no longer pull people out of line. Eva and I did notice that, as the morning went on and people were getting madder and madder, there were more and more police officers standing around the terminal. We pleaded with the woman at the counter, explained that we had arrived at 6:30am, said we were willing to go be routed anywhere, I reluctantly mentioned that I have cancer, and, eventually, we got booked onto the next day’s Swiss Air flight from LA to Zurich. This was acceptable to Eva and I and we were on our way. We then went over to the Tom Bradley Terminal and were going to see if there was any space on the same Swiss flight for the same day. Swiss only has one flight a day and their counter was occupied by another carrier so we got onto the reservation line and while we were on the line, a few seats opened up. Unfortunately, because American bought the tickets, we then had to call American and get them to try to change the tickets from tomorrow to today. This was another big fiasco but eventually it got done. It had been a rough morning but it worked out pretty well in the end. Sure we suffered in line and would get to Zurich about 8 hours later than expected, but we got onto a much nicer carrier and were on the direct flight to Zurich. We called my mom again and she came and picked us up from LAX (Thanks Mom!). I think we looked as though we had been traveling all day, though it was still before noon and we still had not gone anywhere. We had about 5 hours to kill, so we went down to San Pedro, got In’N’Out on the way and took naps at the house. Eva and I each fell into a deep sleep, which recharged us a bit from the draining morning. We through our clothes into the washer for the benefit of our future traveling companions and went back up to LAX (Once again, Thanks Mom!). There was one more hiccup with the tickets but we figured it out, got our boarding passes, and had our bags checked all in about an hour (as it should be). We then grabbed some dinner with my mom, thanked her repeatedly, and went off to security to make sure that we got through in adequate time. After all was said and done, we made the plane and had a pretty comfortable flight over to Europe. Again, what a scene. American Airlines was just shooting themselves in the foot. With us, they could have pulled us out of line, made sure that we made our flight, and been done with us. Instead, they caused us to miss our flight, had to rebook us onto a more expensive carrier, and spent at least 4 times as much time and effort making sure they fulfilled their part of the travel agreement as would have been required if they had just gotten us through efficiently. Sure they say that they cannot control the weather, but if you have been having bad weather for the last 3 months, and all predictions are that it will continue, maybe you should start working on alternate plans a little earlier than the morning of. Anyways, sorry to rant a bit, I am done venting for now.
-TN